BIB_ID
411189
Accession number
MA 9473.1
Creator
Paul, Frances Richmond Smyth, Mrs.
Display Date
[1818 February]
Credit line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cremin, 1982.
Description
1 items (4 pages) ; 18.6 x 11.5 cm
Notes
Acquired as part of a collection of 93 letters of artists and authors acquired in 1982 and formerly accessioned as MA 3553.
A note at the end of his letter says "Copy of Letter sent to G. Colman, Esq're in Febry 1818."
This small collection of three autograph letters signed from Colman to "dear Madam" are in reply to this copy of a letter in which the author identifies herself as Frances Richmond Smith Paul, widow of Alexander Paul. (see MA 9473.2-4)
A note at the end of his letter says "Copy of Letter sent to G. Colman, Esq're in Febry 1818."
This small collection of three autograph letters signed from Colman to "dear Madam" are in reply to this copy of a letter in which the author identifies herself as Frances Richmond Smith Paul, widow of Alexander Paul. (see MA 9473.2-4)
Provenance
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cremin, 1982.
Summary
Discussing their friendship, a play she has written, her health and her independence; saying "This is to certify that the late Frances Richmond Smyth, now exists as a Mrs. Alex'r Paul, widow, whom you may have supposed to have gone a longer journey than many she has yet taken. This same Lady has, since she has had the pleasure to see you, been very, very happy, and very, very, miserable; in which periods her poetical quil lay very quietly by in her escritoire, but as it now happens she is become neither the one, or the other, she has again taken up this same quil (it has not been worn out much you will perceive) and she feels a wish to be again a customer at the Old Shop; if therefore your Bill of fare is not finally arranged for the ensuing Summer, and you may prefer an Old Friend, to a new Stranger, why, I have a play prays your acceptance, for those terrible fellows, the Critics, make me dare not to call it a Comedy; it is in five acts - which by cutting out all Queen Eliz'bth side siddle you may reduce to three, if you so please - for I don't find maturer age, for there's no Old age, in this age you know - has rendered me anything different to what you first knew me - ever happy to profit by advice, I esteem, and venerate, but as [illegible] as ever to that of people I despise. If I have outlived youth and beauty, I have not yet parted with good spirits, a contented heart, and a placid mind. When I take it into my head to be wise, and Philosophic, I compare life to a circle; and, that as we run round it, as the two ends begin to approximate, the hope of meeting some of our choicest partialities may again fall in our way - it is not I confess, that we can always widely account for those partialities, and I may be puzzled to account for mine toward a certain George Colman - but - so it is; if you ever had any for a certain F.R.S. a line directed at Mr. Maynards &c will be duly forwarded;" adding, in a postscript, "Remember amongst all my excentricities, since I have had the honour of seeing you, that I have been wise enough to keep my Fortune in my own power; and tho' not rich - I am more what I always was, proudly Independent. but I want about a hundred pounds for a particular purpose, which has made me advert again to this same poetical Quil, if you don't check, my giving a check upon it for that purpose."
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