EPISTLE TO MR. MURRAY.
53
Then Queen Mary's Epistle-craft,[1]
With the new "Fytte" of "Whistlecraft,"
Must make people purchase and read.
8.
Then you've General Gordon,[2]
Who girded his sword on,
To serve with a Muscovite Master,
And help him to polish
A nation so owlish,
They thought shaving their beards a disaster.
9.
For the man, "poor and shrewd,"[3]
With whom you'd conclude
A compact without more delay,
Perhaps some such pen is
Still extant in Venice;
But please, Sir, to mention your pay.
10.
Now tell me some news
Of your friends and the Muse,
- ↑ [The Life of Mary Queen of Scots, by George Chalmers, 2 vols. 4to, 1819.]
- ↑ [Thomas Gordon (1788-1841) entered the Scots Greys in 1808. Two years later he visited Ali Pasha (see Letters, 1898, i. 246, note 1) in Albania, and travelled in Persia and Turkey in the East. From 1813 to 1815 he served in the Russian Army. He wrote a History of the Greek Revolution, 1832, 2 vols., but it does not appear that he was negotiating with Murray for the publication of any work at this period.]
- ↑ Vide your letter.
the Rev. Joseph Spence, arranged, with notes, by the late Edmund Malone, Esq., 1 vol. 8vo, 1820.]
