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 rce60 letterEEd.26.60 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.

Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22. Not previously published.

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
60. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 14 [–18] October 1793 Address: To/ James Deacon Esqr/ Long Room/ Custom House/ LondonPostmark: AOC/ 19/ 93Watermarks: Portal & Co; crown with shieldEndorsements: Recd Oct. 22d. 1793; Ansd: Oct. 25th. & 27th MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22Unpublished.
Brixton Causeway.
Oct. 14. Monday morning 1793. day before my departure My dear Grosvenor.

as I do not know when I may again find so excellent an opportunity of beginning — I seize old Time by the forelock & there will I hold him till I want him. so no more at present from your sincere friend. where my letter is destined to be finished I know not but the continuation comes from Reading where I am writing in a small room with a good fire & two London Riders dissertating upon robberies & the most likely places for such adventures. as one of them is at the same table I cannot versify as I intended & had begun so plain prose must tell how I got this far. the Doctor left me at Brentford I proceeded on sad & solitary to Hounslow & there gave one shilling for Sir Launcelot GreavesTobias Smollett (1721–1771; DNB), The Adventures of Sir Lancelot Greaves (1762). to amuse me on the road. at Cranford Bridge — thirteen miles from Hyde Park corner I took a dinner. but I found the day growing late & myself unwilling to be fatigued against tomorrow so I first mounted the Maidenhead Stage & then the Reading. as evening approachd got in the last & here I am at a most execrable Inn in not the most agreable of humours.

I know nothing so unpleasant as leaving the friends we love & — yet such is the state of society that life is hardly any thing than continual parting. you are an exception — but observe the general tenour of life — school & college occupy what ought to be <the> happiest ages — then comes business & perhaps the opportunity of happiness when the relish is gone. Universities might certainly be made useful institutions but at present they are pernicious to individuals & to the nation at large. the morality of Oxford you know how to estimate but with respect to the polishing which I know I want but fear I shall never attain — is it to be found there? steel receives its last polish from a womans hand I believe — & my rugged ore requires the same management — this I shall never meet with. three years must be spent in studies which lead to nothing — & the remainder of my life in forming theories of happiness which I never can practises. Edmund Seward says very truly that <a> man who indulges himself in literature merely for self amusement deserves no more respect from the public than the glutton or the voluptuary. this is very true but selfishness is deeply implanted in the human heart so deeply that even the strong hand of Philosophy cannot root it up. you & I may indulge ourselves in theories of reforming the taste & morals of a corrupt age & perhaps our theories are not wholly visionary — but is our disinterestedness such as might prompt us to this against our inclination?

Removd my dear Grosvenor from each friend away In mood most unpleasing I write Reflection assumes her relentless stern sway And my bosom is dark as the night. When I see the dull shadows arising around And the mists mantling over the plain When I hear the keen night blasts so dismal resound My breast seems to seek to complain. As I traversd along busy Fancy’s keen eye Cast to Brixton the glance of adieu And I heavd as I wanderd the sorrowful sigh And I wisht myself present with you. As the clock pronounced four still at Brixton my eye Saw you look at the unemployd chair And I sighd as I fancied that you heavd the sigh When you saw that RS was not there. As the morning arose & the red orb of day In full splendour illumind around I felt my breast warmd by the all chearing ray And my bosom with gratitude bound More chearful & sprightly I travelld along And inhald the fresh breeze with delight And beguild the long way with that excellent songThe popular song ‘The Farthing Rush-Light’. Of Sir Solomon puffing the light. So charming I sung & so clear the notes flow That each envious bird fled away I scared every magpye & frightned each crow And the ravens fled out of my way Then Death & the LadyA popular ballad. a ditty so sad I sung loud & charming & shrill And then warbled wildly young Harrys the lad And moreover the maid of the millA paraphrase of the popular song ‘The Maid of the Mill’. But at last OrpheusIn Greek mythology, a hero particularly associated with poetry and music. like in poetical rage I was forced to be silent for fear For the horses enchanted that drew the Bath stage Had overthrown it indeed very near Then pitying the coachman no longer I sung But trudgd merrily on & held still my sweet tongue.In mood ... tongue: Verse written at a right angle to the main part of the letter across the bottom part of fol. 1 r.

