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 rce214 letterEEd.26.214 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.

Columbia University Library. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 125–127; Joseph Cottle, Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey (London, 1847), pp. 210–211 and 212 [in part; as if from two separate letters]; Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, p. 306 n* [in part; section of 1 paragraph].

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
214. Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, 2 May [1797] Address: For/ Mr Cottle/ High Street/ BristolStamped: Penny Post/ Pd 1d/ NewingnCauseyPostmark: MA/ 2/ 97Endorsements: Southey/ April 1797; (79) 26; May 1797 MS: Columbia University LibraryPreviously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 125–127; Joseph Cottle, Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey (London, 1847), pp. 210–211 and 212 [in part; as if from two separate letters]; Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, p. 306 n* [in part; section of 1 paragraph].

To my great astonishment I received your letter dated April 22nd — this morning only (Tuesday May 2nd). a strange & unaccountable delay. I have written to you since I received the box. of the parcel I have heard nothing yet — why this long delay? — as for Rosser — I am sorry he has lost the little good opinion I had of him. I care not much about the sale of the wine. he shall not have it at any rate. tell him so from me. when we are settled by the sea we will have a dozen of it there. & the rest on our return. Send me your letter to Herbert Croft.Herbert Croft, 5th Baronet (1751–1816; DNB), writer and lexicographer. Southey and Joseph Cottle both disapproved of his exploitation of manuscripts obtained from members of Thomas Chatterton’s (1752–1770; DNB) family. Southey publicly attacked him in a letter to the Monthly Magazine, November 1799. when it will be a proper time to publish for her benefit — there is no task that I will not gladly perform.

Your news is very acceptable. I shall be ready at any time you think proper; & will send you the corrected copy at a weeks notice. There are some pieces in the volume that might be omitted without much loss to make room for the Retrospect.Joseph Cottle had suggested a second edition of Southey’s Poems (1797). It appeared later that year, but did not include ‘The Retrospect’, which was not reprinted until 1806. but — I do not like giving any thing different in the two editions — to improve what is th in the first edition is due to my own character. however if you think it may be done without propriety we will make room for the Retrospect — & I will correct it. Rosamund does not deserve a place there.Southey’s ‘Inscription I. For a Tablet at Godstow Nunnery’ was included in the second edition of his Poems (1797). perhaps they had better be where they are awhile. I have not much to alter — the arrangement will be somewhat varied. The Paupers Funeral. M Picture & other pieces of that kind, I shall class together under the name of Musings. Mr Peacock strenuously recommends two or three vignettes — & to make the price six shillings. if you should think seriously of any ornaments of this kind — I would wish the frontispiece to be Gaspar Poussins exquisite landscape.The French-Italian painter Gaspard Dughet (1615–1675), who assumed the surname Poussin when he was adopted as the heir of Nicholas Poussin (1594–1665). Southey is possibly referring to Gaspard Poussin’s The Cascade. The second edition of Southey’s Poems (1797) did not contain a frontispiece, but it did republish his ‘Musings on a Landscape of Gaspar Poussin’. I am inclined to think that prints help a book. that frontispiece, & two vignettes — one from the Slave Trade Poems — one Elinor would be enough it is needless to add that I am indifferent concerning all this & merely suggest it as matter of consideration in the profit & loss way. I should like a dozen copies struck off on large paper of the very best quality — like Estlins sermon. John Prior Estlin, The Nature and Causes of Atheism, Pointed Out in a Discourse, Delivered at the Chapel in Lewin’s-Mead, Bristol. To Which are Added, Remarks on a Work, Entitled Origine de Tous Les Cultes, ou Religion Universelle. Par Dupuis, Citoyen François (1797).

For Joan of Arc.Joseph Cottle had requested a second edition of Joan of Arc, which was published in two volumes in 1798. your news was unexpected. there I have much labour to look on to. but every thing shall be ready I have only strenuously to recommend that the second edition be in two volumes like the Poems, a mode more elegant — & more advantageous.

So much then for business. you will wonder at not hearing sooner. but the delay of your letter is very strange. one weeks notice is all I require for the poems.

