Memoirs of William Hazlitt
Ch. IV 1822
William Hazlitt to Peter George Patmore; 30 March [1822]
“It is well,” says he, “I had finished
Colburn’s work,* before all
this came upon me. It is one comfort I have done that. . . . I write this on
the supposition that Mrs. H. may still
come here, and that I may be left in suspense a week or two longer. But, for
God’s sake, don’t go near the place on my
account. Direct to me at the post-office, and if I return to town
directly, as I fear, I will leave word for them to forward the letter to me in
London—not in S. B. . . . .
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| 32 | CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. PATMORE. | |
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I have finished the
book of my conversations with her, which I call ‘Liber Amoris.’
“Yours truly,
“W. H.*
“Edinburgh, March 30.
“P.S. I have seen the great little man,† and he is very gracious to me.
Et sa femme aussi! I tell him I am dull and out of
spirits. He says he cannot perceive it. He is a person of an infinite
vivacity. My Sardanapalus‡ is to be in. In my judgment Myrrha is most like S. W., only I am not like Sardanapalus.
“P. G. Patmore, Esq.,
“12 Greek Street, Soho, London.”
Henry Colburn (1785-1855)
English publisher who began business about 1806; he co-founded the
New
Monthly Magazine in 1814 and was publisher of the
Literary
Gazette from 1817.
Sarah Hazlitt [née Stoddart] (1774-1840)
The daughter of John Stoddart (1742-1803), lieutenant in the Royal Navy; she married
William Hazlitt in 1808 and was divorced in 1822.
Charlotte Jeffrey [née Wilkes] (d. 1850)
The daughter of Charles Wilkes, a New York banker, and great-niece of the radical John
Wilkes; in 1813 the became the second wife of the critic Francis Jeffrey. Their daughter
was also named Charlotte.
Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850)
Scottish barrister, Whig MP, and co-founder and editor of the
Edinburgh
Review (1802-29). As a reviewer he was the implacable foe of the Lake School of
poetry.
Sarah Walker (1800-1878)
The daughter of Micaiah Walker, a tailor; William Hazlitt wrote about his passion for her
in
Liber amoris (1823); she was afterwards the common-law wife of a
John Tomkins.
