“My dear Sir,—I have been
sitting down for three or four days successively to the review, which I so much
wished to do well, and to your satisfaction. But I can produce nothing but
absolute flatness and nonsense. My health and spirits are so bad, and my nerves
so irritable, that I am sure, if I persist, I shall teaze myself into a fever.
You do not know how sore and weak a brain I have, or you would allow for many
things in me which you set down for whims. I solemnly assure you that I never
more wished to prove to you the value which I have for you than at this moment;
but although in so seemingly trifling a service I cannot get through with it, I
pray you to impute it to this one sole
| CRITICISM ON CHAUCER. | 103 |
“You will give me great satisfaction by sealing my pardon and oblivion in a line or two, before I come to see you, or I shall be ashamed to come.—Yours, with great truth,
