Recollections of Writers
Douglas Jerrold to Mary Cowden Clarke, 5 December [1845]
December 5th, West Lodge, Putney Common.
My dear Mrs. Clarke,—I congratulate you and
the world on the completion ot your monumental work. May it make for you a huge bed
of mixed laurels and bank-notes.
On your first arrival in Paradise you must expect a kiss from
Shakespeare,—even though your
husband should happen to be there.
That you and he, however, may long make for yourselves a Paradise
here, is the sincere wish of—Yours truly,
P.S. I will certainly hitch in a
notice of the work in Punch, making it a special case, as we eschew Reviews.
Mary Victoria Cowden Clarke [née Novello] (1809-1898)
The daughter of the musician Vincent Novello, she married Charles Cowden Clarke in 1828
and wrote works on Shakespeare, including
The Complete Concordance to
Shakespeare (1845).
Douglas William Jerrold (1803-1857)
English playwright and miscellaneous writer; he made his reputation with the play
Black-eyed Susan (1829) and contributed to the
Athenaeum,
Blackwood's, and
Punch.
