BIB_ID
247076
Accession number
MA 6306
Creator
Cowper, William, 1731-1800.
Display Date
Weston Underwood, England, 1791 April 6.
Credit line
Gift of Charles Ryskamp, in memory of Mrs. J. Richardson Dilworth, 2005.
Description
1 item (3 pages, with address) ; 22.7 x 18.9 cm
Notes
Address panel with seal and postmarks: "John Johnson Esq. / Caius College / Cambridge."
See the Collection File for additional information.
See the Collection File for additional information.
Provenance
Gift of Charles Ryskamp. Listed in Sotheby's London sale, 6-7 December 1984 (item 35), and by David J. Holmes, Autographs (catalog 14, item 31), 4 March 1986.
Summary
Calling him "My dearest Johnny" and sending him "[a] thousand thanks" for the "splendid assemblage of Cambridge Luminaries, not forgetting the bright constellation under it, of rural spangles" who Johnson had persuaded to subscribe to Cowper's translation of the Iliad; adding "If you are not satisfied with your collection, it can only be because you are a most unreasonable [Croydon?], for I, who may be supposed more covetous on this occasion than any body, am highly satisfied and even delighted with it;" including a line in Greek from the Iliad and urging him to come to Weston Underwood: "Stay not an hour beyond the time you have mentioned, even though you should be able to add a thousand names by doing so, for I cannot afford to purchase them at that cost ; I long to see you, and so do we both;" writing of how grateful he feels to Cambridge on this occasion: "Certainly I had not deserved much favour at their hands all things considered, but the cause of literature seems to have some weight with them, and to have superseded the resentment they might be supposed to entertain on the score of certain censures that you wot of;" contrasting this to Oxford; saying that "Mr. Throck - n" (probably John Throckmorton) applied to an influential person there on Cowper's behalf and received the following response: "It is a rule with us never to subscribe to any thing;" commenting on this "Is it not saying, we eat the bread of Literature indeed, but let it sink for us, we will do nothing to uphold it?"; including another line in Greek; asking if Johnson would stop at the Masters' Lodge at Magdalene College and convey his and Mary Unwin's thanks to Dr. Peter Peckard for his subscription; adding "I had the pleasure to be once in his company at Huntingdon, and, of course, regretted that I never saw him after;" asking "now what think you of my prophecy about sausage and mince-pies? I told you how your market-towns would behave, and they have verified my prediction;" writing "Mrs Unwin bids me say that she loves you not less than you, her."
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