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 rce203 letterEEd.26.203 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD March 15, 2009

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Houghton Library, bMS Eng 265.1 (17). Previously published: Joseph Cottle, Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey (London, 1847), p. 202 [in part].

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.

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 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
203. Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, 6 March 1797 Address: For/ Mr Cottle/ High Street/ Bristol/ SingleStamped: [partial] BREndorsements: Southey/ March 97; 20 (76)MS: Houghton Library, bMS Eng 265.1 (17)Previously published: Joseph Cottle, Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey (London, 1847), p. 202 [in part]. Monday. March 6th 1797.

I have received an order from Mr Peacock for twelve Poems & twelve Letters,Southey’s Letters Written During a Short Residence in Spain and Portugal (1797) and Poems (1797). which as they are for country booksellers he takes of course at booksellers price. it is better to get them from Robinson than pay the expence of carriage, & I should have ordered them this morning but that the weather proved wet. he ordered at first 12 poems & only six letters, telling me he hoped on returning from his next journey to give me larger orders. I lent him my own copy of the letters, which he immediately began to read aloud in the adjoining room, so audibly that I could hear. if I may judge by the merriment it excited the Book pleased his auditors hugely, & when he had got to the Lock of Hair he came in again & desired a dozen instead of six. I then showed him my sketches — he is always in a hurry, writes me a letter to Dr Hunter — the murderer of St PierreHenry Hunter (1741–1802; DNB) had published a translation of Jacques-Henri Bernadin de St Pierre’s (1737–1814) Études de la Nature in 1796. — begging him to give me some information about engravers (with whom his translation of LavaterJohann Kasparr Lavater (1741–1801), Swiss poet and physiognomist. Hunter had published an English translation of his Essays on Physiognomy in 1792. connected him) settles it that I shall have a set of plates engraved for a splendid edition of my letters, that it will be proper to engage subscribers, & determines to make this a part of his business & take orders this journey. all this he tells me by letter last night after I was gone to bed, leaves me his direction & sets off this morning, with my Poems & Letters.

now Cottle I am not always in a hurry. he may engage names if he pleases, but I shall write to him & say, that if ever I get a series of views engraved, it will be to publish such a series of poems as I once mentioned to you. for it would be ridiculous to hold out the prospect of a better edition of a work just published; & on the contrary the poetical volume would be connected with the other.

I shall get his books from Robinson tomorrow — if dry.

I feel inclined to complain heavily of you Cottle. here am I, committing grand larceny upon my time, in writing to you & you, who might sit by your shop fire & write me huge letters, have not found time to fill even half a sheet. as you may suppose I have enough of employment. I work like an negro at law, & therefore neglect nothing else. for xx he who never wastes time has always time enough. Madoc is in a state of rapid progression. I have about thirty lines to conclude the first book. this however must be deferred till I have borrowed certain books, as those thirty lines must concenter much Bardic & historical knowledge. I shall therefore begin the second book this evening. tell Danvers his copy is compleated as far as the work has advanced, but that I shall not send him the first book till I can read the two together, because he is already well acquainted with the old one.

When will the fine copies be finished? let me have them with all convenient speed, & send, at the same time, a common interleaved one.

I have yet many of the London lions, or literati, to see. George Dyer is to take me to Mary Hayes, Miss Kristall Christall, Dr Gregory, & Taylor the PaganThe writer Mary Hays (1759–1843; DNB); the poet Anne Batten Cristall (c. 1769–1848; DNB); the author and biographer of Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770; DNB), Dr George Gregory (1754–1808; DNB); and the philosopher and translator Thomas Taylor (1758–1835; DNB). my near neighbour. you shall have my physiognomical remarks upon them. I am in daily expectation of hearing from you & receiving FoxsCharles Fox (1740?–1809; DNB). books, not forgetting the profiles of himself & his family.

I hate this city more & more; — tho I see little of it. you do not know with what delight I anticipate a summer in Wales, [MS torn] & I hope to spend the summer of the next year there, [MS torn] talk Welch most gutturally. I shall see Meirion this week, whose real name is William Owen. he is the Author of the new Welch Dictionary.William Owen Pughe (1759–1835; DNB), Geiriadur Cynmraeg a Saesoneg. A Welsh and English Dictionary (1793–1803). a man of most uncommon erudition, & who ought to esteem me for Madocs sake. fare you well. remember me to all friends.

I shall write in a few days to Joseph Lovell, & direct the letter to be left with you. parental tyranny is a h dreadful. Ediths love to you & Robert, & your sisters &c.

God bless you.

Yrs sincerely Robert Southey