EPISTLE FROM MR. MURRAY TO DR. POLIDORI.
49
Pronouncing on the nouns and particles,
Of some of our forthcoming Articles.
The Quarterly—Ah, Sir, if you
Had but the Genius to review!—
A smart Critique upon St. Helena,
Or if you only would but tell in a50
Short compass what——but to resume;
As I was saying, Sir, the Room—
The Room's so full of wits and bards,
Crabbes, Campbells, Crokers, Freres, and Wards
And others, neither bards nor wits:
My humble tenement admits
All persons in the dress of Gent.,
From Mr. Hammond to Dog Dent.[1]
A party dines with me to-day,
All clever men, who make their way:60
Crabbe, Malcolm,[2] Hamilton,[3] and Chantrey,
Are all partakers of my pantry.
They're at this moment in discussion
On poor De Staël's late dissolution.
- ↑ [George Hammond (1763-1853) was a distinguished diplomatist, who twice (1795-1806 and 1807-1809) held the office of Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He is associated with the foundation of the Anti-Jacobin and the Quarterly Review. In the drawing-room of Albemarle Street, he was Murray's "chief 4-o'clock man," until his official duties compelled him to settle at Paris.—Letters, 1900, iv. 160, note 1. John Dent, M.P., a banker, was nicknamed "Dog Dent" because he was concerned in the introduction of the Dog-tax Bill in 1796. In 1802 he introduced a Bill to abolish bull-baiting.—Ibid.]
- ↑ [Sir John Malcolm (1769-1833), soldier, administrator, and diplomatist, published (January, 1815) his History of Persia.—Letters, 1899, iii. 113, note 1.]
- ↑ [For "Dark Hamilton," W. R. Hamilton (1777-1859), see Childe Harold, Canto II. stanza xiii. var. 1, Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 108, note l. Lines 61, 62 were added October 12, 1817.]
- ↑ [Madame de Staël's Considerations sur la Révolution Françase was offered to Murray in June, 1816 (Memoir, etc., 1891, i. 316),
