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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 25. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), II, pp. 413–415.
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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I must tell you a good manœuvre of the Bibliopoles. He proposes to give
me 50 guineas if I will amplify the Wellington article a little, – annex
to it a full account of the late battle, & let him publish it within three weeks in one volume, like the Life of Nelson as a
Life of Wellington & with my name.hab principle of doing things of this
kind as well as I can without any reference to bargain price or quantity, he got from me a fair Life of Nelson instead
of a mere expansion of a paper in his review, & thereby (tho he paid me 200 £ instead of 100 £ which was the original offer
for one volume got from me for 200 £ what I cou certainly would not have sold to him for five had the thing been a
straight forward business from the beginning, – because he has dealt so thoroughly in one instance he wanted to trepan me into
this kind of sale bargain.
I am not very quick sighted in such things, & might possibly enough have been taken in if other & weightier
objections had not instantly occurred to me, – such as the unfitness of writing the life of a man before he was dead, – & the
disrepute which I should incur & deserve by vamping up a book to answer the mere purposes of a bookseller & supply the
demand of the day. To these points my answer was confined, & the Bibliopole will
be have a very comfortable dream of profit disturbed when he receives it tomorrow.excuse for giving it, because there was a volume upon the subject; – there was a reason, because of the then impending contest: & the place is an excuse for hurrying over the
latter part of the peninsular war which (as far as my present documents go) would not supply materials for two narratives.
I preserve almost all my letters, & Murrays are a choice collection. It is impossible that any compositions can
be more booksellerish & more Scotchy. The flattery & the hints are both so broad that they would move you to swear where
they move me to smile. Our Fathers which are in the Rowxx respect me too much either to
flatter me, or give me their advice. I believe they have a sincere respect for me, amounting to something like personal regard,
& without any reference to the state of their accounts.
The Review has not reached me, – nor indeed the number before it, – so that I have never seen how the little paper
upon Barré looks in print.r Bedford!) – The usual cogent motives
What a mean villain is this Buonaparte, – with all his insolence in prosperity, his only thought in danger is how
to save himself!due
<coming> to Mr Ketchupon in reversion upon his neck, – I should to know what he ever justly when that worthy officer ever
properly earned the like sum. The Moniteurs account of the battle is admirable, – in the best stile of French history.
xx ‘We had compleatly defeated them, – but unluckily we took fright & run away, leaving every thing behind
us.”
I am teazed with my summer cold, – which is the either the cause or the pretext of much listlessness
Dr Solomon brought a bride here last week,t Herberts island,
I have not seen the Times, – indeed I see no paper but the Courier.