Elizabeth Macauley's Letters to the RLF
Letter No.1 Transcription
Sir
Since I last had the liberty of addressing you
a fortunate accident has brought me to the knowledge of
a sister of one of the principle members of the literary
fund, who has explained to me the nature of [crossed out] the institution
& my own difficulties increasing every day, I venture to make
another proposition to you, I enclose a concise statement of
my circumstances & wish, which I request you to lay before
the members of the fund as speedily as possible, which applica-
tion will I believe be aided by the recommendation of Mr
Fitzgerald, to his sister (Miss Fitzgerald) I have had the
honour of reading the Poems I wish to publish, & am
proud to say that they have met her approbation, since
I have not the advantage of being personally known to
you Sir, yet I venture to request, to intreat your
strictest & immediate attention to the application I have
made as my affairs are most pressing, & my difficulties great
I have the honour to be
Sir
Your most obedient
EW Macauley
Feb 21st 1812
No 7 St James Street
Letter No. 2 Transcription
Statement From Miss Macauley to the members of the Literary Fund
A young female destitute of all fortune, of all
dependence save in the exertion of the little talent
it has pleased heaven to bestow on me, and with an infirm &
widowed parent to support, the profession of the stage has
been my occupation for the last few years, but the delicacy
of my constitution, and the total decline of my health of my
health, renders it impossible for me to pursue this profession
any longer, my pen is therefore my sole prospect for future
existence… & this prospect is cheerless for want of patronage
& support, it is near four months since I arrived in London
on a literary speculation, without the possession of a single
guinea, my difficulties are hourly increasing, & all my
efforts to bring my production before the public are vain
for want of interest, friends & money, the purpose of this application
is that the literary fund that will be pleased to lend me
some pecuniary assistance to enable me to bring forward three
Classical Poems (of extreme singularity & very original)
which I wish to publish & on which I totally build my
hopes for future dependence, & to relieve me from pressing
present distress, which ^it is the will of heaven to inflict on
me, but which cannot convey a reproach to my own heart
though they almost unfit me for exertion, I should shrink from
the idea of such an application of my age, did not religion
inform me that I have no right tamely to resign my life
while there is any avenue open by which I may be ex-
tricated from the almost positive certainty of perishing
in prison for want, perseverance, industry & some
portion of talent are in my own favour, but I have
not power to put my exertions in force, yet even
embarrassed as I am, I would not draw from the stores
of the infirm & aged, but in the hopes of punctually
returning to the fund at a future period whatever
pecuniary aid may now be given me. An immediate
answer will be a relief to an anxious heart, & an agonized
mind, a few days from this I may be without a
shelter. I hope & believe every needful testimony of
my character can be given
I have the honour to be
Gentlemen
your most obedient
EW Macauley
Feb 4th
No. 7 St. James Street
Analysis
In the first letter, Elizabeth Wright Macauley writes to an unnamed male with a request to pass on a second, enclosed letter to the members of the Literary Fund in the hopes to secure a loan to publish some of her poems. Macauley details “a fortunate accident” that resulted in her introduction to the sister of “one of the principle members” of the Literary Fund that explained to her the fund’s function, which is cited by Peter Cunningham in his Handbook of London, 1850 as being “to administer assistance to authors of merit and good character who may be reduced to distress by unavoidable calamities, or deprived by enfeebled faculties or declining life of the power of literary exertion” (Cunningham, Handbook of London). The fund itself was founded in 1790, and only became the Royal Literary Fund, as it is known today, in 1818, explaining why Macauley refers to it simply as the “Literary Fund” since this letter was written in 1812. The fund provided financial assistance to many famous British writers, including Samuel Coleridge, D. H. Lawrence and James Joyce, as cited by the Royal Literary Fund Wikipedia, and it would appear that it is this financial assistance for which Macauley is appealing. She claims to have presented the poems she intends to publish, should she be successful in her request, to a “Miss Fitzgerald”, the sister to a “Mr Fitzgerald” who she doesn’t fully name, but who might be William Thomas Fitzgerald, a poet worked with the Literary Fund who lived from 1759 until 1829 (Wikipedia) and wrote and delivered “An Address for the Anniversary of the Literary Fund… May 1, 1817”. Macauley hopes that Miss Fitzgerald’s “approbation” of her poems will be enough to inspire Mr. Fitzgerald to extend to her the financial support she requires to publish the poems, and requests the unknown addressee to present her letter to the members of the Literary Fund with the “strictest & immediate attention” due to “affairs most pressing” and “difficulties great” – the specifics of which she details in her second letter.
