725. Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, 6 October 1802
725. Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, 6 October 1802 *
I have got the proof [1] from Estlin. where the reading in your writing is best a pen is drawn thro the text & vice versa. one word I have marked submissa [2] because neither he nor I understand it – I have this moment found it out – a note of admiration is wanting.
You will see that in my advertisement [3] I take no notice of Sir Herbert Croft. why make my fingers stink by cracking a bug? if you find that any thing is omitted which ought to have been said – you may say it in a preface of your own. of course the new pieces are noted in the Contents. [4] I recollect no other contribution to mention. cram them in if you do. we should not be sparing of such praise. I think I have made Haslewood happy.
The inclosed letter to Dyer contains a guinea for two copies of his poems. This is the safest mode of sending it.
I suppose you will let Sheppard [5] manage the copies here. I shall pay for two – for my Uncle & brother. my own I am fairly entitled to – to balance the expence of postage for half a thousand letters.
Charles Fox [6] is in London. I wish he may find encouragement for his book – which is a curious one, & he says, is very faithfully rendered.
King is very desirous to see the proof of his drawing [7] –
God bless you –
Edith’s remembrance – yours affectionately
RS.
October 6. 1802.
N.B. A Mr Lomax [8] of Liverpool has paid £2-0-0- for his copy. this must be remembered when the copies are sent off. Mrs Newton has had the money. [9]
Notes
* Address: Mr Cottle
Watermark: crown on shield, K.G. below
Endorsement: 163 65
MS: Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation,
River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester, Robert Southey Papers A.S727. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK
[3] Almost certainly an advertisement for the Chatterton edition drafted by Southey and intended to be incorporated into Longman and Rees’s announcements of forthcoming and recent publications. The text of the published advertisement can be found in The Annual Review for 1802, 1 (1803), p. 975. BACK
[4] All the newly published pieces in The Works of Thomas Chatterton (1803) were marked with an asterisk against their title in the contents pages of the three volumes. BACK
[6] Charles Fox (c. 1740-1809; DNB), poet and orientalist. His book, a two-volume set of translations of Persian verse, did not find a publisher. BACK
[7] John King’s sketch, ‘Interior of the Room in Redcliff Church where Rowleys Manuscripts were said to have been deposited’, appeared as the frontispiece in The Works of Thomas Chatterton, 3 vols (London, 1803), II, unpaginated. BACK
[8] Mr Lomax (dates unknown) had sent Southey £2 for a copy of The Works of Thomas Chatterton (1803), edited by Southey and Joseph Cottle. In the list of subscribers at the beginning of volume 1 he was described as ‘Mr. J. Lomax, one Copy, 2l.’ He might have been either the merchant James Lomax or John Lomax, both of whom lived in Bold St, off Hanover St, Liverpool in 1800. BACK
