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 rce797 letterEEd.26.788 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: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849-1850), II, pp. 209-211 [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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 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
788. Robert Southey to Thomas Southey, 30 May 1803 Address: To/ Lieutenant Southey,/ H. M. S. Galatea/ Portsmouth./ SinglePostmark: [partial] BRISTOL/ MAY 3 803MS: British Library, Add MS 30927Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849-1850), II, pp. 209-211 [in part].

Why Tom you must be mad – stark, staring mad – jumping mad – horn mad – to be lying in port all this time. for plain or stark madness I should prescribe a simple strait waistcoat. staring madness may be alleviated by the use of green spectacles. for jumping madness I have found a remedy in a custom used by the Siamese when they take prisoners – they burn their feet to prevent them from running away.Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716), The History of Japan, 2 vols (London, 1727), I, p, 24. Southey owned a copy of this edition, no. 1449 in the sale catalogue of his library. horn madness indeed is beyond my skill – for that Doctors CommonsA society of lawyers practising civil law in the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts. The arcane practices of Doctors Commons made the society a byword for obscurantism. is the place. – I am vexed & provoked for you – too see prizes brought in under your nose.

Your friend JoeTom Southey’s dog. vagabondizes as usual. we generally see him once a day & when he has had his belly full off my gentleman goes. Margaret has cut a tooth, & left off her cap & she knows Lord Nelson & the Copenhagen planHoratio Nelson, Viscount Nelson (1758-1805; DNB), led the main attack at the Battle of Copenhagen, 2 April 1801. Tom Southey took part in this action and was slightly wounded. Southey had in his possession plans of the battle drawn up by an ex-shipmate of Tom’s, Alexander Briarly (dates unknown). See Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 7 October 1802, Letter 726. exceedingly well & also the Beautiful Books, with your black lettering in the pyramid piles on the bureau. my books have had an increase since you went. I have bought a huge lot of Cody,Cody’s identity is uncertain. Possibly he is the book-auctioneer William Cody (dates unknown) whose business had been based in Dublin c. 1791-1797 – if so, Southey may have made his acquaintance during his time in Dublin in 1802; or perhaps Cody is, or is connected to, the bookseller and auctioneer of the same name who traded in Bristol c. 1820-1821. tempted by the price – xxxxx books of voyages & travels & the Asiatic Researches. Asiatic Researches, or Transactions of the Society for Inquiring into the History and Antiquities &c. of Asia (1801-1811), no. 77 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library are later volumes than those Southey purchased from Cody. the Annual Review Annual Review for 1802, 1 (1803). is not yet published. AmadisSouthey’s translation of Amadis of Gaul (1803). still goes on slowly, but draws near an end. half the third volume is done, & three sheets of the last. Do you see – & if you have the Morning Post you will have seen – that a poem upon Amadis is advertised?William Stewart Rose (1775-1843; DNB), Amadis de Gaul, a Poem in Three Books, Freely Translated from the First Part of the French Version of Nicholas de Herberay, Sieur des Essars, with Notes by William Stewart Rose (1803). Southey acquired a copy, as it is listed as no. 1304 in the sale catalogue of his library. For the advertisement see Morning Chronicle, 23 May 1803. this is curious enough. it seems by the advertisement that it only takes in the first book. if the Author has either any civility or any guts in his brains he will send me a copy, the which I am not so desirous of as I else should be as it will cost me twenty shillings to send him one in return. xxx however I shall like to see his book. It may make a beautiful poem, & it looks well that he has stopt at the first book & avoided the length of xxxxx xxx of story – but unless he be a very good poet indeed I should prefer the plain dress of romance.

I have been very hard at historySouthey’s uncompleted ‘History of Portugal’. & have almost finished since your departure that thick folio chronicle which you may remember I was about skin deep in. & which has supplied me with matter for half a volume. this war terrifies & puzzles me about Portugal. if Spain be forced into it I think of going over alone this next winter while I can. curse the war & that damned Corsican rascalNapoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821, First Consul 1799-1804, Emperor of the French 1804-1814). who has provoked it. I have fifteen quartos on the way from Lisbon & Zounds if they should be taken!

Next month I shall go to London. King has stopt my diabetes I hope, but the hard exercise of walking London streets will do me good. my picture in the Exhibition pleases every body I hear.Southey’s portrait by John Keenan (fl. 1780-1819) was being exhibited at the Royal Academy. I wish you had seen it. –

I have begun a huge & troublesome job – that of cataloguing all my books & my Uncles. a task more difficult than you would at first imagine, as it requires method & arrangement. they should be so catalogued as to show at one view all the books upon any particular subject. this will go with me to London & there be filled up. While the sun shines is the time for making hay – having neither reviewing on hand, nor any job of journey work, & the good natured war coming in to fill up the Morning Post my free & full time is at leisure for the history, & I have made the best use of it.

Your old Skipper BertieSir Thomas Bertie (1758-1825; DNB). Tom Southey had served under him when Bertie was Captain of HMS Bellona in 1801-1802. In 1803 he was appointed Captain of HMS Courageux. has got a ship then in spite of your prognostication. little as the sea suits my trullibubs I begin to long to hear tacks & sheets & main sail haul! again – or rather to be going with a fine wind, eight knots an hour beyond Cape Finisterre & Lisbon bound. Oh for one whiff of a Lisbon stink! If this war should turn out the English from Portugal I shall be ruined – not a book to be got & no access to papers. It has made me even more unsettled than ever, for should that expulsion take place my Uncle needs must come to England, & then I should look out for a dwelling place near him.

Danvers has not yet made up his mind to any plan. he is at present at Mrs Jardines, while BettyDanvers’s servant; her first name and dates are unknown. is visiting her relations. CupidCharles Danvers’s dog. is my guest – oh that incorrigible Sheepstealer! do you know he like the name, & if you call him Sheepstealer wags his tail for pure joy in the recollection of inquity. Our Madam Puss too is become a notorious criminal – she has let her kittens starve, & is quite out of favour.

What other news? . . oh – Cottles AlfredJoseph Cottle, Alfred, an Epic Poem in Twenty-Four Books (1804). is about to be printed in a small size in the hope of giving a hearty shove to the heavy quarto edition which has not sold at all. I have heard of sending a fool on an errand, & think Messrs Longman & Rees’s money not very wisely expended. Little CarpenterUnidentified; possibly an old friend of Tom Southey’s. He may be connected to the Mr Carpenter of Lynne, Dorset who subscribed to Southey’s and Cottle’s edition of The Works of Thomas, 3 vols (London, 1803), I, ‘List of Subscribers’, unpaginated. is marched down to Portsmouth where perhaps you have seen him. Remember my advice about all Dutch Captains in your cruise.Tom was suffering from haemorrhoids. go always to the bottom in your examination. tin-cases will sound if they be kicked – & paper will rustle. xxxxxxxxxx xxx xxxxxxxxxx. to you it may be the winning a prize – the loss is but a kick in the ____ & that the Dutchman gains. Do you know that I actually must learn Dutch! that I cannot compleat the East Indian part of my historySouthey’s unfinished ‘History of Portugal’. without it.

Good bye mynen gooden & rykken broeder!The Dutch translates as ‘my good and rich brother’. I hope you will get men speedily & no xxxx <longer> lie there beglageingAn Anglicisation of the Dutch for ‘pitying’. yourself –

RS.

Ediths love.

Monday May 30. 1803.