<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><TEI xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">
<teiHeader>
<fileDesc>
<titleStmt>
<title type="main">The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part 2: 1798-1803 </title>
<title type="subordinate">A Romantic Circles Electronic Edition</title>
<author>
<name>Southey, Robert, 1774-1843</name>
</author>
<editor>Lynda Pratt</editor>
<sponsor>Romantic Circles</sponsor>
<respStmt>
<resp>General Editor, </resp>
<name>Neil Fraistat</name>
</respStmt>
<respStmt>
<resp>General Editor, </resp>
<name>Steven E. Jones</name>
</respStmt>
<respStmt>
<resp>Technical Editor</resp>
<name>Laura Mandell</name>
</respStmt>
</titleStmt>
<editionStmt>
<edition>
<date>2011-08-15</date>
</edition>
</editionStmt>
<publicationStmt>
<idno type="nines">rce614</idno>
<idno type="edition">letterEEd.26.605</idno>
<publisher>Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland</publisher>
<pubPlace>College Park, MD</pubPlace>
<date when="2011-08-15">August 15, 2011</date>
<availability status="restricted">
<p>Material from the Romantic Circles Website may not be downloaded, reproduced or disseminated in any
												manner without authorization unless it is for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting,
												teaching, and/or classroom use as provided by the Copyright Act of 1976, as amended.</p>
<p>Unless otherwise noted, all Pages and Resources mounted on Romantic Circles are copyrighted by the
												author/editor and may be shared only in accordance with the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law.
												Except as expressly permitted by this statement, redistribution or republication in any medium
												requires express prior written consent from the author/editors and advance notification of Romantic
												Circles. Any requests for authorization should be forwarded to Romantic Circles:&gt;
												<address>
<addrLine>Romantic Circles</addrLine>
<addrLine>c/o Professor Neil Fraistat</addrLine>
<addrLine>Department of English</addrLine>
<addrLine>University of Maryland</addrLine>
<addrLine>College Park, MD 20742</addrLine>
<addrLine>fraistat@umd.edu</addrLine>
</address>
</p>
<p>By their use of these texts and images, users agree to the following conditions: <list>
<item>These texts and images may not be used for any commercial purpose without prior written
														permission from Romantic Circles.</item>
<item>These texts and images may not be re-distributed in any forms other than their current
														ones.</item>
</list>
</p>
<p>Users are not permitted to download these texts and images in order to mount them on their own servers.
												It is not in our interest or that of our users to have uncontrolled subsets of our holdings available
												elsewhere on the Internet. We make corrections and additions to our edited resources on a continual
												basis, and we want the most current text to be the only one generally available to all Internet users.
												Institutions can, of course, make a link to the copies at Romantic Circles, subject to our conditions
												of use.</p>
</availability>
</publicationStmt>
<sourceDesc>
<p>Beinecke Library, GEN MSS 298, Series I, Box 1,
                        folder 14.  Not previously published.</p>
<p>These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
</sourceDesc>
</fileDesc>
<encodingDesc>
<editorialDecl>
<quotation>
<p>All quotation marks and apostrophes have been changed: " for “," for ”, ' for ‘, and ' for ’.</p>
</quotation>
<hyphenation eol="none">
<p>Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.</p>
<p>Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.</p>
<p>Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their
												length.</p>
</hyphenation>
<normalization method="markup">
<p>Southey's spelling has not been regularized.</p>
<p>Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded
												in brackets.</p>
</normalization>
<normalization>
<p>&amp; has been used for the ampersand sign.</p>
<p>£ has been used for £, the pound sign</p>
<p>All other characters, those with accents, non-breaking spaces, etc., have been encoded in HTML entity
												decimals.</p>
</normalization>
</editorialDecl>
<classDecl>
<taxonomy corresp="http://www.performantsoftware.com/nines_wiki/index.php/Submitting_RDF#.3Cnines:genre.3E" xml:id="g">
<bibl>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</bibl>
<category xml:id="g1">
<catDesc>Architecture</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g2">
<catDesc>Artifacts</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g3">
<catDesc>Bibliography</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g4">
<catDesc>Collection</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g5">
<catDesc>Criticism</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g7">
<catDesc>Letters</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g6">
<catDesc>Drama</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g8">
<catDesc>Life Writing</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g9">
