Page:Osorio; a tragedy, as originally written in 1797 (IA cu31924105501831).pdf/199

 ''had been his own manuscript, to add, omit, or alter, as he saw occasion; and that (if it were rejected) the Author would deem himself amply remunerated by the addition to his experience which he should receive, if Mr. would point out to him the nature of its unfitness for public representation;"—that this very person returned me no answer, and, spite of repeated applications, retained my manuscript when I was not conscious of any other copy being in existence (my duplicate having been destroyed by an accident); that he suffered this manuscript to wander about the town from his house, so that but ten days ago I saw the song in the third Act printed and set to music, without my name, by Mr. Carnaby, in the year 1802; likewise that the same person assorted (as I have been assured) that the play was rejected, because I would not submit to the alteration of one ludicrous line; and finally in the year 1806 amused and delighted (as who was ever in his company, if I may trust the universal report, without being amused and delighted?) a large company at the house of a highly respectable Member of Parliament, with the ridicule of the Tragedy, as "a fair specimen" of the whole'' of which he adduced a line: