"To the Honourable Douglas Kinnaird.
"My dear Douglas,—I dedicate to you the following tragedy, rather on account of your good opinion of it, than from any notion of my own that it may be worthy of your acceptance. But if its merits were ten times greater than they possibly can be, this offering would still be a very inadequate acknowledgment of the active and steady friendship with which, for a series of years, you have honoured your obliged and affectionate friend,
"BYRON.
"Ravenna, Sept. 1st, 1821."
[[A]][A Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors of Great Britain and Ireland, etc., London, 1816, 8vo.]
[[B]]
[Macbeth. Where got'st thou that goose look?
Servant. There is ten thousand—
Macbeth. Geese, villain?
Servant. Soldiers, sir."
Macbeth, act v. sc. 3, lines 12, 13.]
[[C]][Sir George Beaumont. See Professor W. Knight, Life of Wordsworth, ii. (Works, vol. x.) 56.]
[[D]][Lord Lonsdale (ibid., p. 209).]