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Three autograph letters signed, to Thomas De Quincey, n.p. [postmarked Keswick], 24 May [1809], and to Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Lowther Castle, [26 September 1830] and [Rydal Mount], 13 June 1831
Details
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Three autograph letters signed, to Thomas De Quincey, n.p. [postmarked Keswick], 24 May [1809], and to Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Lowther Castle, [26 September 1830] and [Rydal Mount], 13 June 1831
The first 2 ½ pages, 228 x 183mm, in Wordsworth's hand, with an autograph postscript signed by Sara Hutchinson; the second four pages, 185 x 119mm, and one page, 230 x 185mm; and the third 1 ¼ pages, 326 x 205mm, in Wordsworth's hand, with a sonnet in Dora Wordsworth's hand and an autograph postscript signed by Dorothy Wordsworth; integral address panels, postal markings, a few annotations in other hands. Provenance: Sotheby's, 21 July 1983, lots 313, 314 and 316.
'I have scarcely written a hundred verses during the last twelve months': on his pamphlet 'The Convention of Cintra', discussing Hazlitt, Byron and 'the Lakers', and sending a transcript of his sonnet on Haydon's painting of Napoleon. The letter to Thomas De Quincey is written on receiving the printed text of his pamphlet 'The Convention of Cintra' (which De Quincey had seen through the press): Wordsworth corrects a number of errata, and strengthens his previous criticisms of Sir John Moore: 'Could anything be more monstrous than his having made that march, as he tells us, to satisfy the people of England of a truth they were no otherwise to be convinced of, viz. that the Spaniards had neither the ability nor the inclination to do anything for themselves ...'. He thanks De Quincey for his help, and expresses hope that a passage about the army will not be considered libellous: 'I cannot but think myself that there are several passages for which I may be prosecuted if they chuse, but ... these things have nothing to do with morality, or good sense, but merely depend upon the temper of the times, or of the people in power'. He looks forward to De Quincey's return to Grasmere, though he will miss 'the beauties of this Spring ... as a few days will carry them all away'. Wordsworth's sister-in-law Sara Hutchinson adds to the letter with a further list of errata for the pamphlet, and a postscript that 'W[illia]m has been in the house all day, so was in a hurry to get his walk before it was too late, and left me to this business, which I have not executed to my satisfaction', asking De Quincey to send a corrected copy to Lord Lonsdale, and adding 'Mr Southey has lost his youngest child but one – a sweet little girl'.
The first of the two letters to the Irish physicist and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton begins with social news, including of a recent visit by Felicia Hemans. He refers to the recent death of the politician William Huskisson (who had been fatally injured at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway ten days previously), and also to that of William Hazlitt (on 18 September): 'There is another acquaintance of mine also recently gone — a person for whom I never had any love, but with whom I had for a short time a good deal of intimacy. – I mean Hazlitt, whose death you may have seen announced in the Papers. – He was a man of extraordinary acuteness, but perverse as Lord Byron himself whose life by Galt I have been skimming since I came here'; Wordsworth criticises Galt as 'perhaps the most illogical writer that these illogical days have produced', singling out his reference to Southey as displaying 'rancour' towards Byron, and his expressed aversion for 'the Lakers, whom in the plenitude of his ignorance he is pleased to speak of as a class or School of Poets'. In the second letter to Hamilton, Wordsworth recounts a recent visit to Cambridge during the general election (fought on the principle of parliamentary reform, which Wordsworth describes as 'this rash and unprincipled measure'). He goes on 'I wish I could tell you that I had been busily employed in my own art; but I have scarcely written a hundred verses during the last twelve months; a sonnet however the day before yesterday shall be transcribed upon this sheet, by way of making my part of it better worth postage. It was written at the request of the Painter Haydon & to benefit him – i.e. as he thought. – But it is no more than my sincere opinion of his excellent picture'. He concludes by recommending Joseph Hines's new edition of a selection of his poems intended for schoolchildren. The letter is followed by a transcript in Dora Wordsworth's hand of the sonnet 'To B.R. Haydon, on seeing his picture of Napoleon Buonaparte on the island of St Helena', and a postscript by Dorothy Wordsworth, mentioning a request from St John's College, Cambridge that Wordsworth 'sit for his portrait to some eminent artist ... the difficulty is to fix on an Artist – There never yet has been a good Portrait of my Brother – The Sketch by Haydon, as you may remember, is a fine drawing – But what a likeness! – All that there is of likeness makes it to me the more disagreeable'.
