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 rce67 letterEEd.26.67 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
67. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 6–8 November 1793 Address: James Deacon Esqr./ Long Room/ Custom House/ LondonStamped: BRISTOLPostmark: [partial] ON/ 4/ 9Watermark: Figure of Britannia; G R in a circleEndorsement: 6 Nov 1793 MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22Unpublished. Wedn. Nov. 6th. 93.
C Green. Brist.

——————

Cut him off — cut him off — cut him off. Southey what? Have you lost all your senses? no. only my BOTT. He is gone — cut him off. level down my long nose — Guillotine this forerunner of mortal mans foes Not content on my carcase herafter to thrive Who resolvd to fall to & devour me alive. Root & branch he is gone. the last trace daily goes And I dare once again to the world show my nose. Cut him off — cut him off — that all good people may know My mountain of nose is no more a Volcano And so my dear Grosvenor sublimely I pen thus To Botts fame MONUMENTUM ÆRE PERENNIUS.Horace (65–8 BC), Odes, Book 3, no. 30, line 1. The Latin translates as ‘a memorial more lasting than bronze’.

————

My NOSE and the BOTT

————————

A pretty title, is it not?

————————

By critics it has long been held a maxim (Nor here of folly, Bedford, will I tax em That if a man will write an epic Poem Twould be most rational To have the subject national, So that all may admire The heroes fierce fire When they for their countryman know him. For as the Hottentot likes best Tripes trullibubs & guts instead of beads To hang & trickle down his oily breast. So every one that reads Prefers a Hero of his native land And would persuade himself to understand He was his great-grandfathers coz at least. To this rejoin in short I Omne solum patria forti.A paraphrase of Ovid (43 BC–AD 17), Fasti, line 493, ‘Omne solum forti patria est’, ‘Every land is a homeland for the brave’. A favourite quotation, it formed the epigraph to Southey’s Madoc, first published in 1805. On any dunghill a good cock will crow. And I would have it known That country is my own Whereever Fate shall make me go. The worlds my country. as the sage bespoke us. Numquam non potest esse virtuti locusSeneca (c. 55 BC–AD 40), Medea, line 161. The Latin translates as ‘There is always room for courage’. Every good man no matter of what nation French English Turk or Jew is my relation And Joan of Arc,Joan of Arc (1412–1431), the French heroine of Southey’s epic. my countrywoman I stile her Proud as of HampdenJohn Hampden (1594–1643; DNB), parliamentarian and opponent of Charles I (1600–1649; reigned 1625–1649; DNB). Milton & Wat Tyler.Wat Tyler (d. 1381; DNB), leader of the Peasant’s Revolt. Southey liked to joke that he was a descendant of Tyler’s. Now you my friend mistaking The meaning of all this exordium fine I dare swear a simili are making Comparing this to this famd Bott of mine. Excrescence odified excrescently But I will prove this ode Is proper right & good Essentially Tis but to show my learning I abuse Each critic mouldering on the cobwebbd shelf And then to prove how properly my Muse Shall celebrate my celebrated self. Each pig dear Grosvenor likes his own stie best And Lightfoot loves his Pot. And so my friend have I addrest This ode delectable to my dead Bott. Perhaps you think my friend This subject is too low To let the lyric Muse descend? No. No. No no I say & I will make appear no My nose o Grosvenor typifies a hero. As how, you say & — ask for information My nose (oh Nose of grace!) Is the most prominent feature of my face. And a hero is the nose of the nation That often pours abroad his filthy flood And sometimes (very seldom) pours his blood. As my nose turnd Volcano Collects the filth & venom of my head And grows BardolphianIn Henry IV, Henry V and The Merry Wives of Windsor, Bardolph was famed for his red nose. red So all that chuse it may know Volcano-like a Hero still is brewin Some fatal storm of Fury Fire & Ruin Oh may each bloody hero be forgot Be pluckd up root & branch & perish like my Bott. O BOTT O Bott of Botts most famous hadst thou grown Upon the honourd Nose Of him who once will wear Britannias crown (My good friend Grosvenor knows I mean the Prince of WalesThe future George IV (1762–1830; reigned 1820–1830; DNB). & who knows not) Hadst thou been there o Bott of celebration What spotted noses had oerspread the nation! The reasonable Muse with truth supposes Who poulticed up their necks had patchd their noses. WHY LET THE GALLD JADE WINCE Hamlet, Act 3, scene 2, line 256. Ye apes of sore neckd prince. O BOTT Hadst thou upreard thy yellow crowned head On Charley Collins’ nasal ornament What ills had happened not! He surely would have sent The scout to Mr SkinsUnidentified. & humbly said “Sir thus my master says “He has a sad eruption on his nose “And your permission prays “To keep his room till the eruption goes. How often had the invalid arose Wrapt up in sleeping studying gown of grease In hopes to find some ease And lookd in fashiond mirror at his nose. Then had he shruggd his shoulders higher still And for the Doctor sent & been extremely ill. But oh thou Bott thou wouldst indeed have came well Upon the snout of him yclept Horse Cambel For Cambel would have gone to Dr Pegge And made a pretty bow & smild & shown The excrescence which upon his nose had grown And then proceeded his advice to beg The Doctor then Gravely had told his patient twas his <a> wen And with his lance have cut some half yard under So nose or bott had made one preparation Which all the anatomists in every nation In future days might see & stare & wonder This hast thou lost o Bott by coming thus To pimple one who did not care a curse For Botts or beauty or complection fair But eat & drank & slept exceeding well Regardless if the pimple rose or fell And scarcely conscious it was even thereBy critics … there: Verse written in double columns.

