Item Info

Accession Number: 87-271
Physical Description: [4] pages
Material: Paper
Transcription:

 Devonshire Terrace. Friday Thirteenth October 1848
My Dear Frederick.
   I shall say nothing of the aspect in which this business of yours has presented itself to me in the past.
   Treating of the present, I shall say no more than that there are, here, a good many claimants on my affectionate remembrance; and that I do not think you, with your income, justified in looking upon me as a pecuniary resource, or myself justified in consenting to be so regarded.
   Eighty pounds is a large sum to be taken out of my pocket and flung away. If I were asked to pay it to do you some good, or so procure you some advance in life, that would be another thing. But is quite unworthy of an independent spirit to want it for the payment of debts; and that appeal is not one that enlists my sympathy, or that ought to enlist it—as I believe. Because self-extrication is in your own power.
   I cannot make the least approach to a promise that I will produce this money, in the absence of a perfect knowledge of your position and intentions. I you think proper to tell me to whom, and for what, you would pay it if you had it—what you would then leave unpaid, and how you would propose to clear off that—and exactly what effect these arrangements would have on your intentions as to marriage –[
I will then consider your request and decide. But I must repeat that I cannot and do not, in my present absence of enlightenment on these heads, make the least approach to a promise that I will advance the money.
   I shall be at home on Sunday after church. But as all this must be written down, at last, before I could clearly understand it, I think it would be better and speedier, if you wrote it down at first, and gave the opportunity of reading it, before speaking to you on the subject.
   Affectionately always
  CHARLES DICKENS

MssDate: MSSDate Friday Thirteenth October 1848
Media Type: Letters
Source: Rare Book Department
Recipient: Dickens, Frederick William, 1820-1868
Provenance: Dawson's 1961, Matlack Fund.

Bibliography:

Volume 5, pp. 424—425 , The Letters of Charles Dickens, edited by Madeline House & Graham Storey; associate editors, W.J. Carlton…[et al.]

City/Town/Township: Creation Place Note:Devonshire Terrace
City/Town/Township:[London]

Call Number: DL D556f 1848-10-13
Creator Name: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 - Author