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 rce369 letterEEd.26.360 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 Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849-1850), I, pp. 350–352 [in part]; Charles Ramos, The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 40–41.

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

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 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
360. Robert Southey to John May, 14 December 1798 Address: To/ John May Esqr/ 4 Bedford Square/ London/ SingleStamped: BRISTOLPostmark: DE/15/98Watermark: [illegible]Endorsement: 1798 No. 28/ Robert Southey/ No place 14 Decr/ recd. 15 do/ ansd. 5 Jany 1799MS: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, AustinPreviously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849-1850), I, pp. 350–352 [in part]; Charles Ramos, The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 40–41. Dec. 14. 98. My dear friend

I am about to send off a great coat to your house for Harrys journey. he will have Burnetts to town & from thence must send it back. I should think we may expect him here in the course of three or four days. from Lightfoot I have received no answer yet, which somewhat surprizes me, but he may have left his situation, or been absent from it & so the letter may have followed him or been waiting his return.

We are enduring something like a Kamtschatkan winter here, I am obliged to take my daily walk, & tho I go wrapped up in my great coat almost like a dancing bear in hirsute appearance still the wind pierces me. we are very deficient in having no face dress for such weather as this.

I am busy upon the Grecian history, or rather it is the employment of all my leisure. the escape of my PythonessThe Pythia was the title given to the priestess of Apollo at Delphi, who was famous for her prophecies, uttered under the influence of vapours rising from the earth. The priestess was originally always a young virgin, but Echecrates the Thessalian kidnapped and raped the incumbent. After this event, the priestess was always chosen from among old women. mxxx was in the early ages, & they I believe will suit me best. I must have the Pythian gamesHeld every four years at Delphi in honour of Apollo. celebrated. for the story I have only invention to trust to. the costume of Greece will be new to the English drama, owing to the defects of our theatre. but I had rather get to some country & some people less known. among the many thoughts that have passed over my mind upon this subject, I have had the idea of grounding stories upon the oppressions exercised at different periods of time upon particular classes of people. the HelotsAn unfree population tied to the land in parts of Sparta. for instance, the Albigenses,A dualist religious movement in southern France in the 12th and 13th centuries. Suppressed by Catholic crusades. or the Jews. the idea of a tragedy upon one of the early martyrs has for some years been among my crude plans but it would not suit the stage because it would not suit the times. there is something more noble in such a character than I can conceive in any other, firm to the defiance of death in avowing the truth, & patient under all oppression, without enthusiasm, supported by the calm conviction that this is his duty.

Among the Helots something may be made of the infernal Crypteia,Spartan boys who had shown great promise in their training were given the opportunity to prove their fighting skills by being sent into the countryside unarmed with instructions to kill any helot they met at night and to take any food they needed. but I am afraid to meddle with a Spartan, there is neither feeling thinking or speaking like one who has been educated according to the laws of Lycurgus.Lycurgus was the legendary law-giver of Sparta. Among the practices he implemented was the military training of all Spartan boys from the age of seven. Knowledge of human nature is not knowledge of Lacedæmonian nature. the state of slavery among our own countrymen in an early period is better, – the grievances of wardship & the situation of a neif or villain.Wardship was the medieval system under which feudal lords had rights over their vassals, for example control of minors or the ability to decide who widows or heiresses might marry. ‘Neif’ and ‘villain’ are terms for female and male serfs who were bound to the soil, Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 18, 215. dramatists & novelists have ransackd early history, & we have as many crusaders on the stage & in the circulating library as ever saild to Palestine – but they only pay attention to the chronology & not to the manners or mind of the period.

When do you leave London? & how is your brother Arthur?Arthur May, John May’s brother. my letters are very nearly finished.A second, revised edition of Southey’s Letters Written During a Short Residence in Spain and Portugal was published in 1799. they will be out a fortnight earlier than my PoemsSouthey’s two volume collection Poems appeared in 1799: volume one was a third edition of the collection first published in 1797; volume two consisted of poems published previously (though not under Southey’s own name) in the Morning Post and the Monthly Magazine or published for the first time. – shall I send them to you, or keep them till you I see you here on your way to town again?

Edith desires to be remembered. I am myself not well, towards night my indisposition affects me & induces a very uncomfortable state.

yrs affectionately Robert Southey.