A good phrase of Sir P Sidneys for looking foolish. he lookd like
an Ape that had newly taken a purgation. [1]
Grosvenor why is the
house in which I sleep at Bristol like your one horse chair? after you have
spent half an hour in vainly guessing look in the left hand corner of the bottom
of the third page of this sheet for an explanation
has Harry written me
those notes yet? any drawing would be useless. the sooner I have them now the
better as the eighth book will be printed this week & for that they are
wanted.
where is Wynn
now?
And this is all I have to say. Time will fill the sheet — if I
can spare time.
————
Tuesday morning.
I have received a very handsome letter from Ld Carysfort including some
criticisms on the Retrospect. [2] the most unpleasant part of the
story is — that I must thank him for it. I am a bad hand at a set letter.
Would I were settled. I wish much to see you for you have much to
tell me. not a word in your last letter of ——— perhaps I may be xxxx in London very soon. If my Uncles answer be as I wish — you
& I shall spend many a winters evening together Grosvenor. if not — here
I remain for where the carcass is there will the Eagles be gathered
together. [3] a very pretty quotation to
express my dwelling where my Edith
is.
my poems go not to the press till January. so much the better. in
the mean time consider whether you will be Damon or Strephon or Alexis or Colin
or Sylvio or Corydon — in your birth day ode your name is often introduced
& you shall dub yourself what you please for the vacancy. that I forgot
you this year — forgive me — my excuse must be much business in almost rewriting
Joan — a mind sufficiently agitated — & of late more so by suspense.
Coleridge too has
behaved wickedly towards me — of this I will tell you the particulars when we
meet. altogether my xxxx mind has been upon the
continual stretch.
Grosvenor I am made of
excellent stuff. my heart is as warm as ever — & my head a little
cooler. my spirits are unbroken — the prospect fair before me. — xxx how happy I shall be if I can live within a
mile of Brixton! Grosvenor you knew my
college breakfast cups. then for Utopianizing over our breakfast!
When does your Quaker [4] come? let me know his direction — & apprize
him of my intended call. draw upon me for all offices of civility &
friendship.
With Carlisle I
must be better acquainted.
I will translate those lines for you, you Turk! they are not
easy. if you have any ideas for a battle or a coronation send them me.
JOAN of ARC will be out in seven weeks from this present writing.
you will not know your old acquaintance — so totally is she altered. [5]
Of Citoyenne Rolands appeal [6] I have
read the first <par> only. at present the politics of France
puzzle me — there is little ability at the head of affairs — Louvet [7] may mean well — but the decree
of 5th Fructidor [8] is an oppressive one. Lanjuinais [9] is almost
the only man of whom I entertain a tolerable opinion. of all possible villains
what think you of Barrere? [10] have you read Helen Williams’ letters [11] & Louvet account
of his escape? [12]
remember me to all your friends. tell Horace I am in the land of
the living — & that if he would by letter give me the same information I
would win an hour to write to him.
God bless you.
Robert Southey.
Notes
* Address: G C Bedford Esqr/ New Palace Yard/ Westminster./ Single
Stamped:
BATH
Postmarks: COC/ 1/ 95
Watermarks: COLES/ 1794
Endorsement:
Recd. Octr. 1st/ 1795
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22 [address
leaf]; Bodleian Library, Eng. Lett. c. 27 [main text of
letter]
Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New
Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965),
I, pp. 100–102 [where it is dated [October 1795]]. BACK
[1] Sir Philip Sidney (1554–86; DNB), The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1590), Book 2, chapter
13. BACK
[2] Southey’s
‘The Retrospect’ had been published in his and Robert Lovell’s Poems (1795). A copy of Carysfort's critique is in the
National Library of Wales, MS 4819E. BACK
[3] A paraphrase of Matthew 24: 28. BACK
[5] Southey had written a first draft of Joan of Arc whilst staying with the Bedfords in 1793
and substantially revised the poem since then. BACK
[6] Jeanne Marie Roland de la Platiere (1754–1793), Appel a L’Impartiale Postérité (1795). An English
translation was published by Joseph Johnson in the same year. BACK
[7] Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Courvrai (1760–1797),
novelist, playwright and politician, he was a former Girondist and prominent
figure in the Convention (1794–1795). BACK
[8] The
decree of 5th Fructidor (22 August 1795) ruled that in the forthcoming
French elections, two-thirds of the existing Convention would be
re-elected. BACK
[9] Jean Denis, Comte de Lanjuinais (1753–1827), a lawyer and
architect of the French Constitution of Year III (1795). BACK
[10] Bertrand
Barère de Vieuzac (1755–1841), a Jacobin and member of the Committee of
Public Safety (1793–1794), was a key figure in the downfall of
Robespierre. BACK
[11] Helen Maria Williams (1761–1827; DNB), Letters from France,
was published in eight parts between 1791–1796. Robert Lovell had borrowed
the fourth volume of Letters from the Bristol
Library Society between 13–15 August 1794. BACK
[12]
Quelques
Notices Pour L’Histoire et le Récit de mes Perils Depuis le 31 Mai
1793 (1795) detailed Louvet’s time in hiding during the Terror,
1793–1794. BACK
