Letter to ARC On Her Wishing to be Called Anna

By Matilda Bethem 1776–1852 Matilda Bethem

Forgive me, if I wound your ear,

By calling of you Nancy,

Which is the name of my sweet friend,

The other’s but her fancy.

Ah, dearest girl! how could your mind

The strange distinction frame?

The whimsical, unjust caprice,

Which robs you of your name.

Nancy agrees with what we see

A being wild and airy;

Gay as a nymph of Flora’s train,

Fantastic as a fairy.

But Anna’s of a different kind,

A melancholy maid,

Boasting a sentimental soul,

In solemn pomp arrayed.

Oh ne’er will I forsake the sound,

So artless and so free

Be what you will with all mankind,

But Nancy still with me.

Biography

Biographer and portrait painter Matilda Betham was raised in Stonham Aspal in Suffolk, England, the firstborn in a family of 15 children. She learned portrait painting in order to support herself and moved to London when her family was undergoing financial difficulties. Betham showed her work at the Royal Academy and painted portraits of poets George Dyer and Robert Southey. She met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1802 when she . . .

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