Letter Number Date Location Addressee Library or Collection Pg.
Letter 1 20 Dec. 1786 Woolbeding Cadell, Sr. ESRO 69
Letter 2 03 Jan. 1787 Woolbeding Cadell, Sr. ESRO 71
Letter 3 14 Jan. 1787 Godalming Cadell, Sr. ESRO 73
Letter 4 09 Feb. 1787 [London] Cadell, Sr. ESRO 74
Letter 5 03 June 1787 Woolbeding Cadell, Sr. U Penn 75
Letter 6 17 June 1787 Woolbeding Cadell, Sr. ESRO 77
Letter 7 15 Aug. 1787 Wyke Cadell, Sr. ESRO 79
Letter 8 22 Sept. 1787 Wyke Cadell, Sr. ESRO 81
Part II. (1788)
Letter Number Date Location Addressee Library or Collection Pg.
Letter 9 14 Jan. 1788 Wyke Cadell, Sr. Princeton 88
Letter 10 7 Feb. 1788 ?London Cadell, Sr. ESRO 90
Letter 11 18 Feb. 1788 London Cadell, Sr. ESRO 91
Letter 12 Winter 1788 London Cadell, Sr. Bodleian 93
Letter 13 3 Apr. 1788 Chichester Cadell, Sr. ESRO 94
Letter 14 7 Apr. 1788 Chichester Cadell, Sr. ESRO 96
Letter 15 Spring 1788 ? [Cadell, Sr.] ESRO 98
Letter 16 15 Apr. 1788 Chichester Cadell, Sr. ESRO 99
Letter 17 16 Apr. 1788 Chichester Cadell, Sr. ESRO 101
Letter 18 9 Sept. 1788 Brighthelmstone Cadell, Sr. ESRO 102
Letter 19 [?16 or earlier,
Dec. 1789] [?London] Davies ESRO 103
Letter 20 17 Dec. 1788 Wyke Cadell, Sr. ESRO 105
Letter 21 19 Dec. 1788 Wyke Cadell, Sr. ESRO 107
Letter 22 29 Dec. 1788 Wyke Cadell, Sr. ESRO 108
Part III. (1789)
Letter Number Date Location Addressee Library or Collection Pg.
Letter 23 13 Jan. 1789 London Cadell, Sr. ESRO 114
Letter 24 27 Jan. 1789 London Cadell, Sr. ESRO 115
Letter 25 3 Feb. 1789 [London] Cadell, Sr. Huntington Library 116
Letter 26 6 Mar. 1789 London Cadell, Sr. ESRO 117
Letter 27 9 May 1789 London Cadell, Sr. ESRO 118
Letter 28 ?May 1789 [London] Cadell, Sr. ESRO 121
Letter 29 [June 1789] [?Brighton] [Cadell, Sr.] ESRO 122
Letter 30 3 June 1789 Brighthelmstone [Cadell, Sr.] ESRO 123
Letter 31 11 June 1789 Brighthelmstone [Davies] ESRO 124
Letter 32 23 June 1789 Brighthelmstone Cadell, Sr. ESRO 125
Letter 33 28 June 1789 Brighthelmstone Cadell, Sr. ESRO 127
Letter 34 7 July 1789 Brighthelmstone Cadell, Sr. ESRO 129
Letter 35 1 Aug. 1789 Brighthelmstone Cadell, Sr. ESRO 131
Letter 36 28 Aug. 1789 Brighthelmstone [Davies] ESRO 135
Letter 37 22 Sept. 1789 Brighthelmstone Cadell, Sr. ESRO 138
Letter 38 13 Oct. 1789 Brighthelmstone Cadell, Sr. ESRO 139
Letter 39 3 Nov. 1789 Brighthelmstone Davies ESRO 141
Letter 40 3 Nov. 1789 Brighthelmstone Cadell, Sr. ESRO 142
Letter 41 9 Nov. 1789 Chichester Cadell, Sr. ESRO 144
Letter 42 15 Nov. 1789 Fittleworth Cadell, Sr. ESRO 145
Letter 43 11 Dec. 1789 Brighthelmstone Cadell, Sr. ESRO 147
Letter 44 [? Dec. 1789] ? Cadell, Sr. ESRO 148
Part IV. (1790)
Letter Number Date Location Addressee Library or Collection Pg.
