NELSON, Horatio, Viscount (1758-1805). Two autograph letters signed ('Nelson and Bronte' and 'Nelson & Bronte' respectively) on a single bifolium to an unidentified recipient, [ ALMOST CERTAINLY EMMA HAMILTON ], [San Josef, Torbay], ‘2 o'clock Tuesday’ and ‘Ten o'clock Monday night’ [9 and 10 February 1801], 2¼ pages , 4to (207 x 201mm) , (the first leaf excised at the bottom, loss of the first and perhaps second line of the 10 February letter and the same amount on the verso, about ¼ of the second leaf remaining). Provenance : dating endorsement in a hand close to that of William Nelson (1757-1837, 1st Earl Nelson), the Admiral's elder brother, on the verso.
NELSON, Horatio, Viscount (1758-1805). Two autograph letters signed ('Nelson and Bronte' and 'Nelson & Bronte' respectively) on a single bifolium to an unidentified recipient, [ ALMOST CERTAINLY EMMA HAMILTON ], [San Josef, Torbay], ‘2 o'clock Tuesday’ and ‘Ten o'clock Monday night’ [9 and 10 February 1801], 2¼ pages , 4to (207 x 201mm) , (the first leaf excised at the bottom, loss of the first and perhaps second line of the 10 February letter and the same amount on the verso, about ¼ of the second leaf remaining). Provenance : dating endorsement in a hand close to that of William Nelson (1757-1837, 1st Earl Nelson), the Admiral's elder brother, on the verso. AN OUTPOURING OF DESPAIR AT THE MOST TURBULENT PERIOD OF HIS RELATIONS WITH EMMA HAMILTON . Beginning in some agitation 'I am little more composed for I cannot bring myself to think you are in earnest', Nelson launches into an impassioned prayer – 'O God who knowest the purity of my thoughts...' – ending by pleading: 'I beseech thee O most merciful God that in thy good time thou will take me to thyself and remove me from this world where I have no friend to comfort or relieve me even on the bed of sickness. Relieve me O Lord from the misery of this world speedily speedily speedily amen, amen, amen'. The missive ending abruptly at this point, the second is equally anguished. An incomplete first sentence ends 'whom chance not inclination force me to see', and it continues 'God knows I never wish to sett my foot out of the ship but I must go when duty orders it. Without your friendship and confidence I own I wish myself removed from this world', Nelson complaining bitterly of being ordered by Earl St Vincent to transfer from the San Josef to the 'dirty' St George , the dire state of which 'suits exactly my present feelings which are miserable in the extreme. I have not closed my eyes all night and am almost blind and far from well & all brought on by fretting at false accusations’. A postscript asks if the Duke of Queensberry 'ever received my letter'. Having spent a difficult winter on the fringes of London society after his return from Palermo, and receiving the orders of the newly-appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, Earl St Vincent, that he should sail with the fleet to the Baltic with no independent commission -– and, adding insult to injury, being forced to take leave of his beloved San Josef – Nelson was left reeling by the news from London that the Prince of Wales had taken an interest in Emma Hamilton. Coming so recently after the birth of their child, Horatia, on 29 January, this news drove him into a state of distracted misery which found expression in a flood of letters to Emma (at least 26 are known between 25 January and 27 February), including one of 4 February in which he insists that 'if the Prince is a man of honour he will quit the pursuit of you', and on 8 February with the confession 'I do not think I ever was so miserable'. Although they are not published in the Alfred Morison Collection (as with the letter to Emma of 12 February sold in these rooms on 19 November 2014, lot 23), the near-hysterical register of the present, desolate letters is consistent with Nelson’s tone in writing to Emma at this date, whilst the reference to the Duke of Queensberry, who was staying with the Hamiltons in London at this time, picks up a passage in a letter to Emma on 26 January, when Nelson noted his intention to write to Queensberry the following day.
NELSON, Horatio, Viscount (1758-1805). Two autograph letters signed ('Nelson and Bronte' and 'Nelson & Bronte' respectively) on a single bifolium to an unidentified recipient, [ ALMOST CERTAINLY EMMA HAMILTON ], [San Josef, Torbay], ‘2 o'clock Tuesday’ and ‘Ten o'clock Monday night’ [9 and 10 February 1801], 2¼ pages , 4to (207 x 201mm) , (the first leaf excised at the bottom, loss of the first and perhaps second line of the 10 February letter and the same amount on the verso, about ¼ of the second leaf remaining). Provenance : dating endorsement in a hand close to that of William Nelson (1757-1837, 1st Earl Nelson), the Admiral's elder brother, on the verso.
NELSON, Horatio, Viscount (1758-1805). Two autograph letters signed ('Nelson and Bronte' and 'Nelson & Bronte' respectively) on a single bifolium to an unidentified recipient, [ ALMOST CERTAINLY EMMA HAMILTON ], [San Josef, Torbay], ‘2 o'clock Tuesday’ and ‘Ten o'clock Monday night’ [9 and 10 February 1801], 2¼ pages , 4to (207 x 201mm) , (the first leaf excised at the bottom, loss of the first and perhaps second line of the 10 February letter and the same amount on the verso, about ¼ of the second leaf remaining). Provenance : dating endorsement in a hand close to that of William Nelson (1757-1837, 1st Earl Nelson), the Admiral's elder brother, on the verso. AN OUTPOURING OF DESPAIR AT THE MOST TURBULENT PERIOD OF HIS RELATIONS WITH EMMA HAMILTON . Beginning in some agitation 'I am little more composed for I cannot bring myself to think you are in earnest', Nelson launches into an impassioned prayer – 'O God who knowest the purity of my thoughts...' – ending by pleading: 'I beseech thee O most merciful God that in thy good time thou will take me to thyself and remove me from this world where I have no friend to comfort or relieve me even on the bed of sickness. Relieve me O Lord from the misery of this world speedily speedily speedily amen, amen, amen'. The missive ending abruptly at this point, the second is equally anguished. An incomplete first sentence ends 'whom chance not inclination force me to see', and it continues 'God knows I never wish to sett my foot out of the ship but I must go when duty orders it. Without your friendship and confidence I own I wish myself removed from this world', Nelson complaining bitterly of being ordered by Earl St Vincent to transfer from the San Josef to the 'dirty' St George , the dire state of which 'suits exactly my present feelings which are miserable in the extreme. I have not closed my eyes all night and am almost blind and far from well & all brought on by fretting at false accusations’. A postscript asks if the Duke of Queensberry 'ever received my letter'. Having spent a difficult winter on the fringes of London society after his return from Palermo, and receiving the orders of the newly-appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, Earl St Vincent, that he should sail with the fleet to the Baltic with no independent commission -– and, adding insult to injury, being forced to take leave of his beloved San Josef – Nelson was left reeling by the news from London that the Prince of Wales had taken an interest in Emma Hamilton. Coming so recently after the birth of their child, Horatia, on 29 January, this news drove him into a state of distracted misery which found expression in a flood of letters to Emma (at least 26 are known between 25 January and 27 February), including one of 4 February in which he insists that 'if the Prince is a man of honour he will quit the pursuit of you', and on 8 February with the confession 'I do not think I ever was so miserable'. Although they are not published in the Alfred Morison Collection (as with the letter to Emma of 12 February sold in these rooms on 19 November 2014, lot 23), the near-hysterical register of the present, desolate letters is consistent with Nelson’s tone in writing to Emma at this date, whilst the reference to the Duke of Queensberry, who was staying with the Hamiltons in London at this time, picks up a passage in a letter to Emma on 26 January, when Nelson noted his intention to write to Queensberry the following day.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
