![NELSON, Horatio, Viscount (1758-1805). Autograph letter signed ('Nelson & Bronte') to EMMA, LADY HAMILTON ('My Dear Lady'), San Josef, Brixham, [dated on the address panel 12 February 1801], one page, 4to (247 x 200mm), integral address leaf (the address leaf previously detached and reattached incorrectly, tear to the address leaf covered with archival tape, worn at folds and edges).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2014/CKS/2014_CKS_01568_0023_000(nelson_horatio_viscount_autograph_letter_signed_to_emma_lady_hamilton091925).jpg?w=1)
細節
NELSON, Horatio, Viscount (1758-1805). Autograph letter signed ('Nelson & Bronte') to EMMA, LADY HAMILTON ('My Dear Lady'), San Josef, Brixham, [dated on the address panel 12 February 1801].
One page, 4to (247 x 200mm), integral address leaf (the address leaf previously detached and reattached incorrectly, tear to the address leaf covered with archival tape, worn at folds and edges).
WORRYING THAT HIS CLANDESTINE CORRESPONDENCE WITH EMMA MAY HAVE BEEN INTERCEPTED. Apparently responding to a concern raised by Emma regarding the fate of an earlier missive, Nelson writes 'My letter to you with two others was put into the Post Office at Brixham at 1/2 past 2 o'clock on Sunday ... I have had the mid up to the post and he assures me that he untied the red tape and put the three letters into the Post Office. I therefore hope it is come to hand if not it is intercepted'. Even if that is the case, he asserts somewhat disingenuously, 'God knows [it] is of no farther consequence than the interruption of a free communication between 2 such dear friends'. Slipping into coded affection, he continues: 'Mrs Thomson's friend desires you will assure her of his unalterable & affectionate regard, and begs she will be assured that all the world cannot either change or make him wish to change for a moment and that he is unalterably hers. Do this my Dear friend for this [sic] good young people I really pity them'. He ends asking her to 'Kiss my god child'.
Reflecting the precarious circumstances in which Nelson and Emma were forced to conduct their relationship, the present letter betrays some of the insecurities that beset the couple, including the constant fear that one of their letters -- full of thinly-veiled affection, with neither party well disguised by their use of the 'Thomson' alias -- would fall into strange hands. From his proclamations of affection, it also seems that Emma, or 'Mrs Thomson' as she appears here, had questioned Nelson's devotion; accusations of emotional infidelity and neglect recur throughout their correspondence, and saw him whipped into agonies of jealousy and despair. Based in England during the final negotiations of the Peace of Amiens, Nelson could frequently visit Emma and play some part in the life of his illegitimate daughter, Horatia -- referred to as his 'god child' in their correspondence. Curiously, this letter seems not to have been part of the Morrison Collection.
One page, 4to (247 x 200mm), integral address leaf (the address leaf previously detached and reattached incorrectly, tear to the address leaf covered with archival tape, worn at folds and edges).
WORRYING THAT HIS CLANDESTINE CORRESPONDENCE WITH EMMA MAY HAVE BEEN INTERCEPTED. Apparently responding to a concern raised by Emma regarding the fate of an earlier missive, Nelson writes 'My letter to you with two others was put into the Post Office at Brixham at 1/2 past 2 o'clock on Sunday ... I have had the mid up to the post and he assures me that he untied the red tape and put the three letters into the Post Office. I therefore hope it is come to hand if not it is intercepted'. Even if that is the case, he asserts somewhat disingenuously, 'God knows [it] is of no farther consequence than the interruption of a free communication between 2 such dear friends'. Slipping into coded affection, he continues: 'Mrs Thomson's friend desires you will assure her of his unalterable & affectionate regard, and begs she will be assured that all the world cannot either change or make him wish to change for a moment and that he is unalterably hers. Do this my Dear friend for this [sic] good young people I really pity them'. He ends asking her to 'Kiss my god child'.
Reflecting the precarious circumstances in which Nelson and Emma were forced to conduct their relationship, the present letter betrays some of the insecurities that beset the couple, including the constant fear that one of their letters -- full of thinly-veiled affection, with neither party well disguised by their use of the 'Thomson' alias -- would fall into strange hands. From his proclamations of affection, it also seems that Emma, or 'Mrs Thomson' as she appears here, had questioned Nelson's devotion; accusations of emotional infidelity and neglect recur throughout their correspondence, and saw him whipped into agonies of jealousy and despair. Based in England during the final negotiations of the Peace of Amiens, Nelson could frequently visit Emma and play some part in the life of his illegitimate daughter, Horatia -- referred to as his 'god child' in their correspondence. Curiously, this letter seems not to have been part of the Morrison Collection.
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榮譽呈獻
Eugenio Donadoni