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 rce430 letterEEd.26.421 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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British Library, Add MS 30927. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), II, pp. 20–22 [in part].

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.

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421. Robert Southey to Thomas Southey, 12 July 1799 Address: To/ Lieutenant Thomas Southey/ Sylph Brig./ Plymouth Dock./ SinglePostmark: JUL 15 99MS: British Library, Add MS 30927Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), II, pp. 20–22 [in part].

Friday. July 12. 99

My dear Tom

I write to you from Danvers’s – where we are & have been since we left Westbury. I have been to Biddlecombes, & surveyed Southey Palace that is to be. we shall not get possession till Michaelmas29 September 1799. – the place will be comfortable – the garden is large but unstocked – well situated – with a fish-pond, & a pigeon-house over the pavilion. my Mother is in the Green – Edith & I are going into Devonshire, first to the North Coast – Minehead – the Valley of Stones & Ilfracombe – the wildest part of the county. perhaps we may cross over to the south – on our way to Burton – I wish to see Lightfoot at Kingsbridge, & there would then be a likelihood of seeing you.

My miscellaneous volume which is to be christened Annual PoemsThe first volume of the Annual Anthology, published in 1799. – comes on rapidly, they are now striking off the eleventh sheet.

Yesterday I finished Madoc, thank God! & thoroughly to my own satisfaction. but I have resolved on one great, laborious & radical alteration. it was my design to identify Madoc with Mango Capac, the legislator of Peru.Manco Capac, in legend the first Inca. The connection between Madoc and Capac was suggested in John Williams (c.1732–1795; DNB), The Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1789), II, pp. 424–425. in this I have totally failed. therefore Mango Capac is to be the hero of another poem,Southey did not succeed in his plan of making Manco Capac the hero of a poem. & instead of carrying Madoc down the Marañon,A river in South America. In Madoc (1797–1799) Southey had originally planned for the Welsh settlers to reach Peru by travelling up the Amazon and then its tributary, the Maranon. I shall follow the more probable opinion & land him in Florida.For the idea that Madoc settled in Florida, see John Williams (1727–1798), An Enquiry into the Truth of the Tradition, Concerning the Discovery of America, by Prince Madog ab Owen Gwynedd, About the Year, 1170 (London, 1791), p. 48. here then instead of the Peruvians who have no striking manners for my poem, we get among the wild North American Indians. on their customs & superstitions facts must be grounded & woven into the work – spliced so neatly as not to betray the junction. these alterations I delay. in the mean time it will I think be laborious for you to copy the poem in its present state – you shall have the remainder – & as you can read it that is enough. it will probably be in a state of emendation till the day of my death.A heavily revised version of Madoc was published in 1805. Southey continued to make changes to it until the last lifetime edition of 1838.

So much for Madoc. it is a great work done – & my brain is now ready to receive the Dom Daniel,The early working-title for Thalaba the Destroyer (1801); see Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 181–188. the next labour in succession. of the metre of this poem I have thought much & my final resolution is to write it irregularly, without rhymes. for this I could you give you reasons in plenty, but as you cannot lend me your ear, we will defer it till you hear the poem. this work is intended for immediate publication.

My first poems are going to press for a third edition.The third edition of Southey’s Poems (1797) appeared in 1799. by the time they are compleated, I shall probably have a second volume of the Annual PoemsThe second, and final, volume of the Annual Anthology was published in 1800. ready – & so I & the printers go merrily on.

Edith is very unwell. the journey, the change of air frequently, & the exercise which new scenes must tempt her to take will I hope with the help of strong tonic medicines relieve her. Edward is well & soon going to Birmingham – my Mother is as she always in the Green – uncomfortable & obstinate in staying there. She will not go with us, tho we travel in chaises & of course it would be no additional expence. Eliza Fricker goes with us, so Edith will not be alone when I am among the rocks & on the shore.

Oh Tom! such a Gas has Davy discovered! the Gazeous Oxyd!i.e. nitrous oxide, or ‘laughing gas’. Its effects on Southey were described in Thomas Beddoes, Notice of Some Observations Made at the Medical Pneumatic Institution (Bristol, 1799), p. 11; and Humphry Davy, Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide, or Dephlogisticated Nitrous Air, and Its Respiration (London, 1800), pp. 507–509. oh Tom! I have ha[MS torn] some. it made me laughed & tingled in every toe & finger tip. Davy has actually invented a new pleasure for which language has no name. oh Tom! I am going for more this evening – it makes one strong & so happy! so gloriously happy! & without any after debility, but instead of it increased strength & activity of mind & body – oh excellent air bag. Tom I am sure the air in heaven must be this wonder working gas of delight.

Ediths love – God bless you. my next will be from God knows where.

yrs Robert Southey.