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<title type="main">The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part 2: 1798-1803 </title>
<title type="subordinate">A Romantic Circles Electronic Edition</title>
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<name>Southey, Robert, 1774-1843</name>
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<idno type="nines">rce398</idno>
<idno type="edition">letterEEd.26.389</idno>
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<sourceDesc>
<p>Bodleian
                        Library, MS Eng. Lett. c.
                    23.  Not previously published.</p>
<p>These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer</p>
<p>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
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											St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of
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<p>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.</p>
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<div n="389" type="letter">
<head>389. Robert Southey to <ref target="people.html#BedfordGrosvenorCharles">Grosvenor
                        Charles Bedford</ref>, <date when="1799-03-14">14 March
                        1799</date>
<note place="foot" resp="editors" type="headnote">Address: To/ Grosvenor Charles Bedford
                            Esq<hi rend="sup">r</hi>/ Exchequer/ London/
                        Single<lb/>Postmarks: [partial] OL/ 14 99; [partial] 15/
                        99<lb/>Endorsement: 14 March 1799<lb/>MS: Bodleian
                        Library, MS Eng. Lett. c.
                    23<lb/>Unpublished.</note>
</head>
<opener>
<dateline rend="right">
<address>
<placeName>
<ref target="places.html#Westbury">Westbury</ref>
</placeName>
</address>
<date when="1799-03-14">March 14 – 99 –</date>
</dateline>
</opener>
<p rend="indent1"> Certainly Grosvenor you cannot be more <del rend="strikethrough">pleg</del> phlegmatic than I am at
                    this present writing. the great business of my life now is
                    blowing my nose, &amp; I have blown it so long &amp; so hard
                    &amp; so often as to have deranged something in its internal
                    structure. my pocket-handkerchiefs – alas my
                    pocket-handkerchiefs! – Sunday ones &amp; all – are in the
                    foul-bag. &amp; still the cursed <del rend="strikethrough">the</del> secretion goes on.</p>
<p rend="indent1"> You tell me a sad story about a schoolfellow
                    of ours &amp; never mention his name. who was it?</p>
<p rend="indent1"> The song you mention is I suppose the same as
                    I saw on the Courier of Tuesday – written for the Princes
                    Catch Club, by Robert Southey Esq<hi rend="sup">r</hi>.<note n="1" place="foot" resp="editors">‘On a Golden Cup, with
                        Embossed Figures, Dedicated to the God of Mirth by the
                        Harmonic Club’, <title>Courier</title>, 11 March
                        1799.</note> what squire Southey may have written, I
                    know not, but the Robert Southey that I am acquainted with
                    certainly never wrote a song for the Prince’s Catch Club
                    &amp; certainly never will. if the song was anonymous &amp;
                    its burden Fight for the Good Old Customs &amp; the Cause of
                    Religion &amp; Order, such a song of mine is about the world
                    &amp; from its complexion may likely enough be said to be
                    mine.</p>
<p rend="indent1"> That I could write a good play I think my
                        volume<note n="2" place="foot" resp="editors">Southey’s
                            <title>Poems</title> (1799).</note> proves – not in
                    the Ballads (which only prove pantomime abilities) but in
                    the Eclogues, where I think the dialogue dramatically true
                    to Nature. Of late I have written many light little pieces,
                    of which the following may amuse, the imitation of my own
                    language &amp; style of thought is compleat.</p>
<p rend="indent4"> Inscription under an Oak<note n="3" place="foot" resp="editors">Published anonymously in the
                            <title>Morning Post</title>, 27 February
                        1799.</note>
</p>
<p rend="indent5"> _______</p>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent3"> Here Traveller pause awhile. this
                        ancient-oak </l>
<l rend="indent3"> Will parasol thee if the sun ride
                        high,</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Or should the sudden shower be falling
                        fast</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Here mayst thou rest umbrellaed. all
                        around</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Is good &amp; lovely; hard by yonder
                        wall</l>
<l rend="indent3"> The Kennel stands, the horse-flesh
                        hanging near</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Perchance with scent unsavoury may
                        offend</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Thy delicate nostrils, but remember
                        thou,</l>
<l rend="indent3"> How sweet a perfume to the hound it
                        yields</l>
<l rend="indent3"> And sure its useful odours will
                        regale</l>
<l rend="indent3"> More gratefully thy philosophic nose,</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Than what the unprofitable violet</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Wastes on the wandering wind, nor wilt
                        thou want</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Such music as benevolence will love.</l>
<l rend="indent3"> For from these fruitful boughs the acorns
                        fall</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Abundant, &amp; the swine that grub
                        around,</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Shaking with restless pleasure their
                        brief tails</l>
<l rend="indent3"> That like the tendrils of the vine curl
                        up,</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Will grunt their greedy joy. dost thou
                        not love</l>
<l rend="indent3"> The sounds that speak enjoyment? oh if
                        not –</l>
<l rend="indent3"> If thou wouldst rather with inhuman
                        ear</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Hark to the warblings of some wretched
