[bo] {52}
Till slowly ebbed the { lava of the spent volcanic } wave.
or, Till ebb'd the lava of { the burning that molten } wave,
And blackening ashes mark'd the Muse's grave.—
[Letter to Lord Holland, Sept. 28, 1812]
[bp] That scorns the scythe of Time, the torch of Flame.—[Letter to Lord Holland, Sept, 28, 1812.]
[bq] {53}
Far be from him that hour which asks in vain
Tears such as flow for Garrick in his strain;
or, Far be that hour that vainly asks in turn
Sad verse for him as { crowned his wept o'er } Garrick's urn.—
[Letter to Lord Holland, Sept. 30, 1812.]
[41] [Originally, "Ere Garrick died," etc. "By the by, one of my corrections in the fair copy sent yesterday has dived into the bathos some sixty fathom—
'When Garrick died, and Brinsley ceased to write.'
Ceasing to live is a much more serious concern, and ought not to be first; therefore I will let the old couplet stand, with its half rhymes 'sought' and 'wrote' [vide supra, [variant ii].] Second thoughts in every thing are best, but, in rhyme, third and fourth don't come amiss.... I always scrawl in this way, and smooth as much as I can, but never sufficiently."—Letter to Lord Holland, September 26, 1812, Letters, 1898, ii. 150.]
Such are the names that here your plaudits sought,
When Garrick acted, and when Brinsley wrote.—[MS.]