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 rce717 letterEEd.26.708 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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British Library, Add MS 30927. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 281-282 [in part; verses omitted; dated [August 19 1802]].

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.

£ has been used for £, the pound sign

All other characters, those with accents, non-breaking spaces, etc., have been encoded in HTML entity decimals.

 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
708. Robert Southey to Thomas Southey, [started before and continued on] 19 August 1802 Address: To/ Thomas Southey Esqr/ with John Southey Esqr/ Cottage/ TauntonPostmark: [partial] STOL/ AUG 20MS: British Library, Add MS 30927Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 281-282 [in part; verses omitted; dated [August 19 1802]].

That sort of owl light when one <I> can neither see to transcribe a fair page, nor to compile a rough one – does well for a letter where it all dribbles as John Bunyan calls it thro the pen, – straight from the old moveable at the left breast.John Bunyan (1628-1688; DNB), The Holy War (1682), ‘An Advertisement to the Reader’, lines 13-14. – I wish you dear Tom – to feel that while you are onshore your home is with me – & I am mistaken if you will find not soon find pursuits enough & amusements enough to make all you lose all feeling of idleness. Of Cumberland I think very seriously – & have almost indeed decided to go there. if the climate should affect me – it is only going to Lisbon two years earlier than my historySouthey’s uncompleted ‘History of Portugal’. would call me there – & the passage from Liverpool is a good one. As for friends I have but one here who is indeed worth a post. Charles Danvers. but the Lakes resemble Bath in that – you see some of your friends or other unexpectedly every season. beauty of country – is something with me – & expence with every body. now I can have as much as I want – furnished – in a good house & well furnished – for twenty guineas a year, with a large study – & a spare bed-room. this is not all – the difference of provisions is very great. even in my expenditure so great that were I so disposed I might keep a horse with the saving. now Tom what say you – with a boat on the Lake – & a fowling piece for idler hours – books – bottles & backgammon for wet weather – & a mountain-poney for the sunny days – what say you to the mountains?

______

Thursday 19 August. 1802.

I have been prevented from finishing the letter by the unexpected appearance of a friend from London – Duppa, who has taken up my time right pleasantly. last night he went to be the guest of another house & I take a half hours leisure this morning before I set out to carry him to Leigh Woods.

____          The verbs are all underlined.Southey’s underlining is reproduced here as italics.

Moro Alcayde, Moro Alcayde, El de la belludabelluda: Southey inserts a note ‘x soft, downy’. barba, El Rey te manda prender prender: Southey inserts a note ‘x to take’. Por la perdida de Alhama, Y cortarte la cabeza Y ponerla ponerla: Southey inserts a note ‘x to place’. en la Alhambra Porque a ti sea castigo Y otros tiemblen tiemblen: Southey inserts a note ‘x may fear’. en mirarla mirarla: Southey inserts a note ‘x to behold’. Pues perdiste la tenenciatenencia: Southey inserts a note ‘x the keeping’. De una Ciudad tan preciada. El Alcayde respondia, Desta manera las habla. Cavalleros y hombres buenos, Los que regis regis: Southey inserts a note ‘x govern’. a Granada, Decid de mi parte al Rey. Como no le debo debo: Southey inserts a note ‘x I owe him’. nada. Yo me estaba en Antequera En bodasbodas: Southey inserts a note ‘x marriage’. de una mi hermana; (Mal fuego quemen las bodas, Y quien a ellos me llamara.) El Rey me dia licencia, Que yo no me la tomara, Pedila fior quinze dias, Diomela Diomela: Southey inserts a note ‘x he gave me it. por tres semañas. De averse Alhama perdida A mi me pisa pisa: Southey inserts a note ‘x grieves’. en el Alma, Que si el Rey perdia su tierra, Yo perdi mi honra y fama. Perdi hijos y muger, Las cosas que mas amaba! Perdi una hija doncella, Que era la flor de Granada. El que la tiene cautiva Marques de Cadiz se llama; Cien doblas le doy por ella, (No me las estima en nada) La respuesta que me han dado Es que mi hija es Christians; Y por nombre la avian puesto Doña Maria de Alhama. El nombeThis should be ‘nombre’. que ella tenia, Mora Fatima se llama. Diciendo esto el Alcayde Le llesaron llesaron: Southey inserts a note ‘x they took’. a Granada. Y siendo siendo: Southey inserts a note ‘x being placed’. puesto ante el Rey La sentencia le fue dada, Que le corten la cabeza, Y la lleven al Alhambra Executose Executose: Southey inserts a note ‘x was executed’. justicia Assi como el Rey lo menda Southey had already published his translation of the poem in the Morning Post, 21 July 1798, as ‘From the Spanish. Closely Translated, and in the Metre of the Original’: Moor Alcayde, Moor Alcayde, With the long and flowing beard; The King has sent us to arrest thee For the capture of Alhama. He has bade us cut thy head off, And expose it on the palace, That others may behold and fear. Then the old Alcayde answer’d, Thus in answer did he say, – Cavaliers and gentle Moslem, Honourable of Granada, Tell the King, for me, I pray you, I have not deserv’d to die. I was gone to Antequera To the marriage of my sister, (Pestilence upon the marriage, And on those who ask’d me there). I had licence from the Monarch, Licence more than I had taken; I for fifteen days petition’d, He allowed me twenty-one. And indeed my soul is sorry For the capture of Alhama. If the King has lost his city, I have lost my fame and honour; I have lost my wife and children, All that I on earth lov’d best. I have lost a damsel daughter, Once the flow’r of Moorish maids; To the Count of Cales for ransom I a hundred doblas offer’d. And it is no little sum; And the answer he return’d me Was, that she was turn’d a Christian, And the name that they have giv’n her, Donna Maria de Alhama. This the name of my dear Daughter Fatima, the Moorish maid! Thus exclaim’d the good Alcayde. Then they took him to Granada, And they brought him to the King; Sentence then was pass’d upon him, Instantly to cut his head off, And expose it on the palace; Sentence was perform’d upon him As the Monarch had decreed.

___________

You will not I think be much puzzled with the ballad. with the help of my underlining the grammar will stand you in better stead than the dictionary.

In about three weeks I shall know how to dispose of myself – & x trust to be able to set off with you for Wales. think you if you think the proposal will be civilly answered – before I leave this place finally – I will offer to visit your Uncle. I see no reason why it should be misunderstood or refused. meantime give my respects again.

All well in whom you are concerned – that – is myself – Edith – Danvers – & Mrs D – Mary & BellaBella was a servant in the Southey household, she died in 1804. Mary is either another servant, or possibly Southey’s sister-in-law Mary Lovell. & JoeTom Southey’s dog. & the Cat. SmutA dog that belonged to Danvers. is discarded, her unhappy beauty the cause – as all the dogs in the neighbourhood thoug[MS obscured by binding]proper to lift up their legs against Danvers’s door. We dine at Kings (that is Duppa & I) on Saturday. huzza for a bag full of happinessi.e. nitrous oxide, or ‘laughing gas’. Its effects on Southey had been described in Thomas Beddoes, Notice of Some Observations Made at the Medical Pneumatic Institution (Bristol, 1799), p. 11; and Humphry Davy, Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide, or Dephlogisticated Nitrous Air, and Its Respiration (London, 1800), pp. 507–509. I forgot to say – that I have bought a whole lot of books – about fifty in all – for sixpence a piece. fine dung for manure. A Dios! hermaño m[MS obscured by binding]The Spanish translates as ‘Farewell m[y] brother’.

R. Southey.