Vindication (72 page)

WG's fits
: WG to Dr Ash (1831). Pf. Abinger, microfilm reel 9.

WG as biographer
: Holmes recognised his innovation in this genre in
Memoirs
.

‘the contemplation of illustrious men'
;
‘to scrutinise…'
: WG, unpubl. essay, ‘Of History and Romance' (1797), cited by Philip Cox,
Reading Adaptations
(Manchester University Press, 2000).

‘real English'
…: WG to unnamed person (27 Feb. 1796). Abinger: Dep. b. 227/8.

WG stirred by politics
…
‘beat high'
: KP, i, 61.

WG on Violence: Political Justice
, book v, chs 16,18.

WG and Hays
: Some of the wording here appropriated from Wagner and Fischer, ‘Visionary Daughters', 54–6.

‘I am sorry…'
: WG to Hays (7 May 1795).
SC
, i, 139.

‘We who are thieves'
: Godwin,
Caleb Williams
, 216.

WG and Tooke at dinner
: Godwin,
Novels, and Memoirs
, i, 50–1.

‘Imlay' in WG's diary
: Abinger: Dep. e. 201. It's true that WG's letters to MW were addressed on the
outside
to ‘Mrs Imlay', upholding her public identity. But WG never at any other time referred to her in the privacy of his diary as ‘Imlay'. To this man of regular and truthful habits, she remained always ‘Wolstencraft' (and appears as such the day before the ‘Imlay' entry). ‘Wolstencraft' was shortened (as she appears more frequently) to ‘Wt'. She remains ‘Wt' after their marriage and after her death.

Mrs Inchbald
: Her best-known novel is
A Simple Story
(1791), strong on plot and repartee, but poor in characterisation–the men and secondary characters are mere types: the supportive friend, the dashing faithless suitor.

‘the worst of all laws'
: Godwin,
Political Justice
, quoted in KP, i, 113.

the English losing common sense in 1796
: Letter to Rowan (26 Sept. 1796).

WG's advice to MW
: Blends details from his
Memoirs
and his letters to a woman, perhaps Hays, also depressed by unrequited love. Abinger: Dep. b. 227/8.

‘adrift'
: MW to HF (c. late 1795),
MWL
, 324;
MWletters
, 336.

‘I found…'
: Godwin,
Godwin and Mary
, 75.

‘by almost imperceptible degrees'
;
‘Nor was she deceived'
:
Memoirs
, ch. 9.

couplet by Butler
:
Hudibras
, II, canto I, lines 591–2.

‘I send you…'
: WG's diary records ‘Propose to Alderson' and some have believed that WG proposed to Amelia Alderson, the doctor's daughter. St Clair,
Godwins and Shelleys
, argues convincingly that ‘propose' refers to a conversation with her father. Amelia continued to flirt with WG in a way that would have been unlikely had she turned him down.

WG's playfulness
: Pamela Norris, letter to author (26 Sept. 2002).

site of 16 Judd Place West
: Elizabeth Crawford deduced this during our memorable ‘footsteps' tour of MW's London.

‘Perdita'
: One of her best-known roles (in
A Winter's Tale
), during 1779–80, just before her affair with the Prince. When she and MW met, she was near the end of a long affair (1782–97) with a soldier from a rich family, Banastre Tarleton, who became MP for Liverpool. Abandoned a second time, she made an effort to support herself by her pen, but one of MW's later reviews notes that she wrote too fast. She was an exact contemporary of MW. WG thought her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was famous for ‘breeches' roles.

Mrs Siddons on
Travels: Mrs Siddons to WG (c. 1797–8), quoted in
Memoirs
, ch. 9.

Amelia Alderson and MW
: Abinger: Dep. b. 210/6. Todd,
Wollstonecraft
, 369, 382.

ties with women
: Jacobs,
Her Own Woman
, 242.

rue du Bac
: RB heads her letters from no. 555. The street has since been renumbered. According to Morton's delightful but not always accurate
Americans in Paris
, RB lived at what is now no. 102 with
citoyenne
Hilaire.

