Whenever I have completed the rough draft, by which I mean the work without nice correction, Malone and I are to prepare one-half perfectly, and then it goes to press, where I hope to have it early in February so as to be out by the end of May.[1] I do not believe that Malone’s Shakspeare will be much before me. His brother, Lord Sunderlin, with his lady and two sisters, came home from a long tour on the Continent in summer last, and took a country-house about twenty miles from town for six months. Malone lived with them; so his labour was much intermitted.
I may perhaps come to you in autumn if Malone goes to Ireland, so that the revising of Johnson’s Life cannot proceed till winter.
Malone, who obligingly revises my Life of Johnson, is to go to Ireland when his Shakspeare is published, which will be about Christmas. I am therefore to get as much of his time as may be while he remains, as he may not return from Ireland till the summer. Yesterday afternoon, Malone and I revised and made ready for the press thirty pages of Johnson’s Life. He is much pleased with it; but I feel a sad indifference, and he says I have not the use of my faculties.
How often is it that gloomy anticipations of failure come over authors during the progress of the most successful works! Often, on the other hand, what lively expectations of success where utter disappointment awaits the writer!
- ↑ It did not appear for two years afterwards.
