EPISTLE FROM MR. MURRAY TO DR. POLIDORI. DEAR Doctor, I have read your play. To shatter'd nerves and quicken'd pulses, I like your moral and machinery; Your plot, too, has such scope for scenery; Your dialogue is apt and smart ; The play's concoction full of art; Your hero raves, your heroine cries, All stab, and every body dies. In short, your tragedy would be The very thing to hear and see : And for a piece of publication, If I decline on this occasion, It is not that I am not sensible To merits in themselves ostensible, But-and I grieve to speak it-plays Are drugs-mere drugs, sir-now-a-days. I had a heavy loss by "Manuel," Too lucky if it prove not annual, And Sotheby, with his "Orestes" (Which, by the by, the author's best is), Has lain so very long on hand Or only watch my shopman's looks ;— My back-shop glut, my shelves encumber. There's Byron, too, who once did better, I write in haste; excuse each blunder; The Quarterly-Ah, sir, if you but, to resume; The room's so full of wits and bards, Crabbes, Campbells, Crokers, Freres and Wards, And others, neither bards nor wits : My humble tenement admits All persons in the dress of gent., From Mr. Hammond to Dog Dent. R A party dines with me to-day, They're at this moment in discussion JOHN MURRAY. TO MR. MURRAY. STRAHAN, Tonson, Lintot of the times, To thee, with hope and terror dumb, The unfledged MS. authors come; Thou printest all-and sellest someMy Murray. Upon thy table's baize so green Along thy sprucest bookshelves shine Tours, Travels, Essays, too, I wist And Sermons to thy mill bring grist ; And then thou hast the " Navy List," My Murray. And Heaven forbid I should conclude Without "the Board of Longitude," Although this narrow paper would, My Murray! HOLLAND HOUSE. (From ENGLISH BARDS AND Scotch Reviewers.) ILLUSTRIOUS Holland! hard would be his lot, His hirelings mention'd, and himself forgot! Holland, with Henry Petty at his back, The whipper-in and huntsman of the pack. Blest be the banquets spread at Holland House, Where Scotchmen feed, and critics may carouse ! Long, long beneath that hospitable roof Shall Grub-street dine, while duns are kept aloof. Resume his pen, review his Lordship's work, |