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Houghton Library, bMS Eng 265.1 (7). Not previously published.
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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Phil. Gros. Phil. Quasi φιλος – not as the diminutive of
Φιλιππος
To your last thus make I my responses. I have Halhed’s book.feelably. her
breath was to be felt. Man Almighty does not prove too much. he exerted no power
over Kalyal. he thought her dead, & did not enquire whether or not she was
preserved. ‘She hath escaped my power.’ tyrants have often used the phrase. old
such a one is released, said some one to Charles 2
There is no occasion to send paper to the bookbinders to make it
fit. I have half a ream of one family – the most lasting benefit of my
Secretaryship.
The motto to Kehama is a text & story of the poem the Sermon.
Curses are like young chickens. they always go home to roost. Twas one of the
thousand & one odd sayings of an odd relation of mine. an old Uncle
On this then the poem hinges. the Curse operates to preserve
Kalyal. in all its parts from Water he <it> has saved her already. the second
book you will soon have – in it Laderlad leaves his daughter sleeping. (I have
no authority for any of the names. the Sanscreet propria quæ maribusxxxxxx the good spirits –
finds her under a manchineel. he carries her first to the dwelling of old
Casyapa the father of the Gods (– for whom see Sacontalan lonely place,
& feed Laderlad with the Sorgon fruits – but Kalyal will not assent become Ereenias wife till her father is
completely safe. Arvalan – master of the Elements – raises a hurricane – &
destroys their home. Kalyal is seized, the Sorgon fruits have so increased her
beauty that she is chosen for the wife of the Idol Jaggernaut: & exposed for
violation in the temple. there Ereenia protects like her – like the Devil in Tobit.
Well – they find in Bely – or Mahabely the judge of Padalon about
whom there is a long story – how he was Almighty & Veeshnoo came down
incarnate to destroy his power. but he being a good man was only made justice of
the peace in hell, & is allowed to come upstairs once a year to see the
Illuminations which are made on purpose for him. he
gets overpowered also, & Kehama smites has smitten Kalyal with leprosy. Bely leads her to the Lake of
Healing & Immortality – but she will not
share her fathers sufferings. this last friend is forced from them. Ereenia then
ventures to seek the throne of Seeva. Brama & Veeshnoo had in vain sought to
find it – their motive was presumption. his being good he finds the great God
& complains to him that there is Injustice upon the earth. Seeva answers
only Yamen – Death – can help Laderlad & his daughter.
Yamen keeps the Amreeta. Kehama only wants the liquor of immortality to be master of all things above & below. he overtakes Ereenia Laderlad & Kalyal on their way to Padalon – drags them at his chariot wheels & forces Yamen to produce that Amreeta whose blessing only one mortal is ever to enjoy. Kehama drinks. that liquor imbibes the quality of the hand that holds it. to the wicked it is the draught of eternal anguish. the wrath-eye of Seeva falls upon him & heats him red-hot – & so he remains for ever. the cup is then given to Kalyal – & she now immortal becomes the wife of an Immortal. Laderlad joins them in the Sorgon, but he passes thro the Dark Portal.
All this will easily develope & naturally connect as the Poem goes on. I have a second sight feeling
that certain parts, & in particular the conclusion will be very grand.
Ereeni[MS torn] most beautiful of all beings, his wings shaped like the glums in Peter Wil[MS torn]bran or cartilage that branches
thro them, like mother of pearl.
If pauper Ego had not four things besides to do, two more
important & two less so than Kehama – he would soon be dispatched. I mean to
publish Madocperhaps because, modestly speaking, Madoc is to
make me Chief Consul in poetry & then I may venture the queerness of Kehama
safely. & because Madoc will sell best. next winter I calculate to have it
compleat, & I shall print it by subscription & take as much profit from
the booksellers as I can – whereby I hope to make 250£ by an edition of 500
quarto. Now I am calculating household furniture upon this fund – & actually
last night wrote enough to set off against a close stool – huzza nothing like a
light heart! the texture of the inexpressibles must vary with the season – as
thin as you like in summer. now the Monthly Reviewerr Southeys predilection for
melancholy. Stern talks of the Reviewers of his Breeches