360. Robert Southey to John May, 14 December
1798
*
Dec. 14. 98.
My dear friend
I am about to send off a great coat to your
house for Harrys journey. he will have Burnetts to
town & from thence must send it back. I should think we
may expect him here in the course of three or four days.
from Lightfoot I have received no answer yet, which
somewhat surprizes me, but he may have left his situation,
or been absent from it & so the letter may have followed
him or been waiting his return.
We are enduring something like a Kamtschatkan
winter here, I am obliged to take my daily walk, & tho I
go wrapped up in my great coat almost like a dancing bear in
hirsute appearance still the wind pierces me. we are very
deficient in having no face dress for such weather as
this.
I am busy upon the Grecian history, or rather
it is the employment of all my leisure. the escape of my
Pythoness [1]
mxxx was in the early ages,
& they I believe will suit me best. I must have the
Pythian games [2]
celebrated. for the story I have only invention to trust to.
the costume of Greece will be new to the English drama,
owing to the defects of our theatre. but I had rather get to
some country & some people less known. among the many
thoughts that have passed over my mind upon this subject, I
have had the idea of grounding stories upon the oppressions
exercised at different periods of time upon particular
classes of people. the Helots [3] for instance, the
Albigenses, [4] or the Jews. the idea of a tragedy upon
one of the early martyrs has for some years been among my
crude plans but it would not suit the stage because it would
not suit the times. there is something more noble in such a
character than I can conceive in any other, firm to the
defiance of death in avowing the truth, & patient under
all oppression, without enthusiasm, supported by the calm
conviction that this is his duty.
Among the Helots something may be made of the
infernal Crypteia, [5] but I am
afraid to meddle with a Spartan, there is neither feeling
thinking or speaking like one who has been educated
according to the laws of Lycurgus. [6] Knowledge of human nature is not knowledge
of Lacedæmonian nature. the state of slavery among our own
countrymen in an early period is better, – the grievances of
wardship & the situation of a neif or villain. [7] dramatists
& novelists have ransackd early history, & we have
as many crusaders on the stage & in the circulating
library as ever saild to Palestine – but they only pay
attention to the chronology & not to the manners or mind
of the period.
When do you leave London? & how is your
brother Arthur? [8] my letters are
very nearly finished. [9] they
will be out a fortnight earlier than my Poems [10] – shall I send them to you, or keep
them till you I see you here
on your way to town again?
Edith desires
to be remembered. I am myself not well, towards night my
indisposition affects me & induces a very uncomfortable
state.
yrs affectionately
Robert Southey.
Notes
* Address: To/ John May Esqr/ 4 Bedford Square/ London/
Single
Stamped: BRISTOL
Postmark:
DE/15/98
Watermark: [illegible]
Endorsement:
1798 No. 28/ Robert Southey/ No
place 14 Decr/ recd. 15 do/ ansd. 5 Jany
1799
MS: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center,
University of Texas, Austin
Previously published:
Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and
Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols
(London, 1849-1850), I, pp. 350–352 [in part]; Charles
Ramos, The Letters of Robert Southey to John May:
1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp.
40–41. BACK
[1] The
Pythia was the title given to the priestess of Apollo at
Delphi, who was famous for her prophecies, uttered under
the influence of vapours rising from the earth. The
priestess was originally always a young virgin, but
Echecrates the Thessalian kidnapped and raped the
incumbent. After this event, the priestess was always
chosen from among old women. BACK
[2] Held
every four years at Delphi in honour of Apollo. BACK
[3] An unfree population tied to the land in
parts of Sparta. BACK
[4] A
dualist religious movement in southern France in the
12th and 13th centuries. Suppressed by Catholic
crusades. BACK
[5] Spartan boys who had shown great promise in their
training were given the opportunity to prove their
fighting skills by being sent into the countryside
unarmed with instructions to kill any helot they met at
night and to take any food they needed. BACK
[6] Lycurgus was the legendary law-giver of
Sparta. Among the practices he implemented was the
military training of all Spartan boys from the age of
seven. BACK
[7] Wardship was the
medieval system under which feudal lords had rights over
their vassals, for example control of minors or the
ability to decide who widows or heiresses might marry.
‘Neif’ and ‘villain’ are terms for female and male serfs
who were bound to the soil, Common-Place
Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series
(London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 18, 215. BACK
[8] Arthur May, John May’s brother. BACK
[9] A second, revised edition of Southey’s Letters
Written During a Short Residence in Spain and
Portugal was published in 1799. BACK
[10] Southey’s two volume
collection Poems appeared in 1799: volume
one was a third edition of the collection first
published in 1797; volume two consisted of poems
published previously (though not under Southey’s own
name) in the Morning Post and the
Monthly Magazine or published for the
first time. BACK
