249—to Lord Holland
Cheltenham, Sept. 25, 1812.
Still "more matter for a May morning." 1
Having patched the middle and end of the Address, I send one more couplet for a part of the beginning, which, if not too turgid, you will have the goodness to add.
After that flagrant image of the Thames (I hope no unlucky wag will say I have set it on fire, though Dryden 2 , in his Annus Mirabilis, and Churchill 3 , in his Times, did it before me), I mean to insert this:
As flashing far the new Volcano shone
And swept the skies with {lightnings}/{meteors} not their own,
While thousands throng'd around the burning dome,
Etc., etc.
I think "thousands" less flat than "crowds collected"— but don't let me plunge into the bathos, or rise into Nat. Lee's Bedlam metaphors 4 .
By the by, the best view of the said fire (which I myself saw from a house-top in Covent-garden) was at Westminster Bridge, from the reflection on the Thames.
Perhaps the present couplet had better come in after "trembled for their homes," the two lines after;—as otherwise the image certainly sinks, and it will run just as well.
The lines themselves, perhaps, may be better thus—("choose," or "refuse"—but please yourself, and don't mind "Sir Fretful" 5 ):
As flash'd the volumed blaze, and {sadly}/{ghastly} shone
The skies with lightnings awful as their own. The last runs
smoothest, and, I think, best; but you know better
than best. "Lurid" is also a less indistinct epithet than "livid wave," and, if you think so, a dash of the pen will do.
I expected one line this morning; in the mean time, I shall remodel and condense, and, if I do not hear from you, shall send another copy.
I am ever, etc.
Footnote 1:
Twelfth Night, act iii. sc. 4.
Footnote 2:
Dryden's Annus Mirabilis , stanza 231:
"A key of fire ran all along the shore,
And lightened all the river with a blaze;
The wakened tides began again to roar,
And wondering fish in shining waters gaze."
Footnote 3:
Churchill's Times , lines 701, 702:
"Bidding in one grand pile this Town expire,
Her towers in dust, her Thames a Lake of fire."
Footnote 4:
Nathaniel Lee (circ. 1653-1692), the dramatist, wrote The Rival Queens (1677), in which occurs the line:
"When Greek join'd Greek then was the tug of war."
He collaborated with Dryden in Œdipus (1679) and The Duke of Guise (1682). His numerous dramas were distinguished, in his own day, for extravagance and bombast. His mind failing, he was confined from 1684 to 1688 in Bethlehem Hospital, where he is said to have composed a tragedy in 25 acts.
Footnote 5:
The Critic , act i. sc. I. "Sneer," speaking of "Sir Fretful Plagiary," says,
"He is as envious as an old maid verging on the desperation of six and thirty; and then the insidious humility with which he seduces you to give a free opinion on any of his works can be exceeded only by the petulant arrogance with which he is sure to reject your observations."
