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 rce272 letterEEd.26.272 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD March 15, 2009

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National Library of Wales, MS 4811D . Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, pp. 324–326 [in part; misdated 20 November 1797].Dating note: 12 November was a Sunday in 1797, and therefore probably the day on which Southey wrote this letter.

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

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272. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, [12 November 1797] Address: To/ C W Williams Wynn/ 5. Stone Buildings/ Lincolns Inn/ LondonStamped: BATHPostmarks: FR/ NO/ 13/ 97; NO/ 13/ 97Endorsement: Nov, 13/ 1797MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4811D Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, pp. 324–326 [in part; misdated 20 November 1797].Dating note: 12 November was a Sunday in 1797, and therefore probably the day on which Southey wrote this letter. Sunday.
Bath.
My dear Wynn

All the blunders concerning CokeEdward Coke (1552–1643; DNB), Commentarie upon Littleton (1628), the first part of his four part Institutes of the Laws of England (1628–1644). will soon be over I hope, my letter to Wynnstay, & what I have this day written to Sancho will explain them — & the book will soon be here I suppose.

For my little poem in the Magazine. ‘Hannah, a Plaintive Tale’ was published in the Monthly Magazine, 4 (October 1797), 287. From 1799, it was incorporated into Southey’s sequence of ‘English Eclogues’ and retitled ‘The Funeral’. PhilipsSir Richard Phillips (1767–1840; DNB), author, publisher and proprietor of the Monthly Magazine. had been some year & half importuning me for my name, & I did not like the appearance of pride in refusing it. the piece pleased me. look at the word very as there used again — it occurs twice — & you will find that in the last place it is used as an adjective, & no other word could so well supply it. in the first — it scarcely — even to my own ear seems expletive “It was a very plain & simple tale. By the by I called it a plain tale — to which Philips or Aikin absurdly tacked on a syllable & made it ridiculous — plaintive! it was written at Burton — the mere recital of what happened near our lodgings.

You will be surprized perhaps at hearing that CowpersWilliam Cowper (1731–1800; DNB), whose works included The Task (1785). poem does not at all please me. you must have heard it in some moment when your mind was predisposed to be pleased, & the first impression has remained. indeed I think it — not above mediocrity — I cannot trace the Author of the Task in one line. I know that our tastes differ much in poetry. & yet I think you must like these lines by Charles Lamb. I believe you know his history — & the dreadful death of his mother.

Thou shouldst have longer lived, & to the grave Have peacefully gone down in full old age. Thy children would have tended thy gray hairs; We might have sat, as we have often done, By our fire side, & talkd whole nights away, Old times, old friends & old events recalling, With many a circumstance of trivial note, To memory dear & of importance grown. How shall we tell them in a strangers ear! A wayward son oft times was I to thee, And yet in all our little bickerings Domestic jars, there was I know not what Of tender feeling, that were ill exchanged For this worlds chilling friendships, & their smiles Familiar, whom the heart calls strangers still. A heavy lot hath he, most wretched man, Who lives the last of all his family. He looks around him, & his eye discerns The face of the stranger, & his heart is sick. Man of the World, what canst thou do for him? Wealth is a burthen which he could not bear, Mirth a strange crime the which he dares not act, And generous wines x no cordial to his soul. For wounds like his Christ is the only cure. Go — preach thou to him of a world to come, Where friends shall meet & know each others face Say less than this, — & say it to the winds.Published as ‘Written Soon after the Preceding Poem’, in Charles Lamb and Charles Lloyd, Blank Verse (London, 1798), pp. 84–86.

———

I am aware of the danger of studying simplicity of language. but you will find in my blank verse a fullness of phrase when the subject requires it. these lines may instance

it was a goodly sight To see the embattled pomp, as with the step Of stateliness the barbed steeds came on, To see the pennons rolling their long waves Before the gale, & banners broad & bright Tossing their blazonry, & high-plumed Chiefs Vidames & Seneschalls & Chastellains, Gay with their bucklers gorgeous heraldry And silken surcoats on the buoyant wind Billowing. These lines appeared in Joan of Arc, 2nd edn, 2 vols (Bristol, 1798), II, pp. 238–240.

God bless you. I come to London Monday the 20th.

yrs affectionately R Southey.