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 rce848 letterEEd.26.839 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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Huntington Library, RS 43. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 326-328.

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
839. Robert Southey to John Rickman, 12 September 1803 Address: To/ John Rickman Esqr / St Stephens Court/ New Palace Yard/ Westminster/ SinglePostmark: E/ SEP 16/ 1803Endorsement: Sep. 12./ 1803MS: Huntington Library, RS 43Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 326-328. Dear Rickman

Your letter to Danvers has been forwarded to me. I thought I had apprized you that by Toms procurement Edward was gone to the Suffisante Brig. this took place just when we were in the very worst point of our distress – & you will excuse me for the neglect.

Here we are – in a country which I could fancy God had made after my own heart if it had been placed in a better latitude. poor Edith is very unwell – her spirits are deadlily depressed – indeed she seems almost heart broken – I myself am ashamed that so common a calamity should have wounded me so deeply. However like George the Second I shall be compelled to work – to drudge at Reviewing & to manufacture rhymes for the Morning Post, God knows with how little heart, for the thoughts which are uppermost shall have no vent. I shall take this task work like physic, with this happy difference, that in the account I shall be on the creditor side the bill.

Your theoryRickman had suggested the Estrado, a raised area in Portuguese houses, was ‘the first attempt at Flooring’; John Rickman to Southey, 1 August 1803, Huntington Library, Rickman MSS. of the original use of the estrado is helped by this circumstance – estrada is a road, a xxxxx road made by art – elevated above the mire. estrado must have a reference to this & be derived from it.

Do not forget MalthousesThomas Malthus (1766-1834; DNB), An Essay on the Principle of Population (1803). He argued that God had created the tendency of all populations to outgrow available resources in order to teach virtuous behaviour. rascally metaphysics. break him on the wheel. I will see the sentence registered. you ought to set your foot upon such a mischievous reptile & crush him. I wish with all my soul you would draw up the whole article & anatomize him alive. – I have the Transactions of the Missionary Society in the South Seas & at the among the Hottentots to review.London Missionary Society, Transactions of the Missionary Society (1803), reviewed by Southey in the Annual Review for 1803, 2 (1804), 189-201. a book with some odd matter, & which will give me a good opportunity to fall upon the Vital Xtians, a set of vermin who increase rapidly, proceed systematically, & may perhaps one day set up a Calvinistic persecution. – If you have not seen the first volume of this huge Review Annual Review for 1802, 1 (1803). look at the political department which is mostly executed by Wm Taylor. it has all his mannerism, his incurable mannerism, but withall that omnifarious knowledge & original oddity of conception which fixes attention & leaves a durable impression. that ill natured attack upon John WoodvilleCharles Lamb’s John Woodvil: a Tragedy (1802), reviewed in the Annual Review for 1802, 1 (1803), 688-692. is Mrs Barbauld’s doing. that play has been abominably used. as a drama it could not be censured too severely, but Mrs B & the brimstone-fingered oatmeal-eaters have both omitted to notice its peculiar xx beauties, for which it would be difficult to find terms of adequate praise. I am the more angry with Mrs Barbauld because she sneers at the conclusion without even appearing to feel its force. now that particular part impressed me beyond any thing in the play – even in the act & agony of prayer &c.

In Clarkes miserable Maritime HistoryJames Stanier Clarke (1766-1834; DNB), The Progress of Maritime Discovery (1803), reviewed by Southey in the Annual Review for 1803, 2 (1804), 12-20. he refers to a book which it is of some consequence to me to be better acquainted with. ‘Alcaforado’s Accounts of the discovery of Madeira’‘Francisco Alcoforado’, An Historical Relation of the First Discovery of the Isle of Madeira. Written Originally in Portugueze. Translated into French, and Now Made English (1675). – the author he says was xxxxx Prince Henrys Squire.‘Francisco Alcoforado’ was allegedly squire on a ship sent by Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) to explore the western Atlantic in 1419-1420. The voyage established Portugal’s claim to Madeira. he gives the title in English – the date something about 1680. now I suspect that there exists no original, & that there never did exist one. the name uncouth as it looks does occur at that period – but not one Portugueze historian ever mentions such a man as in the service of the Infante, or such a document as existing. George Dyer would perhaps see if it be in the Museum when he is CantabrigianizingDyer may have been researching his History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge (1814) in the British Museum. there, & let me know what account the Preface gives of it. Henrique certainly had an account of his discoveries written, which he sent to the King of Naples. this MSS. was seen at Valencia among the wreck of the Duke of CalabriasFerdinand of Aragon, Duke of Calabria (1488-1550), Viceroy of Valencia 1537-1550. He was the last male heir of the House of Trastamara, Kings of Naples 1442-1501. effects about some there between 1580 & 1600, he being the last descendant of that line. If this be the book I shall have hit upon a treasure which the Portugueze themselves have no knowledge of. but the internal ev[MS obscured] must be very strong to convince me of its authenticity.

Our ministry I see go on as they have begun. after the experience of the last twelve years how would it benefit the nation if his Majesty would graciously please to ballot for Ministers as he does for Militia men. those vile ‘Invasion’ papersA series of unsigned papers on the threat of a French invasion which began appearing in the Morning Post in July 1803. In late summer 1803, the Morning Post had begun to adopt an increasingly pro-ministerial and bellicose stance. For Coleridge’s concern that ‘Many articles in the M.P. not mine are attributed to me’, see his letter to Thomas Poole, 14 October 1803, E.L. Griggs (ed.), Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 6 vols (Oxford, 1956-1971), II, 1016. were not Coleridges, thank God!

God bless you. R Southey. Monday. Sept 12. 1803.
Greeta Hall. Keswick. Cumberland.

tell me when I may frank again.