HEMANS, Felicia (1793-1835)

HEMANS, Felicia (1793-1835)
Autograph manuscripts for the poems 'The Tombs of Plataea', 'Ode to the Bandusian Fountain' and 'On the View of Delphi', n.p., n.d. [1822].
In English, cross-written in pen with a few lines in pencil on two pages, 200 x 190mm, tipped on to an album leaf. Provenance: Benjamin Bussey Thatcher (Boston antislavery campaigner, 1809-1840: presentation inscription on upper corner of verso; annotation on album leaf 'Felicia Hemans given by Mr Thatcher who received it from one of her sons').

Three poems inspired by classical sources: a dense poetic manuscript. The underlying manuscript comprises fair copies of the first 13 lines (and part of l.14) of Hemans' poem 'The Tombs of Plataea' (here with the sub-title 'from a picture by Mr Williams') and the first 16 lines (and part of l.17) of 'Horace's Ode to the Bandusian Fountain' (a translation of Horace, Odes, 3.13). Over this is cross-written a compositional draft of stanzas 1 and 2 of 'On the View of Delphi', with extensive emendations and cancellations.

Both the 'Ode to the Bandusian Fountain' and 'On the View of Delphi' were first published anonymously in the Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany for December 1822. In its subsequent publication under Hemans' name the latter poem was given the title 'The View from Castri. From a Painting by Williams', making it clear that both it and 'The Tombs of Plataea' were inspired by a common source in landscapes by the Welsh watercolourist Hugh Williams Williams (1773-1829).