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Elizabeth
Inchbald had been friends with Thomas
Holcroft for quite some time before her connection to Godwin. They first acted together in Canterbury in
1777. Both were successful playwrights and
novelists. They both lived in London and saw
each other
frequently. Holcroft also became
involved with English radicalism by 1792. When
Inchbald began seeing Godwin socially, he and
Holcroft had become
inseparable. Godwin’s journal documented
his work and daily life and recorded many names of people they all knew. These same people are recorded in Inchbald’s
pocket-books and in letters from Holcroft and Alderson.
Robinson is noted in all these exchanges and
played an important role in their work and friendships.
In Godwin’s journal, an entry marks the
famous dinner party where Mary Wollstonecraft had talked too much. Many years later he became her friend and
lover. Godwin’s journal entries in the
fall of 1792 began to list topics of conversation he had at dinner. These entries show how the three friends, Inchbald, Godwin, and Holcroft, discussed their ideas that later
reappear in
their work. (Jenkins, A) |
