Dear Grosvenor
thank you for remembering me of the respect I owe to Mr Reed. [1] ignorance of his direction makes me
send the volume to you. I am ill at writing notes & believe it is not
customary on these occasions. Lovell gave you his full direction. No 14 Old
Market Bristol. I have read your letter. heigh ho! there must be one standard of
truth & sorry am I that so difficult is it to be discoverd that we have
ranged under different banners.
with respect to Joan of Arc. in dedicating it to you my only
motive was to give a public testimony of private friendship. from what Wynn has said I conclude it is not
agreable & may be prejudicial. I will relinquish my intention. the copy
right of the poem will I believe soon be sold for fifty guineas & fifty
copies. [2] in so doing I
think I shall do well as the printing will come to £200 pounds — these cursed
politics you say absorb every thing. my soul Bedford sickens at the
prospect they hold out — how is it that you are caught in their vortex? had we
been more together we must have agreed — we are now in our detestation of the
calamities they are inflicting on mankind. I shall be soon beyond the sphere of
their destruction — would that I did not feel a selfish terror at the coming
storm for my friends. Bedford when the storm breaks — I earnestly adjure you to avoid its
fury. this is not the vain prophesy of a distemperd brain — it will break. there
are bad men & mistaken men in England who do not know that revolutions
should take place in mind. let the violence of either party prevail &
the moderate will be equally proscribd. death is no mans duty while his life can
be of service. be not offended my dear Grosvenor tho this should
seem premature — but if disturbances arises come
with your family to us. if you do not like our mode of living — you can remain
there till you find one more agreable — for it will be the only land at
peace.
be good enough to send me your Witch of Endor. I have a volume of
poems [3] —
& my Botany Bay Eclogues in the Booksellers hands at London [4] —
but doubt their success. “these cursed politics absorb every thing!” [5] my time is short & to print them on my own account too
hazardous. America is a better market for literature.
Grosvenor earnestly as I
wish for March my heart seems to palpitate at its approach — parting with “the
friends we hold most dear” [6] perhaps
for ever is a hard lesson to learn. is it paradoxical to say that I hope you
will see me embark?
I have experienced the evils of the establishd system most
forcibly — & expect tranquillity in the calm of a different one —
& happiness in the performance of what appears my duty.
fare thee well.
remember me to Mr & Mrs B respectfully. & to Harry remember me likewise. Bedford I envy you that brother.
sincerely yours
RS.
Saturday.
I have elegized the gallant Kosciusko. [7]
Notes
* Address: G C Bedford Esqr
Watermark: Crown and anchor with G R
underneath
Endorsements: Recd. Novr. 23d. 1794 —/ with a book for Mr Reed; Ansd same day
MS:
Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22
Unpublished.
Dating note:
Dating from the mention of ‘Saturday’ at the end of the letter; the
endorsement suggests this probably refers to Saturday, 22 November
1794. BACK
[1] Isaac Reed
(1742–1807; DNB), literary scholar and editor of
Shakespeare. In 1792, he tried (and failed) to prevent Egerton, the printer
of the schoolboy magazine The Flagellant, from revealing
Southey as the author of a controversial essay on flogging to the
Westminster School authorities. BACK
[2] Southey had by this time
abandoned his earlier plan of publishing his epic in a subscription edition
with the Bath publisher Richard Cruttwell (c. 1747–1799; DNB), and was in negotiations to sell the copyright of Joan of Arc to Joseph Cottle. BACK
[3] Possibly a reference to
Southey’s collaboration with Robert Lovell on a collection of poems to be
published under the pseudonyms of ‘Orson’ and ‘Valentine’. BACK
[4] There is evidence that Samuel Taylor Coleridge
took a manuscript of Southey’s ‘Botany-Bay Eclogues’ to London in September
1794, offering the poems to Joseph Johnson (1738–1809; DNB). One of the eclogues, ‘Elinor’, appeared anonymously in
the Morning Chronicle, 18 September 1794, probably
on Coleridge’s initiative. Three more were published (alongside a revised
version of ‘Elinor’) in Southey’s Poems (1797), and a fifth
in the Monthly Magazine, 5 (January 1798). BACK
[5] Southey is quoting Bedford’s own words back at
him. BACK
[6] A quotation
from Southey’s sonnet, ‘Bedford — My Kalendar Shall Mark This Day’, sent to
Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 10 September 1794 (Letter 104). BACK
[7] Thaddeus Kosciusko (1746–1817), Polish
patriot, whose actions in the causes of American and Polish independence
made him a radical hero. Samuel Taylor Coleridge published a sonnet on
Kosciusko in the Morning Chronicle, 16 December
1794. BACK
