262. Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, [c. 16 October 1797]

262. Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, [c. 16 October 1797] ⁠* 

My dear friend

Be good enough to get me poor Mary Wollstonecrafts Book upon Norway & Sweden. [1]  I want it for the lines to your brother which I am about to begin this morning. it will give me Scandinavian scenery — & an opportunity to speak of her as well as of her book. [2] 

I have a heavy complaint to make of Amos & Robert for neither eating drinking or sleeping her[MS torn]

I think of walking over some day next week & returning the same evening. in this case Lloyd will accompany me. remember me to your sisters. I shall be in Bristol by their breakfast hour, & with their leave will make it mine.

God bless you.

yrs R Southey.

the first six books are ready for Biggs. I have written about 1000 lines in different parts of the poem.

Notes

* Address: To/ Mr Cottle/ High Street/ Bristol
Stamped: BATH
Endorsements: R. Southey/ 1797; (99)
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library. ALS; 1p.
Unpublished.
Dating note: The letter is dated from internal evidence. Southey was writing his poem ‘To A. S. Cottle’ by 16 October 1797. BACK

[1] Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796). Wollstonecraft had died on 10 September 1797. BACK

[2] Southey’s ‘To A. S. Cottle’ appeared in Icelandic Poetry, or the Edda of Saemund Translated into English Verse (Bristol, 1797), pp. [xxxi]–xlii. It included lines in praise of Wollstonecraft, p. xxxvi. BACK

Addressee

Cottle, Joseph (1770–1853)

People mentioned

Cottle, Amos Simon (1768?–1800) (mentioned 2 times)
Lloyd, Charles (1775–1839) (mentioned 1 time)
Biggs, Nathaniel (dates unknown) (mentioned 1 time)
Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759–1797) (mentioned 1 time)
Cottle family (mentioned 1 time)
The Collected Letters of Robert Southey, Part One
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