Your kind offer I will not a second time refuse. You shall
send me a packet and I will do them into English with great care. Is not there
969
one about Wm.
Tell, and would not that in the present state of discussions be
likely to tell? The Engravers I meant are to be found at
the end of Harrington’s
Translation of Orlando
Furioso: if you could get the book, they would some of them answer
your purpose to modernize. If you can’t, I fancy I can. Baxter’sHoly Commonwealth I have luckily met
with, and when I have sent it, you shall if you please consider yourself
indebted to me 3s. 6d. the cost of it: especially as I purchased it after your
solemn injunctions. The plain case with regard to my presents (which you seem
so to shrink from) is that I have not at all affected the character of a Donor,
or thought of violating your sacred Law of Give and Take: but I have been
taking and partaking the good things of your House (when I know you were not
over-abounding) and I now give unto you of mine; and by the grace of God I
happen to be myself a little super-abundant at present. I expect I shall be
able to send you my final parcel in about a week: by that time I shall have
gone thro’ all Milton’s
Latin Works. There will come with it the Holy
Commonwealth, and the identical North American Bible which you
helped to dogs ear at Xt’s.—I call’d at
Howell’s for your little
Milton, and also to fetch away the White Cross Street
Library Books, which I have not forgot: but your books were not in a state to
be got at then, and Mrs. H. is to let me know when she
packs up. They will be sent by sea; and my little precursor will come to you by
the Whitehaven waggon accompanied with pens, penknife &c.—Mrs.
Howell was as usual very civil; and asked with great
earnestness, if it were likely you would come to Town in the winter. She has a
friendly eye upon you.
Richard Baxter (1615-1691)
Presbyterian divine and leader of the nonconformist church in England; he was a popular
and voluminous writer. “The last words of Mr. Baxter,” referring to a dispute with his
printer, became proverbial.
Sir John Harington (1560-1612)
English courtier; the godchild of Queen Elizabeth, he was an epigrammatist and translator
of Ariosto.
John Milton (1608-1674)
English poet and controversialist; author of Comus (1634), Lycidas (1638), Areopagitica (1644), Paradise Lost (1667), and other works.
William Tell (1250 fl.)
Legendary Swiss archer whose story was popularized by Schiller's drama (1804).