14 - To Mrs. Johnson, [London, 1758‒1762]

Summary

The identity of Mrs Johnson is unknown and the nature of the business involving a guinea is unclear. The dating of the two notes to this Mrs Johnson is highly conjectural. Balderston suggests that the use of ‘Mr. Goldsmith’ in the first note indicates that it was written before 1763, around which time Goldsmith began routinely to refer to himself as ‘Dr. Goldsmith’ (BL, 70n2). However, it is also possible that Dr Keay referred to in the second note here is the Chester correspondent mentioned in Letter 11 of August 1758, which suggests an earlier date. Splitting the difference, so to speak, Balderston suggests the summer of 1760. It would appear that Mrs Johnson and Dr Keay were correspondents through whom Goldsmith carried out unspecified miscellaneous tasks and transactions: Mrs Johnson in London, Dr. Keay in Chester, which was, along with Holyhead, one of two major ports for traffic with Ireland.

The copy-text is the manuscript in the Houghton Library, Harvard University. It was first published by Balderston in 1928. It is endorsed on the verso, in another hand, ‘To Mrs. Johnson’.

Mr. Goldsmith's best respects to Mrs. Johnson will pay a Guinea or whatever she thinks proper either of his own or her appointing only letting him know to whom or for what: He will wait on Mrs. Johnson if she thinks proper this evening at six, or if, as she intended she will call upon him he will be very proud of that honour. A line or two by the bearer will not be amiss.