659. Robert Southey to Charles
Danvers, 23 February [1802]
*
My dear Danvers
You will rejoice with me that an arrangement is proposed about
Chattertons works very advantageous to Mrs Newton. [1] If I
had a frank I would write immediately to her. that not being the case I am sure
you will willingly be the bearer of good tidings.
Our list of subscribers is 300. poor encouragement! Longman & Rees however will take the work &
give Mrs Newton 350 copies. the book will be charged at a
guinea instead of 16 shillings – now a fair price. these copies will, the
greatest number, not have to pass thro booksellers hands, so that her net
profits will be somewhat about 300 guineas, more rather than less. state this to
her, inform her also that I have consulted with Mr Freeling,
who entirely approves the arrangement, & Losh also, who is in town. that if she agrees with us, we shall
immediately close the bargain & the work will be put to press as soon as
Cottles press is ready to work – that is immediately. be so good as to send me
up all the bundle about Chatterton <now> in the bookcase in your room.
there will be no delay whatever.
Another circumstance also you will be glad to hear. Cottle the Methodist knew nothing of
the rascally charge which Biggs
made for the twelve large paper poems. [2] of course I shall not pay it.
Old Lovell is as great a scoundrel
as I apprehended. he will do nothing for Robert, pleading inability, & hoping “that the child will not
want.” I think of endeavouring to place him at Christs Hospital. [3]
Rickman is coming over to continue
with Abbott, & officially he must wear a bag &
sword. [4]
We shall sorely want him in Dublin when
we remove. Corry has been dangerously
ill & is I think still in a precarious state. I myself have mended but Edith continues exactly the
same. [5] in the hope that change of air may benefit her I
have written to Professor Burnett
to see if he can find lodgings for us in any village in that neighbourhood [6] for a week or fortnight. I begin to be sick after a green field
– & it would do us all good. This is a hateful place, & for me the most
unprofitable of all possible residencies. With my Thousand & One
Acquaintances no time is left for myself. visit after visit, engagement after
engagement – one endless round which I cannot break.
Cottles Methodist. [7] Certain of the Elect in Bristol took it all in sober serious
earnest & said the author of such a wicked poem ought to be burnt alive! he
has been rewriting his John the Baptist with an intention of printing it
seperately that he hardly yet ventures to acknowledge. [8] Sunday I dined at Dr Aikins – the
Barbaulds [9]
are very gracious towards me, & I begin to fancy myself exceedingly polite.
to day I am engaged to Perry [10] of the Morning Chronicle – tomorrow
to Losh – Saturday to Carr [11] whom you have
seen. if Burnett looks out in time
we will shift our quarter the beginning of next week. I do not like to lose a
day. Edith has never been so ill so
long together.
As for Harrys
being in a bad state of health I know nothing of it, & believe it to be a
lie of Edwards. I had a letter
from him Saturday last & heard likewise lately from Wm Taylor. had
he been ill one or other would have mentioned it. Have you seen the review of
Thalaba in the Monthly Magazine Supplement? [12] it is written by William Taylor, & most quaintly written it is.
Will you in your next send me the receipt of your Royal
Toothpowder that I may have some manufactured. x
remember me I beseech you to the Prescriber thereof [13] whom I shall be heartily glad to see at Bristol, as soon as
I can get my congè. [14] I hear that Thomas
Poole fell in with him in a stage & was of course exceedingly
pleased with his companion. Of Davy
I see some little. his situation, lucrative as it is, is yet beneath him.
instead of acquiring knowledge himself he is wholly employed in imparting what
he already knows to people who are likely to make no use of it. he lectures very
well. I do not often go hear him. with my little knowledge of chemistry it is
time ill bestowed. It seems so long a time since I have heard from you, that I
shrewdly suspect it must be a very long time since you have heard from me, &
that ought not to be the case. in plain truth I feel little inclination for
writing – or for any thing else, – the weather is so bad – so unwholesome – so
anti-Portugueze – & Edith so
unwell & uncomfortable in all her feelings. But I will not let such long
intervals elapse again.
Our love to Mrs Danvers. I would give one of my ears (they are become my
common stake at present) for a peep at her crocuses. you I suppose have
commenced your campaign against the snails. I am afraid we shall have worse
campaigns by & by – have you turned the Corsican Scoundrel out of your
parlour yet? [15]
there is now but one he deserves to hang
somewhere else.
God bless you.
yrs affectionately
Robert Southey
23. Feby.
Notes
* Address: To/ Mr Danvers / Kingsdown/ Bristol./ Single
Postmark: AFE/ 23/
1802
MS: British Library, Add MS 30928
Unpublished. BACK
[1] Southey and Joseph Cottle’s planned
subscription edition of The Works of Thomas Chatterton,
eventually published in 1803, intended to benefit the poet’s widowed sister
Mary Newton (1749-1804; DNB) and her daughter. BACK
[2] The large copies of his works that Cottle had allowed Southey as gifts for
friends. In 1801 Southey had unexpectedly been charged for a new set of
large copies of Poems (1797); see Southey to Charles Danvers,
26 January 1802, Letter 652. BACK
[3] Robert Lovell Jnr was not sent to school at
Christ’s Hospital, London. BACK
[4] Rickman’s employer, the
politician Charles Abbot (1757–1829; DNB) had become The
Speaker on 10 February 1802. Rickman had accepted the post of Secretary to
the Speaker of the House of Commons. The posts of both Speaker and Secretary
required the wearing of official – some might say eccentric – dress. BACK
[5] Edith Southey was pregnant with
her first child. BACK
[6] As Burnett was still living with Charles
(‘Citizen’) Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope (1753-1816; DNB),
presumably Southey meant somewhere in the neighbourhood of Chevening in
Kent. BACK
[7] Cottle had published a pseudonymous satire,
The Methodist (1801). It was reviewed as ‘entirely of the
ironical kind, and is intended as a severe and biting satire against those
who are not Methodists, particularly of the Established Church, and, above
all, the Bishops. The author writes in the character of a zealous opposer of
Methodists’, British Critic, 20 (September 1802), 320-321.
Methodists in Bristol had taken the poem at face value and been suitably
enraged. BACK
[8] Joseph Cottle’s ‘John the Baptist’ had first appeared in his
Poems (1795). In 1802 he published a new version,
John the Baptist: A Poem. BACK
[10] James Perry
(1756-1821; DNB), part-owner and editor of the Morning
Chronicle 1790-1821. BACK
[11] Possibly John Carr (1732-1807;
DNB), schoolmaster and translator. BACK
[12]
Monthly Magazine, 12 (Supplement, 1801),
581-583. BACK
[13] Possibly a toothpowder prescribed by John King (hence the epithet
‘Royal’). BACK
[15] Danvers had, presumably,
had an image of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821; First Consul 1799-1804;
Emperor of the French 1804-1814) hanging in his parlour. BACK
