[2]
Martin Burney is richly worth your knowing. He is on the top scale of my
friendship ladder, on which an angel or two is still climbing, and some,
alas! descending. I am out of the literary world at present. Pray, is
there anything new from the admired pen of the author of "The Pleasures
of Hope"? Has Mrs. He-mans (double masculine) done anything pretty
lately? Why sleeps the lyre of Hervey and of Alaric Watts? Is the muse
of L. E. L. silent? Did you see a sonnet of mine in Blackwood's last? [3]
Curious construction! _Elaborata facilitas!_ And now I 'll tell. 'Twas
written for "The Gem;" but the--editors declined it, on the plea that it
would _shock all mothers_; so they published "The Widow" instead. I am
born out of time, I have no conjecture about what the present world
calls delicacy. I thought "Rosamund Gray" was a pretty modest thing.
Hessey assures me that the world would not bear it. I have lived to grow
into an indecent character. When my sonnet was rejected, I exclaimed,
"Damn the age; I will write for Antiquity!"
_Erratum_ in sonnet. Last line but something, for "tender" read "tend,"
The Scotch do not know our law terms, but I find some remains of honest,
plain old writing lurking there still. They were not so mealy mouthed as
to refuse my verses. Maybe, 't is their oatmeal,
Blackwood sent me L20 for the drama.
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