return confessed himself pleased and instructed. As expressive of his obligation, he even went so far as to quote from the subject of their mutual admiration:—
More is thy due than more than all can pay.”
But this spirit did not continue. A few more differences of opinion, and eventually the design by Malone of printing an edition of his own, threw him into disfavour with one whose rivalries and resentments were easily roused and difficult to allay.
Among others occasionally consulted on points where critics may fairly differ, or who may possess more ancient treasures for the elucidation of truth than their neighbours, was of course Lord Charlemont. He writes in reply, May 1779, and appears to arrive at Malone’s ultimate decision:—
I am not possessed of any ancient copy of the Venus and Adonis. If I were, you certainly should have the use of it.
In consequence of your last letter but one I read over Pericles, and am strongly of opinion that by far the greater part of it is the genuine work of Shakspeare. I cannot, however, join with you in thinking that it is all of his composition, as there are some parts so very absurd, that I think it hardly possible he should have been capable of writing them. As it was the fashion of the time for poets to club their wits, I should rather suppose that some foolish poetaster had been concerned in it, and that the whole had passed for the production of Shakspeare, as the principal author and the most popular name. The quarto copy is so very incorrect that you will, I fear, find the publication attended with some difficulty. There are many passages which appear to me scarcely intelligible. I have made some guesses at the sense of one or two, but they are so little satisfactory as not to be worth communicating to you. One, however, I will mention,