B to R Late May-June 1751 (B, VI, 101-105, 109).
Lady Bradshaigh's Late May-June letter makes one of her "very best
courtesies" to Sir Charles Grandison, whom Richardson has finally
introduced to her. From the fact that Sir Charles has finally appeared and
from Richardson's other letters, this letter can be placed as having been
written in late May or in June.
On 2 May Richardson wrote Thomas Edwards, "After long, long
Traveling I think I have found ye good Man; just found him: But you, Sir,
& an auxiliary Lady or two must correct, adorn & finish him"
(FM,
XII, I, ff. 99-100). The "auxiliary Lady" was, of course, Lady Bradshaigh.
Richardson had, in fact, described him to her in May as
"your
good man (your's he is—he owes the existence he has to you)", and
so
Richardson would have obviously sent her the character as soon as he had
finished him. Lady Bradshaigh in her letter of Late May-June declines,
though, to "correct, adorn & finish him" with the words "I 'tell you
what
I would have done!' Dear Sir, ask your own mind what I would have done:
the dictates of that must be what I would have done" (B, VI, 102).
Considering the circumstances and these words, Lady Bradshaigh's letter
was probably written about the same time Richardson wrote Thomas
Edwards. It is hard to imagine that it was written after 1 July, for around
that
date Sir Charles was given to the world, via a reading which Susanna
Highmore was present at and recorded in a letter to Hester Mulso. (See
Eaves and Kimpel, p. 372.) By 11 July Richardson himself had written
Miss Mulso about Sir Charles. He would certainly have given Sir Charles
to Lady Bradshaigh before Miss Mulso, and since he wanted Lady
Bradshaigh to help "correct" Sir Charles, it is virtually impossible to
imagine that he would have given the public reading before she had met the
character. Lady Bradshaigh's letter, therefore, must have been written in
late May or June of 1751.
