866. Robert Southey to John Rickman,
11 December [1803]
*
Dear Rickman
I take it for granted that my precious
brother had procured his regular discharge – &
said nothing about his reestablishment in the Suffisante
because Tom tells
me she is sent abroad. But a worse business has come out
since. the young rascal has drawn two bills upon me, one for
three pounds to pay a gunmaker – the
other for 5–13 – I know not for what, – & moreover
modestly sends me a taylors bill for two complete suits
& a great coat of superfine cloth – to the tune of
11–16–3½ to convince me he says that he has not been
extravagant. Of course I have protested his drafts &
refused to pay his bills, & he & his Aunt &
Mr Barham [1] may manage the
affair as they please.
All this I wrote to May by the last post.
It is clear enough that he is completely adrift & that
if he do not take to the sea he will go on as a sharper till
he probably comes to the proper & customary termination
of such a trade. I think he should be shipped off for some
foreign station, or if he be too bad for the navy, for some
long voyage. that he can turn out well is utterly
impossible. I however must not omit doing all I can to put
him in a fair way – as for embarrassing myself for him that
I will never do. I have already incurred a debt to May by what I have
done to help on Harry in
the world – which will cost me the whole profits of
Madoc [2] to clear off.
These things however shall not give me any
permanent vexation. they will needs irritate & inflame
at first, but I have a stock of practical stoicism which has
often stood me in good stead. You assigned a cause for the
tone of my former letter which probably does exist but
assuredly did not exhilirate me. it is to me far more a
cause of fear than of hope. I would rather forego delight
than hazard tranquillity.
I mean to publish Madoc next winter & to
try to have the whole profits myself without letting the
booksellers go halves. if you can get me some subscribers I
know you will. a guinea for a quarto to be paid on delivery.
But if this mode of publication sound or feel unworthily to
you – tell me so – & my wares shall go to market. This
will clear me with the world. I should have had money to
spare but for such perpetual drains. Sic vos non vobis [3] – Haud facile emergunt &c. [4]
God bless you.
RS.
Sunday Dec. 11.
Notes
* Address: To/
John Rickman Esqr
Endorsement: RS/ Dec. 11/ 1803
MS: Huntington
Library, RS 46
Previously published: Kenneth Curry
(ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2
vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp.
345-346. BACK
[1] John Barham Foster-Barham (1763-1822), a
wealthy merchant in the West India trade and partner in
Plummer, Barham & Co. How Edward Southey had made
his acquaintance is unclear. BACK
[2] Southey had
completed a version of Madoc in 1797-1799
and was revising it for publication. It did not appear
until 1805. BACK
[3] ‘Thus you [do what is]
not for you’. BACK
[4] Decimus Iunius
Iuvenalis (late 1st-early 2nd century AD),
Satires Book 1, no. 3, lines 164-165,
‘Haud facile emergunt quorum virtutibus obstat/Res
angusta domi’. The Latin translates as ‘Difficult indeed
is it for those to emerge from obscurity whose noble
qualities are cramped by narrow means at home.’ BACK
