fter so many years reigning
in Thebes as to have a Family about him, should apparently never have
heard of Laius' murder till the Play begins. One acceptable thing I have
done, I think, omitting very much rhetorical fuss about the poor man's
Fatality, which I leave for the Action itself to discover; as also a good
deal of that rhetorical Scolding, which, I think, becomes tiresome even
in its Greek: as the Scene between OEdipus and Creon after Tiresias: and
equally unreasonable. The Choruses which I believe are thought fine by
Scholars, I have left to old Potter to supply, as I was hopeless of
making anything of them; pasting, you see, his 'Finale' over that which I
had tried.

I believe that I must leave Part II. for the present, being rather
wearied with the present stupendous Effort, at AEtat. 71. If I live
another year, and am still free from the ills incident to my Time, I will
make an end of it, and of all my Doings in that way.

_To Charles Keene_. {280a}

_Friday_.

MY DEAR KEENE,

. . . Beckford's Hunting is an old friend of mine: excellently written;
such a relief (like Wesley and the religious men) to the Essayist style
of the time. Do not fail to read the capital Squire's Letter in
recommendation of a Stable-man, dated from Great Addington, Northants,
1734: of which some little is omitted after Edition I.; which edition has
also a Letter from Beckford's Huntsman about a wicked 'Daufter,' wholly
omitted. This first Edition is a pretty small 4to 1781, with a
Frontispiece by Cipriani! . . .

If you come down this Spring, but not before May, I will show you some of
these things in a Book {280b} I have, which I might call 'Half Hours with
the Worst Authors,' and very fine things by them. It would be the very
best Book of the sort ever published, if published; but no one would
think so but myself, and perhaps you, and half a dozen more. If my Eyes
hold out I will copy a delightful bit by way of return for your Ballad.

_To C. E. Norton_.

_May_ 1, 1880.

MY DEAR NORTON,

I must thank you for the Crabbe Review {281} you sent me, though, had it
been your own writing, I should probably not tell you how very good I
think it. I am somewhat disappointed that Mr. Woodberry dismisses
Crabbe's 'Trials at Humour' as summarily as Mr. Leslie Stephen does; it
was mainly for the Humour's sake that I made my little work: Humour so
evident to me in so many of the Tales (and Conversations), and which I
meant t