You have, I suppose, or are conscious that you ought to have, whitlows
upon your thumb and all your four fingers for not writing to me! Tell me
what you are saying and doing, and above all where you are going. My
father has taken me into a new partnership--we are writing a comedy:
will you come and see it acted? He is making a charming theatre in the
room over his study: it will be twice as large as old Poz's little
theatre in the dining-room. My aunt's woollen wig for old Poz is in high
estimation in the memory of man, woman, and child here. I give you the
play-bill:
Mrs. Fangle (a rich and whimsical widow) Emmeline.
Caroline (a sprightly heiress) Charlotte.
Jemima (Mrs. Fangle's waiting-maid) Bessy.
Sir Mordant Idem (in love with Mrs. Fangle,
and elderly, and hating anything _new_) Henry.
Opal (nephew to Sir Mordant, and hating
everything _old_, in love with Caroline,
and wild for illuminatism) Sneyd.
Count Babelhausen (a German illuminatus,
trying to marry either Mrs. Fangle or
Caroline) Lovell.
Heliodorus and Christina (Mrs. Fangle's } William
children, on whom she tries strange } and
experiments) } Honora.
To explain illuminatism I refer you to Robinson's book called _Proofs of
a Conspiracy._ It was from this book, which gives a history of the
cheats of Freemasonry and Illuminatism, that we took the idea of Count
Babelhausen. The book is tiresome, and no sufficient proofs given of the
facts, but parts of it will probably interest you.
Lovell has bought a fine apparatus and materials for a course of
chemical lectures which he is going to give us. The study is to be the
laboratory: I wish you were _in it._
In the _Monthly Review_ for October there is this anecdote. After the
King of Denmark, who was somewhat silly, had left Paris, a Frenchman,
who was in company with the Danish Ambassador, but did not know him,
began to ridicule the King--"Ma foi! il a une tête! une tête--"
"Couronnée," replied the Ambassador, with presence of mind and
politeness. My father, who was much delighted with this answer, asked
Lovell, Henry, and Sneyd, without telling the right answer, what they
would have said.
Lovell: "A head--and a heart, sir."
Henry: "A head--upon his shoulders."
Sneyd: "A head--of a King."
Tell me which answer you like best. Richard will take your _Practical
Education_ to you.
* * * * *
The play mentioned in the foregoing letter was twice acted in January
1799, with great applause, under the title of _Whim for Whim._ Mr.
Edgeworth's mechanism for the scenery, and for the experiments tried on
the children, were most ingenious. Mrs. Edgeworth painted the scenery
and arranged the dresses.
The day after the last performance of _Whim for Whim_, the family went
to Dublin for Mr. Edgeworth to attend Parliament, the last Irish
Parliament, he having been returned for the borough of St. John's Town,
in the County of Longford. In the spring Mrs. Edgeworth and Maria
accompanied him to England.
* * * * *
_To_ MISS CHARLOTTE SNEYD.