William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries
Ch. VII. 1806-1811
William Godwin to Louisa Holcroft [Kenney], [draft; January? 1810]
“Dear Madam,—You ask my
feelings respecting the manuscript life of Mr Holcroft. When your note
reached me, I had no feelings on the subject worth communicating. The two or
three slight criticisms that suggested themselves to me I mentioned to
Mr Hazlitt, and he promised to
attend to them. The narrative which Mr
Holcroft dictated in the last weeks of his existence impressed
me with the strongest feelings of admiration, and the life appeared a very
decent composition, with a few excellent passages, sufficiently fitted on the
whole for the purpose for which it was intended.
“I had not then seen the diary part, this was
detained from me till yesterday, I believe by accident. This part is a
violation of the terms originally settled with Mr
Hazlitt. The book, it was agreed, should consist of life, and a
selection of letters. I knew of the existence of this diary, but had not read
it; and had not the least imagination that it was ever to be printed. When
Mr Hazlitt told me he had inserted the greater part of
it, I did not immediately set up my judgment, who had not read it, against his,
who had.
“I have now examined it, and consider it (as a
publication) with the strongest feelings of disapprobation. It is one thing for
a man to write a journal, and another for that journal to be given to the
public. I am sure Mr Holcroft would
never have consented to this. I have always entertained the highest antipathy
to this violation of the confidence between man and man, that every idle word,
every thoughtless jest I make at another’s expense, shall be carried home
by the hearer, put in writing, and afterwards printed. This part will cause
fifty persons at least, who lived on friendly terms with Mr
Holcroft, to execrate his memory. It will make you many bitter
enemies, who will rejoice in your ruin, and be transported to see you sunk in
the last distress. Many parts are actionable.
“I will give you instances of each sort. There is a
story of one Marriott, an attorney, whom Mr Holcroft never saw; that is, no ![]()
| LIVES OF THE PHILIPSES. | 177 |
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doubt, actionable, if the
man is living. Mr Dealtry, an intimate
friend of Dr Parr, is introduced, saying
that the Doctor could not spell. There is probably an eternal breach between
them, and how occasioned? By the circumstance of a thoughtless joke, uttered
with no evil intention, being caught up by the hearer, and afterwards sent to
the press. Two or three detestable stories (lies, I can swear) are told of
Mrs Siddons; and Miss
Smith, the actress, is quoted as the authority; that is,
Miss Smith, as other people do, who are desirous of
amusing their company, told these stories as she heard them, borne out with a
sort of saw, ‘You have them as cheap as I.’ The first
meeting of Emma Smith and Mr Holcroft
occurs, and he sets her down, and Mr
Hazlitt prints her, as a young woman of no talents; I believe
Mr Holcroft altered his opinion on that subject. A
tale is introduced about the private transactions and affairs of Mrs
Wollstonecraft and Mr
Imlay; what right have the publishers of this book to rake up
and drag in that subject? For myself, I can fairly say that if I had known that
every time I dined with or called upon Mr Holcroft, I was
to be recorded in a quarto book, well printed, and with an ornamental
frontispiece, in the ridiculous way of coming in to go out again fifty times, I
would not on that penalty have called upon or dined with him at all. In short,
the publication of the whole of this part of the book answers no other purpose
than to gratify the malignity of mankind, to draw out to view the privacies of
firesides, and to pamper the bad passions of the idle and worthless with
tittletattle, and tales of scandal.
“I would have gone to Mr
Nicholson immediately on the subject, had he not by a letter of
the most odious and groundless insinuations rendered that, at least for the
present, impossible. By what I here write, therefore, I beg leave to enter my
protest on the subject, and so to discharge my conscience. I will be no part or
party to such a publication.
Peregrine Dealtry (1762 c.-1814)
Of Brandenham House, the son of John Dealtry, MD, of York; he was a pupil and friend of
Samuel Parr, a man of means, and a political radical.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
English essayist and literary critic; author of
Characters of
Shakespeare's Plays (1817),
Lectures on the English Poets
(1818), and
The Spirit of the Age (1825).
Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809)
English playwright and novelist; a friend of William Godwin indicted for treason in 1794;
author of
The Road to Ruin (1792). His
Memoirs (1816) were completed by William Hazlitt.
Gilbert Imlay (1754-1828)
American writer, speculator, and radical who fathered a child, Fanny Imlay, with Mary
Wollstonecraft.
William John Godolphin Nicholls (1789 c.-1815)
Of Trereife in Cornwall, the son of William Nicholls; he was tutored by Charles Valentine
Le Grice, who in 1799 married his mother (née Mary Ustick) who would inherit the estate
upon the death of her son.
William Nicholson (1753-1815)
Originally an agent for Josiah Wedgwood, he pursued a career as a chemist, writer on
science, and projector; he was a friend of Thomas Holcroft and William Godwin.
Samuel Parr (1747-1825)
English schoolmaster, scholar, and book collector whose strident politics and assertive
personality involved him in a long series of quarrels.
Sarah Siddons [née Kemble] (1755-1831)
English tragic actress, sister of John Philip Kemble, famous roles as Desdemona, Lady
Macbeth, and Ophelia. She retired from the stage in 1812.
