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National Library of Wales, MS 4811D. Previously published: Adolfo Cabral (ed.), Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800–1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), pp. 115–119.
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.
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I have been looking for a letter from you with vain expectation. Of you I heard by a brother of Sir John Russell,possibility of society, which you will hardly comprehend: insomuch that I begin to assent to the Catholic opinion that the Ear
is the most valuable of our senses. – Of the Ferrol Expeditioninfall inevitably reach us. We talk of this with more coolness than you will hear of it. If
danger approaches we shall fly – but not I think to England. more probably to the north of Portugal, to some little town or village
among the mountains: the cause of our flight would be painful, but a residence entirely among the natives would be useful &
pleasant, & as I should in fixing have an eye to some Convent Library, I know not whether on the whole this migration be not
desirable. so is it that individuals profit by public calamity. Thus have we War & Pestilence at hand, & perhaps Famine at no
great distance. There is not forage in the country for three months, & if war be declared against the Northern powers
The four concluding books of Thalaba are transcribed for you, & wait only an opportunity to embark for England. the
conclusion of the eleventh & the first half of the twelfth I have since rewritten – from the Simorgs speech to the actual descent.
I send you the lines as originally written, & will transmit the substituted ones by letter. In the conclusion of the eighth book
these lines are inserted, which are necessary to the after story.
____
–
And now that Thalaba is off my hands compleatly: corrected – transcribed – annotated – & ready to
be shipped off to market. Rickman whom you saw at Bristol is my agent. The Days of
Queen Maryxxx xx <each> in one tone – & the work only of one sitting.
I shall think of a dramatic Romance – literally a romance – where the splendour & the surprize of Pantomime may be united with story & language to interest & agitate.
Did I write you an account of a strange suicide among our soldiers here? almost the story of Werter?
–
Portugal consumes a prodigious quantity of gunpowder & that in the best possible way – in fireworks. there are fraternities
belonging to every church who have every year a festival lasting some days – more or less according to the round they take. last week
Our Lady of the Incarnation had her holydays at Cintra. the brotherhood were five days parading
the country round, attacking the Sun with sky rockets & merry-making all the way. four Angels on horseback were in the procession.
on the fifth night they returned – & the four Angels then alternately addressed their Lady – informed her of all they had been
doing to her honour & glory, & besought her to preserve the same devout spirit in her own Portugueze, which would make them
<still> invincible. this done the Angels left the church & with the Banner of the Virgin; & all their attendants – came
into the Plaza – to see the fireworks. a comical thing for Angels. last year they had at this festival some very ingenious fireworks –
Two Lions that spit fire at each other – & when they had done spitting fire, they made fire from a part that you would rather have
expected to be employed in water-works – & <then> they veered round & bumbarded each other with fire – & all this in
honour of our Lady of the Incarnation! – Among my many embryo plans are two attacks upon this ridiculous & detestable superstition.
the one a burlesque Poem – some Saint the Hero – in which the mock-miracles & the strange mistake of apathy, indolence & filth
for virtues might furnish ample scope for satire. the other is with me a favourite subject – [MS torn] Establishment of the
Inquisition.t Dominic the prominent personage – connected [MS torn] the poor Albigenses. Dominic would make a
fine character – a man indulging the blackest hatred, revenge & cruelty under the belief that he was serving the cause of
religion.
Possibly the exceeding filthiness of the Spaniards & Portugueze may have arisen in some degree from the idea that
washing themselves was a Mohammedan custom & xxxx unchristian like. the use of the bath was
prohibited the Moriscoes, & it was an act of oppression which they felt severely. In the Authorsacrificed in one of their
mosques twenty virgins & twenty Priests.xx <is> evident his readers did not. probably the truth was that they had killed these Priests in retaliation – &
served the women – as the Spaniards had taught them! – had the Moors asserted that the Spaniards burnt human victims in sacrifice they
would not greatly have erred from the true statement.
As a proof how little reading there is in this country – or at least how few libraries, one of the living Academicians
remarks that there is now little difficulty in procuring the original edition of any Portugueze author. I know but two books in the
language that bear a high price for their scarceness, & it is unfortunate that they are both books which I want – the one a
biographical & critical account of their authors &c &cth.
French books are more easily procured than in England. Italian very few. – Of the Portugueze Latin Poets a collection
was printed some forty years ago in eight quarto volumes.
We shall soon return to Lisbon, – where indeed I wish to be for the sake of the Libraries. omit my
name when you direct – & write The Revd H. Hill Chaplain to the
British Forces – this military title will frank the letter here. an S by the seal may mark it as mine.