WORDSWORTH, William (1770-1850). Autograph letter signed ('W. Wordsworth') to Thomas De Quincey, Grasmere, Friday' [7 April 1809], 3 pages, 4to, with integral address leaf (final page torn with loss to one word). Provenance : Miss Maud Craig (in her possession in 1969).
WORDSWORTH, William (1770-1850). Autograph letter signed ('W. Wordsworth') to Thomas De Quincey, Grasmere, Friday' [7 April 1809], 3 pages, 4to, with integral address leaf (final page torn with loss to one word). Provenance : Miss Maud Craig (in her possession in 1969). Wordsworth explains his cancellation of a note inserted in his political pamphlet, The Convention of Cintra brought to the Test of Principles by De Quincey about the surrender of Saragossa: 'My reasons for suppressing the note were fourfold. First, that any note, especially in an animated part of composition, checks the current of thought or feeling, 2ndly, all that was necessary in this case might be provided for as well in the general advertisement; 3rdly, and far above all, because it seemed to me that a note to the effect of yours would completely anticipate and therefore render intolerably heavy what has been said by me in the additions to the text where Saragossa is again mentioned ... and 4thly, I thought that it was injurious to the cause and to the people of Saragossa to admit for a moment that any one could imagine that this prophecy had not been fulfilled ....'. The poet then makes his poor handwriting and headache a pretext to break off the discussion: 'my penmanship is very bad, and my head aches miserably.' On Sir John Moore's letters, he observes 'They are certainly a libel on the Spanish Nation, and ought by somebody or other to be exposed as such. Foolish fellow! with a frenchified mind!' De Quincey is told that, whereas 'A body of The English were turned and broken, and therefore technically vanquished' at the battle of Alexandria, 'the affair of Corunna' was 'out of the rules of the Art of War from the beginning to end' and 'Therefore, the word Corunna may be omitted.' The cancellation of De Quincey's offending note, to the effect that the surrender of Saragossa to the French on 20 February was foressen by Wordsworth, seems to have wounded his feelings considerablt (see J.E. Jordan, De Quincey to Wordsworth (1962). Although his main concerns are the Cintra pamphlet, Wordsworth also mentions his recent return from 'a very agreeable excursion of five days' [when he had met Coleridge and Southey at Appleby to sign a contract with the publisher of The Friend ]. It is included in The Letters of William and Mary Wordsworth , ed. Ernest de Selincourt and Mary Moorman (Oxford, 1967-93, 8 vol., II, pp. 317-19).
WORDSWORTH, William (1770-1850). Autograph letter signed ('W. Wordsworth') to Thomas De Quincey, Grasmere, Friday' [7 April 1809], 3 pages, 4to, with integral address leaf (final page torn with loss to one word). Provenance : Miss Maud Craig (in her possession in 1969).
WORDSWORTH, William (1770-1850). Autograph letter signed ('W. Wordsworth') to Thomas De Quincey, Grasmere, Friday' [7 April 1809], 3 pages, 4to, with integral address leaf (final page torn with loss to one word). Provenance : Miss Maud Craig (in her possession in 1969). Wordsworth explains his cancellation of a note inserted in his political pamphlet, The Convention of Cintra brought to the Test of Principles by De Quincey about the surrender of Saragossa: 'My reasons for suppressing the note were fourfold. First, that any note, especially in an animated part of composition, checks the current of thought or feeling, 2ndly, all that was necessary in this case might be provided for as well in the general advertisement; 3rdly, and far above all, because it seemed to me that a note to the effect of yours would completely anticipate and therefore render intolerably heavy what has been said by me in the additions to the text where Saragossa is again mentioned ... and 4thly, I thought that it was injurious to the cause and to the people of Saragossa to admit for a moment that any one could imagine that this prophecy had not been fulfilled ....'. The poet then makes his poor handwriting and headache a pretext to break off the discussion: 'my penmanship is very bad, and my head aches miserably.' On Sir John Moore's letters, he observes 'They are certainly a libel on the Spanish Nation, and ought by somebody or other to be exposed as such. Foolish fellow! with a frenchified mind!' De Quincey is told that, whereas 'A body of The English were turned and broken, and therefore technically vanquished' at the battle of Alexandria, 'the affair of Corunna' was 'out of the rules of the Art of War from the beginning to end' and 'Therefore, the word Corunna may be omitted.' The cancellation of De Quincey's offending note, to the effect that the surrender of Saragossa to the French on 20 February was foressen by Wordsworth, seems to have wounded his feelings considerablt (see J.E. Jordan, De Quincey to Wordsworth (1962). Although his main concerns are the Cintra pamphlet, Wordsworth also mentions his recent return from 'a very agreeable excursion of five days' [when he had met Coleridge and Southey at Appleby to sign a contract with the publisher of The Friend ]. It is included in The Letters of William and Mary Wordsworth , ed. Ernest de Selincourt and Mary Moorman (Oxford, 1967-93, 8 vol., II, pp. 317-19).
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