| dc.description.transcription | My dear Cottle
I have been confined to my bed for some days thro’ a fever occasioned by the stump of a tooth which baffled chirurgical efforts to eject it; & which by affecting my eye affected my stomach, & thro’ that my whole frame. I am better – but still weak in consequence of such long sleeplessness & wearying pains – weak, very weak. – I thank you, my dear Friend! For your late kindness – and in a few weeks will either repay you in money or by verses, as you like. – With regard to Lloyd’s verses, it is curious that I should be applied to – to be “PERSUADED TO RESIGN, and in ho[po] that I might “CONSENT TO GIVE UP” a number of poem[s] which were published at the earnest request of the author [, who] assured me that the circumstance was “of no trivial import to his happiness.” –But [deleted] Times change, & people change; but let us keep our souls in quietness! – I have no objection to any disposal of C. Lloyd’s poems except that of their being republished with mine. The motto, which I had prefixed “Duplex &c” from Groscollius has placed me in a ridiculous situation – but it was a foolish & presumptuous start of affectionateness, and I am not unwilling to incur punishments due to my folly. – By past experiences we build up our moral being. -- -- -- How comes it that I have never heard from dear Mr. Estlin, my fatherly & brotherly friend? This idea haunted me during my sleepless nights, till my sides were sore in turning from one to the other, as if I were hoping to turn away [p. 2] from the idea. – The Giant Wordsworth – God love him! – even when I speak in the terms of admiration due to his intellect, I fear lest tho[se] terms should keep out of sight the amiableness of his manners -- -- he has written near 1200 lines of a blank verse, superior, I hesitate not to aver, to any thing in our language which any way resembles it. Poole (whom I feel so consolidated with myself that I seem to have no occasion to speak of him out of myself) thinks of it as likely to benefit mankind much more than any thing, Wordsworth has yet written. -- -- With regard to my poems I shall prefix the Maid of Orleans, 1000 lines -- & three blank verse poems, making all three, about 200 -- / and I shall utterly leave out perhaps a larger quantity of lines: & I should think, it would answer to you in a pecuniary way to print the third Edition humbly & cheaply. My alterations in the Religious Musings will be considerable, & will lengthen the poem. –Oh! Poole desires you not to mention his house to any one unless you hear from him again; as since I have been writing a thought has struck us of letting it to an inhabitant of the village – which we should prefer, as we should be certain that his manners would be severe, inasmuch as he would be a Stow-ic.
Stowey, Wednesday Morning. God bless you & S. T. C. | |
