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Charles Dickens

Madeline House and Graham Storey (eds), The British Academy/The Pilgrim Edition of the Letters of Charles Dickens, Vol. 1: 1820–1839

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pg 228To T. [J.] CULLIFORD,1 [24 JANUARY 1837]

Composite text from Autograph Prices Current, VI, 49, Maggs catalogue, 1939, and N, i, 100. Date: endorsed 24 Jan 37, according to APC, No reason to doubt this was a contemporary endorsement.

Furnival's Inn | Tuesday Afternoon

My Dear Uncle,

I regret to say that I cannot leave home this evening. Catherine is not so well as she was; and we have a consultation here, at six o'clock.

I was seized last night with a violent pain in my head (fortunately, just as I had concluded my month's work), and was immediately ordered as much medicine as would confine an ordinary-sized horse to his stall for a week. aWhether it arises from the "influentials",2 or from dose application, or from worry, or from the wind cholic, to quote King Arthur,3 I know not; but this I know—that surely against my will, much to my disappointment, here I am, and in a gloomy and miserable state, here I must remain.a

  •                                             Believe me
  •                                                   Affectionately yours,
  • T. C.4Culliford Esqre.                               Charles Dickens

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Notes

Editor’s Note
1 Presumably Thomas John Culliford (1781–1852), CD's maternal great-uncle; son of Thomas Culliford (d. 1817), musical instrument maker; partner in Dewar & Culliford, insurance brokers.
Editor’s Note
aa From catalogue source.
Editor’s Note
2 i.e. influenza.
Editor’s Note
3 In Fielding's The Tragedy of Tragedies; or, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great, i, iii, King Arthur says "I feel a sudden pain across my breast. | Nor Know I whether it proceed from love | Or the wind cholic." Kane O' Hara's version [1805], often performed, also contains the lines.
Editor’s Note
4 Thus in catalogues.
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