SHELLEY (MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT) Autograph letter signed ('Mary Shelley') to John Howard Payne, beginning '...Summer is come at last, my dear Payne, and with it a renewal of life to the exiles from the sun. Would not a butterfly have a right to complain if in its Crisalis [sic] it felt its wings bound and darkness and cold press hard on its tender frame?...', wishing she could hibernate '...in this make-believe of a habitable country... and awake young and fresh in June...', dreading next winter ('...every thing has gone wrong with me and death and disease has invaded my small circle...'), attending the opera with Jane Williams and posing as an Italian ('...We spoke Italian all the time...'), going on to give a description of an opera performance by Velluti ('... agreeably disappointed... I had expected pain but received extreme pleasure...'), and another by Giuditta Pasta as Medea ('...Absorbing interest in the acting and singing of this wonderful woman - took us out of the world and surrounding people... have you heard her passionate tones & beheld her thrilling countenance?... I was quite overcome... in the scene with her children, only by aid of salts and infinite struggle could prevent myself from making a scene for the edification of all around... we could not remain to see the ballet...'), moving on to family news ('...My father is quite well - in better health & spirits than I have even seen him... Marshall is well, as also the Lambs - I saw them a week ago. They were as amiable and kind as ever...'), assuring him of their friendship ('...you are a favourite of my Janey which makes assurance doubly sure...'), going on to discuss Trelawney ('...recovered from his wounds... I [could] not not see him for a thousand worlds. He belongs to my past life, to days of bliss, to Paradise before the fall... to see him will remind me vividly that once Shelley, once Edward were my companions - and that I was not always the poor, little, rooted, rain drenched plant of pensées that I now am...'), ending by asking him to help find a suitable school in Paris for the son of a friend, and asking as a postscript '...How goes on Frankenstein at Porte St Martin?...', integral address panel, 4 pages, dust-staining and marks, creased at folds, black wax seal, seal tear affecting the end of four lines on page 3, 4to (250 x 202mm.), Kentish Town, 11 June [postmark 1826] Footnotes: 'HOW GOES ON FRANKENSTEIN?': A RARE LETTER FROM MARY SHELLEY THAT MENTIONS HER MOST FAMOUS CREATION, AND RECALLS 'DAYS OF BLISS' WITH SHELLEY. Letters from Mary Shelley that mention her most famous work rarely come on to the market. Written four years after Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned in Italy, our letter brings together the great tragedy of her life, the death of her husband, and her great creation, the novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818. As in the novel with its themes of regeneration and rebirth, she speaks here of emerging after a long cold winter and likens herself to a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. It is evident she is still coming to terms with her new life in England, which she sees as a sort of exile from Italy, despite seeing some of her old friends such as the Lambs. In the summer of 1824 she had moved to Kentish Town, from whence she writes, to be near Jane Williams, the widow of Edward Williams who perished with Shelley, and with whom she visits the opera. She not only describes magnificent performances by the Italian castrato Giovanni Battista Velluti and Giuditta Pasta, she describes how the friends amused themselves by pretending to be Italian ('...One old lady beside me with her glass tried to follow the English of the Italian in her book. I put her right as far as I could in dumb show.... I saw no hope of setting her right except by speaking and that was not in the bond...'). Mary is still evidently preoccupied with all things Italian and her old life with Shelley. Whilst imparting the news that Edward John Trelawney is recovering from wounds sustained after an assassination attempt in Greece, she speaks nostalgically of her '...days of Bliss... Paradise before the fall...'. Almost as an afterthought, squeezed in beneath her signature is her final line - '...How goes on Frankenstein...' - enquiring after the French performance of Frankenstein: ou, le Monstre et le Magician, which had opened at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris the day before our letter. The performance of T.P. Cooke (reprising his role from the first London production Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein at the English Opera House) was criticised in Le Globe: Journal Littéraire, but the reviewer praised the set for the 'reality of the sea and storm scenes' (Letters, p.522, note). The play was a huge hit with the public and ran for 94 performances. The recipient of our letter was the American actor and poet, her friend and admirer John Howard Payne (1791-1842), with whom Mary Shelley had a prolific correspondence around this time. Payne had declared his love for her the previous year and has proposed marriage but was refused. It is said by some that she encouraged the friendship in order to become acquainted with his friend Washington Irving, who did not reciprocate her feelings. Our letter was not published in Frederick L. Jones (ed.), The Letters of Mary W. Shelley, 1944, but has been published more recently in Betty T. Bennett (ed.), The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 1980, Vol.1, pp.519-522. However, as the text was taken from Payne's letterbook, it demonstrates a few minor differences of spelling, misreadings and omissions compared to our original. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * * VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing