DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25988#0101
1803.
Assye.
77
should be sorry to lose your verses. What I said about your
Spenser verses set rne considering all imitations of Spenser,
who is reckoned the easiest imitated of all our poets. I think,
in the best imitation, all you can say is that you know what
they are meant for, by the verse and the sprinkling of old
words, as one knows Charles Fox in caricatures bv his black
mazzard, but that there is no farther resemblance to Spenser.
One of Spenser’s characteristics no other poet could ever
imitate: I mean the harmony and majesty of some of his
verses. He is in this respect very unequal; but I will under-
take to collect a vast number of heroic verses out of the
“ Fairy Queen ” which you will not match out of all the rest of
our poets, including Dryden and Pope. I have said enough to
tire you, and to bring me under the satire on those who “ like
no language but the ‘ Fairy Queen.’ ”... 9 was quite right
to refuse H.; besides that, it is wrong ever to recommend
people for offices which imply domestication and humtaumeed
The General would certainly have refused. He is, you know,
a remarkably conscientious man, and has no idea of letting
private favour interfere at all with public duty; and as I at
present exercise the laborious duties of M. I., 2 I can assure
you that it is not the busiest of four divisions of duty which,
all put together, make up an agreeable sinecure. You may
guess how necessary an M. I. is. My duties are : intelligence,
which takes me an hour a day at most; Persian I. two hours a
week ; M. I. four hours a week; and Interpreter of all tongues,
which takes me an hour a week, and is my most troublesome
appointment. I do not mean that I am impudent; but know-
ing that I must interpret, whether well or ill, and not having
much anxiety about my reputation as a Hindustanee, I inter-
pret quite coolly, and have the use of all my senses and all my
language. But my stock of Hindi is really too small. I
cannot readily understand all that is said to me, much less say
all that I ought to express. I mean in talking to Mahrattas,
which is my common employment. I even find a difficulty
9 Erased in the original. 1 Having meals together.
2 Mahratta Interpreter.
Assye.
77
should be sorry to lose your verses. What I said about your
Spenser verses set rne considering all imitations of Spenser,
who is reckoned the easiest imitated of all our poets. I think,
in the best imitation, all you can say is that you know what
they are meant for, by the verse and the sprinkling of old
words, as one knows Charles Fox in caricatures bv his black
mazzard, but that there is no farther resemblance to Spenser.
One of Spenser’s characteristics no other poet could ever
imitate: I mean the harmony and majesty of some of his
verses. He is in this respect very unequal; but I will under-
take to collect a vast number of heroic verses out of the
“ Fairy Queen ” which you will not match out of all the rest of
our poets, including Dryden and Pope. I have said enough to
tire you, and to bring me under the satire on those who “ like
no language but the ‘ Fairy Queen.’ ”... 9 was quite right
to refuse H.; besides that, it is wrong ever to recommend
people for offices which imply domestication and humtaumeed
The General would certainly have refused. He is, you know,
a remarkably conscientious man, and has no idea of letting
private favour interfere at all with public duty; and as I at
present exercise the laborious duties of M. I., 2 I can assure
you that it is not the busiest of four divisions of duty which,
all put together, make up an agreeable sinecure. You may
guess how necessary an M. I. is. My duties are : intelligence,
which takes me an hour a day at most; Persian I. two hours a
week ; M. I. four hours a week; and Interpreter of all tongues,
which takes me an hour a week, and is my most troublesome
appointment. I do not mean that I am impudent; but know-
ing that I must interpret, whether well or ill, and not having
much anxiety about my reputation as a Hindustanee, I inter-
pret quite coolly, and have the use of all my senses and all my
language. But my stock of Hindi is really too small. I
cannot readily understand all that is said to me, much less say
all that I ought to express. I mean in talking to Mahrattas,
which is my common employment. I even find a difficulty
9 Erased in the original. 1 Having meals together.
2 Mahratta Interpreter.