Cure' by a young Physician from EDINBORO', who
modestly suggests quite another kind of plot. These are monuments of my
disappointments which I like to preserve ...You will carefully keep all
(except the Scotch Doctor's, _which burn_) _in statu quo_ till I come to
claim mine own."

On the reverse of the half-sheet is written: "For Mister Manning |
Teacher of the Mathematics | and the Black Arts, | There is another
letter in the inside cover of the book opposite the blank leaf that
_was_."

[This is the other letter, written inside the board cover of the copy of
the play, in Charles Lamb's hand:--

"Mind this goes for a letter. (Acknowledge it directly, if only in ten
words.)

"DEAR MANNING:

"(I shall want to hear this comes safe.)

"I have scratched out a good deal, as you will see. Generally, what I
have rejected was either _false_ in _feeling_, or a violation of
character, mostly of the first sort. I will here just instance in the
concluding few lines of the dying Lover's story, which completely
contradicted his character of _violent_ and _unreproachful_. I hesitated
a good while what copy to send you, and at last resolved to send the
_worst_, because you are familiar with it and can make it out; a
stranger would find so much difficulty in doing it, that it would give
him more pain than pleasure. This is compounded precisely of the two
persons' hands you requested it should be.

"Yours sincerely,

"C. LAMB."

The two persons were undoubtedly Charles Lamb and his sister.]

Before proceeding to the MS. itself, it will be desirable to refer to
Lamb's letter to Manning of February 15, 1802, in which he defends
himself against Manning's animadversions on the changes found in the
printed _John Woodvil_. This letter is addressed to "Mr. Thomas Manning,
Maison Magnan, No. 342 Boulevard Italien, Paris." ....The italics are in
the original:--"_Apropos_, I think you wrong about _my_ play. All the
omissions are _right_. And the supplementary scene, in which Sandford
_narrates_ the manner in which his master is affected, is the best in
the book. It stands where a hodge-podge of German puerilities used to
stand. I insist upon it that you like that scene." ...

There is one thing more to add. Its excuse is the best in the world--it
is quite new. In that precious letter of February 15, 1801, is a passage
[printed in Canon Ainger's _edition de luxe_] which shows that Lamb
(probably) tried George Colman the younger with