Jefferson’s copy was sent to him at Paris by the author, with a letter dated from Berners Street, London, February 28, 1787: “The Author of The Persian Heroine, having received from M ^r. Jefferson M ^r. Wythe’s book of Virginia, intreats his acceptance of the inclosed Tragedy.”

Jefferson replied from Paris on July 2: “ M ^r. Jefferson’s compliments to m ( ^~ r) Joddrell and thanks him for the copy of the Persian Heroine which he was so good as to send him, and which he finds here on his return from a journey of 3. or 4 months. not having yet had a moment to look into a book of any kind he has still to come the pleasure of reading this, which he is persuaded from it’s reputation, and that of it’s author, will be great. ”

Richard Paul Jodrell, 1745-1831, English classical scholar and dramatist. This play, founded on Herodotus, was rejected by the managers of the Drury Lane and Covent Garden Theatres. The circumstances are thus explained by the author in the Preface:

“This Tragedy was composed in 1784, and printed in the octavo form under which it now appears, that I might submit it with more facility to the reader than a Manuscript allows. When it was finished, I desired my Printer, Mr. Nichols, to carry it to Drury Lane, and solicit attention to it as a new Play: He discharged my commission with diligence in the last week of September 1784, and disclosed the Author’s name with my consent for that purpose. Though application was made at reasonable intervals, near three weeks elapsed without any intelligence. At last, on the 15th October, 1784, The Persian Heroine was returned to Mr. Nicols [ sic -- Ed. ] by an Attendant on that Theatre with this verbal decision, ‘that they could not, at any rate, act it in that season;’ and an intimation was added, that ‘probably it would not be acted in any other.’ On receiving back the copy, the first 17 pages, and no more, were cut open. The whole Play consisted of 64 printed pages, since I had not then annexed the appendage of the Notes. This 17th page extends to the fifth Scene of the second Act, and includes a fourth part of the Drama only. No Reader can prophesy the plot or pronounce on the merit in this stage of it. That this curious anecdote might be attested Mr. Nichols endorsed on the copy, at my request, a memorandum of the day of return. Since I was not conscious that I could have merited so flagrant a violation of private justice and publick duty, I acquiesced till my return to London from the Country in silence. In the month of December, 1784, I waited on Dr. Ford, whom the publick Voice proclaimed a considerable Proprietor at Drury Lane Theatre: To him I represented the fact, and was inclined to put the most candid construction on it, imputing it to negligence and not design. But I confess my astonishment to have been great, when the Doctor, instead of making an apology, pronounced my complaint founded on presumption . . .”

The first edition of this poem was published anonymously in New-Haven, 1780, in 8vo. The author’s preface opens: “Perhaps the following little Poem may be considered with the more indulgence by the Public, after it is known, that it was actually written, at a period when the Army was in the field, and the Author so far engaged in the duties of his profession, as to have but little leisure for subjects of literature or amusement. And it will not be necessary to demonstrate to those who have the least knowledge of a military life, how unfavourable such a state is to poetical contemplation. This, it is presumed, may pertinently be urged in excuse for the slighter errors, and inaccuracies of the performance; and the Design must in some measure atone for any of a different complexion.”

It is probably to this poem that Jefferson referred in a letter to Humphreys, who had recently returned to the