Letter to <persName ref="#Talfourd_Thos">T.N. Talfourd</persName>, [11 May] 1825 Mary Russell Mitford Lisa M. Wilson Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Lisa M. Wilson Heather Sarsfield Date last checked: 2016-01-19 Proofing and corrections by Lisa M. Wilson First digital edition in TEI, date: 22 May 2014. P5. Edition made with help from photos taken by Digital Mitford editors Digital Mitford photo files: DSCN1172.JPG, DSCN1173.JPG, DSCN1174.JPG, DSCN1175.JPG Digital Mitford: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive Greensburg, PA, USA 2013

Courtesy of The University of Manchester.

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License Digital Mitford Letters: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive The John Rylands University Library Mitford-Talfourd Correspondence: Letters from Mary Russell Mitford to Thomas Noon Talfourd: vol. 665 JRL English MS 665 no. 18 Coles no. 87 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to T.N. Talfourd, 11 May 1825. Coles dates as 11 May 1825 (postmarked 13 May); May 11 was a Wed. as checked on perpetual calendar.

Sheet of paper folded in half to form four pages, with correspondence on 1-3 and address leaf on page 4, then folded in thirds twice more and sealed for posting.

Address leaf bearing four postmarks, three illegible: Coles has "Postmarks (the first two partly illegible): 13 MY 1825; T P; 2; a fourth postmark is illegible" (87). Sepia-inked oval Delivery stamp reading 13 MY 1825

A large 2 denoting the fee for a single-sheet letter has been written in black ink by the postal service across the address leaf.

A portion of page 3 has been torn away under the seal.

Red wax seal, partially intact.

 Someone cataloging the letters, apparently other than Mitford, numbered each on page 1. This letter numbered 18.

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.
18 Three Mile Cross Wednesday My dear friend--

I have had the kindest of all kind letters from Mr. Kemble from his sick room, offering to give Mr. Fitzharris a trial early next season and promising to do all he possibly can to forward his views in London, & expressing himself very desirous to see my play which is too late of course for this season--You cannot think how kind & friendly the letter is--I shall of course do my very best with "Charles"--because I really think if we could make a successful play of that that Mr. Elliston would then wish to take Rienzi--But I have as always had my doubts of Charles--I shall do my best though my very best--& (I am going to make a strange admission) I would give the whole profits of my last edition Coles proposes that Mitford here refers to her latest edition of Our Village, the third (Coles 87, note 1). (whatever they may be for I don't know) that is to say all that I am worth in the world to know really & truly what Mr Macready's plan was with regard to that Tragedy. I am aware that I might just as well wish for the moon--It is however a great comfort & relief to me that the play had it been ready three months ago could not have come out this season (without superseding poor <persName ref="#Bayley_Mrs">Mrs Bayley</persName>'s which of course I would not have done) Mitford here refers to Peter Bayley's tragedy Orestes in Argos, first performed at Covent Garden on 25 April 1825. Bayley died suddenly on 25 January 1823, and his widow arranged for the posthumous publication of a volume of poetry and the performance and publication of his tragedy.--& now I shall have time to do the best I can with it and then I promise you I will go heartily to work at the Novel. I am quite ashamed at the utter prostration of mind & faculty in which I have remained since the winter--It is a weakness so wrong, so much against conviction and necessity as to be almost wickedness--but I will do better if God grant me a continuance of health & strength--I am ashamed of myself to have waited so many months in lamentation.--Have we any chance of seeing you at Whitsuntide?--Could not you come down on the Sunday & dine here? It would be such a comfort.--I have seen more of this young Fitzharris, & continue to like his warmth of heart his modesty & his frankness--although there is a great deal about him that is most abominably Irish & a sad want of literature.

I am going to see him tonight in Othello & shall not finish my letter till I can give my opinion, such as it is, of his performance--There certainly is extraordinary feeling in some of his touches.

Wednesday Night--I am just returned from Othello & have been more struck more astonished more charmed than ever I was in my life--There is as much difference between this young man in Othello the play & in the Stranger as between Shakespeare & Kotzebue--His Othello is splendid magnificent--full of passion tenderness & power--That he must one day be at the very head of his profession seems to me certain--that he will make an immediate hit almost certain--but he says that he does not know a creature in London & is frightened to death of the thought of going there next season. I wish you had been at the Reading Theatre tonight because I am sure of your judgement & very doubtful of my own--but there is a sort of excellence which no one with any feeling can mistake--& besides I have seen Kean in the part-- Fitzharris's Othello seems to me less terrible than his but far grander--far more an excuse for Desdemona's choice--& his fine deep voice holds out to the very last amidst all the tumult of three acts of strong passions --The only thing that he seems to me to want is the faculty of expressing bitterness & scorn--the venom is not in him--for which on Rienzi's account I am heartily sorry--He is a Shakespearean Actor--best in the best. How I wish you could have seen him. Of course I shall not mention his playing Rienzi till we see how he succeeds--Nor should it stand in the way of other chances--but if he does make a hit I am quite sure of his good feeling.--God bless you My dear friend--

Ever most sincerely your's yours , M.R.M.

Kindest regards from all here to dear Mrs. Talford as well as yourself.

To T. N. Talfourd Esqre 2 Elm Court Temple