—————

Thurs. Nov. 7. a most unusual date for me Grosvenor. but my mind is full of indignation & I generally keep a sheet of paper in readiness for your benefit. I had dedicated this evening in idea to a serious versification to conclude this letter when an old woman arrived (or rather old Lady for it is wrong to profane the other name) arrived & spoilt my harmony of sentiment & your letter. scandal religion & loyalty made up the conversation of the evening. the former most ungrounded & illiberal. for loyalty — nothing could equal the crime of keeping the hat on whilst God save the King on <was sung> & to call a man a Democrat was more than synonimous to villain. I had been introduced in the morning at a house where I had long wishd an acquaintance. Mr HHis identity is unknown. the owner was pronounced a bad man of no principles & no religion. is he a good husband? the best of husbands. is he a good father? it is impossible to be a better. such were the answers I received & yet this man is bad & unprincipled. there <are> a set of females in this world who pique themselves upon going regularly to church & exult in the possession of a certain virtue which has not fallen because it never was attempted. whose whole conversation consists of the politics of a card table & that worst species of licentiousness indiscriminate scandal. these are the people who would exclaim so vehemently against Rousseau — who would bring faggots to an auto da fe & act with all the ferocity of Parisian Poissardes, in a worse cause if possible. with such a one have I wasted three hours — & now sick of the illiberality of virtue I am almost ready to turn champion for vice. society is in a very bad state — the inequalities between the sexes is dreadful. man may plunge in guilt of the most atrocious nature & not only escape uncensurd but in some degree derive estimation from his crimes — but woman, framd perhaps by nature of more delicate materials & exposd to more temptations if once she gives way to a very pardonable weakness is excluded from the pale of society as if infected with some disorder fatal to virtue. you remember a passage in GilliesJohn Gillies (1712–1796; DNB), The History of Ancient Greece, 2 vols (London, 1796), I, p. 56. upon this subject — very different indeed was the liberal philosophy of Greece from the illuminated Xtianity of Europe. for myself I think that infamy ought to be attached rather to our sex — whilst Man boasts of superior faculties can he claim priviliges for indulging appetites which it is the province of Reason to subdue? My dear friend Man is the most inconsistent of animals — he despises woman when fallen & yet employs every artifice to ruin her. many a villain far more infamous than the Conventionists is respected & courted in this kingdom — whilst there are women worn out with famine & disease the hireling victims of brutal appetites who might have communicated happiness to that small circle in which the truest happiness is to be found. my dear Grosvenor I often reflect that there are women in the streets of London who might have made you & I happy — & I never see the leer of vice upon a beautiful face without feeling the heart ache pitying human nature & damning society.

you will wonder at this kind of rhapsody from me perhaps, but you will perhaps <certainly> agree with me in wishing society better. why is the door to Repentance every avenue to Repentance shut up but that of Infamy? were men what they ought to be — Rousseau would be canonized for a greater saint than any in the calendar. read his Julia & tell me whence may we learn the most instructive lesson from the mistress of St PreuxThe eponymous heroine of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s (1712–1778) Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse (1761), had a sexual relationship with her tutor Saint-Preux but led a virtuous life after her marriage to Baron Wolmar. or the temptation of St Anthony.St Anthony of Egypt (251–356), founder of monasticism, who conquered all fleshly temptations of the devil. my comparison of the Man of Nature with RichardsonSamuel Richardson (c. 1689–1761; DNB). would have been branded with the epithets of immoral atheistical & licentious. Clodius accuset moechos!Juvenal (fl. AD late C1 and early C2), Satire, 2, line 27. The Latin translates as ‘Clodius prosecuted adulterers’. Xtianity is less understood & less practised in this country than in the desarts of Arabia! let him who is innocent cast the first stoneAn adaptation of John 5: 10. was the judgement of the most moral of philosophers, to use no superior title.

we will have a paper & so reform the world — till like a bad patient it throws the prescription behind the fire.

good night.

Friday. N. 8.