                        bird</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Bereft of freedom, sure thine heart is
                        dead</l>
<l rend="indent3"> To each good feeling, &amp; thy spirit
                        void</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Of all that softens or ennobles man.</l>
</lg>
<p rend="indent6"> _____</p>
<p>Eke do I send you a very passionate &amp; pretty</p>
<p rend="indent6"> Love Elegy.<note n="4" place="foot" resp="editors">Published anonymously in the
                            <title>Morning Post</title>, 4 April
                    1799.</note>
</p>
<p rend="indent6"> _____</p>
<p rend="indent2"> The Poet relates how he obtained Delia’s
                    pocket-handkerchief.</p>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2"> Tis mine! what accents can my joy
                        declare!</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Blest be the pressure of the thronging
                        rout -</l>
<l rend="indent2"> Blest be the hand so hasty of my fair</l>
<l rend="indent3"> That left the tempting corner hanging
                        out!</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2"> I envy not the joy the Pilgrim feels</l>
<l rend="indent3"> After long travel to some distant
                        shrine</l>
<l rend="indent2"> When to the relic of his Saint he
                        kneels</l>
<l rend="indent3"> For Delias pocket-handkerchief is
                        mine.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2"> When first with filching fingers I drew
                        near</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Keen hope shot tremulous thro every
                        vein</l>
<l rend="indent2"> And when the s[MS torn]hd deed removed my
                        fear</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Scarce c[MS torn]ld my bounding heart its
                        joy contain.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2"> What tho the 8<hi rend="sup">th</hi>
                            commandment<note n="5" place="foot" resp="editors">‘Thou shalt not steal’, <title>Exodus</title>, 20:
                            15.</note> rose to mend,</l>
<l rend="indent3"> It only served a moments qualm to
                        move,</l>
<l rend="indent2"> For thefts like this it could not be
                        designed, –</l>
<l rend="indent3"> The 8<hi rend="sup">th</hi> commandment
                        was not made for Love.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2"> Here when she took the macaroons from
                        me</l>
<l rend="indent3"> She wiped her mouth to clean the crumbs
                        so sweet –</l>
<l rend="indent2"> Dear napkin! yes she wiped her lips in
                        thee –</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Lips sweeter than the macaroons she
                        eat</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2"> And when she took that pinch of <hi rend="ital">Mukkebaw</hi>
<note n="6" place="foot" resp="editors">A type of snuff.</note>– how the
                        Devil do you spell that?</l>
<l rend="indent3"> That made my Love so delicately
                        sneeze,</l>
<l rend="indent2"> Thee to her Roman nose applied I saw
                        –</l>
<l rend="indent3"> And thou art doubly dear for things like
                        these.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent2"> No washerwomans filthy hand shall eer – </l>
<l rend="indent3"> Sweet pocket-handkerchief! thy worth
                        profane –</l>
<l rend="indent2"> For thou hast touchd the rubies of my
                        fair</l>
<l rend="indent3"> And will I kiss thee oer &amp; oer
                        again.</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<p rend="indent6"> ______</p>
<p rend="indent1"> Of my next publication<note n="7" place="foot" resp="editors">Southey’s <title>Annual
                            Anthology</title>, the first volume of which
                        appeared in 1799.</note> the intent is this. I have a
                    swarm of little poems crowding my desk to which I would not
                    affix my name, yet which I would not burn. it was mentioned
                    to me as a matter of surprize that none of our Poets
                    published an annual Anthology like the French &amp; German
                    Almanacs of the Muses, works of much celebrity on the
                    continent in Germany Burger, Voss, &amp; Schiller<note n="8" place="foot" resp="editors">Gottfried August Burger
                        (1747–1794); Johann Heinrich Voss (1751–1826); Friedrich
                        Schiller (1759–1805).</note> each edited one. I took the
                    hint. many of my friends write well – &amp; would like me be
                    glad of a respectable repository for their second-rate
                    pieces. some write but little – yet will like to see that
                    little in print. the merit of the first volume &amp; its
                    popularity, of which I entertain no doubt will attract
                    shoals of unknown contributions for the succeeding years.
                    the task of editing will be always an amusement for me,
                    &amp; in the succeeding years the profit something. my name
                    appears not – except to one or two of the best pieces I
                    insert, to give respectability to the collection.<note n="9" place="foot" resp="editors">In the <title>Annual
                            Anthology</title> (1799) Southey only gave his name
                        to seven ‘Inscriptions’, and to ‘The Holly Tree’,
                        ‘Eclogue. The Last of the Family’ and ‘The Soldier’s
                        Funeral’.</note> I believe after all the nasty original
                    title must be kept, that it may start as a parallel work
                    with the foreign ones. it will be better to admit no
                    translations, judging from myself they disappoint one – we
                    look in a book for something new – &amp; see a poem in its
                    hundredth dress. </p>
<closer>
<salute rend="indent1"> God bless you.</salute>
<salute rend="indent2"> yrs affectionately</salute>
<signed rend="indent3"> R. Southey</signed>
</closer>
<postscript>
<p rend="indent1"> I shall be in town on or before May day,
                        &amp; will pass as many days with you as you like.</p>
</postscript>
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