or some years, but, strange to say, it
meeteth not with favour from my brethren of the shell. Even Moore shakes
his head, and firmly believes that it is the grand age of British
poesy."]

[Footnote 5: Written by Lord Byron's early friend, the Rev. Francis
Hodgson.]

[Footnote 6: The strange verses that follow are from a poem by
Keats.--In a manuscript note on this passage of the pamphlet, dated
November 12. 1821, Lord Byron says, "Mr. Keats died at Rome about a year
after this was written, of a decline produced by his having burst a
blood-vessel on reading the article on his 'Endymion' in the Quarterly
Review. I have read the article before and since; and, although it is
bitter, I do not think that a man should permit himself to be killed by
it. But a young man little dreams what he must inevitably encounter in
the course of a life ambitious of public notice. My indignation at Mr.
Keats's depreciation of Pope has hardly permitted me to do justice to
his own genius, which, malgre all the fantastic fopperies of his style,
was undoubtedly of great promise. His fragment of 'Hyperion' seems
actually inspired by the Titans, and is as sublime as AEschylus. He is a
loss to our literature; and the more so, as he himself, before his
death, is said to have been persuaded that he had not taken the right
line, and was reforming his style upon the more classical models of the
language."]

[Footnote 7: "It was at least a _grammar_ 'school.'"]

[Footnote 8: "So spelt by the author."]

* * * * *

LETTER 396. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, 9bre 4. 1820.

"I have received from Mr. Galignani the enclosed letters,
duplicates and receipts, which will explain themselves.[9] As the
poems are your property by purchase, right, and justice, _all
matters of publication, &c. &c. are for you to decide upon_. I know
not how far my compliance with Mr. Galignani's request might be
legal, and I doubt that it would not be honest. In case you choose
to arrange with him, I enclose the permits to you, and in so doing
I wash my hands of the business altogether. I sign them merely to
enable you to exert the power you justly possess more properly. I
will have nothing to do with it farther, except, in my answer to
Mr. Galignani, to state that the letters, &c. &c. are sent to you,
and the causes thereof.

"If you can check these foreign pirates, do; if not