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 rce568 letterEEd.26.559 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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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. 140–143.

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.

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559. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 8 December 1800 Address: [deletions and readdress in another hand] To/ C W Williams Wynn Esqr M.P./ 5. Stone Buildings/ Lincolns Inn/ London Wynnstay / Wrexham/ Wales Stamped: LISBONPostmarks: FOREIGN OFFICE/ DE/ 25/ 1800; DE/ 25/ 1800Endorsements: Dec. 8 1800; 25 Decr MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4811DPreviously published: Adolfo Cabral (ed.), Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800–1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), pp. 140–143.

Lisbon. December 8. 1800. Monday

My dear Wynn

Your letter reached me yesterday, only 13 days after its date. it may be worth while to tell you that the Lisbon mail leaves London every Tuesday. a days delay in writing therefore loses that mail & probably that packet.

I am troubled in spirit about a Xmas ballad. I have conned & reconned all my stock-stories, & cannot catch fire. there are plenty of seeds but the soil is not prepared for them. my head is full of history & my very dreams made up of chronicles & records. poetry written out of season is as vapid as forced fruits. my best pieces have ever been written most rapidly, three or four during the same heat. If I had stiled the books of Thalaba Fits this old word would have been strictly applicable. – however I am straining a costive brain – to what purport I know not. There was a Bishop of Bremen xxx <seen> once in a ship full sail against the wind – going to old Beelzebub in Mount Hecla.‘How the Bishop of Bremen went to Hell by water’, Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, p. 274. but whether you will have him. – or the Monk that dipt down a volcano with a brass bucket for gold‘The Dominican dipping for gold in a volcano’, Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, p. 274. – or a corpse-candle storySee Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, p. 212. – may be perhaps written upon the great adamantine table by the self-moving pearl pen Thalaba the Destroyer (1801), Book 11, line 363 and Note, from Lodovico Maracci (1612–1700), Alcorani Textus Universus, 2 vols (Padua, 1698), I, part 2, p. 94. – but ink & grey goosequill have yet done nothing. most probably I shall send you some headless & tail-less story, which xx <has> the polypus power of growing at both ends. Old Nick is grown too familiar – a mealy-faced Mumbo Jumbo would excite more wonder in a ballad or a masquerade.

My Uncle is gone to xxxxx England. a small living has become vacant in his own gift & he went to present himself.Herbert Hill was Chancellor of Hereford Cathedral. This gave him the right to appoint the incumbent of the joint living of Little Hereford and Ashford Carbonell. The post became vacant in 1800 and Herbert Hill appointed himself to the living on 5 December 1800. its clear value does not exceed 60 £ after paying a curate – but it was worth the voyage. We therefore removed into his house for the convenience of having the Library & Cellar at hand. moreover there was a fire-place to tempt us.

I am delighted with historical labour.Southey’s unfinished ‘History of Portugal’. the materials are ample & excellent. beginning with Count HenriqueHenrique (1066–1112; Count of Portugal 1093–1112), re-established Portugal’s separate identity. there is much preliminary matter needful. I think the fabulous history ought summarily to be given. MiltonJohn Milton (1608–1674; DNB), The History of Britain, that Part Especially Called England; From the Beginning, Continued to the Norman Conquest (1670). thought so – & I love old Geoffrey of MonmouthGeoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100– c. 1155), Historia Regum Britanniae. and he ought to be kept in countenance by showing that these as great liars as the Welsh. What can be gleaned from the classical writers respecting the old Lusitanians ought to have its place. the Gothic period is all a barbarous confusion – & had better be made into a sort of St Pelaye chapterJean-Baptiste de la Curne de Sainte-Pelaye (1697–1781), compiler of the 40-volume manuscript, ‘Dictionnaire des Antiquites Francaises’. – an historical sketch of manners. afterwards it will be best to insert as far as can well be done all traits of costume in the main story. I do not strip off all the embroidery of miracles. Popery has acted a higher part than Paganism – & the monks have as much right to have their rogueries related as the Priest of Delphixxx much however of all this descend to the bottom of the page, – xxxxxx – blessed be the man who invented notewriting! –

