Memoir of John Murray
Caroline Norton to John Murray, 1837
24 Bolton Street, Monday.
Dear Sir,
You have been very kind in sending me books. I send you a
very interesting one, in my opinion, though I fear not
one of general interest. It is a Letter to the Lord
Chancellor on the subject of the Infant Custody Bill; and in the
course of which (in answer to a direct and most bitter personal attack made on
me by Mr. J. Kemble) the facts of my
case are briefly given.
I hope you will read the letter and let me know your
opinion upon it. Mr. Kemble’s
attack wrung from me a contradiction last summer, which
first appeared in the Examiner (signed with my name), and afterwards was copied
into other papers. It is so easy to crush a woman, especially one whose
reputation has been already slandered, that I do not think his triumph is very
great, in having created a prejudice by inventing a gross false-![]()
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hood; attributing to me that which I never wrote, and then
abusing me in very foul and gross language as the author. I might in the same
way assert that the Bishop of London wrote Little’s Poems, and that he was
therefore a disgrace to the Bench of Bishops. Dear Sir, I do not suppose this
“Letter” will be of sufficient consequence to be reviewed in the
Quarterly, but the subject of the letter will perhaps be
noticed, as it is one of the questions to be mooted this session. I entreat of
you, if such shall be the case, to use your influence to prevent my name (which
has grown to be only the watchword of insult and cruel abuse) from being any
more alluded to. Let those who dislike me be satisfied in the assurance that I
have suffered and do suffer as much I believe as my
worst foes could wish. I have one poor boast, and that is, that my foes are all among strangers; it
is reserved for those who never knew me personally, who perhaps never saw me in
their lives, to erect themselves into judges of my character and motives, to
invent an imaginary Mrs.
Norton, something between a barn actress and a
Mary Woolstonecraft; and to hunt her
down with unceasing perseverance; while the reality of this shadow is perhaps
lying ill and broken-hearted, as I was at the time when Mr.
Kemble wrote against me, vainly endeavouring through the
mediation of those who do know me, to arrange a quarrel I never sought, and
which took place under circumstances the very reverse of those supposed by
“the world.” I have trespassed on your indulgence with a very long
note: pray excuse it and
Believe me, yours truly obliged,
Mary Godwin [née Wollstonecraft] (1759-1797)
English feminist, author of
Vindication of the Rights of Woman
(1792); she married William Godwin in 1797 and died giving birth to their daughter
Mary.
John Mitchell Kemble (1807-1857)
Eldest son of the actor Charles Kemble; he was one of ‘the Apostles’ at Cambridge,
afterwards an Anglo-Saxon scholar and examiner of plays.
The Examiner. (1808-1881). Founded by John and Leigh Hunt, this weekly paper divided its attention between literary
matters and radical politics; William Hazlitt was among its regular contributors.
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
