Single Letter

GEO/ADD/3/82/78

Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


78

recd- Tuesday Morng.
10 o'Clock 14th Decbr. 1779


      Be not astonished my dear
Miranda, at my silence for ye 3 or
4 last days attribute it not to in=
=difference
for I aʃsure you yt. nothing
Can be further from my mind than yt.
I am sorry my Miranda to tell you
my friend yt. you must not expect
to hear from me above once or at most
twice in ye. same Week of& yt. I am
afraid in a very short Notes, however
be sure yt. whatever opportunities
I can seize I will. This moment
I am writing is taken out of my
time for rest it is very late & am
afraid of being interrupted every
moment by ye. arrival of Lt—— C—— H



however I will scrawl, all & as long
as I can. Know then my Friend, yt.
I am more than ever in love, & yt. ye
dear object of my paʃsion, corresponds
with my flame, & yt. our love is
mutual, she was attacked ye. other[1]
in ye. house for addreʃsing ever
tender speech she ought to have
addreʃsed to Prince Florisel[2] to me, you
may see of what texture they are by
reading ym- in Shakespeare. I also
have had intelligence from a Gentleman
who was at ye. Play at C——t G——n
T——e when we were there last Week
& who is acquainted with Sr.. John
Lade
, by whom he sat at ye Th——e
who has had an intimate connection avec



mon aimable & chère séductrice
yt. yhe remarked to this person how
tired I appeared of ye. piece with
an arch remark yt. I shd.. not
have been so tired had I been at
D——y L——e T——e & then said I have
heard a great deal of ye. P——
attachment for My.. R. & I can
aʃsure you yt. she is as much
pleased with him as he can be
with her, upon which this person
yt. related this to me, said to Sr.
J——n
take Sr. J——n. yt. you are
not undermined by this galant
young Rival, upon wh. he answered
with an Oath B——y[3] G——d I shd. be
very glad of it for both their sakes
as they seem so mutually attached to each other.



      I shd.. not have troubled you
with this conversation my Friend, hadas
I do not think entering particularly
into such matters is a fit or proper
topic for you, however I did it in
order to fullfil my old promise
& to demonstrate to you ye transports
I feel at this relation, I am meta=
=morphosed
into ye. gay galant
Lothario
, into as happy a creature
as I was almost desponding with
Love, paʃsion, & ye most ardent
flame, boiling altogether in my
bosom yesterday, so indeed they
do now, but transports are of the
happy instead of ye. unhappy
kind. God bleʃs you Adieu. I am
      Yr. ever affectionate Friend
                             Palemon toujours de meme

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


Notes


 1. A word such as evening is required here.
 2. David Garrick's Florizel and Perdita (performed 1753, published 1756) is a reworking of part of The Winter's Tale (Wikipedia).
 3. The innocuous word by seems to have been blanked mechanically as part of an oath.

Normalised Text





      Be not astonished my dear
Miranda, at my silence for the 3 or
4 last days attribute it not to indifference
for I assure you that nothing
Can be further from my mind than that
I am sorry my Miranda to tell you
my friend that you must not expect
to hear from me above once or at most
twice in the same Week & that I am
afraid in very short Notes, however
be sure that whatever opportunities
I can seize I will. This moment
I am writing is taken out of my
time for rest it is very late & am
afraid of being interrupted every
moment by the arrival of Lieutenant Colonel Hotham



however I will scrawl, all & as long
as I can. Know then my Friend, that
I am more than ever in love, & that the
dear object of my passion, corresponds
with my flame, & that our love is
mutual, she was attacked the other
in the house for addressing every
tender speech she ought to have
addressed to Prince Florisel to me, you
may see of what texture they are by
reading them in Shakespeare. I also
have had intelligence from a Gentleman
who was at the Play at Covent Garden
Theatre when we were there last Week
& who is acquainted with Sir John
Lade, by whom he sat at the Theatre
who has had an intimate connection avec



mon aimable & chère séductrice
that he remarked to this person how
tired I appeared of the piece with
an arch remark that I should not
have been so tired had I been at
Drury Lane Theatre & then said I have
heard a great deal of the Prince
attachment for Mary Robinson & I can
assure you that she is as much
pleased with him as he can be
with her, upon which this person
that related this to me, said to Sir
John take Sir John that you are
not undermined by this gallant
young Rival, upon which he answered
with an Oath By God I should be
very glad of it for both their sakes
as they seem so mutually attached to each other.



      I should not have troubled you
with this conversation my Friend, as
I do not think entering particularly
into such matters is a fit or proper
topic for you, however I did it in
order to fulfil my old promise
& to demonstrate to you the transports
I feel at this relation, I am metamorphosed
into the gay gallant
Lothario, into as happy a creature
as I was almost desponding with
Love, passion, & the most ardent
flame, boiling altogether in my
bosom yesterday, so indeed they
do now, but transports are of the
happy instead of the unhappy
kind. God bless you Adieu. I am
      Your ever affectionate Friend
                             Palemon toujours de meme

(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations,
spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. A word such as evening is required here.
 2. David Garrick's Florizel and Perdita (performed 1753, published 1756) is a reworking of part of The Winter's Tale (Wikipedia).
 3. The innocuous word by seems to have been blanked mechanically as part of an oath.

Metadata

Library References

Repository: Windsor Castle, The Royal Archives

Archive: GEO/ADD/3 Additional papers of George IV, as Prince, Regent, and King

Item title: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: GEO/ADD/3/82/78

Correspondence Details

Sender: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)

Place sent: unknown

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 14 December 1779
notBefore 14 December 1779 (precision: medium)
notAfter 14 December 1779 (precision: high)

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton on not being able to write as frequently; and on his and Mary Robinson's mutual love.
    The Prince writes that he gained intelligence of Robinson's affections from a gentleman acquainted with Sir John Lade. He writes that Robinson addressed the 'tender speech she ought to have addressed to Prince Floriel to me'. The Prince states that he has 'metamorphosed into the gay galant Lothario, into as happy a creature, as I was almost desponding with Love, passion, & the most ardent flame, boiling altogether in my bosom...'.
    Received Thursday morning at 10 o'clock.
    Signed 'Palemon'.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 479 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: Tino Oudesluijs, editorial team (completed January 2020)

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

Revision date: 2 November 2021

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