Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to John Murray, 7 September 1814
“Newstead Abbey, Sept. 7th, 1814.
“I should think Mr.
Hogg, for his own sake as well as yours, would be ‘critical’
as Iago himself in his editorial capacity; and that
such a publication would answer his purpose, and yours too, with tolerable management.
You should, however, have a good number to start with—I mean, good in quality; in these
days, there can be little fear of not coming up to the mark in quantity. There must be
many ‘fine
* The following characteristic note, in reference to this
passage, appears, in Mr. Gifford’s
handwriting, on the copy of the above letter:—“It is a pity that
Lord B. was ignorant of Jonson. The old poet has a Satire on the Court Pucelle that
would have supplied him with some pleasantry on Joanna’s pregnancy.” |
![]()
![]()
| A. D. 1814. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 579 |
![]()
things’ in Wordsworth; but I should think it difficult to make six quartos (the
amount of the whole) all fine, particularly the pedlar’s portion of the poem; but
there can be no doubt of his powers to do almost any thing.
“I am ‘very idle.’ I have
read the few books I had with me, and been forced to fish, for lack of argument. I have
caught a great many perch and some carp, which is a comfort, as one would not lose
one’s labour willingly.
“Pray, who corrects the press of your volumes? I hope
‘The Corsair’ is printed
from the copy I corrected with the additional lines in the first Canto, and some notes from Sismondi and
Lavater, which I gave you to add thereto. The
arrangement is very well.
“My cursed people have not sent my papers since Sunday, and
I have lost Johanna’s divorce from Jupiter.
Who hath gotten her with prophet? Is it Sharpe?
and how? * * * * * * I
should like to buy one of her seals: if salvation can be had at half-a-guinea a head,
the landlord of the Crown and Anchor should be ashamed of himself for charging double
for tickets to a mere terrestrial banquet. I am afraid, seriously, that these matters
will lend a sad handle to your profane scoffers, and give a loose to much damnable
laughter.
“I have not seen Hunt’s Sonnets nor Descent
of Liberty: he has chosen a pretty place wherein to compose the last. Let me
hear from you before you embark. Ever, &c.”
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).
James Hogg [The Ettrick Shepherd] (1770-1835)
Scottish autodidact, poet, and novelist; author of
The Queen's
Wake (1813) and
Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified
Sinner (1824).
James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859)
English poet, journalist, and man of letters; editor of
The
Examiner and
The Liberal; friend of Byron, Keats, and
Shelley.
Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
English dramatist, critic, and epigrammatist, friend of William Shakespeare and John
Donne.
Johann Caspar Lavater (1741-1801)
German pastor, the author of
Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beförderung
der Menschenkenntis und Menschenliebe, 4 vols (1775-78), an illustrated study of
links between the face and the soul.
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.
William Sharp (1749-1824)
English engraver, political radical, and follower of Joanna Southcott.
Léonard Simond de Sismondi (1773-1842)
Swiss historian of Italian origin; author of
L'Histoire des républiques
italiennes du Moyen-Age (1809-18).
Joanna Southcott (1750-1814)
English prophet and visionary, originally the daughter of a Devonshire farmer.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
With Coleridge, author of
Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth
survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.
