All here are very well, and much pleased with
your politeness and attention during their stay in town.
Believe me, yours truly,
B.
P.S.--Are there anything but books? If so, let those _extras_ remain
untouched for the present. I trust you have not stumbled on any more
"Aphrodites," and have burnt those. I send you both the advertisements,
but don't send me the first treatise--as I have no occasion for
_Caustic_ in that quarter.
[Footnote 1: In the 'Morning Chronicle' (June 10, 1813) appeared
advertisements of the two following books:--'Practical Observations on
the best mode of curing Strictures, etc., with Remarks on Inefficacy,
etc., of Caustic Applications'. By William Wadd. Printed for J. Callow,
Soho. 'Modern Poets; a Dialogue in Verse, containing some Strictures on
the Poetry of Lord Byron, Mr. Southey, and Others'. Printed for White,
Cochrane, and Co., Fleet Street.
In a note on 'Modern Poets' (p. 7) occurs the following passage:
"In 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers' the same respectable corps
of critics is successively exhibited, in the course of only ten lines,
under the following significant but somewhat incongruous forms, viz.
(1) Northern Wolves, (2) Harpies, (3) Bloodhounds."
In proof the writer quotes lines 426-437 of the Satire. Then follows a
long review of 'Childe Harold', in which the critic condemns Harold, the
hero, as "an uncouth incumbrance of this flighty Lord;" the want of
"plot ... action and fable, interest, order, end;" and asks:
"Shall he immortal bays aspire to wear
Who immortality from man would tear,
Repress the sigh which hopes a happier home,
And chase the visions of a life to come?"]
[Footnote 2: For Byron's intention to go abroad with Lord and Lady
Oxford, see p.
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