"Sunday, Jan. 2. 1814.
"Excuse this dirty paper--it is the _pen_ultimate half-sheet of a
quire. Thanks for your book and the Ln. Chron., which I return. The
Corsair is copied, and now at Lord Holland's; but I wish Mr.
Gifford to have it to-night.
"Mr. Dallas is very _perverse_; so that I have offended both him
and you, when I really meaned to do good, at least to one, and
certainly not to annoy either.[6] But I shall manage him, I
hope.--I am pretty confident of the _Tale_ itself; but one cannot
be sure. If I get it from Lord Holland, it shall be sent.
"Yours," &c.
[Footnote 6: He had made a present of the copyright of "The Corsair" to
Mr. Dallas, who thus describes the manner in which the gift was
bestowed:--"On the 28th of December, I called in the morning on Lord
Byron, whom I found composing 'The Corsair.' He had been working upon it
but a few days, and he read me the portion he had written. After some
observations, he said, 'I have a great mind--I will.' He then added that
he should finish it soon, and asked me to accept of the copyright. I was
much surprised. He had, before he was aware of the value of his works,
declared that he never would take money for them, and that I should have
the whole advantage of all he wrote. This declaration became morally
void when the question was about thousands, instead of a few hundreds;
and I perfectly agree with the admired and admirable author of Waverley,
that 'the wise and good accept not gifts which are made in heat of
blood, and which may be after repented of.'--I felt this on the sale of
'Childe Harold,' and observed it to him. The copyright of 'The Giaour'
and 'The Bride of Abydos' remained undisposed of, though the poems were
selling rapidly, nor had I the slightest notion that he would ever again
give me a copyright. But as he continued in the resolution of not
appropriating the sale of his works to his own use, I did not scruple to
accept that of 'The Corsair,' and I thanked him. He asked me to call and
hear the portions read as he wrote them. I went every morning, and was
astonished at the rapidity of his composition. He gave me the poem
complete on New-year's day, 1814, saying, that my acceptance of it gave
him great pleasure, and that I was fully at liberty to publish it with
any bookseller I pleased, independent of the profit."
Out of this last-mentioned permission arose the momentary embarrassment
between the noble poet and his publisher, to which the above notes
allude.]
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