William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries
Ch. IX. 1812-1819
William Godwin to Mary Jane Godwin, 3 August 1815
“Miss Lamb has
just called in to ask me to sup with them on Saturday evening at Mr Alsager’s in the Borough, a clever
man, she says, a bachelor, a whist player, and a new acquaintance
of theirs. She says they were
within an ace of embarking in the “Friendship” on Saturday last for
Southend, agreeably to your invitation. . . . .
“Adieu! Oh, be well, be cheerful! Banish depressing
recollections. Look on me and Lovewell, the two great
pillars of the establishment in Skinner Street, with approving and hopeful
sensations. Take care of fatigue, take care of the cold. Feel some love, some
lingering of the heart for the corner house with the Æsop
over the door.—Ever, with unalterable affection, yours,
Thomas Massa Alsager (1779-1846)
Journalist and music critic for the
Times; he was the friend of
Leigh Hunt and Thomas Barnes; John Keats was reading Alsager's copy of Chapman's poems when
he wrote the famous sonnet.
Mary Anne Lamb (1764-1847)
Sister of Charles Lamb with whom she wrote Tales from Shakespeare (1807). She lived with
her brother, having killed their mother in a temporary fit of insanity.