The leprosy of lust' I discover, too, is not mine. "Thou tremblest,' ''Tis with age then,' which I am "accused of borrowing from Otway, was taken from the "Old Bailey proceedings. Some judge observed to the 66 witness, Thou tremblest ;'-"'Tis with cold then,' was "the reply. 66 "These Specimens of Lamb's I never saw till today. I am taxed with being a plagiarist, when I am "least conscious of being one; but I am not very scrupulous, I own, when I have a good idea, how I came into possession of it. How can we tell to what extent Shakspeare is indebted to his contemporaries, "whose works are now lost? Besides which, Cibber 66 66 adapted his plays to the stage. "The invocation of the witches was, we know, a servile plagiarism from Middleton. Authors were not so squea"mish about borrowing from one another in those days. If it be a fault, I do not pretend to be immaculate. "I will lend you some volumes of Shipwrecks, from " which my storm in 'Don Juan' came. 66 66 "Round her she makes an atmosphere of light; "The Germans," said he, 66 and I believe Goëthe himself, consider that I have taken great liberties “with 'Faust.' All I know of that drama is from a sorry 66 66 French translation, from an occasional reading or two "into English of parts of it by Monk Lewis when at "Diodati, and from the Hartz mountain-scene, that Shelley "versified from the other day. Nothing I envy him so "much as to be able to read that astonishing production " in the original. As to originality, Goëthe has too much sense to pretend that he is not under obligations to ́authors, ancient and modern; who is not? You tell me the plot is almost entirely Calderon's. The fête, the scholar, the argument about the Logos, the selling himself to the fiend, and afterwards denying his power; his disguise of the plumed cavalier; the enchanted mirror, 66 are all from Cyprian. That magico prodigioso must be "worth reading, and nobody seems to know any thing "about it but you and Shelley. Then the vision is not unlike that of Marlow's, in his 'Faustus.' The bed-scene " is from 'Cymbeline;' the song or serenade, a translation of Ophelia's, in Hamlet;' and, more than all, the prologue "is from Job, which is the first drama in the world, and 66 66 66 66 perhaps the oldest poem. I had an idea of writing a "Job,' but I found it too sublime. There is no poetry to "be compared with it." I told him that Japhet's soliloquy in Heaven and Earth,' and address to the mountains of Caucasus, strongly resembled Faust's. "I shall have commentators enough by and by," said he, "to dissect my thoughts, and find owners for them.” "When I first saw the review of my 'Hours of Idleness,' "I was furious; in such a rage as I never have been "in since. "“I dined that day with Scroope Davies, and drank three "bottles of claret to drown it; but it only boiled the more. "That critique was a masterpiece of low wit, a tissue of "scurrilous abuse. I remember there was a great deal of 66 66 vulgar trash in it which was meant for humour, 'about people being thankful for what they could get,'—' not * Written in 1808. 35 looking a gift horse in the mouth,' and such stable expressions. The severity of The Quarterly' killed poor "Keats, and neglect, Kirke White; but I was made of "different stuff, of tougher materials. So far from their "bullying me, or deterring me from writing, I was bent on falsifying their raven predictions, and determined to shew "them, croak as they would, that it was not the last time they should hear from me. I set to work immediately, and in good earnest, and produced in a year The Eng 66 66 66 lish Bards and Scotch Reviewers.' For the first four days "after it was announced, I was very nervous about its fate. Generally speaking, the first fortnight decides the pub 66 lic opinion of a new book. This made a prodigious 'impression, more perhaps than any of my works, except "The Corsair.' 66 In less than a year and a half it passed through four "editions, and rather large ones. To some of them, con trary to the advice of my friends, I affixed my name. "The thing was known to be mine, and I could not have escaped any enemies in not owning it; besides, it was more manly not to deny it. There were many things in "that satire which I was afterwards sorry for, and I wished 66 to cancel it. If Galignani chose to reprint it, it was no "fault of mine. I did my utmost to suppress the publi"cation, not only in England, but in Ireland. I will tell 66 you my principal reason for doing so : I had good grounds "to believe that Jeffrey (though perhaps really responsible "for whatever appears in 'The Edinburgh,' as Gifford is for "The Quarterly,' as its editor) was not the author of that article,―was not guilty of it. He disowned it; and though " he would not give up the aggressor, he said he would "convince me, if I ever came to Scotland, who the person 66 was. I have every reason to believe it was a certain lawyer, who hated me for something I once said of Mrs. The technical language about 'minority pleas,' 'plaintiffs,' 'grounds of action,' &c. a jargon only intelligible to a lawyer, leaves no doubt in my mind on the 66 66 subject. I bear no animosity to him now, though, independently of this lampoon, which does him no credit, gave me cause enough of offence. "he 66 "The occasion was this:-In my separation-cause, that "went before the Chancellor as a matter of form, when the proceedings came on, he took upon himself to apply some expressions, or make some allusions to me, which must have been of a most unwarrantable nature, as my "friends consulted whether they should acquaint me with 66 66 |