t am I to understand? you and Douglas Kinnaird, and
others, write to me, that the two first published cantos are among
the best that I ever wrote, and are reckoned so; Augusta writes
that they are thought '_execrable_' (bitter word _that_ for an
author--eh, Murray?) as a _composition_ even, and that she had
heard so much against them that she would _never read them_, and
never has. Be that as it may, I can't alter; that is not my forte.
If you publish the three new ones without ostentation, they may
perhaps succeed.

"Pray publish the Dante and the _Pulci_ (the _Prophecy of Dante_, I
mean). I look upon the Pulci as my grand performance.[30] The
remainder of the 'Hints,' where be they? Now, bring them all out
about the same time, otherwise 'the _variety_' you wot of will be
less obvious.

"I am in bad humour: some obstructions in business with those
plaguy trustees, who object to an advantageous loan which I was to
furnish to a nobleman on mortgage, because his property is in
_Ireland_, have shown me how a man is treated in his absence. Oh,
if I _do_ come back, I will make some of those who little dream of
it _spin_--or they or I shall go down."

[Footnote 28: To the letter which enclosed this protest, and which has
been omitted to avoid repetitions, he had subjoined a passage from
Spence's Anecdotes (p. 197. of Singer's edition), where Pope says,
speaking of himself, "I had taken such strong resolutions against any
thing of that kind, from seeing how much every body that _did_ write for
the stage was obliged to subject themselves to the players and the
town."--_Spence's Anecdotes_, p. 22.

In the same paragraph, Pope is made to say, "After I had got acquainted
with the town, I resolved never to write any thing for the stage, though
solicited by many of my friends to do so, and particularly Betterton."]

[Footnote 29: No further step was ever taken in this affair; and the
documents, which were of no use whatever, are, I believe, still in Mr.
Murray's possession.]

[Footnote 30: The self-will of Lord Byron was in no point more
conspicuous than in the determination with which he thus persisted in
giving the preference to one or two works of his own which, in the eyes
of all other persons, were most decided failures. Of this class was the
translation from Pulci, so frequently mentioned by him, which appeared
afterwards in t