Letter 45 2 Jan. 1790 Brighton Cadell, Sr. ESRO 153
Letter 46 5 Feb. 1790 New Hall Cadell, Sr. ESRO 155
Letter 47 19 Feb. 1790 London Davies ESRO 157
Letter 48 8 Mar. 1790 Brighton Cadell, Sr. ESRO 158
Letter 49 11 Apr. 1790 Brighthelmstone Cadell, Sr. ESRO 160
Letter 50 13 Apr. 1790 Brighthelmstone [Cadell, Sr.] ESRO 163 Letter 51 c. 16 Apr. 1790 [?Brighton] [Cadell, Sr.] ESRO 166
Letter 52 19 Apr. 1790 Brighton Cadell, Sr. ESRO 168
Letter 53 13 July 1790 Brighton Cadell, Sr. ESRO 169
Letter 54 22 Aug. 1790 Brighthelmstone Cadell, Sr. Princeton U. Library 170 Letter 55 8 Sept. 1790 Brighthelmstone Cadell, Sr. Houghton Library 172 Letter 56 28 Sept. 1790 Brighton [Cadell, Sr.] Dunedin Library 174
Letter 57 9 Oct. 1790 Brighthelmstone Cadell, Sr. ESRO 176
Letter 58 22 Dec. [?1790] Petworth Cadell, Sr. ESRO 177
Part V. (1791-‐92)
Letter Number Date Location Addressee Library or Collection Pg.
Letter 59 7 Jan. 1791 [Brighton] [Cadell, Sr.] ESRO 185
Letter 60 12 Jan. 1791 Brighton Cadell, Sr. ESRO 187
Letter 61 21 Jan. 1791 [London] Cadell, Sr. ESRO 188
Letter 62 12 Feb. 1791 London Cadell, Sr. ESRO 189
Letter 63 [8 May 1791] [London] [Cadell, Sr.] Boston Public Library 190
Letter 64 8 June 1791 [London] Davies Yale U. Library 191
Letter 65 27 July 1791 London Cadell, Sr. ESRO 192
Letter 66 5 Aug. 1791 London Davies ESRO 194
Letter 67 7 Sept. 1791 Brighton Cadell, Sr. British Library 195 Letter 68 25 Oct. 1791 Brighthelmstone Cadell, Sr. U. of Sussex Library 197
Letter 69 4 Feb. 1792 London Cadell, Sr. ESRO 199
Letter 70 25 Mar. 1792 New Hall [Cadell, Sr.] ESRO 200
Letter 71 6 Apr. 1792 Brumpton Cadell, Sr. ESRO 201
Letter 72 [Apr. or May
1792] [London] Cadell, Sr. Princeton U. 202
Letter 73 27 July 1792 [?London] [Cadell, Sr.] ESRO 204
Letter 74 3 Oct. 1792 [?London] [Davies] ESRO 205
Letter 75 [ca. 16 Dec. 1792] [?Brighton] [Cadell, Sr.] Princeton U. Library 206
Part VI. (1793)
Letter Number Date Location Addressee Library or Collection Pg.
