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Royal Institution, London, Davy MSS. Previously published: John Davy (ed.), Fragmentary Remains, Literary and Scientific, of Sir Humphry Davy, Bart. (London, 1858), pp. 43–47 [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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I had the good luck as a poet, & the
misfortune as a man to feel the night mare last night. the
night was very hot, I had been extremely restless for many
hours, the intelligence that my Cousin Margarett
was in a decline had reached me in the morning &
prevented me from sleeping. a sort of delirious activity at
last seemed to possess my imagination & I remember
combining in words that the mind heard the most incongruous
associations of monstrous thought, involuntarily. I was in a
seperate bed, lying on my back, my arms & legs stretched
out asunder, the right hand fearing to touch the left on
account of the heat. I recollect my last definite feeling
was as tho I had been stretched on a wheel that raised up my
breast & strained my extremities. after that, I had
forgotten myself & the seizure came on. it was a weight
on the breast – I thought some evil being was trying to
destroy me. I attempted to move but I saw other legs than my
own coming from the bed as if mocking me – I thought I was
awake – this was the most singular circumstance – I knew
where I was – I knew it was the night mare, I knew one word
one motion would relieve me yet it appeared that my eyes
were open – that I saw a red fire suspended in the middle of
the room, that some evil being had caught me. there was a
lamp burning on the table. at
length with great effort I made a feeble noise which
awakened Edith. she called to me – the charm was
broken. the oppression brought on the same head
seizure to which I was subject in England, & then with
very great difficulty I at last made a feeble noise, but
enough to awaken Edith. she called to me – the charm was broken. I
do not wonder at the old superstition, for nothing can so
strongly impress the belief of an evil agency. you have an
accurate account of what my feelings were, & given while
the recollection is still vivid.
You request a particular account of the
effect the change of climate &c has produced upon me. I
slept so well on my arrival that I made no use of the
Laudanum which Pitcairns
It must be Climate that has been most
beneficial. I have no society in which I take pleasure, or
feel any interest whatever. thus am I without the greatest
inducement to chearfulness, & in a state of mental
solitude which might be thought likely to depress the mind.
it is true I look on to England – I write, read – gather
information & hear good news – but it is told me with a
long face, & there is only one Englishman,
Voltasr Constantiathe consumption is certainly
a disease not uncommon among the natives. if with the
AlfredKing
George, which sailed between Falmouth and
Lisbon.
Thalabahe in him some virtue
which his situation had smothered. a Greek slave is a
prominent character, & the conclusion is that the
Persian Prince is exalted into a Citizen of Athens. here is
an opportunity for seasoning the dish to my taste. no
farther has the story got. – for another & more serious
poem I design the Establishment of the Inquisition to serve
as subject. St Dominicxxxx at once I
expect to save time. because I may write a book of one,
while the story for a book of the other matures, & thus
not pause so long between the books of each as would be
necessary to let the seeds ripen. these however are to be
written in England. what I bring home will be labours of
another cast.
For the History of Portugalso weak
& xx tottering &
nearer the edge of the precipice, but both must inevitably
fall – I trust to rise again in a better shape. I have
collected much miscellaneous matter relative to this place;
so much indeed that my chief reason for sending over Thalaba
for publication, will be to make roo[MS torn] & leisure
for other publications on my return.
Coleridges translationEssay on the Genius of Schiller
amused me.he
will x I know he must detest the Hexameters, &
suspect my metre will not come off much better. but his ears
are not much better than his eyes.
I am induced to think with the Portugueze
that consumption is an infectious disorder – by what has
been told me here. if it really be so, its frequency in
England may, in some degree, be ascribed to the prevalence
of the contrary opinion. you will know where there is any
possible means of ascertaining it, by examining the breath
given out by patients whose lungs are decidedly affected. –
I see the author of Gebir has been translating from the
Arabic & Persian.