BIB_ID
300078
Accession number
MA 225.23
Creator
Lamb, Mary, 1764-1847.
Display Date
undated [1805 Nov.].
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan before 1913.
Description
1 item (4 p., with address) ; 31.8 cm
Notes
Address panel with seal and addressed to "Miss Stoddart / Salisbury." Docketed 1805.
Dated to early November 1805 by Lucas.
Part of a collection of letters and poems of Charles and Mary Lamb. Items in the collection are described in individual catalog records; see collection-level record for MA 225 for more information.
Sarah Stoddart was the sister of Sir John Stoddart, kings advocate at Malta. In 1808 she married William Hazlitt (1778-1830); in 1822 they were divorced.
Dated to early November 1805 by Lucas.
Part of a collection of letters and poems of Charles and Mary Lamb. Items in the collection are described in individual catalog records; see collection-level record for MA 225 for more information.
Sarah Stoddart was the sister of Sir John Stoddart, kings advocate at Malta. In 1808 she married William Hazlitt (1778-1830); in 1822 they were divorced.
Provenance
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan before 1913.
Summary
Praising Stoddart as "the best letter-writer ... in the world." Referencing Stoddart's unhappy time in Malta, and welcoming her back to England, discussing her plans to chaperone Stoddart about London. Describing her and Charles's depression, noting "it has been sad and heavy times with us lately: when I am pretty well, his low spirits throws me back again; and when he begins to get a little chearful, then I do the same kind office for him." Mentioning that they frequently "fall a-crying, and say we will be better on the morrow." Discussing the illness of Stoddart's mother, urging her to treat her with tenderness. Imploring Stoddart to not let her mother's illness afflict her too deeply, noting "I speak from experience, and from the opportunity I have had of much observation in such cases, that insane people, in the fancy's they take into their head, do not feel ... the perception of having done wrong."
Catalog link
Department