BYRON'S LETTERS TO DOUGLAS KINNAIRD ... - Get a Free Blog

press – or ready to be so. – John H. who wrote to me the other day seemed to think the small additional
edition – a balk to the pirates – or at least some check – you may perhaps know better than I can. – But
the Season will be over if you do not hasten – it is hit or miss – throw –
1:2
and let us see what the dice will offer. – –
I shall also collect my other stray poesies into one or two volumes in the Spring – and do not mean to
part with the Copyright – – by and bye [at page bottom, leaving a huge gap:] this will tell.
y rs . ever
N. B. ———
February 23rd-March 4th 1823: Byron writes Don Juan Canto XIV.
Byron to Douglas Kinnaird, from Genoa, February 24th 1823:
(Source: Ms. NLS TD 3079, f.62; not in 1922 II; BLJ X 108-9)
[To, The Honourable / Douglas Kinnaird. / Messrs Ransom & Co. Bankers. / Pall Mall. / London. /
Angleterre. // Inghilterra.]
Genoa. F y . 24 th . 1823.
My dear Douglas –
I am not going to Naples – nor have any intention of continuing Ch e H e . – I told You
before that it was impossible for Davison to be sincere without involving himself with M. – let them
say what they please – you know {that} of me – they will say anything. – You do not appear to have
received – at least you do not notice – two letters {sent a month ago} enclosed to you by me (from and
for – Deardon – viz. his letter and my answer – in which I stated that if he absolutely required it – I
would meet him on business in England. – I have no wish for this journey unless absolutely necessary.
– – You can have the three Cantos published in the way you think securest – but I am inclined to think
that though not at first – in the long run – the retaining the copyright in my own hands would be the
best. – M r . Wright’s offer is inadequate – – there will be no better probably – but it need not be
accepted. – – – –
1:2
As to the run against me – I fully believe it – but what is a man good for if he cannot face such things?
– – Whatever motives may be attributed to me on the score of the Hunts – you know the only real one –
viz. a wish to assist them in their distress. – – – As to the delay you propose in the publication – I see
no advantage in it – and I shall not write any more Ch e H ds – in the interim. – Publish them on my
account – with whom you please – {as likeliest to be honest} – and leave the notion of profit out of the
question. – I have sent back the three corrected cantos. –
I am very anxious to hear that you have received and forwarded my letter to M r . Deardon – (enclosing
one of his to which it was an answer) as your not mentioning it keeps me not only in the uncertainty of
its’ arrival – but of whether I am or am not to go to England to meet him.
y rs . ever & truly
N. B.
1:3
P.S.
The promised epistle of Goethe? –
Do not forget that the lawsuit is going on – and may come to a head before we are aware – unless
something is settled that may authorize me to stop the proceedings which I sincerely wish to do – I
speak of Deardon and the Appeal. – –
It is my intention to collect my own poems out of the liberal – and publish them in one volume – (I
have some unpublished by me to be included) the profit upon works already published may be trifling –
but there is the twenty eight years of Copyright {ahead} – for the bookseller (whoever he
may be) and they may be worth something to complete the series of my other works. – – – I have now
in all eight Cantos of D.J. (one completed the other day and not yet copied) the thing in “the Liberal”
and one or two still in M.S.S. – – If you find any one to hid on the whole – so – if not – no matter. – As
to popularity – Voltaire was reduced to live in a corner – and Rousseau stoned out of Switzerland – and
banished France. – I should never have thought
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