ancestors, to which Antonio might affectingly point his sister, one by
one, with anecdote, &c.

At all events, with the present want of action, the Play must not extend
above four Acts, unless it is quite new modell'd. The proposed
alterations might all be effected in a few weeks.

Solemn judicial pleadings always go off well, as in Henry the 8th,
Merchant of Venice, and perhaps Othello.

[Lamb, said Mr. Paul, writing of this critical Minute, was so genuinely
kind and even affectionate, in his criticism that Godwin did not
perceive his real disapproval.

Mr Swinburne, writing in _The Athenaeum_ for May 13, 1876, made an
interesting comment upon one of Lamb's suggestions in the foregoing
document. It contains, he remarks, "a singular anticipation of one of
the most famous passages in the work of the greatest master of our own
age, the scene of the portraits in 'Hernani:' 'To relieve the former
part of the play, could not some sensible images, some work for the eye,
be introduced? _A gallery of pictures, Alexander's ancestors, to which
Antonio might affectingly point his sister, one by one, with anecdote_,
&c.' I know of no coincidence more pleasantly and strangely notable than
this between the gentle genius of the loveliest among English essayists
and the tragic invention of the loftiest among French poets."

After long negotiation "Antonio" was now actually in rehearsal at Drury
Lane, to be produced on December 13. Lamb supplied the epilogue.

Cooper was Godwin's servant.]