]
* * * * *
351.--To John Murray.
Nov. 14, 1813.
I send you a note for the _ignorant_, but I really wonder at finding
_you_ among them. I don't care one lump of Sugar for my _poetry_; but
for my _costume_, and my _correctness_ on those points (of which I think
the _funeral_ was a proof), I will combat lustily.
Yours ever,
B.
* * * * *
352.--To John Murray.
November 15, 1813.
DEAR SIR,--Mr. Hodgson has looked over and _stopped_, or rather
_pointed_, this revise, which must be the one to print from. He has also
made some suggestions, with most of which I have complied, as he has
always, for these ten years, been a very sincere, and by no means (at
times) flattering critic of mine. _He_ likes it (you will think
_flatteringly_, in this instance) better than 'The Giaour', but doubts
(and so do I) its being so popular; but, contrary to some others,
advises a separate publication. On this we can easily decide. I confess
I like the _double_ form better. Hodgson says, it is _better versified_
than any of the others; which is odd, if true, as it has cost me less
time (though more _hours_ at a time) than any attempt I ever made.
Yours ever, B.
P.S.--Do attend to the punctuation: I can't, for I don't know a
comma--at least where to place one.
That Tory of a printer has omitted two lines of the opening, and
_perhaps more_, which were in the MS.
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