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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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<editor>Lynda Pratt</editor>
<sponsor>Romantic Circles</sponsor>
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<resp>General Editor, </resp>
<name>Neil Fraistat</name>
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<resp>General Editor, </resp>
<name>Steven E. Jones</name>
</respStmt>
<respStmt>
<resp>General Editor, </resp>
<name>Carl Stahmer</name>
</respStmt>
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<resp>Technical Editor</resp>
<name>Laura Mandell</name>
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<date>2009-03-15</date>
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<publisher>Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland</publisher>
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<date when="2009-02-20">March 15, 2009</date>
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<p>Huntington Library, HM 44797
                        .  Previously  published: Roland Baughman, ‘Southey the Schoolboy’, Huntington Library Quarterly, 7 (1944), 258–260.
                        Dating note: The subject of ‘To Ignorance’ confirms a date around the
                        time of Southey’s expulsion from Westminster School in April 1792. Another
                        version of the poem is in the Houghton Library, MS Eng 265.2; and a copy, in
                        an unknown hand, dated ‘Apr. 16, 1792’ and sent to Charles Collins, is in
                        the Morgan Library, MA 1471.</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
											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.</p>
<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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<head>6. Robert Southey to <ref target="people.html#CollinsCharles">Charles
                        Collins</ref>, <date when="1792-04-16">[c. 16 April 1792]</date>
<note place="foot" resp="editors" type="headnote">Address: M<hi rend="sup">r</hi> C Collins/ opposite the lying in hospital/ Lambeth/ near
                        Westminster bridge<lb/>Stamped: WALTHAM CROSS<lb/> Postmark: [partial,
                        obscured] CA/ 16/ 92<lb/> Endorsements: [4 illegible lines in another hand
                        heavily scored through] <lb/>MS: Huntington Library, HM 44797<lb/>
                        Previously published: Roland Baughman, ‘Southey the Schoolboy’, <title level="j">Huntington Library Quarterly</title>, 7 (1944), 258–260.
                        <lb/>Dating note: The subject of ‘To Ignorance’ confirms a date around the
                        time of Southey’s expulsion from Westminster School in April 1792. Another
                        version of the poem is in the Houghton Library, MS Eng 265.2; and a copy, in
                        an unknown hand, dated ‘Apr. 16, 1792’ and sent to Charles Collins, is in
                        the Morgan Library, MA 1471.</note>
</head>
<lb/>
<p rend="indent4"> To Ignorance</p>
<p rend="indent4">___________</p>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent3"> Parent of happiness — thou well-wig’d god</l>
<l rend="indent4"> With staring eye &amp; solemn stedfast gait — </l>
<l rend="indent3"> Come with thy book — thy beads &amp; sceptre rod</l>
<l rend="indent4"> Come in despotic, dull scholastic state</l>
<l rend="indent2">Dispel the ray of science from my breast</l>
<l rend="indent2">Bid me o Ignorance be dull — be blest —</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent3"> Genius avaunt — torment my soul no more.</l>
<l rend="indent4"> Extinguish Ignorance Ambitions flame —</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Teach me thyself. blot out the learned lore</l>
<l rend="indent4"> That whilome mark’d me candidate for fame —</l>
<l rend="indent2">Let me o drowsy God be all thy own</l>
<l rend="indent2">And I may one day mount the mitred throne.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent3"> Ah Sensibility thou wilt not hence</l>
<l rend="indent4"> Still still wilt thou command the soft’ning tear!</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Why Nature didst thou curse my birth with sense?</l>
<l rend="indent4"> Why teach me nought but Ignorance to fear?</l>
<l rend="indent2">Too soon alas has Nisus<note n="1" place="foot" resp="editors">In Virgil’s (70–19 BC) <title level="m">Aeneid</title>, a follower of
                            Aeneas, famous for his friendship with Euryalus.</note> learnt to
                        know</l>
<l rend="indent2">Increase of knowledge, but increase of woe.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent3"> Had I been ignorant I had been blest</l>
<l rend="indent4"> Unmarkd by Vice by Calumny &amp; <ref target="people.html#DoddJamesWilliam">Dodd</ref> —</l>
<l rend="indent3"> The fire of Freedom had not warmd my breast</l>
<l rend="indent4"> And I had bowd submiss beneath the rod —</l>
<l rend="indent2">Yes I had pass’d with credit thro’ the school</l>
<l rend="indent2">An ignorant, contented, favor’d fool.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent3"> Tho’ Genius on my birth diffus’d a ray</l>
<l rend="indent4"> That kindled Emulations glowing flame —</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Tho’ Science led &amp; pointed out the way</l>
<l rend="indent4"> And proud Ambition climb’d the path of Fame.</l>
<l rend="indent2">Stupidity disguisd in sacred gown</l>
<l rend="indent2">And Pedantry await to thrust me down.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent3"> Lo where the Wigs assemble in debate —</l>
<l rend="indent4"> Where Canterbury<note n="2" place="foot" resp="editors">John
