, that he may know I _had_
written it. I send also mottoes for the cantos. I think you will
allow that an elephant may be more sagacious, but cannot be more
docile.

"Yours, BN.

"The _name_ is again altered to _Medora_"[7]

[Footnote 7: It had been at first Genevra,--not Francesca, as Mr. Dallas
asserts.]

* * * * *

LETTER 156. TO MR. MOORE.

"January 8. 1814.

"As it would not be fair to press you into a dedication, without
previous notice, I send you _two_, and I will tell you _why two_.
The first, Mr. M., who sometimes takes upon him the critic (and I
bear it from _astonishment_), says, may do you _harm_--God
forbid!--this alone makes me listen to him. The fact is, he is a
damned Tory, and has, I dare swear, something of _self_, which I
cannot divine, at the bottom of his objection, as it is the
allusion to Ireland to which he objects. But he be d----d--though a
good fellow enough (your sinner would not be worth a d----n).

"Take your choice;--no one, save he and Mr. Dallas, has seen
either, and D. is quite on my side, and for the first.[8] If I can
but testify to you and the world how truly I admire and esteem you,
I shall be quite satisfied. As to prose, I don't know Addison's
from Johnson's; but I will try to mend my cacology. Pray perpend,
pronounce, and don't be offended with either.

"My last epistle would probably put you in a fidget. But the devil,
who _ought_ to be civil on such occasions, proved so, and took my
letter to the right place.

"Is it not odd?--the very fate I said she had escaped from * *, she
has now undergone from the worthy * *. Like Mr. Fitzgerald, shall I
not lay claim to the character of 'Vates?'--as he did in the
Morning Herald for prophesying the fall of Buonaparte,--who, by
the by, I don't think is yet fallen. I wish he would rally and
route your legitimate sovereigns, having a mortal hate to all royal
entails.--But I am scrawling a treatise. Good night. Ever," &c.

[Footnote 8: The first was, of course, the one that I preferred. The
other ran as follows:--

"January 7. 1814.

"My dear Moore,

"I had written to you a long letter of dedication, which I
suppress, because, though it contained something relating to you
which every one had been glad to hear, yet t