<catDesc>Politics</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g10">
<catDesc>Folklore</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g11">
<catDesc>Ephemera</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g12">
<catDesc>Fiction</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g13">
<catDesc>History</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g14">
<catDesc>Leisure</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g15">
<catDesc>Manuscript</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g16">
<catDesc>Reference Works</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g17">
<catDesc>Humor</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g18">
<catDesc>Education</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g19">
<catDesc>Music</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g20">
<catDesc>nonfiction</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g21">
<catDesc>Paratext</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g22">
<catDesc>Perodical</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g23">
<catDesc>Philosphy</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g24">
<catDesc>Photograph</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g25">
<catDesc>Citation</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g26">
<catDesc>Family Life</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g27">
<catDesc>Poetry</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g28">
<catDesc>Religion</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g29">
<catDesc>Review</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g30">
<catDesc>Visual Art</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g31">
<catDesc>Translation</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g32">
<catDesc>Travel</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g33">
<catDesc>Book History</catDesc>
</category>
<category xml:id="g34">
<catDesc>Law</catDesc>
</category>
</taxonomy>
<taxonomy corresp="http://www.rc.umd.edu/southey_letters/people.xml">
<category xml:id="people">
<catDesc>Southey Letters: Biographies</catDesc>
</category>
</taxonomy>
<taxonomy corresp="http://www.rc.umd.edu/southey_letters/places.xml">
<category xml:id="places">
<catDesc>Southey Letters: Places</catDesc>
</category>
</taxonomy>
</classDecl>
</encodingDesc>
<profileDesc>
<textClass>
<catRef scheme="#genre" target="#g7 #g27"/>
<catRef scheme="#people" target="./people.html"/>
<catRef scheme="#places" target="./places.html"/>
</textClass>
</profileDesc>
<revisionDesc>
<change who="#LM" when="2011-08-15" n="4">
<label>Changed by</label>
<name>Laura Mandell</name>
<list>
<item>XSLT Transforming after latest corrections</item>
</list>
</change>
<change who="#LM" when="2011-07-06" n="3">
<label>Changed by</label>
<name xml:id="LM">Laura Mandell</name>
<list>
<item>XSLT Transforming</item>
</list>
</change>
<change who="#AB" when="2011-03-20" n="2">
<label>Changed by</label>
<name>Averill Buchanan</name>
<list>
<item>corrections from proofing</item>
</list>
</change>
<change who="#AB" when="2011-02-21" n="1">
<label>Changed by</label>
<name xml:id="AB">Averill Buchanan</name>
<list>
<item>Part II added</item>
</list>
</change>
</revisionDesc>
</teiHeader>
<text>
<body>
<div n="605" type="letter">
<head>605. Robert Southey to <ref>John May</ref>, <date when="1801-09-06">6 September 1801</date>
<note place="foot" resp="editors" type="headnote">Address: To/
                        John May Esq<hi rend="sup">r</hi>/ Richmond/ Surry/
                        Single<lb/>Stamped: KESWICK/ 298<lb/>Postmark: E/ SEP 9/
                        1801<lb/>Endorsement: N<hi rend="sup">o</hi> 63. 1801/
                        Robert Southey/ Keswick 6 Sep<hi rend="sup">t</hi>:/
                            rec<hi rend="sup">d</hi>: 12<hi rend="sup">th</hi>
                            d<hi rend="sup">o</hi>/ ans<hi rend="sup">d</hi>:
                            22<hi rend="sup">nd</hi> d<hi rend="sup">o</hi>
<lb/>MS: Beinecke Library, GEN MSS 298, Series I, Box 1,
                        folder 14<lb/>Unpublished.</note>
</head>
<opener>
<dateline rend="right">
<date when="1801-09-06">September 6. 1801.</date>
</dateline>
<salute>My dear friend</salute>
</opener>
<p rend="indent1"> I have bestowed more time &amp; more labour
                    upon the Epitaph than you would suspect from the baldness of
                    this blank version.</p>
<lg type="stanza">
<l rend="indent3"> If the calm mind, if youth &amp;
                        modesty</l>
<l rend="indent3"> And virtue could deserve long
                        happiness</l>
<l rend="indent3"> And years on earth protracted, in thy
                        bloom</l>
<l rend="indent3"> O Maiden! snatched away, thou hadst not
                        now</l>
<l rend="indent3"> In the cold grave been laid. – alas the
                        lot</l>
<l rend="indent3"> Of life! alas for all the hopes she
                        gave!</l>
<l rend="indent3"> The flower at morning spread her
                        glittering leaves</l>
