Diplomatic Text
Post cript/[1] My friend, you have been deceived, Mrs: Robinson
lives with her Husband & they have never been separated
-- the Young Baronet if, he did boast, -- boasted false --- ly -- [2]
Her Husband is young, Idle, & extravagant; & they
have experienced distreʃs,[3] but her present occupa-
tion, as an Actreʃs, enables them to live perfectly to their
taste, & at their ease -- They have a little Girl about
4 or 5 years old -- I know their whole History, which
I got at by mere chance, &, from what I think, the
most undoubted authority -- You have been abused
by some designing person -- take care that you are
not drawn in to some snare & Ah! boast not
not the title of a Lothario lest your should meet
with his fate -- 'Tis a detestable Subject -- I
will write no more
[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The whole fragment is evidently a postscript. The semi-phonetic spelling postcript is not recognised in the OED and is perhaps surprising for Hamilton, but it occurs in an OED quotation of 1775 and quite commonly elsewhere.
2. Below and to the right of y are marks, possibly meant to clarify the dash and the y.
3. Probably in the legal sense of distraining, namely the seizure of goods to cover a debt (OED s.v. distress n. 3.a. Accessed 28-10-2020).
4. The second page is blank.
Normalised Text
Postscript/ My friend, you have been deceived, Mrs: Robinson
lives with her Husband & they have never been separated
-- the Young Baronet if, he did boast, -- boasted falsely --
Her Husband is young, Idle, & extravagant; & they
have experienced distress, but her present occupation
, as an Actress, enables them to live perfectly to their
taste, & at their ease -- They have a little Girl about
4 or 5 years old -- I know their whole History, which
I got at by mere chance, &, from what I think, the
most undoubted authority -- You have been abused
by some designing person -- take care that you are
not drawn in to some snare & Ah! boast
not the title of a Lothario lest you should meet
with his fate -- 'Tis a detestable Subject -- I
will write no more
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: Windsor Castle, The Royal Archives
Archive: GEO/ADD/3 Additional papers of George IV, as Prince, Regent, and King
Item title: Letter from Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales
Shelfmark: GEO/ADD/3/83/50
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Hamilton
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place received: unknown
Date sent: c.14 December 1779
notBefore 14 December 1779 (precision: medium)
notAfter 14 December 1779 (precision: medium)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales, on the Prince being deceived about Mrs [Mary] Robinson being separated from her husband.
Hamilton describes the relationship of Mrs Robinson and her husband, and states that the Prince has been 'abused by some designing person'.
Length: 1 sheet, 135 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited 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: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.
Transliterator: Cassandra Ulph, editorial team (completed March 2020)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 10 December 2021