Good things I said, good things I eat,
I gave you knowledge for your meat,
And thought th' account was closed.
"If obligations still I owed,
You sold each item to the crowd,
I suffered by the tale.
For God's sake, Madam, let me rest,
No longer vex your _quondam_ guest,
I'll pay you for your ale."
When a prize was offered for the best address on the rebuilding of
Drury Lane, Sheridan proposed an additional reward for one without a
phoenix. Equally acceptable for its rarity would be a squib on Mrs.
Piozzi without a reference to the brewery.
Her manuscript notes on the two volumes of Letters are numerous and
important, comprising some curious fragments of autobiography,
written on separate sheets of paper and pasted into the volumes
opposite to the passages which they expand or explain. They would
create an inconvenient break in the narrative if introduced here, and
they are reserved for a separate section.
Her next literary labour is thus mentioned in "Thraliana":
"While Piozzi was gone to London I worked at my Travel Book, and
wrote it in two months complete--but 'tis all to correct and copy
over again. While my husband was away I wrote him these lines: he
staid just a fortnight:
"I think I've worked exceeding hard
To finish five score pages.
I write you this upon a card,
In hopes you'll pay my wages.
The servants all get drunk or mad,
This heat their blood enrages,
But your return will make me glad,--
That hope one pain assuages.
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