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 rce380 letterEEd.26.371 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

Material from the Romantic Circles Website may not be downloaded, reproduced or disseminated in any manner without authorization unless it is for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, and/or classroom use as provided by the Copyright Act of 1976, as amended.

Unless otherwise noted, all Pages and Resources mounted on Romantic Circles are copyrighted by the author/editor and may be shared only in accordance with the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law. Except as expressly permitted by this statement, redistribution or republication in any medium requires express prior written consent from the author/editors and advance notification of Romantic Circles. Any requests for authorization should be forwarded to Romantic Circles:>

Romantic Circles c/o Professor Neil Fraistat Department of English University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 fraistat@umd.edu

By their use of these texts and images, users agree to the following conditions: These texts and images may not be used for any commercial purpose without prior written permission from Romantic Circles. These texts and images may not be re-distributed in any forms other than their current ones.

Users are not permitted to download these texts and images in order to mount them on their own servers. It is not in our interest or that of our users to have uncontrolled subsets of our holdings available elsewhere on the Internet. We make corrections and additions to our edited resources on a continual basis, and we want the most current text to be the only one generally available to all Internet users. Institutions can, of course, make a link to the copies at Romantic Circles, subject to our conditions of use.

National Library of Wales, MS 4811D. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 62–65.

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
371. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 15 January 1799 Address: To/ C. W. Williams Wynn Esqr/ Wynnstay/ Wrexham/ DenbighshireStamped: BRISTOLEndorsement: Jan. 15/ 99MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4811DPreviously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 62–65.

The days of Queen MaryMary I (1516–1558; reigned 1553–1558; DNB). Her reign saw a determined attempt to return England to Catholicism and persecute Protestants. For the plan of Southey’s ‘The Days of Queen Mary’, see Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 190–192. appear to suit me well. my characters are these. Sir Walter a young man of strong affections & high & quick feelings a convert to the reformed religion. A man somewhat elder, inflexibly honest − but like CranmerThomas Cranmer (1489–1556; DNB), Archbishop of Canterbury (1533–1555). one that would burn an Anabaptist, − & suffer at the stake himself. A cousin of Sir Walters, his next heir, a bigotted Catholic, so bigotted as not to confess to himself that one motive for accusing his cousin is to get at his estate. Mary (I use any name) one who has from childhood been betrothed to Walter, a Catholic, perfectly good − & the Confessor of Walter & Mary, a good & pious man, loving them both as his children. my sketch thus divides itself into the five acts.

1. The discovery of Walters principles to Mary & the Confessor. 2. The arrest of Gilbert his friend, & Walters danger when he has betrayed his opinions to his cousin. 3. The burning of Gilbert. 4. Walters consent to temporize & marry Mary. 5. His arrest − trial − condemnation. & the Queens death.

The progress of Walters mind gives a fine opportunity for dramatic effect. he is at first uneasy, made more enthusiastic by Gilberts danger & heroism, yet half wishing he could be contented with ignorance. worked up by Gilberts death to almost the desire of martyrdom. yielding to affection − & in the hour of danger set discovering the patient courage of a Christian. I feel as tho I could develope this character well.

For stage effect I see one fine place. Gilbert is burnt opposite Marys house. she sees the procession from her window − & Walter attending his friend. the Te Deum is heard. the light of the stake seen thro the window − & Mary & the Confessor pray together for the soul of the heretic. − Some effect may be produced by Marys singing the evening hymn.

I expect a good dungeon scene between Gilbert & the Confessor. the Confessor intreating him not to drive Walter to the stake – & Gilbert inflexible in braving death & thinking it the duty of all who believe in the reformation to profess it & suffer, rather than temporize.

There is a something markd in every character. the Confessor was of Glastonbury & had seen the AbbotRichard Whiting (d. 1539; DNB), the last Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. He was executed on a charge of treason. executed. he had felt persecution − & he abhors it. strip Popery of its tricks & it is a fine religion − it seems made for human feelings − to supply all their cravings. in Mary it should be very interesting.

Now are these feelings <is the story> such as a modern audience would sympathize with? this is my doubt. the catastrophe is faulty. Q. Marys death is an accident, & it is clumsy to let chance decide it. Would a Lord ChamberlainA chief official of the Royal Household who also held the post of licenser of plays in the City of London and Westminster. construe the story into a libel upon state severity? I have no inclination to fling away my time, & these doubts occur to me. On the other hand the story suits me, I feel equal to it, & hardly expect to make another so new to the stage & capable of such powerful parts.

I wish I had Froissart.Jean Froissart (c. 1337–c. 1410), author of Chronicles (1373–1400). it is laborious to read the French, the type is so difficult that one cannot pass the eye down a page to see at once what it contains. & it is endless to go thro old folios in any other manner.

Captain Bells vision is in Aubreys Miscellanies also.John Aubrey (1626–1697; DNB), Miscellanies upon Various Subjects (London, 1696), pp. 78–82 relates Henry Bell’s (fl. 1640s–1650s) account of how he was visited in his sleep by an apparition, a white-haired old man who commanded him to translate Martin Luther’s (1483–1546) Dris Martini Lutheri Colloquia Mensalia: or … Divine Discourses at his Table. Bell’s translation was published in 1652. it looks like a lie I am not a disbeliever in these things, but that story is not among the credible ones. it is a curious subject the existence <truth> of supernatural warnings & appearances, I mean some day to state the pro & con in the M Magazine & invite controversy, for it is has never been fairly & reasonably examined. I lean to belief myself.

The Ballads are printed as far as the beginning of the Old Lady. Poems (1799) was at press and was printed up to the beginning of ‘A Ballad Shewing How an Old Woman Rode Double and Who Rode Before Her’, i.e. Poems, 2 vols (Bristol, 1799), II, p. [143]. in small poems, I am not fond of correcting − upon a great work like Joan of Arc or Madoc I have even Dutch industry. I have an odd thought for a ballad. a grotesque being − a little man who can extend his limbs to any length − put up his hand to count the eagles eggs − crane up his neck to the top-tower window − open his mouth & swallow any body, which is to be the conclusion. Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, p. 193. Southey did not write a poem on this subject. pray buy me the ghost book. I shall hardly be satisfied till I have got a ballad as good as Lenora.Gottfried August Bürger’s (1748–1794) ballad ‘Lenore’ (1773). Its numerous translators included William Taylor; see Monthly Magazine, 1 (March 1796), 135–137. I have two or three stories of secondary merit to work upon.

Let me hear from you – & if you should meet with a ghost, a witch of a devil − pray send them to me. for these last few days I have been well enough to leave off my ether.

yrs affectionately R Southey.

Tuesday 15 Jany. 1799.