Single Letter

HAM/1/6/8/22

Letter from John Hope to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


      I hope, my dear Miʃs Hamilton, you can
tell me your Mama is better, & that
you are in Spirits to reliʃh the Comedy
I ʃend you.[1] -- I laugh'd, 'till my Sides
were ʃore, at it, laʃt night; -- but, with
me, all pleaʃure is incomplete, if I can
not ʃhare it with my Friends. -- You'll
find part of young Marlow's Character
very like a Perʃon's of our Acquaintance;
-- the defective part of it, I mean; not
the virtuous & most meritorious. --
      I alʃo ʃend you the Copy of my
political Letters which I promised you. -- [2]
I hope you will not, now, think the
Publication ʃo very abʃurd; when I tell
you, that I foreʃaw my preʃent Embar=
=raʃsment
, & that I ʃhould have no otherbetter
means of ʃhaming my Relations into
doing ʃomething for me, than by



making as much Noise in the World as
I poʃsibly could, without doing any thing
to injure my Relations; -- for that
ʃame Reaʃon I publiʃh'd the Letter
(you'll find with These) which at firʃt
gave Meʃsrs: Hope & Co: uneasineʃs, but
which I knew could never hurt Them,
& would intereʃt them in preventing
me from becoming a Bankrupt. -- My
chief own interest, however, was but
the ʃecondary motive of that laʃt Publi=
=cation
. -- I really imagined it would be
of immediate publick ʃervice, & in the End would
aggrandize the Character of my old Patrons. --
      I'll conclude with a Reflection applica=
=ble
to the subject: -- Those who paʃs for the
most prudent & wiʃe, in the World, ʃeldom
can carry on a Design, without being
deiscovered. -- They Eyes ------------ of every
one is upon them; their every action is



watched with the moʃt ʃuʃpicious attention,
& they can undertake nothing, without
every one putting himʃelf on his Guard,
as if ʃomething momentous was intended
to happen. -- The man, on the contrary,
who paʃses for a thoughtleʃs, rattling
fellow, can do what he pleaʃes, without
even being ʃuspected of looking farther
than his Nose before him. --
      In anʃwer to all this Nonʃense,
give me juʃt two Lines, to ʃay how
your Mama does; & that, in thus
opening a little more of my ma
ways & manners (as you call'd them)
I have loʃt nothing in the Eʃteem
of my dear good Friend. -- Her's most
                             ʃincerely & Affecly

(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. Surely Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, first performed 15 March 1773, first printed edition 25 March 1773 (British Library Catalogue).
 2. In HAM/1/6/8/1, Hope wrote ‘Here you ſee my private Reaſon for publiſhing the political Letters I ſhew'd you’. Hamilton's guardian, William Napier, had written on 30 January 1773, ‘those letters [...] hurt him greatly with his Uncle, [...] its prudent to keep ſome things to oneself and as those letters cd- never do any good, they had better never been printed & sent about[...]’ (HAM/1/19/29 p.2 col.1).

Normalised Text


      I hope, my dear Miss Hamilton, you can
tell me your Mama is better, & that
you are in Spirits to relish the Comedy
I send you. -- I laughed, till my Sides
were sore, at it, last night; -- but, with
me, all pleasure is incomplete, if I can
not share it with my Friends. -- You'll
find part of young Marlow's Character
very like a Person's of our Acquaintance;
-- the defective part of it, I mean; not
the virtuous & most meritorious. --
      I also send you the Copy of my
political Letters which I promised you. --
I hope you will not, now, think the
Publication so very absurd; when I tell
you, that I foresaw my present Embarrassment
, & that I should have no better
means of shaming my Relations into
doing something for me, than by



making as much Noise in the World as
I possibly could, without doing any thing
to injure my Relations; -- for that
same Reason I published the Letter
(you'll find with These) which at first
gave Messrs: Hope & Co: uneasiness, but
which I knew could never hurt Them,
& would interest them in preventing
me from becoming a Bankrupt. -- My
own interest, however, was but
the secondary motive of that last Publication
. -- I really imagined it would be
of immediate public service, & in the End would
aggrandize the Character of my old Patrons. --
      I'll conclude with a Reflection applicable
to the subject: -- Those who pass for the
most prudent & wise, in the World, seldom
can carry on a Design, without being
discovered. -- The Eyes of every
one is upon them; their every action is



watched with the most suspicious attention,
& they can undertake nothing, without
every one putting himself on his Guard,
as if something momentous was intended
to happen. -- The man, on the contrary,
who passes for a thoughtless, rattling
fellow, can do what he pleases, without
even being suspected of looking farther
than his Nose before him. --
      In answer to all this Nonsense,
give me just two Lines, to say how
your Mama does; & that, in thus
opening a little more of my
ways & manners (as you called them)
I have lost nothing in the Esteem
of my dear good Friend. -- Her's most
                             sincerely & Affectionately

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quotations,
spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. Surely Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, first performed 15 March 1773, first printed edition 25 March 1773 (British Library Catalogue).
 2. In HAM/1/6/8/1, Hope wrote ‘Here you ſee my private Reaſon for publiſhing the political Letters I ſhew'd you’. Hamilton's guardian, William Napier, had written on 30 January 1773, ‘those letters [...] hurt him greatly with his Uncle, [...] its prudent to keep ſome things to oneself and as those letters cd- never do any good, they had better never been printed & sent about[...]’ (HAM/1/19/29 p.2 col.1).

Metadata

Library References

Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from John Hope to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/6/8/22

Correspondence Details

Sender: John Hope

Place sent: Northampton (certainty: medium)

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Northampton (certainty: medium)

Date sent: not before 27 March 1773
notBefore 27 March 1773 (precision: medium)

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from John Hope to Mary Hamilton. He sends a copy of his political letters and also a copy of a comedy [evidently Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer] which he 'laugh[e]d at till my Sides were sore'. He continues on the effect that publication of his letters might have on his relations. He had foreseen his embarrassment [over debt], and he hoped that publication might shame them into helping prevent his bankruptcy, though without causing them hurt. The letter continues on Hope's reasons for publishing the work.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 379 words

Transliteration Information

Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now incorporated in the project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers' (Hannah Barker, Sophie Coulombeau, David Denison, Tino Oudesluijs, Cassandra Ulph, Christine Wallis & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2019-2023).

All quotation marks are retained in the text and are represented by appropriate Unicode characters. Words split across two lines may have a hyphen on the first, the second or both fragments (reco-|ver, imperfect|-ly, satisfacti-|-on); or a double hyphen (pur=|port, dan|=ger, qua=|=litys); or none (respect|ing). Any point in abbreviations with superscripted letter(s) is placed last, regardless of relative left-right orientation in the original. Thus, Mrs. or Mrs may occur, but M.rs or Mr.s do not.

Acknowledgements: XML version: Research Assistant funding in 2017/18 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.

Research assistant: Georgia Tutt, MA student, University of Manchester

Transliterator: George Lee, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2018)

Cataloguer: Lisa Crawley, Archivist, The John Rylands Library

Cataloguer: John Hodgson, Head of Special Collections, John Rylands Research Institute and Library

Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors

Revision date: 11 January 2022

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