PER post, sir, we send your MS. -- look'd it through -- Very sorry -- but can't undertake -- 'twouldn't do. Clever work, sir! -- would @3get up@1 prodigiously well -- Its only defect is -- it never would sell! And though @3Statesmen@1 may glory in being @3unbought@1, In an @3Author@1, we think, sir, that's @3rather@1 a fault. Hard times, sir, -- most books are too dear to be read -- Though the @3gold@1 of Good Sense and Wit's @3small change@1 are fled, Yet the @3paper@1 we publishers pass, in their stead, Rises higher each day, and ('tis frightful to think it) Not even such names as F -- tzg -- r -- d's can sink it! However, sir -- if you're for trying again, And at somewhat that's vendible -- we are your men. Since the Chevalier C -- rr took to marrying lately, The trade is in want of a @3Traveller@1 greatly -- No job, sir, more easy -- your @3Country@1 once plann'd, A month aboard ship and a fortnight on land Puts your quarto of Travels, sir, clean out of hand. An East-India pamphlet's a thing that would tell -- And a lick at the Papists is @3sure@1 to sell well. Or -- supposing you've nothing @3original@1 in you -- Write Parodies, sir, and such fame it will win you, You'll get to the Blue-stocking Routs of Alb -- n -- a! (Mind -- @3not@1 to her @3dinners@1 -- a @3second-hand@1 Muse Mustn't think of aspiring to @3mess@1 with the @3Blues@1.) Or -- in case nothing else in this world you can do -- The deuce is in 't, sir, if you cannot @3review!@1 Should you feel any touch of @3poetical@1 glow, We've a scheme to suggest -- Mr. Sc -- tt, you must know, (Who, we're sorry to say it, now works for @3the Row@1), Having quitted the borders, to seek new renown, Is coming, by long quarto stages, to town; And beginning with Rokeby (the job's sure to pay) Means to @3do@1 all the gentlemen's seats on the way. Now, the scheme is (though none of our hackneys can beat him) To start a fresh poet through Highgate to @3meet@1 him; Who, by means of quick proofs -- no revises -- long coaches -- May do a few villas, before Sc -- tt approaches -- Indeed, if our Pegasus be not cursed shabby, He'll reach, without foundering, at least Woburn Abbey. Such, sir, is our plan -- if you're up to the freak, 'Tis a match! and we'll put you @3in training@1 next week -- At present, no more -- in reply to this letter, a Line will oblige very much Yours, et cetera. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...COUSIN NANCY by THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT DURING WIND AND RAIN by THOMAS HARDY THE MOCKING BIRD by SIDNEY LANIER THE REFORMER by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER LET NO CHARITABLE HOPE by ELINOR WYLIE ON RECEIPT OF A RARE PIPE by W. H. B. |