TO THE MAN WHO COULD NOT PAY HIS BILLS

STEELE (Sir RICHARD, 1672-1729, essayist and dramatist) CHARMING UNPUBLISHED AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ('Richard Steele'), to [Robert] Knight, formerly cashier and treasurer of the South Sea Bubble Company ('...you, who have sacrific'd your self to keep the Secret of others...'), sending him a comedy ('The Adventures of this young Lady' [The Conscious Lovers, produced in 1722]) to console him in his exile in France, and, hoping that the distractions England is involved in will make his absence easy he assures him, although the ingratitude of others may have caused him to lower his opinion of mankind, that there are some, including Steele, 'who are not carry'd away by popular resentment when not founded on Strict=Justice', 1 page, octavo, guarded down one edge, offsetting from the title of 'The Conscious Lovers', [London], 18 March 1722/3

This letter is apparently unpublished: only a short extract is quoted from a nineteenth-century catalogue in The Correspondence, edited by Rae Blanchard, 1968, p 195 (the manuscript had not been traced). Letters by Steele are uncommon.

The offsetting of the title of the book and the rubrication of the upper and fore edges of the leaf (together with Steele's remark: 'upon Mr Collier's encouragement to send you the Play') suggest that it may have been written for insertion in a copy of the book; at the very least it was tipped into a copy before binding.

In 1719 Steele had considered forming a joint stock company, the Fish Pool company, dealing in fresh fish, and had consulted Knight and John Law about the enterprise.

£750