I have written half an ode this morning. the death of Joshua.Published in Southey and Robert Lovell’s Poems (1795). Joshua was the leader of the Israelites after the death of Moses. no bad companion to the Death of Odin.Published in Southey and Robert Lovell’s Poems (1795), an early version is included in Southey’s letter to Thomas Phillipps Lamb, [c. 18 July 1792]; see Letter 18. Odin was chief of the Norse gods. The idea that Odin might have been an actual historical figure was explored in Thomas Percy’s (1729–1811; DNB) translation of Paul-Henri Mallet (1730–1807), Northern Antiquities: or, A Description of the Manners, Customs, Religion and Laws of the Ancient Danes, and Other Northern Nations, 2 vols (London, 1770), I, pp. 58–73. if there were not less faith than truth in the comparison. In fact the two characters are very similar — Odin passed himself for a God & Joshua, tho he had miracles at command was more modest. “down fell Jericho — I may catch some sparks perhaps from that flames of sublimity which blazes in your pindaric upon the Sow & the Κλυςωρ,The Greek can be translated as ‘clyster’. For Jericho see Hebrews 11: 30. but as CiceroA paraphrase of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC), On Moral Obligations. says who lights a stranger lanthern from his own, gives him light without diminishing his own. you shall have Joshua in my next but you must deserve it by a prior communication. our last letters past each other but you have received three & only sent two. when some of our heirs shall see my letters to you they will think I had no time for any other employment, & most probably burn them without reading & keep the more valuable case for their own letters on business or house keeping accounts. perhaps my large desk may be turned into a receptacle for quack medicines conserves &c & the good housewife may tear up my papers to keep the meat from roasting — as far as in me lies, I will prevent this — you shall have copies of them in my life & all at my death. this concern is trifling & I am ashamed of it. Nam si (quod nostræ rationes crede vetant) toti moriuntur homines, nulla est omnino gloria, cum is, cujus ea esse dicitur, non exstet omnino. sin vero sibi mens bene conscia terreno carcere resoluta, cælum libera petit, nonne terrenum omne negotium spernet que cælo fruens terrenis se gaudet exemptam?Boethius (c. 475–525), Consolation of Philosophy, Book 2, section 7. The passage is translated in Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, trans. Victor Watts (1969; rev. edn. 1999), p. 43, as 'If the whole of man dies, body and soul - a belief which our reason forbids us - fame is nothing at all, since the man who is said to have won it doesn't exist. But if the mind stays conscious when it is freed from the earthly prison and seeks out heaven in freedom, surely it will despise every earthly affair. In the experience of heaven it will rejoice in its delivery from earthly things.' yet Boethius inserted this very sentiment in a work which he intended for immortality. would not this subject make a good paper — immortality desired for its own sake is but a splendid failing but to seek it by benefitting others is not only innocent but laudable. our old minstrels had this merit. & tho the Allegory may accuse the classical judgement of Spenser it does honour to his heart.

I have plenty of employment. Jepthahs vowIn Judges 11, the victorious Jepthah offered to sacrifice to God the first thing he saw on his return home. This turned out to be his daughter. — Zaleucus the Locrian lawgiverZaleucus (fl. c. 550 BC), disciple of Pythagoras and lawgiver of the Locrian Greeks in Italy. Renowned for his severity and fairness, he decreed that anyone guilty of adultery should be blinded. When his son was convicted of adultery, Zaleucus had one of his son’s and one of his own eyes put out. & the death of HypatiaHypatia (c. AD 370–415), neo-platonic philosopher. She was murdered by a Christian mob in Alexandria. strike me as good dramatic subjects — the first & last with a chorus. then comes the Slaves a fine wild subject. transcribing Joan. reading & rat catching — odes & epistles — MadocThe first surviving mention of Southey’s plan to write about the legendary twelfth-century Welsh prince, who was believed to have discovered America. (which by the by I could wish you to undertake & you shall have plenty of materials) Sir PersiclesThis might refer to a planned work by Southey which has not survived. It would probably have derived from Emanuel Forde (fl. 1585–1599; DNB), The Most Famous History of Montelion, Knight of the Oracle, Son to the true Mirrour of Princes, the Most Renowned Persicles, King of Assyria (1633). — cleaning leather breeches — my theatre — & your letters no inconsiderable part of my amusement

yrs most sincerely RS.

my compliments to Mr & Mrs Deacon &c. tell me how Hyder died “Each dog must have his day”.my compliments ... day: Postscript written upside down. Southey quotes Jonathan Swift (1667–1745); DNB), ‘Upon the Horrid Plot Discovered by Harlequin, the Bishop of Rochester’s French Dog’ (1722–1723), line 30.

I have run foul of another wasps nest — but escaped unhurt. poor Shad is very ill. so if all goes wrong with you tis not much better here.I have run ... better here: Postscript inserted at side of space Southey originally intended for the address.

you see I had so filld the sheet that it could not be folded up — so I must een put it in a cover — it will make no difference.

you have neglected to send my comb comb brush boots greatcoat & the great paper for your own letters — what else is left behind I have not discoverd. do my good friend write an invocation to Memory & send me. I am doomd to be pesterd by wasps — the other day I was posting to my case to sit half an hour in the sun & eat blackberries — I had got within five yards & found a thousand devils with stings in their tails flying about me — like a prudent general when it was impossible to advance I retreated — now were not this so far off & were poor Shad well we would sally forth & exterminate the invaders — you will be puzzled to read all this properly as much as I am to fill up these few lines —

I wrote to CC yesterday & again inserted that ever memorable line — altering it however to Pretty Pipe & Pretty Grange — an alteration not for the better — but rhyme more able rhyme!

make my respects to all the good family. Hope the Doctor is well — Written in space originally intended for the address.