"Cheltenham, Oct. 18. 1812.
"Will you have the goodness to get this Parody of a peculiar
kind[58] (for all the first lines are _Busby_'s entire) inserted
in several of the papers (_correctly_--and copied _correctly_; _my
hand_ is difficult)--particularly the Morning Chronicle? Tell Mr.
Perry I forgive him all he has said, and may say against _my
address_, but he will allow me to deal with the Doctor--(_audi
alteram partem_)--and not _betray_ me. I cannot think what has
befallen Mr. Perry, for of yore we were very good friends;--but no
matter, only get this inserted.
"I have a poem on Waltzing for _you_, of which I make _you_ a
present; but it must be anonymous. It is in the old style of
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.
"P.S.--With the next edition of Childe Harold you may print the
first fifty or a hundred opening lines of the 'Curse of Minerva'
down to the couplet beginning
"Mortal ('twas thus she spake), &c.
Of course, the moment the _Satire_ begins, there you will stop, and
the opening is the best part."
[Footnote 58: Among the Addresses sent in to the Drury Lane Committee
was one by Dr. Busby, entitled a Monologue, of which the Parody was
enclosed in this letter. A short specimen of this trifle will be
sufficient. The four first lines of the Doctor's Address are as
follows:--
"When energising objects men pursue,
What are the prodigies they cannot do?
A magic Edifice you here survey,
Shot from the ruins of the other day!"