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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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<resp>General Editor, </resp>
<name>Neil Fraistat</name>
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<publisher>Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland</publisher>
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<sourceDesc>
<p>Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22.  Not previously published.</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
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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
											Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and
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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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<div n="37" type="letter">
<head>37. Robert Southey to <ref target="people.html#BedfordGrosvenorCharles">Grosvenor Charles Bedford</ref>, <date when="1792-12-30">30 December 1792</date>
<note place="foot" resp="editors" type="headnote">Address: Grosvenor Charles Bedford Esq<hi rend="sup">r</hi>/ Old Palace Yard/ Westminster./ Single<lb/>Stamped: BRISTOL<lb/>Postmark: [partial] JA<lb/>Watermark: obscured by MS binding<lb/>Endorsement: 30. Dec<hi rend="sup">r</hi> 1792.<lb/>MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22<lb/>Unpublished.</note>
</head>
<opener>
<dateline rend="right">
<time>Sunday evening. 1/4 past seven.</time>
<date when="1792-12-30">Dec 30</date>. <address>
<placeName>College Green.</placeName>
</address>
<date when="1792">1792.</date>
</dateline>
</opener>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2">On speed the hours — the expiring year flies fast</l>
<l rend="indent2">Soon to increase the number of the past —</l>
<l rend="indent2">The past — huge mass — which heaps each several day</l>
<l rend="indent2">Stole from the future mass of years away — </l>
<l rend="indent2">The well-pil’d fire, the bowl of festive joy</l>
<l rend="indent2">The social game each passing hour employ</l>
<l rend="indent2">Together meet each long disseverd friend</l>
<l rend="indent2">And Mirth &amp; Pleasure mark the annual end.</l>
<l rend="indent2">Such joys no more (my friend esteemd) are mine</l>
<l rend="indent2">Such joys to me are past nor I repine —</l>
<l rend="indent2">Misfortune clouds oer Hopes enlivening sun</l>
<l rend="indent2">But tis the will of heaven. that will be done.</l>
<l rend="indent2">Since then I drain not riots noisy glass</l>
<l rend="indent2">Nor sport away the live long hours that pass —</l>
<l rend="indent2">Since bleeding Memory still her way will force</l>
<l rend="indent2">Brood oer a lifeless <ref target="people.html#SoutheyRobertSnr">Fathers</ref> clay cold corse</l>
<l rend="indent2">Let Contemplation come in solemn state</l>
<l rend="indent2">For ah what Time more fit to contemplate!</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2">But twelve months since (for Memory loves to dwell</l>
<l rend="indent2">On scenes so dear, on friend belovd so well)</l>
<l rend="indent2">But twelve months since &amp; this now sadning breast</l>
<l rend="indent2">Was filld with bliss &amp; social joy possest</l>
<l rend="indent2">Elate with Hope — in flattering Fancy high</l>
<l rend="indent2">&amp; fond &amp; eager of applause was I.</l>
<l rend="indent2">Each day our unborn plan I still pursued</l>
<l rend="indent2">Each night revolvd &amp; dreamt &amp; thought it good</l>
<l rend="indent2">Whilst gay Imaginations fingers spread</l>
<l rend="indent2">The laurel chaplet for her offsprings head</l>
<l rend="indent2">But twelve months past I turn again &amp; view</l>
<l rend="indent2">The laurel chaplet changd for wreath of yeugh —</l>
<l rend="indent2">For Fames applause behold the grins of <ref target="people.html#DoddJamesWilliam">Dodd</ref>
</l>
<l rend="indent2">&amp; <ref target="people.html#VincentWilliam">Vincents</ref> well pleasd eyes &amp; well workd rod.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2">Exild from Westminster is Southey seen</l>
<l rend="indent2">Expelld from school rejected by the Dean —</l>
<l rend="indent2">&amp; shall I strive the glorious truth to hide</l>
<l rend="indent2">Which Conscience owns &amp; only owns with pride?</l>
<l rend="indent2">True I attackd the beastly rod &amp; true</l>
<l rend="indent2">Held horrible Indecency to view</l>
<l rend="indent2">But Satan feard Ithuriels<note n="1" place="foot" resp="editors">John Milton (1608–1674; <title level="m">DNB</title>), <title level="m">Paradise Lost</title> (1667), Book 4, lines 810–813. The spear of Ithuriel could penetrate any disguise, and revealed Satan, who had assumed the form of a toad.</note> potent touch</l>
<l rend="indent2">And Power as usual provd for Right too much —</l>
<l rend="indent2">Power held the sevenfold shield to Dullness head</l>
<l rend="indent2">I am expelld the Flagellant is dead</l>
<l rend="indent2">Christ Church rejects as though the itch possest</l>
<l rend="indent2">But <ref target="places.html#BalliolOxford">Baliol</ref> takes &amp; Basil<note n="2" place="foot" resp="editors">St Basil (c. 330–379), founder of eastern monasticism. A pseudonym used by Southey when writing in <title level="j">The Flagellant</title> (1792).</note> is at rest.</l>
<l rend="indent2">Nor I alone in this eventful year</l>
<l rend="indent2">Of wicked libels &amp; sedition hear</l>
<l rend="indent2">To hope that Truth would shelter me how vain</l>
<l rend="indent2">When Truth &amp; Eloquence both faild for Paine!<note n="3" place="foot" resp="editors">In December 1792, Thomas Paine (1737–1809; <title level="m">DNB</title>) was tried and convicted <hi rend="ital">in absentia</hi> for seditious libel.</note>
