"
It deserves no better than the first, as the work of a week, and
scribbled 'stans pede in uno' [2], (by the by, the only foot I have to
stand on); and I promise never to trouble you again under forty cantos,
and a voyage between each. Believe me ever,
Your obliged and affectionate servant,
BYRON.
[Footnote 1: Pope, 'Epistle to Arbuthnot', l. 44.]
[Footnote 2: Horace, 'Sat'. 1. iv. 10.]
* * * * *
347.--To John Murray.
Nov. 12, 1813.
Two friends of mine (Mr. Rogers and Mr. Sharpe) have advised me not to
risk at present any single publication separately, for various reasons.
As they have not seen the one in question, they can have no bias for or
against the merits (if it has any) or the faults of the present subject
of our conversation. You say all the last of 'The Giaour' [1] are
gone--at least out of your hands. Now, if you think of publishing any
new edition with the last additions which have not yet been before the
reader (I mean distinct from the two-volume publication), we can add
"'The Bride of Abydos'," which will thus steal quietly into the world
[2]: if liked, we can then throw off some copies for the purchasers of
former "Giaours;" and, if not, I can omit it in any future publication.
What think you? I really am no judge of those things; and, with all my
natural partiality for one's own productions, I would rather follow any
one's judgment than my own.
P.
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