Beschreibung:

BYRON, George Gordon Lord (1788-1824). Autograph letter (original signature clipped) to his friend Rev. Francis Hodgson, Piccadilly Terrace [London], 1 April 1815. 1¼ pages, 4 o (Oblong strip with signature cut away by a barbarous early collector with loss of some 7 or 8 words on p.2., repaired.) Integral address leaf in Byron's hand, franked "Byron" and with circular postmark. That page with recipient's endorsement: "The Last Letter from B before he left England in 1815." BYRON'S LAST LETTER TO HIS FRIEND HODGSON, BEFORE HIS SELF-IMPOSED EXILE ON THE CONTINENT. A letter written only three months after his disastrous wedding to Anna Milbanke (on 2 January), and a few days after the couple took up residence at 13 Piccadilly. The poet writes: "I have no objection whatever to [your publish]ing Mss. [providing you and Murray a]gree on terms &c of which I am no judge but am very sure what you ask will be proper. I hope you are not becoming 'sentimental and ludicrous' because I don't write letters--which you know for a long time past--except on indispendible and urgent occasions. I have never done and am too old to begin again. [John Cam] Hobhouse [a mutual friend] is gone to Brussels [en route to France]. I have received Charlemagne for which I am most obliged to Dr. Butler and you." Relations between the couple rapidly disintegrated. Despite Hodgson's endorsment, the present letter was written almost exactly a year before Byron's departure into exile. On 15 January 1816 Annabella and their infant daughter fled Piccadilly and took refuge at her parents' country house; her father formally requested a legal separation. Financial problems and increasing rumors of incest with his sister, Augusta Leigh and other depravities finally drove him into exile. He left England on 25 April 1816. Hodgson, a faithful friend from his school days, remained an important contact for the poet, serving as intermediary with publishers (as noted here) and in financial matters. Provenance : Harry B. Smith (1860-1936), owner of A Sentimental Library , New York, 1914. -- A.S.W. Rosenbach, protective folder.