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 rce355 letterEEd.26.346 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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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. 36–37.

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 ’.

Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.

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.

& has been used for the ampersand sign.

£ has been used for £, the pound sign

All other characters, those with accents, non-breaking spaces, etc., have been encoded in HTML entity decimals.

 NINES categories for Genre and Material Form at http://www.performantsoftware.com/nines_wiki/index.php/Submitting_RDF#.3Cnines:genre.3E on 2009-02-26 Architecture Artifacts Bibliography Collection Criticism Letters Drama Life Writing Politics Folklore Ephemera Fiction History Leisure Manuscript Reference Works Humor Education Music nonfiction Paratext Perodical Philosphy Photograph Citation Family Life Poetry Religion Review Visual Art Translation Travel Book History Law Southey Letters: Biographies Southey Letters: Places Laura Mandell XSLT Transforming after latest corrections Laura Mandell XSLT Transforming Averill Buchanan corrections from proofing Averill Buchanan Part II added
346. Robert Southey to John May, 2 September [1798] Address: To/ John May Esqr/ 4. Bedford Square/ London/ SingleStamped: HEREFORDPostmark: SE/ 4/ 98Watermark: [first part obscured by seal trace]/ 1796Endorsement: 1798 No. 23./ Robert Southey/ Hereford 2 September/ recd: 4 do/ ansd: 17 do MS: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, AustinPreviously published: Charles Ramos, The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 36–37.
Hereford.
My dear friend

I have been long silent. we are with Thomas, & in rambling about this country much time has been employed.

You ask me my opinion how a Lawyer should act. they tell me he should undertake any cause, because if he refuses to be the advocate he makes himself the judge. my dear friend this may be true – but I never go to my head for an answer when my heart is ready with one. certainly I would not plead in a bad cause. I feel it would be wrong. I have no love for the profession – but I have a strong & honourable love of independance, & would labour for it. Sometimes I think I have mistaken the road. of all modes of life that of a clergyman would best suit my habits & feelings. I should have been happy & useful in the church had my creed permitted it. were I again at liberty to chuse my way of life I should not hesitate at becoming a dissenting minister. Ambition I have none; & a little satisfies me. I want nothing but independance & leisure for my favourite studies. these the law will I hope afford me, & that not at too late a period. I should have been more useful as a minister & better satisfied.

Who do you think is in London of all men – but Leopold BerchtoldLeopold, Graf von Berchtold (1759–1809), Austrian philanthropist. – ! Bedford has seen him, he expressed his satisfaction at what I had said of him, & gave Bedford his book upon the plague for me.Leopold, Graf von Berchtold, Nachtrict von dem im St Antons-Spitale in Smirna mit dem allerbesten Erfolg gebrauchten einfachen Mittel (1797). he will remain some months longer in London, & very much do I regret my absence. I wish you knew him – & that he knew the garden scheme, & your plan for the beggars,The ‘garden scheme’ was a convalescent home to assist the poor after their discharge from hospital; see Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, [25 March] 1798, Letter 298; for the scheme to assist the indigent see Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 3 August 1798, Letter 340. they would delight him, & he might perhaps xx set them on foot in other countries.

I have procured access to the Cathedral Library here.Southey’s uncle, Herbert Hill, was Chancellor of Hereford Cathedral and responsible for the Library. it does not contain many books, but I find enough to employ me busily & agreably for six hours every morning – that is from Friday last till Wednesday next when we depart from hence. in the course of ten or twelve days we shall reach home, & I shall be glad to return to regularity. I love to write at my own desk – to see my books by me, & to look every evening from the same window at the setting sun. On my return I shall begin your book.Unidentified; possibly a manuscript book of poems and/or other writings Southey was compiling for John May. as I am about to publish enough with the Vision of the Maid to make a volume, Poems (1799). of course none of those pieces will be included. but I have many besides – wholes in themselves, the parts only of a greater plan which will be long in hand. it is called the Kalendar, & the name will almost explain its nature, which resembles that of Ovids Fasti tho greatly improved.The ‘Kalendar’, a sequence modelled on Ovid’s (43 BC–AD 17) Fasti, was never completed. I shall take the natural history of the year as I proceed, & instead of confining myself to the church holydays, select from history & the annals & festivals of all countrys whatever appears fit for poetry. already I have some 1500 lines written. my metres vary with my subjects. the work will fill at least two volumes the small size, for the notes must be extensive. & I think it will be popular & useful.

I shall have much of Madoc to show you in November – as on my return I shall certainly resume my early rising, & early employment. the plan is now compleat, & is I think very fine.By this time Southey had written at least four books of Madoc (1797–1799).

I write by candle light, & to mend a pen by candle light is a task I cannot well undertake. Edith is tolerably well, & has learnt to ride in Herefordshire. We have no letters from Lisbon, at which I am surprized. it is now three months since my Uncle has written to me: & his letters are always short & unsatisfactory.

Lord Bridport has sent for Tom to his ship, but his own Captain has desired to keep him awhile as he is in want of midshipmen.

God bless you – yrs affectionately Robert Southey.

September 2. <a memorable day – for the French massacres. the fire of London & the battle of Actium.>The anniversary of the start of the ‘September massacres’ in Paris, 1792; the Great Fire of London, 1666; and the battle of Actium, 31 BC.