Three autograph letters signed, to Thomas De Quincey, n.p. [postmarked Keswick], 24 May [1809], and to Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Lowther Castle, [26 September 1830] and [Rydal Mount], 13 June 1831
The first 2 ½ pages, 228 x 183mm, in Wordsworth's hand, with an autograph postscript signed by Sara Hutchinson; the second four pages, 185 x 119mm, and one page, 230 x 185mm; and the third 1 ¼ pages, 326 x 205mm, in Wordsworth's hand, with a sonnet in Dora Wordsworth's hand and an autograph postscript signed by Dorothy Wordsworth; integral address panels, postal markings, a few annotations in other hands. Provenance: Sotheby's, 21 July 1983, lots 313, 314 and 316.
'I have scarcely written a hundred verses during the last twelve months': on his pamphlet 'The Convention of Cintra', discussing Hazlitt, Byron and 'the Lakers', and sending a transcript of his sonnet on Haydon's painting of Napoleon. The letter to Thomas De Quincey is written on receiving the printed text of his pamphlet 'The Convention of Cintra' (which De Quincey had seen through the press): Wordsworth corrects a number of errata, and strengthens his previous criticisms of Sir John Moore: 'Could anything be more monstrous than his having made that march, as he tells us, to satisfy the people of England of a truth they were no otherwise to be convinced of, viz. that the Spaniards had neither the ability nor the inclination to do anything for themselves ...'. He thanks De Quincey for his help, and expresses hope that a passage about the army will not be considered libellous: 'I cannot but think myself that there are several passages for which I may be prosecuted if they chuse, but ... these things have nothing to do with morality, or good sense, but merely depend upon the temper of the times, or of the people in power'. He looks forward to De Quincey's return to Grasmere, though he will miss 'the beauties of this Spring ... as a few days will carry them all away'. Wordsworth's sister-in-law Sara Hutchinson adds to the letter with a further list of errata for the pamphlet, and a postscript that 'W[illia]m has been in the house all day, so was in a hurry to get his walk before it was too late, and left me to this business, which I have not executed to my satisfaction', asking De Quincey to send a corrected copy to Lord Lonsdale, and adding 'Mr Southey has lost his youngest child but one – a sweet little girl'.
The first of the two letters to the Irish physicist and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton begins with social news, including of a recent visit by Felicia Hemans. He refers to the recent death of the politician William Huskisson (who had been fatally injured at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway ten days previously), and also to that of William Hazlitt (on 18 September): 'There is another acquaintance of mine also recently gone — a person for whom I never had any love, but with whom I had for a short time a good deal of intimacy. – I mean Hazlitt, whose death you may have seen announced in the Papers. – He was a man of extraordinary acuteness, but perverse as Lord Byron himself whose life by Galt I have been skimming since I came here'; Wordsworth criticises Galt as 'perhaps the most illogical writer that these illogical days have produced', singling out his reference to Southey as displaying 'rancour' towards Byron, and his expressed aversion for 'the Lakers, whom in the plenitude of his ignorance he is pleased to speak of as a class or School of Poets'. In the second letter to Hamilton, Wordsworth recounts a recent visit to Cambridge during the general election (fought on the principle of parliamentary reform, which Wordsworth describes as 'this rash and unprincipled measure'). He goes on 'I wish I could tell you that I had been busily employed in my own art; but I have scarcely written a hundred verses during the last twelve months; a sonnet however the day before yesterday shall be transcribed upon this sheet, by way of making my part of it better worth postage. It was written at the request of the Painter Haydon & to benefit him – i.e. as he thought. – But it is no more than my sincere opinion of his excellent picture'. He concludes by recommending Joseph Hines's new edition of a selection of his poems intended for schoolchildren. The letter is followed by a transcript in Dora Wordsworth's hand of the sonnet 'To B.R. Haydon, on seeing his picture of Napoleon Buonaparte on the island of St Helena', and a postscript by Dorothy Wordsworth, mentioning a request from St John's College, Cambridge that Wordsworth 'sit for his portrait to some eminent artist ... the difficulty is to fix on an Artist – There never yet has been a good Portrait of my Brother – The Sketch by Haydon, as you may remember, is a fine drawing – But what a likeness! – All that there is of likeness makes it to me the more disagreeable'.
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Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts