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 rce333 letterEEd.26.324 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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British Library, Add MS 34046. Previously published: Letters from the Lake Poets, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, to Daniel Stuart (London, 1889), p. 442 [in part, ‘Descriptive Fragment’ only published].Dating note: Dating from Southey’s reference to his journey from Norwich to London, which took place during the night of 8–9 June 1798.

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.

All quotation marks and apostrophes have been changed: " for “," for ”, ' for ‘, and ' for ’.

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Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.

Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.

Southey's spelling has not been regularized.

Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.

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324. Robert Southey to Daniel Stuart [fragment], [c. 8 June 1798] Address: [partial] nd/ ndonStamped: NORWICHMS: British Library, Add MS 34046Previously published: Letters from the Lake Poets, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, to Daniel Stuart (London, 1889), p. 442 [in part, ‘Descriptive Fragment’ only published].Dating note: Dating from Southey’s reference to his journey from Norwich to London, which took place during the night of 8–9 June 1798.

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The circumstance related in the following lines occurred during the American War.The American War of Independence of 1775–1783. no alteration or addition has been made to the story.

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The guns have ceased their thunder! – dreadful pause – Hark! twas the shout of conquest – & again! Louder it rose. the flag of England floats Triumphant: from their ranks the victors rush They speed them to the spoil: – no human tongue Hath told what followed. to the distant shores Of England tidings came of victory; She heard, & in her bloody annals wrote One day of glory more. the conquerors deeds A prudent silence veiled, yet one was wrought That shall not be forgotten. To their prey They rushd in scattered troops from house to house. A band of four at one were entering When from the window came a female arm And fired its only weapon; one fell dead, The rest burst in & called with oaths for her Who did the murder. She came forth & said She was the murderer, & she askd for death – A Woman – a young Woman, who that day Had seen her brother slaughtered, whom that day Had widowed. They were men & Englishmen: And they took counsel or to murder her Or glut their lust amid t her agonies And let her live polluted. There was one Amid these ruffians to whom God had given A heart that war & sociate wickedness Had not corrupted quite. he drew his sword And swore that should not be. – in after years He told the tale; – aye with a bitterness That made his eye look terrible, he told How he had done thus much, & cursed himself, For he stood by, stood patiently & saw His comrades strip even her last garments off Then spurn her forth all naked on the world.This poem was not published in the Morning Post.

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Descriptive Fragment.

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—— Every where Nature is lovely; on the mountain height, Or where the embosomed mountain glen displays Secure sublimity, or where around The undulated surface gently slopes With mingled hill & valley, – every where Nature is lovely. Even in scenes like these Where not a hillock breaks the unvaried plain The eye may find new charms that seeks delight. At eve I walk abroad: the setting sun Hath softened with a rich & mellow hue The cool, fresh, air; below, a bright expanse, The waters of the Broad lie luminous. I gaze around – the unbounded plain presents Ocean immensity, whose circling line The bending heaven shuts in.Sent to Edith Southey on 4 June 1798 (Letter 322), as lines 20–36 of a poem addressed to her. This poem was not published in the Morning Post.

[MS missing]

And naked in thy paramours embrace, Till the avenging sword awake & strike.‘From Filicaia’, lines 12–13, Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, p. 87. These lines were omitted when the poem was published anonymously as ‘Translated from the Italian’ in Morning Post, 24 July 1798.

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I write from Norwich. on my way to town where I expect toI write ... expect to: This section struck through, probably in another hand. [remainder of MS missing]