t. Sometimes I have been tempted to be
angry with you: but then I thought that I was sure you would come a
hundred miles to serve me, though you were too lazy to sit down to a
letter. I suppose that people who are engaged in serious ways of life,
and are of well filled minds, don't think much about the interchange of
letters with any anxiety: but I am an idle fellow, of a very ladylike
turn of sentiment: and my friendships are more like loves, I think. Your
letter found me reading the Merry Wives of Windsor too: I had been
laughing aloud to myself: think of what another coat of happiness came
over my former good mood. You are a dear good fellow, and I love you
with all my heart and soul. The truth is I was anxious about this
letter, as I really didn't know whether you were married or not--or ill--I
fancied you might be anything, or anywhere. . . .

As to reading I have not done much. I am going through the Spectator:
which people nowadays think a poor book: but I honour it much. What a
noble kind of Journal it was! There is certaintly a good deal of what
may be called '_pill_,' but there is a great deal of wisdom, I believe,
only it is couched so simply that people can't believe it to be real
absolute wisdom. The little book you speak of I will order and buy. I
heard from Thackeray, who is just upon the point of going to France;
indeed he may be there by this time. I shall miss him much. . . .

Farewell my dearest fellow: you have made me very happy to hear from you:
and to know that all is so well with you. Believe me to be your ever
affectionate friend,

E. FITZGERALD.

_To W. B. Donne_.

[LONDON, 17 GLOUCESTER STREET, QUEEN SQUARE].
1834.

DEAR DONNE,

. . . I have been buying two Shakespeares, a second and third Folio--the
second Folio pleases me much: and I can read him with a greater zest now.
One had need of a big book to remember him by: for he is lost to the
theatre: I saw Mr. Vandenhoff play Macbeth in a sad way a few nights ago:
and such a set of dirty ragamuffins as the rest were could not disgrace
any country barn. Manfred I have missed by some chance: and I believe
'it was all for the best' as pious people say. The Theatre is bare
beyond anything I ever saw: and one begins to hope that it has touched
the bottom of its badness, and will rise again. I was looking the other
day at Sir W. Davenant's alteration of Macbeth: who dies, saying,
'Farewell, vain world: and that which is vaines