755. Robert Southey to John
Rickman, 30 January [1803]
*
My dear Rickman
Thank you for your letter in all & every one of its parts.
the books which you could not find must be in one of the boxes packed up in the
Strand, & which may easily be
known from the travellers by their looser cordage & fastening. Of the
addendi – & trust me thexx virtue of
supererogation is a great one & goes to account with me – the Italian Life
of Bernard [1] is the only one which
I ought to have specified <but I shall be glad to receive the 2 vol of
Racine [2] & the mss Madoc. [3] >
Domingo & Francisco [4] have both been
gutted. the French life of Loyola [5] is worth little for I have biographized him from the
earliest of his Life-writers. the Hist. Jes. Ordinis [6] I do not recollectxx unless
it be a little book by one Hasenmuller or some such Germanish name – if so I
have the whole trail of that volume ready drest. but there is a folio history of
monachism – which tho it falls miserably short of what such a title ought to
pretend, may be of use – by Hospinian. [7]
By way of fillers – send Osorio de Rebus Eman. [8] 3 vol. bound like Resendius, [9] & Resendius also. the Cronicas dos Seis
Reys primeiros. [10] a folio thing, &
lettered upon so light-coloured a leather, that it might as well not have been
lettered at all. Feijoos [11]
works. about 16 little 4tos in parchment. Corona Gotica by Saavedra [12] two little quadrutoed
volumes. Vieyra Hist de Futuro. [13] 1 4to parchment. a folio
translation of Eusebius – Socrates Sozomen &c. [14]
I am rich in books considered as plain & poor Robert Southey,
& in foreign books – considered as an English man. but for my glutton
appetite & healthy digestion, my stock is but small & the Historian
feels daily & hourly the want of materials. I believe I must visit London
for the sake of the Museum. [15] but not till the spring be far
advanced & warm enough to write with tolerable comfort in their reading
room. my history of Monachism [16] cannot be
compleat without the Benedictine History of Mabillon. [17] there is another book in the
Museum which must be noticed literally – or put in a note – the book of the
conformities of St Francis & Jesus Xt! [18] I have thirteen folio of Franciscan History in
the house – & yet want the main one, Waddings Seraphic Annals [19] which contains the original Bulls.
Of the Beguins [20] I have as yet found neither trace nor tidings – except
that I have seen the name certainly among the heretic list. but my monastic
knowledge is very far from complete. I know only the outline xxxx for the two centuries between Francisco
& Luther. [21] & nothing but Jesuit history from that
period.
Do not suspect me of querulousness. labour is my amusement, &
nothing makes me growl but that the kind of labour cannot be wholly my own
choice. that I must lay aside old chronicles, to review modern poems instead of
composing from a full head. that I must write like a school boy upon some idle
theme on which nothing can be said or ought to be said. I believe the best thing
will be as you hope. for if I live & do well my history [22] shall be done, & that will be a fortune to a man
oeconomical from habit & moderate in his wants & wishes from feeling
& principle.
Coleridge is with me at
present. he talks of going abroad – for poor fellow he suffers terribly from
this climate. you bid me come with the swallows to London! I wish I could go
with the swallows on their winterly migration.
If I have not specified books enough to fill a package-case, make
up the quantity by any thing relative to Spain Portugal, the East or
West-Indies.
Farewell – we are all a little ailing – & all with sore eyes,
for which as there must be some general cause I wish we could find a general
remedy.
yrs affectionately
RS
Jany 30. dies fausta. [23]
Notes
* Address: To/ John Rickman
Esqr / St Stephens Court/ New
Palace Yard/ Westminster
Postmark: B/ JAN 31/ 1803
Endorsement: RS/
Jany 30/ 1803
MS: Huntington Library, RS 31
Previously published:
Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert
Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849-1850), II, pp. 199-201 [in
part]. BACK
[1] Filippo di San Giovanni
Battista (dates unknown), Vita di San Bernardo (1618), no.
180 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[2] Jean Racine (1639-1699),
French dramatist. A two-volume edition of his works does not appear in the
sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[3] Presumably a copy of Southey’s unpublished
fifteen-book version of Madoc, completed in
1797-1799. BACK
[4] St
Francis of Assisi (1181/2-1226), founder of the Franciscan Order; St Dominic
(1170-1221), founder of the Dominican Order. Southey was incorporating their
lives into his unfinished ‘History of Portugal’. BACK
[6] Elias Hasenmuller (d. 1587), Historia Iesuitici
Ordinis (1595), no. 1514 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s
library. BACK
[7] Rudolf Hospinian (1547-1626), De Monachis (1669), no. 1430
in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[8] Jeronimo Osorio (1506-1580), De Rebus
Emmanuenlis Lusitanae Regis (1791), no. 2067 in the sale
catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[9] Andre de Resende (1498-1573), De
Antiquitatibus Lusitaniae (1790), no. 3446 in the sale catalogue
of Southey’s library. BACK
[10] Possibly Chronica
del D. Affonso Henriques Primero, D. Sancho I & II, D. Affonso II
& III, e Dom Diniz, Sexto Rey de Portugal (1727-1729), no.
3352 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[11] Benito Jeronimo
Feijoo y Montenegro (1674-1764), Theatro Critico Universal
(1749-1760), no. 3298 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[12] Diego de Saavedra Fajardo (1584-1648),
Corona Gothica Castellana y Austriaca (1670), no. 3724 in
the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[13] Antonio
Vieira (1608-1697), Historia do Futuro (1718), no. 3772 in
the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[14] Meredith Hanmer (1534-1604; DNB),
Eusebius, Socrates, &c. Ancient Ecclesiasticall
Histories (1636), no. 960 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s
library. BACK
[15] The British
Museum, London, opened in 1759. BACK
[16] Southey’s
planned, but never completed, ‘History of Monasticism’. BACK
[17] Jean Mabillon (1632-1707). Southey eventually obtained his
Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti (1733) and
Annales Ordinis S. Benedicti (1703), nos. 208 and 1692 in
the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[18] Southey eventually acquired a third edition of
this book by Bartholomew Rinonico (d. c. 1401), Liber Aureus,
Inscriptus Liber Conformitatum Vitae B. P. Francisci ad Vitam Jesu
Christi (1590), no. 472 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s
library. It claimed the Bible contained no fewer than 64 predictions of the
life of St Francis. BACK
[19] Southey eventually acquired two sets of Luke
Wadding’s (1588-1657; DNB) Annales Minorum, seu Trium
Ordinum A. S. Francisco Institutorum (1625-1654) and
(1731-1745), nos 2903-2904 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s
library. BACK
[20] The
Beguines were medieval lay religious communities of women, located mainly in
the Low Countries. In the 14th century, they were often accused of heresy.
Rickman thought of them as a model for his plan of communities of poor
single women. BACK
[21] Martin Luther (1483-1546),
founder of Lutheranism. BACK
[22] Southey’s uncompleted ‘History of
Portugal’. BACK
[23] ‘Auspicious day’; 30 January was
‘auspicious’ for Southey as it was the anniversary of the execution of
Charles I (1600-1649, King of Great Britain 1625-1649;
DNB). BACK
