may
have
crept
in
owing
to
my
prolonged
absence
from
civilized
parts,
and
the
consequent lack of opportunity
for
reference
and comparison, I emphatically
do.
One
word
to
the
reviewers.
It
must
not
be taken
as
ungracious if I
so
speak.
From nearly all I have received
the utmost justice, kindness, and consideration
: two or three
only seem
to take delight in deliberately perverting
the sense
of my
remarks :
and
to
them,
for their
own
sake,
I
now
address
these
words
of
elementary
instruction.
You
are
perfectly welcome to
do
with
my work
in
its entirety what
Laertes
did with
his
allegiance
and
his
vows : but
do
not
pick
out and
gloat over
a
few
isolated passages
from
the
Venusberg
scenes
and
call
me
a
sensualist,
nor
from
the
Fourth Act and groan
" Mysticism
!
"
; do
not quote
" Two
is by shape
the Coptic
Aspirate
" as
a sample
of my utmost
in lyrics
; do not take the song of Wolfram
as my best work
in
either sentiment or melody.
As
a quid pro quo
I give
you all full permission
to conclude your review of this book
by quoting from Act III.
" Forget
this nightmare!"
I
must
express
my
great
sense
of gratitude
to
Oscar
Eckenstein,
Gerald
Kelly,
and Allan MacGregor,
who have
severally
helped
me
in
the
work
of
revision,
which
has
extended over more
than
a year of time
and
nearly twenty
thousand
miles
of space.
Some
few
of the very
best
lines
were partially or wholly
suggested
by themselves,
and I have
not scrupled to incorporate these
: if the book be but a Book,
the actual
authorship seems
to me immaterial.
15