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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 25. Not previously published.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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I owe so much to some of your remarks
Mad to wreak – I will alter if I can.p to put out of place; for an alteration not of metrical importance.
On the banks &c – Rodericks royal car was found
Surely no connecting link is wanting here. the proceding sentence says that the battle was lost, & this relates what was become of the King.
To save the soul alivebecome for that reason are not flattened by
this familiarity. On the contrary they acquire a solemnity.
GluedA brave man stealing like a thief in darkness from the field,
Left & leave
I have altered its whole abhorred history to the whole &c act
specific occasion of Roderics fall.
In the Romish Religion an Image
___
Book 2d. This book makes progress enough in the story, for if there be no external incident what is
going on in Roderick himself is sufficient in interest, & essential in its effect upon the story, & in opening the history of
his own himself & his family. – About the birds – it is a morbid feeling tending to religious mania, it seemed to him
that the prerogative of man was done away & that he was become inferior <fallen to a level> to the brute
creation.destr peculiar opinion of a sect those
who call themselves Destructionsists, & hold that the punishment of sin is death, in the literal meaning of the word.
When does Shakespere use mediciñal? – I have substituted the word to please your honour but thrown it to the end of the
line. However as the Latin word is medicīna, I will displace it again to get rid of the Apothecarian quality.
___
In the Carmen Triumphale
(Delirious France rejoicing in his sway)
or it may be thrown away. I am not without fear that the poor poem may be doomd to suffer a dismal
destruction <curtailment> – for it has been suggested to me, first by Rickman & since by Wordsworth
that as P. L. xx in an ex-officio poem, it may not be proper for me to write as freely as if in the character of plain RS. I
did not feel this, but saw that it is very likely when it was pointed out. So I forthwith transcribed the whole & sent it off to
Croker.
The minor defects <faults> which you point out are, I believe, all corrected. I expect a proof to
night (Saturday).
____
7 o clock –
And here behold it is! & here I am very much disposed to growl at feeling myself in shackles, & instead of
rejoicing over my proof sheet, wishing the <Ode> at the Devil; – for emasculation will make it good for nothing, & that this
will be its fate I am so well foresee so clearly that I shall this very evening set about what will most probabl
beyond all doubt prove a lame & impotent conclusion in comparison with the former good honest & hearty finale. I could find in
my heart to be out of humour with the office & with myself for accepting it, – but this would not help me out of the scrape
The other books of Roderic will not be wanted for a month or six weeks. I will notice your criticisms duly, – &
willingly expunge the incident of the stag.