No More Learning

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[Footnote K: The first and second editions of 'Peter Bell' (1819)
contained, as frontispiece, an engraving by J. C. Bromley, after a
picture by Sir George Beaumont. In 1807, Wordsworth wrote to Sir George:

"I am quite delighted to hear of your picture for 'Peter Bell' . . . .
But remember that no poem of mine will ever be popular, and I am
afraid that the sale of 'Peter' would not carry the expense of
engraving . . . . The people would love the poem of 'Peter Bell', but the
_public_ (a very different thing) will never love it. "

Some days before Wordsworth's 'Peter Bell' was issued in 1819, another
'Peter Bell' was published by Messrs. Taylor and Hessey. It was a parody
written by J.
Hamilton Reynolds, and issued as 'Peter Bell, a Lyrical
Ballad', with the sentence on its title page, "I do affirm that I am the
_real_ Simon Pure. " The preface, which follows, is too paltry to quote;
and the stanzas which make up the poem contain allusions to the more
trivial of the early "Lyrical Ballads" (Betty Foy, Harry Gill, etc. ).
Wordsworth's 'Peter Bell' was published about a week later; and Shelley
afterwards published his 'Peter Bell the Third'. Charles Lamb wrote to
Wordsworth, in May 1819:

"Dear Wordsworth--I received a copy of 'Peter Bell' a week ago, and I
hope the author will not be offended if I say I do not much relish it.
The humour, if it is meant for humour, is forced; and then the
price! --sixpence would have been dear for it. Mind, I do not mean
_your_ 'Peter Bell', but _a Peter Bell_, which preceded it about a
week, and is in every bookseller's shop window in London, the type and
paper nothing differing from the true one, the preface signed W. W. ,
and the supplementary preface quoting, as the author's words, an
extract from the supplementary preface to the 'Lyrical Ballads. ' Is
there no law against these rascals? I would have this Lambert Simnel
whipt at the cart's tail. " ('The Letters of Charles Lamb', edited by
A. Ainger, vol. ii. p.