ABSTRACT
First published Edinburgh Saturday Post, 22 September 1827, p. 156. Reprinted Tave, pp. 126–7 (with attribution, pp. 127–8). This article is by the same person who wrote the one on Canning and the aristocracy (see above, pp. 68–9). ‘[B]etwixt’, in the second paragraph, would normally suggest someone other than De Quincey, but in this case the word is part of a well-known epigram; the same sentence has ‘between’ (not as part of the epigram, but in the writer’s own words), which does suggest De Quincey, when it occurs in Edinburgh’s Post. Like many of De Quincey’s better pieces, this article achieves an informal tone through colloquialisms like ‘kicked out’, sentences beginning with ‘But’ or ‘And’, and the use of italics to suggest conversation. ‘[A]bsurdity is a thing we doat upon’ sounds De Quinceyan in its informal humour, self-ridicule, and inversion of normal standards (reminiscent of his essay ‘On Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts’). This piece continues De Quincey’s work on London newspapers, with a concluding swipe at the Courier which anticipates the article ‘The Sublimest Rat Upon Record’ (see below, pp. 255–6). Phrases like ‘[0]ur friend’ and ‘our dear brother’, applied to a rival paper, imply that this article was written by the editor of the Post, De Quincey. As sole editor at this time, De Quincey would have been responsible for replying to criticisms of the Post in rival journals.
