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Lot 245
COWPER (WILLIAM) Autograph letter signed ("Wm Cowper"), to William Hayley ("my dearest brother!"), confessing that his melancholia has crippled him as a letter-writer, Weston [Underwood], 13 October 1792: 'MY MELANCHOLY... HAS BAFFLED BOTH WISHES AND PRAYERS... THE MUSE IS STILL AS OBDURATE AND AS COY AS EVER'; with two autograph letters from Hayley to Cowper
4 December 2019, 11:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £3,562.50 inc. premium
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COWPER (WILLIAM)
Autograph letter signed ("Wm Cowper"), to William Hayley ("my dearest brother!"), confessing that his melancholia has crippled him as a letter-writer ("...I began a letter to you yesterday, my dearest brother! and proceeded through two sides of the sheet, but so much of my nervous fever found its way into it, that, looking it over this morning, I determine not to send it. I have risen, though not in good spirits, yet in better than I generally do of late, and therefore will not address you in the melancholy tone that belongs to my worst feelings..."); thanking him nevertheless for his concern ("...Your wishes to disperse my melancholy would, I am sure, prevail, did that event depend on the warmth and sincerity with which you frame them, but it has baffled both wishes and prayers, and those the most fervent that could be made, so many years, that the case seems hopeless..."); looking forward to the receipt of Romney's portrait ("...I began to be restless about your pourtrait, and to to [sic] say, How long shall I have to wait for it? I wish'd it here for many reasons; not only because the sight of it will be a comfort to me as you very justly suppose, for I not only love but am proud of you as of a conquest made in my old age, but am impatient also 'till I see your amiable physiognomy supersede the odious representation of mine... Johnny goes to town on Monday, and purposes to call on Romney...The name of a man whom I esteem as I do Romney, ought not to be unmusical in my ears, but his name will be so, 'till I shall have paid him a debt justly due to him, by doing such poetical honours to it as I intend. Heaven knows when that intention will be executed, for the Muse is still as obdurate and as coy as ever..."); and hoping that "when my Mary, like your little Tom, shall cease to be an invalid, I may recover a power, at least, to do something"; integral address panel, seal and post-marks, 4 pages, traces of mounting on blank section above the address, some light browning and minor wear at edges, but overall in attractive condition, 4to, Weston [Underwood], 13 October 1792
Footnotes
'MY MELANCHOLY... HAS BAFFLED BOTH WISHES AND PRAYERS... THE MUSE IS STILL AS OBDURATE AND AS COY AS EVER' – William Cowper struggles through his depression to write a letter to his friend Hayley, whose portrait by Romney he looks forward to receiving. The two had been in correspondence since the previous March after Hayley had been commissioned to write a life of Milton, only to discover that Cowper had already been commissioned to write one by a rival publisher. Hayley visited Cowper at Weston in May and did much to cheer his host, treating Mary Unwin to electric therapy. That August – not having stirred from home for a quarter of a century – Cowper and Mary visited Hayley at Eartham; our letter being written after Cowper's return.
Included in the lot are two of Hayley's autograph letters to Cowper, dated 8 and 11 October, to which our letter is the reply (these are partly laid-down and have been split into sections). In them, Hayley discusses Milton and the Romney portrait, and attempts as always to assuage his friend's melancholy ("...The Account of yr tendency to dejection of spirit grieves me not a little; but you know I am apt to form sanguine Hopes ever on gloomy subjects: & I cherish an affectionate Hope of contributing not a little towards the defeat & Flight of this invading demon of melancholy, by dispatching to you the Picture you wish'd to place over yr chimney...").
Cowper's letter has the distinction of being published by Hayley himself, in what is now the best-known of his works, The Life, and Posthumous Writings, of William Cowper (1803–4). Hayley, however, omits the last part of the letter, in which Cowper refers to Milton as "that Literary Cossack", this being restored in Thomas Wright's edition of 1904.