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. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 234-237 [where it is correctly dated 1801].Dating note: Misdated 1800 by Southey.
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
All other characters, those with accents, non-breaking spaces, etc., have been encoded in HTML entity decimals.
An unhappy continuance of ill winds so long delayed the packet that only this day my letters arrived, it is unlucky as
time is pressing – & what you & Davy say about the last book of Thalaba so
awakens my own conscience that the determination to reform was instantly made. keep you therefore the Press back as to books 11 &
12. I will go instantly to work – three or four hundred lines are nothing when I have the fever fit. book 11 has
very little to alter. book 12 shall be Davys plan – a foretaste – , & now my
conscience is at rest – tho not my brain. Longman cannot object to what on my
part shall not be ten days delay – winds & waves I cannot command – yet I will do my utmost by sending duplicates. The Lady Liberty
& Leoline never sat easy on my stomach.
The crowd of news harrasses me. in England ones private politics are served up at their due intervals – there is time
to taste <each> & xxxxxx chew the cud & digest. now I am crammed at once with a two
months food. poor Cottle! I can taste the bitter – .speakers. moreover the recollection of my opinions would outweigh a folio full of church
authorities with him. I fear – that he will profess & disbelieve – sign all & believe none. If otherwise – if he could swallow
all – so much the better. I shall abstain from all advice. how can I persuade him to that which I would not do myself? & to
influence him against it would be unjust to the little world of his relations. I wish him sincerely to embrace the offer, if he can
sincerely embrace it. his choice is made – & so some of the 115£xxxxxxxx pieces of six & thirty –
paper money & old folios.
thank you Danvers for your offer. now – by this unexpected circumstance I I am rich
& have only to fear lest I become extravagant – lest as the Missionary Methodists say, my heart should grow fat, like Jeshûrun,
& kick.more employed, more happily fore myself – more profitably for society –
in some snug house within a mornings walk of you & Davy? – I am hard at work.
feeding upon folios. busy in laying up marble & mortar – not in building. my history makes me sanguine. it promises to be among
histories what Madoc shall be among poems. –
About George.how is he going to those miserable Islands? & is it not a miserable plan to send a poor boy there who has there neither spirit to pretend to success, nor talents to deserve it, or render it even probable? – were
it not better to send as apprentice him to Biggs? I could serve him as a printer – & there is the happy 115£ pounds – from which I might deduct 40 for my own use.
his board I could not undertake to defray – yet would assist to my utmost. this was the first plan & surely is the best. A small
sum sets him up at the end of five years – & our business will be considerable.
I was almost in hopes to have sent off the amended Thalaba by this mail. however we have two packets in the river –
& the second will not be detained beyond the Sunday week & may probably sail on Thursday. Longman objected to allowing me large papers copies
We have Prince AugustusUnited English & Irish are about to give a subscription supper in honour of him
& the Union.
The Death of the Prime MinisterPlague Yellow Fever dozes in Andalusia. it is not quite asleep & in spring we shall tremble at its
wakening. this is the real & almost inevitable danger of Portugal. I think enough of it to wish my books in England which are not
easily moveable in time of alarm – & perhaps then not admissible into England. indeed if an opportunity offer I shall probably ship
a box for Bristol – Davy would give them house room.
I have no time to write to Rickman by this packet – do you let him
know that I am thankfully satisfied with all his arrangements – & as for the change of “its” into “the” he might have altered a longer word without hesitation. I have no[MS torn] magnifying eye of authorship like
the Lord High Canceller, George Dyer.
By this time you have probably received from John May the fifteen
pounds I requested him to send – should my commissions exceed that sum it matters little – give Peggy three guineas of it – & as in Cottles circumstances
The “population bill”
By the next packet you shall receive the corrections. I can trust Biggs slow pace without fear – & in all probability that letter will arrive within ten days after this. owing to the winds at Falmouth your two reached me at the same time.
our love to Mrs Danvers –