Part 1 (1/2)
Selected English Letters (XV - XIX Centuries).
by Various.
PREFACE
This anthology has been compiled with rather mixed motives. First, 'all for our delight'--a rule that editors sometimes observe, and occasionally acknowledge; then, with the desire to interest as large a section of the public as may be. Here is a medley of gay, grave, frivolous, homely, religious, sociable, refined, philosophic, and feminine,--something for every mood, and for the proper study of mankind. We do not hope to satisfy all critics, but we do not antic.i.p.ate that we shall please none. Our difficulty has been that of choice. Many pleasant companions we have had to pa.s.s by; to strike from our list many excellent letters. Those that remain are intended to present as complete a portrait of the writer as s.p.a.ce permits.
Occasionally it was some feature of the age, some nicety of manners, some contrast in point of view, that obtained inclusion.
Into such an anthology the ordinary reader prefers to dip at random, looking for old friends or new faces, and has his reward. But if he is resolute to read letters in chronological order, he will also, we hope, find in our selection some trace of the development of the Epistolary art, as, rising through earlier naiveties and formalities to the grace and _bel air_ of the great Augustans, it slides into the freer, if less dignified, utterance of an age which, startled by cries of 'Equality' at its birth, has concerned itself less with form than with individuality and sincerity of expression.
Three letters are included of which the originals were penned in Latin. In a few cases the spelling and punctuation have been modernized.
Our best thanks are due to Mr. J.C. Smith, whose kind criticism and inspiring suggestions have been of inestimable service to us in the preparation of this work.
M.D. H.W.
SELECTED ENGLISH LETTERS
SIR THOMAS MORE
1478-1535
To MARGARET ROPER
_'Wyth a cole' from prison_
[1535.]
Myne owne good doughter, our lorde be thanked I am in good helthe of bodye, and in good quiet of minde: and of worldly thynges I no more desyer then I have. I beseche hym make you all mery in the hope of heaven. And such thynges as I somewhat longed to talke with you all, concerning the worlde to come, our Lord put theim into your myndes, as I trust he dothe, and better to, by his holy spirite: who blesse you and preserve you all. Written wyth a cole by your tender loving father, who in his pore prayers forgetteth none of you all, nor your babes, nor your nurses, nor your good husbandes, nor your good husbandes shrewde wyves, nor your fathers shrewde wyfe neither, nor our other frendes. And thus fare ye hartely well for lack of paper.
THOMAS MORE, knight.
Our Lorde kepe me continuallye true, faithfull and playne, to the contrarye whereof I beseche hym hartelye never to suffer me live. For as for longe life (as I have often tolde the Megge) I neyther looke for, nor long for, but am well content to goe, yf G.o.d call me hence to morowe. And I thanke our lorde, I knowe no person living, that I woulde had one philippe for my sake: of whiche minde I am more gladde then of all the worlde.
Recommend me to your shrewde wil, and mine other sonnes, and to John Harris my frende, and your selfe knoweth to whome els, and to my shrewde wife above all, and G.o.d preserve you all and make and kepe you his servantes all.
MARGARET ROPER
1505-1544