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 rce871 letterEEd.26.862 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

Material from the Romantic Circles Website may not be downloaded, reproduced or disseminated in any manner without authorization unless it is for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, and/or classroom use as provided by the Copyright Act of 1976, as amended.

Unless otherwise noted, all Pages and Resources mounted on Romantic Circles are copyrighted by the author/editor and may be shared only in accordance with the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law. Except as expressly permitted by this statement, redistribution or republication in any medium requires express prior written consent from the author/editors and advance notification of Romantic Circles. Any requests for authorization should be forwarded to Romantic Circles:>

Romantic Circles c/o Professor Neil Fraistat Department of English University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 fraistat@umd.edu

By their use of these texts and images, users agree to the following conditions: These texts and images may not be used for any commercial purpose without prior written permission from Romantic Circles. These texts and images may not be re-distributed in any forms other than their current ones.

Users are not permitted to download these texts and images in order to mount them on their own servers. It is not in our interest or that of our users to have uncontrolled subsets of our holdings available elsewhere on the Internet. We make corrections and additions to our edited resources on a continual basis, and we want the most current text to be the only one generally available to all Internet users. Institutions can, of course, make a link to the copies at Romantic Circles, subject to our conditions of use.

. Previously published: Charles Ramos, The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 88-89 [dated 12 December 1803]. Dating note: Dated from internal evidence; letter was begun on 7 December and continued on Thursday 8 December 1803.

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.

Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.

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

All other characters, those with accents, non-breaking spaces, etc., have been encoded in HTML entity decimals.

 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
862. Robert Southey to John May, [7-8 December 1803] Address: To/ John May Esqr/ Richmond/ Surry/ SingleStamped: KESWICK/ 298Postmarks: E/ DEC 12/ 1803; 10 o’Clock/ DE. 12/ 1803 F.N. Endorsement: No. 90 1803/ Robert Southey/ No date/ recd. 12th Decr/ ansd. 13th do MS: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, AustinPreviously published: Charles Ramos, The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 88-89 [dated 12 December 1803]. Dating note: Dated from internal evidence; letter was begun on 7 December and continued on Thursday 8 December 1803. My dear friend

I have directed Longman & Rees to send to Tavistock Street (No 4 I think) a copy of AmadisSouthey’s translation of Amadis of Gaul (1803). for my Uncle which you will have the goodness to ship off when you find an opportunity. I have received two letters from him within the last three days, both are wholly collectanea of information de Historiâ & præterea nihil.The Latin translates as ‘Collections from various sources on History and nothing else’.

My articles in the Annual Review Annual Review for 1802, 1 (1803). as far as I can recollect what are noticeable are the Travels & Voyages of Sauer – Mackenzie – Acerbi – Olivier & Fischer. Pallas & Mrs Guthrie. The Life of Lord Walpole. The Tesoro Español – Ketts Lectures (I forget the exact title of that shallow book) & the Periodical Accounts of the Baptist Mission. There are sundry smaller articles or less interesting which I cannot call to mind – among them Poetry by the author of Gebir – a French book on the origin of printing – Memoirs of Le Kain &c.Southey reviewed the following in the Annual Review for 1802, 1 (1803): Martin Sauer (dates unknown), An Account of a Geographical and Astronomical Expedition to the Northern Parts of Russia Performed by Joseph Billings in the Years 1785-1796 (1802), 7-17; Alexander MacKenzie (1763/4-1820; DNB), Voyages from Montreal, on the River St Laurence, through the Continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in the Years 1789 and 1793 (1802), 18-30; Peter Simon Pallas (1741-1811), Travels through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire, in the Years 1793 and 1794 (1802), 66-73; Maria Guthrie (dates unknown), A Tour Performed in the Years 1795-6, through the Taurida, or Crimea (1802), 62-66; Giuseppi Acerbi (1773-1846), Travels through Sweden, Finland and Lapland, to the North Cape, in the Years 1798 and 1799 (1802), 45-56; Guillaume Antoine Olivier (1756-1814), Travels in the Ottoman Empire, Egypt and Persia (1801), 89-101; Periodical Accounts Relative to the Baptist Missionary Society (1800-1801), 207-218; Augustin Louis Josse (1763-1841; DNB), El Tesoro Espanol o Biblioteca Portatil Espanola (1802), 557-566; William Coxe (1748-1828; DNB), Memoirs of Horatio, Lord Walpole (1802), 599-601; Pierre Lambinet (1742-1813), Recherches Historiques, Litteraires et Critiques sur l’Origine de l’Imprimerie (1799), 704-711; Henri Louis Cain (1728-1778), Memoires de Henri Louis Le Kain (1801), 595-599; Poetry by the Author of Gebir (1802), 663-666; Frederick Augustus Fischer (1771-1829), Travels in Spain in 1797 and 1798 (1802), 35-43; and Henry Kett (1761-1825; DNB), Elements of General Knowledge, Introductory to Useful Books in the Principal Branches of Literature and Science (1802), 579-584. Southey does not name the review attributed to him in Charles Cuthbert Southey, Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849-1850), VI, p. 398 of Francis Wrangham (1769-1842; DNB), Poems (1802), 655-657. I saw the book only by accident at Bristol & cannot direct you so well where to look for what is time-worthy – except that the book of ChasteaubriandFrancois-Rene de Chateaubriand (1768-1848), author of Atala (1801). His Genie du Christianisme ou Beautes de la Religion Chretienne (1802) was reviewed in Annual Review for 1802, 1 (1803), 247-255. is reviewed by Mrs Barbauld – the queer author of Atala who to shew the Beauties of Xtianity calls the Almighty the Great Monk of the Universe – the eternal old Batchelor. you will trace William Taylor in Pinkertons Geography, & in the Statistics.John Pinkerton (1758-1826; DNB), Modern Geography (1802), reviewed in Annual Review for 1802, 1 (1803), 437-448 and all the works in the section on ‘Statistics’, 413-436. Harry tried his hand upon SoulavieJean-Louis Giraud-Soulavie (1751-1813), Historical and Political Memoirs of Louis XVI (1802), Annual Review for 1802, 1 (1803), 308-311. – with what success I know not, for it was not told me till too late to examine.