<l rend="indent3"> To meet the western gale, but from the
                        North</l>
<l rend="indent3"> The sudden tempest came; she felt its
                        force,</l>
<l rend="indent3"> She bowed her head beneath the nipping
                        blast</l>
<l rend="indent3"> And shrank &amp; withered &amp; grew pale
                        &amp; died.<note n="1" place="foot" resp="editors">Southey’s epitaph for a relative of May’s, possibly
                            one of his sisters; see Southey to John May, 26 July
                            1801, Letter 593.</note>
</l>
</lg>
<lb/>
<p>I did not clearly enough understand the “alas Fatorum celeres
                    merentur &lt;morenter&gt;”<note n="2" place="foot" resp="editors">&lt;morenter&gt;: Inserted in another
                        hand. The Latin translates as ‘they deserve the swift
                        wings of the Fates’.</note> to venture an English
                    metaphor. you will feel that ideas which have no novelty
                    look better <del rend="strikethrough">at</del> in any
                    language than our own. as the figure of your daily friend
                    would be unfamiliarized were he drest in a toga.</p>
<p rend="indent1">
<ref target="people.html#WynnCharlesWW">Wynn</ref> &amp;
                        Drummond<note n="3" place="foot" resp="editors">A
                        reference to the proposal by Wynn that Southey should
                        become Secretary to Sir William Drummond (c. 1770-1828;
                            <title>DNB</title>), classical scholar, poet and
                        diplomat; Charge d’Affaires in Denmark 1800-1801,
                        Minister-Plenipotentiary in Naples 1801-1803 and
                        1807-1808, and Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in
                        1803.</note> have both on maturer consideration agreed
                    that the situation of private secretary is not enough
                    advantagious or permanent. they are therefore using their
                    influence to have me nominated Secretary of Legation at some
                    Italian state. an office of more ostensible importance &amp;
                    to which no personal dependance is attached. that at Palermo
                    is already filled. but will probably in the course of the
                    next spring be vacated – if not – when peace comes there
                    will be appointments to fill up at Milan – at Genoa – at
                    Florence. – I know not what salary to expect – certainly but
                    little. this however is of less consequence than getting my
                    feet on the first step of the ladder. to the utmost of his
                    power I well know <ref target="people.html#WynnCharlesWW">Wynn</ref> will further my fortunes, &amp; his rank
                    &amp; talents must one day make him powerful. did the
                    prospect offer nothing beyond two hundred a year in a
                    southern climate I should gladly accept it, but there is
                    every probability of advancement. it will enable me more
                    effectually to serve my family, &amp; they can well spare my
                    presence. <ref target="people.html#TaylorWilliam">William
                        Taylor</ref> looks on to the establishment of <ref target="people.html#SoutheyHenryHerbert">Henry</ref> at
                    Norwich, when he shall have graduated. it seems
                        Martineau<note n="4" place="foot" resp="editors">Philip
                        Meadows Martineau (1752-1829), surgeon at the Norfolk
                        and Norwich Hospital and a member of the Martineau
                        family, prominent Unitarians in Norwich.</note> is much
                    attached to him, &amp; that whenever he shall be dubbed
                    Doctor much of the medical practise will immediately lapse
                    to him, for the situation of physician is only nominally
                    filled. In his letters I see a great &amp; manifest
                    improvement, &amp; it augurs very well that in a country
                    where he was quite a stranger he should have made so many
                    friends. he writes to his <ref target="people.html#SoutheyMargaret">mother</ref> that
                    he has found his name useful. you will readily believe it
                    was the most grateful praise I ever received.</p>
<p rend="indent1"> I write from <ref target="places.html#Keswick">Keswick</ref> where I have
                    brought <ref target="people.html#FrickerEdith">Edith</ref>
                    to see her <ref target="people.html#FrickerSarah">sister</ref>, &amp; where I am about to leave her,
                    &amp; go into Wales to pass a few weeks with <ref target="people.html#WynnCharlesWW">Wynn</ref>, &amp;
                    with him survey the country in the line of Madocs journeys.