                            Moore (c. 1730–1805; <title level="m">DNB</title>), Archbishop of
                            Canterbury, 1783–1805.</note> whets the butcher knife —</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Where Markham<note n="3" place="foot" resp="editors">William
                            Markham (c. 1719–1807; <title level="m">DNB</title>), Archbishop of
                            York, 1777–1807. Earlier in his career he had been Head Master of
                            Westminster School and Dean of Christ Church, Oxford.</note> reassumes
                        his birchen state —</l>
<l rend="indent4"> And <ref target="people.html#WingfieldJohn">Wingfield</ref>
                        reembarks in legal strife —</l>
<l rend="indent2">Revenge &amp; Infamy &amp; Hell &amp; <ref target="people.html#DoddJamesWilliam">Dodd</ref>
</l>
<l rend="indent2">With ghastly smile await the <ref target="people.html#VincentWilliam">Doctor’s</ref> nod.<note n="4" place="foot" resp="editors">A list of those Southey believed were
                            responsible for the decision to expel him from Westminster School in
                            1792.</note>
</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent3"> Yes I will pour my vengeance on his head</l>
<l rend="indent4"> (With grin tremendous thus the Doctor cries)</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Yes all my anger shall on him be shed</l>
<l rend="indent4"> Who dares in spite of Westminster be wise —</l>
<l rend="indent2">Ruin at him be hurld from Lambeths throne<note n="5" place="foot" resp="editors">The Archbishop of Canterbury, whose London
                            residence was Lambeth Palace.</note>
</l>
<l rend="indent2">And Law shall mark the victim for her own.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent3"> Yes Law shall seize him (<ref target="people.html#WingfieldJohn">Wingfield</ref> thus replied)</l>
<l rend="indent4"> Shall seize the stripling &amp; thus make him famous
                        —</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Tho’ Reason once could check scholastic pride</l>
<l rend="indent4"> And tho’ the Jury markd me Ignoramus —</l>
<l rend="indent2">Tho’ when I plac’d the turtle in the pool </l>
<l rend="indent2">The surly hostler laughd &amp; calld me fool,</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent3"> Tho’ Justice &amp; tho’ Equity oppose</l>
<l rend="indent4"> Yet what are these when once compard with Law?</l>
<l rend="indent3"> The Church shall mark them as her deadly foes</l>
<l rend="indent4"> And strike their rebel souls with sacred awe —</l>
<l rend="indent2">The Church shall mark them thus the synod cry</l>
<l rend="indent2">Whilst Persecution beams &lt;glares<note n="6" place="foot" resp="editors">glares: Inserted in another
                        hand.</note>&gt; from every eye.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent3"> Let Persecution threat me — haughty More<note n="7" place="foot" resp="editors">John Moore, Archbishop of
                        Canterbury.</note>
</l>
<l rend="indent4"> I will not tamely to the slaughter go.</l>
<l rend="indent3"> In Satires quiver many a shaft in store</l>
<l rend="indent4"> Shall fence with Innocence from every foe.</l>
<l rend="indent2">I dare your utmost rage — nor Church nor Law</l>
<l rend="indent2">Nor both combin’d can strike my soul with awe</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent3"> Tho’ no huge wig can shelter oer my brow</l>
<l rend="indent4"> Tho’ no black gown protect for every sin —</l>
<l rend="indent3"> I will not to the Inquisition bow</l>
<l rend="indent4"> Nor meanly cringe security to win —</l>
<l rend="indent2">Still Innocence opprest can find a friend</l>
<l rend="indent2">And whom the Church accuses Reed<note n="8" place="foot" resp="editors">Isaac Reed (1742–1807; <title level="m">DNB</title>),
                            literary scholar and editor of Shakespeare, tried — and failed — to
                            prevent Egerton, the printer of <title level="j">The Flagellant</title>,
                            from revealing Southey’s name to the Westminster School
                            authorities.</note> defend.</l>
</lg>
<p rend="indent4"> ————————— </p>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2">
<ref target="people.html#CollinsCharles">Collins</ref>
                        farewell — no more with thee the day</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Shall glide in social converse swift along —</l>
<l rend="indent2">No more the hours unheeded pass away</l>
<l rend="indent3"> No more with thee shall flow the tide of song —</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2">See Persecution lifts her hated rod</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Resentment deepens in the Doctors frown</l>
<l rend="indent2">Revenge with ghastly pleasure smiles on <ref target="people.html#DoddJamesWilliam">Dodd</ref>
</l>
<l rend="indent3"> And Malice lurks beneath the sacred gown —</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2">Ruin awaits each chearless future hour</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Nor Genius Worth or Innocence can save —</l>
<l rend="indent2">Where can I shield me from the arm of power?</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Where can I seek for shelter but the grave?</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2">Let Friendship sometimes drop the pitying tear</l>
<l rend="indent2">Nor chill Misfortune make the friend less dear.</l>
</lg>
<p rend="indent4"> —————————</p>
<closer>
<signed rend="indent10">RS.</signed>
</closer>
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