Diplomatic Text
My dearest Mrs. Dickenson
Dear A Maria has had an answer from Doctor
Warton, you will not tell her that I sent you a Copy
of it, as she desired me not to Show it. The letter is as
follows -- Dear Madam -- I most certainly should
have paid my respects to you in Town, if I really had not
been nearly hurried into a second illneʃs by having so much
to do in so short a time, & this also must be my excuse
for not calling on Mrs.. & Miʃs Glover. I must aʃsure you
it was impoʃsible I should take amiʃs any part of her letter..
if she meant that paʃsage in which she says she would
not trouble me to write Mr. Glover's Life, it most
certainly, cannot be that paʃsage for the plain &
clear fact is, that thinking attentively on the
subject I easily saw that I had absolutely no materials to
go upon, coming, especially, as I did so late in Life into
Mr Glover's acquaintance, that of all knowing the busy
scenes in which he had been engaged. So that in
truth I could not write thea Life having no facts to
build upon. As to the publication of the peices we
mention'd, I am sure Miʃs Glover was welcome to my
oppinion, but I still think that it might be
improper to publish the Memoires though they appear
to be very curious. As Mr Glover himself mention'd
Mr. GloverCadell for as a printer, I should imagine it might
be right to employ him. But I am griev'd to say
that I greatly fear Miʃs Glover will be disappoint
-ed in what the booksellers will offer for the
Copy. For Alaʃs the real & intrinsic value of the
Peices will not be consider'd but what is likely
to sell (as they call it) If the second part of Jason[1]
should be acted I should think it may be very
advantageous.
Now my dearest friend tell me what you think
of think of the letter, & if you have not wrote
you will now know what to do. I have seen the Provost
of Eton, who was so good as to ask Mr. Cadell what
he would give me for the Copy of the Athenaid[2]
he enquired the length, when he heard it was thirty
Books, he said it was too long, that he could not
answer for its selling, adding that if I chose to have
it curtail'd that he would undertake to publish it
& that we should share & share alike in the profits
& loʃses, but if I did not chuse to have it alter'd, he
would print it for me in the common way, which
is in fact for me to be at all the expence, anxiety
& trouble of publishing it myself, then in all probability
the account between me & the printer will not be settled
for years. You see what Dr. W: says about Jason, Dr.
Roberts, the Provost of Eton, & Mr Collier think it
is better not to publish the trajedies, but to
print the Athenaid alone & see how that will take
with the public, if it takes, then to publish
all the works, you will not wonder, that I am
very anxious with all this upon my mind, I wish
I had you here to consult with, you must write to me
& tell me all your thoughts upon thisthe above written
subject, I am perplex'd & bewilder'd, one thing I am resolv'd
upon, which is not to part with them for a triffle,
that I think my dear friend will be doing my dearest
Fathers memory an injury. What do you think of
Doctor Warton's writing a kind of preface, instead of
a life, & making an apology for the length of the
poem & saying that had the Author lived it would
have been shorten'd & much corrected, but that I was
unwilling for the public to lose a poem of his
writing & therefore had by the advice of my friends
publish'd it in its present incorrect style. I ask
your advice, knowing you will give it me with
sincerity.
Tell me whether I shall write to Dr.. W myself, &
tell me what I shall say to him.
[3] ------------------------------------------------------------ I have got a frank
for you, A. Maria & myself take it alternately to
get them, She call'd here last night & look'd very
well, she was going to Mrs: Gunning's in Old Burlington
St.. -- On Friday Mr.. D—— dines at Mr. Ham-
-iltons, we all go in the evening, Mrs. H—— has had
a very bad cold & cough she is grown thinner. --
My charming Brother never comes near us,
he has £950 a year a single man, does not
keep house, is only in Lodgings, constantly dines
out, & yet is not able to keep a carriage,
he is I make no doubt very much in debt,
he call'd the other day on A. Maria, but made
no enquiries after us. It is a dreadful thing to
have bad Children, Alas, my dearest Father experienced
it too much, I hope the Amiable Lady Wake
will be happy in her's, I make no doubt but that Sir
William by his tender behavior & aʃsidous care
to please her, tries as much as poʃsible to make
her some amends for the loʃs she has sustain'd,
A child cannot behave too grateful, to such a
parent as Lady Wake.
