ABSTRACT
After the failure of his experiment with rural life in Wales, Thelwall refashioned himself and re-entered public life as lecturer in elocution and oratory. In 1804, however, his newfound confidence and enthusiasm in his role as ‘Professor of an Elegant Science’ would be severely challenged. But then Thelwall encountered Francis Jeffrey, the editor of the Edinburgh Review. It is telling that in his lifetime, Jeffrey would hold careers as judge, politician and reviewer: he became a towering cultural figure whose opinions carried much weight and whose judgments could make or break literary futures. There are large and numerous footnotes that seem almost to dominate the body of the letter. Thelwall explains that the footnotes, which are devoted to revealing errors and abuses committed by the reviewers, were ‘necessary to strip the mask from the features of Affectation, and dismount Presumption from his stilts’.
