688. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 28 June [1802]
688. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 28 June [1802] *
Dear Wynn
I send you my letter to Elmsley to forward to him & leave it open that I may kill two birds with one shot. – you will admire the passage from your Mort Arthur [1]
The Cid [2] is advancing for you daily. I hate these tasks of letter writing that keep me from that & such like employments. so be you now content with the usufruct [3] of Elmsleys paper – that is as far as the eyes are concerned – it not being designed for any inferior part –
God bless you –
R Southey.
Monday. 28 June.
Notes
* Address: [deletion and readdress in another hand] To/ C W Williams Wynn Esqr M.P./ Lincolns Inn/ London <Wynnstay/ Wrexham./ Mr
Wynn>
Postmark: BRISTOL/ JUN/ 1802
Endorsement: June 28/ 1802
MS: National Library of Wales, MS
4811D. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK
[1] The compilation of French and English Arthurian romances made by Sir Thomas Malory (1415/18-1471; DNB). Southey’s edition appeared in 1817 under the title The Byrth, Lyf, and Actes of King Arthur. As Southey’s letter to Elmsley has not survived, it is not possible to identify the passage to which Southey draws Wynn’s attention. BACK
[2] Southey was transcribing the ‘Cid’, poems and tales relating to Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar (c. 1040-1099), Castilian aristocrat and military commander, for Wynn; see Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, [c. 21 June 1802], Letter 683. Southey’s English translation and compilation of three of these stories was published in 1808 as The Chronicle of the Cid. BACK
