Letter from Fleeming Jenkin, Edinburgh, to W. E. Henley, 1880 February 12 : autograph manuscript signed.

Concerning Jenkin's play "Griselda;" discussing his concerns with the writing, his struggle with the use of blank verse and the character of Griselda herself; saying "Both you and Louis [Robert Lewis Stevenson] have given me much more praise than I ever expected to get and you have praised me for just those things I care most to be praised for - The Play was begun as an experiment to see whether the principles I had worked out by observation on great plays, would give a real play if applied to some story with a kernel to it - Now, I am more sure than ever that in the hands of a man who could write a pen worked on these principles would give a play - As to collaboration I hesitate. In its present form the thing is useless - If Mrs. Jenkin had been taken by the fable & part as sketched, I might have tried to learn to write and built up speech by speech - As it is I do not the least feel inclined to try myself - and would be very grateful to any one else who would try - but - I am not at all sure that I could behave like a reasonable being in the matter and believe that the words put into the mouths of my pets could be theirs - I really don't know - I got ludicrously fond of those people - I have done dozens of scenes between them all in my head just for the fun as I walked along - I knew quite well how they would behave and if any body were to tell me they would behave differently I should be wild...I was sorry to see another hand than yours in the Pall Mall - and one ludicrously feebler;" adding, in a postscript, "By all means keep Grized for a bit - I wrote Louis not long since on learning from him certain contemplated action on his part."