Last  week  you  were  informed,  in  brief  and  somewhat
enigmatical  manner,  of  my  deep  seclusion  "  in  the  still  air
of  delightful  studies";  I  am  alone  with  my  folios — com-
panioned by  The  Fathers!  Those  mysterious  characters,
of  which  Fanny  complains,  were  meant  to  tell  you  that.
Basil  was  speaking  to  me  in  somewhat  inelegant  Greek  of
the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  the  study  of  Greek
writers^ — if  I  have  not  gained  all  the  wisdom  there  awaiting
me,  I  am  willing  to  suppose  the  fault  was  mine :  perhaps  I
did  not  come  "  prepared  with  the  due  humility  of  spirit,"  and
receptivity  of  intellect !  Whatever  the  cause  may  be,  certain
it  is  that  when  Fanny,  with  the  dove-like  eyes,  declared  I
must  take  her  to  the  Lyceum  to  see  the  Christmas  piece,  I
quitted  my  folios  with  immense  alacrity !

I  must  borrow  hyperboles  to  express  something  of  the
admiring  delight  with  which  we  witnessed  the  Good  Woman
in  the  Wood;^  ordinary  epithets  have  so  lost  their  value  by
the  prodigal  use  made  of  them  in  criticism,  that  to  speak
within  bounds  would  be  speaking  coldly  and  inaccurately.
^  See  Introduction,  p.  xxix.
^  During  the  Vestris  -  Mathews  management  of  the  Lyceum
Planche  was  the  regular  author  of  the  Christmas  and  Easter  pieces,
and  William  Beverley  was  the  scene-painter.  This  piece  was  produced
December  27,  1852.
15


226  DRAMATIC  ESSAYS.
