Conference

Submitted by edpope on

Churchil: Night, Conferences, Farewel 13.1.1792 / 4.3.1792 Read the Conference / 3.12.1793 Independence, Farewel, Conference / 23.1.1794 sup at Reveley's, a conference / 14.3.1794 Churchil's Conference & Farewel / 9.6.1798 Conference / 26.6.1798 Conference / 1.7.1798 Conference; read Adept p37 / 3.7.1798 Read Adept p.90: conference / 5.10.1809 call on Johnson twice; conference / 6.8.1811 Conference, W B / 24.10.1811 sup at Bedford (conference) / 1.3.1816 Conference; Fitzgerald, pp.20 / 21.12.1824 conference, M J & Baldwin

Above are all the instances of the word conference in Godwin's diary. In general it seems to me that all the instances with a lower case c referred to an actual conference with other people, and all the instances with an upper case C referred to Charles Churchill's poem of that name, but an exception was 3.7.1798 where the context was very similar to 1.7.1798. It looks like this poem had a special meaning for Godwin in inspiring him to stick to his principles despite pressures to abandon them. If you read it, it isn't long, you may see what I mean. Its relevance in the four 1798 entries may have related to Godwin's courtship of Harriet Lee or to his writing of St Leon (Adept, which he was reading earlier pages of before it was completed) or most likely to both. The 1798 entries could also have referred to "conferences" with Miss Lee but I find that less likely. See entry for Lee, Sophia, Harriet & Anne.

3.12.1793 Independence Farewel Conference have been coded as one block in GD website. Farewel should be te78 and Conference should be te77. 1.3.1816 has been coded to unidentified text te2384 but should probably also be te77. 6.8.1811 could have been the poem or an actual conference, depending on who or what is understood by W B