Home Page1

Reference URL

Add tags

Comment

Rate

To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or document

To embed the entire object, paste this HTML in website

To link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or document

To embed this page, paste this HTML in website

Theophilus Davies letter to Leigh Hunt, 1840s

Page1

1 of 4

View Description

View Image & Text

Download

small (250x250 max)

medium (500x500 max)

large ( > 500x500)

Full Resolution

This page

All

Subset

Image
Text

Text Search...

Loading content ...

you wish to report:

Your comment:

Your Name:

Submit

Cancel

...

Rating
Title	Theophilus Davies letter to Leigh Hunt, 1840s
Creator	Davies, Theo. H. (Theophilus Harris), d. 1898
Date Original	1840/1849
Description	Concerning his appreciation of Hunt's writings, especially his Seer and the Indicator.
Personal Name Subject	Hunt, Leigh, 1784-1859 Davies, Theo. H. (Theophilus Harris), d. 1898
Geographic Subject	England -- Manchester
Chronological Subject	1840-1850
Type (DCMIType)	Text
Type (AAT)	Correspondence
Type (IMT)	jpeg
Digital Collection	Leigh Hunt Letters
Contributing Institution	University of Iowa. Libraries. Special Collections Dept.
Archival Collection	Brewer-Leigh Hunt Collection
Collection Guide	http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/resources/Brewer-LeighHunt.html
Location	MsL D25h
Rights Management	Educational use only, no other permissions given. This letter is owned by The University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections Department, and is provided here for educational purposes. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without written permission of the Special Collections Department.
Contact Information	Contact The University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections Department: lib-spec@uiowa.edu
Height (cm)	22.5
Width (cm)	18.5
Number of Pages	4
Number of Sheets of Paper	1
Digitization Specifications	Scanned with Ricoh Aficio 2335 scanner at 600 ppi, 24-bit color. Archival tiff image available.
Date Digital	2008-02-07
Transcript	130 Booth St. Oxford Road /Manchester New College/, Manchester Dear Sir , If my writing to you be an impertinence it is one that you have brought upon yourself. There is in all your writings, with which I am acquainted, such an intimate knowledge of all one��s natural impulses, there are so many passages in them that lie so close to our consciousness that we start on coming to them & “fancy that we must have written them ourselves in some former state of being,” that I am convinced you will understand the feeling that prompts a reader to express his gratitude to a writer /who has afforded/ to whom he owes many of his happiest hours. There is also in them such a sympathy with our weaknesses, and such a tenderness and allowance for them as convinces me that you will not stare at this with the haughtiness of a superior being, but will pardon & even be pleased with it. I /One/ should not presume to write to Johnson or Gibbon, /but one --- not be me/ but I don’t mind writing thus to you ^more than I should to Shakespeare if he were alive . . It is your own fault, Sir, if any one treats you as a friend for you treat all your readers as such. How can you expect the public to keep their distance, if you read Chaucer and Milton & Pope in company with them, and admit them to your breakfast table, and your tea table, & spend a day by the fireside with them, and even take mere boys into your counsels by recalling your school days? Besides you never “snub” them, as you ought, you never make one rise up from your books with a feeling of what a great mean you are, and what an insignificant fellow he is. Do, Sir, try to and be bitter & contemptuous, for your own sake, for I can tell you that instead of regarding you /with/ as a fine supercilious personage, people feel vulgar, everyday, gratitude & affection & love for you, & that if you came up here in the North, /the/ your readers would ^not feel inclined to keep your distance, but would turn to shake you by the hand -just as they /can/ do “John Smith.” Pray put some drops of gall with . . your Jar of Honey from Mount /---/ [?Elybla]. Drop what seems to be your motto -“Nihil humanum a me alienum pouto,” and substitute “Odi profanum vulgus arceo.” . I am aware Sir that ^ you must have had thanks of your readers, over & over again as /a/ “Wit, Poet, Prose-man, Party-man, Translator,” but I have an odd ground of thanks to you, which I can hardly explain. They tell me that you are tall & personable yourself, but if so how can you know the feelings of those who are deformed, --or diminutive (like myself)? How can you have written the lines . “Alas for wrongs that nature does the frame : The pride she gives compensates not all the shame,” . and those that follow? I should have thought that no one who had ^not himself felt the hurts that one’s self love is exposed to from this source could have entered into the feelings of Pope on this head & spoken of them with such delicacy & kindness, as must have brought tears into the eyes of many of your readers. . I have read your essay on ^“Social Genealogy” /shaking hand/ & have some hopes of having shaken hands with . . you, through my father who met you many years ago at Mr. Marriott’s at Taunton. It will amuse you to know that in answer to my question about you and what you /---/ said & looked like, he told me that you were unwell at the time, and ate mutton-chops! But I must not venture further. The object of my writing is merely to tell you that of all the volumes which I a poor student have got together, two are most to me; one contains the “Essays of Elia,” the other “The Seer” and the “Indicator.” . I remain Sir Your delighted and grateful reader Theophilus Davies . Leigh Hunt Esqr.
Transcript By	Chen, Lilly

Title	Page1
Relation - Is Part Of	Theophilus Davies letter to Leigh Hunt, 1840s
Digital Collection	Leigh Hunt Letters
File Name	d25h_Page1.jpg
Transcript	130 Booth St. Oxford Road /Manchester New College/, Manchester Dear Sir , If my writing to you be an impertinence it is one that you have brought upon yourself. There is in all your writings, with which I am acquainted, such an intimate knowledge of all one’s natural impulses, there are so many passages in them that lie so close to our consciousness that we start on coming to them & “fancy that we must have written them ourselves in some former state of being,” that I am convinced you will understand the feeling that prompts a reader to express his gratitude to a writer /who has afforded/ to whom he owes many of his happiest hours. There is also in them such a sympathy with our weaknesses, and such a tenderness and allowance for them as convinces me that you will not stare at this with the haughtiness of a superior being, but will pardon & even be pleased with it. I /One/ should not presume to write to Johnson or Gibbon, /but one --- not be me/ but I don’t mind writing thus to you ^more than I should to Shakespeare if he were alive . .

Find results with:

Searching collections:

Home Page1

Theophilus Davies letter to Leigh Hunt, 1840s

Object Description

Description

Tags

Comments

Theophilus Davies letter to Leigh Hunt, 1840s

Theophilus Davies letter to Leigh Hunt, 1840s

	All
	Pages Enter page numbers or page ranges separated by commas. For example: 1,3,5-12