                    this as a thing needful I could no longer delay in prudence
                    as I trust it will be long before I shall pass another
                    autumn in England. the weather is more than unpleasant to me
                    – &amp; unhappily wine which is to me a necessary – almost a
                    sine qua non of life – is a luxury here ruinously expensive.
                    I rejoice in the prospect of returning to a better country,
                    &amp; indeed would most gladly take up my final abode in
                    Portugal, if a desirable situation &lt;there&gt; should ever
                    be at my acceptance. </p>
<p rend="indent1"> Are <ref target="people.html#HillHerbertUncle">my Uncles</ref>
                    books arrived in the convoy which were consigned to M<hi rend="sup">r</hi> Burn?<note n="5" place="foot" resp="editors">William Burn (dates unknown), a member of
                        the English Factory, Lisbon.</note> I am anxious about
                    as my treasure is among them. the books which bear a high
                    price in Portugal, are sold for little in England when they
                    are to be met with. perhaps you might find for me Rerum
                    Hispanicarum Scriptores.<note n="6" place="foot" resp="editors">For once, Southey’s memory for old books
                        seems to have failed him. Andreas Schottus (1552-1629)
                        was a Belgian Jesuit scholar; but though he wrote on
                        Spanish history, most importantly the <title>Hispania
                            Illustrata</title> (1604), he was not responsible
                        for the work Southey mentions. This was the <title>Rerum
                            Hispanicarum Scriptores</title> by Robert Beale
                        (1541-1601; <title>DNB</title>), published at Frankfurt
                        in 1579 by Andreas Weschel. Southey later obtained a
                        copy (no. 1420 in the sale catalogue of his
                        library).</note> a large folio edited by Andreas Schotus
                    if my memory fail not – &amp; printed about 1620 at
                    Frankfort. two moidores are its Lisbon price. here I should
                    think it might be had for half a guinea. – by the by this
                    manufactory for destroying old books<note n="7" place="foot" resp="editors">The <title>Monthly Magazine</title> had
                        reported that the high price of rags and paper had led
                        London entrepreneurs to resort to two new expedients:
                        firstly, reducing ‘to pulp all kinds of paper which have
                        been written on’ and ‘to re-manufacture it’; secondly,
                        ‘to obliterate the ink, &amp;c. from the surface of the
                        used paper, and thus convert it again into perfect white
                        paper’ (<title>Monthly Magazine</title>, 10 (August
                        1801), 48).</note> will injure literature more than any
                    thing that has happened since the loss of the Alexandrian
                        Library.<note n="8" place="foot" resp="editors">One of
                        the most important libraries of the ancient world, at
                        Alexandria in Egypt. Its loss has been variously
                        ascribed to Julius Caesar (100-44 BC), a 4th-century
                        Christian bishop, and the Muslim conquest in the 7th
                        century.</note> Our old bishops &amp; historians &amp;
                    poets must all now be washed into blank paper for M<hi rend="sup">r</hi> Lanes<note n="9" place="foot" resp="editors">William Lane (1745/6-1814;
                            <title>DNB</title>), publisher, especially of light
                        fiction, and promoter of circulating libraries.</note>
                    novels!</p>
<closer>
<salute rend="indent1"> God bless you</salute>
<salute rend="indent2"> yrs affectionately</salute>
<signed rend="indent3"> Robert Southey. </signed>
</closer>
<lb/>
<postscript>
<p>I will write from Wales &amp; send a direction.</p>
</postscript>
</div>
</body>
</text>
</TEI>
