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Huntington Library, HM 4827 . Previously published: J. W. Robberds (ed.), A Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late William Taylor of Norwich, 2 vols (London, 1843), I, pp. 334–338 [in part].
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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Your Epigrammatic Index77. I know
not. Selene is too long. I wonder at your praise
of the Song of Pleasure. the latter Stanzas of the Sons of
Genius from Thus the pale moon – to scorn the lunar ray –
appear to me worth a myriad of such poems. it has luxury of
language – but nought else. I have burnt piles of such
poetry. 102. merely an argument of the poem – no epigram.
115. What is Quernos laurel? ignoramus.xxxxxx would serve
poetry as the philosopher would the world who wanted it
squeezed into a nut shell. I do not quite like the
compression in either case. 227 I cannot make any thing of.
249, Rare puns. 253. too coarse a translation of meaning!
281 flat! flat! – now to all that I have not specified you
may apply as much praise as heart could wish. to sit down
resolutely to write epigrams upon given subjects is no tas easy task – & you
have well accomplished it.
Send me the Wortigerne.
Davy is
proceeding in his chemical career with the same giant
strides as at his outset. his book upon the nitrous
oxyd
Your praise of Tassox see the first
outline of Madoc, which if I live some half dozen years,
shall be my monument. All else are the mere efforts of
apprenticeship.
My departure will probably be delayed till
the Autumn – & Lisbon the place of retreat. go I must –
or the worst consequences may result. still I am ailing
about the heart! & in spite of reasoning &
probabilities cannot but suspect whenever its irregularities
call my attention, that something is out of order about the
main spring! connected with this at times, & at times
recurring without it, are seizures in the head – like the
terror that induces fainting – a rush thro all my limbs as
if the stroke of annihilation were passing thro. I never
feel this when I am interested in employment – but the mere
recollection & fear will bring it on – this then seems
decidedly nervous – but it must not be trifled with, for it
threatens worse than the heart-pain. Should I go to Lisbon
my intention is to write the History of Portugalto
elsewhere it must be to Italy, & Trieste the road there
– for a sea-voyage is to me a tremendous thing, & my
intestines will all rise up in mutiny against it. Trieste is
not a place to fix at – I am recommended by Duppa to Vicenza
or Padua – if that part of Italy be safe – to Vicenza for
its exquisite beauties of situation – to Padua for its
society. Tuscany is perhaps safer. somewhere I must go, for
removal from this climate is inevitable. & unless I go
to the South of Europe – I may amuse myself with the idea of
setting out on the tour of the Universe – a journey which I
should rather delay.
When I send you the Anthology
Your hexameters have a quaint appearance, for
as the lon[MS torn] of the line did not suit the latitude of
the page – they are printed sideways.