Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 26- c.29 April 1794: 'Saturday last the day I began this letter I was at Downing at old Robert Lovells. the most primitive of Quakers but withall an affable intelligent pleasant man. he was pleasd with me & in a manner which interested me very much, offerd to lend me a good book written by William Dell. the offer was so made that if I could I would not have refused him. & in fact I am reading a large octavo full of mysticism. tis but a few hours stole from rhyming — it gives him pleasure & I shall get a little knowledge of John Huss Jerome of Prague & Martin Luther. Nullus est alius antichristus in mundo, neque venturus quam sacerdotes. Jo. Huss. you may see the tenor of the book from these quotations in it) however the followers of Aristotle (who certainly is dead & as Luther says damned if the imprecations of those he has puzzled take effect) may ridicule the idea of tragicomedy I am myself partial to that stile of writing. look at Hamlet. who would feel half the pleasure at seeing it represented if it were all upon the stills of tragedy.'