All which is very poor stuff you will say. Please to remember me to the Lady. I don’t know when I shall ever see you again; and yet you can’t think how often I wish to do so, and never forget you, and never shall, my dear old Alfred, in spite of Epicurus. But I don’t grow merrier.—Yours ever,
E. F. G.
In 1872 he was busy with the third edition of Omar, and wrote to consult Tennyson. The first edition had contained only seventy-five quatrains. The second was a good deal longer, containing one hundred and ten. The third was again shortened to one hundred and one:
Woodbridge, March 25th, 1872.
My dear Alfred—It would be impertinent in me to trouble you with a question about my grand Works. But, as you let me know (through Mrs. T.) that you liked Omar, I want to know whether you read the First or Second Edition; and, in case you saw both, which you thought best? The reason of my asking you is that Quaritch (Publisher) has found admirers in America who have almost bought up the whole of the last enormous Edition—amounting to 200 copies, I think—so he wishes to embark on 200 more, I suppose: and says that he, and his Readers, like the first Edition best: so he would reprint these.
Of course I thought the second best: and I think so still: partly (I fear) because the greater number of verses gave more time for the day to pass from morning till night.
Well, what I ask you to do is, to tell me which of the two is best, if you have seen the two. If you have not, I won’t ask you further:—if you have, you can answer in two words. And your words would be more than all the rest.
This very little business is all I have eyes for now; except to write myself once more ever your’s and Mrs. Tennyson’s,
E. F. G.
Another letter a little later refers to the same reprinting of Omar: