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<title type="main">The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part 1: 1791-1797 </title>
<title type="subordinate">A Romantic Circles Electronic Edition</title>
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<name>Southey, Robert, 1774-1843</name>
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<sourceDesc>
<p>.  Previously  published: Roland Baughman,
                        ‘Southey the Schoolboy’, Huntington Library
                            Quarterly, 7 (1944), 261–263.</p>
<p>These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer</p>
<p>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;
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											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
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<p>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.</p>
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<head>12. Robert Southey to <ref target="people.html#CollinsCharles">Charles
                        Collins</ref>, <date when="1792-06-04">[begun 4 June 1792]</date>
<note place="foot" resp="editors" type="headnote">Address: M<hi rend="sup">r</hi> C Collins/ opposite the Lying in hospital/ Lambeth/ near/
                        Westminster Bridge<lb/>Stamped: RYE<lb/> Postmark: JU/ 7/ 92<lb/> MS:
                        Huntington Library, HM 44798<lb/> Previously published: Roland Baughman,
                        ‘Southey the Schoolboy’, <title level="j">Huntington Library
                            Quarterly</title>, 7 (1944), 261–263.</note>
</head>
<opener>
<salute>My dear friend</salute>
</opener>
<p rend="indent1"> Pestered yesterday with the Athanasian creed<note n="1" place="foot" resp="editors">Statement of Christian orthodoxy, parodied by
                        Southey in the fifth issue of <title level="j">The Flagellant</title> (29
                        March 1792).</note> &amp; a sermon in defence of incomprehensibility
                    besides the epistle from the Revelations. believe me I lost all patience
                    &amp; tho’ the sermon denounced damnation to me if I doubted the Trinity I
                    still must doubt &amp; deny. the present state as well of religion [MS torn]
                    politicks is very very bad — church &amp; state are rotten at the heart
                    &amp; [MS torn]hould be hewn down &amp; cast into the fire. but
                    government raises a mob to burn the dissenters houses<note n="2" place="foot" resp="editors">The destruction of the house of the scientist and
                        philosopher, Joseph Priestley (1733–1804; <title level="m">DNB</title>),
                        during the Birmingham riots, July 1791.</note> &amp; oppression leads
                    his thousands against the French. a good flaming libel is wanted very much
                    &amp; were there a possibility of publishing it safely I would sweat the
                    whole system of government — if you were to tie up your dog should not you think
                    it very hard were all the curs in town to worry you? now apply this to the
                    French they have tied up their King from doing mischief &amp; all the rest
                    of that cursed breed are “letting loose the dogs of war”.<note n="3" place="foot" resp="editors">
<title level="m">Julius Caesar</title>, Act 3,
                        scene 1, line 273.</note> the second part of Junius’ letters<note n="4" place="foot" resp="editors">A series of pseudonymous attacks on powerful
                        figures of the British establishment (including the monarch and the Prime
                        Minister) that first appeared in the <title level="j">Public
                            Advertiser</title> (1769–1772) .</note> would be well timed but I have
                    already experienced the ill effects of speaking truth — the whole bench of
                    Bishops &amp; every Schoolmaster in the Kingdom are my avowed enemies
                    &amp; so I must take warning. yet methinks were a good hot inflammatory
                    piece of treason sent to the Revolution society<note n="5" place="foot" resp="editors">The pro-reform London Revolution Society, originally
                        established to celebrate the Glorious Revolution of 1688.</note> they would
                    perhaps publish it without inquiry. unless Paine comes forward this
                    inquisitorial proclamation will subvert the Rights of Man. <note n="6" place="foot" resp="editors">Thomas Paine (1737–1809; <title level="m">DNB</title>), writer and political controversialist. His works included
                            <title level="m">Common Sense</title> (1776), <title level="m">The
                            Rights of Man</title> (1791–1792) and <title level="m">The Age of
                            Reason</title> (1793). The reference is to the Royal Proclamation
                        against seditious writings of 21 May 1792 and the simultaneous prosecution
                        launched against <title level="m">The Rights of Man</title>.</note>
</p>
<p rend="indent1"> a paper upon wigs (too much like N<hi rend="sup">o</hi> 5<note n="7" place="foot" resp="editors">The fifth issue of <title level="j">The
                            Flagellant</title>, which appeared on 29 March 1792. It contained
                        Southey’s essay claiming that flogging was an invention of the devil and
                        parodying the Athanasian creed.</note> for publication) with a few
                    imitations &amp; some occasional lines are all I have written here — you saw
                    Birch in imitation of Watts’ divine hymns so take this as Shenstone.<note n="8" place="foot" resp="editors">William Shenstone (1714–1763; <title level="m">DNB</title>), poet, essayist and landscape gardener. Southey is
                        imitating his ‘Pastoral Ballad, in Four Parts. Written in 1743’.</note> [MS
                    torn]</p>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2">Yes now I may view the white sheep</l>
<l rend="indent3"> In search of their provender stray</l>
<l rend="indent2">Up the side of the steep hillock creep</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Or wind by the fountains their way —</l>
<l rend="indent2">I may view the hills forests &amp; dales</l>
<l rend="indent3"> And fading in distance the church</l>
<l rend="indent2">I may wander all day in the vales</l>
<l rend="indent3"> For I am not afraid of the birch.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2">When first I escapd from the stroke</l>
<l rend="indent3"> What pleasure illumind my heart</l>
<l rend="indent2">My fetters in shivers I broke</l>
<l rend="indent3"> For I feard that I might not depart.</l>
<l rend="indent2">He frownd with scholastical sway</l>
<l rend="indent3"> My path I could hardly discern</l>
<l rend="indent2">So sternly he sent me away</l>
<l rend="indent3"> I thought that he bade me return.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2">Why will you my pleasure reprove</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Or why would you teach me to grieve</l>
<l rend="indent2">Shall not Freedom this ecstasy move?</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Birch is harder than you can believe.</l>
<l rend="indent2">With disgrace it disgusts all the brave</l>
<l rend="indent3"> With oppression it tortures the Free</l>
<l rend="indent2">With contempt too it frowns on the grave —</l>
<l rend="indent3"> It is every way hateful to me.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2">As the bees murmur busy around</l>
<l rend="indent3"> In search of their sweet wintry food</l>
<l rend="indent2">Where the wild thyme scents over the ground</l>
<l rend="indent3"> And the primrose is fresh in the wood —</l>
<l rend="indent2">By the fountain whose banks coverd oer</l>
<l rend="indent3"> With moss are far softer than down</l>
<l rend="indent2">I rejoice that my service no more</l>
<l rend="indent3"> I may fly from the smoke of the town</l>
</lg>
<p rend="indent5"> ———</p>
<p>I shall see you this week most probably so do not write. you must allow a little
                    fiction in poetry. I never cared for the birch you know, tho’ the birchen
                        monarch<note n="9" place="foot" resp="editors">An allusion to the corporal
                        punishment meted out to Southey during his time at Westminster
                        School.</note> cared for me.</p>
<closer>
<salute rend="indent2"> yours sincerely</salute>
</closer>
<closer>
<signed rend="indent3">RS.</signed>
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