“Dear Godwin.—I received
the newspaper with a beating heart, and laid it down with a heavy one. But
cheerily, friend! it is worth something to have learnt what will not please.
| 16 | WILLIAM GODWIN |
“If your interest in the theatre is not ruined by the fate of this, your first piece, take heart, set instantly about a new one, and if you want a glowing subject, take the death of Myrza as related in the Holstein Ambassador’s Travels into Persia, in p. 93, vol ii. of ‘Harris’s Collections.’ There is crowd, character, passion, incident and pageantry in it; and the history is so little known that you may take what liberties you like without danger.
“It is my present purpose to spend the two or three weeks after the Christmas holidays in London. Then we can discuss all and everything. Your last play wanted one thing which I believe is almost indispensable in a play—a proper rogue, in the cutting of whose throat the audience may take an unmingled interest.
“We are all tolerably well. God love you, and
“P.S.—There is a paint, the first coating of which, put on paper, becomes a dingy black, but the second time to a bright gold colour. So I say—Put on a second coating, friend!”
