Diplomatic Text
I hope, my dear Miʃs Hamilton, you can
tell me your Mama is better, & that
you are in Spirits to reliʃh the Comedy
I ʃend you.[1] -- I laugh'd, 'till my Sides
were ʃore, at it, laʃt night; -- but, with
me, all pleaʃure is incomplete, if I can
not ʃhare it with my Friends. -- You'll
find part of young Marlow's Character
very like a Perʃon's of our Acquaintance;
-- the defective part of it, I mean; not
the virtuous & most meritorious. --
I alʃo ʃend you the Copy of my
political Letters which I promised you. -- [2]
I hope you will not, now, think the
Publication ʃo very abʃurd; when I tell
you, that I foreʃaw my preʃent Embar=
=raʃsment, & that I ʃhould have no otherbetter
means of ʃhaming my Relations into
doing ʃomething for me, than by
making as much Noise in the World as
I poʃsibly could, without doing any thing
to injure my Relations; -- for that
ʃame Reaʃon I publiʃh'd the Letter
(you'll find with These) which at firʃt
gave Meʃsrs: Hope & Co: uneasineʃs, but
which I knew could never hurt Them,
& would intereʃt them in preventing
me from becoming a Bankrupt. -- My
chief own interest, however, was but
the ʃecondary motive of that laʃt Publi=
=cation. -- I really imagined it would be
of immediate publick ʃervice, & in the End would
aggrandize the Character of my old Patrons. --
I'll conclude with a Reflection applica=
=ble to the subject: -- Those who paʃs for the
most prudent & wiʃe, in the World, ʃeldom
can carry on a Design, without being
deiscovered. -- They Eyes ------------ of every
one is upon them; their every action is
watched with the moʃt ʃuʃpicious attention,
& they can undertake nothing, without
every one putting himʃelf on his Guard,
as if ʃomething momentous was intended
to happen. -- The man, on the contrary,
who paʃses for a thoughtleʃs, rattling
fellow, can do what he pleaʃes, without
even being ʃuspected of looking farther
than his Nose before him. --
In anʃwer to all this Nonʃense,
give me juʃt two Lines, to ʃay how
your Mama does; & that, in thus
opening a little more of my ma
ways & manners (as you call'd them)
I have loʃt nothing in the Eʃteem
of my dear good Friend. -- Her's most
ʃincerely & Affecly
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Surely Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, first performed 15 March 1773, first printed edition 25 March 1773 (British Library Catalogue).
2. In HAM/1/6/8/1, Hope wrote ‘Here you ſee my private Reaſon for publiſhing the political Letters I ſhew'd you’. Hamilton's guardian, William Napier, had written on 30 January 1773, ‘those letters [...] hurt him greatly with his Uncle, [...] its prudent to keep ſome things to oneself and as those letters cd- never do any good, they had better never been printed & sent about[...]’ (HAM/1/19/29 p.2 col.1).
Normalised Text
I hope, my dear Miss Hamilton, you can
tell me your Mama is better, & that
you are in Spirits to relish the Comedy
I send you. -- I laughed, till my Sides
were sore, at it, last night; -- but, with
me, all pleasure is incomplete, if I can
not share it with my Friends. -- You'll
find part of young Marlow's Character
very like a Person's of our Acquaintance;
-- the defective part of it, I mean; not
the virtuous & most meritorious. --
I also send you the Copy of my
political Letters which I promised you. --
I hope you will not, now, think the
Publication so very absurd; when I tell
you, that I foresaw my present Embarrassment
, & that I should have no better
means of shaming my Relations into
doing something for me, than by
making as much Noise in the World as
I possibly could, without doing any thing
to injure my Relations; -- for that
same Reason I published the Letter
(you'll find with These) which at first
gave Messrs: Hope & Co: uneasiness, but
which I knew could never hurt Them,
& would interest them in preventing
me from becoming a Bankrupt. -- My
own interest, however, was but
the secondary motive of that last Publication
. -- I really imagined it would be
of immediate public service, & in the End would
aggrandize the Character of my old Patrons. --
I'll conclude with a Reflection applicable
to the subject: -- Those who pass for the
most prudent & wise, in the World, seldom
can carry on a Design, without being
discovered. -- The Eyes of every
one is upon them; their every action is
watched with the most suspicious attention,
& they can undertake nothing, without
every one putting himself on his Guard,
as if something momentous was intended
to happen. -- The man, on the contrary,
who passes for a thoughtless, rattling
fellow, can do what he pleases, without
even being suspected of looking farther
than his Nose before him. --
In answer to all this Nonsense,
give me just two Lines, to say how
your Mama does; & that, in thus
opening a little more of my
ways & manners (as you called them)
I have lost nothing in the Esteem
of my dear good Friend. -- Her's most
sincerely & Affectionately
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from John Hope to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/6/8/22
Correspondence Details
Sender: John Hope
Place sent: Northampton (certainty: medium)
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Northampton (certainty: medium)
Date sent: not before 27 March 1773
notBefore 27 March 1773 (precision: medium)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from John Hope to Mary Hamilton. He sends a copy of his political letters and also a copy of a comedy [evidently Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer] which he 'laugh[e]d at till my Sides were sore'. He continues on the effect that publication of his letters might have on his relations. He had foreseen his embarrassment [over debt], and he hoped that publication might shame them into helping prevent his bankruptcy, though without causing them hurt. The letter continues on Hope's reasons for publishing the work.
Length: 1 sheet, 379 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now incorporated in the project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers' (Hannah Barker, Sophie Coulombeau, David Denison, Tino Oudesluijs, Cassandra Ulph, Christine Wallis & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2019-2023).
All quotation marks are retained in the text and are represented by appropriate Unicode characters. Words split across two lines may have a hyphen on the first, the second or both fragments (reco-|ver, imperfect|-ly, satisfacti-|-on); or a double hyphen (pur=|port, dan|=ger, qua=|=litys); or none (respect|ing). Any point in abbreviations with superscripted letter(s) is placed last, regardless of relative left-right orientation in the original. Thus, Mrs. or Mrs may occur, but M.rs or Mr.s do not.
Acknowledgements: XML version: Research Assistant funding in 2017/18 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.
Research assistant: Georgia Tutt, MA student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: George Lee, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2018)
Cataloguer: Lisa Crawley, Archivist, The John Rylands Library
Cataloguer: John Hodgson, Head of Special Collections, John Rylands Research Institute and Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 11 January 2022