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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 82–83.
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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Southey's spelling has not been regularized.
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Your parcel with the laconic note in the direction, & your letter urging Wynns invitation have reachd me. I wish I could be at Oxford — but it cannot be.
It is an important period of my life. events of magnitude to me & mine are agitating nor can I steal myself from the scene of action. spare one day Grosvenor & come to Bath. in a humble situation you will find a good reception — you will see me — & her who will one day be mine.
Last Friday I was turned out of doors by my Aunt — & left in a wet night to walk back to Bath without one penny in my pocket — because my resolution was fixed on going to America & marrying one to whom Fortune had allotted a doom very similar to my own. I attempted to reason — but in vain. I listened patiently to invective reproach & abuse not only lavished upon me but upon one for whom I felt more agitated. every pulse swelld with emotion & indignation. yet was I calm in appearance — & on that moment one of the most trying I ever experienced I can look back with self approbation.
God bless you Grosvenor. the anxieties & care I have known you never can know. may you experience the same happiness.
tis a long time to March.
I am in a situation which calls forth all the energy of my character. soothing my Mother — reasoning with her & endeavouring to lessen her regret for my Aunt. I pardon her. but echo — We will never meet again. she should have spared my feelings for I pitied hers.
my marriage will hardly take place in England for obvious reasons. Edith Fricker is of my own age. her face expresses the mildness of her disposition — & if her calm affection cannot render me happy I deserve to be wretched. she is mild & affectionate. you know me.
I send you a sonnet. tho but indifferent it is better than my prose. my heart is heavy.
fare thee well Grosvenor. to quit you will be the severest & the last I shall ever endure.
τομορρο
ι αμ το
βε
ιντροδυσεδ
το α
προφετ!!!