I soon found the two Riders were Democrats when they began upon politics, so up went your letter & I joined in the discourse. eat a boild rabbit with the one who remaind & got to bed. next morning sketched the gate house of the abbey (which you shall have as soon as I reach Bristol) put a biscuit in my pocket & trudged on. after eighteen miles walking without rest or other food than my biscuit I reachd Dunnington Castle — more fatiguing pilgrimages have certainly been performd by greater fools but none with more devotion. I had the idea of ChaucerGeoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340–1400; DNB), poet and administrator. Dunnington Castle, near Newbury, was reputed to have once belonged to the Chaucer family. & you were in great danger of a rhapsody. had the merry old Bard resided there now I should certainly have claimed acquaintance & drank some of his old October — but the castle is desolate & I must proceed to Newbury to dinner. I just reachd it as the last coach past thro. mounted the box — made a good dinner & reachd Bath a little before ten last night, Wednesday.

on Saturday morning I purpose proceeding to Bristol. Oxford I do not visit. you will direct to me as usual & the sooner you write the better. I have some good odes in embryo to fill up this letter — in the interim you shall have the remarks that occurrd upon reading Sir Launcelot Greaves on the road. broad coarse humour seems to be the chief excellence of Smollet incidents almost too gross to please & too strange to be probable happen at every inn his heroes stop at & we are sure to find the sailors dialect & the clowns broad Scotch or broad Yorkshire in the place of humour. when he gets upon those subjects which perhaps none but Rousseau knew how to treat he rhapsodizes about charms angels & Hymens & thinks passion & nonsense mean the same. some strange discovery of birth comes in at the end & all the dramatis personæ are tacked together at the altar. yet with all these faults you are not soon tired of Smollets novels. they insensibly lead you on & if they do not come near the heart certainly play round the head. Humphrey ClinkerTobias Smollett, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771). strikes me as his best — the characters are less outrè & of course more natural. perhaps the epistolary form of it kept him in some bounds.

I copied these four lines from the hospital at Reading

{Aye whose hours exempt from sorrow flow {Behold the seat of Pain of Want & Woe {Think whilst your hands the intreated alms extend {That what to us ye give to God ye lend.

To the ME at Brixton

———

O thou Myself who now At Brixton rear’st aloft my pretty head Perchance sad emblem what once may be When I am dead O thou the other Me Thou with white face & Paris plaister brains Attend to this ME’s salutary strains. Whilome or else Tradition is a liar That celebrated friar So far renownd by name Friar BaconAccording to legend, the philosopher Roger Bacon (c. 1214–1292?; DNB) created a talking brazen head which could answer any question. Southey later incorporated this myth into Thalaba the Destroyer (1801), Book 10, lines 281–284n. All heads to surpass Of burnishd brass With necromancing art resolvd to make one. So wisely judging that a brazen face Is of much use amongst this mortal race And passes for good sense with many an ass He actually made this head of brass Which could hold conversation And give information Talk Latin & Hebrew & English & Greek Solve a problem in EuclidEuclid of Alexandria (dates uncertain, between 325 and 250 BC), mathematician. Better (Bedford) than ever you did And teach dumb people to speak. But oh thou bodiless ME I do not ask The fates to undertake so hard a task Thro the dark night I would not have thee speak To Horace in Persic or Grosvenor in Greek For that would make them tremble with affright. So much so that before they could recover And answer as they ought, the sheets might suffer. No gentle ME — I ask for no such thing But if it please The fates to hear such meek requests as these (And my soft tongue To please the sisters stern Should many a ditty turn More sweet than ever Orpheus sung) I would desire that thou mightst learn to sing As well as well can be Just like this Me. And head of Me If it be agreable to thee To move the soul to laughter — I would have thee able To sing little LabelThe song ‘A Duet’, from Prince Hoare (1755–1833; DNB), The Prize (1793). And the farthing rushlightThe song ‘The Farthing Rush-Light’. after And if thy — (soul I was just going to say Tho I don’t know where thy soul could stay) And if thy brains would move The softening soul to love Then I would have thee sing like me that song Whither my Love ah whither art thou gone.The song ‘Whither, My Love’. And at the dismal hour of night If thou wouldst then require To wake the soul to wild affright — Do just as I desire. Sing how uncivil Death approachd the LadyThe popular ballad ‘Death and the Lady’. And how that Uncle good Left the poor children in the wood And Robin Redbreast buried each poor baby.The popular ballad ‘The Children in the Wood’, included in Thomas Percy (1729–1811; DNB), Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 2nd edn, 3 vols (London, 1767), II, pp. 211–217. But Head of me — with all thy tricks For thy own sake never talk politics For in these times of war (Thought horribell) Who can tell But you may be stuck upon Temple Bar?A gateway into the City of London, on which the heads of traitors were mounted on pikes. There shalt thou melt whilst dogs each drop lick For all the world like a bundle of rags upon a mop stick And if the fates decree This end for me As I have now got time My epitaph Ill pen To serve me then — And thus I build the lofty rhyme. Here washd by rains Are those strange brains Which filld a stranger head — In death now still And damp & chill Each limb unnervd lies dead His legs so long Shall stalk along So many a mile no more His tongue lie still That went like a mill And always ran Reason before. Here must he stay One lump of clay The loathly flesh worms meal And now at rest His cold cold breast Nor joy nor woe shall feel. O thou ... feel: Verse written at a right angle to the main part of the letter in double columns across bottom part of fol. 1 v. Yes Bedford thus one day this body shall rot Cold lifeless & putrid — forgetting — forgot. Yet perhaps even then when I moulder away Corruption poor fast to original clay When each lifeless feature is crumbled to dust Fame may see what I was from this odefied bustYes Bedford … bust: Written up right hand side of fol. 1 v.

