TO hook the Reader, you, John Murray, Have published "Anjou's Margaret,"[66] Which won't be sold off in a hurry (At least, it has not been as yet); And then, still further to bewilder him, Without remorse, you set up "Ilderim;"[67] So mind you don't get into debt,-- Because--as how--if you should fail, These books would be but baddish bail. And mind you do _not_ let escape These rhymes to _Morning Post_ or Perry, Which would be _very_ treacherous--_very_, And get me into such a scrape! For, firstly, I should have to sally, All in my little boat, against a _Galley_; And, should I chance to slay the Assyrian wight, Have next to combat with the female Knight: And pricked to death expire upon her needle, A sort of end which I should take indeed ill! March 25, 1817. [First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 91.] FOOTNOTES: [66] [_Margaret of Anjou_, by Margaret Holford, 1816.] [67] [_Ilderim, a Syrian Tale_, by H. Gaily Knight, 1816.] VERSICLES. I READ the "Christabel;"[68] Very well: I read the "Missionary;"[69] Pretty--very: I tried at "Ilderim;" Ahem! I read a sheet of "Marg'ret of _Anjou_;" _Can you_? I turned a page of Webster's "Waterloo;"[70] Pooh! pooh! I looked at Wordsworth's milk-white "Rylstone Doe;"[71] Hillo! I read "Glenarvon," too, by Caro Lamb;[72] God damn! March 25, 1817. [First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 87.] FOOTNOTES: [68] [_Christabel, etc._, by S.T. Coleridge, 1816.] [69] [_The Missionary of the Andes, a Poem_, by W.L. Bowles, 1815.] [70] [_Waterloo and other Poems_, by J. Wedderburn Webster, 1816.] [71] [_The White Doe of Rylstone, or the Fate of the Nortons, a Poem_, by W. Wordsworth, 1815.] [72] [_Glenarvon, a Novel_ [by Lady Caroline Lamb], 1816.] QUEM DEUS VULT PERDERE PRIUS DEMENTAT.[73] God maddens him whom't is his will to lose, And gives the choice of death or phrenzy--choose. [First published, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 93.] FOOTNOTES: [73] [_À propos_ of Maturin's tragedy, _Manuel_ (_vide post_, p. 48, _note_ 1), Byron "does into English" the Latin proverb by way of contrast to the text, "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth; blessed be the Name of the Lord" (Letter to Murray, April 2, 1817).] TO THOMAS MOORE. 1. My boat is on the shore, And my bark is on the sea; But, before I go, Tom Moore, Here's a double health to thee! 2.