so in your own way. _I_ laugh at such charges, convinced that no
writer ever borrowed less, or made his materials more his own. Much
is coincidence: for instance, Lady Morgan (in a really _excellent_
book, I assure you, on Italy) calls Venice an _ocean Rome_: I have
the very same expression in Foscari, and yet _you_ know that the
play was written months ago, and sent to England: the 'Italy' I
received only on the 16th instant.

"Your friend, like the public, is not aware, that my dramatic
simplicity is _studiously_ Greek, and must continue so: _no_ reform
ever succeeded at first[47]. I admire the old English dramatists;
but this is quite another field, and has nothing to do with theirs.
I want to make a _regular_ English drama, no matter whether for the
stage or not, which is not my object,--but a _mental theatre_.

"Yours.

"P.S. Can't accept your courteous offer.

"For Orford and for Waldegrave
You give much more than me you gave;
Which is not fairly to behave,
My Murray.

"Because if a live dog, 'tis said,
Be worth a lion fairly sped,
A _live lord_ must be worth _two_ dead,
My Murray.

"And if as the opinion goes,
Verse hath a better sale than prose--
Certes, I should have more than those,
My Murray.

"But now this sheet is nearly cramm'd,
So, if _you will_, _I_ sha'n't be shamm'd,
And if you _won't_, _you_ may be damn'd,
My Murray.

"These matters must be arranged with Mr. Douglas Kinnaird. He is my
trustee, and a man of honour. To him you can state all your
mercantile reasons, which you might not like to state to me
personally, such as 'heavy season'--'flat public'--'don't go
off'--'Lordship writes too much'--won't take advice'--'declining
popularity'--deduction for the trade'--'make very
little'--'generally lose by him'--'pirated edition'--'foreign
edition'--'severe criticisms,' &c. with other hints and howls for
an oration, which I leave Douglas, who is an orator, to answer.

"You can also state them more freely to a third person, as between
you and me they could only produce some smart postscripts, which
would not adorn our mutual archives.

"I am so