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 rce345 letterEEd.26.336 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. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 172–174.

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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336. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 21 July 1798 Address: [deletions and readdress in another hand] To/ C. W. Williams Wynn Esqr. Christ Church/ Oxford / Lincolns Inn/ LondonStamped: OXFORDPostmark: F/ JY/ 24/ 98Endorsement: July 21 1798MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4811DPreviously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 172–174. Saturday. 21st July. 98. My dear Wynn

Your request respecting your letters arrived too late. on settling my papers here they were destroyed. old papers of any kind give I am believe more pain than pleasure, when the circumstances they mention have ceased to exist – & many are even forgotten. I made a great blaze, & however cold my quires of poetry were before, there was certainly fire in them then. Stemmata quid faciuntDecimus Junius Juvenalis (fl. AD late 1st and early 2nd centuries), Satire 8, line 1. The Latin translates as ‘Of what value are pedigrees?’ went with the rest. it was an Auto da Fe & I burnt all that did not accord with my present poetical creed, like a good Catholic. of the relics of old times your drawing only was preserved.

I am glad you think an UnionAfter the defeat of the 1798 rising intense discussions about the constitutional position of Ireland began in government circles. The Prime Minister, William Pitt (1759–1806; DNB), favoured the abolition of the Irish Parliament and a formal Union between Ireland and Great Britain. objectionable as it is, the best measure that can be taken as to Ireland, because I consider it as the best termination for both countries. Will not the cabal who have made the mischief oppose it?Irish government was in the hands of a small group of office-holders, most importantly, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, (1769–1822; DNB), the Chief Secretary for Ireland 1797–1798; John Foster (1740–1828; DNB), Speaker of the Irish House of Commons 1785–1800; John Fitzgibbon, Earl of Clare (1749–1802; DNB), Lord Chancellor of Ireland 1789–1801; and John Beresford (1738–1805; DNB), Chief Commissioner of Revenue, 1780–1802. & if so a great weight would be thrown into the rebel scale. I do not think a seperation desirable for Ireland, tho many of the better Irish desire it, & for England, I should think it not impossible if Ireland were its enemy that France might one day be its conqueror. yet so detestable does the system carried on there appear to me, that I should almost rejoice to see the country delivered from its present yoke by any means.

As to a special pleaderWynn was attempting to persuade Southey to become a Special Pleader, 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. you will use your own judgement. that office will be best where most can be done in the least time. I do not think I can enter one before Xmas, as family reasons will prevent it – & I should be afraid of subjecting Ediths health to the air & the confinement of London before it were better established.

I cannot tell you how comfortable I feel the range of a house, after living so long in lodgings. it is of considerable advantage also to me, as I can have a room ready to enter at an early hour, & have for this last week work at ¼ after five as methodically as if xx an alarum clock had summoned me. during these hours thus gained, have I been travelling to MathravalThe seat of the Welsh Princes of Powys, mid-Wales. & heard the Hirlas song, & spent some little time with Rhys ap GryffydhRhys ap Gruffydh (1132–1197; DNB), ruler of the South Walian kingdom of Deheubarth. at Dinevawr “the great palace.Dinefwr or Dinas Vawr (the ‘great palace’) was the ancestral home of the rulers of Deheubarth; see William Warrington (1776?–1852), The History of Wales, In Nine Books (London, 1786), p. [151]. the company however that has pleased me best has been that of the blind old Cynetha.In Southey’s Madoc (1805), Cynetha is a Welsh prince. The rightful ruler of Wales, he has been deposed, blinded and castrated by Madoc’s father Owen Gwynedd. Madoc has been speaking of his father with high praise to the Cynetha, not knowing him.

There were two brethren once, the old man replied, Of royal line. they loved each other well, And when the one was at his dying hour It was a comfort to him that he left So dear a brother, who would gladly pay A fathers duties to his orphan boy. And he did love the orphan, & the boy With all a childs sincerity lovd him, And learnt to call him father. So the years Past on, till when the orphan reached the age Of manhood, to the throne his Uncle came. The young man claimd a fair inheritance, His fathers lands; & mark what followd Prince! At midnight he was seizd & to his eyes The bxxk brazen plate was held! – he lookd around His prison room for help. he only saw The ruffian forms that to the red-hot brass Forced his poor eyes, & held the open lids Till the slow agony consumd the sense, And when their hold relaxd, he would have given The wealth of worlds so he could <might> then have seen Their ruffian faces. – I am blind young Prince, And I can tell how sweet a thing it is To see the blessed light! Must more be told? What farther agonies he yet endured? Or hast thou known the consummated crime And heard Cynetha’s fate?A revised version of these lines appeared in Robert Southey, Madoc (1805), Part 1, Book 3, lines 110–136.

The part where Cynetha makes himself known is perhaps finer than this as the images are not painful.

The hours thus forced from sleep I think fairly belong to myself – & have made them unalienable from Madoc – like the sinking fund.In theory, any surplus government revenue was meant to be used to reduce the national debt, but for most of the eighteenth century the money was diverted to other forms of expenditure. In 1786 the Prime Minister, William Pitt (1759–1806; DNB), introduced legislation that ensured surplus revenue was inalienable and had to be used to repay the national debt. But I suspect my poem will be done before the national debt is paid as I do not write one book & plan twenty. I think you would like what is done & the ways before me

Are so exceeding spacious & wyde, And sprinkled with such sweet variety Of all that pleasant is to eare or eye That I – my tedious travel do forget therebyAn adaptation of Edmund Spenser (1552–1599; DNB), The Faerie Queene, Book 6, Proem 1, lines 3–7. God bless you yrs affectionately R. Southey.

The Vision‘The Vision of the Maid of Orleans’, a revised version of material originally in the ninth book of Joan of Arc, An Epic Poem (1796), appeared in Poems, 2 vols (Bristol, 1799), II, pp. [1]–69. will of course be the same size as the poemThe second edition of Joan of Arc, published earlier in 1798. – to sell with it. I do not agree with you about the drunkenness lines.See Robert Southey, Joan of Arc, An Epic Poem (Bristol and London, 1796), p. 341. there are some before – I think page 334Probably Robert Southey, Joan of Arc, An Epic Poem (Bristol and London, 1796), pp. 337–338. that are lamentable in that way.