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 rce744 letterEEd.26.735 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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MS untraced; offered for sale and sold by Argosy Book Store, New York, 2007, inventory no. R21812; purchaser unknown; text is taken from John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856). Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 204-205.

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

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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
735. Robert Southey to John May, 23 November 1802 MS: MS untraced; offered for sale and sold by Argosy Book Store, New York, 2007, inventory no. R21812; purchaser unknown; text is taken from John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856)Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 204-205.
Bristol,
Nov. 23. 1802. My dear Friend,

From the day of my last letter, I have been in a comfortless state of compulsory idleness, occasioned by a complaint in my eyes. A whole confederacy of evils attacked me immediately: swelled face – to that I applied leeches; toothache – that was cured radically; symptoms of fever – which were driven out at every sally-port. I have got rid of all, except the eye-weakness, and that is very materially amended. Lancing the lower lids was the effectual remedy; still they are weak. I am beginning to read and write, but inconveniently, and with caution.

A residence in Wales will not place me so much out of your reach as you imagine, if I succeed in obtaining Maes Gwyn, for so the house is called. I want to take it furnished, to avoid the first cost of furniture, and the encumbrance, if, by good fortune, I should be enabled to remove to a more congenial climate. 20l. is the unfurnished rent; for the use of the goods from 10l. to 15l. more may be demanded, if the landlord will let them. It is a lovely spot, in a vale among the mountains, eight miles from Neath, with canal carriage within 100 yards of the door. From Bristol to Neath is a distance of eighty miles. A friend who should leave Bristol by the mail, at one in the mid-day, might reach me at breakfast-hour the next morning. I will tell you more about it, and all its desirableness, if the business end as I wish.

I have just received a most valuable book from Lisbon, the unpublished Chronicle of Fernando, by Fernam Lopes,Fernao Lopes (c. 1385-after 1459), Cronica de el Rei Dom Fernando O Noveno Rei de Portugal, no. 3829 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. The Chronicle covered the reign of Fernando (1345-1383, King of Portugal 1367-1383). a MSS., by its appearance almost as old as the original work – from 250 to 300 years old. I am obliged to keep Lent with this feast before me, for my eyes are by no means equal to the task of unravelling its characters. Only one chronicle is now wanting to complete my Portuguese series.

You ask about Chatterton.Southey and Joseph Cottle, The Works of Thomas Chatterton (1803). The delay has been more owing to the quantity of new matter discovered than to any other cause. I daily expect to see it advertised. It makes three large volumes, instead of two, at a guinea and a half: thus, you see, Mrs. Newton,Mary Newton (1749-1804), the sister of Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770; DNB). She and her daughter were the beneficiaries of the Southey-Cottle edition. for 350 copies, will receive what, for her, is a very large sum. I have taken no notice of Croft. You will be very much pleased with a view of the front of Redcliff church,Southey and Joseph Cottle, The Works of Thomas Chatterton, 3 vols (London, 1803), I, ‘The Base of the Tower of Redcliff Church with a View of the Muniment Room over the North Porch’, frontispiece, unpaginated. as frontispiece, showing that magnificent ascent of steps which is the finest thing of the kind in England. Mrs. Newton relates an odd dream – if, indeed, it be not a waking dream – akin in imagination and authenticity to Rowley’s Poems. She dreamt that her brother had a monument in Redcliff church, the stones whereof were cementing with a hot substance, that perpetually grew hotter and hotter, till at last it flamed out; – that, being about to dress her dinner, she had no fire, – she remembered these flames, and went to them, and warmed her food upon her brother’s monument. “Now,” says she, “my dream is out.” Surely this is too well put together to be a dream.

I must not trespass further on my eyes. We beg to be remembered to Mrs. May.John May’s wife Susanna Frances Livius (1767-1830). Young John,John May (1802-1879). I trust, goes on well, and will soon begin to find what legs were made for. As for Bonaparte,Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821, First Consul 1799-1804, Emperor of the French 1804-1814). the rascal having a hard heart, I should like to try and make him tender, as they do legs of mutton, by hanging him quantum suff.The Latin translates as ‘as much as suffices’. God bless you.

Yours very truly, Robert Southey.