The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part 1: 1791-1797 A Romantic Circles Electronic Edition Southey, Robert, 1774-1843 Lynda Pratt Romantic Circles General Editor, Neil Fraistat General Editor, Steven E. Jones General Editor, Carl Stahmer Technical Editor Laura Mandell 2009-03-15 rce168 letterEEd.26.168 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD March 15, 2009

Material from the Romantic Circles Website may not be downloaded, reproduced or disseminated in any manner without authorization unless it is for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, and/or classroom use as provided by the Copyright Act of 1976, as amended.

Unless otherwise noted, all Pages and Resources mounted on Romantic Circles are copyrighted by the author/editor and may be shared only in accordance with the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law. Except as expressly permitted by this statement, redistribution or republication in any medium requires express prior written consent from the author/editors and advance notification of Romantic Circles. Any requests for authorization should be forwarded to Romantic Circles:>

Romantic Circles c/o Professor Neil Fraistat Department of English University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 fraistat@umd.edu

By their use of these texts and images, users agree to the following conditions: These texts and images may not be used for any commercial purpose without prior written permission from Romantic Circles. These texts and images may not be re-distributed in any forms other than their current ones.

Users are not permitted to download these texts and images in order to mount them on their own servers. It is not in our interest or that of our users to have uncontrolled subsets of our holdings available elsewhere on the Internet. We make corrections and additions to our edited resources on a continual basis, and we want the most current text to be the only one generally available to all Internet users. Institutions can, of course, make a link to the copies at Romantic Circles, subject to our conditions of use.

. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, pp. 286–89 [in part, where it is dated 31 July 1796].

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.

All quotation marks and apostrophes have been changed: " for “," for ”, ' for ‘, and ' for ’.

Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.

Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.

Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.

Southey's spelling has not been regularized.

Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.

& has been used for the ampersand sign.

£ has been used for £, the pound sign

All other characters, those with accents, non-breaking spaces, etc., have been encoded in HTML entity decimals.

 NINES categories for Genre and Material Form at http://www.performantsoftware.com/nines_wiki/index.php/Submitting_RDF#.3Cnines:genre.3E on 2009-02-26 Architecture Artifacts Bibliography Collection Criticism Letters Drama Life Writing Politics Folklore Ephemera Fiction History Leisure Manuscript Reference Works Humor Education Music nonfiction Paratext Perodical Philosphy Photograph Citation Family Life Poetry Religion Review Visual Art Translation Travel Book History Law Southey Letters: Biographies Southey Letters: Places Laura Mandell XSLT Transforming Averill Buchanan corrections from proofing Laura Mandell XSLT Transforming Averill Buchanan TEI Encoding
168. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 31 July [–2 August] 1796 Address: For/ Grosvenor Charles Bedford Esqr/ New Palace Yard/ Westminster./ SinglePostmark: AAU/ 3/ 96Watermarks: Figure of Britannia; COLES/ 1795Endorsement: 31. July 1796 MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, pp. 286–89 [in part, where it is dated 31 July 1796]. Sunday July 31st. 1796

Oh that like SolonThe Athenian philosopher and statesman Solon (638–558 BC). you could bring Bristol to the sea! for as for bringing the sea to Bristol that could not be done as Trim says “unless it pleasd God”Laurence Sterne (1713–1768; DNB), The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, 9 vols (London, 1759–1767), VIII, p. 170. — & as Toby says how the Devil should it? — I must not ask you to come to me & I cannot come to you.

now to your letter. first of Carlisles part.

In the second chapter of the Wisdom of Solomon & at the 23rd verse are these words

For GOD created man to be immortal, & made him to be an image of his own eternity. Wisdom of Solomon 2: 23.

Now if Carlisles only Deity be Nature this will be nonsense to him. if he be — a Theist this text will sufficiently explain the scripture phrase I used. as for Mans fore-paws I am glad they were made for so good a purpose & wish they were never applied to a worse. & as for “universal benevolence”! — I have been in the crowd & have had my corns trod upon, & therefore I chuse to take a snug bye path for the future. & when Carlisle has his house in the country & his mastiff to keep off the Beasts — I beg he will let me be familiar with the four-legged brute.

A little taper will lighten a room. but place it to illuminate the street — it will be no good, & the wind will speedily extinguish it. there is my the text which my life is to illustrate. they <who> do not like the maxim may amuse themselves with the metaphor. how could you fancy I believed God like Man? for what resemblance should I have had left for the Devil?

however WakefieldSee the description of the devil as an ‘allegorical character’ ‘gratuitously fabricated by the sons of superstition’, in Gilbert Wakefield (1756–1801; DNB), An Examination of the Age of Reason, or an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology, by Thomas Paine (London, 1794), pp. 33–34. has annihilated him.

As for Mrs Allen she cannot live long. she is a woman of some accomplishments — but her physiognomy is not good. for your club — I grant you a few hours once a fortnight will not make me worse — but will they make me better? & if they will not — why should I quit the fireside? you will be in a state of requisition perpetually with me. & it seems you have bespoke a place in my heart for Carlisle. but I will not let too many in there because I do not much like being obliged to turn them out. LenoraWilliam Taylor’s version of ‘Lenora’ appeared in the Monthly Magazine, 1 (March 1796), 135–137. For Southey’s response, see his letter to the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 3 September 1796 (Letter 174). is partly borrowed from an old English ballad.

Is there any room at your head Marga William? Is there any room at your feet? Is there any room at your side Margarett William? Wherein I may creep? Theres no room at my head Margarett! Theres no room at my feet: Theres no room at my side Margarett — My Coffin is made so meet!‘Sweet William’s Ghost. A Scottish Ballad’; see Thomas Percy (1729–1811: DNB), Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 3 vols (London, 1765), III, p. 130.

But the other ballad of Bürger in the M. MagazineThe translation of ‘The Lass of Fair Wone’, published in the Monthly Magazine, 1 (April 1796), 223–234. is most excellent. I know no commendation equal to its merit. read it again Grosvenor & read it aloud. the man who wrote that should have been ashamed of Lenora. who is this Taylor? I suspected they were by Sayers.Frank Sayers (1763–1817; DNB).

Have you read Cabal & Love?Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805), Cabal and Love (1784). in spite of a translation for which the translator deserves hanging — the fifth act is dreadfully affecting.

I want to write my Tragedies of the Banditti

of SebastianSebastian I, King of Portugal (1554–1578; reigned 1557–1578).

of Iñez de CastroInez de Castro (1325–1355) was the daughter of a Castilian nobleman. She secretly married the Portuguese crown prince, Pedro (1320–1367; reigned 1357–1367). When Pedro’s father, Alphonso IV (1291–1357; reigned 1325–1357), discovered the marriage, he ordered her murder.

of the Revenge of Pedro.When Pedro, husband of the murdered Inez de Castro, succeeded to the Portuguese throne in 1357, he took revenge on his wife’s killers.

my Epic Poem in 20 books of MadocSouthey’s Madoc, published in 1805, had twenty-seven books.

my novel in three volumes of Edmund OliverA plan of this is in an unpublished notebook (which Southey began to use in c. 1795–1796 during his first trip to the Iberian peninsula), in the library of the Hispanic Society of America, New York. Southey did not achieve his aim, but seems to have passed the title of his novel, and possibly some of its subject-matter, on to Charles Lloyd whose Edmund Oliver appeared in 1798.

my romance of ancient history of AlcasPossibly the Greek lyric poet Alcaeus (6th/5th century BC).

my Norwegian tale of —— HarfagreHarold Harfagre (c. 850–933; reigned 872–930), first king of Norway.

my Oriental poem of The Destruction of the Dom DanielAn early name for what became Southey’s Islamic romance, Thalaba the Destroyer (1801).

& in case I adopt Rousseaus system

(as you have done) my —— Pains of Imagination

there Grosvenor all these I want to write.

Οτοττοτοι!The Greek can be translated as ‘lackaday’.

A Comical Cornish CurateThe curate of St Columb’s, Cornwall, possibly William Tremayne (1761–1824). who saw me once or twice has written me a quaint letter, & sent me a specimen of his

PARADISE FOUND!!!

Now Bedford as for the delicacy of my preface — in the next edition I will spit more of it into the Worlds face — mark me — I wont wash the Beasts ugly xxxxx fa visnomy with cosmetics but I will spit in it to clean it. & if CC calls that affectation, I shall think just as well of him then as I do now. so he is to be married!

Monday.

Wynn bids me ask you if when you are asked the reason of your complaint, you give the same answer as Martin when Count Pavoni asked him how he got all the riches which he sent over to the Emperor. “I got eet all by mine Ole.”Unidentified.

Wynn wishes me to live near Lincolns Inn — because in a years time it will be necessary for me to be with a Special Pleader. but I wish to live on the other side of Westminster Bridge, between <because> it will be much more necessary to be within an evening walk of Brixton. to all serious studies I bid adieu when I enter upon my London lodgings — the law will neither amuse me nor ameliorate me nor instruct me — but the moment it gives me a comfortable independance — & I have but few wants — then farewell to London! I will get me some little house near the sea, & near a country town for the sake of the post & the booksellers — & you shall pass as much of the summer with me as you can — & I will see you in the winter — that is if you do not come & live by me & then we will keep mastiffs like Carlisle — & make the prettiest theories, & invent the best systems for mankind. aye & become great philanthropists when we associate only among ourselves, & the fraternity of dogs cats & cottages — for as for poultry I do not like eating what I have fed — & as for pigs — they are too like the Multitude. there in the cultivation of poetry & potatoes, I will be innocently employed. not but I mean to aspire to higher things — aye Grosvenor I will make cyder — & mead, & try more experiments upon wines than a London vintner. & perhaps Grosvenor the first Xmas day you pass with me after I am so settled — we may make a Xmas fire of all my Law books. Amen. So be it.

but if a BodderationPerhaps a reference to the possibility of a French invasion. — which is the Irish synonime for Federation — should take place either before or at that time — I will not stir an inch — nor will I beat my pruning hook into a sword — if any man comes to cut my throat I will strive hard to cut his — but I will have nothing to do with the world, & perhaps the world will have nothing to do with me. neither shall you sti move from the fire side — for if you go think of going to join the Royalist army — I will a la <côte> Republican make a diversion in your ho own house which shall keep you there

Tuesday. I hope to get out my letters by Michaelmas day — & the poems will be all ready in six weeks after that time. that done farewell to Bristol — my native place my home for two & twenty years — where from many causes I have endured much misery — but where I have been very happy — & where I have learnt enough of mankind thoroughly to despise them. no man ever retained as more perfect knowlege of the history of his own mind, than I have done. I can trace the developement of my character from infancy, for developed it has been, not changed. I look forward to the writing of this history as the most pleasing & most useful employment I shall ever undertake. this removal however is not like quitting home. I am never domesticated in lodgings the hearth is unhallowed & the PenatesIn Roman mythology, gods of the hearth and household. do not abide there. now Grosvenor to let you into a secret tho I cannot afford to buy a house or hire one — I have lately built a very pretty castle. which is being interpreted — if I can get my play of the Banditti brought on the stage — & if it succeeds — curse all those little conjunctions — well — these “ifs” granted I shall get money enough to furnish me a house.

you do very right in making Harry xxxxxxxxxx — right in every point of view. for let the world wag how it will — a medical man is always a respectable & useful member of society. priests & lawyers exist only as long as the old tottering establishments — & they are both nuisances — or rather the tree is bad & then how can the fruit be good — or the vermin that feed upon it? no matter — I would not sacrifice a hair of my head for the beast. as for the story of Curtius & the gulfMarcus Curtius (d. 360 BC), a Roman youth who threw himself into a gulf that had suddenly opened in the Forum, in order to appease the gods. I am much inclined to doubt it — & not inclined at all to follow his example. no no Grosvenor — the worse the weather is without doors — the more comfortable must I make myself within.

what a world of wretchedness is this — one of these days Grosvenor you & I will explore the haunts of poverty in London — & see what Society is. it is composed of two classes — they who oppress & they who suffer. perhaps neither of them conscious of what their guilt & folly. I hate the one class for active evil — I despise the other for patient suffering. such are the two species of the humanum genus. you & I are Nondescripts.

God bless you. R.S.