to

h. martin, Esq.

of

jesus college,

cambridge.

—————

    Dear Sir,

Accept, as a small testimony of my grateful attachment, the following Dramatic Poem, in which I have endeavoured to detail, in an interesting form, the fall of a man, whose great bad actions have cast a disastrous lustre on his name. In the execution of the work, as intricacy of plot could not have been attempted without a gross violation of recent facts, it has been my sole aim to imitate the empassioned and highly figurative language of the French Orators, and to develope the characters of the chief actors on a vast stage of horrors.

            Yours fraternally,

                        s. t. coleridge

   Jesus College,

September 22, 1794.