"]
[Footnote 3:
"The motto to 'The Giaour':
One fatal remembrance--one sorrow that throws
Its bleak shade alike o'er our joys and our woes,' etc.
"which is taken from one of the 'Irish Melodies', had been quoted by
him incorrectly in the first editions of the poem". (Moore).]
* * * * *
340.--To John Murray.
Stilton, Oct. 3, 1813.
Dear Sir,--I have just recollected an alteration you may make in the
proof to be sent to Aston.--Among the lines on Hassan's Serai, not far
from the beginning, is this:
Unmeet for Solitude to share.
Now to share implies more than _one_, and Solitude is a single
gentlewoman; it must be thus:
For many a gilded chamber's there,
Which Solitude might well forbear;
and so on.--My address is Aston Hall, Rotherham. Will you adopt this
correction? and pray accept a cheese from me for your trouble. Ever
yours, B.
P.S.--I leave this to your discretion; if any body thinks the old line a
good one or the cheese a bad one, don't accept either. But, in that
case, the word _share_ is repeated soon after in the line:
To share the Master's "bread and salt;"
and must be altered to:
To break the Master's bread and salt.
This is not so well, though--confound it! If the old line stands, let
the other run thus:
Nor there will weary traveller halt,
To bless the sacred "bread and salt."
_Note_.--To partake of food--to break bread and taste salt with your
host--ensures the safety of the guest; even though an enemy, his person
from that moment becomes sacred.
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