Chapter XIV: Letter 406: To Mr. Murray

"Ravenna, January 19. 1821.

"Yours of the 29th ultimo hath arrived. I must, really and
seriously request that you will beg of Messrs. Harris or Elliston
to let the Doge alone: it is _not_ an acting play; it will not
serve _their_ purpose; it will destroy _yours_ (the sale); and it
will distress me. It is not courteous, it is hardly even
gentlemanly, to persist in this appropriation of a man's writings
to their mountebanks.

"I have already sent you by last post a short protest[28] to the
public (against this proceeding); in case that _they_ persist,
which I trust that they will not, you must then publish it in the
newspapers. I shall not let them off with that only, if they go on;
but make a longer appeal on that subject, and state what I think
the injustice of their mode of behaviour. It is hard that I should
have all the buffoons in Britain to deal with--_pirates_ who _will_
publish, and _players_ who _will_ act--when there are thousands of
worthy men who can get neither bookseller nor manager for love nor
money.

"You never answered me a word about _Galignani_. If you mean to use
the two _documents, do_; if not, _burn_ them. I do not choose to
leave them in any one's possession: suppose some one found them
without the letters, what would they _think_? why, that _I_ had
been doing the _opposite_ of what I _have_ _done_, to wit, referred
the whole thing to you--an act of civility at least, which required
saying, 'I have received your letter.' I thought that you might
have some hold upon those publications by this means; to _me_ it
can be no interest one way or the other.[29]

"The _third_ canto of Don Juan is 'dull,' but you must really put
up with it: if the two first and the two following are tolerable,
what do you expect? particularly as I neither dispute with you on
it as a matter of criticism, nor as a matter of business.

"Besides, what am I to understand? you and Douglas Kinnaird, and
others, write to me, that the two first published cantos are among
the best that I ever wrote, and are reckoned so; Augusta writes
that they are thought '_execrable_' (bitter word _that_ for an
author--eh, Murray?) as a _composition_ even, and that she had
heard so much against them that she would _never read them_, and
never has. Be that as it may, I can't alter; that is not my forte.
If you publish the three new ones without ostentation, they may
perhaps succeed.

"Pray publish the Dante and the _Pulci_ (the _Prophecy of Dante_, I
mean). I look upon the Pulci as my grand performance.[30] The
remainder of the 'Hints,' where be they? Now, bring them all out
about the same time, otherwise 'the _variety_' you wot of will be
less obvious.

"I am in bad humour: some obstructions in business with those
plaguy trustees, who object to an advantageous loan which I was to
furnish to a nobleman on mortgage, because his property is in
_Ireland_, have shown me how a man is treated in his absence. Oh,
if I _do_ come back, I will make some of those who little dream of
it _spin_--or they or I shall go down."

[Footnote 28: To the letter which enclosed this protest, and which has been omitted to avoid repetitions, he had subjoined a passage from Spence's Anecdotes (p. 197. of Singer's edition), where Pope says, speaking of himself, "I had taken such strong resolutions against any thing of that kind, from seeing how much every body that _did_ write for the stage was obliged to subject themselves to the players and the town."--_Spence's Anecdotes_, p. 22.

In the same paragraph, Pope is made to say, "After I had got acquainted with the town, I resolved never to write any thing for the stage, though solicited by many of my friends to do so, and particularly Betterton."]

[Footnote 29: No further step was ever taken in this affair; and the documents, which were of no use whatever, are, I believe, still in Mr. Murray's possession.]

[Footnote 30: The self-will of Lord Byron was in no point more conspicuous than in the determination with which he thus persisted in giving the preference to one or two works of his own which, in the eyes of all other persons, were most decided failures. Of this class was the translation from Pulci, so frequently mentioned by him, which appeared afterwards in the Liberal, and which, though thus rescued from the fate of remaining unpublished, roust for ever, I fear, submit to the doom of being unread.]

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