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. Previously published: Adolfo Cabral (ed.), Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800-1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), pp. 93–98.Dating note: Dated from internal evidence, especially Southey’s reference to Trinity Sunday, which fell on 8 June in 1800.
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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I neither see nor hear any English news here – so your account of
Sir H. Croft
He was you let him stink
& go out – reply would only produce the whole legal series of rejoinders
&c &c. in the edition of Chattertonxxxxx
lainient government, for you may kill a man in the
streets, & nobody takes the laist notice of it. for all useful purposes of
society this is a complete anarchy. a man cannot indeed write against the church
or the state, but he may rob & murder with impunity. we had a murder
committed within thirty yards of our door – & heard of it by accident two
days afterwards. one method of revenge used in the country is damnably
ingenious, improvements are so slow in Portugal that it has not yet reached the
metropolis. they beat a man with sand-bags. these do not inflict so much present
pain as a cane would do. but they bruise all the fine vessels so that a slow
& certain death ensues, unless the patient be immediately scarified. An old
Porto merchant whom I knew at Baththe each of them always carries
a gun when he went out hoping to get the first shot. but the Portugueze used to
come at night & fire thro the windows. the Englishmans wife did not quite
like this state of siege, & she prevailed upon her husband to quit the
country. so much for personal security! from fraud, property is safe enough for
the kingdom is not yet civilized enough to produce ingenious rogues. an attempt
at coining has been made – but the English soldiers were the supposed
artificers. they have not courage enough for house breakers, not ingenuity
enough for pick pockets or sharpers. they can cheat indeed by pricing their
goods at five-fold their value – but to this their roguery is limited by their
ignorance. A country Magistrate (it is a tale some century old but true) always
sent back the bones to his butcher – he did not buy bones he said, nor has he a
dog to eat them – & he made the butcher allow him their weight in meat.
To day is Trinity Sunday, & the Emperor of the Holy
Ghostxxxxxxx <gentoo>t Iago of which order he was a
Knight. he looked at himself & was struck at the pompous & stuffed
appearance he made. God will say presently to me (said the dying man) my friend
Garci Sanchez you are come very well wrapt up! & I shall reply Lord it is no
wonder, for I set off in winter.
One of the New Convent Towerst Antony, my old friend, who is as
useful to the boys here, as they find Guy Faux in England. On the 20 is another
raree show in honour of the heart of Jesus. then over we go to Cintra – &
indeed I am impatient to be there.
My complaints hang on me, but my spirits are wonderfully
bettered. I do not feel to be the same being as in England. it is incredible the
difference. I hunger & thirst after my friends – & yet wish they were
coming to Portugal rather than that I should have to return. this must be
something more than the stimulus of novelty. – I met the Galley Slaves &
looked at them with a physiognomic eye to see how they differed from the rest of
the people. it was like those upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell.among with all
their squibs & bonfires, last night nothing like personal danger insult was attempted – women were walking
in safety to see the sight, they seemed to have no idea that mischief was
amid[MS obscured]
I have been much amused with a long poem by Vieyraaccount of his mixture of honest
vanity, devotion & love. I have analized it at length, & like the Poet
so well, that I shall make it my business to see as many of his pictures as I
can. A few lines which you wrote to Falmouth reached me here. we have upon the
average a packet weekly, & you know not what a subject it is of hope &
expectation – & when it brings no letters what a sinking disappointment. I
do not wish you were ill – but I do wish you were idle enough, or curious enough
to come over for two or three months in which time you might see the greater
part of Portugal. we seem only next-door to Falmouth & when I consider the
facility afforded by the packets it seems astonishing that curiosity does not
lead more idlers here. I should much like leading you over this country. It was
my intention to send over Thalaba for publication – but I am not yet determined
– every thing ripens by time –, & the poem appears to me good enough to
deserve a serious correction.
Your letter was opened in England because you had forgotten to pay the inland postage.
th.thin paper I shall be glad of them here. it will be well to hear
counsel against it before the trial. my notes will be too numerous & too
entertaining to print at the bottom of the page for [MS torn] would be letting
the mutton grow cold while they eat the currant jelly.
I do not like the divorce bill.