———

Friday morning.

the transition from your letter to the card table was not the most agreable last night — particularly as I was in the writing mood — I met with a fellow of Corpus now doing penance in all the horrors of disease for his faults & follies — GoldesbroughJohn Goldesbrough (d. 1846), a student at Balliol College, Oxford, and later a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, BA 1797. he tells me has got the demiship at Maudlin. what a miserable state is that man in, who has only his fellowship to depend upon. if he marries he loses it & how he can be happy without marriage appears to me a paradox. this is a piece of the scarlet whores petticoat — a lump of the old leaven a remnant of idolatry. it might have been reasonably imagined that when the enormities of nunneries & monasteries (most monstrous institutions) were exposed — that our sage reformers would have provided against their renewal. they ought to have known that the same causes will produce the same effects & when they tolerated matrimony in the clergy they should not have insisted upon celibacy in the universities. In the history of these hot beds of vice I am not well read — but it is probable that when the work of reformation was performd by Rapine — some timeservers who secretly favoured the old Religion presided in the universities & retained thus much of the Babylonian patchwork. the consequences are visible. our fellows are either the most dissolute libertines or good well meaning scholars like Tom Howe sauntering about their respective quadrangles with long faces & keeping them free from the impurities of impudent dogs. Ginger forms a genus of his own & a queer genus it is — distinguishd by the generic marks of everlasting thirst & invincible stupidity to which accomplishment he specifically adds — two eyes like a boild rabbits & the harmonious nasal twang that instead of filling the heart with devotion plays upon the risible muscles of his auditors. for many years these unfortunate animals have been the butt of ridicule whilst the satirist forgets that instead of lashing the victims of the institution he ought to expose the institution itself. Vicesimus KnoxVicesimus Knox (1752–1821; DNB), headmaster and writer. See Essays Moral and Literary, 11th edn, 2 vols (London, 1787), I, pp. 323–326. has touchd pretty freely upon these subjects — but much remains to be done. there is an immense Augean stable that wants cleansing — & the filth that now breeds corruption if properly distributed could become excellent manure & fertlize the whole country. a consummation devoutly to be wishd for Hamlet, Act III, scene 1, lines 64–65. — more to be wishd than expected.

To me the radical defect of the universities appears this — the association of men with only men. the total absence of that sex from whom only we can receive the last polish. the intercourse in this country is much too distant & of course Man becomes more brutal when the tablecloth is removed the women retire with the dishes they have dressed & of Mr WilkesProbably the politician John Wilkes (1725–1797; DNB), whose profligacy and promiscuity were renowned. two subjects of conversation the one (bad as it is) is above the drinking party. the women of the present day are not in general possessd of those qualifications which we might desire — but I am inclined to think with our correspondent CassandraA pseudonym used by an unidentified correspondent of Southey’s. that most of these faults originate in our sex. when they see that unaffected simplicity has no charms in the eyes of fashionable folly they give into fashions which Reason would have condemned & Nature scornd. I might alledge the distance between the sexes as an argument against your assertion that man were <is> in a state of Nature were I so disposed — should we in that best state be pleasd with Hail Politeness Power divine — the curst little rushlight or the horid squalling of a thing imported from Italy? but I am running from my subject into a rage against opera singers — beings to be pitied most certainly — but 999 degrees below the Men Milliners & that is below nothing.

