[10] [Hobhouse's Miscellany (otherwise known as the _Miss-sell-any_) was published in 1809, under the title of _Imitations and Translations from The Ancient and Modern Classics_. Byron contributed nine original poems. The volume was not a success. "It foundered ... in the Gulph of Lethe."--Letter to H. Drury, July 17, 1811, _Letters_, 1898, i. 319.] [11] [The word "Sale" may have a double meaning. There may be an allusion to George Sale, the Orientalist, and translator of the Koran.] [12] ["In Matthews I have lost my 'guide, philosopher, and friend.'"--Letter to R.C. Dallas, September 7, 1811, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 25. (For Charles Skinner Matthews, see _Letters_, 1898, i. 150, _note_ 3.)] [13] [Compare-- "In short, the maxim for the amorous tribe is Horatian, 'Medio tu tutissimus ibis.'" _Don Juan_, Canto V. stanza xvii. lines 8, 9. The "doctrine" is Horatian, but the words occur in Ovid, _Metam._, lib. ii. line 137.--_Poetical Works_, 1902, vi. 273, _note_ 2.] [14] [Hobhouse's _Journey through Albania and other Provinces of Turkey_, 4^to^, was published by James Cawthorn, in 1813.] TRANSLATION OF THE NURSE'S DOLE IN THE _MEDEA_ OF EURIPIDES. OH how I wish that an embargo Had kept in port the good ship Argo! Who, still unlaunched from Grecian docks, Had never passed the Azure rocks; But now I fear her trip will be a Damn'd business for my Miss Medea, etc., etc.[15] _June_, 1810. [First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 227.] FOOTNOTES: [15] ["I am just come from an expedition through the Bosphorus to the Black Sea and the Cyanean Symplegades, up which last I scrambled with as great risk as ever the Argonauts escaped in their hoy. You remember the beginning of the nurse's dole in the _Medea_ [lines 1-7], of which I beg you to take the following translation, done on the summit;--[A 'damned business'] it very nearly was to me; for, had not this sublime passage been in my head, I should never have dreamed of ascending the said rocks, and bruising my carcass in honour of the ancients."--Letter to Henry Drury, June 17, 1810, _Letters_, 1898, i. 276. Euripides, _Medea_, lines 1-7-- Εἴθ' ὤφελ' Ἀργοῦς μὴ διαπτάσθαι σκάφος κ.τ.λ. [Ei)/th' ô)/phel' A)rgou~s mê\ diapta/sthai ska/phos k.t.l.] ] MY EPITAPH.[16] YOUTH, Nature, and relenting Jove, To keep my lamp _in_ strongly strove; But Romanelli was so stout, He beat all three--and _blew_ it _out_. _October_, 1810. [First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 240.] FOOTNOTES: