Chapter 55

"Cheltenham, Oct. 18. 1812.

"Will you have the goodness to get this Parody of a peculiar kind[58] (for all the first lines are _Busby_'s entire) inserted in several of the papers (_correctly_--and copied _correctly_; _my hand_ is difficult)--particularly the Morning Chronicle? Tell Mr. Perry I forgive him all he has said, and may say against _my address_, but he will allow me to deal with the Doctor--(_audi alteram partem_)--and not _betray_ me. I cannot think what has befallen Mr. Perry, for of yore we were very good friends;--but no matter, only get this inserted.

"I have a poem on Waltzing for _you_, of which I make _you_ a present; but it must be anonymous. It is in the old style of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.

"P.S.--With the next edition of Childe Harold you may print the first fifty or a hundred opening lines of the 'Curse of Minerva' down to the couplet beginning

"Mortal ('twas thus she spake), &c.

Of course, the moment the _Satire_ begins, there you will stop, and the opening is the best part."

[Footnote 58: Among the Addresses sent in to the Drury Lane Committee was one by Dr. Busby, entitled a Monologue, of which the Parody was enclosed in this letter. A short specimen of this trifle will be sufficient. The four first lines of the Doctor's Address are as follows:--

"When energising objects men pursue, What are the prodigies they cannot do? A magic Edifice you here survey, Shot from the ruins of the other day!"

Which verses are thus ridiculed, unnecessarily, in the Parody:--

"'When energising objects men pursue,' The Lord knows what is writ by Lord knows who. 'A modest Monologue you here survey,' Hiss'd from the theatre the 'other day.'" ]

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