</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2">As in each public paper will appear</l>
<l rend="indent2">The great transactions of the amazing year</l>
<l rend="indent2">Suppose my friend that you &amp; I should see</l>
<l rend="indent2">What deeds have chanced this year to you &amp; me!</l>
<l rend="indent2">The Flagellant was born as greedy Law</l>
<l rend="indent2">Advancd in hungry wise his threatning paw.</l>
<l rend="indent2">Opprest by foes the hapless victim died</l>
<l rend="indent2">I was expelld — not <ref target="people.html#VincentWilliam">Vincent</ref> satisfied.</l>
<l rend="indent2">The Doctors life was publishd new &amp; rare</l>
<l rend="indent2">And he (proclaim it Fame) turnd up his hair —</l>
<l rend="indent2">You to spy out an infamous Attorney</l>
<l rend="indent2">Thro many a town &amp; county took your journey —</l>
<l rend="indent2">I took an oath or two at Oxford town</l>
<l rend="indent2">And by the by got wet in going down.</l>
<l rend="indent2">I lost whom once I hopd &amp; thought a friend —</l>
<l rend="indent2">But flattering hopes too often find an end.</l>
<l rend="indent2">Why humble <ref target="people.html#BedfordGrosvenorCharles">Bedford</ref> as we are yet we</l>
<l rend="indent2">From Resolutions are not wholly free</l>
<l rend="indent2">What though &lt;nor Birth&gt; nor highly partial fates</l>
<l rend="indent2">Have givn us crowns or titles or estates</l>
<l rend="indent2">Low as are Dame Fortune (queer old Girl)</l>
<l rend="indent2">Has given you &amp; I full many a whirl.</l>
<l rend="indent2">Give me o Fortune one more turn beside</l>
<l rend="indent2">But one spoke higher — I am satisfied.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg>
<l rend="indent2">Of the past year enough. past griefs farewell</l>
<l rend="indent2">For why of these should Rhyme or Reason tell?</l>
<l rend="indent2">Or why should I misfortunes past deplore</l>
<l rend="indent2">When wide Futurity expands before?</l>
<l rend="indent2">Een whilst you read my friend these lines from me</l>
<l rend="indent2">Has Time markd down the newborn ninety three.</l>
<l rend="indent2">Whilst then the varying seasons in their sphere</l>
<l rend="indent2">Diversify &amp; mark the coming year</l>
<l rend="indent2">Whilst Freedom struggles in a happier land</l>
<l rend="indent2">Whilst War &amp; Slaughter wait on Pitts<note n="4" place="foot" resp="editors">William Pitt, the Younger (1759–1806; <title level="m">DNB</title>), Prime Minister 1783–1801 and 1804–1806.</note> command</l>
<l rend="indent2">Whilst Pension-men proclaim each croud among</l>
<l rend="indent2">“The right divine of Kings to govern wrong”<note n="5" place="foot" resp="editors">Alexander Pope (1688–1744; <title level="m">DNB</title>), <title level="m">The Dunciad</title> (1728), Book 4, line 188.</note>
</l>
<l rend="indent2">Whilst pissing posts &amp; corners all bespeak</l>
<l rend="indent2">Merits of Justice Reeves<note n="6" place="foot" resp="editors">John Reeves (1752–1829; <title level="m">DNB</title>), barrister and writer, who on 20 November 1792 established the Association for Preserving Liberty and Property against Republicans and Levellers at the Crown and Anchor tavern in the Strand, London.</note> &amp; Doctor Leake</l>
<l rend="indent2">With Bull Broth Powder Pill or what you please</l>
<l rend="indent2">Like to rid us of the French Disease. <note n="7" place="foot" resp="editors">John Leake (1729–1792; <title level="m">DNB</title>), man-midwife who published a <title level="m">Dissertation on the Properties and Efficacy of the Lisboa Diet Drink in the Venereal, Scurvy, Gout &amp;c.</title> (1767), an alleged cure for syphilis, ‘The French Disease’.</note>
</l>
<l rend="indent2">Whilst <ref target="people.html#VincentWilliam">Vincent</ref> is with loyal terror sick.</l>
<l rend="indent2">And More<note n="8" place="foot" resp="editors">John Moore (c. 1730–1805; <title level="m">DNB</title>), Archbishop of Canterbury, 1783–1805.</note> is trembling for his bishoprick —</l>
<l rend="indent2">The press grows hot — the widowd wifes sad cries</l>
<l rend="indent2">Of power inhuman, pierce the listless skies</l>
<l rend="indent2">Whilst Justice dares the guilt of Kings to show</l>
<l rend="indent2">And write apostate after Mirabeau!!! <note n="9" place="foot" resp="editors">Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau (1749–1791), French writer, orator and politician. In 1792, his secret dealings with the French Court were revealed, leading to his posthumous denunciation by fellow-revolutionaries.</note>
</l>
<l rend="indent2">Let me a while attempt to avoid them all</l>
<l rend="indent2">Whilst Reason claims one lucid interval</l>
<l rend="indent2">And let these varying scenes as Fate will, end</l>
<l rend="indent2">Whilst I breathe forth a wish for self &amp; friend.</l>
<l rend="indent2">May then each hour without annoy be spent</l>
<l rend="indent2">Possest at least of that best gift Content</l>
<l rend="indent2">May no Disease extend his sorrowing sway</l>
<l rend="indent2">Nor Death some friend some parent reave away</l>
<l rend="indent2">&amp; at the Installation you come down</l>
<l rend="indent2">(To wish for both at once) to Oxford town.</l>
</lg>
<p rend="indent5">	———————	</p>
<p rend="indent2">Parturiunt montes — nascetur ridiculus mus!<note n="10" place="foot" resp="editors">Horace (65–8 BC), <title level="m">Ars Poetica</title>, line 139. The Latin translates as ‘The mountains will be in labour and a ridiculous mouse will be brought forth’.</note>
</p>
<p rend="indent5">	———————</p>
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