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Houghton Library, bMS Eng 265.1 (2). 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.
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Southey's spelling has not been regularized.
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And it came to pass, in the days of John Davey the master of Balliol that great disturbance happened in the community
For the children of Balliol sat down to meat. now this was the seventh day. & the chief priests & elders sent down to them that grace might be said for this was the manner.
But behold the man was ill by whom the grace should have been said.
And Jeremiah the scout came down, & delivered the summons as was commanded him. & they answered him nor a word
Then came fear upon Jeremiah the scout. & he said — behold now the chiefs & elders have called for the grace — now therefore obey ye the call.
And Nicholas Lightfoot answered him & said — lo now Allen is ill — & let him who is the junior go up & do this thing.
Then the junior looked silly & answered him not
And Jeremiah the scout grew more fearful & the chief priests & elders more impatient. then spake he to Southey — go thou & say the grace. but Southey knew it not.
And the chiefs priests & elders departed in wrath.
And they cried out with one voice crucify them crucify them
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Titus Vespasian
and the Best Sovereign that History records,
crucified two thousand Jews one morning & Ralph Churton observes that
“with a generous clemency that inseperable attendant on true heroism, he
crucified prisoners till space was wanting for the crosses, & crosses
for the captives
The delight of the Common Room
and the Best Fellow in Balliol College
crucified eight scholars after dinner
&
with a generous clemency that inseperable attendant on true learning abused them like pickpockets — degraded them from their rank — sequesterd their revenues — & set them a volume of sermons to translate.
If I could — turn the sentence neat & pretty — Period round & period witty — this sonnet should have made a seperate letter. but I am ill at these things. remember tis the only sonnet I have written.
————
—————
Read this to Mrs Bedford in your best manner. I am sorry that I cannot send CC to read it prettily. or rather Wynn is sorry for me. you may guess whom I have at my elbow.
[Start of section in Charles Watkin Williams Wynn’s hand] The
chief Ch. Ch. news which I can relate is that his most Proboscinasal majesty has been of late rather
<drunk &> amorous has got an impositon a black eye
& has given my electrical machine a violent shock.
C.C. has got a little bandbox
about 3 feet by two in which he sits & frys till the room floats with
his own grease which he likewise employs to daub his scull with instead of
Pomatum xxxxxxxxxxxxxx believe [end of section
in Charles Watkin Williams Wynn’s hand]
adieu xxx xxxxx
I know not if you understand this asinine language of Wynn which he thinks so well adapted.
tis a long while since I heard from Horace. Clodius accuset
modius