This change of lodging in the
author will turn many things topsy-turvy, and conjure the spirit out of
much long-established facetiousness. Pictures of poets in garrets will
soon not be understood; bathos will be at a premium! the bard will be
known, not by the brownness of his beaver, but by the gold band that
encircles it. The historian shall go about in black plush breeches; and
the great inspired writers of the age "have a livery more guarded than
their fellows." Authors shall soon be, indeed, even more easily known by
their dress. How often, too, shall we see Mr. Murray or Mr. Colburn
descending "with the nine" to the hireling scribe, who is correcting the
press and locking up the tea-spoons, against his coming; or they may
have occasionally to wait below, while their authors are _waiting_
above. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green (almost a batch of he-muses
in themselves), will get a new cookery-book, _well done_, from a
genuine cook,[5] who divides his time between the spit and the pen; and
the firm need not, therefore, set Mrs. Rundell's temper upon the
_simmer_, as they are said to have done in days past.
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