The above letter, as will be seen from the date, was written little more
than a year before Bloomfield's death, he living at the time in great
retirement, broken in mind and body. The author of the 'Farmer's Boy,'
like Clare, felt a noble contempt for punctuation and spelling, and in
the original note the word 'vollumn,' twice repeated, stands for
volume--representing, no doubt, the way in which he used to pronounce the
word.
How entirely free John Clare was from the common failing of literary
jealousy, is shown by his admiration of Bloomfield. He not only freely
acknowledged the high standard of Bloomfield's works; but, what was more,
held him up to all his friends as a poet far greater than himself. Untrue
as was this comparison, it strikingly exhibited the innate nobility of
soul of the poor 'Northamptonshire Peasant.' Yet even this humility, the
true sign of genius, was ill-construed by some of Clare's lukewarm
patrons, who reproached him for being a flatterer when he only wanted to
be just.