“As you have now an interest directly opposite to mine, I hope you will not think it unreasonable that I should be made acquainted with the materials which you intend for this number. It occurs to me it would save all unpleasant discussion if you were inclined to send the different articles to Mr. John Wilson, who has all along taken so deep an interest in the magazine. I do not wish to offer my opinion with regard to the fitness or unfitness of any article, but I should expect that you would be inclined to listen to anything which Mr. Wilson might suggest. He had promised me the following articles: Account of Marlowe’s Edward II, Argument in the Case of the Dumb Woman lately before the Court, Vindication of Wordsworth, Reviews of Lament of Tasso, Poetical Epistles and Spencer’s Tour. His furnishing these or even other articles will, however, depend upon the articles you have got and intend to insert.” “I beg to assure you that it is my most anxious wish to have the whole business settled speedily and as amicably as possible.”[51] [51] Ibid., V. i, p. 106 Here exit the prologue; and the real show begins with _Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine_ for October 1817. To attract attention was Blackwood’s first aim; interest once aroused, he did not worry over maintaining it. Of that he felt assured. Respectability, mediocrity were taboo! By respectability is inferred that prudent, cautious, dead-alive respectability whose backbone (such as it has) is fear of public censure! III _Dramatis Personae_ One of Blackwood’s aims in life was to make 17 Princes Street a literary rendez-vous; and indeed the background and atmosphere of “Maga”, and the men who gathered round it, are perhaps as fascinating and absorbing as the magazine itself!