LETTER XI.

Feb. 26th, 1816.

DEAR HUNT,

Your letter would have been answered before, had I not thought it probable that, as you were in town for a day or so, I should have seen you. I don't mean this as a hint at reproach for not calling, but merely that of course I should have been very glad if you had called in your way home or abroad, as I always would have been, and always shall be. With regard to the circumstance to which you allude, there is no reason why you should not speak openly to me on a subject already sufficiently rife in the mouths and minds of what is called << the World. Of the «fifty reports, >> it follows. that forty-nine must have more or less error and exaggeration; but I am sorry to say, that on the main and essential point of an intended, and, it may be, an inevitable separation, I can contradict none. At present I shall say no more-but this is not from want of confidence; in the meantime, I shall merely request

a suspension of opinion. Your prefatory letter to « Rimini,>> I accepted as it was meant—as a public compliment and a private kindness. I am only sorry that it may perhaps operate against youas an inducement, and, with some, a pretext, for attack on the part of the political and personal enemies of both:-not that this can be of much consequence, for in the end the work must be judged by its merits, and in that respect you are well armed. Murray tells me it is going on well, and, you may depend upon it, there is a substratum of poetry which is a foundation for solid and durable fame. The objections (if there be objections, for this is a presumption, and not an assumption,) will be merely as to the mechanical part, and such, as I stated before, the usual consequence of either novelty or revival. I desired Murray to forward to you a pamphlet with two things of mine in it, the most part of both of them, and of one in particular, written before others of my composing, which have preceded them in publication; they are neither of them of much pretension, nor intended for it. You will perhaps wonder at my dwelling so much and

so frequently on former subjects and scenes; but the fact is, that I found them fading fast from my memory; and I was, at the same time, so partial to their place (and events connected with it), that I have stamped them, while I could, in such colours as I could trust to now, but might have confused and misapplied hereafter, had I longer delayed the attempted delineation.

LETTER XII.

March 14, 1816.

DEAR HUNT,

I send you six orchestra tickets for Drury Lane, countersigned by me, which makes the admission free-which I explain, that the door-keeper may not impose upon you; they are for the best place in the house, but can only be used one at a time. I have left the dates unfilled, and you can take your own nights, which I should suppose would be Kean's: the seat is in the orchestra. I have inserted the

name of Mr H

a

friend of yours, in case

you like to transfer to him-do not forget to fill up the dates for such days as you choose to

select.

Yours, ever truly.

BYRON.

FRAGMENTS OF LETTERS,

The rest of which has been mutilated or lost.

FRAGMENT I.

good of « Rimini.»-Sir Henry Englefield, a mighty man in the blue circles, and a very clever man any where, sent to Murray, in terms of the highest eulogy; and with regard to the common reader, my sister and cousin (who are now all my family, and the last since gone away to be married) were in fixed perusal and delight with it, and they are « not critical,» but fair, natural, unaffected, and understanding persons.

Frere, and all the arch-literati, I hear, are also unanimous in a high opinion of the poem. << I hear this by the way-but I will send.»