of the Armenian Eusebius? of which I sent you
printed copies of the prospectus (in French)
two moons ago. Have you had the letter?—I
shall send you another:—you must not neglect
my Armenians. Tooth-powder, magnesia, tincture
of myrrh, tooth-brushes, diachylon plaster, Peruvian
bark, are my personal demands.
“Strahan, Tonson, Lintot of the times,
Patron and publisher of rhymes,
For thee the bard up Pindus climbs,
My Murray.
“To thee, with hope and terror dumb,
The unfledged MS. authors come;
Thou printest all—and sellest some—
My Murray.
“Upon thy table’s baize so green
The last new Quarterly is seen,
But where is thy new Magazine,
My Murray?
“Along thy sprucest bookshelves shine
The works thou deemest most divine—
The ‘Art of Cookery,’ and mine,
My Murray.
“Tours, Travels, Essays, too, I wist,
And Sermons to thy mill bring grist!
And then thou hast the ‘Navy List,’
My Murray.
“And Heaven forbid I should conclude
Without ‘the Board of Longitude,’
Although this narrow paper would,
My Murray!”
[Footnote 18: There follows, in this place, among other matter, a long string of verses, in various metres, to the amount of about sixty lines, so full of light gaiety and humour, that it is with some reluctance I suppress them. They might, however, have the effect of giving pain in quarters where even the author himself would not have deliberately inflicted it;—from a pen like his, touches may be wounds, and without being actually intended as such.]
* * * * *
LETTER 314. TO MR. MURRAY.
“Venice, April 12. 1818.
“This letter will be delivered by Signor Gioe. Bata. Missiaglia, proprietor of the Apollo library, and the principal publisher and bookseller now in Venice. He sets out for London with a view to business and correspondence with the English booksellers: and it is in the hope that it may be for your mutual advantage that I furnish him with this letter of introduction to you. If you can be of use to him, either by recommendation to others, or by any personal attention on your own part, you will oblige him and gratify me. You may also perhaps both be able to derive advantage, or establish some mode of literary communication, pleasing to the public, and beneficial to one another.
“At any rate,
be civil to him for my sake, as well as for the
honour and glory of
publishers and authors now and to come for
evermore.