Letter 76 2 Apr. 1793 [?Brighton] Cadell, Sr. ESRO 217
Letter 78 18 Apr. 1793 Brighton [Cadell, Sr.] ESRO 220
Letter 79 13 May 1793 Brighton Cadell, Sr. ESRO 222
Letter 80 19 May 1793 [?Brighton] Cadell, Sr. ESRO 223
Letter 81 21 May 1793 [?Brighton] Davies ESRO 224
Letter 82 26 May 1793 [?Brighton] [Davies] ESRO 225
Letter 83 [?1] June
[1793] Brighton Davies ESRO 226
Letter 84 4 June 1793 [?Brighton] [Davies] ESRO 227
Letter 85 2 July 1793 Petworth Davies ESRO 228
Letter 86 [?June/July 1793]
[London] Davies ESRO 229
Letter 87 11 July 1793 ? [Davies] ESRO 230
Letter 88 15 July [1793] [London] Davies ESRO 231
Letter 89 13 Nov. 1793 Storrington [Davies] Bodleian 232
Letter 90 16 Dec. 1793 Storrington [Cadell, Sr.] Penn State U. 233
Part VII. (1794)
Letter Number Date Location Addressee Library or Collection Pg.
Letter 91 3 Jan. 1794 Storrington Cadell, Sr. ESRO 241
Letter 92 13 Jan. 1794 Storrington Davies ESRO 242
Letter 93 14 Jan. 1794 Storrington Cadell, Sr. ESRO 244
Letter 94 26 Jan. 1794 Petworth Cadell, Sr. ESRO 246
Letter 95 26 Jan. 1794 Storrington Cadell, Sr. ESRO 248
Letter 96 12 Feb. 1794 Midhurst Cadell, Sr. ESRO 250
Letter 97 23 Feb. 1794 Storrington [Cadell, Sr.] ESRO 251
Letter 98 4 Mar. 1794 Storrington Cadell, Sr. ESRO 253
Letter 99 9 Mar. 1794 Storrington Cadell, Sr. Dunedin Public Library 255
Letter 100 12 Mar. 1794 Storrington Cadell, Sr. ESRO 258
Letter 101 13 Mar. 1794 “on the road” Cadell, Sr. ESRO 259
Letter 102 16 Mar. 1794 Storrington Cadell, Sr. ESRO 260
Letter 103 26 Mar. 1794 Bath Cadell, Sr. ESRO 263
Letter 104 31 Mar. 1794 Bath Cadell, Jr. Princeton U. Library 265
Letter 105 4 Apr. 1794 Bath Davies Princeton U. Library 266
Letter 106 17 Apr. 1794 Bath Cadell, Sr. ESRO 267
Letter 108 28 Apr. 1794 Bath Cadell, Sr. ESRO 271
Letter 109 30 Apr. 1794 Bath Cadell, Sr. ESRO 272
Letter 110 4 May 1794 Bath Cadell, Sr. ESRO 274
Letter 111 9 May 1794 Bath Davies Huntington Library 276
Letter 112 11 May 1794 Bath Cadell, Sr. ESRO 277
Letter 113 14 May 1794 Bath Cadell, Sr. ESRO 279
Letter 114 20 May 1794 Bath Cadell, Sr. ESRO 280
Letter 115 11 June 1794 Bath Cadell, Sr. Yale U. 281
Letter 116 22 June 1794 Bath Cadell, Sr. Yale U. 282
Letter 117 25 June 1794 Bath Davies Yale U. Osborn Collection 284 Letter 118 8 July 1794 Bath Cadell, Jr. and
Davies
Yale U. Osborn Collection 286
Letter 119 18 July 1794 Bath Cadell, Sr. Yale U. 287
Letter 120 22 July 1794 Bath Cadell, Sr. Yale U. 289
Letter 121 30 July 1794 Bath Cadell, Sr. Yale U. 291
Letters in Appendix Letter Number Date Location Addressor/
Addressee
Library or Collection Pg. Appendix A-‐1 18 Dec. 1788 London Cadell, Sr. to
Smith
ESRO 293
Appendix A-‐2 13 Apr. 1790 London Cadell, Sr. to Smith
ESRO 293
Appendix A-‐3 12 Apr. 1793 Eartham Hayley to Cadell, Sr.
