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Bodleian Library, MS Don. d. 3. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), II, pp. 107–111 [in part]; Adolfo Cabral (ed.), Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800–1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), pp. 107–108 [in part].
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.
Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.
Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.
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.
£ has been used for £, the pound sign
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Cintra.
My dear Harry
Your letter (dated July 3) has reached me only this morning – I am ashamed of not having written before – &
therefore answer it immediately. your account of your progress is highly satisfactory, & the manner of your letter evinces as much
improvement as the matter. – On my return to England in the next spring I shall take a house, in or near, London, where you shall live
with me, & study anatomy at the Westminster Hospital under Carlisle, whom
you know to be a man of genius, & my friend. by the time you have acquired enough previous knowledge, I trust some of my eggs will
have hatched, so that you may graduate either at Edinburgh or at in Germany, as shall appear best. Till
my return you will remain where you are: you are well employed, & evidently improving rapidly, nor is there any home to which you
possibly could remove! On my return you will have one, & I trust more comfortable than any you have ever yet had. We are rising in
the world; it is our turn; & will be our own faults if we do not, all of us xxxx xxt <attain>
that station to which our intellectual rank entitles us. Attend to prose particularly, excellence in that is acquirable, you know the
value of literature & may perhaps one day find it, as I have done, a resource as well as a delight. In your course of history
Gibbon
Thalaba
I have acquired much miscellaneous information about this country, certainly enough to draw a faithful & striking
likeness. I shall have the materials for its Literary History
You would be amused could you see Edith & myself on ass back,
– I sitting sideways, gloriously lazy, with a Boy to beat my Bayardo, as well adapted to me as ever that wild courser was to
Rinaldo.do hunger after
the bread-& butter, & the fire-side comforts, & the intellect of England. I saw some translations from Ramlerhis xxxx as his language xxxxx xxxx the impress of Wm Taylor here, as I should have been had I met him in Bristol streets. – You will I think whenever my library is at hand,
learn Portugueze – because I have got the History of Charlemagne & the Twelve Paladins in that language,play two plays by Calderonr World, & Jew the Emigrant, & Apostacy King of the North. most
vile Bunyanism
The Master of the Estate turns his son Adam out of doors, & the plays begins with
the familiar phrase Get out you rascal! – aways goes Adam a-begging. & bitterly he complains that he can find no village & no
body to give him any thing. he meets at last the Four Seasons & they give him nothing but implements of agriculture. Reason at last
advises him to go to law with his Father, for his Father must supply him with food. an Angel is his Attorney, the Devil counsel against
him. he wins his cause – the father settles upon him Oil-for extreme unction, Lamb, & bread & wi[MS torn] whereupon up comes the Pix & the Cup – &
so ends the Mystery. – The Portugueze Academy published a book in honour of the victories of the Empress-Queen – Maria Theresa.
In case of peace, & surely surely it must come, we shall return thro Spain & France. I am curious to see
Biscay. our man Bento