458. Robert Southey to John May, 29 November[–1
December] 1799
*
Friday Night. Nov. 29.
99.
Your letter, my dear friend, gave me great
pleasure. I have myself found happiness in marriage, &
therefore rejoice that you are about to be married. [1] a man who reasons as well as feels cannot
but chuse well.
Marriage has anchored me. it has given my
affections a home, a resting place. I could write over my
door with Ariosto
Inveni portum. Spes & Fortuna
valete! [2]
with no hopes or fears to agitate I pass a tranquil &
satisfied life, writing & reading in the room with Edith & my mother,
not imposing upon them the restraint of silence, & often
awaking from my employments to be sensible that I am not a
single being. Of the essentials to happiness I want but one
– health. & of that I live daily in hope.
You would ere this have heard from me &
received the extracts from Stowes Chronicle – (for it is
Stowe that I ignorantly quoted by the editors name) [3] but that I have
had a fit of illness. a complaint in my bowels reduced me
very much – & I was ill able to bear exhaustion. it left
me a nervous fever – & for a fortnight I was unable
either to write or read ten minutes together. I am recovered
– but only to feel a worse symptom. a pain at the heart, –
so settled that I do not think it right any longer to delay
consulting those medical persons to whom I can trust myself
– we are therefore going to Bristol on Monday.
What this pain bodes I am at a loss to
conjecture. any affection of the heart would necessarily
affect the circulation – & of this I am not sensible.
for pleurisy I have not blood enough, or general health. if
it be a consumptive symptom I shall remove to a warmer
climate. one thing cheers me, it has to day & yesterday
been less painful – possibly it may be an inflammation, now
abating.
To day I had letter from Lisbon. I had
mentioned to my
Uncle a wish to write the History of
Portugal. [4]
he likes the idea, but thinks I cannot do it here, &
that it requires too much time. possibly I may be driven to
Lisbon & so one objection removed. These are the only
day dreams I indulge in – daily finding more & more
pleasure in study & composition I look on to future
works as the great source of happiness. I shall apply myself
shortly to the correction of Madoc [5] – not for
publication – but because I feel the uncertainty of a life
which an insurer could not think worth much, & would
leave that as a post obit bond for my family; – & I trust it would be a
valuable one. I thought to have seen you here this Xmas –
& now I am quitting the place. this is unfortunate. you
know not with what reluctance I remove – our garden is just
trimmd up – my books are about me – I have learnt my way in
the dark about the house, & I have a companion in Rickman who
interests me. it is true at Bristol I have one of my dearest
friends [6] & several persons who are
more than acquaintance – but going to consult a physician is
but a heartless motive for a journey. We shall be with a
friend till we can suit ourselves in lodgings. you will
direct there to Mrs Danvers’s. 9. St James’s Place. Kingsdown.
Bristol. forget not to tell me when & where you
settle.
<Sunday> As you may imagine we are now much employed. I
have been labouring at my review work – work of which the
payment is by far the most agreable part. also I have been
obliged to make th necessary
extracts from my books as I shall no longer have them at
hand. my side is less painful – but I frequently feel the
intermittent pulse, – a symptom in itself little important,
but which added to the others makes me suspect some local
diseas[MS torn]
God bless you.
yrs affectionately
Robert Southey.
Notes
* Address: To/ John May Esqr/ 4. Tavistock Street/ Bedford Square/
London/ Single
Stamped: RINGWOOD
Postmark: D/
DEC 2/ 99
Endorsement: No 46
1799/ Robert Southey/ No place Novr:
29- 1 Decr/ recd: 2 do/ ansd: 24 do
MS:
Brotherton Library, University of Leeds
Previously
published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of
Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York,
1965), I, pp. 205–207. BACK
[1] John May married
Susanna Frances Livius (1767–1830) on 12 December
1799. BACK
[2] The Latin
can be translated as ‘I have reached the port, hope and
fortune farewell.’ It is a Latin version of a Greek
original and in this form was used in Alain-Rene
Lesage’s (1668–1747), Gil Blas (1715–35),
Book 9 as the inscription over the hero’s door on his
retirement. Ariosto (1474–1533), a poet Southey much
admired, wrote a quite different Latin verse to be
placed above the door of the house he bought for his old
age: ‘Parva, sed apta mihi; sed nulli obnatia; sed non/
Sordida; parta meo sed tamen acre domus’. This can be
translated as ‘Small, yet it suits me; is of no offence/
Was built, not meanly, at my own expense’ – an
inappropriate inscription for Southey, who never owned,
let alone built, a house. BACK
[3] John Stow’s (1525–1605;
DNB)’ Annales, or a General
Chronicle of England from Brute until the Present
Yeare of Christ 1580 (1580) was updated and
continued after Stow’s death by Edmund Howes (dates
unknown) in 1615 and 1631. Southey had used this volume
in the notes to Joan of Arc (1798),
making use of a copy belonging to Charles Biddlecombe;
see Robert Southey to [Charles Biddlecombe], 16 October
1797, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey.
Part 1, Letter 263. Possibly, he was making
use of Biddlecombe’s library again, in order to provide
some information for John May. BACK
[4] Southey’s never-completed ‘History of Portugal’. BACK
[5] The fifteen-book version of
Madoc (1797–1799). BACK
