)
Will pay with your luckiest hits.
Will pay with your luckiest hits.
Byron
MURRAY.
1.
MY dear Mr. Murray,
You're in a damned hurry
To set up this ultimate Canto;[84]
But (if they don't rob us)
You'll see Mr. Hobhouse
Will bring it safe in his portmanteau.
2.
For the Journal you hint of,[85]
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
Our "Beppo:"--when copied, I'll send it.
3.
In the mean time you've "Galley"[86]
Whose verses all tally,
Perhaps you may say he's a Ninny,
But if you abashed are
Because of _Alashtar_,
He'll piddle another _Phrosine_. [87]
4.
Then you've Sotheby's Tour,--[88]
No great things, to be sure,--
You could hardly begin with a less work;
For the pompous rascallion,
Who don't speak Italian
Nor French, must have scribbled by guess-work.
5.
No doubt he's a rare man
Without knowing German
Translating his way up Parnassus,
And now still absurder
He meditates Murder
As you'll see in the trash he calls _Tasso's_.
6.
But you've others his betters
The real men of letters
Your Orators--Critics--and Wits--
And I'll bet that your Journal
(Pray is it diurnal?
)
Will pay with your luckiest hits.
7.
You can make any loss up
With "Spence"[89] and his gossip,
A work which must surely succeed;
Then Queen Mary's Epistle-craft,[90]
With the new "Fytte" of "Whistlecraft,"
Must make people purchase and read.
8.
Then you've General Gordon,[91]
Who girded his sword on,
To serve with a Muscovite Master,
And help him to polish
A nation so owlish,
They thought shaving their beards a disaster.
9.
For the man, "_poor and shrewd_,"[92]
With whom you'd conclude
A compact without more delay,
Perhaps some such pen is
Still extant in Venice;
But please, Sir, to mention _your pay_.
10.
Now tell me some news
Of your friends and the Muse,
Of the Bar, or the Gown, or the House,
From Canning, the tall wit,
To Wilmot,[93] the small wit,
Ward's creeping Companion and _Louse_,
11.
Who's so damnably bit
With fashion and Wit,
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. [94]
Venice, _January_ 8, 1818.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 156, 157;
stanzas 3, 5, 6, 10, 11, first published, _Letters_, 1900,
iv. 191-193. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[84] [The Fourth Canto of _Childe Harold_. ]
[85] [Murray bought a half-share in _Blackwood's Edinburgh Monthly
Magazine_ in August, 1818, and remained its joint proprietor till
December, 1819, when it became the property of William Blackwood.
1.
MY dear Mr. Murray,
You're in a damned hurry
To set up this ultimate Canto;[84]
But (if they don't rob us)
You'll see Mr. Hobhouse
Will bring it safe in his portmanteau.
2.
For the Journal you hint of,[85]
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
Our "Beppo:"--when copied, I'll send it.
3.
In the mean time you've "Galley"[86]
Whose verses all tally,
Perhaps you may say he's a Ninny,
But if you abashed are
Because of _Alashtar_,
He'll piddle another _Phrosine_. [87]
4.
Then you've Sotheby's Tour,--[88]
No great things, to be sure,--
You could hardly begin with a less work;
For the pompous rascallion,
Who don't speak Italian
Nor French, must have scribbled by guess-work.
5.
No doubt he's a rare man
Without knowing German
Translating his way up Parnassus,
And now still absurder
He meditates Murder
As you'll see in the trash he calls _Tasso's_.
6.
But you've others his betters
The real men of letters
Your Orators--Critics--and Wits--
And I'll bet that your Journal
(Pray is it diurnal?
)
Will pay with your luckiest hits.
7.
You can make any loss up
With "Spence"[89] and his gossip,
A work which must surely succeed;
Then Queen Mary's Epistle-craft,[90]
With the new "Fytte" of "Whistlecraft,"
Must make people purchase and read.
8.
Then you've General Gordon,[91]
Who girded his sword on,
To serve with a Muscovite Master,
And help him to polish
A nation so owlish,
They thought shaving their beards a disaster.
9.
For the man, "_poor and shrewd_,"[92]
With whom you'd conclude
A compact without more delay,
Perhaps some such pen is
Still extant in Venice;
But please, Sir, to mention _your pay_.
10.
Now tell me some news
Of your friends and the Muse,
Of the Bar, or the Gown, or the House,
From Canning, the tall wit,
To Wilmot,[93] the small wit,
Ward's creeping Companion and _Louse_,
11.
Who's so damnably bit
With fashion and Wit,
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. [94]
Venice, _January_ 8, 1818.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 156, 157;
stanzas 3, 5, 6, 10, 11, first published, _Letters_, 1900,
iv. 191-193. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[84] [The Fourth Canto of _Childe Harold_. ]
[85] [Murray bought a half-share in _Blackwood's Edinburgh Monthly
Magazine_ in August, 1818, and remained its joint proprietor till
December, 1819, when it became the property of William Blackwood.
