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British Library, Ashley 2884. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 152–153.
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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My Mothers objections to quitting the house are all removed, & nothing now
remains to be overcome but the difficulty of doing it. Thomas will be here
on his way to London in November. there is a person who may possibly take the lease, but she is not in
Bath, but daily expected. should this probability fail it will be necessary to advertise the house, but that cannot be done till
something be settled with regard to my Mothers debts. if on her quitting this
place it be necessary to discharge those debts which are each seperately too trifling to be deferred upon security, I will not hesitate
in applying to you for assistance, should it be wanted.
Coleridge has so far compleated his tragedyan in an
annuity for Mrs Coleridges life was one. the other of studying medicine in
Germany. If however his play succeed, as I cannot doubt, he will probably make it his business to write for the stage, & little
industrious as his habits are, he may well produce a play yearly.
Lloyd is here. he has met with a heavy & unexpected disappointment, but he
bears the inconstancy of a woman as a man ought to bear it. his mind is now
employed in developing all his feelings & principles in the form of a novel, & exposing the evil tendency of other systems. I
never saw a mind so indefatigably active; what he does has done pleases me very much, & if he
perseveres with the same ardour that he has begun, I shall expect to make him read the compleat work to you when we reach London.
I have myself been very busy upon the first book of Joan of Arc. I have rejected every thing miraculous except what is historically unaccountable. the first 344 lines are therefore omitted, & the progress of her mysterious character more philosophically developed. it is finished & to my own satisfaction. I have corrected the first proof.
Do you recollect the story I told you of the poor woman at Burton? I have thrown
it into verse & would send it you, but that it will appear in the Monthly Magazine.
————
My brother is gone to join his ship. the Mars Capt. Alex. Hood.Mars and the French ship L’Hercule on 21 April 1798.
I thank you for your offer of a bed. I do not come up before Edith as she is more skilled in taking lodgings than I am myself — if however it be not inconvenient to you, I shall be obliged for one nights shelter.
God bless you.