Aylesbury Record Office 294
Appendix A-‐4 7 Mar. 1794 London Sewell to Smith
PART I: 1786-‐87 “Unknown as I am to you”
-‐Letter 1
As these letters begin, Smith makes repeated mention of “Mr. Hayley” (see Image 7). William Hayley’s villa in Eartham (see Image 8) is only an hour-‐and-‐a-‐ half’s walk to Smith’s paternal estate at Bignor Park. Thus, the geographic setting of Hayley’s home would have reminded Smith of her genteel childhood. In addition to providing a touchstone to her happier past, Hayley became Smith’s greatest literary mentor. It was he who first encouraged her work and who pointed her to Cadell. Earlier that decade, Hayley had contracted Cadell to publish his successful poem, The Triumphs of Temper (1781), and in 1786, Hayley provided the ingénue Smith with an introduction to Cadell, his recommendation, and some guidance through the publication process.
In her earliest (extant) letters to Cadell, Smith negotiates the sale and fine-‐ tunes the publication details of two French works that she adapted and translated into English. A number of British women novelists made their living translating works from the Continent. These translations helped Smith make the transition from a published poet to a published novelist. Smith’s facility with the French language aided her during the rough winter of 1784 when she was marooned in
Normandy. Her dissolute husband had exiled himself there after his release from debtors’ prison, and while there she had entertained herself and others by translating French works.1 Already fluent in French, Smith likely grew more proficient during this period as she picked up idiomatic French from native speakers, thus helping to make her translations more nuanced.
Any correspondence to Cadell preceding this collection might have
chronicled the troubled publication history of her first translation: that of the Abbé Prévost’s 1731 short novel, L'Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut. Since no letters to or from Cadell before 1786 have been found, the story we have comes from the memoir of Smith’s life that her sister, Catherine Dorset, published more than 20 years after Smith’s death.2 According to this memoir, Smith offered this translation to Cadell in 1785, and he agreed to publish it as Manon L’Escaut: or, The Fatal Attachment. However, after eminent literary critic George Steevens both chided Smith for the book’s immoral story about two cohabitating lovers and also pointed to two other preexisting English translations of the same work, Cadell supposedly feared for his reputation, and Smith withdrew hers from publication.3 Soon thereafter, the novel appeared anonymously in a two-‐volume book and in the June 1786 Gentleman’s Magazine.
1 See Cheryl Turner, Living by the Pen, pp. 122-‐23, for a discussion of other contemporary women who made translations, and Jennie Batchelor, Women’s Work: Labour, Gender, Authorship, 1750-‐1830 (Manchester: Manchester UP, 2010).
2 See Catherine Dorset, “Charlotte Smith,” in Walter Scott, Miscellaneous Prose Works, 6 vols. (Edinburgh: Cadell, 1827), Vol. 4, pp. 20-‐71.
3 The fullest treatment of this novel’s history is Michael Gamer’s Introduction to the Pickering Master’s The Works of Charlotte Smith, Vol. 1, ed. Gamer: Manon L’Escaut: or, The Fatal Attachment (1786) and The Romance of Real Life (1787) (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2005), pp. xxix-‐xxxvii. Hereafter, references to this edition will be cited as Gamer.
The letters collected in this dissertation begin as Smith is starting the publication process of a second translation project. In writing The Romance of Real Life, Smith drew from two different French compilations of legal case histories, both called Causes Célèbres et Interessants [Celebrated and Interesting Cases], one by François Gayot de Pitaval (published 1735-‐44) and a later one by François Richer (published 1772-‐88). In this second translation project, Smith adapted legal histories into narratives of romantic fiction, selecting only those cases that
showcased the victimization of women in the legal process. In repackaging Pitaval’s and Richer’s works, Smith wielded greater freedom and originality, and Cadell published her three-‐volume novel in 1787. In her preface, Smith concedes that this work was a kind “from which little fame can arise to its author,” but admits her hope to be a published author of this genre. She also conveys her hope that a collection of stories based on “authenticated facts” can offer “an interesting lesson of morality.”4 Clearly, she learned her lesson after the failure of Manon L’Escaut. Smith’s Romance of Real Life garnered universal critical praise and earned her £330.5 The pirated editions that appeared soon after in Ireland and America underscore the limits of British copyright law and the lost income opportunities this weakness created.6 In these letters and those in subsequent sections, Smith refers to new editions of her successful Elegiac Sonnets and other Essays. Smith had originally
