Details
THRALE, Hester Lynch (1741-1821, Mrs Piozzi from 1784). Autograph letter signed ('H.L.T.') to Charles Burney, n.p., n.d. (dated '[17]81' in another hand), 2¼ pages, 4to, on a bifolium, integral address panel, remnant of seal (seal tear).
ON ILLNESS, AND FINISHING BOOKS. The letter opens with ironic reference to its subject matter, 'this conning of Ailments ... tho' tolerable Talk over a Winter's Fire, does make but a comfortless Correspondence ... Come & see me before I am a withered dirty Hag', comforting Burney on anxieties over his son's prospects ('Captain Burney will have a Ship') and his own health ('I warrant as sick as you were, you carried some fresh Books back with you to Ches[sington] to learn Philosophy out of'), and encouraging him to finish a book underway: 'Ladies know how wise it is always to leave some thing to be imagined ... a little Literary Coquetry will be well received'; for other news, 'Dear Dr Johnson is not quite well', but Musgrave has come back from Ireland 'married, made miserable, & parted from his Wife; but untamed, and wilde headed, & kindhearted & Hibernianized beyond what he was when he left us'.
ON ILLNESS, AND FINISHING BOOKS. The letter opens with ironic reference to its subject matter, 'this conning of Ailments ... tho' tolerable Talk over a Winter's Fire, does make but a comfortless Correspondence ... Come & see me before I am a withered dirty Hag', comforting Burney on anxieties over his son's prospects ('Captain Burney will have a Ship') and his own health ('I warrant as sick as you were, you carried some fresh Books back with you to Ches[sington] to learn Philosophy out of'), and encouraging him to finish a book underway: 'Ladies know how wise it is always to leave some thing to be imagined ... a little Literary Coquetry will be well received'; for other news, 'Dear Dr Johnson is not quite well', but Musgrave has come back from Ireland 'married, made miserable, & parted from his Wife; but untamed, and wilde headed, & kindhearted & Hibernianized beyond what he was when he left us'.
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