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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 25. 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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Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
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If this reviewing affair ferrets you & disorders you, the best way to please me is by throwing it behind the fire,
& leaving the book to chance. It is sure of being treated with civility, – & you know how little I care about these things. I
need no proofs in print of your disposition towards me, nor your feelings concerning the poem.when every evening when the letter-woman disappointed
my daily expectations. – Ana, is the Guadiana.towns places in the Bierzo,which you the road between Lugo & Astorga crosses it. The Visonia
Tomorrow I send off the conclusion of Lewis & Clark.f a few days ago; – but there is hardly any thing in which I differ so much from the public as in toleration. I
take men & books as they are, the good that is <can be found> in them is so much gain, – & the bad concerns
not me. Murray is a thriving man, he lives in a literary atmosphere, or
rath & catches the itch of criticism from those who frequent his room, very few of whom have any better principles of art
to proceed upon than himself. He is a good bookseller; that is to say he understands his own interest, & of course he deals with me
accordingly. The most important of all literary works to hi in his eyes, is naturally his own Review,chef d’œuvre, for that immortal miscellany! – His letter proposes to me to review a catchpenny life of Ld Wellington, must be a chef d’œuvre, <written> con amore
he be, as booksellerish as can be, &
yet mixed with all this it has some good sense. I need not tell you that I want 100 £ as much as any body, & laud the
Gods for it, – but was there any thing ever so preposterous! when the emoluments which I receive for great & solid works
are compared with such a price!
He says nothing more about the Register,vœ mihi!
I take it for granted you received my most miserable odein
due time pass silently to the family vault. The rhymeless ode, which had some thing in it, I shall polish up, & insert in
the edition of my minor poems which is now in the press.
I have thought much upon what you advise respecting Derwent,
& believe it the best advice that can be given, – the next question is xx what Office would be most desirable? &
xx in what direction must interest be made?
The Moon thanks you for the grammar &c, & says
very truly that “it tells more things’ than either of his others – which is very just. He & I are beginning to learn
German together; – learning to him is mere sport, & this is the age to have languages put into him.
When you have any money for me I must trouble <you> to pay Hyde for a suit of clothes.s then comes in turn.one <the> alteration of a single word as a specimen of the spirit in which <all> the alterations
have been made. It makes the whole sentence stark nonsense. But Gifford is the
Devils own sow gelder when he gets a review in his hands. I beseech you continue to secure my manuscripts, as vouchers that I neither
contradict myself, nor write like a fool; both of which might most justly <be> inferred from what he sends into the world for me.
– One of his ways is to drop a sentence or a paragraph & let ‘therefore’ stand in what follows – In very truth I would rather he
reviewed a book of mine in his worst humour than x altered an a paper of mine in his best.