* * * * *
TO MR. MURRAY.
“July 11. 1814.
“You shall have one of the pictures. I wish you to send the proof of ‘Lara’ to Mr. Moore, 33. Bury Street, to-night, as he leaves town to-morrow, and wishes to see it before he goes[40]; and I am also willing to have the benefit of his remarks. Yours,” &c.
[Footnote 40: In a note which I wrote to him, before starting, next day, I find the following:—“I got Lara at three o’clock this morning—read him before I slept, and was enraptured. I take the proofs with me.”]
* * * * *
TO MR. MURRAY.
“July 18. 1814.
“I think you will be satisfied even to repletion with our northern friends[41], and I won’t deprive you longer of what I think will give you pleasure; for my own part, my modesty, or my vanity, must be silent.
“P.S. If
you could spare it for an hour in the evening, I wish
you
to send it up to Mrs.
Leigh, your neighbour, at the London Hotel,
Albemarle Street.”
[Footnote 41: He here refers to an article in the number of the Edinburgh Review, just then published (No. 45.), on The Corsair and Bride of Abydos.]
* * * * *
LETTER 189. TO MR. MURRAY.
“July 23. 1814.
“I am sorry to say that the print[42] is by no means approved of by those who have seen it, who are pretty conversant with the original, as well as the picture from whence it is taken. I rather suspect that it is from the copy and not the exhibited portrait, and in this dilemma would recommend a suspension, if not an abandonment, of the prefixion to the volumes which you purpose inflicting upon the public.
“With regard to Lara, don’t be in any hurry. I have not yet made up my mind on the subject, nor know what to think or do till I hear from you; and Mr. Moore appeared to me in a similar state of indetermination. I do not know that it may not be better to reserve it for the entire publication you proposed, and not adventure in hardy singleness, or even backed by the fairy Jacqueline. I have been seized with all kinds of doubts, &c. &c. since I left London.
“Pray let me hear from you, and believe me,” &c.