My dear Friend,— . . . . I saw Mr. Hazlitt here last night, and he apologizes to
me, as I doubt not he will to you, for having delayed till he cannot send it [the
opera-ticket] at all. You shall have it without fail if you send for it to the
office on Thursday, though with still greater pleasure if you come and fetch it
yourself in the meantime. You shall read “Hero and Leander” with me, and riot also in a
translation or two from Theocritus, which are,
or ought to be, all that is fine, floral, and fruity, and any other f that you can find to furnish out a finished festivity. But
you have not left off your lectures, I trust, on punctuality. Pray do not, for I am
very willing to take, and even to profit by them; and ecce signum! I answer your letter by return of post. You
began this reformation in me; my friend Shelley followed it up nobly; and you must know that friendship can
do just as much with me as enmity can do little. What has become of Junkets I know not. I suppose Queen Mab has eaten him. . . .
| LEIGH HUNT AND HIS LETTERS. | 195 |
