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L'Envoy
Go, little booke, God send thee good passage,
And specially let this be thy prayere,
Unto them all that thee will read or hear,
Where thou art wrong, after their help to call,
Thee to correct in any part or all.
CHAUCER'S Belle Dame sans Mercie.
IN concluding a second volume of the Sketch Book the Author
cannot but express his deep sense of the indulgence with which
his first has been received, and of the liberal disposition that
has been evinced to treat him with kindness as a stranger. Even
the critics, whatever may be said of them by others, he has found
to be a singularly gentle and good-natured race; it is true that
each has in turn objected to some one or two articles, and that
these individual exceptions, taken in the aggregate, would amount
almost to a total condemnation of his work; but then he has been
consoled by observing that what one has particularly censured
another has as particularly praised; and thus, the encomiums
being set off against the objections, he finds his work, upon the
whole, commended far beyond its deserts.
* Closing the second volume of the London edition.
He is aware that he runs a risk of forfeiting much of this kind
favor by not following the counsel that has been liberally
bestowed upon him; for where abundance of valuable advice is
given gratis it may seem a man's own fault if he should go
astray. He only can say in his vindication that he faithfully
determined for a time to govern himself in his second volume by
the opinions passed upon his first; but he was soon brought to a
stand by the contrariety of excellent counsel. One kindly advised
him to avoid the ludicrous; another to shun the pathetic; a third
assured him that he was tolerable at description, but cautioned
him to leave narrative alone; while a fourth declared that he had
a very pretty knack at turning a story, and was really
entertaining when in a pensive mood, but was grievously mistaken
if he imagined himself to possess a spirit of humor.
Thus perplexed by the advice of his friends, who each in turn
closed some particular path, but left him all the world beside to
range in, he found that to follow all their counsels would, in
fact, be to stand still. He remained for a time sadly
embarrassed, when all at once the thought struck him to ramble on
as he had begun; that his work being miscellaneous and written
for different humors, it could not be expected that any one would
be pleased with the whole; but that if it should contain
something to suit each reader, his end would be completely
answered. Few guests sit down to a varied table with an equal
appetite for every dish. One has an elegant horror of a roasted
pig; another holds a curry or a devil in utter abomination; a
third cannot tolerate the ancient flavor of venison and
wild-fowl; and a fourth, of truly masculine stomach, looks with
sovereign contempt on those knick-knacks here and there dished up
for the ladies. Thus each article is in condemned in its turn,
and yet amidst this variety of appetites seldom does a dish go
away from the table without being tasted and relished by some one
or other of the guests.
With these considerations he ventures to serve up this second
volume in the same heterogeneous way with his first; simply
requesting the reader, if he should find here and there something
to please him, to rest assured that it was written expressly for
intelligent readers like himself; but entreating him, should he
find anything to dislike, to tolerate it, as one of those
articles which the author has been obliged to write for readers
of a less refined taste.
To be serious: The author is conscious of the numerous faults and
imperfections of his work, and well aware how little he is
disciplined and accomplished in the arts of authorship. His
deficiencies are also increased by a diffidence arising from his
peculiar situation. He finds himself writing in a strange land,
and appearing before a public which he has been accustomed from
childhood to regard with the highest feelings of awe and
reverence. He is full of solicitude to deserve their approbation,
yet finds that very solicitude continually embarrassing his
powers and depriving him of that case and confidence which are
necessary to successful exertion. Still, the kindness with which
he is treated encourages him to go on, hoping that in time he may
acquire a steadier footing; and thus he proceeds, half venturing,
half shrinking, surprised at his own good-fortune and wondering
at his own temerity.
Washington Irving's short story: L'Envoy
-THE END-
From The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, by Washington Irving.
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