compliment to Byron's "poetical genius," he insisted that the Committee
of Drury Lane had broken faith by not choosing one of the addresses sent
in by competitors. (See references to Dr. Busby in 'Poems', vol. i. pp.
481 and 485, 'note' 1.) Dr. Thomas Busby (1755-1838) composed the music
for Holcroft's 'Tale of Mystery', the first musical melodrama produced
on the English stage (Covent Garden, November 13, 1802). He was for some
time assistant editor of the 'Morning Post', and Parliamentary reporter
for the 'London Courant'; wrote on musical subjects, taught languages
and music, and translated Lucretius into rhymed verse (1813).]


[Footnote 2: 'The Curse of Minerva,' written at Athens, in 1811, was not
published as a whole till 1828. But the first fifty-four lines appeared
in Canto III. of 'The Corsair' (1814). (See 'The Curse of Minerva:'
Introductory note, 'Poems,' 1898, vol. i. p. 453.)]





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265.--To Robert Rushton.


Cheltenham, Oct. 18th, 1812.