["1814. January 16.]
"I do believe that the devil never created or perverted such a
fiend as the fool of a printer.[10] I am obliged to enclose you,
_luckily_ for me, this _second_ proof, _corrected_, because there
is an ingenuity in his blunders peculiar to himself. Let the press
be guided by the present sheet. Yours, &c.
"_Burn the other_.
"Correct _this also_ by the other in some things which I may have
forgotten. There is one mistake he made, which, if it had stood, I
would most certainly have broken his neck."
[Footnote 10: The amusing rages into which he was thrown by the printer
were vented not only in these notes, but frequently on the proof-sheets
themselves. Thus, a passage in the dedication having been printed "the
first of her bands in estimation," he writes in the margin, "bards, not
bands--was there ever such a stupid misprint?" and, in correcting a line
that had been curtailed of its due number of syllables, he says, "Do
_not_ omit words--it is quite enough to alter or mis-spell them."]
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