John Wilson Croker to John Murray, 15 September 1819: 'Thank you for the perusal of the letter; it is not very good, but it will vex these old women of British critics, which is perhaps all the author intended. I told you from the first moment that I read "Don Juan," that your fears had exaggerated its danger. I say nothing about what might have been suppressed; but if you had published "Don Juan" without hesitation or asterisks, nobody would ever have thought worse of it than as a larger Beppo, gay and lively and a little loose. Some persons would have seen a strain of satire running beneath the gay surface, and might have been vexed or pleased according to their temper; but there would have been no outcry against the publisher or author.'