e and
negligence. The measure is not that of any of the other poems,
which (I believe) were allowed to be tolerably correct, according
to Byshe and the fingers--or ears--by which bards write, and
readers reckon. Great part of 'The Siege' is in (I think) what the
learned call Anapests, (though I am not sure, being heinously
forgetful of my metres and my 'Gradus',) and many of the lines
intentionally longer or shorter than its rhyming companion; and
rhyme also occurring at greater or less intervals of caprice or
convenience.

"I mean not to say that this is right or good, but merely that I
could have been smoother, had it appeared to me of advantage; and
that I was not otherwise without being aware of the deviation,
though I now feel sorry for it, as I would undoubtedly rather
please than not. My wish has been to try at something different
from my former efforts; as I endeavoured to make them differ from
each other. The versification of 'The Corsair' is not that of
'Lara;' nor 'The Giaour' that of 'The Bride;' Childe Harold is
again varied from these; and I strove to vary the last somewhat
from _all_ of the others.

"Excuse all this d----d nonsense and egotism. The fact is, that I
am rather trying to think on the subject of this note, than really
thinking on it.--I did not know you had called: you are always
admitted and welcome when you choose.

"Yours, &c. &c.

"P.S. You need not be in any apprehension or grief on my account:
were I to be beaten down by the world and its inheritors, I should
have succumbed to many things, years ago. You must not mistake my
_not_ bullying for dejection; nor imagine that because I feel, I am
to faint:--but enough for the present.

"I am sorry for Sotheby's row. What the devil is it about? I
thought it all settled; and if I can do any thing about him or Ivan
still, I am ready and willing. I do not think it proper for me just
now to be much behind the scenes, but I will see the committee and
move upon it, if Sotheby likes.

"If you see Mr. Sotheby, will you tell him that I wrote to Mr.
Coleridge, on getting Mr. Sotheby's note, and have, I hope, done
what Mr. S. wished on that subject?"

* * * * *

It was about the middle of April that his two celebrated copies of
vers