BIB_ID
403321
Accession number
MA 8917.24
Creator
Boyd, Hugh Stuart, 1781-1848.
Display Date
[1842 November 14].
Credit line
Acquired from the University of Illinois, 1961.
Description
1 item (5 pages, with address) ; 18.4 x 11.3 cm
Notes
Date of writing determined from the postmark and internal evidence: the letter is postmarked November 15, 1842 and Boyd gives the date of writing as "Monday Evening", which would have been the 14th. No place of writing is given but Boyd was known to be living in London at that time and there is a Hampstead postmark. See the published editions of the correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
Addressed to: "Miss Barrett/ 50 Wimpole Street/ London."
Boyd was blind; the letter is in the hand of an amanuensis.
Addressed to: "Miss Barrett/ 50 Wimpole Street/ London."
Boyd was blind; the letter is in the hand of an amanuensis.
Provenance
Acquired from the University of Illinois, 1961.
Summary
Explaining that he forgets most of what he dictates in letters, and apologizing if he has said anything that has offended her or harmed her health; writing that he fears he may have "agitated and affected you, by speaking so strongly against the man whom you thus admire [i.e. Wordsworth]"; conceding that Wordsworth is a very good poet, but arguing that he is far inferior to Byron; referring to various works by Byron; telling her that she is the one who brought Byron's work back into his thoughts and that he has been recalling passages he knew by heart or had nearly forgotten: "In some places he exhibits a thrilling pathos, in some an exquisite beauty, in some, a singular richness and luxuriance, in some a finished harmony; & in others a mighty grandeur, a towering sublimity. He was indeed, a great, and Wonderful poet"; asking her not to write back until she feels better, and if she writes a long letter, to write it in stages, so she doesn't tire herself.
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