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...GOOD COMPANY by KARLE WILSON BAKER THE KEEP-SAKE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE THE MASK OF ANARCHY; WRITTEN ON OCCASION OF MASSACRE AT MANCHESTER by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY A GOTHAMITE IN CAMELOT by BERTON BRALEY OF HYM THAT TOGYDER WYLL SERVE TWO MAYSTERS by SEBASTIAN BRANT FOR A CERTAIN BELOVED GENTLEMAN by MARGARET E. BRUNER FOURTH BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 21 by THOMAS CAMPION SOFT FEATHERS SPURNED by RUTH CARROLL A COWBOY'S PRAYER (WRITTEN FOR MOTHER) by CHARLES BADGER CLARK JR. |