Matthew Prior Letter Viewer

PRIOR to EDWARD SOUTHWELL, 9/[20] November 1703, Office of Trade and Plantations

Plantation office Nov:^r 9^th
11 in the Morn:^~ 1703.

Joy,

my Dear Southwell

is all I can
say to the bridegroom, and promise
of amendment in correspondence
is all I can promise the Secretary
w:^ch is sufficient for this Post, con
sidering that Pitch and Tar Merchants
are now at our board, the Queen
makes her Speech ¹ at 1 a Clock ,
I dine with my L^d Weymouth ² at
3, Betterton ³ acts Othello for his
profit at 6, and I must see S___⁴
at 10: Adieu, may Lady Betty ⁵ loue
you and all the world esteem you
as does,

my Dear,
yours ever

Mat Prior.

Addressed:
M^r Southwell

Endorsed:
9 Nov.^~ 1703
From M.^~ Prior.

Queen Anne, on the opening of Parliament (Cobbett’s Parliamentary History of England. . ., vol. 6. [1810; New York: AMS Press, Inc., 1966] 149.)

Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth, with whom Prior served on the Board of Trade and Plantations

Thomas Betterton

Possibly Prior's friend Richard Shelton

Lady Elizabeth Cromwell, whom Southwell had married on 29 Oct. 1703