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Houghton Library, bMS Eng 265.1 (6). Not previously published.
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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Kehamiana 2d
____
Invent me a name instead of Book
However I object to Fit – by fits the poem will be written –
& I am glad to feel a fit coming on. weak eyes will force me to poetry, yet
in truth a certain dissatisfaction at what I have done has been the main cause
why Kehama has lain so long on hand. there is a piece-meal-ness of plot – it is
federal plot instead of being one & indivisible – & unity is my creed in
all things. I have planned how to make the Curse operate in each & every part to Kalyals preservation
xx as it relates to Water – Fire &
Death. that with respect to food & sleep it should not quadrate is no fault.
it need not fit like your
[Southey draws a mock, scrawled signature]
upon a bankers check or a Consuls testimonial.
___
Your first objection – to ‘obedient to the call’ – is not valid –
have the goodness to all my is’s & is nots – to affix an I think or an in my
opinion subintellecto modestiæ gratia?than but to obey it. Shrieking – I cannot
judge of that for blockhead like I forgot to correct my own copy by yours &
that passage was altered –but I see you would drive my poor metre mad by putting
shrieking at the end of a line & make it no metre at all. sprung – clung –
hung – the rhymes have a merit, & one might fancy in them a sameness of
feeling & action. Of the passage you have written you will see lines &
phrases whenever I recopy the book. but its too apostrophical. that note of
interrogation must be sparingly handled, it is playing with an edge tool to use
it too often. I reverse the as if despair & –. scratch out ‘the crime is
his’ & Laderlad speaks to your feeling & quite enough for mine. Kehamas
eye must not fascinate – you will see why at the end of the second book. the
Kehama reigns below is but rhyme & shall go out – I want however a rhyme or
two in his place – they ought to ding-dong in a curse till the ears ring
again.
You do not make out At fits to short convulsive starts was stung – it is the pain & shooting thrill of recovery in a dead limb. the pain of drowning is nothing, except when wilful and accompanied with strong mental agitation: recovery on the contrary is very painful, I knew a man who had experience & told me this. Laderlad could not bear a hand on his head because it was throbbing in a high fever. – did you ever come near your fathers hand when it was gouty?
And now for the rest of the poem you may have it in what shape you will – but in truth I think letters better – because if you think proper to bind the whole the letters may come in as interludes between the acts, being all of one size – & so you will have the hints & the poem & the criticism – the meat & the sauce, the egg & the chicken all together. But this is as you please – & the sooner you let me know the sooner you will have the second book for I am now half way thro the third.
You know the Vedas are the Brahminical bibles. now one of these
Vedas has been translated into French,
Have you seen the Scotch Review of Thalaba?is good what is good
is not about Thalaba, & what is about Thalaba is not good. the Critic says there is no
invention in Thalaba. now Grosvenor I will tell you what I think of the Critic –
to speak mildly of him – as one always should in these cases he is a damnd lying
Scotch son of a bitch.
Eyes better. but I cannot have the Welsh house & that is a sore disappointment for I made sure of it. Margaret well. oh I had almost forgot a poem
Grosvenor has a dog & his dogs name is Snivel
I have a daughter & my daughters name is Drivel.