The scarcity: – you will doubtless foreknow my opinion as to the main cause, a failing harvest &c are only aiding & abetting circumstances. the enormous war expences pressing upon all parts of the community must inevitably occasion a rise in the price of provisions proportionate to that of every thing else. not that peace can immediately alleviate the evil. tis a gloomy prospect. the funding system seems to have nearly reached its utmost extent – the burden is so heavy upon the poor that their distresses are made the subject of parliamentary discussion. I should hope for a radical remedy if I saw the possibility of one. but relief can hardly be expected – & nothing can be more likely to render a populace turbulent than assistance with whose manner they will always be dissatisfied – & which – instead of to humanity – they will always attribute to fear. I never here see the papers – nor have I any wish. conversation informs me of any important event. I long for peace because the evil of continued war is certain & the good very doubtful. I should also rejoice to hear of a change in ministry, but this is not probable. no middle standard is hoisted.

Lately my health has been comfortable. indeed I like the climate so well that if there were any possible situation here xx <in> which I could settle, there would be very little hesitation about giving up England. except climate xx Portugal has little to recommend it – & the only person in whose intimate society I could take pleasureIdentity unclear, but possibly Herbert Hill. looks on to a speedy removal. but I feel an ease here which ether & laudanum will hardly give me at home – & in the literature – it were more proper to say in the – books of the country materials might be found for long amusement & useful labour. to this there are some slight obstacles & objections. imprimisTranslates as ‘in the first place’. the plague is likely to arrive next year. 2ds there must most inevitably be a Boderation here.A banking crisis. & lastly it is impossible.

But the suicide tale – I had almost forgotten. a Serjeant in our cavalry here was jealous of his wifes attachment to one who held the same rank in the same regiment. this man was in his manners & conduct remarkably good for his situation – the woman a modest & interesting woman. That she was improperly attached is evident from the sequel – but it is not believed that she was otherwise guilty than in admitting this feeling of preference. Her husband however beat her. the other man was so wretched at being the cause of this quarrel that he said he would shoot himself. one night accordingly, after the hour when he ought to have been in the barracks – he went into a little wine-house – a taberna – shot himself & died instantly. At the tidings She came in – in a state of frenzy. she gathered up the blood with both her hands – mingled with the dust – & devoured it greedily, by handfuls. her husband attempted to force her away. she called the Centinel – commanded him to take him into custody for being out at that hour, & threatened to report him to the Colonel unless he did his duty. the fool was afraid – & did so. immediately she ran to a large deep well & threw herself in. a weeks confinement & bread & water were necessary to tame the husband & prevent him from compleating the catastrophe. They did not bring them to Lisbon for Xtian burial – neither did they practise the old brutality of our custom. at low water they dug a grave in the sands – one grave – & the Tagus flows over it.

If you send Lewis’s bookMatthew Gregory Lewis (1775–1818; DNB), Tales of Wonder (1801), which reprinted several poems by Southey. to Mr Danvers. 9 St James Place. Kingsdown. Bristol – he will send it in a parcel. I dread having it by post. the letter your brotherSir Watkin Williams Wynn (1772–1840). was to send from the Secretary of States Office came as usual thro the Post office. your last I know not how – but General FraserSimon Fraser (1738–1813), major-general in command of British forces in Portugal 1797–1800. sent it me. To my great joy I have at last got the Guerras Civiles do GranadaGines Perez de Hita (1544? –1619?), Historia de los Vandos, de los Cegries, y Abencerrages, cavalleros moros de Granada, y les civiles guerras que huvo en ella, hasta que el Rey Don Fernando el Quinto la gano (1595–1619), no. 3403 in the sale catalogue of Southey's library. – with a second volume by the same author bringing it down to their expulsion. God bless you. I shall send something by the next packet – & the parts of Thalaba – which will at least prevent you from going empty handed.

yrs affectionately Robert Southey.