When Cantos I and II of Don Juan were being prepared for the press, it was chiefly Murray’s advisers — especially Gifford — who kept up the lament about “so much beauty, so wantonly & perversely disfigured” by verses such as 129 and 130 of Canto I that make jokes about cow-pox and syphilis and the parody of the Ten Commandments in Stanzas 205–206 of Canto I.
“Every one laments therefore in a tenfold degree the few passages which merely in kindness to your friends it was hoped you would have suffered to be replaced by others in which you would have excited delight only… Do me the favour to make every improvement that you can upon the two first Cantos of Don Juan & let me bring out the new Edition in great force in the winter – In the opinion of the best Critics the larger portion of them surpass all that you have written & the rest is deserving therefore of re-casting or at least of re-consideration” (Murray to Byron, 23 July 1819)
Murray pleaded with Byron to authorise cuts that could be incorporated in the re-issued editions, which he presumably had intended to publish under Byron’s name in his own imprint. But Byron would have none of it:
You are right – Gifford is right – Crabbe is right – Hobhouse is right – you are all right – and I am all wrong – but do pray let me have that pleasure. – Cut me up root and branch; quarter me in the Quarterly – send round my “disjecti membra poetae” like those of the Levite’s Concubine – make me – if you will – a spectacle to men and angels – but don’t ask me to alter for I can’t – I am obstinate and lazy – and there’s the truth. – – – (Byron to Murray, 12 August, 1819)
By late 1819 the fears in Murray’s office about the critical response were begining to sound more plausible. In August, Blackwoods Magazine (known in the industry as “Blackguards..” according to Murray) published an hysterical hatchet-job on the Cantos:
“…in the composition of which there unquestionably a more thorough intense infusion of genius and vice, power and profligacy, than in any which had ever before been written the English or indeed in any modern language… Love, honour, patriotism, religion are mentioned only to be scoffed at and derided as if their sole resting place were or ought to be in the bosoms of fools. It appears in short as if this miserable man having exhausted every species of sensual gratification having drained the cup of sin even to its bitterest dregs, were resolved to shew us that he is no longer a human being even in his frailties but a cool unconcerned fiend, laughing with a detestable glee over the whole of the better and worse elements of which human life is composed…” (Blackwoods Magazine, August 1819)
Taking the actual verse only as a point of departure, the review dreged-up a version of the rumors that had surrounded the Byron separation three years earlier, exaggerated into melodrama:
“…It would not be an easy matter to persuade any Man who has any knowledge of the nature of Woman, that a female such as Lord Byron has himself described his wife to be, would rashly or hastily or lightly separate herself from the love which she had once been inspired for such a man as he is, or was. Had he not heaped insult upon insult and scorn upon scorn — had he not forced the iron of his contempt into her very soul — there is no woman of delicacy and virtue as he admitted Lady Byron to be who would not have hoped all things and suffered all things from one, her love of whom must been inwoven with so many exalting elements of delicious pride and delicious humility. To offend the love of such a woman was wrong but might be forgiven; to desert her unmanly — but he might have and wiped for ever from her eyes the tears of her desertion; but to injure and to desert and then to turn back and wound her widowed privacy with unhallowed strains of cold-blooded mockery — was brutally fiendishly mean.” (Ibid.)
It was only the earliest and most intemperate of many similar criticisms of the close association of poetic beauty (”genius”) and vice in the verse that followed over the next few years in the literary press. From Ravenna, Byron dashed off several pages of injured and somewhat specious rebuttal, assorted with renewed attack on Southey the Lakers, but eventually decided not to respond.
“It really is a mistaken notion…”
Murray tried to jolly Bryon along, noting that the poem sold well owning to its “genius”, despite the crticism
“It really is a mistaken notion that Don Juan has not been well received – the Sale has been lessened by an outrageous outcry against some parts of it but its estimation in point of Genius carries your Lordship higher than ever & its circulation will be every day increasing.” (Murray to Byron on 16 November, 1819)
Although Murray — no doubt to his surprise — eventually won an injunction against the pirates, he did not press it to enforce his copyright over Don Juan. The reason he gave is that he would have to reaveal the name of the author: which hardly seems a dramatic revelation given that Byron’s authorship was an open secret.
The stronger reasons were, no doubt, commercial. Murray admitted that he could still make a tidy profit by bringing out a more affordable quasi-authorized edition, even if he had to throw in a “Glass of Gin” with every purchase. Still, it’s clear he was not keen to release them under his own imprint because he remained uncomfortatble with their content. He refused Byron’s offer to return the money he had paid for the copyright and asked for more Cantos, too (Byron had completed Cantos III and IV in November 1819).
“I admire the poem beyond all measure & am supported in this estimation by every man of judgment in the kingdom – who wish for a few alterations merely to give wings to the rest & so far am I indisposed to receive back the Copy Money – that I would not take double the sum if it were offered to me – the pirate edition is not countenanced by the booksellers & if it were or had any important sale I would sell mine for nothing & give every purchaser a Glass of Gin into the bargain… my process [enforcing the injunction against the radical publishers] was abandoned the moment I found that the authors name must be given up – wch is rather absurd for this puts an end to all anonymous writing – if a rascal chooses to print Waverley for instance – the bookseller <ca> or proprietor can have no redress unless he disclose the name of the Author [ie. Sir Walter Scott]. I have printed Don in 8 vo to match the other Poems & again in a Smaller form – the latter not yet published – of the Octavo I have sold 3000 Copies so you see we have circulation in us – I want nothing so much as a third & fourth Canto which I entreat you to compleat for me as progressive to the remaining Twelve… therefore Moore – I pray you Moore – “it is the universal decision that in beauties Don Juan surpasses all that has preceded it” – Can you keep up to this?” (Murray to Byron 24 Jan 1820)
Two years later, however, Murray’s enthusiasm for Don Juan had evaporated. When in 1821 he finally, reluctantly released Cantos III-V — with many errors in the text — he again included only the printer’s name, refusing the “countenance” of his own name.
Byron was angry about the delay, the errors and the “disparagement”.
“Murray – you are an excellent fellow –a little variable – & somewhat of the opinion of every body you talk with – (particularly the last person you see) but a good fellow for all that – yet nevertheless – I can’t tell you that I think you have acted very gallantly by that persecuted book – which has made it’s way entirely by itself – without the light of your countenance – or any kind of encouragement – critical – or bibliopolar. – You disparaged the last three cantos to me – & kept them back {above} a year – but I have heard from England – that (notwithstanding the errors of the press) they are well thought of -“ (Byron to Murray, 3 November 1821)
Within a year Byron had moved to another publisher.