My dearest mother behaves in the kindest manner
to me, she will not suffer me to pay any thing for
my board, but I live with her exactly as I used to do
when my Father was living, you know she does
nothing in a little way, & you will be happy
when I tell you, if poʃsible we grow more attach'd
to each other every day, She is I thank God perfect
-ly well in health, & the charming society of your
excellent husband has improv'd her spirits, you are
bleʃs'd in each other, he seems to be never so happy
as when he is talking of you, when he receives your
letter's they are saluted every time he reads them, I wish
all men were like your Dickenson & all women like
yourself what a paradise should we live in, I am only afraid we should be too happy for
this mortal life. God preserve you long for each other
is the ardent wish & your ever oblig'd & affectionate
Mary Glover
▼
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Jason, a Tragedy in Five Acts, was Glover's sequel to his earlier epic poem Leonidas. It would be published posthumously in 1799.
2. Mary Glover (as Mrs Halsey) published her father's poem The Atheniad posthumously in 1787.
3. The first 2/3 line of this page has been cut away.
4. This postscript appears at the bottom of the page.
5. The envelope seems to have been used as scrap paper, as it bears annotations unrelated to the letter, to the right of and below the address.
6. This annotation appears vertically down the right-hand side of the page.
Normalised Text
My dearest Mrs. Dickenson
Dear Anna Maria has had an answer from Doctor
Warton, you will not tell her that I sent you a Copy
of it, as she desired me not to Show it. The letter is as
follows -- Dear Madam -- I most certainly should
have paid my respects to you in Town, if I really had not
been nearly hurried into a second illness by having so much
to do in so short a time, & this also must be my excuse
for not calling on Mrs.. & Miss Glover. I must assure you
it was impossible I should take amiss any part of her letter..
if she meant that passage in which she says she would
not trouble me to write Mr. Glover's Life, it most
certainly, cannot be that passage for the plain &
clear fact is, that thinking attentively on the
subject I easily saw that I had absolutely no materials to
go upon, coming, especially, as I did so late in Life into
Mr Glover's acquaintance, that of all knowing the busy
scenes in which he had been engaged. So that in
truth I could not write a Life having no facts to
build upon. As to the publication of the pieces we
mentioned, I am sure Miss Glover was welcome to my
opinion, but I still think that it might be
improper to publish the Memoires though they appear
to be very curious. As Mr Glover himself mentioned
Mr. Cadell as a printer, I should imagine it might
be right to employ him. But I am grieved to say
that I greatly fear Miss Glover will be disappointed
in what the booksellers will offer for the
Copy. For Alas the real & intrinsic value of the
Pieces will not be considered but what is likely
to sell (as they call it) If the second part of Jason
should be acted I should think it may be very
advantageous.
Now my dearest friend tell me what you think
of the letter, & if you have not written
you will now know what to do. I have seen the Provost
of Eton, who was so good as to ask Mr. Cadell what
he would give me for the Copy of the Athenaid
he enquired the length, when he heard it was thirty
Books, he said it was too long, that he could not
answer for its selling, adding that if I chose to have
it curtailed that he would undertake to publish it
& that we should share & share alike in the profits
& losses, but if I did not choose to have it altered, he
would print it for me in the common way, which
is in fact for me to be at all the expense, anxiety
& trouble of publishing it myself, then in all probability
the account between me & the printer will not be settled
for years. You see what Dr. Warton says about Jason, Dr.
Roberts, the Provost of Eton, & Mr Collier think it
is better not to publish the tragedies, but to
print the Athenaid alone & see how that will take
with the public, if it takes, then to publish
all the works, you will not wonder, that I am
very anxious with all this upon my mind, I wish
I had you here to consult with, you must write to me
& tell me all your thoughts upon the above written
subject, I am perplexed & bewildered, one thing I am resolved
upon, which is not to part with them for a trifle,
that I think my dear friend will be doing my dearest
Fathers memory an injury. What do you think of
Doctor Warton's writing a kind of preface, instead of
a life, & making an apology for the length of the
poem & saying that had the Author lived it would
have been shortened & much corrected, but that I was
unwilling for the public to lose a poem of his
writing & therefore had by the advice of my friends
published it in its present incorrect style. I ask
your advice, knowing you will give it me with
sincerity.
