"February 10. 1814.
"I arrived in town late yesterday evening, having been absent three
weeks, which I passed in Notts. quietly and pleasantly. You can
have no conception of the uproar the eight lines on the little
Royalty's weeping in 1812 (now republished) have occasioned. The R
* *, who had always thought them _yours_, chose--God knows why--on
discovering them to be mine, to be _affected_ 'in sorrow rather
than anger.' The Morning Post, Sun, Herald, Courier, have all been
in hysterics ever since. M. is in a fright, and wanted to shuffle;
and the abuse against me in all directions is vehement, unceasing,
loud--some of it good, and all of it hearty. I feel a little
compunctious as to the R * *'s _regret_;--'would he had been only
angry! but I fear him not.'
"Some of these same assailments you have probably seen. My person
(which is excellent for 'the nonce') has been denounced in verses,
the more like the subject, inasmuch as they halt exceedingly. Then,
in another, I am an _atheist_, a _rebel_, and, at last, the _devil_
(_boiteux_, I presume). My demonism seems to be a female's
conjecture; if so, perhaps, I could convince her that I am but a
mere mortal,--if a queen of the Amazons may be believed, who says
[Greek: ariston chôlos oiphei]. I quote from memory, so my Greek is
probably deficient; but the passage is _meant_ to mean * *.
"Seriously, I am in, what the learned call, a dilemma, and the
vulgar, a scrape; and my friends desire me not to be in a passion;
and, like Sir Fretful, I assure them that I am 'quite calm,'--but
I am nevertheless in a fury.
"Since I wrote thus far, a friend has come in, and we have been
talking and buffooning till I have quite lost the thread of my
thoughts; and, as I won't send them unstrung to you, good morning,
and
"Believe me ever, &c.
"P.S. Murray, during my absence, _omitted_ the Tears in several of
the copies. I have made him replace them, and am very wroth with
his qualms,--'as the wine is poured out, let it be drunk to the
dregs.'"
* * * * *