Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/220

184 i $4 JOHN M URRA V. " TO MR. MURRAY. " Strahan, Tonson, Lintot of the times, Patron and publisher of rhymes, For thee the bard of Pindus climbs, My Murray. " To thee, with hope and terror dumb, The unfledged MS. authors come ; Thou printest all and sellest some My Murray. " Upon thy tables' baize so green, The last new Quarterly is seen, But where is thy new magazine, My Murray ? " Along thy sprucest bookshelves shine The works thou deemest most divine, The ' Art of Cookery,' and mine, My Murray. " Tours, Travels, Essays, too, I wist, ] And Sermons to thy mill bring grist ; And then thou hast the ' Army List,' My Murray. " And Heaven forbid I should conclude Without the ' Board of Longitude,' Although this narrow paper would, My Murray !" VENICE, March 25, 1818. There was no end to Byron's wit and playfulness. Sometimes Murray would act as a mentor and adviser in more serious matters, but his advice would be pleasantly turned off with a jest. At the time when Byron was most calumniated, when there were cruel stories afloat about the life he led and the opinions he held (though none so cruel as have since been promul- gated by a well-known American authoress), Murray's soul was comforted by the present of a Bible a gift from the illustrious poet. " Could this man," he asked, " be a deist, an atheist, or worse, when he sent Bibles