Mary Wollstonecraft's last three notes to Godwin

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Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft, essay On Poetry

Godwin's memoir of Mary Wollstonecraft

Wollstonecraft's last three notes to Godwin

MS. Abinger c. 40, fol. 209

MS. Abinger c. 40, fol. 210

MS. Abinger c. 40, fol. 211

Mary Wollstonecraft's last three notes to Godwin.

Shelfmark: MS. Abinger c. 40, fol. 211

Credit: Bodleian Library, University of Oxford

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Object details

London, 30 Aug 1797

Mary Wollstonecraft

Related information

Biography: Mary Wollstonecraft

Biography: William Godwin

Family tree

Description

Even after their marriage Godwin and Wollstonecraft preferred to live independently during the day, and communicate by correspondence. They regularly exchanged anything from long, carefully composed letters to short notes dashed off on scraps of paper. Shown here are Mary’s last three notes to Godwin, written while she was waiting impatiently for the delivery of her child (‘the animal’), and seeking reassurance from the midwife, Mrs Blenkinsop.

In her final note, Mary Wollstonecraft half-quotes her mother's last words: ‘Have a little patience, and all will be over'. Her own daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (later Mary Shelley), was born a few hours afterwards. It was a straightforward birth, but Mary Wollstonecraft soon contracted an infection, and died eleven days later.

Godwin carefully preserved his letters to Mary Wollstonecraft, and her letters to him. Their exchanges provide an eloquent expression of their relationship, its sympathies and disagreements, assertions and vulnerabilities, intimacies and misunderstandings. He arranged them chronologically, numbered them from 1 to 160 and dated them. After his death Mary Shelley went through them for her planned life of her father, but they were not known to the public until 1876, when Charles Kegan Paul included a good number of them in his William Godwin: His Friends and Contemporaries.

Transcript

I have no doubt of seeing the animal to day; but must wait for M.^rs Blenkinsop to guess at the hour – I have sent for her – Pray send me the newspaper – I wish I had a novel, or some book of sheer amusement, to excite curiosity, and while away the time – Have you any thing of the kind?

Mrs. Blenkinsop tells me that Every thing is in a fair way, and that there is no fear of the event being put off till another day – still, at present, she thinks, I shall not immediately be freed from my load – I am very well – call before dinner-time, unless you receive another message from me –

‘Mrs. Blenkinsop tells me that I am in the most natural state, and can promise me a safe delivery – But that I must have a little Patience’

Owners

William Godwin; (bequest, 1836) Mary Shelley, via his widow, Mary Jane Godwin; (bequest, 1851) Sir Percy and Lady Shelley; (bequest, 1889) Lady Shelley; (bequest, 1899) Shelley Scarlett (later 5th Baron Abinger) and/or Robert Scarlett (later 6th Baron Abinger); (bequest, 1917) Robert Scarlett, 6th Baron Abinger; (bequest, 1927) Hugh Scarlett, 7th Baron Abinger; (bequest, 1943) James Scarlett, 8th Baron Abinger; (bequest, 2002) James Scarlett, 9th Baron Abinger; (purchase, 2004) Bodleian.

References

Charles Kegan Paul, William Godwin: His Friends and Contemporaries (London: 1876); Ralph Wardle (ed.), Godwin & Mary. The Letters of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft (London: 1967); Janet Todd (ed.), Mary Wollstonecraft. The Collected Letters (London: 2003).

See references in full

Shelley's Ghost