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I - Verses and Memorials Included in Richardson’s Copybook of the Cheyne Correspondence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2022

David E. Shuttleton
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
John A. Dussinger
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
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Summary

  • 1. The following lines of verse are written lengthwise on the first flyleaf of Richardson's copybook (Edinburgh University Library, Laing Mss III, 356) in another hand (not that of the copyist who transcribed Cheyne's letters).

Hast thou not left a Richardson unblest?

He woos thee in vain, relentless maid.

Tho’ skill’d in sweetest accents to persuade,

And wake soft Pity in the Savage breast

Him Virtue loves and brightest Fame is his

Smile thou too Goddess, and complete his bliss.

Mrs Chapone's Ode to Health.

These lines form the sixth stanza of ‘To Health’ byHester (née Mulso) Chapone (1727–1801), as published in her Miscellanies in Prose and Verse (1775), p. 131. A copy of the entire poem is to be found amongst Richardson's extant papers (FM 14/42). The youngMulso was a poet, essayist, literary critic, epistolary writer and conversationalist (see ODNB). She became associated with Richardson's circle after writing a series of critical letters to him in 1750–1 responding to Clarissa in which she upheld female emotional autonomy and a woman's right to exercise her own judgement in refusing an arranged marriage. These widely circulated letters made her something of a cause célèbre, and were eventually published as part of her posthumously collected Works in 1807.

  • 2. The following obituary notice, entered in sequence as item ‘LXXXIII’ at the end of Richardson's copybook, is in the same hand as that which transcribed Cheyne's letters. This notice appeared in the Daily Gazetteer for Saturday 16 April 1743 (no. 2439). It was later reprinted anonymously in Dr. Cheyne's Account of Himself and of his Writings: faithfully extracted from his various works, 3rd edn (1744), p. 34, and subsequently reproduced inWarner (p. 219). For Aaron Hill's suspicion (probably correct) that it was composed by Richardson, see his letter to the novelist of 25 April 1743.

Wednesday, April 13, 1743, died at Bath in the 71st Year of his Age, that learned Physician, sound Christian, deep Scholar, and warm Friend, Dr Geo. Cheyne: So well known by his Mathematical as well as Physical Works, that Nothing need be said as to his public Character: And as to his private only this: that those who best knew him most loved him, which must be the felicity of every Man who values himself more upon the Goodness of his Heart than the Clearness of his Head;

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

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