Dear Wynn
I send you my letter to Elmsley to
forward to him & leave it open that I may kill two birds
with one shot. – you will admire the passage from your Mort
Arthur [1]
The Cid [2] is advancing for you daily. I
hate these tasks of letter writing that keep me from that
& such like employments. so be you now content with the
usufruct [3] of Elmsleys paper –
that is as far as the eyes are concerned – it not being
designed for any inferior part –
God bless you –
R Southey.
Monday. 28 June.
Kingsdown Bristol.
Notes
* Address: [deletion and readdress in
another hand] To/ C W Williams Wynn Esqr M.P./ Lincolns
Inn/ London <Wynnstay/ Wrexham./ Mr Wynn>
Postmark: BRISTOL/
JUN/ 1802
Endorsement: June 28/ 1802
MS:
National Library of Wales, MS
4811D
Unpublished. BACK
[1] The
compilation of French and English Arthurian romances
made by Sir Thomas Malory (1415/18-1471;
DNB). Southey’s edition appeared in
1817 under the title The Byrth, Lyf, and Actes of
King Arthur. As Southey’s letter to Elmsley
has not survived, it is not possible to identify the
passage to which Southey draws Wynn’s
attention. BACK
[2] Southey was transcribing the ‘Cid’, poems
and tales relating to Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar (c.
1040-1099), Castilian aristocrat and military commander,
for Wynn; see Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn,
[c. 21 June 1802], Letter 683. Southey’s English
translation and compilation of three of these stories
was published in 1808 as The Chronicle of the
Cid. BACK
[3] The
legal right to use and enjoy someone else’s property, so
long as that property is not damaged. BACK
