Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole, [15 February 1754]

To
The Honble Horace Walpole Esq
in Arlington Street London
ROYSTON 16 FE

Friday . . . Cambridge

Dear Sr

I send you my Story, that you may not wait longer for it, tho' it does not at all satisfy me, but I do not know how to make it intelligible in fewer words.

‘Bianca Capello,’ Veneta, adolescenti nupsit nobili Florentino, quem ideó a patre domo expulsum uxor suâ operâ diú sustentabat, donec Franciscus Mediceus M: Hetruriæ Dux, mulieris formâ captus eam in aulam perduxit, maritum ad summos honores extulit, qui potestate insolentér usus cum sæpe in crimina incurrisset, sæpé conjugis gratiâ (quam tamén asperiús tractaverat) supplicium effugisset, novissimé suâ manu hominem confodit. Biancâ Ducis clementiam implorante, juravit Franc:cus se de marito pœnas non sumpturum, sed nec de illis, qui eum ipsum occidissent. quo audito, vir ab inimicis interfectus est. viduam Franciscus justum in matrimonium duxit. hos ambos uno in convivio Ferdinandus Cardinalis, Fr:ci frater, veneno sustulit, ipse deinceps Hetruriæ Dux, cognomento Maximus.

I am collecting what I can about the two Marriages & will send it you next week, tho' I find the Chronicles of latter times do little more than copy Fabian. they are excellent writers, & I thank you for bringing us acquainted.

I am ever
Yours

T G:

[Use arrow keys to navigate]

Letter ID: letters.0215 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771

Writer's age: 37

Addressee: Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797

Addressee's age: 36

Dates

Date of composition: [15 February 1754]

Date (on letter): Friday

Calendar: Gregorian

Places

Place of composition: Cambridge, United Kingdom

Address (on letter): Cambridge

Place of addressee: [London, United Kingdom]

Physical description

Addressed: To / The Hon^ble Horace Walpole Esq / in Arlington Street London (postmark: ROYSTON 16 FE)

Content

Languages: English, Latin

Incipit: I send you my Story, that you may not wait longer for it, tho' it does...

Holding Institution

Location:
(confirmed)
GBR/1058/GRA/3/4/59, College Library, Pembroke College, Cambridge , Cambridge, UK <http://www.pem.cam.ac.uk/>

Availability: The original letter is extant and usually available for academic research purposes

Print Versions

The Correspondence of Gray, Walpole, West and Ashton (1734-1771), 2 vols. Chronologically arranged and edited with introduction, notes, and index by Paget Toynbee. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1915, letter no. 185, vol. ii, 132-133
The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence. Ed. by W. S. Lewis. New Haven, Conn.: Yale UP; London: Oxford UP, 1937-83, vols. 13/14: Horace Walpole's Correspondence with Thomas Gray, Richard West and Thomas Ashton i, 1734-42, Horace Walpole's Correspondence with Thomas Gray ii, 1745-71, ed. by W. S. Lewis, George L. Lam and Charles H. Bennett, 1948, vol. ii, 67-69
Correspondence of Thomas Gray, 3 vols. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and Leonard Whibley, with corrections and additions by H. W. Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], letter no. 185, vol. i, 390-391