The following production owes its existence to an incident in real life, very similar to the principal action of the last canto; but in forming the general plan of the work, it seemed to me absolutely necessary to introduce both the agency and the abode of Spleen, notwithstanding the difficulty and the hazard of attempting a subject so happily executed by the masterly pencil of Pope. I considered his Cave of Spleen as a most exquisite cabinet picture; and, to avoid the servility of imitation, I determined to sketch the mansion of this gloomy power on a much wider canvas: happy, indeed, if the judgment of the public may enable me to exclaim with the honest vanity of the painter, who compared his own works to the divine productions of Raphael,
"E son pittore anch' Io!"
EPB
