" [1]
I wish much to see you, and will be at Tetbury by twelve on Saturday;
and from thence I go on to Lord Jersey's. It is impossible not to allude
to the degraded state of the Stage, but I have lightened _it_, and
endeavoured to obviate your _other_ objections. There is a new couplet
for Sheridan, allusive to his Monody [2]. All the alterations I have
marked thus ],--as you will see by comparison with the other copy. I
have cudgelled my brains with the greatest willingness, and only wish I
had more time to have done better.
You will find a sort of clap-trap laudatory couplet inserted for the
quiet of the Committee [3], and I have added, towards the end, the
couplet you were pleased to _like_. The whole Address is seventy-three
lines, still perhaps too long; and, if shortened, you will save time,
but, I fear, a little of what I meant for sense also.
With myriads of thanks, I am ever, etc.
My sixteenth edition of respects to Lady H.--How she must laugh at all
this!
I wish Murray, my publisher, to print off some copies as soon as your
Lordship returns to town--it will ensure correctness in the papers
afterwards.
[Footnote 1: 'Macbeth', act v. sc. 5.]
[Footnote 2: Sheridan's 'Monody on Garrick'.]
[Footnote 3: The Committee of Selection consisted, says the 'Satirist'
(November 1, 1812, p. 395),
"of one peer and two commoners, one poet and two prosers, one Lord and
two Brewers; and the only points in which they coincided were in being
all three parliament men, all three politicians, all three in
opposition to the Government of the country.
Pages:
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251