189—to R. C. Dallas
Newstead Abbey, Sept. 17, 1811.
I can easily excuse your not writing, as you have, I hope, something better to do, and you must pardon my frequent invasions on your attention, because I have at this moment nothing to interpose between you and my epistles.
I cannot settle to any thing, and my days pass, with the exception of bodily exercise to some extent, with uniform indolence, and idle insipidity. I have been expecting, and still expect, my agent, when I shall have enough to occupy my reflections in business of no very pleasant aspect. Before my journey to Rochdale, you shall have due notice where to address me—I believe at the post-office of that township. From Murray I received a second proof of the same pages, which I requested him to show you, that any thing which may have escaped my observation may be detected before the printer lays the corner-stone of an
errata
column.
I
am
now not quite alone, having an old acquaintance and school-fellow
with me, so
old
, indeed, that we have nothing
new
to say on any subject, and yawn at each other in a sort of
quiet inquietude
. I
hear
nothing from Cawthorn, or Captain Hobhouse; and
their quarto
—Lord have mercy on mankind! We come on like Cerberus with our triple publications
. As for
myself
, by
myself
, I must be satisfied with a comparison to
Janus
.
I am not at all pleased with Murray for showing the MS.; and I am certain Gifford must see it in the same light that I do. His praise is nothing to the purpose: what could he say? He could not spit in the face of one who had praised him in every possible way. I must own that I wish to have the impression removed from his mind, that I had any concern in such a paltry transaction. The more I think, the more it disquiets me; so I will say no more about it. It is bad enough to be a scribbler, without having recourse to such shifts to extort praise, or deprecate censure. It is anticipating, it is begging, kneeling, adulating,—the devil! the devil! the devil! and all without my wish, and contrary to my express desire. I
wish
Murray had been tied to
Payne's
neck when he jumped into the Paddington Canal
, and so tell him,—
that
is the proper receptacle for publishers. You have thought of settling in the country, why not try Notts.? I think there are places which would suit you in all points, and then you are nearer the metropolis. But of this anon.
I am, yours, etc.,
Byron
.
Footnote 1:
John Claridge. (See
Letters
, vol. i. p. 267,
note
2.) [Footnote 4 of Letter 136]
Footnote 2:
i. e. Childe Harold, Hints from Horace
, and
Travels in Albania.
Footnote 3:
Mr. Payne, of the firm of Payne and Mackinlay, the publishers of Hodgson's
Juvenal
, committed suicide by drowning himself in the Paddington Canal. Byron, in a note to
Hints from Horace
, line 657, thus applies the incident:
"A literary friend of mine, walking out one lovely evening last summer, on the eleventh bridge of the Paddington canal, was alarmed by the cry of 'one in jeopardy:' he rushed along, collected a body of Irish haymakers (supping on buttermilk in an adjacent paddock), procured three rakes, one eel spear and a landing-net, and at last (horresco referens) pulled out—his own publisher. The unfortunate man was gone for ever, and so was a large quarto wherewith he had taken the leap, which proved, on inquiry, to have been Mr. Southey's last work. Its 'alacrity of sinking' was so great, that it has never since been heard of; though some maintain that it is at this moment concealed at Alderman Birch's pastry-premises, Cornhill. Be this as it may, the coroner's inquest brought in a verdict of 'Felo de Bibliopolâ' against a quarto unknown,' and circumstantial evidence being since strong against the Curse of Kehama (of which the above words are an exact description), it will be tried by its peers next session, in Grub Street—Arthur, Alfred, Davideis, Richard Coeur de Lion, Exodus, Exodiad, Epigoniad, Calvary, Fall of Cambria, Siege of Acre, Don Roderick, and Tom Thumb the Great, are the names of the twelve jurors. The judges are Pye, Bowles, and the bell-man of St. Sepulchre's."
