. . . Now about my Studies, which, I think, are likely to dwindle away
too. I have not turned to Persian since the Spring; but shall one day
look back to it: and renew my attack on the 'Seven Castles,' if that be
the name. I found the Jami MS. at Rushmere: and there left it for the
present: as the other Poem will be enough for me for my first onslaught.
I believe I will do a little a day, so as not to lose what little
knowledge I had. As to my Omar: I gave it to Parker in January, I think:
he saying Fraser was agreeable to take it. Since then I have heard no
more; so as, I suppose, they don't care about it: and may be quite right.
Had I thought they would be so long however I would have copied it out
and sent it to you: and I will still do so from a rough and imperfect
Copy I have (though not now at hand) in case they show no signs of
printing me. My Translation will interest you from its _Form_, and also
in many respects in its _Detail_: very unliteral as it is. Many
Quatrains are mashed together: and something lost, I doubt, of Omar's
Simplicity, which is so much a Virtue in him. But there it is, such as
it is. I purposely said in the very short notice I prefixed to the Poem
that it was so short because better Information might be furnished in
another Paper, which I thought _you_ would undertake. So it rests. Nor
have I meddled with the Mantic lately: nor does what you say encourage me
to do so. For what I had sketcht out was very paraphrase indeed. I do
not indeed believe that any readable Account (unless a prose Analysis,
for the History and Curiosity of the Thing) will be possible, for _me_ to
do, at least. But I took no great pleasure in what I had done: and every
day get more and more a sort of Terror at re-opening any such MS. My
'_Go'_ (such as it was) is _gone_, and it becomes _Work_: and the Upshot
is not worth _working_ for. It was very well when it was a Pleasure. So
it is with Calderon. It is well enough to sketch such things out in warm
Blood; but to finish them in cold! I wish I could finish the 'Mighty
Magician' in my new way: which I know you would like, in spite of your
caveat for the Gracioso. I have not wholly dropt the two Students, but
kept them quite under: and brought out the religious character of the
Piece into stronger Relief. But as I have thrown much, if not into
Lyric, into Rhyme, which strikes a more Lyric Chord, I have found it much
harder to satisfy myself than with the good old Blank Verse, which I used
to manage easily enough. The 'Vida es Sueno' again, though blank Verse,
has been difficult to arrange; here also Clarin is not quenched, but
subdued: as is all Rosaura's Story, so as to assist, and not compete
with, the main Interest. I really wish I could finish these some lucky
day: but, as I said, it is so much easier to leave them alone; and when I
had done my best, I don't know if they are worth the pains, or whether
any one (except you) would care for them even if they were worth caring
for. So much for my grand Performances: except that I amuse myself with
jotting down materials (out of Vocabularies, etc.) for a Vocabulary of
_rural_ English, or _rustic_ English: that is, only the best country
words selected from the very many Glossaries, etc., relating chiefly to
country matters, but also to things in general: words that carry their
own story with them, without needing Derivation or Authority, though both
are often to be found. I always say I have heard the Language of Queen
Elizabeth's, or King Harry's Court, in the Suffolk Villages: better a
great deal than that spoken in London Societies, whether Fashionable or
Literary: and the homely [strength] of which has made Shakespeare,
Dryden, South, and Swift, what they could not have been without it. But
my Vocabulary if ever done will be a very little Affair, if ever done:
for here again it is pleasant enough to jot down a word now and then, but
not to equip all for the Press.
FARLINGAY, WOODBRIDGE. _Nov_. 2/58.