[dh] {102}
And welcome Life though but in one
For many a gilded chamber's there
Unmeet for Solitude to share.—- [MS.]
[75] ["I have just recollected an alteration you may make in the proof.... Among the lines on Hassan's Serai, is this—'Unmeet for Solitude to share.' Now, to share implies more than one, and Solitude is a single gentlewoman: it must be thus—
'For many a gilded chamber's there,
Which Solitude might well forbear;'
and so on. Will you adopt this correction? and pray accept a cheese from me for your trouble."—Letter to John Murray, Stilton, October 3, 1813, Letters, 1898, ii. 274.]
[di] To share the Master's "bread and salt."—[MS.]
[76] [To partake of food—to break bread and taste salt with your host, ensures the safety of the guest: even though an enemy, his person from that moment becomes sacred.—(Note appended to Letter of October 3, 1813.)
"I leave this (vide supra, [note 1]) to your discretion; if anybody thinks the old line a good one or the cheese a bad one, don't accept either. But in that case the word share is repeated soon after in the line—
'To share the master's bread and salt;'
and must be altered to—