961. Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, 5 July 1804
961. Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, 5 July 1804 *
July 5. 1804
Dear Cottle
Tho Mr Porter [1] makes so short a stay that it is impossible to write more than a few lines, without those few he shall not depart. I ought to have answered a former letter of yours – It arrived just about Ediths birth time [2] – & in plain truth I forgot it in the utter subversion of all domestic habits such an event occasions, & in the fatigue of a visit to London.
Do you write to the Magazines [3] – you are known as the Co-Editor, & one of a firm is always sufficient to transact business. I need not say anything as to what should be said for you know as well as I do – so much paid to Mrs N. [4] so much still due – so many copies unsold – so many presented to the contributors, of course without specifying them by name. – I was pleased by the Edinburgh Review of the work which must needs assist it. [5]
Good luck to your selection. [6] if it be not finished insert in it, if you like the poem as well as I do – a little Ode to the Rosemary by Henry Kirke White, a boy of Nottingham – which you may find as by me extracted from his poems in the second Annual Review [7] – in which volume I wrote much – & among other articles Malthus on Population. [8] but that is a secret & designed only for yourself. God bless you. I will write you a letter ere long – meantime excuse a letterlet scrawled in haste
yrs affectionately
RS.
Notes
* Address: To/ Mr Cottle/ by favour of Mr
Porter
Watermark: shield, C. HALE
Endorsements: 172
70
MS: Newnham College, Cambridge, Harold Young Papers 382. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK
[2] Edith May Southey was born on 30 April 1804. BACK
[3] To explain the use made of the profits accruing from the publication of The Works of Thomas Chatterton, 3 vols (1803), jointly edited by Southey and Cottle. BACK
[4] Mary Newton (1749–1804), the sister of Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770; DNB), was the principal beneficiary of the sales of his poetical works, which Southey and Cottle edited to relieve Chatterton’s family from financial distress. In 1803 Southey reckoned that the publication would clear over £400 for her. BACK
[5] The notice of the Chatterton edition appeared in the Edinburgh Review, 7 (April 1804), 214–230. BACK
[6] A reference to Cottle’s A Selection of Poems, designed chiefly for Schools and Young Persons (1805). BACK
[7] Southey reviewed Henry Kirke White, Clifton Grove, a Sketch in Verse, with Other Poems (1803), in the Annual Review for 1803, 2 (1804), 552–554. Southey praises ‘To the Herb, Rosemary’ on page 553. BACK
[8] In the Annual Review for 1803, 2 (1804), Southey wrote the following reviews: James Burney, A Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean ... Illustrated with Charts (Vol. 1; 1803), 3–12; James Stanier Clarke (1766–1834; DNB), The Progress of Maritime Discovery, from the Earliest Period to the Close of the Eighteenth Century, Forming an Extensive System of Hydrography (1803), 12–20; James Curtis (dates unknown), A Journal of Travels in Barbary in 1801 ... With Observations on the Gum Trade of Senegal (1803), 20–23; Louis Maria Joseph, Count O’Hier de Grandpré (1761–1846), A Voyage in the Indian Ocean, and to Bengal ... To Which is Added a Voyage in the Red Sea, Including a Description of Mocha, and of the Trade of the Arabs of Yemen (1803), 48–54; John Davis (1774–1854), Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America, During 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, and 1802 (1803), 54–59; Lockhart Muirhead (dates unknown), Journals of Travels in Parts of the Late Austrian Low Countries, France, the Pays de Vaud and Tuscany in 1787 and 1789 (1803), 59–63; Charles William Doyle (1770–1842), A Non-Military Journal; Or, Observations Made in Egypt, by an Officer upon the Staff of the British Army: Describing the Country, its Inhabitants, their Manners and Customs (1803), 63–66; William Wittman (fl. 1799–1804), Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, and Across the Desert into Egypt During the Years 1799, 1800, and 1801, in Company with the Turkish Army and the British Military Mission (1803), 66–71; [Ann Blund (dates unknown)], Journal of a Short Excursion among the Swiss Landscapes (1803), 79–80; Isaac King (dates unknown), Letters from France (1803), 88–90; Part the First of An Address to the Public from the Society for the Suppression of Vice, Instituted, in London, 1802, Setting Forth, with a List of the Members, the Utility and Necessity of such an Institution, and its Claim to Public Support (1803), 187; Transactions of the Missionary Society (Vol. 1, 1803), 189–201; William Myles (1756–1828), A Chronological History of the People called Methodists ... With an Appendix, Containing Two Lists of the Itinerant Preachers ... With the Last Will and Testament of the Rev. J. Wesley (1803), 201–213; Thomas Malthus (1766–1834; DNB), An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society; with Remarks on the Speculations of W. Godwin, M. Condorcet and Other Writers (1803), 292–301; William Godwin, Life of Geoffrey Chaucer ... Including Memoirs of ... John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; with Sketches of the Manners, Opinions, Arts and Literature of England in the Fourteenth Century (1803), 462–473; George Mason (1735–1806; DNB), The Life of Richard Earl Howe (1803), 499–501; Joseph Ritson (1752–1803; DNB), Ancient Engleish Metrical Romanceës (1802), 515–533; George Ellis, Specimens of the Early English Poets (3rd edn 1803), 538–542; Richard Mant (1776–1848; DNB), The Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Warton (1802), 543–546; William Hayley (1745–1820; DNB), The Life and Posthumous Writings of William Cowper, Esq. (1803), 457–462; Peter Bayley (bap. 1778–1823; DNB), Poems (1803), 546–552; Henry Kirke White, Clifton Grove, a Sketch in Verse, with other Poems (1803), 552–554; Josiah Walker (d. 1831), The Defence of Order, a Poem (1803), 557; The Inquiry. Part 1, 557–558; William Barnes Rhodes (1772–1826; DNB), Epigrams (1803), 558; James Woodhouse (bap. 1735–1820), Norbury Park, a Poem with Several Others Written on Various Occasions (1803), 558; Henry William Tytler (1752/3–1808), The Voyage Home from the Cape of Good Hope (1803), 559; Luke Booker (1762–1835; DNB), Calista, or a Picture of Modern Life, a Poem (1803), 564; D. A. G. B. Cassano (dates unknown), Il Fiore della Poesia Italiana (1802), 562–563; Percy Clinton Sydney, 6th Viscount Strangford (1780–1855; DNB), Poems from the Portuguese of Luis de Camoens (1803), 569–577; William Lisle Bowles, The Picture, Verses Suggested by a Magnificent Landscape of Rubens (1803), 582; John Peter Roberdeau (bap. 1754–1815), Fugitive Verse and Prose (1803), 582–583; George Owen Cambridge (d. 1841), Works of Richard Owen Cambridge, Esq. with an Account of his Life and Character (1803), 583–585; Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker, Baroness de Staël-Holstein (1766–1817), A Treatise of Ancient and Modern Literature (tr. 1803), 643–650; Asiatic Researches; or Transactions of the Society Instituted in Bengal for Enquiring into the History and Antiquities, the Arts, Science and Literature of Asia (vol. VII, 1803), 898–908. BACK
