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. Previously published: Charles Ramos, The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 58–61.
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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The Watch & the Books are landed &
safe. your letter also has reached me. Our life at Cintra is such as you
may imagine – its unvarying employments allow nothing to
describe. I lay down my pen or my book, & we walk. is
the evening tranquil? for we are living in hurricanes here
at present – out we go on burros. sometimes we drop in to
tea at Kosters – rather more often at the Metzenersrs Gonne.my the only man with
whom I have associated. Koster calls & talks an hour
with me whenever he comes down. I thought him rude formerly,
he is not so at present – perhaps knowing that he can assert
no superiority with me. Of Charlotte Hair
But first to business. my Uncle
still supplies me with money & I have yet had no
occasion to apply to Mr Coppendale.r Danvers. 9. St
James’s Place. Kingsdown – Bristol. to purchase things for Edith at Bristol
of which due directions will be sent, in the parcel that
will soon carry off over
Thalaba.
And now I have a tale to relate which you
might doubt if it came from less authentic sources. for
thank God these instances of frantic passion are almost
unknown amongst Englishmen. A serjeant in the English
cavalry quartered at Belem was jealous of his wife,
suspecting her to be attached to one who held the same rank
in the same regiment. attached to the man she certainly was,
but I believe with no other criminality than this mental
preference. she was handsome & a very well behaved
woman. the man remarkably decent – these are my Uncles
words. The Husband on account of this jealousy beat his
wife. this made the other man so unhappy that he declared
his intention of destroying himself. accordingly on Monday
last, & after the hour when the Soldiers are punishable
if out of quarters, in a taberna, he shot himself & died
instantly. at the tidings the Woman came in, in a state of
frantic agony. she gathered from the ground the blood &
the dust with which it had mingled & swallowed all she
could collect. her husband attempted to force her away. she
called the Centinel charged him with her husband &
threatened to report him to the Colonel
unless he took him into custody. The Centinel foolishly did
his military duty – & the Woman no longer prevented, ran
to a Well in the barrack yard & leapt down. only
solitary confinement & bread & water have prevented
him <the Husband>
from consummating the tragedy by self-murder also. The
bodies were not brought to Lisbon for Xtian burial, neither
was the savage indecency of driving a stake thro them
perpetrated. a grave was dug in the sands at low water, one
grave, the Lover & the Wife were laid in it – & the
Tagus now flows over them. be sure I shall enquire the spot.
only the perversion of strong & good feelings could have
occasioned this madness.
I wish to see Branstonet Domingos
At Cintra we shall not remain much longer. I wait
the return of Waterhouse to visit Mafra,
I have good accounts from my brother Harry of his progress, & visible proofs of it by his improved letter-writing. he begins also to feel some anxiety for the future. on my return I hope to immediately settle – not in London – that air would[MS torn] poison me! but within a walk or a half-crown stage. Hampstead [MS torn] town, in sight of a blade of grass. this will enable him to get on in surgery & have his home with me. the profession which he has chosen as I wished, is the only one to which no objection can be started, & which is of unquestionable utility. He will do well I trust, & rise to that station, for which he is qualified by intellectual rank.
Edith does not improve in health by change of climate. perhaps in some measure owing to the absence of every friend except her husband. acquaintance enough we have. but I also want one companion to whom every serious thought might be freely communicated – who would see things a little as I see them – feel as I feel, & look upon the great theatre with the same hopes. when I return certainly I shall live upon Bread & butter – sit by the fire all day, & do nothing but talk.
Your information in the last letter will make me tremblingly anxious for [MS torn]hen it shall be time to expect it. – Ediths remembrance.
t. 1. 1800.