463. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, [c. 16 December 1799] ⁠* 

My dear Wynn

Yours with the draft reached me by this days post, – my letters never reach me in time to be acknowledged by return – & luckily this makes no delay in the present case.

With regard to my expences, reviewing & the Morning Post have enabled me to support their increase. at present I was xxx almost out of cash from a delay in the newspaper payment; I had given them notice that from the state of my health &c I could not engage beyond the existing quarter, & they may likely have dropped their punctuality when it was no longer their interest to be punctual. Beddoes I have not consulted, because I am satisfied with the advice of Maurice [1]  (long my apothecary,) & of Davy, the pupil of Beddoes & the superior man infinitely, who manages the Pneumatic Institution. [2]  & also because I was willing to avoid the unpleasant circumstance of offering a fee, where I had reason to expect it would not be received.

Both Maurice & Davy agree with D^r Skey [3]  that the heart is not affected – urging that no disease of the heart is felt there, that the effects would be constant & in the pulsation. the pain therefore must be muscular, & the irregular action, nervous. that I am in a state of diseased irritability (mark you – not of temper!) I daily & hourly feel. for this I xx am about to try a medecine prescribed in like cases by Beddoes with success – & I am using an external application to my side, which is certainly less painful. At present I am losing strength – the flood gates of my bowels have again been opened, & a slight complaint of this nature materially weakens one already much debilitated.

I have given up the Morning Post, [4]  from an inability longer to perform task-work. my play [5]  is a lottery ticket – & may be a good prize. but however Thalaba will cost me less time than another years manufactory of weekly rhymes, & pay me better. besides it is an employment to which I turn with pleasure. my design is to print it like the small Joan of Arc, [6]  & sell the whole edition to a London bookseller. [7]  of finding a purchaser there can be no doubt. I calculate by Cottles profit on that second edition, & expect to gain from 130 to 150 pounds – reserving to myself the copyright. this money, if possible, I design to keep unbroken, & as soon as I possibly can, furnish with it a house in town, that I may at least attempt to do something in the law. I have thought of going abroad seriously, believing a warmer climate the best restorative – but this expends much time & much money.

For some days I have been thinking of your Xmas readings & endeavouring to bear-lick some lump-ideas into shape. something you shall have – but I have not the prophetic feeling of its worth – nor will the happy stories of the Old Woman & her Son the Surgeon be soon equalled. [8]  I would try something about the Vampires – but that I have incorporated that into my plan of Thalaba in a way that promises much effect. [9]  “the Hand of Glory” is also link-holder in the same great repository of out-of-the-way fictions. [10]  however you shall have The Lady Annabel [11]  – & the story of the Marine in the Mars, who, if you remember his history, did not keep the fifth commandment quite strictly. [12]  these look like good plans. there xxxxx <are some> Greek stories, which would be fine ground-works if I had enough knowledge to manage them – & Greek diablerie would have some novelty now.

God bless you

yrs

Robert Southey.