4 Charlotte Smith, “Preface,” The Romance of Real Life, 3 vols. (London: T. Cadell, 1787), in Gamer, ed., p. 129.
5 Gamer, p. 125.
6 See my Introduction for a history of copyright in eighteenth-‐century Britain and its impact on Smith.
contracted with London bookseller James Dodsley to publish the first two editions in 1784 and the second two editions in 1786. After she established a connection with Cadell with her translations and with her first novel, Emmeline, she contracted with him to publish all subsequent editions of the Sonnets. With most new editions, Smith added new poems, thus prompting her to shepherd each edition through the proofing and printing process. In 1787, they began planning the collection’s fifth edition—and first subscription edition—which would come out in 1789. The popularity of subscription publishing signaled a shift in the funding of published works from commissioning and controlling noble and courtly patrons to interested supporters and readers who ordered copies up front and who agreed to help promote the work.7
Some of the letters Smith wrote in 1786-‐87 also allude to a three-‐act Comedy that she wrote and wanted to have staged. Perhaps it was an early draft of the play What Is She?, which would be published anonymously in 1799 and which had a short run on stage at the Covent Garden Theatre.8 She returns repeatedly in the years of my project to the subject of writing a play. A letter outside this
dissertation’s collection illustrates her opinions on contemporary drama: “a winter or two more will eradicate the very last remains of real & rational comedy. And that farce, inferior even to pantomime & buffoonery (at which I own I cannot laugh), will
7 David Finkelstein and Alistair McCleery, An Introduction to Book History (New York: Routledge, 2005), pp. 71-‐74.
8 See Diego Saglia, “‘This village wonder’: Charlotte Smith’s ‘What Is She?’ and the Ideological Comedy of Curiosity,” in Charlotte Smith in British Romanticism, p. 146.
wholly usurp the Stage.”9 Perhaps her delay in finishing and publishing her play was owing on some level to the disdain she had for the farcical dramas that were
growing in fashion. Nonetheless, she felt that a play would bring her a steady source of sorely-‐needed income and thus she held onto this idea for years to come. She requested Cadell’s help in gaining audience with a theater manager, and it was prudent to seek his help. The press and the theater in the late eighteenth century were mutually dependent, since newspapers and periodicals would praise some plays over others, and some performers and theater managers over others.10 Those who published plays, therefore, had connections to the press and to the theater, both of which would have been invaluable to an aspiring playwright like Smith. While the years 1786-‐87 were important to Smith’s evolution as a professional author and novelist, they also marked a major turning point in her personal life. Six months before her first (extant) letter to Cadell, Smith’s 16-‐year-‐ old son, Brathwaite, had died after a sudden illness. On 15 April 1787, two months after the publication of The Romance of Real Life, Smith separated from her husband and made the transition to her new identity as a separated wife and single mother. All of the children chose to live with their mother. At that point, her nine living children included George (age 2); Harriet (age 5); Lionel (age 10); Lucy (age 11); Augusta (age 13); Charles Dyer (age 14); Nicholas (age 16); Charlotte Mary (age 18);
9 Charlotte Smith to an unnamed recipient (Feb. 10, ?1788), in Stanton, ed., CLCS, p. 15. In his preface to Lyrical Ballads (1798 and 1802), William Wordsworth also disparaged the “theatrical exhibitions of the country,” which, along with literature, he argued, “have conformed themselves” to the “craving for extraordinary incident.” Britains’ powers of discrimination, he charged, were reduced “to a stage of almost savage torpor.” See Anne K. Mellor and Richard E. Matlak, British Literature 1780-‐1830 (Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle), pp. 575-‐76.
and William (age 19). Of these, the four daughters and her toddler son were likely at home full time. Lionel and Charles Dyer were away at school at Winchester College. The older sons were preparing to launch careers in the civil service in India. As Loraine Fletcher writes in her biography of Smith, the children “were a formidable charge on her earning ability, especially as she intended to continue their
Letter 1
To Thomas Cadell, Sr.
