IN THE SPRING of 1796, the philosophical anarchist William Godwin fell in love with the writer and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Their union was to produce Mary Shelley. Wollstonecraft was recovering from two unhappy romances: the first with a married artist called Henry Fuseli, and the second with American author and businessman Gilbert Imlay, with whom she had a child, Fanny. Her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, had been published in 1792, and both Wollstonecraft and Godwin were well known on London’s literary scene. Here we publish Godwin’s first love letter to Mary, as edited by Professor Pamela Clemit in Vol 1 of The Letters of William Godwin, (OUP). Throughout this year we’ll be running selections from Godwin’s letters from volume two, and essays on his life and work by Pamela Clemit.

To Mary Wollstonecraft, 13 July 1796

By way of discharging a debt, an obligation, what shall I say, I take up the pen.

Oh no! exclaimeth Mary, tant soit peu piqué, it is a mere task then, is it?

Now, I take all my Gods to witness—do you know how many they are?—but I obtest & obsecrate them all—that your company infinitely delights me, that I love your imagination, your delicate epicurism, the malicious leer of your eye, in short, every thing that constitutes the bewitching tout ensemble of the celebrated Mary. But to write!

Alas, I have no talent, for I have no subject. Shall I write a love letter? May Lucifer fly away with me, if I do! No, when I make love, it shall be with the eloquent tones of my voice, with dying accents, with speaking glances (through the glass of my spectacles), with all the witching of that irresistible, universal passion. Curse on the mechanical, icy medium of pen & paper. When I make love, it shall be in a storm, as Jupiter made love to Semele, & turned her at once to a cinder. Do not these menaces terrify you?

Well then, what shall be my subject. Shall I send you an eulogium of your beauty, your talents & your virtues? Ah! that is an old subject: beside, if I were to begin, instead of a sheet of paper, I should want a ream.

Shall I write to citizenness Wolstencraft a congratulatory epistle upon the victories of Buonaparti? That I may rejoice the cockles of her heart, shall I cause once more to pass in review before her the Saint Jerome, the Santa Cecilia, & the other inestimable treasures, of which that ferocious freebooter has robbed the classical & delicious cities of Italy?

Invent me a subject against my return, &, the next time I go into the country, I will write you such a letter!

Cause Margaret to drop a line into my letter box, signifying to the janitor, or jailor, Mr Marshal, that I expect to arrive on this day seven night at seven o’clock in the morning, to depart no more.

Thus much by these presents from,

your admirer,

W Godwin

Norwich.

July 13. 1796.

ENDS

Follow Pamela Clemit on Twitter at @Godwin_lives