Memoir of John Murray
John Murray to Lord Byron, 2 February 1814
February 3rd, 1814.
My Lord,
I have been unwilling to write until I had something to say, an
occasion to which I do not always restrict myself. I am most happy to tell you
that your last poem is—what Mr.
Southey’s is called—a Carmen Triumphale. Never, in
my recollection, has any work, since the “Letter of Burke to the Duke of
Bedford,” excited such a ferment—a ferment which I am
happy to say will subside into lasting fame. I sold, on the day of
publication,—a thing perfectly unprecedented—10,000 copies; and I
suppose thirty people, who were purchasers (strangers), called to tell the
people in the shop how much they had been delighted and satisfied. Mr. Moore says it is masterly,—a
wonderful performance. Mr. Hammond,
Mr. Heber, D’Israeli, every one who
comes,—and too many call for me to enumerate—declare their
unlimited approbation. Mr. Ward was here
with Mr. Gifford yesterday, and mingled
his admiration with the rest. Mr. Ward is much delighted
with the unexpected charge of the Dervis—
“Up rose the Dervis, with that burst of light,” |
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and Gifford did what I never knew him do
before—he ![]()
| 224 | MEMOIRS OF JOHN MURRAY | |
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repeated several passages from memory,
particularly the closing stanza,— “His death yet dubious, deeds too widely known.” |
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Indeed, from what I have observed, from the very general and unvarying
sentiment which I have now gathered, the suffrages are decidedly in favour of
this poem in preference to the ‘Bride of Abydos,’ and are even now balancing with
‘The Giaour.’ I
have heard no one pass without noticing, and without expressing regret at, the
idea thrown out by your Lordship of writing no more for a considerable time. I
am really marking down, without suppression or extension, literally what I have
heard. I was with Mr. Shee this morning,
to whom I had presented the poem; and he declared himself to have been
delighted, and swore he had long placed you far beyond any contemporary bard;
and, indeed, your last poem does, in the opinion of almost all that I have
conversed with. I have the highest encomiums in letters from Croker and Mr.
Hay; but I rest most upon the warm feeling it has created in
Gifford’s critical heart. The versification is
thought highly of indeed. After printing the poems at the end of the first
edition, I transplanted them to ‘Childe Harold,’ conceiving that you would have the goodness
to pardon this ruse to give additional impetus to that
poem, and to assist in making it a more respectable thickness. I sent, previous
to publication, copies to all your friends, containing the poems at the end;
and one of them has provoked a great deal of discussion, so much so, that I
expect to sell off the whole edition of ‘Childe
Harold’ merely to get at it. You have no notion of the
sensation which the publication has occasioned; and my only regret is that you
were not present to witness it
I earnestly trust that your Lordship is well: and with ardent
compliments,
I remain, my Lord,
Your obliged and faithful Servant,
P.S.—I have very strong reasons to believe that the
Bookseller at Newark continues
to reprint—not altering the Edition—your
early poems. Perhaps you would ascertain this fact.
John Wilson Croker (1780-1857)
Secretary of the Admiralty (1810) and writer for the
Quarterly
Review; he edited an elaborate edition of Boswell's
Life of
Johnson (1831).
Isaac D'Israeli (1766-1848)
English essayist and literary biographer; author of
Curiosities of
Literature (1791). Father of the prime minister.
William Gifford (1756-1826)
Poet, scholar, and editor who began as a shoemaker's apprentice; after Oxford he
published
The Baviad (1794),
The Maeviad
(1795), and
The Satires of Juvenal translated (1802) before becoming
the founding editor of the
Quarterly Review (1809-24).
George Hammond (1763-1853)
Friend of George Canning and one of the editors of
The
Anti-Jacobin; he was under-secretary for foreign affairs (1795-1806). The
Quarterly Review was first proposed by Canning at a dinner party at
Hammond's house.
Robert William Hay (1786-1861)
After education at Christ Church, Oxford, he was private secretary to Viscount Melville,
first lord of the Admiralty (1812) and permanent under-secretary of state for the colonies
(1825).
Richard Heber (1774-1833)
English book collector, he was the elder half-brother of the poet Reginald Heber and the
friend of Walter Scott: member of the Roxburghe Club and MP for Oxford 1821-1826.
Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
Irish poet and biographer, author of the
Irish Melodies (1807-34),
The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and
Lalla
Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
John Ridge (1828 fl.)
Byron's original printer, at Newark near Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire; trade records
indicate that he worked as a bookseller, stationer, and printer from 1788 to 1828. He
married a Miss Hilton, 18 July 1805.
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose
works, among them the
Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813),
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and
The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).
John William Ward, earl of Dudley (1781-1833)
The son of William Ward, third Viscount Dudley (d. 1823); educated at Edinburgh and
Oxford, he was an English MP, sometimes a Foxite Whig and sometimes Canningite Tory, who
suffered from insanity in his latter years.