Humphreys
,
Barlow
,
Imlay
: For the larger picture see ‘American Spies' in Europe on the Internet site accompanying this book.

O'Brien's mission
;
Washington
;
JB
: Humphreys to JB (30 May 1796 and 23 July 1796), Beinecke: MS Vault Shelves: Pequot (Barlow) M992. O'Brien moved about on the brig
Sophia
and his code identity was ‘the affair of Wales'.

‘
black
sweetheart'
: RB to Robert Fulton, inventor of the submarine. Houghton. 000
Hazlitt on WG
:
The Spirit of the Age
.

overstepped the mark
: Deduced by St Clair as part of his convincing interpretation of coded marks in WG's diary. Appendix 1,
Godwins and Shelleys
.

responsible
: WG's daughter, MWS, later said of her father (KP, i, 161–2 and Clemit et al,
Lives of the Romantics
, i): ‘He was in a supreme degree a conscientious man, utterly opposed to anything like vice or libertinism, nor did his sense of duty permit him to indulge in any deviation from the laws of society
…
which could not, he felt, be infringed without deception and injury to any woman who should act in opposition to them.'

‘I have not patience…'
: KP, i., 139.

Cymon
: Changed by love for the beautiful Iphigenia. MW's source may have been Dryden's version of the tale in his
Fables Ancient and Modern
(1700).

Maria and Darnford
:
WW
, ch. 4.

Rousseau's
Solitary Walker:
Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire
(1782).

effort
: 6–7 Oct. 1796, Godwin,
Godwin and Mary
, 43.

lacked ‘…the pleasures of the imagination'
:
Memoirs
, 2nd edn.

‘She was like a serpent…'
:
Memoirs
, ch. 7.

MW and WG on a private ‘bill of rights'
: Godwin,
Godwin and Mary
, 49–50.

Coleridge and Hazlitt on MW
: Hazlitt, ‘My First Acquaintance with Poets' (1823), cited by Holmes,
Sidetracks
, 265.

‘no one knew better…'
:
Memoirs
, ch. 9.

‘What can I say?'
: Godwin,
Godwin and Mary
, 46.

Amelia on WG's supposed interest
: To friend (1 Nov. 1796). Abinger: Dep. b. 210/6.

Opie as suitor
: Joseph Farington, diary (11 Nov. 1796), cited in Durant's Supplement, 312. After MW married WG, Opie married Amelia Alderson.

‘I treated him…'
: Quoted by James Marshall to Hazlitt, cited in ibid., 332–3.

Condoms
: Porter,
English Society
, 27.

WG's method of contraception
: St Clair's deduction,
Godwins and Shelleys
, Appendix 1. Myths to do with contraception derived from
Aristotle's Complete Master-piece
(see above, ch. 7), wrongly attributed to Aristotle but going back to ancient Greece.

‘She has been deserted…'
: JJ to Charles (15 Nov. 1796). JJ's Letterbook.

‘with extreme unkindness'
: WG to MW (31 Dec. 1796), Godwin,
Godwin and Mary
, 59–60.

14
‘THE MOST FRUITFUL EXPERIMENT'

Uncited communications are from letters of Feb.–Aug. 1797 to WG, EW, Amelia Alderson, George Dyson, Maria Reveley and Miss Pinkerton, in
MWL
, 379–411 and
MWletters
, 396–437.

‘two persons of the opposite sexes…'
: Essay VIII (‘Of Posthumous Fame') in
The Enquirer
,
publ. Feb. 1797, when he was contemplating the marriage he undertook the following month. Repr. Godwin,
Political and Philosophical Writings
, v:
Educational and Literary Writings
, ed. Pamela Clemit, 206.

fits of sleepiness
: These began in 1795, according to WG's case history for Dr Ash. Pf.

‘a recluse'
: An autobiographical letter, unfinished and unaddressed. Quoted in KP, ii, 129.

Polygon
: A plaque for MW is on the site, now Oakshott Court in Werrington Street, NW1, off Polygon Road. Nearby, on the wall of the local primary school, is a modern mural by Karen Gregory which shows MW and WG with Fanny in a pinafore, as well as Mary Shelley and Shelley on a bridge with Frankenstein's monster lurking in the reeds below–looking like Vincent Price in the horror movie.

