296. Robert Southey to Thomas
Southey, 15 March [1798]
*
You see my dear Tom that Edith has been my scribe upon this occasion. [1] I
have another half written, which will be finished next week & then
Scribarella shall set to work again.
I am sorry you think it necessary when you say you have given
away the poems, to promise never to do so any more. I have always copies enough
for you, & I would wish you to dispose of them as freely as I myself. When
my new edition [2] is ready, of which the first volume is this day compleated,
you shall be supplied again.
Charles Fox, “who sung the banished man of Ardebeil,” is now
preparing the seven most striking of my Uncles sketches for the Engraver. [3] they are to be in Aqua tinta, & the book [4] to go to the press as soon as I am ready with the
corrections.
The old scoundrel Chilton [5] is still off & on with my Mother about the lease – have
it he will, I believe there is no doubt of that, but he always skulks from any
attempt to fix a meeting & settle it. My Mother came over to dine in
the College Green some ten
days ago, & I saw her at Cottles. on
Saturday I go over & remain till the following Monday. – by the by direct to
Cottle
Wine Street for the future; he is removed to where
Coward [6] lived,
& a most noble shop has he gained by the exchange.
Lloyds book [7]
comes on but slowly, I now correct the proofs for him, the second volume is only
advanced 88 pages. You have I suppose learnt from him that he has begun another
novel, & that Lamb has finished
one. [8] The poems which he is about to print, it is his intention to
dedicate to me, they are all, as indeed expressed in the title, Blank
Verse. [9]
God bless you. tell me your last number of the M Magazine. I hope
to send you St. Patricks Purgatory [10] next week.
Ediths love.
yr affectionate brother
Robert Southey
15 March
You will have the earliest possible news of Ld. Proby.
Notes
* Address: To/ Mr Southey/ H.M.S. Mars/ Spithead/ or elsewhere/
Single
Stamped: BRISTOL
MS: British Library, Add MS
30927
Unpublished. BACK
[1] This suggests that there was a verse enclosure, in Edith’s
hand, with this letter. If so, it does not seem to have survived. BACK
[3] Southey is quoting his own ‘To A. S. Cottle’, in Amos Simon
Cottle, Icelandic Poetry, or the Edda of Saemund Translated into
English Verse (Bristol, 1797), p. 35. Joseph Cottle published
Charles Fox (1740?–1809; DNB), ’Aks-i partaw. A Series
of Poems: Containing the Plaints, Consolations, and Delights of Achmed
Ardebeli (1797). Fox was also an artist and it would seem he was
preparing some sketches, probably of Portuguese scenes, by Southey’s uncle,
Herbert Hill, for
publication. BACK
[5] Mr Chilton (first name and dates unknown) was the owner of the
boarding-house at 8 Westgate Buildings, Bath, and therefore Margaret
Southey’s landlord; see The New Bath Directory (Bath,
[1792]), p. 29. BACK
[7] Charles Lloyd, Edmund Oliver (1798). BACK
[8] Charles Lamb, A Tale of
Rosamund Gray and Old Blind Margaret (1798). Lloyd’s new novel
may well have been Isabel, which was not published until
1820. BACK
[9] Charles Lamb and Charles
Lloyd, Blank Verse (1798). Lloyd’s contributions were
dedicated to Southey. BACK
[10] Southey’s ‘St Patrick’s Purgatory’ was published anonymously
in the Morning Post, 8 May 1798. BACK
