2201. Robert Southey to John Murray, 10 January 1813
2201. Robert Southey to John Murray, 10 January 1813 *
Keswick. Jany 10. 1813
My dear Sir
Having discharged my conscience as well as my desk upon of this article upon the moral & political state of the lower orders, [1] – (for it was a subject upon which I entered as a duty) – I am now come to Chalmer’s Poets, a collection upon which I shall bestow much more pains than Mr Chalmers himself has done. [2] To assist me in this will you let me <see> Sir Egerton Brydges’ quarterly publication, [3] – I do not recollect its title. The Censura Literaria I have. [4]
The article I hope will be a good one, – for it will lead me into a subject with which no man is more thoroughly acquainted. Mr Gifford tells me he hopes to publish on the first-of February, – if it should be the latter end of the month I can be in time for the number.
I will beg you also to send Nichols’s late publication, Anecdotes or Memoirs [5] – I forget the title. It will help me in sketching the intellectual history of the last half century.
believe me my dear Sir
Yrs very truly
Robert Southey
A large cargo of your books will be returned by the next carrier. [6]
Notes
* Address: To/ John Murray Esqr/ Albemarle Street/
London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 13 JA13/ 1813
Watermark: C WILMOTT/ 1807
Endorsement: 1813. Jany 10th/ Southey Robt
MS: National Library of Scotland, MS 42551. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK
[1] Southey’s review of Patrick Colquhoun (1745–1820; DNB), Propositions for ameliorating the Condition of the Poor: and For Improving the Moral Habits, and Increasing the Comforts of the Labouring People (1812), appeared in the Quarterly Review, 8 (December 1812), 319–356. BACK
[2] Alexander Chalmers (1759–1834; DNB), The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper (1810), reviewed by Southey in Quarterly Review, 11 (July 1814), 480–504; and Quarterly Review, 12 (October 1814), 60–90. BACK
[3] Egerton Brydges, British Bibliographer (1810–1814). The intention had been to publish this work quarterly, but it actually appeared erratically in 15 numbers. BACK
[4] Egerton Brydges, Censura Literaria: Containing Titles, Abstracts, and Opinions of Old English Books, with Original Disquisitions, Articles of Biography, and other Literary Antiquities (1805–1809). Southey’s copy was no. 381 in the sale catalogue of his library. BACK