‘I love the country'
: 21 May 1797. The context is an invitation to go to the country with WG's friends Montagu and the Wedgwoods.

the signature
: Similar in her letter to Bernstorff except that then she was ‘femme Imlay'.

‘Never'
:
St Leon
(1799), ch. 4. The wife Marguerite in this novel is an idealised portrait of MW.

MW's face
; her look: Southey to Joseph Cottle, cited in KP, i, 234.

‘We were in no danger…'
;
a
‘
worshipper'
:
Memoirs
, ch. 9.

‘overflowings'
;
the English character
;
and treating others as books
: To an unnamed correspondent, probably Mrs Inchbald (19 Sept. 1797). Abinger: Dep. b. 227/8.

The Times
on the Godwin marriage
: Holmes,
Sidetracks
, 208.

theatre visit
: The play was referred to by WG as a comedy about a will.

snub
: Godwin,
Godwin and Mary
, 75.

‘cruel
,
base
,
insulting'
: WG to Mrs Inchbald (13 Sept. 1797). Abinger: Dep. b. 227/8.

MW reviewed Mrs Inchbald
:
MWCW
, vii, 462–3. MW said there was not enough ‘lively interest to keep the attention awake', that it was ‘improbable', and characterised by
‘naïveté'
. Cited by Todd,
Wollstonecraft
, 382.

‘I am pained…'
: 20 Apr. 1797, Godwin,
Godwin and Mary
.

‘Those who are bold enough…'
: Excerpt from undated letter to a friend whom Janet Todd identifies as likely to be Hays, and suggests this date, Apr. 1797 (
MWLetters
, 410.) Letter quoted in Hays, ‘Memoirs of Mary Wollstonecraft'.

WG's letter justifying his marriage
: Abinger: Dep. b. 229/1. Faded, on thin paper with a tatty edge, the pen marks (as in a number of WG's letters) survive more clearly on the
back
of the paper which may be deciphered with the aid of a mirror. Some readings are therefore approximate.

WG's feelings opposed the supposed gist of his doctrines
: MWS, ‘Life of Godwin', 113.

Hays on MW's manners
: ‘Memoirs of Mary Wollstonecraft'.

‘the deceitful poison of hope'
:
Emma Courtney
, i, ch. 24.

‘murder': Ibid., ii, ch. 5.

JB's fury with James Wollstonecraft
: To S. Williams, US Consul in London (21 Feb. 1799), asking him to recover the sum ‘by any means that the law will permit'. Letterbooks, iv, 205–6. Houghton.

JJ to Charles and other Wollstonecrafts
: JJ's Letterbook. Contrast an annoyed letter on15 July 1797 with his earlier letter of 1 Nov. 1795 when JJ had commended Charles for sending £200 (most of which was to be invested for his sister Bess). JJ's annoyed
letter to EW when she gave up a good post in order to start a school, seems unfair, but he feared further impositions.

WG's appeal to Wedgwood
: KP, i, 234–6.

visit to Bedlam
: WG's diary. Abinger: Dep. e. 201–2.

‘Women being confined…Madhouses'
:
Laws Respecting Women
, 73.

BW and EW had not communicated
: Since both sisters preserved MW's letters, we can assume there were none. MW's correspondence with EW (though not with Bess) resumed after EW's visit.

‘have you lost…'
:
WW
, ch. 9.

the Wedgwood post and WG
: I assume that news of the post came from WG via MW–a peace offering from MW–though it's often noted that Mrs Wedgwood,
née
Bessie Allen, who came from Cresselly, near Pembroke, Wales, had known the Wollstonecrafts in Laugharne when EW was a girl. Since the Wollstonecraft sisters had lived there for only a year, and since their father's subsequent residence would hardly have recommended the family, this connection doesn't appear very strong. The Wedgwoods were more likely to have been impressed with recommendations from WG and MW. EW told WG after MW's death (24 Nov. 1797), ‘my sister dined with them [the Allens] once when on a visit at friends in that part of the country'. Abinger: Dep. c. 523.