1592997946000 1556799826000 Standard Record object-110005516 1747159852005 1681742637000 1747159409017 adlib fitz-online adlib-object-110005516 https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/110005516 b9280703-170f-37ba-a5b1-abb55db39926 5 person reference agent-192551 adlib-agent-192551 b494e74a-20ec-3ce9-be5f-3267eaba4253 Seward, Anna person reference agent-198683 adlib-agent-198683 7e8947bd-8aa7-3fbc-8d50-d176e429f260 Long, William FRS, FSA person reference agent-199104 adlib-agent-199104 f51109c2-99a2-365f-8b1d-e9d302037daa Knowles, Mary person reference agent-198502 adlib-agent-198502 b67bd5fa-4f2a-302b-afaa-81f4c4f45ec8 Hayley, Eliza person reference agent-198991 adlib-agent-198991 6704da4c-9ab6-3716-8ebd-8a5d62c1c5ab Saville, John content description Hayley thanks Seward for writing at "such affectionate Length, while you are riding in the Whirlwind of Dissipation" (Seward is in London). Seward has tried to assist Hayley in a project to encourage someone (unnamed) to "present a few hundred pounds to a divine actress": the idea of which was "to a poor Poets Imagination so sublimely captivating ... that I could not help trying the possibility of accomplishing so splendid a project.-- it has failed.--- but I still feel a degree of pleasure in having made the attempt, & particularly in the affectionate ardour, with which you have assisted my design". She has also written a critique of Hayley's tragedy "Marcella", which would be published in his "Plays of Three Acts; Written for a Private Theatre" (1784), and which was drawn from a story told to his friend Thornton "by his relation Mr. Young, (the calumniated son of the sublime poet" [Hayley's "Memoirs", vol1, p 180]. Hayley defends his choice of making "that naughty Creature Hernandez ... ugly & old: --- but might not some rigid critics have said, that we violated poetical probability, if the Rogue had been young & handsome?" He continues "when I first read the tragic Story, with all its unsoftened Enormities, it appeared to me very highly dramatic, & the Heroine, tho guilty both of Murder & Adultery, laid hold of my Heart, & drew from me the Tears of Compassion.--- More delicate judges of human Nature, exclaimed against Her- 'Such an infernal Jade could deserve no Pity" I therefore endeavoured to whitewash my Heroine, but perhaps, in that dangerous Experiment, I have ruined the Story. SHakespeare, I am persuaded, would have been bold enough to paint Her in all her Guilt, & at the same Time happy enough to invest Her with supreme dominion over the Mind, & perhaps over the Heart, of the most dainty Spectator." Seward has also cricised the tone of Hayley's work. " As to the Tone of tragic Language in general," he continues, " I cannot bring myself to think, or rather to feel exactly as you do on this article.-- You have a strong adopted passion for an equal strain of highly ornamented Expression - many critics consider it as the Essence of Poetry -- Perhaps you are all perfectly right I can only say it affects me in a veryt different Manner - Simplicity is to me one of the most attractive charms in Composition, & particularly in domestic Tragedy; but in attempting to catch this most coy & fugitive Grace, I have Sunk perhaps (as her Followers often do) into the Snares of Insipidity ---" Hayley then switches subject to say that he is "not surprised to find you wearied by the Racket of London --- it is not the Element for Poets --- Whenever I am caught & put into the hot & crowded Rooms of that City, I feel like a poor Cat in an Air-Pump...". He then proposes that Seward takes "the fair Quaker Mrs Knowles by the Hand" and trips "into a Post Chaise about six o clock one of these fine Mornings & reach Eartham by dinner Time!-- perhaps you may tempt the dear Longinus to play the Knight Errant, & escort two such fair & sprightly Travellers to our Castle, where you are all sure of finding not indeed a sumptious Banquet, but a most cordial Welcome -- Eliza joins me in this request..." Hayley/XII/30 1 accession number Hayley/XII/30 110005516 priref 110005516 uri https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/110005516 https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/110005516 reference agent-149638 adlib-agent-149638 7376d833-d0a7-3be0-916e-9c892b7a24d8 The Fitzwilliam Museum 1783 1783 1783-04-08 reference agent-198487 adlib-agent-198487 4dbae6db-a725-3bfd-b34e-5d215b1a85e6 Hayley, William 1 sheet, folded. William Hayley to Anna Seward: letter object OBJECT