I really don't know, except it be that a
dead man
can't; and he, the said patriarch,
did
complain, nevertheless, till his friends were tired and his wife recommended that pious prologue,"Curse—and die;" the only time, I suppose, when but little relief is to be found in swearing. I have had a most kind letter from Lord Holland on "
The Bride of Abydos
," which he likes, and so does Lady H. This is very good-natured in both, from whom I don't deserve any quarter. Yet I
did
think, at the time, that my cause of enmity proceeded from Holland House, and am glad I was wrong, and wish I had not been in such a hurry with that confounded satire, of which I would suppress even the memory;—but people, now they can't get it, make a fuss, I verily believe, out of contradiction.