102. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn [fragment], [between c. 3-9 September 1794]

102. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn [fragment], [between c. 3–9 September 1794] ⁠* 

[MS missing]magine a piece tolerable which represents both parties [MS missing] their own opinions & makes Barrere [1]  the only villain [MS missing]believe me when I say we wrote a good drama. the [MS missing] to lie entirely in the Convention. Coleridge took [MS missing] last Tuesday to London to sell it or print it — [MS missing] Lecoridge [2]  of both Universities. vexed as I really [MS missing]th of Robespierre [3]  I never laughed more than whilst [MS missing] the subject.

my friendly remembrances to [MS missing]les Bunbury!

you will receive two or three [MS missing] three weeks. as for Joan circumstances [MS missing]t & you will serve me essentially by getting [MS missing] been long burthensome to my friends — thank [MS missing]nds & on the banks of the Suquehannah [MS missing]ir & break the bread of independance. can [MS missing]lking with Ariste in the evening, & looking [MS missing] pleasure the tranquillity of closing day [MS missing] source of comfort”?

Written this morning on the road to Bath. [4] 

———

With many a weary step at length I gain
Thy summit Lansdown; & the cool breeze plays
Gratefully round my brow, as hence the gaze
Returns to dwell upon the journied plain.
Twas a long way & tedious, tho to the eye
Fair is the extended vale, & fair to view
The varied trees of many a fading hue
That rustle as the wild wind passes by.
Even so it fares with man — with fond delight
Back oer the distanced days he turns his sight
And weeps to think they will return no more.
Far be from me in such sad thoughts to roam
For surely I ere-long shall reach my home
And pleasant is the way that lies before.

[MS missing]

Sweet is the opening morn when all around <oer the sky> [5] 
The new-born Sun expands his roseate ray —
And lovely to the musing Minstrels eye
Sinks the last splendor of departing day.
But lovelier is the smile of one we love
Than all the charms in Natures ample sway
And sweeter than the music of the grove
The voice that bids us welcome. such delight
Be ours Ariste on the distant shore.
When all the labour of the day is oer
Wilt thou not smile & welcome? at thy sight
My heart will bound to rapture! far removd
To woodland scenes where Care intrudes n[MS missing]
We must be blest beloving & belovd.

[remainder of MS missing]

Notes

* MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4819E. AL; 2p.
Previously published: Crystal Tilney, ‘An unpublished Southey fragment in the National Library’, National Library of Wales Journal, 9 (1955–6), 149–156. BACK

[1] The French revolutionary Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac (1755–1841), a Jacobin who turned against Robespierre in 1794. BACK

[2] An anagram of ‘Coleridge’. The Fall of Robespierre (1794) was published under Coleridge’s name. BACK

[3] Maximilien François Marie Odenthalius Isidore de Robespierre (1758–1794). BACK

[4] A revised version was published in Southey’s Poems (1797). BACK

[5] A revised version was published in Southey’s Poems (1797). BACK

Addressee

Wynn, Charles Watkin Williams (1775–1850)

People mentioned

Bunbury, Charles John (1772–1798) (mentioned 1 time)
Fricker, Edith (1774–1837) (mentioned 1 time)
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772–1834) (mentioned 1 time)
The Collected Letters of Robert Southey, Part One
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