I saw Dr Hunter Henry Hunter (1741–1802; DNB), Church of Scotland minister and translator. Hunter’s name is probably struck through in another hand, here and elsewhere in this letter. yesterday. & like neither him nor his wife nor his son nor his daughter nor any thing that is his. however he can introduce me to HollowayThe engraver Thomas Holloway (1748–1827; DNB). the engraver. tonight I am to meet OpieThe portrait and history painter John Opie (1761–1807; DNB). — & I can likewise get an introduction to Westall.Either the painter and illustrator Richard Westall (1765–1836; DNB), or (less likely) his half-brother the painter and engraver William Westall (1781–1850; DNB). — so you see I shall have some little interest among painters & engravers as well as Reviewers.

I have a treasure in store for you. a little treatise in old English, very short, upon miracles — written by John HendersonJohn Henderson (1757–1788; DNB), student and eccentric. Joseph Cottle had attended his father’s school at Hanham, near Bristol, and John Henderson had encouraged his love of literature and urged him to become a bookseller. Cottle celebrated his life and works in Poems, Containing John the Baptist. Sir Malcolm and Alla, a Tale, Shewing to All the World What a Woman’s Love Can Do. War a Fragment. With a Monody to John Henderson; and a Sketch of his Character (1795) and later in an ‘Appendix’ to Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey (1847). for Coleridges brother — & given me by a pupil of his — John May — a Lisbon acquaintance — & a very valuable one. As we shall be somewhere in Hampshire or Dorsetshire — within a days journey of you — I do not altogether despair of seeing you by the sea; where we may drink the Claret & talk of the second edition of Joan. one week you may spare — & trust to us the care of making it a happy one.

My translation is finished.Southey translated the second volume of On the French Revolution by M. Necker (1797). & the two first book[MS torn] of Madoc now lie on the table packed up to go to Danvers [MS torn] I have desired him to lend them to you. Thomas desires to be remembered to you from Lisbon.

John May is anxious for a full life of John Henderson. you should get AguttersWilliam Agutter (1758–1835; DNB), a Church of England clergyman, political conservative and campaigner for the abolition of the slave-trade. A friend of John Henderson’s, he accompanied his corpse from Oxford (where Henderson had died) to its final resting place, Kingswood near Bristol. He preached Henderson’s funeral sermon. papers. you ought likewise to commit to paper all you know concerning him — & all you can collect — that the documents may at least remain even if you decline the task. these documents cannot be too minute.

What news of Coleridges second edition? Poems by S.T. Coleridge, Second Edition. To Which are Now Added Poems by Charles Lamb and Charles Lloyd (1797). I want an answer to this question which is often put to me. you trace me in the last M Magazine on Villegas — & in Aristodemus. Monthly Magazine, 3 (April 1797), 270–272, 296 (Letter 208). the Sonnet signed B.W.H. is by Horace Bedford. Monthly Magazine, 3 (April 1797), 296. I am sorry to see a sad plagiarism there in the Anecdotes of the Revolution. Monthly Magazine, 3 (April 1797), 289–293. PhillipsRichard Phillips (1767–1840; DNB), proprietor of the Monthly Magazine. has set up a stocking shop.

We dine with Mary Wollstonecraft (now Godwin) tomorrow. Oh he has a foul nose! & I never see it without longing to cut it off. by the by Dr Hunter told me that I had exactly LavatersIn 1792, Henry Hunter (1741–1802; DNB) had published an English translation of Essays on Physiognomy by Johann Kasparr Lavater (1741–1801). nose. to my no small satisfaction for I did not know what to make of that protuberance — or promontory of mine. I could not compliment his. he has a very red drinking face. little good humoured eyes, with the skin drawn up under them — like cunning & short-sightedness united.

God bless you. Edith love.

yrs affectionately R Southey.

Look at Herbert Crofts portrait in the European Magazine, for the honour of physiognomy.Look ... physiognomy: Postscript added on fol. 2r. A portrait of Croft had appeared in The European Magazine, and London Review, 25 (1794), [251].