Woolbeding House near Midhurst1 Decr 20th 1786
Sir,
I have from day to day delay’d sending up the Translations from Les causes celebrés of Guyot de Pitaval, and Richard, beleiving I should be in Town myself, and have it in my power to wait on you with them; I now find that I cannot (on account of my Boys being at home for the Holydays, and for other reasons) leave this place till the 5th or 6th of January. But as you may possibly prefer having the work in question immediately, I will send up the manuscript which has been long finish’d and fairly transcribed on hearing from you that you wish me to do so, rather than delay it till my journey to Town takes place. I am glad of an opportunity to make this enquiry, as it gives me occasion at the same time to assure you of my lively sense of your very liberal and obliging behaviour in regard to this matter, to which Mr Hayley fail’d not to do justice. Unknown as I am to you, I can only impute it to your attention to his opinion and recommendation, and to your own candour and liberality. I trust that I shall not be oblig’d to intrude on you, for payment, much, if at all, before the usual time, and I hope that the Books will not disappoint the expectations which Mr Hayley’s idea of them may have rais’d.
The Preface is yet to [be] writ[ten]. The reasons Mr Hayley2 has given, oblige me to release him from his very friendly offer of doing it for me. But as I think Jacques has told me on other occasions that the Preface is always printed last, the other Manuscript need not remain longer in my hands on that account.
What I have done are Eleven Causes—and as near as I can guess they will make four hundred and fifty pages of Letter press, or thereabouts—which I apprehend will be contain’d in three small volumes, about the size of Tristram Shandy—or Lady MW Montague’s Letters,3 which was the size originally propos’d by Mr Hayley—and such as I suppose he spoke of to you. If however you think that more will be requisite to such Volumes than the quantity I have named, you have only to say so, and I will add another Cause (as I beg you will beleive that my
wish is, to make not only the quality but the quantity adequate to your expectations, and to the liberal price you have offer’d).
1 Woolbeding is a village in West Sussex, one mile northwest of Midhurst. See the map. After
returning to England from Normandy, Smith and her children settled at the colonnaded, seventeenth-‐ century Woolbeding Hall in 1785. After living here, Smith decided to leave Benjamin Smith. See “Woolbeding,” Oxford Guide to Literary Britain & Ireland.
2 Smith’s friend and literary champion, William Hayley. See Biographical Notes.
3 Laurence Sterne’s novel Tristram Shandy (1759-‐67) appeared in nine volumes. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-‐1762) wrote her Turkish Embassy Letters, which were published just after her death, while stationed in Istanbul with her British ambassador husband.
I have in my hands a Comedy of three acts with Songs, which I have reason to think would be well receiv’d on The Theatre—but of the Managers, I know nothing, and am discouraged from applying to them by various accounts I have receiv’d of their conduct towards dramatic Authors. The fear of ill success has prevented my naming this performance even to my best friends that I may at least escape the mortification incident to a failure at The Theatre, should it happen. But I am sure I may entrust you with my wishes to have it accepted by one of the Theatres.4 If you are known to the Managers or Proprietors of either, your assistance towards obtaining a reception, could hardly fail of procuring it—Your early answer to the questions I have herein troubled you with will very much oblige, Sir.
your most Obt humble Sert
Charlotte Smith
Courtesy of The Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton and Hove, Thomas-‐Stanford Collection on