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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 86–87.
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.
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.
There was a time Horace when my life was heavy in
listlessness — when I lookd forward & all was darkness without one ray to which I might guide my steps. strange alteration! now my
soul never rests. in the tumult of emotion I have neglected to thank you for Piers Plowman
direct to me at Bath. I have been turnd out of doors by my Aunt
— did I tell you of this before? excuse me Horace that these things glide
from my remembrance — my heart strings have been sadly jarrd. I had depended on my
Mothers going. Ariste did the same — & her mothers accompanying us depended on that. my Mother seemd to change her resolution. Horace the question was — will you abandon all
your relations for me — or me for your sisters & mother? whether hell has more <keener>
agonies in store than that of the half hour I waited an answer I know not. Heaven surely has no higher delight than I experienced at
last from the answer & the manner that accompanied it. my head throbs at these recollections. do you wonder that my mind has been
agitated? almost to frenzy. but I have past all — & all is again fair.
Have you read Bowles’sxxx <went> so much to my
heart. Dilly
the Retrospectcompos <sonnet> conceived upon its bank.
To a brooklet near Alston.
I write many sonnets. tis a delightful stile of writing.
I shall write to Grosvenor very soon.
linen drying at the fire! one person clear starching — one ironing — & one reading aloud in the room. blessed scene to write in! oh for my transatlantic log house!
I am in hourly expectation of Coleridge, a man most worthy of all esteem & love. my heavy heart joys in the hope of seeing him.
Horace I am loth to leave you in England. the storm is gathering & must soon break. will you not follow us? I want sadly to converse with you. I must see you. but how to quit the circle where I dispense a gaiety & happiness which I cannot feel! yet I will soon come to London. you shall soon see me. in the interim write. my heart feels very warmly towards you. next March! would to God I were arrived. I will convince you that it is my duty to emigrate when we meet. but what is your duty? tis a question I cannot answer.
farewell. remember me to your parents. they have been very friendly to me & my heart never forgets the kindnesses
it has received. to Harry too. would he were my brother — I love that boy with
astonishment — what a Pantisocrat he would make. an aristocratic! an engineer! — oh what a mind to be
oerthrown!
omit the Esqr — or Mr. direct to plain RS. I put Esqr to please you
please me by omitting it.