1592997946000 1557315834000 Standard Record object-110005519 1747159851978 1681743009000 1747159409017 adlib fitz-online adlib-object-110005519 https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/110005519 0da58e3c-e635-37c9-8465-0b695f0ac75a 5 person reference agent-192551 adlib-agent-192551 b494e74a-20ec-3ce9-be5f-3267eaba4253 Seward, Anna person reference agent-116992 adlib-agent-116992 ef3205d8-6794-3a6e-aae6-922ee555a7fb Romney, George person reference agent-198991 adlib-agent-198991 6704da4c-9ab6-3716-8ebd-8a5d62c1c5ab Saville, John person reference agent-198972 adlib-agent-198972 920da6ce-e8e0-3b0e-94df-aef3bd9411e9 Seward, Thomas person reference agent-199140 adlib-agent-199140 5e650665-61d6-3712-a196-ea111d697d74 Beridge, Dr John person reference agent-199141 adlib-agent-199141 631877ff-f845-3783-ab40-ba82430f83c8 Beridge, Maria (later Mrs Twigge) person reference agent-199113 adlib-agent-199113 1a60dd71-1e58-36ad-8671-68757aa0bbd4 Williams, Helen Maria person reference agent-198502 adlib-agent-198502 b67bd5fa-4f2a-302b-afaa-81f4c4f45ec8 Hayley, Eliza content description Hayley writes that he received Seward's last letter in London, which enabled him to tell everyone that she had recovered "from the cruel disorder, which put so unseasonable a period to the expected Pleasure of your Friends by forcing you into the purer air of Litchfield." He continues "I rejoice in yr two sheets of Hyper Criticism, as a most promising symptom of yr being soon restored to the full fossession of poetical Health:- & I shall hope to hear that my Friend Louisa advances with the Summer... it is a maxim of my Friend Gibbon, that all authors ... are the best Critics of their own Composition ... I very seriously & sincerely advise you to let your own Feelings be your ultimate Standard in all points of this Kind -- Such as it is, you may always command my honest Opinion, & with a promise not to call, or to think you a simpleton for dissenting from any observation of Mine. There is Critical Gallantry for you! Can the Heart of Woman wish for more than dominion over our Thoughts, as well as our Expressions!" Hayley writes that he is glad that Seward has taken his advice on waiting until she has finished the whole work before sending Louisa to the press: "pray in the very hasty Hints that I threw out to you for the Enlargement of yr Plan, did I say that I wish'd Emira to solicit her dying Interview with Louisa for the purpose of recommending a little Infant to her protection & Love, expressing a Fear that its Father must be prejudiced against it from her fatal Indiscretions? --- To a little Incident of this nature I know you are capable of giving infinite Beauty & Pathos..." [Seward incorporated this idea in the work] He writes that he knows that Seward has "many painful subjects of Meditation" which will interrupt her work. However, "our dear Tiziano [Romney] affirms, that all artists, of the pen as well as the pencil, are peculiarly successful in teh execution of their Work when they suffer in their private & domestic Concerns the highest mental Inquietude & distress:-- Strange & even ridiculous as this Idea may appear, I believe from observation & experience, there is considerable Truth in it ... if you can prevail on the Fancy at such Times to act, her oprtations, I believe, will be carried on with peculiar Energy & Success. -- I am persuaded that if we were thoroughly acquainted with all the petty private Circumstances & Feelings of the greatest Poets, this whimsical Theory might be supported by Facts. --- Are you not firmly persuaded that Shakespear & Milton were frequently, aye very frequently, agonized by many peverse Incidents of domestic Infelicity?" Hayley concludes that although he is "anxious for yr Glory... I would not have it purchased by yr unhappiness", and signs off asking to be remembered "to Giovanni [John Saville] & yr Father our good Friends of Derby [Dr and Mrs Beridge] salute you ... I saw ... the little muse [Helen Maria Williams]. We talked of you, & I am highly pleased with yr spirited & elegant little Poem to Col: St George -- adio Eliza's needle is working for you" Hayley/XII/33 1 accession number Hayley/XII/33 110005519 priref 110005519 uri https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/110005519 https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/110005519 reference agent-149638 adlib-agent-149638 7376d833-d0a7-3be0-916e-9c892b7a24d8 The Fitzwilliam Museum 1783 1783 1783-01-06 reference agent-198487 adlib-agent-198487 4dbae6db-a725-3bfd-b34e-5d215b1a85e6 Hayley, William 1 sheet, folded. William Hayley to Anna Seward: letter object OBJECT