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. Previously published: J. W. Robberds (ed.), A Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late William Taylor of Norwich, 2 vols (London, 1843), I, pp. 426-430 [in part].
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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You asked me the English phrase for Le beau Ténébreux – (a good
bold beginning instead of a confession & supplication for forgiveness of
sins –) the Fair Forlorn is the name used in the English Amadis,
Now then for egotism. you know or ought to know, that I am no
longer Secretary to the Irish
Chancellor, losing a foolish office & a good salary. the salary I
might have kept if I would have accepted a more troublesome situation. that of
Tutor to his son.civility respectful civility. so
much for that. Moreover you know that I have an additional reason for ceasing to
be a Wanderer upon the face of the Earth, having now a nursery as well as a
Library to remove. I am in treaty for a house in Glamorganshire, eight miles
from Neath, in the vale of Neath, between high mountains, a beautiful spot,
almost the most beautiful that I have seen in this Island. this treaty will in
all probability end to my wishes & in the spring I shall probably be R. S.
of Maes Gwyn. to live in the country is my choice, & for climate &
oeconomy & loca advantage of situation as to
carriage & supplies I could not be better situated. there I mean to remain
& work steadily at my history, till it be necessary to go to Portugal to
correct what I shall have done, & hunt out new materials.to as to a permanent residence. One of the motives for fixing there
is the facility afforded of acquiring the Welsh language.
Since we parted in London I have done nothing but read Spanish & Portugueze history & compile from it. I did expect to have had the first volume in a fair & readable form by Christmas, but sickness & sore eyes have thrown me back. for the last three weeks the least reading & writing in which I have indulged has been an imprudence. sickness I have got rid off. but my eyes continually miserably weak. the lower lids are inflamed – & I am obliged usually to pass my evenings in darkness. this is a heavy loss of time.
George Burnett has thought proper
to drop all intercourse with me in a very strange way. when we were in town
together I saw him almost daily, & <we> were as confidentially
familiar as ever, notwithstanding the good advice which I always was free enough
& friendly enough to volunteer. he past thro Bristol in June, & supped
with me on his way. on his return last month he did not call. my friend Danvers
xxx met him, & askd him if he had seen me.
no. why did not he call? I should think it unkind – George answered that Southey was
not the sort of society he liked &c – & went on in his usual foolish
style to talk about a pistol if everything else failed him. poor fellow! he is
too vain to know that the feeling which has been rankling in him is envy, &
it is now ripening into hatred! – he is now in London waiting for a situation,
characteristic in character, & George Dyer, in character also, is
looking out for one for him. a tutorship here, & that a very desirable one
was offered him, but he refused it as beneath him. I am vexed & provoked
whenever I think of his unhappy folly, that a man should be at once so very
proud & so utterly helpless. so ignorant
proud of what he will be, & so ignorant of what he is. as to his quarrel
with me I shall not notice it, but whenever we meet accost him as usual, &
trust that the fit is past.
As to poetry I have long abstained therefrom. old chronicles
please me better – & in the merits of all my industry, there is a principle
of idleness at the bottom, to read & to compile are occupations of no effort
– they are things <works> of amusement,
& never make the face burn or the brain throb. sometimes I think what I will
do, & build up a huge fairy castle in the air – but when it comes to brick
& mortar – alas for the stately rhyme! You saw one book in London of the
Curse of Kehama.up unpublished Chronicle by Fernam
Lopesabout from 250 to 300 years old. the writing
good, but not easy enough for my eyes at present to decypher.
Harry asked me in his last
letter who it was whom you promised to give some scarce book in London. his
address is Richard Heber Esq. to
the care of Messrs Leigh & Sotheby. Booksellers. York
Street – Covent Garden.
Now forgive me for a long silence. in truth this letter ought to go for half a score by the effort of eyesight it has cost me. tell Harry we are all going on well – that Tom is still with me – that young Margaret has the cow pox & that his Aunt has fallen down & broken her nose – which doubtless he will think a great pity for the same reason that I did.