Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Sales catalogue 464: Maggs Bros. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![EE eS aI a ee tee OO ON MORALITY OF ‘‘DON JUAN.” 925 BYRON (GEORGE GORDON, LORD). faVOsl IMPORTANT AULOGRAPH LETIER SIGNED *N: BYRON,” TO HIS FRIEND THE. HON. DOUGLAS KINNAIRD. + pp:, Ato. Pisa, August, 1822. £82 In the defence of the morality of his writings and of ‘‘ Don Juan ”’ in particular, and making comparisons with the writings of other authors, etc. ‘* Respond !—Why don’t you respond? Respond or I put you in quod. Every one seems to be hermetically sealed. sok ‘“All the graduates and candidates for fame—since the Ark settled—have been exposed to the attacks of the genus mirabile ‘ critic.’ That’s a consolation at any rate. Is the Don [Juan] more obscene than ‘Tom Jones?’ There is more obscenity in the pious Richardson’s pious ‘ Pamela’ than in all I have ever written. I have taken our nature as it is—and if the scrutiny of the world’s foibles be disagreeable, either in its operation or in its effects, it need blame no one but itself. Tardsworth [Wordsworth] the great metaquizzical poet, called Voltaire, ‘a dull scoffer,’ I have no objection to be in such good company. I am persuaded that Nero—Caligula—and such worthies as Cesar Borgia will—as well as our own Richard the Third and Co.—come out much better characters at the Day of Judgment—and that Bishops and all other saints—pious and grave—will be the chief losers at that solemnity. ‘12 o’clock—Midnight—The hour of spirits—hem! A tumbler or two of gin and hot or cold—as it may be—is by no means a despicable sublunary representative of the celestials.’? Ete.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31641076_0057.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
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