Читать книгу Private Letters of Edward Gibbon (1753-1794) Volume 1 (of 2) - Эдвард Гиббон, Edward Gibbon - Страница 17
14.
To his Stepmother
ОглавлениеLondon, December, 1758.
Dear Madam,
How many thanks have I to return you! I shall wait upon Sir William Milner[20] as soon as he is in town, and do not doubt of liking that family, at least the lady: to say she is your friend is a sufficient enconium.
WANT OF MONEY
But, Madam, I am really concerned my father has not sent me a draught. I am really distressed for money. I have hardly a guinea left, and you know the unavoidable expences of London. I have tryed to borrow of Mrs. Porten and of Harvey, my father's lawyer. But without success. Could not you send me a bank-note by the Hastings Post of Monday? I would run all the risks of its being lost; for upon my word I shall hardly know what to do in three or four days.
Will you admit my excuse? I am just going to see Garrick, alias Sir John Brute.[21] It will be a vilaine bête.
I am, Dear Madam,
Yours most sincerely,
E. Gibbon.
P.S. – The author of Eurydice[22] (who greeted me at the Smyrna Coffee-house) asked much after you and my father. What can you mean about Miss Allen?
Footnote_20_20
Sir William Milner, Bart. (1719-1774), for many years receiver-general of the Excise, married Elizabeth, youngest daughter of the Hon. and Rev. George Mordaunt, brother of the third Earl of Peterborough. She died a year after her husband.
Footnote_21_21
Sir John Brute, the surly, drunken husband of Lady Brute in Vanbrugh's play of The Provoked Wife.
Footnote_22_22
Mallet's tragedy Eurydice, written in 1731, was revived in 1759. The Smyrna Coffee-house in Pall Mall stood on the site now occupied by Messrs. Harrison, the booksellers. It was famous in the days of the Tatler and the Spectator.
