“Let the revise which I sent just now (and not the proof in Mr. Gifford’s possession) be returned to the printer, as there are several additional corrections, and two new lines in it.  Yours,” &c.

* * * * *

LETTER 146.  TO MR. MURRAY.

     “November 15. 1813.

“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 intimate of mine. He likes it (you will think fatteringly, 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.

     “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. Will you, pray, give him a hint of accuracy?  I have reinserted the two, but they were in the manuscript, I can swear.”

* * * * *

LETTER 147.  TO MR. MURRAY.

     “November 17. 1813.

“That you and I may distinctly understand each other on a subject, which, like ‘the dreadful reckoning when men smile no more,’ makes conversation not very pleasant, I think it as well to write a few lines on the topic.—­Before I left town for Yorkshire, you said that you were ready and willing to give five hundred guineas for the copyright of ‘The Giaour;’ and my answer was—­from which I do not mean to recede—­that we would discuss the point at Christmas.  The new story may or may not succeed; the probability, under present circumstances, seems to be, that it may at least pay its expenses—­but even that remains to be proved, and till it is proved one way or another, we will say nothing about it.  Thus then be it:  I will postpone all arrangement about it, and The Giaour also, till Easter, 1814; and you shall then, according to your own notions of fairness, make your own offer for the two.  At the same time, I do not rate the last in my own estimation at half The Giaour; and according to your own notions of its worth and its success within the time mentioned, be the addition or deduction to or from whatever sum may be your proposal for the first, which has already had its success.

     “The pictures of Phillips I consider as mine, all three; and the
     one (not the Arnaout) of the two best is much at your service, if
     you will accept it as a present.