In the second letter, Elizabeth Macauley addresses the members of the Literary Fund directly, detailing her intention to publish “three Classical Poems” on which she intends to “totally build my/hopes for future dependence, & to relieve me from pressing/present distress”. She goes on to explain her current financial situation, exclaiming herself to be “destitute of all fortune… [and] dependence” after the “delicacy of [her] constitution, and the total decline of [her] health” rendered her unable to continue “the profession of the stage [which] has/been [her] occupation for the last few years”. Despite entering the career of acting in 1803, Macauley failed to achieve more than a brief period of notoriety, most often citing instances of unfair treatment from the proprietors of the various theatres in which she was employed. In her piece, “Facts against Falsehood! Being a Brief Statement of Miss Macauley’s Engagements at the Winter Theatres”, which she published as a pamphlet in January 1824, Macauley attributes the downfall of her career to “a series of persecutions, the most unprovoked, [which] have pursued me for some years past” (Facts Against Falsehood… 7) despite “any act of hostility – without any breach of engagement on my part… I am excluded from the exercise of my profession, and robbed of the fair harvest of my previous toils” (1).
She also failed to secure herself a financially beneficial marriage – despite what she claims in her memoirs to be three different occasions whereupon her hand was requested in marriage by men who would have supported her effectively, including the “Governor of York castle” (Autobiographical Memoirs 40), a man who she had known since childhood and who, from her description, was the Warden and over-seer of York Castle, the primary function of which was a prison. Macauley explains that she “could not be reconciled to the office which he held. To live in a place, where all around her were prisoners was not endurable” (40). She instead married “from an impulse of humanity” (41) a man who was considered “her inferior in all respects… a youth from the country, the orphan son of a farmer” even while “her judgement whispered the impropriety, the probable ruin to both in such a union” (42). Unfortunately, he passed away “some short time” (43) after their marriage, leaving her with nothing and prompting her decision to move to away from York to strike out on her own. Thus, money trouble was a recurring theme in Elizabeth Macauley’s life, ultimately resulting in a multitude of debts that, “not chusing to be incarcerated within the walls of a prison house” (4) lead her to “became a voluntary prisoner” in 1834.
In her letter, Macauley appears determined to impress upon the members of the Literary Fund exactly how desperate her current situation is, citing an “infirm & widowed parent to support” and describing herself to be “without the possession of a single guinea” with only her pen as her “sole prospect for future existence.” She is unabashedly insistent on the desperation of her situation, claiming her “difficulties are hourly increasing” and emphasizing her “pressing present distress”, taking no responsibility for her current predicament and instead insisting it to be “the will of heaven”. She shamelessly refers to her “anxious heart” and “agonized mind” in her appeal, obviously attempting to win the sympathies of the Literary Fund, in the hopes that she might be “extricated from the almost positive certainty of perishing in prison.”
While Macauley mentions multiple times the severity of her situation, in both letters urging a punctual response to her requests, the true state of her desperate condition seems to be most indicated by the state of the letters themselves – both are written in scrawled, imperfect script, where certain lines are underlined for effect, unabashedly emphasizing phrases like “pressing present distress” to impress upon her reader the dire importance of their cooperation. She often stresses her need for financial support, claiming herself “destitute of all fortune,” while the biggest indication that she is most likely not over-emphasizing the severity of her need lies in the several times she has obviously corrected a mistake in her spelling or phrasing by crossing out or adding words, instead of restarting the letter from the beginning. This suggests that Macauley might not have been able to spare another piece of paper on which she could have rewritten her statement without these mistakes since, at the time, paper would have been an extremely important resource to her that she wouldn’t want to overextend. These kinds of written pleas for patronage would have been Macauley’s only hope to acquire pecuniary assistance, and no doubt she wrote each one with a painstaking awareness of their importance as well as their cost to her dwindling funds.
The two letters detail the desperate state Elizabeth Macauley had found herself, unable to pursue her literary career without the patronage of benefactors to support her needs. Her desperation for relief is distinctly obvious in both the contents, as well as the physical qualities of the letter, and it is clear that she has few options available to her other than to appeal to the kindness of charities and strangers to secure a future for herself. Very luckily for her, as a result of this plea Elizabeth does manage to secure a donation from the committee, to the total of ten pounds. She vows not to receive this financial assistance from The Literary Fund without “punctually returning to the fund at a future period whatever pecuniary aid may now be given me” and pledges to use the money recieved to publish three of her “Classical Poems” which she claims are “of extreme singularity & very original”. Despite going through many difficulties throughout her life, Elizabeth Macauley never depreciates her own talent, nor does she allow them to dampen her hopes for a brighter future for both herself, and her art.
Works Cited
Cunningham, Peter. “Hand-Book of London”. 1850. The Dictionary of Victorian London. Web. Accessed Nov. 10 2021. https://www.victorianlondon.org/charities/royalliteraryfund.htm
“Fitzgerald, William Thomas.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 30 July 2021. Web. Accessed Nov. 10 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:CiteThisPage&page=William_Thomas_Fitzgerald&id=1036311652&wpFormIdentifier=titleform
Macauley, Elizabeth Wright. “Autobiographical Memoirs.” Charles Fox. 1835.
Macauley, Elizabeth Wright. “Facts Against Falsehood! Being a Brief Statement of Miss Macauley’s Engagements at the Winter Theatres.” 1824.
