Autograph Letter Signed ("James Smith"), declining an invitation to attend a performance of Shakespeare.

10 Austin Friars [London]: 29 April [n.y.].

Price: $500.00


About the item

1 page. 8vo. Toned, mounted. WITH: Autograph Letter Signed ("Horatio Smith"), 1 p, 8vo, Brighton, 14 October 1828, toned, tipped to verso of same mount.

Item #308683

A pair of letters from brother-humorists James Smith (1775-1839) and Horatio Smith (1779-1849), authors of the celebrated parody anthology "Rejected Addresses" (1812) which included imitations of Byron, Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Scott, et al, "undoubtedly the best known collection of parodies published in the period" (Romantic Parodies, 1797-1831, #12). The letter of James Smith reads: "My dear Madam, I feel much mortified that an engagement on the 8th of May will deprive me of the pleasure which Shakespear and you never fail to excite. Pray present my compliments to Mr. Bartley."
The letter of Horatio Smith reads: "The prize to Miss Ellen Gee in the last Mag having been copied into the papers here, has become so popular that I have been tempted to follow up the idea with something a little more enigmatical, which, if you do not think it infra dig; may be inserted in the next number"