till you see them in the proofs. You have yet to see a revise of the last proofs, and a proof of the conclusion of the poem. My nephew tells me you are going out of town in a few days. I should have been glad to have indulged in passing an hour or two, occasionally, with you; but regret is fruitless. I hope to have that pleasure when parliament meets. Before you go, pray let me have your Preface. I will send you the proofs as formerly.

All the notes relative to Greece and its modern literature I have placed together, referring them to this line,

"Fair Greece! sad relic of departed worth!" Stanza 72, 1. 1. and, all being written at Athens, they form an excellent conclusion, under the head of NOCTES ATTICE.

I ever am, my dear lord,

Yours faithfully,

R. C. DALLAS.

Lord Byron to his publisher, Mr. Murray.

Ravenna, 9bre 4, 1820.

I HAVE received from Mr. Galignani the inclosed letters, duplicates, and receipts, which will explain themselves. As the poems are your property by purchase, right, and justice, all matters of public caution, &c. &c. are for you to decide upon. I know not how far my compliance with Mr. Galignani's requests might be legal, and I doubt that it would not be honest. In case you choose to arrange with him, I inclose the permits to you, and, in so doing, I wash my hands of the business altogether. I sign them merely to enable you to exert the power you justly possess more properly. I will

have nothing to do with it farther, except in my answer to Mr. Galignani to state, that the letters, &c. &c. are sent to you, and the causes thereof.

If you can check these foreign pirates, do; if not, put the permissive papers in the fire. I can have no view nor object whatever but to secure to you your property.

Yours, &c.

BYRON.

Lord Byron to Mr. Murray.

Ravenna, January 27, 1821. I DIFFER from you about the Dante, which I think should be published with the tragedy. But do as you please: you must be the best judge of your own craft. I agree with you about the title. The play may be good or bad, but I flatter myself that it is original as a picture of that kind of passion, which to my mind is so natural, that I am convinced that I should have done precisely what the Doge did on those provocations.

I am glad of Foscolo's approbation.

Excuse haste. I believe I mentioned to you that- I forget what it was; but no matter. Thanks for your compliments of the year. I hope it will be pleasanter than the last. I speak with reference to England only, as far as regards myself, where I had every kind of disappointment -lost an important lawsuit-and the trustees of Lady Byron refusing to allow of an advantageous loan to be made from my property to Lord Blessington, &c. &c., by way of closing the four sea sons. These, and a hundred other such things, made a year of bitter business for me in England. Luckily, things were a little pleasanter for me

here, else I should have taken the liberty of Hannibal's ring.

Pray thank Gifford for all his goodnesses. The winter is as cold here as Parry's polarities. I must now take a canter in the forest; my horses are waiting.

Yours ever and truly,

Lord Byron to Mr. Murray.

BYRON.

Ravenna, February 2, 1821.

I receive

YOUR letter of excuses has arrived. the letter, but do not admit the excuses, except in courtesy; as when a man treads on your toes, and begs your pardon, the pardon is granted, but the joint aches, especially if there be a corn upon it. However, I shall scold you presently.

In the last speech of the Doge, there occurs (I think, from memory,) the phrase,

"And Thou who makest and unmakest suns!"

Change this to,

And Thou who kindlest and who quenchest suns!" this is to say, if the verse runs equally well, and Mr. Gifford thinks the expression improved. Pray have the bounty to attend to this. You are grown quite a minister of state. Mind if some of these days you are not thrown out.

You have learned one secret from Mr. Galignani's (somewhat tardily acknowledged) correspondence-this is, that an English author may dispose of his exclusive copyright in France-a fact of some consequence (in time of peace) in the case of a popular writer. Now, I will tell you what you shall do, and take no advantage of you, though you

were scurvy enough never to acknowledge my letter for three months. Offer Galignani the refusal of the copyright in France; if he refuses, appoint any bookseller in France you please, and I will sign any assignment you please, and it shall never cost you a sou on my account.

Recollect that I will have nothing to do with it, except as far as it may secure the copyright to yourself. I will have no bargain but with the English booksellers, and I desire no interest out of that country.

Now, that's fair and open, and a little handsomer than your dodging silence, to see what would come of it. You are an excellent fellow, mio caro Moray, but there is still a little leaven of Fleet-street about you now and then-a crum of the old loaf. You have no right to act suspiciously with me, for I have given you no reason. I shall always be frank with you; as, for instance, whenever you talk with the votaries of Apollo arithmetically, it should be in guineas, not pounds-to poets, as well as physicians, and bidders at auctions.

am

I shall say no more at this present, save that I Yours, &c.

BYRON.

P. S. If you venture, as you say, to Ravenna this year, I will exercise the rites of hospitality while you live, and bury you handsomely (though not in holy ground) if you get "shot or slashed in a creagh or splore," which are rather frequent here of late among the native parties. But perhaps your visit may be anticipated: I may probably come to your country; in which case write to her ladyship the duplicate of the epistle the King of France wrote to Prince John.

John Dryden to Jacob Tonson.

MR. TONSON,

October the 29th, [1695.]

SOME kind of intercourse must be carried on betwixt us while I am translating Virgil. Therefore I give you notice that I have done the seventh Eneid in the country; and intend, some few days hence, to go upon the eighth: when that is finished, I expect fifty pounds in good silver; not such as I have had formerly. I am not obliged to take gold,* neither will I; nor stay for it beyond four-andtwenty hours after it is due. I thank you for the civility of your last letter in the country; but the thirty shillings upon every book remains with me. You always intended I should get nothing by the second subscriptions, as I found from first to last. And your promise to Mr. Congreve, that you had found a way for my benefit, which was an encou ragement to my pains, came at last for me to desire Sir Godfrey Kneller and Mr. Closterman to gather for me. I then told Mr. Congreve that I knew you too well to believe you meant me any kindness: and he promised me to believe accordingly of you, if you did not. But this is past; and you shall have your bargain, if I live and have my health. You may send me word what you have done in my business with the Earl of Derby; and I must have a place for the Duke of Devonshire. Some of your friends will be glad to take back their three guineas. The Countess of Macclesfield gave her money to Will. Plowden before Christmas; but he remembered it not, and paid it not in. Mr. Aston tells me my Lord Derby expects but one book.

*Both the gold and silver coin were at this time much depreciated.