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 rce829 letterEEd.26.820 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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. 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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 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
820. Robert Southey to John Rickman, 12 August 1803 Address: To/ John Rickman Esqr Endorsement: RS/ Augt 12./ 1803MS: Huntington Library, RS 41Unpublished.

My BibliopolæThe Latin translates as ‘Booksellers’. have taught me a lesson which ought to have been beat into my numbskull long ago. – that in dealings between man & man there ought always to be writings & proper legal suspicion. they are frightened by the stagnation of their trade during this panic & write to desire that I will not “incur any expences on the Bibliotheca.”Longman and Rees had abandoned their plan to publish Southey’s Bibliotheca Britannica, a chronological account of all literature published in Britain. All this would be very well if I had not a week ago returned a definite answer about the house at Richmond. which is probably now actually upon my hands. Cursing & swearing however are against the third commandment Exodus 20: 7, ‘You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God’. & it would be a fools trick to fret my guts to fiddle-strings, musical as they are already. I am in a hobble & must get out how I can. it will be no very great exertion to fit MadocSouthey had finished a version of Madoc in 1797-1799 and was revising it for publication. It did not appear until 1805. for the press by Xmas. meantime I will try & procure subscribers privately not by printed proposals. if I can get off an edition of 500 in 4to thus at 25/ I shall clear about 250£. if that fails, at any rate I can raise the 150£ upon the poem which Longman & Rees were to have advanced me for furniture. this spider-trade has at least one advantage – fall which way I may I have still a thread to hang by.

Tis fortunate that since my return I have given but little time to this poor Bibliotheca, & stuck close to historySouthey’s unfinished ‘History of Portugal’. instead, so close that another fortnight will bring me to the end of my materials. please to send me the Chronica do Principe D Joaõ.Damiao de Gois (1502-1574), Chronica do Seren. Principe D. Joao (1790), no. 3263 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Chr. d El Rey D Joaõ 2.Garcia de Resende (1470-1536), Chronica dos Valeros, e Insignes Feitos del Rey D. Joam II, de Gloriosa Memoria (1798), no. 3264 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. & also Chro. d El Rey D. Manuel.Damiao de Gois (1502-1574), Chronica do Senhor Rei D. Emanuel (1790), no. 3262 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. they are all bound alike, small 4tos. & stand in that bookcase next to the side board. a sheet of brown paper lined with Acts of Parliament will be sufficient package. I am half thro Joam the SecondJohn II (1455-1495, King of Portugal 1481-1495). reign in another chronicle.

Burneys bookJames Burney, A Chronological History of the Voyages and Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean (1803); reviewed by Southey in Annual Review for 1803, 2 (1804), 3-12. & ClarkesJames Stanier Clarke (1766-1834; DNB), The Progress of Maritime Discovery (1803); reviewed by Southey in the Annual Review for 1803, 2 (1804), 12-20. are before my tribunal. Clarke is a wretched dog. he talks of the village Aldea in Africa – not knowing that Aldea is Portugueze for a village.James Stanier Clarke, The Progress of Maritime Discovery (London, 1803), p. 322. as this man promises to write six more such quartos at £3 - 8 – each, I think I am in duty bound to use the scourge.

Burnett – George II I should say – sets out for London next week. I wrote to Carlisle about him, & he who does good to every body that falls in his way has promised to make him a surgeon as far as the HospitalThe Westminster Hospital, where Carlisle was the surgeon. goes without expence. he shall bring the books for C Burney. the treatise for navigationMartin Cortes de Albacar (1510-1582), The Arte of Navigation (1561), translated by Richard Eden (c. 1520-1576; DNB), no. 890 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. is by some Martin Cortes – the second that was ever published – if the old CyclopædiaEphraim Chambers (1680?-1740; DNB), Cyclopædia: Or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, 5 vols (London, 1786-1788), V, ‘Chart’. says true. it must doubtless be curious.

Poor Margaret is very unwell. so feverish that we get no sleep anights, & very little rest by day. Altogether I feel so very well inclined to be out of temper that I am sure I am out of spirits.

Tom is off at last for the Cove of Cork. thank God!

vale. R Southey.

August 12. 1803. I am 29 this day.