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Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin. Previously published: Charles Ramos, The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 29–30.
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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Southey's spelling has not been regularized.
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We have of late been very uneasy respecting
my brother in
the Mars. The gazette relieved us by making honourable
mention of him, & luckily we knew nothing of his wounds,
till his own letter informed us last night.Mars and the French ship L’Hercule on 21 April 1798.beneat between the two ships.
as he was falling they made a third thrust at his back. the
pike glanced from his shoulder blade so as to pass twice
thro all his cloaths &
take out a small piece of flesh. providentially as he fell
he caught hold of a rope hanging from the anchor, hung by it
& got upon his own deck. he then clapt his hand to the
wounds on his thigh, & felt them bleeding profusely, the
bloody running down his
leg. he was fearful lest he should faint with loss of blood
& be thrown overboard, & so made his way to the cock
pit. his letter is written in high spirits – but the
horrible scene he witnessed, particularly in the cock pit –
has strongly impressed him. we expect him home. Ld
Bridport sent him word that he would not forget
him.
I have always I trust been sensible of the folly & wickedness of these war systems – & yet methinks I feel it somewhat more strongly now. here are ninety men killed & wounded in the Mars (& Tom says this number is he fears rather too little than too much) & 350 Frenchmen. What an aggregate of wretchedness when we consider the branchings of their connections!
We removed here on Saturday last. [MS torn] I
was sorry to leave Bristol before Beddoes had
finis[MS torn] his course of chemical lecturesr Burns
I corrected my last proof
When shall I begin to carry the begging box
in this part of the world?nd for Yarmouth.
Edith is some little better – but her health varies likewise. she desires to be remembered.