2944. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 17 March [1817]
2944. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 17 March [1817] *
My dear Wynn
If you think it is proper for me to notice Wm Smiths rascally attack, [1] – send the inclosed to the Courier. [2] As neither he nor I are Duellists no harm will come of it. – & he will not be very ready to engage in a paper war, with one who knows how to thrust as well as to parry. – I thank you for defending me; [3] – & wish the Courier had reported upon your reply as fully as it did the provocation.
I should like to discover by whom Wat Tyler was published, [4] – I know not what has been done since the second affidavit [5] was returned, – & am surprized at not hearing. [6] It is now of no other consequence to apply for the injunction, – than as a formal & legal disavowal on my part of the publication.
God bless you
RS.
Monday. 17 March.
Notes
* Address: [deletions and readdress
in another hand] To/ C W Williams Wynn Esqre M.P./
Hamilton Place/ London/ <Norton Priory/
Warrington/ Acton/ Wrexham>
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmarks: FREE/ 20 MR 20/ 1817; [partial] FREE
MS: National Library of
Wales, MS 4812D. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK
[1] Smith had denounced Southey in the House of Commons on 14 March 1817 in the debate on the Seditious Meetings Bill, condemning ‘the settled, determined malignity of a renegado’ and comparing Southey’s arguments against radical views in Quarterly Review, 16 (October 1816), 227 with those expressed in Wat Tyler (1817), Act 2, lines 103–112. BACK
[3] As soon as Smith had spoken in the Commons on 14 March, Wynn had replied in Southey’s defence. BACK
