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R. P. Gillies, Foreign Quarterly Review och den sv. litteraturen 73
but he says he has no hopes till he is utterly ruined. That point,
I fear, is not far distant; but what Lockhart can do for him then
I cannot guess. His last effort failed, owing to a curious reason.
He had made some translations from the German, which he does
extremely (well) — for give him ideas and he never wants choice
of good words — and Lockhart had got Constable to offer some
terms for them. R. P. G. had always, though possessing a beautiful
power of handwriting, had some whim or other about imitating
that of some other person, and has written for months in the
imitation of one or other of his friends. At present he has
renounced this amusement, and chooses to write with a brush upon
large cartridge paper, somewhat in the Chinese fashion, — so when
his work, which was only to extend to one or two volumes, arrived
on the shoulders of two porters, in immense bales, our jolly
biblio-polist backed out of the treaty, and would have nothing more to
do with R. P. He is a creature, that is, or would be thought, of
imagination all compact and is influenced by strange whims. But
he is a kind, harmless, friendly soul, and I fear has been cruelly
plundered of money, which he now wants sadly.»1
Gillies omtalar i sina Memoirs ofta och med tacksamhet
Walter Scott: »He was not only among the earliest but most
persevering of my friends — persevering in spite of my
waywardness, and latterly of the mauvaises langues of pretended friends,
who did what they could but without success, to sow discord
betwixt us.»2
Då han nu i berättelsen närmar sig tidskriftens tillkomst,
avtrycker han ett brev från Scott. Det blev, enligt hans egen
utsago, avgörande för hans kommande liv. Själv har han betraktat
tidskriften som ett led i en litterär kampanj och för egen del som
en av många och säkra möjligheter till en anständig utkomst.
Scott och andra vänner ha sett den ur en något annan synvinkel.
Brevet, som ansluter till ett samtal föregående dag, lyder som följer:
»It has often struck me, that a quarterly account of foreign
literature, mixed with good translations, and spirited views of the
progress of knowledge on the Continent might make a regular and
reasonable, though not a large income for a man who was disposed
1 Sir Waltek Scott, The journal of. Edit. D. Douglas. Edinburgh 1891.
Vol. I, s. 32.
2 Gillies’ Memoirs a. a., Vol. I, s. 231.
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