The Earl of Dudley, in his _Letters_, (1814) says:--“To me Byron’s
_Corsair_ appears the best of all his works. Rapidity of execution is no
sort of apology for doing a thing ill, but when it is done well, the
wonder is so much the greater. I am told he wrote this poem at ten
sittings--certainly it did not take him more than three weeks. He is a
most extraordinary person, and yet there is G. Ellis, who don’t feel his
merit. His creed in modern poetry (I should have said _contemporary_) is
Walter Scott, all Walter Scott, and nothing but Walter Scott. I cannot
say how I hate this petty, factious spirit in literature--it is so
unworthy of a man so clever and so accomplished as Ellis undoubtedly
is.”