The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part 2: 1798-1803 A Romantic Circles Electronic Edition Southey, Robert, 1774-1843 Lynda Pratt Romantic Circles General Editor, Neil Fraistat General Editor, Steven E. Jones Technical Editor Laura Mandell 2011-08-15 rce301 letterEEd.26.292 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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National Library of Wales, MS 4811D. Not previously published.

These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer

For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.

A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.

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292. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 8 March 1798 Address: To/ C W Williams Wynn Esqr/ 5. Stone Buildings/ Lincolns Inn/ LondonStamped: BRISTOLPostmark: B/ MR/ 12/ 98MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4811DUnpublished. March 8. 98.
Bristol.
My dear Wynn

The cause of my silence was waiting to hear from my brother Tom, that I might say something thro you to Ld Proby. his letter & yrs reached me together this morning. he will be very glad to go with Ld. P. from my Uncles letter I understand he is not to be rated in Ld Ps ship — but to go to Lisbon in her, where my Uncle can assist him thro Ld St Vincents. in this I may be mistaken. Tom is on board the Mars, & now at Spithead; your cousin I suppose will summon him in time, & his letter will afford a sufficient reason for quitting Capt Hood.

We have been a week at Bristol, in lodgings near those where you saw us, & I now begin to feel somewhat settled.

If I had not unpxx unpolitely declined the proffered honour, I should soon like Matthew Lewis have been exhibited in the booksellers shop.W. Ridley’s engraving of Samuel Drummond’s (1765?–1844; DNB) portrait of Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775–1818; DNB) appeared in the Monthly Mirror, 2 (October 1796), opposite 323. A Magazine Man has been requesting Cottle to obtain my permission, & likeness for the “Monthly Visitor.’Southey’s portrait did not appear in the Monthly Visitor.

In our opinion of Godwins bookProbably William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793). you & I differ, tho, perhaps, I agree with you upon the subject of marriage. perhaps, I say, as of all important questions it appears to me the most difficult of decision. I cannot however see any evil tendency in the book. surely it can persuade no woman to prefer concubinage to marriage; but xxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxxx, xxxxxx, xxxxxxx, I incline to the other opinion myself, but I do not think ill of those who differ in judgement from me.

My law & my printing go on well. all the latter employments will be off my hands when I get into the Pleaders Office – & then will there be a good poet spoilt. the inclination I never shall lose but if I should <ever> reach the goal I aim at, the power will perhaps be gone. If I can get tolerable practice as a Special Pleader I certainly think it adviseable to rest there. A Special Pleader was an expert in drafting ‘pleadings’ (the formal documents used in court). It was usual to practice as a Special Pleader before being called to the Bar. Southey, however, suggests that he did not intend to become a barrister and thus be obliged to appear in court. I feel assured that xx to speak well in public is what I cannot attain to. The fluency which I had something of formerly, is gone – , I express myself with difficulty, & awkwardness even in conversation, if any effort of recollection be necessary. this is one of the changes in my character of which I am sensible.

I expect to send you my new edition Joan of Arc (1798). in five weeks. I should be satisfied with it did I not know what I could make Madoc. the poor Welsh man however must wait. Madoc was not published until 1805. There is a long lease of me to run, & he has the reversion.

God bless you. RS.