In this years batch I have found it necessary to chastise ignorance & knavery with a very heavy hand. you will I think find some good & most just ridicule & some honest indignation in the next volume. I am now upon the history of the Methodists – & of the Methodist Mission.William Myles (1756-1828), A Chronological History of the People called Methodists (1803), Annual Review for 1803, 2 (1804), 201-213. Southey may also be referring (inaccurately) to London Missionary Society, Transactions of the Missionary Society (1803), which he reviewed in Annual Review for 1803, 2 (1804), 189-201. I look upon myself as a very good Reviewer, never losing sight of my text – pointing out always what is valuable, & sometimes enlivening what is dull. but it is dull work – & when I lay aside MadocSouthey had completed a version of Madoc in 1797-1799 and was revising it for publication. It did not appear until 1805. or the History of PortugalSouthey’s uncompleted ‘History of Portugal’. to write for a Review – if I were a Catholic I should expect it to be set down to my mortification count score. on the creditor side of my account with Heaven.

––––

Thursday night.

Thus far had I written yesterday immediately on receiving yours. this evening there arrives a letter inclosing a draft on me for five pounds thirteen drawn by my brother Edward – the letter by the hand writing comes from some low tradesman – it is dated Exeter & says that Edward informed the writer I was duly advised & requests it may be accepted & returned by return of post. it had been directed to Bristol. I am very much disturbd & distressed by this circumstance. For what he can have incurred the expence God knows. & for a boy of fifteen to be taking up money in my name is a thing which must not be permitted. You know as much of his situation as I do, & if he be at Mr BarhamsJohn Barham Foster-Barham (1763-1822), a wealthy merchant in the West India trade and partner in Plummer, Barham & Co. How Edward Southey had made his acquaintance is unclear. by invitation to spend his Xmas his washing bills are all the expences he need incur. I know not what to do & never stood so much in need of advice. my first feeling was immediately to return the draft unaccepted, that the boy may feel the consequences of his ill conduct immediately – for sure I am in my own mind that he must be made to feel sooner or later, & that if he be now encouraged to rely on me I shall never be safe. – On consulting with Coleridge I have done this – & have told the holder of the draft that not knowing the cause or occasion I could not conceive what circumstances could have justified a respectable tradesman in cashing a draft for a boy just <of> fifteen. – & I have said to Edward that he ought to know as I would always exert myself to the utmost to serve him & assist him in any worthy pursuit, so he ought to be sure that I would never become an accomplice in any immoral action by giving my after sanction. this lesson will teach him that I can act decidedly.

Could I with propriety have detained the draft I should have awaited your advice. as that could not be I think what has been done is on the whole best – painful as it is. He can have no excuse for what he has done, having without my knowledge & against my known opinion quitted the situation in which I had placed him.On the brig-sloop HMS Suffisante. clothes he could not want having been fitted for the navy in August & having a new plain suit just before, & being by his own account at a private house he can have no justifiable expence to that amount. the holder of the draft says Edward told him I was advised – this was not the case – the boy thought to take me by surprize. I feel confident that if I had in this instance yielded he would have imagined me in his power & proceeded from bad to worse. As it now stands the lesson will <can> only frighten him – the man must take back whatever he has entrusted him with – & deserves some loss for having accepted a draft from a boy. – I thought to have ended the letter very differently but thus it is I am plagued & thus it will continue to be. It was my Uncles & Mothers fate before me.

God bless you. RS.