Mary Hays, [30 Kirby Street], to William Godwin, 25 Chalton Street, Somers Town, Wednesday, 11 May 1796.1
May – 11th – 1796 – Wednesday Evening
“Lord, Madam, what a squinting leer! No doubt, the fairy has been here. The woman’s blind – the Mother cries – I see wit sparkle in his eyes.”2
Ah! you savage-hearted & barbarous critic! And do you really expect that I shall be endowed with sufficient patience to rewrite the MS? I, whose characteristics are impetuosity & obstinacy! – to say nothing of my vanity & idleness, of which I have my full share. Thank heaven, all the world are not as delicate & fastidious as you are, or woe be to the poor authors! Well but you have given us an example of good writing, & therefore you have a claim to attention – & did I not determine to yield you this attention, I shou’d be unworthy of the benevolent pains you have taken, both with me & my papers – A thousand times I thank you! Be not unjust to me & to yourself – say not, that you are mortified to find how little impression you have made on my mind. – What influence would you wish to possess? Remember the different circumstances by which our characters have been formed – recollect the strong enchantments which have bound my mind in adamantine spells – & then triumph, for you have cause, in the powerful diversion you have affected. How often have you poured the light of reason upon my benighted spirit! What struggles have you caused in a heart abandoned to its passions! Ah! did you fully comprehend the frenzy to which I have been a victim, you wou’d cease to wonder at the many conflicts I have sustained – the many which perhaps, I have still to endure. I own, they have shaken my health but I do not yield to them – and I am already more tranquil, more rational, than I had hoped or expected ^to be^ in so short an interval, & for much of this tranquillity I feel myself indebted to you. Be not then discouraged – be not disgusted to find I have yet advanced no further – my malady was too inveterate to be easily or quickly cured – it was a proof of strength, but strength ill directed.
I will not deceive you, unless I first deceive myself. My MS was not written merely for the public eye – another
latent, & perhaps stronger, motive lurked beneath – If this in some
respects has spoiled my story, (for I suspect most of your remarks are just) it
has also given to it, that “energy of feeling, & ardor of expression”
One of your observations I confess gave me considerable pain, respecting the ‘radical defect of my
novel’ – My heroine, interested only about herself, will find it difficult to
interest others for her. – I understand your application but too well, & I
plead not guilty. No tragedy, no fiction, can affect the passions, that does
not concentrate them, in a great measure in one object. – It is the nature of
strong passion, particularly in retirement, to be absorbed in its sensations –
without this a passion wou’d cease to be strong – No terrible effects are to be
dreaded from an impression that can easily be diverted – the moment you give
the stream vent by different channels, the inundation is no longer to be
feared. But my heroine (whom I by no means intended to draw a perfect
character) could weep for the distresses of Augustus, unconnected with any idea
which respected herself – could suspend her own emotions in attention to a sick
friend (Mrs Harley) – and again, in performing her duty to
the girl whom her husband had seduced – could exert herself, to return the
casual civilities of a passenger in the stage coach. I do not recollect any
instance in which she is wanting in proper civility or humanity – Nor do I
think, your own Caleb Wms, or Falkland,
allowing for the different situations in which they are placed, less absorbed
in their
It is true, I feel, that it wou’d
have been infinitely more interesting had my heroine been beloved, but this
wou’d not have been the story I meant it should be, & to this scarce^ly^
any of the sentiments wou’d have been appropriate – It would also in my opinion
have had less originality – in short, it would have made
Your remarks on my heroines ‘vanity’ made me smile, you are right, she is vain,
& so am I, I will try to correct this foible in bo All your other criticisms, I will attentively revise & consider, when my mind regains its elastic powers. That you think the MS worth mending is praise – In some cases, I may be obstinate, but I will not be idle. When you next visit me3 bring this letter, & let us calmly talk the matter over. The trouble you have taken is a real favour conferr’d – I feel the powers of yr goodness, your friendship – words wou’d inadequately express those feelings. M. H. Address: Wm Godwin | Somers Town | 25 – Chalton Street 1 MH 0021, Pforzheimer Collection, NYPL; Brooks, Correspondence 456-59. Godwin called on Hays the morning of 11 May, apparently bringing with him a critique of her MS. of Emma Courtney, a critique that carried with it suggestions of considerable re-writing that took Hays by surprise and left her with considerable consternation. See the following letter for more on this. As Hays's responses reveal, Godwin had issues (as many readers did) with Harley's prolonged indifference to Emma yet Emma's dogged loved for him, a situation in which passion dominates over reason known all too well to Hays (and solidly grounded in her theory of the passions derived from her reading of Lavater) and one she refused to alter in her novel. 2 Lines from Fable III, "The Mother, the Nurse, and the Fairy," from John Gay's Fables. 3 Godwin will visit Hays again on 13 May. |
MARY HAYS: LIFE, WRITINGS, AND CORRESPONDENCE > MARY HAYS CORRESPONDENCE > 1790-1799 > 1796 >