Reproduced by courtesy of the
Four sheets of
Address leaf bearing two black postmarks, partially illegible, reading:
6 OC 6
1819
Sheet (pages seven and eight) torn on right edge of page three where wax seal was removed.
Red wax seal, complete, imprinted "Mary," complete, adhered to page eight.
Mitford’s spelling and punctuation are retained, except where a word is split at the end of a line and the beginning of the next in the manuscript. Where Mitford’s spelling and hyphenation of words deviates from the standard, in order to facilitate searching we are using the TEI elements “choice," “sic," and “reg" to encode both Mitford’s spelling and the regular international standard of Oxford English spelling, following the first listed spelling in the Oxford English Dictionary. The long s and ligatured forms are not encoded.
So you do not like Mr. Crabbe! Neither, to speak of his
unrivalled. I do not quite agree with you respecting his versification there is too much antithesis--too much point--his poems are often only a series of couplets--but that in this last publication is a good deal done away with--there are many passages of which the flow is exceedingly grand & sweeping & some triplets that are absolutely Drydenish. The general tone is of course low & subdued as in so long a poem it must of necessity be--there was however no sort of necessity for its being so long & that in reality is Mr. Crabbe's Cardinal Sin.--As to Mazeppa I have nothing more to say--It is a spirited sketchy thing, but not worth disputing about. I was never you know one of Lord Byron's Idolaters & I certainly am not going to begin now.--I have just seen your fair enemy Mrs. Dickinson who takes your complimentary criticism in very good part & returns you your message that you are a charming man & a very persevering & able advocate in a bad cause. So far so good. I must tell you a piece of news respecting the dear Mrs. Dickinson, after eleven years marriage without any such prospect she is now in the family way. Nothing can be so delightful as this circumstance there is a large estate entailed either upon son or daughter which in failure of issue would have come to a lubberly half nephew of Mr. Dickinson's--a man who after marrying one of his Father's maid servants & living with her a week ran away with the other r. D. is as you may imagine enchanted
A friend of ours has been spending a day or two with us this week & brought with her a lady most astonishingly like you. I never saw so striking a likeness of feature complexion countenance & expression--the likeness extended even to voice & manner--she talked like you & looked like you--& was just as good & kind to me as you are. I took to her amazingly & asked her a dozen times if she really was You or herself. She insisted that she was herself--& I believe her the rather because I think the real you would in petticoats have looked larger & taller. In fact she is much the same size for a woman that you are for a man--& then I enquired if she was no relation no sister or cousin--but she says she is not--& has not even the honour of your acquaintance--Her name is Greenwell & she lives in London--of course she is very pleasant & very pleasant looking--
I have not seen the Welsh Mountaineers--but your
how carefully not knowing the true orthography I have spelt Welch, Welsh in one place Welch in another & Wel*sc*h (in a happy betweenity--a sort of compound letter) in the third) (I flatter myself that this congeries of parentheses outdoes your outdoings in that way) called the Miser Married--which when I have read I shall tell you all about--
Oh you are greatly mistaken when you think me a Huntite--I think one of the worst consequences of this sad affair at Manchester was bringing out the unsuspected good qualities of that vulgar & dangerous
I am not going to make any speech about your illness--though I must say that I hope it has not returned (you'll let me do that I am sure). Mama has a follow feeling for you--having been a sufferer from the same cause this summer--She is quite well now.--Good night my dear Sir William--It is bed time & I find that I have made fifty mistakes which I know you will forgive--Anybody in the world but myself would be ashamed to send you such interlined scrawls--but I am incorrigible & you spoil me. Good night--God bless you!--
Monday Sept. 27. (see how I improve) What you say of Hamlet agrees perfectly with my feelings--though it is a thing you know that one scarcely dares to say. I remember the observation in Mr. Northcote's Life of Sir Joshua--& remember thinking at the time that Mr. Fox's objection to Hamlet probably arose from the very different treatment of a nearly similar story in his favorite Greek Dramatists--the Orestes however cruel & barbarous is certainly a much more dramatic personage than the Hamlet--& again I must confess that in spite of the admirable writing of great part of the play & the inimitable effect of the opening of which the preparation, the familiarity, the awefulness, the art or the artlessness, seem to me unrivalled even in Shakespeare, in spite of all this Hamlet is no favorite of mine. This is a terrible heresy--but with Mr. Fox & Sir William Elford
October 2nd No--no sermon on that text--the novel is a sprightly amusing thing enough, but not
ugly faces escape untouched. After all there is some talent in it--as much perhaps of the germ of talent as there was in Miss Austen's Sense & Sensibility--if the next resemble Pride & Prejudice what can be wished for more. The Miser Married is Miss Hutton's first production & was written 5 years ago. You see I proceed on the supposition that Miss Hutton is the Authoress of the Welsh Mountaineers though I have only a vague recollection of an advertisement in the newspaper. Tell me if I am right. (skip this page & go on to the next)
If you admire nothing else in this extract you will admire (in the old sense of wonder) as my pretty schoolgirl's writing my vs. & ks & ms. Which are generally all alike, now blazoned as the herald's bay with a difference.--Oh if any body had told me I should ever mind my ps & qs--how I should have laughed at them!--I hope you won't take a fancy to me desire me always to write legibly.--
is a greater degree than that of communicating to his readers the enthusiasm that he professes to feel. Mr. Jeffrey's admiration may be very sincere--it is certainly not contagious--He is a much greater "Puller down" than "Setter up" & knows better how to depress Mr. Wordsworth than to elevate Mr. Crabbe. A matchless writer after all is Mr. Jeffrey--& the Review which I have thought languishing lately seems regaining some of its old vivacity in this number--particularly in the articles on Botany Bay & Buonaparte. (I hope you won't be wicked enough to think this juxtaposition betokens any failure of allegiance to the Emperor of my affections--whom I admire more than ever from some of the tracts brought against him--especially that one of tossing the books he did not like out of his carriage windows--don't you?)--Apropos to Mr. Jeffrey and Mr. Wordsworth--I want you to read one fair specimen of the great Laker.--& I think his best chance is to be put in the shape of a long Parenthesis (a thing which you & I both like you know) into my letter. There's vanity for you! I have chosen the Yew Trees because I think it exceedingly opposite to your notion of Mr. Wordsworth's writing & likewise (to be perfectly fair on my side) because I think the lives the finest he ever wrote--but in the whole range of English poetry it would be difficult to find any finer --The long words will remind you of Milton as well as the structure of the verse, but--(pray don't tell)--I have sometimes thought Milton's long crabbed words just for the sake of their length & their out-of-the-way-ness--Now Wordsworth's could not be supplied by any other--It is a perfect picture & no other colours could have given the effect--The truth of the touch is quite inimitable--& so are the magnificent personifications--Now do tell me what you think of them--Don't fancy I am going Wordsworth mad--I think just as you do of Mr. Wordsworth's system & of his vanity--but I think differently of the White Doe of Rylestone. Mind--I have not the slightest intention to recommend them to your Worship's perusal--I shall be quite content if you read the 20 lines I send you.--My dear dear friend I must make up my mind to pause & seal up my letter--It grows like a snowball & if I do not fling it forthwith at your unlucky pate, it will turn into an Avalanche & crush you with its weight.--fare well my dear Sir William--Best & kindest & most patient of Correspondents farewell!--Papa & Mama send their best regards--