Payne Collier’s Namen ist jedoch seitdem vollständig verschollen. Er genießt zwar noch seine ihm vom Parlamente bewilligte Pension, jedoch nirgends mehr die Achtung seiner Landsleute.
24 Brompton Square
near London
Augst 21st. 1842.
Sir
I make no apology for addressing the following question to you.
Have you any information respecting any visit paid by Shakespeare either to Italy or to any other part of the Continent?
It is stated in London that you possess some such information, and as I am now engaged on an edition of Shakespeare’s Works, which will be preceded by a new Life of the Poet, you will see at once how valuable any fresh tidings would be to me.
If I understood your language half, or one quarter, as you have proved that you understand mine, I should be better able to avail myself of the valuable matter you have from time to time printed regarding the biography and writings of our great dramatist.
I do not hesitate a moment in believing that should you have obtained any such information, as that to which I have referred, you will not object to communicate it to a person who has devoted his life to understand a writer, whom it requires more than a life to comprehend and appreciate. I am,
Sir,