Note 88 — Chapter IV · “ENGLISH BARDS, AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS”
Reading edition
To this utterly unjust stricture Scott made a calm reply in his Preface to Marmion (1830): “I never could conceive how an arrangement between an author and his publishers, if satisfactory to the persons concerned, could afford matter of censure to any third party.” Certainly Byron came to be a gross offender in this respect himself, and when, in 1819, he was haggling with Murray over the price of Don Juan, these boyish censures, if they met his eye, must have roused a smile.