--To the Hon. Augusta Leigh.
[Sunday], October 10th, 1813.
My dearest Augusta,--I have only time to say that I am not in the least
angry, and that my silence has merely arisen from several circumstances
which I cannot now detail. I trust you are better, and will continue
_best_. Ever, my dearest,
Yours,
B.
* * * * *
343.--To John Murray.
Oct. 12, 1813.
Dear Sir,--You must look 'The Giaour' again over carefully; there are a
few lapses, particularly in the last page,--"I _know_ 'twas false; she
could not die;" it was, and ought to be--"_knew_." Pray observe this and
similar mistakes.
I have received and read the 'British Review' [1].
I really think the writer in most parts very right. The only mortifying
thing is the accusation of imitation.
_Crabbe's passage_ I never saw; and Scott I no further meant to follow
than in his _lyric_ measure, which is Gray's, Milton's, and any one's
who likes it. 'The Giaour' is certainly a bad character, but not
dangerous: and I think his fate and his feelings will meet with few
proselytes. I shall be very glad to hear from or of you, when you
please; but don't put yourself out of your way on my account.
Yours ever,
B.
[Footnote 1: 'The British Review' (No. ix.) criticized 'The Giaour'
severely (pp. 132-145). "Lord Byron," it says, "has had the bad taste to
imitate Mr. Walter Scott" (p. 135). Further on (p. 139) it charges him
with borrowing a simile from Crabbe's 'Resentment'.
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