Penny Dreadfuls, 1812 · page 18 of 258
Psyche, and other poems — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis This is a prefatory page of prose text (not a cover, title page, or illustration). The author, signing as "M.T.," offers a defensive preface acknowledging potential charges of plagiarism. The writer claims that any unattributed expressions or ideas were adopted unconsciously from memory rather than deliberately copied, and appeals to a Latin quotation from Terentius excusing poetic carelessness over intentional theft. The author further requests forgiveness for not rigorously documenting sources, attributing this laxity to an indulged taste for a particular reading style. The page functions as a disclaimer common to Victorian serialized fiction.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
x } T should willingly acknowledge with gratitude those authors who have, perhaps, supplied me with many ex- pressions and ideas ; but if I have subjected myself to the charge of plagiarism, it has been by adopting the words or images which floated upon my mind, without accurately examining, or being indeed able to distinguish, whether I owed them to my memory or my zmagination, Si id est pececatum, peccatum imprudentia est Poetz, non qui furtum facere studuerit, Terentius. JAmd when I confess that all Ihave is but the fruzt of a much indulged taste for that particular style of reading, let me be excused if I do not investigate and acknowledge more strictly each separate obligation. M. T. Eomichooks, com ad