To this copy sent to Manning we now come in chronological order, but the exact date of its despatch must remain uncertain.  Clearly it was subsequent, but probably not long subsequent, to Kemble’s rejection of the play, which took place soon after All Souls’ Day, for Kemble must have made up his mind within half an hour of taking up the manuscript.  I venture to assume that the argosy which bore all the treasures recounted in the following bill of lading sailed about Christmas, 1800.  It is sad to think that the bill of lading itself and the MS. of “Pride’s Cure” are the only salvage.

“I send you all of Coleridge’s letters to me which I have preserved; some of them are upon the subject of my play.  I also send you Kemble’s two letters, and the prompter’s courteous epistle, with a curious critique on ‘Pride’s Cure’ by a young Physician from EDINBORO’, who modestly suggests quite another kind of plot.  These are monuments of my disappointments which I like to preserve ...You will carefully keep all (except the Scotch Doctor’s, which burn) in statu quo till I come to claim mine own.”

On the reverse of the half-sheet is written:  “For Mister Manning |
Teacher of the Mathematics | and the Black Arts, | There is another
letter in the inside cover of the book opposite the blank leaf that
was.”

[This is the other letter, written inside the board cover of the copy of the play, in Charles Lamb’s hand:—­

“Mind this goes for a letter. (Acknowledge it directly, if only in ten words.)

“DEAR MANNING: 

“(I shall want to hear this comes safe.)

“I have scratched out a good deal, as you will see.  Generally, what I have rejected was either false in feeling, or a violation of character, mostly of the first sort.  I will here just instance in the concluding few lines of the dying Lover’s story, which completely contradicted his character of violent and unreproachful.  I hesitated a good while what copy to send you, and at last resolved to send the worst, because you are familiar with it and can make it out; a stranger would find so much difficulty in doing it, that it would give him more pain than pleasure.  This is compounded precisely of the two persons’ hands you requested it should be.

“Yours sincerely,

“C.  LAMB.”

The two persons were undoubtedly Charles Lamb and his sister.]

Before proceeding to the MS. itself, it will be desirable to refer to Lamb’s letter to Manning of February 15, 1802, in which he defends himself against Manning’s animadversions on the changes found in the printed John Woodvil.  This letter is addressed to “Mr. Thomas Manning, Maison Magnan, No. 342 Boulevard Italien, Paris.” ....The italics are in the original:—­“Apropos, I think you wrong about my play.  All the omissions are right.  And the supplementary scene, in which Sandford narrates the manner in which his master is affected, is the best in the book.  It stands where a hodge-podge of German puerilities used to stand.  I insist upon it that you like that scene.” ...