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Houghton Library, MS Hyde 77 (9). Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 84–85.Dating note: Dating follows Kenneth Curry’s and assumes this letter is written just over a week after Southey’s violent expulsion from the home of Elizabeth Tyler.
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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Miss Palmer has sent for you! my dear sister she is a vile woman — fool enough to be contemptible & rogue enough to be odious. ten years knowledge of her enables me to speak with the asperity of truth. I think you should go to her but not alone. I should be frenzied at the idea that you & Edith were exposed to her insults, — take Burnett with you. he will remain one day in Bristol for that purpose — tell him it is my wish & tell him likewise why. — if this seems foolish to you act as you think best. I am a good deal agitated at the circumstance — that detestable woman insulted your sister once — my blood boils at the recollection. would it not be better to take Burnett with you? she would not admit Lovell. — Bra xxxxxxxx sapey xxxxxxx xxxx <only> while? Miss? Bowles her servants with you xx hxxxxx hxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxx xxxx it is my decided opinion that you ought not to go. she is our bitter enemy — Shad,
Your sister is like the lilly of the valley lovely in humility but like that delicate & lowly flower she would bend before the storm of pride. if error can be amicable the error of too much humility is so. I wish Edith would think more highly of herself. tis the only fault I have discovered in her & that is almost a virtue!
I am lonely & dull. poetry is again the employment of a heavy hour — I fall into the daydreams of fancy & sorrow to be roused from their delusions. but a few months & we shall part no more — would I could sleep over the interval.
I have begun another letter to your sister — for in fact I have been unfitted to day for any other employment. but perhaps I am too assiduous — if she felt pleasure at receiving a letter she would communicate it by writing herself — but she suffers me to write rather in compliance to my wishes than her own. I must not trespass on this sufferance by writing as often as my heart would dictate. you smile at my weakness — at the weakness of the stern serious philosophic Robert Southey. but mine is the philosophy of the heart — & to indulge its virtuous affections has been always a favourite maxim with me.
Concerning Coleridge I have written by Burnett. thank God he is coming — most ardently do I long to see him.
The people talk strangely of us! so let them. can you not smile at the envy & absurdity of the many?
my dear sister I cannot write to you upon any subject but my own reflections. a trifling incident to day has called up a long train of recollections. your sister is not fond of writing — & why indeed should I plague others with the emotions of this strange mind.
farewell. this is a dull egotistic letter. my heart is heavy — but I should spare your patience.
I heard from Lovell by the same post that brought your letter. let me hear from you. do you tell me how your sister is — she dislikes writing herself & I ought not to urge her against her inclination.