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 rce577 letterEEd.26.568 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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British Library, Add MS 47890. Not previously published.

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.

All quotation marks and apostrophes have been changed: " for “," for ”, ' for ‘, and ' for ’.

Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.

Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.

Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.

Southey's spelling has not been regularized.

Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.

& has been used for the ampersand sign.

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 NINES categories for Genre and Material Form at http://www.performantsoftware.com/nines_wiki/index.php/Submitting_RDF#.3Cnines:genre.3E on 2009-02-26 Architecture Artifacts Bibliography Collection Criticism Letters Drama Life Writing Politics Folklore Ephemera Fiction History Leisure Manuscript Reference Works Humor Education Music nonfiction Paratext Perodical Philosphy Photograph Citation Family Life Poetry Religion Review Visual Art Translation Travel Book History Law Southey Letters: Biographies Southey Letters: Places Laura Mandell XSLT Transforming after latest corrections Laura Mandell XSLT Transforming Averill Buchanan corrections from proofing Averill Buchanan Part II added
568. Robert Southey to Charles Danvers, 17 February 1801 Address: To/ Mr Danvers/ 9. St James’s Place/ Kingsdown/ Bristol./ SingleStamped: LISBONMS: British Library, Add MS 47890Unpublished. Dear Danvers

Your queries admit of no delay in answering them. Book 11 – 439 – prow may be used for heel. – “Treasure-house for treasury –” the pun is worth the alteration. dead eye – because it was the eye of the deceased Solomon.The following changes were all made in Thalaba the Destroyer (1801): Book 11, line 439, ‘prow’; Book 12, line 484 ‘Treasure-house’. The phrase ‘dead eye’ was retained in Book 4, line 289. my promise refers to Book 4 the beginning – where the spirit of Zeinab says thou shalt behold me in the hour of death. Thalaba the Destroyer (1801), Book 4, line 22. What is there awkward in

Jahia’s, & the blameless Barmecides – Thalaba the Destroyer (1801), Book 5, line 81.

it means for whose name defiled by blood x the blood of Jahia & the Barmecides – <Genius hath wrought salvation.> Thalaba the Destroyer (1801), Book 5, line 82.any alteration will hurt the sense. – the other passages are better as they are.

By this packet a duplicate of the new lines is sent – I sent it to Wynn desiring him, in case the first copy may have been lost to frank it to you.Southey to Wynn, 15 February 1801, Letter 567.

You must be content with a hasty & foul scrawl – your letter is just received & the packet sails tomorrow. I only write to answer the queries, & must hurry on. Cottle ought a month ago to have received my judgement of AlfredJoseph Cottle, Alfred, an Epic Poem, in Twenty Four Books (1800). – censure as diluted as it well could be – condemnation & water. the poem is worse than I expected – yet I knew the British Critic British Critic, 16 (December 1800), 607-614. to be so beastly stupid that I half believed they would praise it.

About Harry. tho I had a hundred & fifteen good reasons for rejoicing that he was to read the Athanasian creedSouthey believed he would have to use the £115 he received from Longmans for Thalaba the Destroyer (1801) to pay for his brother, Henry Herbert Southey’s, medical training. If Henry accepted his uncle Herbert Hill’s suggestion that he become an Anglican clergyman and subscribe to the Athanasian creed, a 5th-century statement of Christian orthodoxy, Southey would be relieved of this expense. – yet in my heart & conscience I am feel a more satisfactory pleasure at his better choice. my information now comes from my Uncle who returned yesterday, & from Wm Taylors letter.Taylor had informed Southey of his brother’s decision to study medicine in a letter of 1 February 1801 (J.W. Robberds (ed.), A Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late William Taylor of Norwich, 2 vols (London, 1843), I, pp. 364-365). my Uncle makes up my 115£ – 200 guineas, which is the fee. 50£ more must be paid at an after period for the Hospital study. the term 3½ years from Lady day. the situation with a man of eminencePhilip Meadows Martineau (1752-1829), surgeon at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and a member of the Martineau family, prominent Unitarians in Norwich. – connected with Harrys friends & in every respect qualified to bring him forward. xxxxx thus is he well settled but meantime there are his personal expences to be supplied – his cloaths, washing, & the money necessary to support a decent equality among his friends – my Uncle will do what he can – but he has deep drains in England, & it is to me that Harry must look.

The Boxes are arrived but not shore. the people thro whose they hands they must pass know not all the eagerness & uneasy impatience we feel for letters – not to mention our new cloaths. there will doubtless be a letter from you & as that will require an answer I the less reluctantly send you this hasty sheet.

If a ship offers I shall pack off my books to Bristol – our alarms are now so general, that tho my fears are little, it is become prudent to secure my worldly treasure. in that case you will get them thro the accursed custom house, & Davy has houseroom enough to lodge the unexpensive guests without inconvenience.

As for Cottles version of the psalmsJoseph Cottle, A New Version of the Psalms of David (1801). – he has had precedents enough in an absurd attempt. to paraphrase is to dilate, to dilate is to weaken. What is fine in the Psalms cannot be improved by any new dress. what is bad is not worth the attempt. it is sacrilege to spoil the good, folly to meddle with the worthless. Of authors so very old the most naked version is the most valuable. he has mangled Alfred – for which no Englishman can excuse him – & now he sets upon K. David!David (c. 1040-970 BC, King of Israel c. 1010-970 BC), traditionally regarded as the author of the Psalms. for which none but his CalvinistsJean Calvin (1509-1564), French-born Swiss theologian, whose writings provided the official doctrine of the Baptist church to which Joseph Cottle belonged. will praise him. still there may be honours in storex. Samuel WesleySamuel Wesley (1766-1837; DNB), Methodist hymn-writer. may compose new tunes for the new SternholdThomas Sternhold (1500-1549; DNB), writer of the first metrical version of the Psalms in English. – Hannah More be the St CeciliaSt Cecilia (2nd century), early Christian martyr and patron saint of music. in private – & the “sweet singers”The ‘sweet singers’ were a radical religious group in Edinburgh in the 1680s. of Broad MeadEither the Baptist chapel in Broad Mead, Bristol, founded in 1640, or the Methodist New Chapel, founded in 1739 in the same area. delight Cottle with the anticipated choruses of Methodist-Elysium. I am sorry to see some talents (for doubtless he possesses them) & great industry – alas for the wicked quarto proof thus eternally misdirected. he ought to translate, for which his abilities are exactly adequate – & any given language might soon be acquired for that specific purpose. his powers of versification fit him for the useful office.

God bless you. commend us to our friends. a short list – but we may particularize your Mother & Davy – & you may extend it by the civility of some recollections to our acquaintance.

I long for the box & the proofs. they shall be kept carefully.

yrs affectionately R Southey.

Tuesday. Feby. 17. 1801.

Lisbon.