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Bodleian Library, MS Don. d. 3. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 257-259.
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 have sent off the Reviewme at Mr Corrys, instead of inclosing
it to him – in consequence it was charged at the Post
Office. the outside should be to him only – & remember
you cannot send above an ounce weight.
Your reading now would be more immediately
pleasant, & every way more profitable – if you erected
land-marks as you went along. Hearing that you are at
Ariostowith critically defend
the Orlando Furioso – it would not be difficult to get your
paper inserted in the same Magazine – & thus put you
perhaps in a way of adding a little to your yearly income,
while you improved yourself still more – I should like to
help you in tracing the history of that Paladin story thro
all its families, from Turpin
Literary habits are not acquired late in
life. if you think them worth acquiring, this is the time.
they are always a source of pleasure – & that pleasure
the most lasting. a more palpable & pressing motive may
be urged to you. at present you are plentifully supplied
with money, but hereafter you will be compelled to
oeconomize, – if the resources of literature should not be
absolutely necessary, you will find
them convenient. I would now young as you are – introduce you to
the Reviews – if it were in my power. but in this way I have
no influence whatever. I could not even transfer my own
employment on going abroad – neither can I now recover
it.
You imagine me in the high road to wealth
& power – & travelling full gallop – the whole truth
is that for the next year I have an income without working –
not exceeding what I should have
else have earned & received. that what I write – in my
vocation – will be for Mr Corry instead of a
newspaper or a bookseller, & that at the years end the
only certainty is that I shall be richer – by whatever my
leisure hours may have produced. A possibility exists that some birth may be given me
in Ireland – a bare possibility – naked as the legal phrase expre to which I have
no claim – of which no expectation. the South of Europe is
still the point of my wishes. a Secretaryship – & the
regular salary there is but £300 – would satisfy my wants –
& I would for it abandon far brighter prospects than lie
before me. the climate annoys me here, & I find no
advantages in England to counterbalance that heavy evil.
I wish it were in my power to visit Norwich – but God knows when that will be. if there were no other objection – I am tethered here.
Burnett is
going on miserably & in a way that distresses all his
friends. he is earning a poor & precarious subsistence
by writing for Philipsreally possesses no knowledge
– & from the little use he ever made of leisure I may
say, no love of knowledge for its own sake. & now he has
to get knowledge for the sake of getting literary
reputation. It is not the first instance I have seen of
Vanity misleading a man – but it is the most unfortunate
one. poor fellow – I will do what I can to serve him – &
wish heartily more were in my power.
I have turned over a whole bundle of
Anthology <papers> to some new Editorspublish print a third volume.
the fault they find with my selection ought to imply severer
conduct in themselves. Wm Taylors Hexametersxxxxx abuse in the
last volume – I smile to hear the Authors of the very
dullest poems there complain of the dull pieces
inserted.
My Mother is
coming to town with Mrs Lovell. I have been
expecting them since Friday – & growling at the lazy
& uncivil trick of not [MS torn] to prevent expectation.
She was well enough to talk of travelling from Bath to
Reading in one day. Of Tom I have not heard for many months. Edward &
his Aunt
both grow worse & worse – every thing I hear of them
only vexes & irritates
& distresses me –
Ediths love – God bless you –