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National Library of Scotland, MS 3876. Previously published: Wilfred Partington (ed.), The Private Letter-books of Sir Walter Scott: Selections from the Abbotsford Manuscripts (London, 1930), pp. 73–75.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.
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Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.
& has been used for the ampersand sign.
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Queen Orraca
I thank you also for what you say concerning Constable.ver
between two & three hundred are still upon hand. I let him print Madocpor quantity of time which is thus employed every
year, produce such a poem as Thalaba, but seven hundred copies would be seven years in selling. Were my income sufficient this would
signify nothing, – I should do this <it> for pleasure, be perfectly satisfied with the fame I get, & care nothing
for profit. – There is no hardship in this sacrifice of half my time, – any profession would require as much or more, & tho any
profession would be far more lucrative, as long as I have enough I am contented, & more than contented.
You may see by this statement that Constable overrates the utility of a connection with me, – which must be of more
consequence to Longman than it could be to him, because I bear so large a part in the Annual Review. – I have however about a thousand
lines by me of a poem called The Curse of Kehama, of which Hindoo superstition is the basis, as the Mohammedan fault was the basis of
Thalaba. It is written like Thalaba, with this difference that there is a frequent intermixture of rhymes, – my design beg
being to buoy up by rhyme those parts in which there was least passion. If compleated it would extend to the same length, – that is
about 6000 lines, with about the same proportion of notes. What would he give me for an edition of this poem were I to finish it, the
form & number of the edition <being> of course at his option? If his offer tempted me to proceed, I would communicate it to
Longman – (to whom I should consider myself so far bound,) & give him the refusal of it at that price. On his refusal it should be
Constables.
If the romance you mention be the old Poema del Cid edited by Sanchezr Frere
Wordsworth is at Grasmere &
has been there for some months. The defects of his last volumes seen to be more felt than their beauties. I hear many persons speak of
the few foolish pieces there <with dislike,> & scarcely any body with admiration of the sonnets, which are in the very
highest strain of poetry.have
<excite> a great temporary interest. My manuscript materials are very extensive & very valuable.
Henry is in Portugal. Mrs Southey joins me in respects to Mrs Scott.