At London, printed by R.B. for N.L. and J. Flaskett."
It is now thirty-five years since (eheu! fugaces labuntur anni!) the
writer of this induced his friend Sir Egerton Brydges to print the
_Nymphidia_ at his private press; and it would give him pleasure, should
your Notes be now instrumental to the production of a tasteful selection
from the copious materials furnished by Drayton's prolific muse.
Notwithstanding that selections are not generally approved, in this case
it would be (if judiciously done) acceptable, and, it is to be presumed,
successful.
The _Nymphidia_, full of lively fancy as it is, was probably produced in
his old age, for it was not published, I believe, till 1627, when it
formed part of a small folio volume, containing _The Battaile of
Agincourt_ and _The Miseries of Queene Margarite_. Prefixed to this
volume was the noble but tardy panegyric of his friend Ben Jonson,
entitled _The Vision_, and beginning:
"It hath been question'd, Michael, if I be
A friend at all; or, if at all, to thee."
S.W.S.
Mickleham, Nov. 10. 1849.
* * * * *
ON A PASSAGE IN GOLDSMITH.
Sir,--I observe in the _Athenaeum_ of the 17th inst. a quotation from the
_Life of Goldsmith_ by Irving, in which the biographer seems to take
credit for appropriating to Goldsmith the merit of originating the
remark or maxim vulgarly ascribed to Talleyrand, that "the true end of
speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.
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