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 rce663 letterEEd.26.654 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. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 270-272.

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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654. Robert Southey to Charles Danvers, [started before and continued on] 6 February [1802] Address: [in another hand] Mr Danvers/ Kingsdown/ BristolPostmark: 6/ FEB/ 1802Endorsements: London Feby. six 1802.; CW Williams WynnMS: British Library, Add MS 47890Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 270-272. My dear Danvers

I told you of my intended journey to Norwich – it has been prevented by Ediths increasing illness,Edith Southey was pregnant with her first child. & I am in a comfortless state of health myself. partly it is the climate – & something I attribute to the place, & still more to the perpetual uneasiness on Ediths account. There came two letters from Tom this week. one to his mother – poor fellow written a fortnight after her death! – the other to me – to say that he was going immediately to the West-Indies! – & desiring me not to let his Mother make herself unhappy on that account. I have mastered my own mind so much that nothing ever violently agitates or affects me – but <& yet> every unpleasant circumstance produces very mischievous effects. it comes upon me at night – or whenever I am unemployed – exactly like the story of Cortes & the physic.Hernan Cortes (1485-1547), conqueror of the Aztec empire. Gomara tells the story of how a fever-stricken Cortes took a purgative to relieve his symptoms. Before the medicine took effect, his camp was attacked and Cortes fought alongside his men to repel the attackers. Cortes’s activity delayed the working of the medicine, which only took effect the following day after he had rested; see Francisco Lopez de Gomara (c. 1511-1566?), Cortes. The Life of the Conqueror by His Secretary, trans. Lesley Byrd Simpson (Berkeley, CA, 1964), pp. 108-109. I wish very much to get from London if only for a week – the change would certainly benefit me – & yet I cannot go with any comfort while Edith continues in so wretched a state. the worst part of her disease is a loathing of all remedies – her stomach rejects the diet which Carlisle recommends & half the medicines. her spirits are beyond any thing you can imagine, bad. her digestion never goes on without strong aperients. – I am now myself so unwell in head & stomach that I do not go out – I fear I shall lose the opportunity of sending the ticketsSouthey had purchased tickets in the state lottery for Danvers; see Southey to Charles Danvers, 26 January 1802, Letter 652. by Estlin therefore. shall I frank them down?

Saturday 6 Feby.

Yesterday there came two long letters from my Uncle. they say nothing of his removal, which indeed cannot be so soon as we imagined, for he desires me to send him over certain new books. he is very anxious about my history, & much pleased that it continues my object.Southey’s projected ‘History of Portugal’. Of Toms destination he knew nothing. he had sent him 100 dollars, & written in his behalf to Lord St Vincents. With the letters came a jewel-necklace for Lord Bute, to be by me delivered into his own hands.John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute (1744-1814; DNB), Ambassador to Spain 1795-1796. Southey had possibly been introduced to Bute through the latter’s chaplain, George Martin Maber. I went to day with it – & found that he had sold his town house. unluckily – as for the love of the Library I wanted to renew my acquaintance with the Lord. – My Uncle goes on hunting books for me. Even if I did not love my historical work beyond all other, I should for his sake make it my chief object.

Be so good as to pack up the set of Don Quixote – the little books in red Morocco which were in the sliding shelf under your book caseThe nine-volume edition of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616), Don Quixote de la Mancha, published in Madrid in 1798. This was not disposed of by Southey as it was no. 3191 in the sale catalogue of his library. – & send them by coach to Wynn. 5. Stone Buildings. Lincolns Inn. my Uncle writes me word that he has got another set & that I may dispose of mine. this news came seasonably just as I was about to write to you to give my own away.

Coleridge dines at Wynns to day with me. after all his foolish gossippingColeridge’s marital unhappiness had led him to spread stories of his wife’s behaviour, tales Southey (who was, of course, Sarah Coleridge’s brother-in-law) was keen to disavow; see Southey to Charles Danvers, 9 January 1802, Letter 649. about his wife – he now talks of returning in six weeks to Keswick – & when he can, removing with his family & the WordsworthsColeridge’s scheme to move to France with Dorothy and William Wordsworth did not materialise. to the South of France. plain it is that this climate suits him as little as it does me. I do not however wish that we should go abroad together. our habits are not enough alike. I wish the similarity – or the dissimilarity were greater.

Did I tell you how Burnetts pupils had both eloped?Burnett had been employed as tutor to Charles Stanhope (1785-1809) and James Stanhope (1788-1825), the two younger sons of the controversial politician and inventor Charles (‘Citizen’) Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope (1753-1816; DNB). The boys’ flight from their father’s house was described in a letter from Charles Lamb to John Rickman, [?1 February 1802], E.W. Marrs Jr (ed.), The Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb, 1796-1817, 3 vols (Ithaca, NY and London, 1975-1978), II, pp. 49-50. & how kindly Lord Stanhope has behaved to him?Stanhope had retained Burnett in his employ, even though the latter now had nothing to do.

We have letters from Joseph LovellProbably the brother of the late Robert Lovell (see Lovell family). – as I expected – very kind & as they ought to be. he will settle all about Robert.

It is long since you have written – [MS obscured]tless because you believed me at Norwich. how is Mrs Danvers? [MS obscured] the Secretaryi.e. Southey, whose post as secretary to Isaac Corry was not especially onerous. has so little to do that he hopes he may have leave to see her sooner than he at first expected.

Edith is a little better. for me – I wish my health were as good as my spirits. brother brute is very unmanageable.

God bless you – yrs affectionately Robert Southey.