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Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin. Previously published: Charles Ramos, The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 80-81 [dated October 1803]. Dating note: Written after receiving William Taylor’s letter of 23 October 1803; it was probably begun on 24 October, and completed on Wednesday 26 October. The letters to Taylor and Henry Herbert Southey mentioned in the opening paragraph have not survived.
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.
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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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Your letter gave me considerable uneasiness.
I have since received another of the same tenor from Wm Taylor, & have this day written
both to him & Harry, to
the latter very seriously & decisively exhorting him to
persevere in his present pursuit.
Mr Murdochs
Keep the PartidasKing George, which sailed
between Falmouth and Lisbon. He died on 11 August 1803,
from wounds received when his ship was attacked by a
French privateer on 30 July 1803. The King George was taken to the Spanish port of
Vigo, and Southey lost his books.neith get neither tale
nor tidings of them – & as he poor fellow cannot prove
the delivery I fear they will be lost also.
Since I began this the newspaper has arrived
with an account of the embargo of all ships for Spain &
Portugal. I hope this will be no material injury to you –
& trust it will not, inconvenient as it must needs be.
it was told me & from what a quarter whence I
could believe it,
––––
I am distressed & perplexed by this fresh
letter – & neither know what to say nor how to act.
there came yesterday a letter from Harry to
state that Mr Martineau thought it best
he should go to Edinburghr M. was actually disgusted with him, &
glossing over his own conduct. he said he supposed I had
heard from you –
What is to be done? will Mr Martineau keep him his full time if he
immediately amends his idleness? if so the best mode is to
write to him telling him there he must stay twelve months
longer – that is the line which he
& his friends decided upon together, & that only in
that line can they or will they aid him. I am by no means
willing to act without my Uncles
approbation. in this tone I will write to him by this nights
post – But if Mr M. be really resolved
to dismiss him then indeed I know not what to suggest &
do. I have no home for Harry –
for here at present we are guests ourselves, or inmates.
It hurts me too that you should thus be pestered for my sake. that Harry who has found friends among strangers should be his own enemy.