William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries
Ch. IX. 1812-1819
William Godwin to Mary Jane Godwin, 26 September 1817
“Skinner St., Sep. 26, 1818.
“I tremble for your journey home. The mornings here
are the loveliest possible; but before four o’clock the day is overcast,
and the evening brings with it torrents of rain. Twice I have purposed ![]()
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to go out at nine
o’clock to a new farce, in which Liston is the principal figure, and twice I have suffered
disappointment from this cause. If you come by the packet you will in all
probability be driven below, and how you will be able to bear that, if there
are many passengers, I cannot guess. For God’s sake, cheer your heart
with some of Mrs Snow’s excellent boiled beef. . . .
“I am getting a little intimate with Tom Holcroft, and I like him. I have lent him
the first volume of ‘Plutarch’s Lives,’ at his own choice; for, poor fellow,
he is sadly at a loss for useful occupation. He says he wishes Mrs Godwin were come home. . . .
“Most affectionately yours,
“The wood frame which supported two of the three
arches of Southwark Bridge has been removed, and you cannot imagine how
light and enchanting it looks.”
Mary Jane Godwin [née Vial] (1768-1841)
The second wife of William Godwin, whom she married in 1801 after a previous relationship
in which was born her daughter Claire Clairmont (1798-1879). With her husband she was a
London bookseller.
Thomas Holcroft Jr. (1803-1852)
The son of the dramatist and his wife Louisa Mercier Holcroft; he was a clerk in the
House of Commons before 1819, spent time in India, and was Paris correspondent for the
Morning Herald and secretary of the Asiatic Society.
John Liston (1776 c.-1846)
English comic actor who performed at the Haymarket and Covent Garden.
