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Houghton Library, bMS Eng 265.1 (4). Not previously published.
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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Kehamiana. 1st
_____
Your first emendation standsRose – is a final objection, & theres an end of it.
Concerning polygamy give me credit till we meet & I show you my written chapter upon the
system of Mohammed.
For the opening – I had thought about the commutation act myself. – & you have given me the detail – read therefore accord to the Bedford Edition.
My stop is thus – Myriads of torches fling
Their flaring radiance on the gloom,
Blotting the stars from heaven; –
You may chuse between – rise upward – & ascending – but the image is wanting – at least, to my eye it is a tremendous picture – a sort of hell fire light – a yellow blaze below – & above smoke & blackness.
for chāuntiňg tȟy sōng ǒf prāise – chuse you which be the most falling to your ear – ănd chāunt tȟe sōng ǒf prāise – to me the first has a more jelly-bag sort of a sound.
Multitude I prefer to train – because it is a bigger word. your association with upright – will be nobody elses association – I pray you let Arvalan sit still. your after annotation I will think about
Bright & bridal I likes.
For in that mighty multitude
Was none who loves the dead. – my stupid printer made the error, & the stupid reader did not discover it.
The voice of the coming storm – is perhaps not loud enough. – reserved for the opinion of the Twelve Judges.
Come on – is not bald Sir – & if it be bald Sir tho you put a wig upon the it – it
will still be bald at bottom below it. mark you Sir – what does a big word with a little meaning look
like? – Why like me in a Dutchmans breeches.
A noun substantive can stand by itself – the Devil must be in it then if two substantives cannot stand together – arm in arm Grosvenor –
Kehama lights the pile – probatum est.
The xxxxx remarks which I have not noticed – conclude I do not like – & as they are
not a matter of mere liking – the voice potential may as well be subintellects. But you will perceive the use of your remarks by the
alterations they have made – so go on.
The more dramatic – the more lyric narrative poetry is, the better. this is a main article of my poetical creed. But
Grosvenor I have acquired a relish for the research – & the reasoning, & the authoritative tone of historytime labour is sold to this Amadissorely greatly upon the rest. Kehama will fare the better for you. I shall write sometimes for the sake
of the sooner filling a sheet. – Sometimes I stop for pure vexation that there exist in England sources of information which are yet
beyond my reach – the views of Hodgesxxx
imagination would be digested from them. there are botanical works for my foregrounds – & these books I know not where to see – tho
they ought to be always at my elbow –
____
Dear Grosvenor so much was written immediately on receiving yours – the rest of the first book is also in great
forwardness for you – but for many days my eyes have suffered such ‘dim suffusion’
Can you not come on the other half way to No 12 St James’s Place Kingsdown? –