BIB_ID
103651
Accession number
MA 23290
Creator
Hayley, William, 1745-1820.
Display Date
Eartham, England, 1792 Otcober 31.
Description
1 item (2 pages, with address) ; 23.0 x 18.7 cm
Notes
The year of writing is not provided however Cowper sat for his portrait by Romney in 1792 while he was a guest of William Hayley. Hayley dates the letter "Wednesday / Oct. 31". October 31st was on a Wednesday in 1792.
Address panel with fragments of a seal and postmarks to "George Romney Esq'r / Cavendish Square / London."
The first leaf of the letter contains a copy of the sonnet "To George Romney Esq." by William Cowper, written in an unknown hand. The poem reads as follows: "Romney expert infallibly to trace / On Chart or Canvas, not the form alone / And semblance but however faintly shown, / The minds impression too on ev'ry Face - / With strokes that Time ought never to erase, / Thou hast so pencill'd mine, that, though I own / The Subject worthless, I have never known / The Artist shining with superior Grace. / But this I mark that symptoms none of Woe / In thy Incomparable Work appear / Well I am satisfied it should be so, / Since, on maturer thought, the cause is clear; / For in my Looks what sorrow could'st thou see, / While I was Hayley's Guest, and sat to thee? / Wm Cowper."
From Hayley. Life of Romney, v. 1, p. 182.
Address panel with fragments of a seal and postmarks to "George Romney Esq'r / Cavendish Square / London."
The first leaf of the letter contains a copy of the sonnet "To George Romney Esq." by William Cowper, written in an unknown hand. The poem reads as follows: "Romney expert infallibly to trace / On Chart or Canvas, not the form alone / And semblance but however faintly shown, / The minds impression too on ev'ry Face - / With strokes that Time ought never to erase, / Thou hast so pencill'd mine, that, though I own / The Subject worthless, I have never known / The Artist shining with superior Grace. / But this I mark that symptoms none of Woe / In thy Incomparable Work appear / Well I am satisfied it should be so, / Since, on maturer thought, the cause is clear; / For in my Looks what sorrow could'st thou see, / While I was Hayley's Guest, and sat to thee? / Wm Cowper."
From Hayley. Life of Romney, v. 1, p. 182.
Summary
Complying with a request by Cowper that he share the poem he wrote to George Romney which he sent to Hayley; saying "Carissimo Pittore / This graceful & charming compliment to yr Talents arrived here last night with a request that if I thought it would please you I should transmit it to yr Hand - Your little Fairy Tom hoped to have had the pleasure of writing you a Spritely Letter this morning as Secretary to our dear Bard of Weston but alas the poor little Fellow is at this moment tormented with pains in the Face that [ren]der Him unable to hold a pen - I will not however detain from you ever for a single post a delightful Tribute to yr Genius from a Poet so dear to us both - excuse this brief scrawl as all my nerves are aching with sympathetic anguish while my poor child is leaning against my Bosom / God bless you / ever yr affectionate / WH."
Catalog link
Department