3042. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 26 November 1817⁠* 

My dear G.

It is so long since I have written to you that you will I dare say give me credit for having been very busy the while, & so in truth I have been, tho not in the way Murraymagne would wish, or that you perhaps expect; – for I have not been xxxxxxxx <at work for the next Q. [1] >, nor have I yet attempted to write ex officio upon the dismal occasion which has put us all in mourning, [2]  – the only occasion perhaps in which a public mourning ever carried with it so real a sense of sorrow. As soon as you left us, I finished the paper upon Lope de Vega, of which xx merely the beginning was written before. [3]  Then I set steadily to work upon the Brazil, & have been sedulously employed upon it every morning from that time; with the full intention (unless any unforeseen evil should prevent) of doing something to it (however little,) every day, till it is compleated. I have corrected four sheets, & hope to keep the press going without intermission: the better to effect this I rise as soon as it is light, & transcribe before breakfast. [4]  In the evenings I have paid off a heavy score of epistolary debts; – & with a truant disposition, as if I had nothing to consult but the inclination of the hour have taken a good serious spell at the Life of Wesley, – which bids very fair to be a singularly curious book. [5] 

I would very – very fain be excused from any threnodial service, farther than what <must> needs be prepared for the xx Mus.Doc. [6]  But I see, from one or two private letters, that is it looked for, & it is no use to grumble at a task which I must not shrink from. In thinking over the matter, which you may be sure I have been going (even in fact at the time when I would willingly have persuaded myself that it was <not> a matter of necessity to undertake the task) a notion laid strong hold upon me, of producing something in distant imitation of Boethius. [7]  In which instead of his Philosophia I should introduce Sir Thomas More, [8]  & passxx xxxx from the ostensible occasion of the book by an easy transition to a view of the prospect before us, compared with the state of things at the Reformation. [9]  An obvious objection to this is that I make use of an event which ought to be my subject, merely as an introduction to something else, – perhaps this may be handsomely obviated by frequently recurring to it, & bringing it again prominently forward at the end. You will perhaps hardly comprehend my scheme unless I explain <open> it a little more fully. There would be a mixture of verse as in Boethius, but the xxxx bulk of the composition in prose, & in colloquy between Sir T More & Meipsum: [10]  how he of all persons should xxx think of paying Meipsum a visit you must trust me to explain: but you will at once perceive that no fitter personage could be introduced, he <having> taken pretty much the same view of affairs in his age, as I do in mine. – The tone would of course be funereal, relieved by such imaginative parts as the introduction of one from another world would produce. And the main object is to show that we are rapidly approaching a crisis in society (if indeed we have not actually reached it,) as critical as that which the restoration of letters & the discovery of printing brought with them in the days of Sir Thomas More. The extent about as much as a long paper in the review, – a little volume from 150 to 200 pages. These digressions are not very convenient for one who has so many huge undertakings in hand, & has to provide for Murraymagne also – I hope you like his new title.

Oh my books! my books! Pray ask Cornaghi if he has heard any thing from Discacciati about them: that if not I may get Landor to inquire about them. [11]  And if the larger consignment from Brussels be not arrived, I must write about these xxx also.

Your pencils shall be looked after. The Grand Dormouse returned on Monday from Senhouses. Wordsworth is gone to London on business. I have not heard from xx xxxxxx <Sirius> – Heaven knows when, – he might as well be in his own star for any thing I know of him. – Pulcheria is in great favour, & sends a purr to Narses, – her countryman. [12]  – I have put on my leathern jerkin for the first time to day. – And yesterday I dined at the island, [13]  which as I certainly shall not have another invitation these six months, may xx xxx perhaps, (& how possibly!) be the last time I shall ever dine out. And the wind is blowing. On the fells it is snowing: And the torrents flowing. And the women are sewing. And the General is going. And the oats are still growing, (they have got them so slow in – ) – & my nose wants blowing, so farewell M^r Bedford.

RS.

26 Nov. 1817.