'TO HOOK THE READER, YOU, JOHN MURRAY' [To John Murray, March 25, 1817.] To hook the reader, you, John Murray, Have publish'd Anjou's Margaret, Which won't be sold off in a hurry (At least, it has not been as yet); And then, still further to bewilder 'em, Without remorse you set up Ilderim ; So mind you don't get into debt, Because as how, if you should fail, These books would be but baddish bail. And mind you do not let escape These rhymes to Morning Post or Perry, Which would be very treacherous And get me into such a scrape! very, [To John Murray, August 21, 1817. Murray had written to Byron: Polidori has sent me his tragedy! Do me the kindness to send by return of post a delicate declension of it, which I engage faithfully to copy.' The following is Byron's 'civil and delicate declension for the medical tragedy.'] DEAR Doctor, I have read your play, To shatter'd nerves and quicken'd pulses, I like your moral and machinery; II Your plot, too, has such scope for Scenery; All stab, and everybody dies. 20 Too lucky if it prove not annual,- That I despair of all demand. 40 In short, sir, what with one and t'other, My Room's so full; we've Gifford here 50 6a All clever men, who make their way; Crabbe, Malcolm, Hamilton, and Chantrey, Are all partakers of my pantry. They 're at this moment in discussion [To John Murray, January 8, 1818. Byron was sending home the fourth canto of Childe Harold by his friend Hobhouse. The Edinburgh Monthly Magazine was begun in 1817.] My dear Mr. Murray, To set up this ultimate Canto; Will bring it safe in his portmanteau. For the Journal you hint of, As ready to print off, No doubt you do right to commend it; But as yet I have writ off The devil a bit of 10 when copied, I'll send it. In the mean time you've 'Galley' Perhaps you may say he's a Ninny, He 'll drivel another Phrosine. That he crawls on the surface like Vermin, But an Insect in both, By his Intellect's growth Of what size you may quickly determine. [E NIHILO NIHIL; OR AN EPIGRAM BEWITCHED] [First published in Edition of 1904 from a manuscript in possession of Mr. Murray.] OF rhymes I printed seven volumes -The list concludes John Murray's columns: Of these there have been few translations Or Greeks to bring upon their stages ΤΟ 20 Which some call fine, and some call frantic; 30 ON THE BIRTH OF JOHN WILLIAM RIZZO HOPPNER His father's sense, his mother's grace, In him, I hope, will always fit so; With-still to keep him in good caseThe health and appetite of Rizzo. February 20, 1818. BALLAD TO THE TUNE OF SALLY IN OUR ALLEY' [First published complete in the Edition of 1904 from a manuscript in the possession of Mr. Murray. This and the two following poems are in a letter to John Murray, dated April 11, 1818.] Or all the twice ten thousand bards He rode upon a Camel's hump His rhymes are of the costive kind, He has a Seat in Parliament, Some in the playhouse like to row. Some with the Watch to battle, 30 40 'STRAHAN, TONSON, LINTOT OF THE TIMES' STRAHAN, Tonson, Lintot of the times, To thee, with hope and terror dumb, Upon thy table's baize so green Along thy sprucest book-shelves shine Tours, Travels, Essays, too, I wist, And Heaven forbid I should conclude 'IF FOR SILVER, OR FOR GOLD' [To John Murray, August 12, 1819. This was written on some French woman, by Rulhières, I believe.'] IF for silver, or for gold, You could melt ten thousand pimples Looking, doubtless, much more smugly, EPILOGUE [First published in Philadelphia Record, December 28, 1891.] THERE's something in a stupid ass, |