The Story of Rimini/Dedication

by James Henry Leigh Hunt

ΤΟ
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

LORD BYRON.

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My Dear Byron,
You see what you have brought yourself to by liking my verses. It is taking you unawares, I allow; but you yourself have set example now-a-days of poet's dedicating to poet; and it is under that nobler title, as well as the still nobler one of friend, that I now address you.

I shall be thought indeed by some to write a very singular dedication, when I say that I should not have written it you at all, had I not thought the poem capable of standing on its own ground. I am far from insensible of your approbation of it, as you well know, and as your readers will easily imagine; but have an ambition, at the same time, to have credit given me for a proper spirit; and in fact, as I should be dissatisfied with my poetry without the one, I should never have thought my friendship worth your acceptance without the other.

Having thus,—with sufficient care, I am afraid,—vindicated my fellow-dignity, and put on my laurel in meeting you publicly, I take it off again with a still greater regard for those unceremonious and unpretending humanities of private intercourse, of which you know so handsomely how to set the example; and professing to be nothing more, in that sphere, than a hearty admirer of what is generous, and enjoyer of what is frank and social, am, with great truth,

My dear Byron,

affectionately yours,

LEIGH HUNT.

Hampstead,
January 29, 1816.