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National Library of Wales, MS 4811D. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 281–283.Dating note: Misdated 28 July 1804 in Warter, Letters of Southey (1856); MS gives no year, but Curry, ‘Misdated letters and missing names’, notes correct date is 28 July [1805] (which corroborates Southey’s dating ‘Sunday’).
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 was uneasy till your letter arrived – because Bunbury here had heard that your brother was dangerously ill with a white swelling, & I had attributed your silence to that cause. It is however clear that nothing is the matter, as you mention nothing; – probably the gout has been converted by some blunder into the worse disease. – I see alas by the non-contents of your letter that you have forgotten what I am reminded of by an empty exchequer. –
Last week I met Lord Somervilledid does not seem to have designed for a gentleman, & whom the company of graziers & butchers has
<certainly> not improved. He took no notice of the connection between us, if so it may be called. –
You are right about the necessity of Anglicizing my scene – & have set me right about it: for my ideas are so
accustomed to run in narrative that I have everything to learn for the drama. I have a love of foreign costume, & had not
thought that what was excellent in a poem would be faulty in a play.
Ellis’s book is coming to me to be reviewed, so also is Roscoe’s.& friendly because – civil of course I should be in any case, – but I am xxx must
be less of the critic than I strict justice may require, because my footmarks are usually to be traced.
A periodical paperxxx every thing but form. It seems to me that I do great things better than little ones – had to
substitute long & short, for great & little, & the sentence cannot be construed into vanity. There are no thoughts
afloat in my head which are adapted for such a vehicle. I will not affect any fear of losing reputation by such a trial, – but do
not see that much reputation could be gained. nor should I much like to write one of those works which I think have an evil
tendency; for the desultory reading which such essays encourage, leaves little or no impression upon the mind, & render it
impatient of any continuous study, as made dishes indispose the palate for plain meats.
Besides – I must tell you what I am doing – tho I had firmly resolved to let you find it out. I am writing Letters
from England by D. Manuel Alvarez Espriella,
That story <saying> of Porsonsis I must say, in the lids not the eye, – & only in the eye xxx xxx when the inflammation extends.
The last report of Madocgood many were sold. This phrase I believe implies less than a great many, but as half were gone six weeks before it is very well.
I have not yet got my Annual to see what of my articles are there, as they were written. there should be one upon
the Society for the suppression of Vice with a few stings in the tail.to collect in h unanticipated. these with the Specimens