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National Library of Wales, MS 4812D. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), II, pp. 386–390.
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.
Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.
Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.
Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.
Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.
& has been used for the ampersand sign.
£ has been used for £, the pound sign
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You must take the Old Ladys comfort in Shakespere respecting your daughter,
After the enquiries which you have made it is very clear that no such person as Greeton Evans is to be found; – the letter therefore must have been a trick, & never was
a more witless one, for in what was the jest to end? The letter which I directed to the post office at Manchester was not called for,
& came back to me in due course of time as having been unclaimed. The handwriting had certainly a female appearance, & the
beginning of the letter had a turn of expression not much in character; – but in all the rest it was well done, & had
<bore> a character of sincerity which shows at least xx some skill in the writer.
I trust you have received Roderick long ere this. According to the reports which reach me most persons are better
satisfied with it than I am myself. A small edition is gone to press, & Longman apprehends that the quarto will be gone before this is ready.
Lord Byrons commendations are repeated to me from all quarters, – I regard them
precisely as I did his condemnation of Madoc; – the one opinion just serves to show the worthlessness of the other.tho if one of these poems be bad, it is quite impossible that the other can be good.
You will perhaps like to know what I am thinking of for my next essay. The New-England story for which the first
memoranda were made in January 1811 is now formed into something like a plan, sufficient to begin upon, if I had more time to spare
from more urgent employments. The chief personage is Oliver Newman, a son of Goffe the Regicide, & godson of Old Noll.x learnt the better parts of Quakerism from William Penn
Before the ship reaches Boston she is driven into Cape Cod, – where Oliver expends the greater part of his little money
in redeeming an Indian woman & her xxx child from slavery, in order to restore her to her tribe.
Goffe married Whalleys daughter.x so he is believed to have been) with Goffes hiding place, & Oliver brings a letter to him. The scene that
ensues xx explain the danger of N England from Philips War, then raging in its utmost violence,
His first business is to deliver Elizabeth to her father. Proceeding there with the Indian woman & child they find
a wounded Mohawk lying among a party of his dead countrymen. By a piece of savage policy Philipunscalped that it
might be believed the English had killed them, – & this being discovered by one who escaped with life, was one main cause of his
own destruction. By this Mohawk Oliver remains till he no longer requires assistance. He then proceed to the womans tribe, who are in
alliance with Philip, & his most powerful ally.
A renegade who lives among the savages accuses Oliver of being a spy, insults him & strikes him, which he bears
with Quaker patience. And here he learns of the apparition of his father at Hatfield; whither he sets out. On the way he falls in with
a party of the same tribe who are examining some booty which they have taken: they open a chest, & find in it a dead body, – which
Oliver recognizes to be Whalleys, by the mutilated hand.
Goffe in his long captivity has become a thorough fanatic, & is not very well pleased with the quiet principles of
his son. – Randolph on the voyage had suspected who this son might be by his christian name, & had thus by watching him
had obtained a clue to Goffe’s hiding place. Stanley the old Cavalier is sent to apprehend him, & he finds father & son.
Stanley however offers to let them go if Oliver will only declare that this person is not Goffe – which the Quaker will not do, &
Randolph soon afterwards arriving identifies the Regicide.
On their way to the English settlement the Indians surprize them. Goffe & Stanley escape, Randolph & Oliver are taken. On being brought to the encampment the latter is recognized & welcomed, & the former condemned to the stake. Oliver obtains his life, they are then set at liberty & depart.
Goffe rallies some stragglers, makes head against the Indians & takes some prisoners, whom they are about to dispose of in the usual summary way, when Oliver appears, & obtains the disposal of them. He goes with them to the encampment, & Elizabeth is brought in by the renegade. Scenes ensue in the course of which Oliver drops his non-resisting principles & cuts down the renegade with a tomahawk to the great delight of the Indians. The latter part of the story has not yet clearly developed itself: this tribe makes peace thro Olivers influence, the Mohawk whom he saved comes at the head of his countrymen to join the English, Philip is killed, Randolph promises secresy respecting the father, & solicits a grant of lands for the son, which Leverett gladly bestows for his services. – Stanley gives him his daughter, & the story concludes with a wedding.
This is a rude outline, you will see however that it admits of some striking situations, & a good deal of
historical & descriptive ornament. I dare not write immediately after Roderick in blank verse, because I should be in danger of
repeating the same modes of expression. I incline therefore to the measure of Thalaba,
I know not whether or not to introduce your old countryman Roger Williams,me judice
m Penn.
Have you seen Wordsworths poem?