A noted publisher
had taken the matter into consideration, and if the undertaking gave
promise of being both palatable to the public, and profitable to
himself, a prospectus was to be issued. Now here was a little tit-bit
which the public would doubtless relish; for it was beginning to feel
some interest in Otway's starvation, the poet having been dead half
a century. It is true that the signature of the poor starving author,
whoever he may have been, was so illegible that it required some
imagination to see in it, the name of Otway, but Mr. Lumley had
enough of the true antiquarian spirit, to settle the point to his own
entire satisfaction. The note was accordingly introduced into the life
of Otway, with which the learned tutor was then engaged. The work
itself, however, was not destined to see the light; its publication
was delayed, while Mr. Lumley accompanied his pupil on the usual
continental tour, and from this journey the learned gentleman never
returned, dying at Rome, of a cold caught in the library of the
Vatican. By his will, the MS. life of Otway with all his papers, passed
into the hands of his brother, an officer in the army. Unfortunately,
however, Captain Lumley, who was by no means a literary character,
proved extremely indifferent to this portion of his brother's
inheritance, which he treated with contemptuous neglect.
After this first stage on the road to fame, twenty more years passed
away and the letter of the starving poet was again forgotten.
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