f his and W * *'s disciples, as he calls it. If
he means that as any proof of their merits, I will find him as much
'fervour' in behalf of Richard Brothers and Joanna Southcote as
ever gathered over his pages or round his fire-side.

"My answer to your proposition about the fourth Canto you will have
received, and I await yours;--perhaps we may not agree. I have
since written a poem (of 84 octave stanzas), humorous, in or after
the excellent manner of Mr. Whistlecraft (whom I take to be Frere),
on a Venetian anecdote which amused me:--but till I have your
answer, I can say nothing more about it.

"Mr. Hobhouse does not return to England in November, as he
intended, but will winter here and as he is to convey the poem, or
poems,--for there may perhaps be more than the two mentioned,
(which, by the way, I shall not perhaps include in the same
publication or agreement,) I shall not be able to publish so soon
as expected; but I suppose there is no harm in the delay.

"I have _signed_ and sent your former _copyrights_ by Mr. Kinnaird,
but _not_ the _receipt_, because the money is not yet paid. Mr.
Kinnaird has a power of attorney to sign for me, and will, when
necessary.

"Many thanks for the Edinburgh Review, which is very kind about
Manfred, and defends its originality, which I did not know that any
body had attacked. I _never read_, and do not know that I ever saw,
the 'Faustus of Marlow,' and had, and have, no dramatic works by me
in English, except the recent things you sent me; but I heard Mr.
Lewis translate verbally some scenes of _Goethe's Faust_ (which
were, some good, and some bad) last summer;--which is all I know of
the history of that magical personage; and as to the germs of
Manfred, they may be found in the Journal which I sent to Mrs.
Leigh (part of which you saw) when I went over first the Dent de
Jaman, and then the Wengen or Wengeberg Alp and Sheideck, and made
the giro of the Jungfrau, Shreckhorn, &c. &c. shortly before I left
Switzerland. I have the whole scene of Manfred before me as if it
was but yesterday, and could point it out, spot by spot, torrent
and all.

"Of the Prometheus of AEschylus I was passionately fond as a boy (it
was one of the Greek plays we read thrice a year at
Harrow);--indeed that and the 'Med