By Anna Mercer
In this series, we celebrate the 200th anniversary of literary and historical events of the Romantic period. Today, on 25 July 2018, we present a discussion of Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey by Rebekah Owens. Her post was inspired by a letter written by Percy Bysshe Shelley to Peacock on this day in 1818, an extract of which is shown below.
Contact Anna Mercer (mercerannam@gmail.com) if you want to suggest a future post for this series.
To THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK, Marlow
Bagni di Lucca, July 25th, 1818.
My dear Peacock,
[…]
You tell me that you have finished Nightmare Abbey. I hope that you have given the enemy no quarter. Remember, it is a sacred war. We have found an excellent quotation in Ben Jonson’s Every Man in his Humour. I will transcribe it, as I do not think you have these plays at Marlow.
MATTHEW. Oh, it’s your only fine humour, sir. Your true melancholy breeds your perfect fine wit, sir. I am melancholy myself divers times, sir; and then do I no more but take pen and paper presently, and overflow you half a score or a dozen of sonnets at a sitting.
ED KNOWELL. Sure, he utters them by the gross.
STEPHEN. Truly, sir; and I …read more
Source:: http://www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=2142