3950. Robert Southey to John May, 10 January 1823

 

Address [deletions and readdress in another hand]: To/ John May Esqre-/ 4. Tavistock Street/ Bedford Square <Hale/ near Salisbury/ Wilts/ 15th Janry>
Postmark: N.J.A./ 15/ 1823
Seal: [trace] red wax
Endorsement: 230 1823/ Robert Southey/ Keswick 10th January/ recd. 17th do./ ansd. 7th March
MS: Robert Southey Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. ALS; 2p.
Previously published: Charles Ramos (ed.), The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), p. 199.

Keswick. 10 Jany 1823
My dear friend

I send you a long biographical letter

(1)

Southey to John May, 8 January 1823, Letter 3949.

– inconveniently interlined & interpolated. However tho unsightly it is not I believe more illegible than usual. The next letter

(2)

Southey to John May, 10–19 January 1823, Letter 3951, though Southey did not discuss his earliest compositions until he wrote to John May on 29 June 1824, Letter 4208.

will touch upon my earliest studies & compositions. We have got on very slowly hitherto, & yet some progress has been made, – I am surprized to see how much, in looking at my transcribed copy.

No news as yet of the strong beer, – but I live in daily hope.

Our last news of the travellers was that they were to be at Highgate

(3)

Sara and Sara Coleridge were on an extended journey during which they visited Samuel Taylor Coleridge at Highgate in January 1823.

on New Years Day. – Many happy new years to you & yours.

We are all going on well, God be thanked. I am working hard at the B of the Church,

(4)

Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824).

– at my second volume, – & now – pei mihi!

(5)

‘oh my!’

at reviewing, – as the time comes round. But in the present case I have no right to complain, for taking Gregoires history of the Theophilanthropists

(6)

Southey’s review of Henri Grégoire (1750–1831), ‘Histoire de la Théophilantropie, depuis sa Naissance jusqu’à son Extinction’, part of Grégoire’s Histoire des Sectes Religieuse, qui, Depuis de Commencement du Siecle Dernier Jusqu’a l’Epoque Actuelle, sont Nées, se sont Modifiées, se sont Éteintes dans le Quatre Parties du Monde, 2 vols (Paris, 1814), II, pp. 55–171, Quarterly Review, 28 (January 1823), 493–536, published 8 July 1823. The book was no. 2838 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Theophilanthropy was a deistic religion that was particularly prominent in France in 1797–1799.

to begin with, I mean to offer some remarks upon infidelity, which I hope may do less discredit to the QR, & prove more useful to those who need it, than the late discourse upon Lord Byron, which needed nothing but a text to make it read like a dull sermon.

(7)

The review of Byron’s Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice. An Historical Tragedy, in Five Acts. With Notes. The Prophecy of Dante, a Poem (1821) and Sardanapulus, A Tragedy. The Two Foscari, A Tragedy, Cain, A Mystery (1821) by Reginald Heber, Quarterly Review, 27 (July 1822), 476–524, published 23 October 1822.

Your godmoth goddaughter is busy as a bee, either with head or hands, from morning till night. She, her mother &c unite in the kindest remembrance. Nor has the Archbishop-in-rus

(8)

‘in the country’.

forgotten you. He still adheres to his choice of a profession, & looks upon Lambeth

(9)

Lambeth Palace, London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

as his own in reversion.

God bless you,
Yrs affectionately
RS.

Notes

1. Southey to John May, 8 January 1823, Letter 3949.[back]
2. Southey to John May, 10–19 January 1823, Letter 3951, though Southey did not discuss his earliest compositions until he wrote to John May on 29 June 1824, Letter 4208.[back]
3. Sara and Sara Coleridge were on an extended journey during which they visited Samuel Taylor Coleridge at Highgate in January 1823.[back]
4. Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824).[back]
5. ‘oh my!’[back]
6. Southey’s review of Henri Grégoire (1750–1831), ‘Histoire de la Théophilantropie, depuis sa Naissance jusqu’à son Extinction’, part of Grégoire’s Histoire des Sectes Religieuse, qui, Depuis de Commencement du Siecle Dernier Jusqu’a l’Epoque Actuelle, sont Nées, se sont Modifiées, se sont Éteintes dans le Quatre Parties du Monde, 2 vols (Paris, 1814), II, pp. 55–171, Quarterly Review, 28 (January 1823), 493–536, published 8 July 1823. The book was no. 2838 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Theophilanthropy was a deistic religion that was particularly prominent in France in 1797–1799.[back]
7. The review of Byron’s Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice. An Historical Tragedy, in Five Acts. With Notes. The Prophecy of Dante, a Poem (1821) and Sardanapulus, A Tragedy. The Two Foscari, A Tragedy, Cain, A Mystery (1821) by Reginald Heber, Quarterly Review, 27 (July 1822), 476–524, published 23 October 1822.[back]
8. ‘in the country’.[back]
9. Lambeth Palace, London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.[back]
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