362—to John Murray
Nov. 29, 1813, Monday.
Dear Sir,—You will act as you please upon that point; but whether I go or stay, I shall not say another word on the subject till May—nor then, unless quite convenient to yourself. I have many things I wish to leave to your care, principally papers. The
vases
need not be now sent, as Mr. W. is gone to Scotland. You are right about the Er[rata] page; place it at the beginning. Mr.
Perry
is a little premature in his compliments
: these may do harm by exciting expectation, and I think
we
ought to be above it—
though
I see the next paragraph is on the
Journal
, which makes me suspect
you
as the author of both.
Would it not have been as well to have said in 2 cantos in the advertisement? they will else think of
fragments
, a species of composition very well for
once
, like
one ruin
in a
view
; but one would not build a town of them.
The Bride
, such as it is, is my first
entire
composition of any length (except the Satire, and be damned to it), for
The Giaour
is but a string of passages, and
Childe Harold
is, and I rather think always will be, unconcluded. I return Mr. Hay's note, with thanks to him and you.
There
have
been some epigrams on Mr. W[ard]: one I see to-day
.
The first I did not see, but heard yesterday. The second seems very bad and Mr. P[erry] has placed it over
your
puff. I only hope that Mr. W. does not believe that I had any connection with either. The Regent is the only person on whom I ever expectorated an epigram, or ever should; and even if I were disposed that way, I like and value Mr. W. too well to allow my politics to contract into spleen, or to admire any thing intended to annoy him or his. You need not take the trouble to answer this, as I shall see you in the course of the afternoon.
Yours very truly, B.
P. S.—I have said this much about the epigrams, because I live so much in the
opposite camp
, and, from my post as an Engineer, might be suspected as the flinger of these hand Grenadoes; but with a worthy foe I am all for open war, and not this bush-fighting, and have [not] had, nor will have, any thing to do with it. I do not know the author.
Footnote 1:
In the
Morning Chronicle
, November 29, 1813, appeared the following paragraph:
"Lord Byron's muse is extremely fruitful. He has another poem coming out, entitled The Bride of Abydos, which is spoken of in terms of the highest encomium."
Footnote 2:
Journal of Llewellin Penrose, a Seaman.
Footnote 3:
"Ward has no heart, they say; but I deny it;—
He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it."
