Byron's Letter to John Murray

A letter from Byron to John Murray
June 7th 1820

Ravenna. June 7th 1820

Dear Murray,
Enclosed is something which will interest you—/ to wit/ the opinion of the Greatest man of Germany—;perhaps of Europe upon one of the great men of your advertisements. (Of all "famous hands" as Jacob Tonson [1] used to say of his ragamuffins) in short a critique of Goethe's [2] upon Manfred— Here is the original—Mr Hoppner's [3] translation, and an Italian one. Keep them all in you [original says you or your?] archives for the opinions of such a man as [paper torn] Goethe whether favourable or not are always interesting and this is moreover favourable. His Faust I never read——for I don't know German—but Matthew Monk Lewis [4] in 1816 at Coligny translated most of it to me viva voce and I was naturally [much—added above the line] struck with it; but it was the Staubach & the Jungfrau—and something else—much more than Faustus that made me write Manfred. —The first scene however & that of Faustus are very similar. Acknowledge this letter

Yours ever
Byron
 

P.S. I have received Ivanhoe—good. [5] —Pray send me some toothpowder and a tincture of Myrrh—by Waite and &c. Ricciardetto should have been translated literally or not at all. As to puffing Whistlecraft [6]— it won't do. I'll tell you why some day or other. Cornwall's [7] a poet—but spoilt by the detestable schools of the day.— Mrs Hemans [8] is poet also—but too stilted and apostrophic—and quite wrong— men died calmly before the Christian era—and since without Christianity —witness the Romans—and Thistlewood—Sandt & Louvel— men who ought to have been weighed down with their crimes—even had they believed. [9] A deathbed is a matter of nerves and constitution and not of religion. Voltaire was frightened—Frederick of Prussia not. [10] Christians the same according to their strength rather than their creed.—

What does Helga Herbert [11] mean by his Stanza? which is octave got drunk [word obscured by the seal] mad.— He ought to [word obscured by seal] his ears boxed with Thor's hammer for rhyming so fantastically.