The human mind is formed as capable of excellence now, as it was in those days when ThemistoclesThemistocles (c. 528–462 BC), Athenian statesman and general. fought AristidesAristides (c. 530–468 BC), Athenian statesman, generally known as ‘the Just’. lived & ÆschylusÆschylus (525–456 BC), Greek tragic dramatist, reputedly killed when an eagle dropped a tortoise on his bald head, mistaking it for a stone. sung. nor are the faculties of Woman impaired or anyways alterd from what they were in PortiaPortia, the wife of Brutus (85–42 BC), was a Roman woman with a high tolerance for pain. She gave herself a severe wound in the thigh in order to display her bravery, thus proving herself worthy of being included in Brutus’s conspiracy against Julius Caesar. After Brutus’s death in 42 BC, she committed suicide by swallowing burning coals. ArriaArria was the wife of Paetus Caecina, one of the participants in a conspiracy against the Emperor Claudius (10 BC–AD 54; reigned 41–AD 54) in AD 42. On the way to her husband’s trial, Arria stabbed herself to show Paetus that it did not hurt; Paetus followed her example and killed himself before going to trial. & the mother of the GracchiCornelia Scipionis Africanis (190–100 BC), mother of the radical politicians Tiberius (163–132 BC) and Gaius (154–121 BC) Gracchus. She was considered the ideal of a Roman matron. and yet we seldom see one of these glorious characters arise. there must be a defect somewhere & with respect to one cause — that of education we shall agree. I would not wish my Wife to excel in dancing finger the harpsichord & paint flowers incomparably whilst her knowledge of books was confined to novels & of cookery — to knowing where to place the dishes. she should not be a kitchen wench or a pedant — but I am convinced it would be equally agreable to both were she a companion in my studies & knew how to make a good pudding. as I would not wed a SycoraxIn The Tempest, a witch and the mother of Caliban. so neither would I ask a Venus.The Roman goddess of beauty and love. good humour & good sense would always be handsome. surely my wishes are not unreasonable — but they will probably never be gratified. thanks to myself I possess the two best requisites for an old batchelor — I can smoke tobacco & play backgammon — in addition to this I will talk politics with the exciseman of my parish & like a true patriot always be shaved at the Barbers. an old Mrs PiozziThe writer Hester Thrale Piozzi (1741–1821; DNB). Southey is possibly alluding to her platonic relationship with Dr Johnson (1709–1784; DNB). shall dress my turnips after I have raisd them — I will make my own cyder — & have a flitch of bacon on the rack with my walking sticks, & a good stock of toasting cheese. this is not a very enviable prospect but building Castles in the air for Reason to destroy is an employment I am sick of.

I have denominated my stick the Sans Culotte to which name it has the most undoubted title. in my next you will probably have an ode to it & another to the Me at Bristol — but I must have SnivelThe Bedford family dog. For the poem to Snivel, see Southey’s letter to his brother Tom, [late October/early November–] 14 December [1793] (Letter 65). finishd & an ode to Tom Paine.If Southey wrote an ode to the radical Thomas Paine (1737–1809; DNB), it does not seem to have survived.

the Doctor & I made a fine contrast — the drest travelling democrat & the drest Man Millener! he will be very angry at this so tell him that in five minutes I shall <begin> him a very long epistle. I am in momentary expectation of my baggage & you need not be told a little impatient. make my respects to all your good family. Mr & Mrs Deacon — Mrs ColynsUnidentified; presumably a friend of the Bedfords. &c.

a la mode CC you see I have once remembered the rules of Politeness Power divine.

I have pleased myself during the filling of this sheet with the idea that you & Horace are busied in performing the same task. tomorrow I reach Bristol to dinner direct to me as usual.

yours most sincerely RS.