P.S.--I see the 'Examiner' [3] threatens some observations upon you next week. What can you have done to share the wrath which has heretofore been principally expended upon the Prince? I presume all your Scribleri will be drawn up in battle array in defence of the modern Tonson--Mr. Bucke [4], for instance. Send in my account to Bennet Street, as I wish to settle it before sailing.
[Footnote 1: This picture, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1815, is now in the possession of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts.]
[Footnote 2: Byron's 'Waltz' was published anonymously in the spring of 1813, not, apparently, by Murray, but by Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, Paternoster Row.]
[Footnote 3: In the 'Examiner' for April, 1813, occurs the paragraph: "A word or two on Mr. Murray's (the 'splendid bookseller') judgment in the Fine Arts--next week, 'if room'."]
[Footnote 4: Charles Bucke (1781-1846), a voluminous writer of verse, plays, and miscellaneous subjects, published, in 1813, his 'Philosophy of Nature; or, the Influence of Scenery on the Mind and Heart'. He supported himself by his pen, and that indifferently. Byron seems to suggest that he was a dependent of Murray's. In 1817 he sent to the Committee of Management at Drury Lane his tragedy, 'The Italians; or, the Fatal Accusation', and it was accepted. In February, 1819, he withdrew the play, in consequence of a quarrel with Edmund Kean, and published it with extracts from the correspondence and a Preface, which sent it through numerous editions. The play itself was, after being withdrawn, played at Drury Lane, April 3, 1819. Bucke and his Preface were answered in 'The Assailant Assailed', and in 'A Defence of Edmund Kean, Esq'. (both in 1819), and the opinion of the town condemned both him and his tragedy.]
Dear Sir,--I send a corrected, and, I hope, amended copy of the lines for the "fragment" already sent this evening. [1] Let the enclosed be the copy that is sent to the Devil (the printers) and burn the other.
[Footnote 1: 'The Giaour', which was now in the press, was expanded, either in the course of printing, or in the successive editions, from 400 lines to 1400. It was published in May, 1813.]
Oh you, who in all names can tickle the town, Anacreon, Tom Little, Tom Moore, or Tom Brown, [1]-- For hang me if I know of which you may most brag, Your Quarto two-pounds, or your Twopenny Post Bag;