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 rce610 letterEEd.26.601 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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National Library of Wales, MS 4811D. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 166-168 [misdated 29 August 1801].

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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 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
601. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 19 August 1801 Address: To/ C W Williams Wynn Esqr M. P./ 5. Stone Buildings/ Lincolns Inn/ LondonEndorsement: Aug 29/ 1801MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4811DPreviously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 166-168 [misdated 29 August 1801]. My dear Wynn

I know not ubi diabolusThe colloquial Latin translates as ‘where the devil’. to direct to you. losing the chance of hitting you at Oswestry I have been in hope of hearing from you– but doubtless you have in the same manner lost sight of me – I move the end of this week for Keswick where you will direct.

Ellis’s bookGeorge Ellis, Specimens of the Early English Poets (1801). The first edition had been published in 1790. made me angry that he had incorporated the whole of his former volume instead of leaving it untouched. new extracts could have been made with little trouble – & very many might have been better. of QuarlesFrancis Quarles (1592-1644; DNB), poet, best-known for Emblemes, Divine and Moral (1635). he is strangely ignorant as indeed of all the poets of that day with whom I am acquainted. his historical sketch is very [MS obscured] & must have cost great labour.

It is a serious evil that no man of adequate talents will take the Welsh antiquities in hand, & that no encouragement is given those who do. Owens has translated Llywarc Hen badlyWilliam Owen Pughe, The Heroic Elegies and Other Pieces of Llywarc Hen (1792). – that is evident – yet his version is better than none, & eminently useful to all who want that information either in old history or our old manners. I wish that the Literary SocietyThe Royal Literary Fund, set up in 1790. as they call themselves would employ their fund better. they will give any man of Letters – ten pounds – who will ask for it with proper certificates &c – but they will not pay him for executing a wanted work. I would have them pay Owen if no abler can be found to translate Taliessin – AneurinTaliesin (6th century), Welsh poet, whose work survives in the medieval Book of Taliesin; Aneurin (6th-7th century), Welsh poet, author of the epic ‘Y Gododdin’, contained in the 13th-century Book of Aneirin. &c & advance money for the publication taking the risk themselves. he would think himself well paid with fifty pounds a volume, – so should the Metrical Romances &c be edited. thus would their funds be of public utility – now they are only collected for the ostentation of patronage & do no more good than any common alms. I am fretted about your Welsh books, feeling the want so sorely. & if ever it should please God that I should have a settled home in England <this island> I would wish it to be on the South side of some Welsh mountain, that I might conversationally learn the language, & do something for those who will come after me.

For MadocSouthey had completed a version of Madoc in 1797-1799 and was hoping to revise it for publication. It did not appear until 1805. I am rummaging the dirty dunghill of Irish antiquities – in which I have discovered two tricks of pure Paddyism. the one that of dying their shirts &c with saffronSir James Ware (1595-1666; DNB), ‘The Antiquities of Ireland’ in The Works of James Ware Concerning Ireland Revised and Improved, 3 vols (Dublin, 1739-1746), II, p. 178. Southey noted this down; see Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), II, p. 255. – to keep them clean – a pretty origin of the Orange badge – the other that of making balls for their slingers of brick-dust & blood.Sylvester O’Halloran (1728-1807; DNB), A General History of Ireland, from the Earliest Accounts to the Close of the Twelfth Century, 2 vols (London, 1778), II, p. 224. Southey made a note of this; see Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), II, p. 238.

In the Welsh books – the Odyssey-part of Madoc – I design to introduce old GiraldusGiraldus Cambrensis (c. 1146-c. 1223), clergyman and chronicler. excommunicating Owen CyveiliocOwain Cyveilioc (c. 1130- c. 1197), poet and Prince of Powys. He was excommunicated in 1188 for refusing to support the Third Crusade, an incident Southey used in Part I, Book 15 of Madoc (1805). (– as he did –) for not going to the Crusade. & to remove the interview with LlewellynLlewelyn ‘the Great’ (c. 1173-1240; DNB), Prince of Gwynedd and effective ruler of Wales in his later years. Madoc’s meeting with Llewelyn on Bardsey occurs in Part I, Book 13 of Madoc (1805). to the Island of Bardsy – which I wish to visit. he shall also take a dog who is to be found in GiraldusGiraldus Cambrensis (c. 1146- c. 1223), Itinerary through Wales (1191), Book 2, Chapter 10. Southey was not able to introduce the faithful dog into Madoc (1805). with him, – the poor beast watched his masters corpse for eight days – I can make him useful & he ought to have his fame – only how to christen him? have xxxx you any decent dog names in Wales? – for the Propria quæ canibusThe Latin translates as ‘[names] which are appropriate for dogs’. of England are vile –

I have read & laughed over Irelands BalladsWilliam Henry Ireland (1775-1835; DNB), Ballads in Imitation of the Antient (1801). – a fellow who thinks that to write badly is to write like the old Poets – & that hey no nonny is worth reviving.

God bless you. yrs affectionately Robert Southey. Aug. 19. 1801