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 rce376 letterEEd.26.367 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), pp. 439–441.

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.

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367. Robert Southey to Daniel Stuart [fragment], 3 January 1799 Address: [partial] Strand/ LondonStamped: BRISTOLMS: British Library, Add MS 34046Previously published: Letters from the Lake Poets, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, to Daniel Stuart (London, 1889), pp. 439–441. My dear Sir

Whether or no the following dramatic fragment is upon too invidious a subject, you must be a better judge than me. if you think so throw it behind the fire. I wrote it with a feeling of interest that makes me think it good.

yrs truly R. Southey.

Dramatic fragment.

The scene in Holland. the time about 1570.The ‘Dramatic fragment’ is set in the Netherlands during a period of acute discontent against Spanish rule, which was to lead to open rebellion in 1572.

____

Ellis. Not complain? Endure in silence? suffer with beast patience Oppressions such as these? Klaus. Nay – an it please you Rail on – rail on! no doubt when you are feeling The vengeance of the state, twill comfort you Amid your dungeon miseries to reflect How valiantly you talkd! – you know Count Roderick – He would be railing too. Ellis And what has followed? Klaus I saw him in his dungeon. tis a place Where the hell-haunted murderer might almost Rejoice to hear the hangman summons him. By day he may divert his solitude With watching thro the grate the snow-flakes fall, Or counting the long icicles above him, Or he may trace upon the ice-glazed wall Lines of most brave sedition! & at night The frosty moon beam for his meditation Lends light enough. he told me that his feet Were ulcered with the biting cold. – I would Thou hadst been with me Ellis. Ellis. But does PhilipPhilip II (1527–1598; King of Spain 1556–1598). Command these things? or knowingly permit The punishment to go before the judgement? Klaus. Knowest thou not with what confidence the King Reposes upon Alva?Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba (1507–1582), Governor of the Spanish Netherlands 1567–1573. & admit, As sure I trust, to hear & to redress Injustice be with him one act, the groans Of misery reach not to the royal ear. Ellis. But sure Count Rodericks service – Klaus. Powerful plea! He served his country & his country paid him The wages of his service. why but late A man that in ten several fields had fought His countrys battles, by the hangmans hand Died like a dog. & for a venial crime – A deed that could not xxx trouble with one doubt A dying man. at LepantoA naval battle in 1571 off the coast of western Greece, in which a coalition fleet defeated the Ottoman Navy. he had shared The danger of that day whose triumph broke The Ottomans power, & this was pleaded for him; Six months they stretchd him on the rack of hope, Then took his life. Ellis. I would I were in England! Klaus. Aye get thee home again! you islanders Live under such good laws, so mild a sway, That you are no more fit to dwell abroad Than a doting mothers favorite to endure His first school hardships. We in Holland here Know tis as idle to exclaim against These state oppressions, as with childish tears To weep in the stone, or any other curse Wherewith Gods wrath afflicts <us>, & for struggling – Why twould be like an idiot in the gout Stamping for pain!Published in Annual Anthology (Bristol, 1800), pp. 273–276.

[MS missing]

Or if, the drudge of house maids daily toil, Cobwebs & dust thy pinion white besoil, Departed Goose! I neither know nor care, But this I know that thou wert very fine Seasoned with sage & onions & port wine.The closing lines of Southey’s ‘Sonnet. To a Goose’, published Morning Post, 10 January 1799.

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Jany. 3. 99.