Tell me whether I shall write to Dr.. Warton myself, &
tell me what I shall say to him.
I have got a frank
for you, Anna Maria & myself take it alternately to
get them, She called here last night & looked very
well, she was going to Mrs: Gunning's in Old Burlington
Street -- On Friday Mr.. Dickenson dines at Mr. Hamilton
s, we all go in the evening, Mrs. Hamilton has had
a very bad cold & cough she is grown thinner. --
My charming Brother never comes near us,
he has £950 a year a single man, does not
keep house, is only in Lodgings, constantly dines
out, & yet is not able to keep a carriage,
he is I make no doubt very much in debt,
he called the other day on Anna Maria, but made
no enquiries after us. It is a dreadful thing to
have bad Children, Alas, my dearest Father experienced
it too much, I hope the Amiable Lady Wake
will be happy in her's, I make no doubt but that Sir
William by his tender behaviour & assiduous care
to please her, tries as much as possible to make
her some amends for the loss she has sustained,
A child cannot behave too grateful, to such a
parent as Lady Wake.
My dearest mother behaves in the kindest manner
to me, she will not suffer me to pay any thing for
my board, but I live with her exactly as I used to do
when my Father was living, you know she does
nothing in a little way, & you will be happy
when I tell you, if possible we grow more attached
to each other every day, She is I thank God perfectly
well in health, & the charming society of your
excellent husband has improved her spirits, you are
blessed in each other, he seems to be never so happy
as when he is talking of you, when he receives your
letter's they are saluted every time he reads them, I wish
all men were like your Dickenson & all women like
yourself what a paradise should we live in, I am only afraid we should be too happy for
this mortal life. God preserve you long for each other
is the ardent wish & your ever obliged & affectionate
Mary Glover
▼
to Lady Wake & the rest
of the Family
Mrs. Dickenson
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from Mary Glover to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/13/32
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Glover
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 15 February 1786
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Glover to Mary Hamilton. She copies for Hamilton a reply that Anna Maria Clarke had received from Dr Warton relating to Richard Glover's manuscripts. She asks Hamilton not to let Clarke know that she has shown her the letter as Clarke had asked her not to show it anyone. Watson writes that it would not be possible for him to write a history of Mr Glover's life as he came into his life at a late date so he has not the materials to do it justice. He does give his opinions on the proposed publication of Richard Glover's manuscripts and notes that Glover himself had mentioned a printer, a Mr Cadell, it may be right to employ him. Glover asks Hamilton's for her views on the letter and notes that the Provost of Eton has asked Mr Cadell on her behalf what he would give for the copy of the Athenaid. When Cadell was told of the length of the piece he said it was too long and that he 'could not answer for it selling'. If she agreed to shorten it he would publish it and that they would share the profits but if she did not then he would print it in the 'common way'. She continues to note that she had been advised not to publish the tragedies but to print the Athenaid on its own to see how it is received and if it is popular then to publish his whole works. Glover is anxious as to what to do and wishes she had Hamilton with her and asks her to write her with her thoughts on the subject. She does not want to part with the works for a 'trifle' as she does not want to harm her father's memory. She suggests that Dr Warton write a preface instead of a biography and continues on how it should be published.
Glover continues her letter with news on friends and notes that her ‘charming Brother never comes near us’. She notes that he called on Anna Maria Clarke the other day and made no enquiry after them. He keeps no house and is in lodgings although he has nine hundred and fifty pounds per year and she has no doubt that he is in debt. She notes that it is ‘a dreadful thing to have bad children’.
Original reference No. 15.
Length: 1 sheet, 1106 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited 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: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.
Transliterator: Cassandra Ulph, editorial team (completed 16 June 2020)
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: 20 October 2023