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British Library, Add MS 47888. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), II, pp. 64-69; Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 38-41 [in part].
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.
Christinaa book backed with red-marble paper, & lettered on green. It must be in the wing-parlour, – but if
you cannot readily find the separate volume, the same tale is annexed to St Pierres Etudes de la Nature (2
Vols)
I saw Coleridge on Friday, & scarcely ever saw him
look so well, – but he is over head & years in business & in difficulties about the Morgans. By John Morgans
xxxx carelessness & imprudence, the villainy of Brent the brother,xxxxxxx lodgings, where he has told them he cannot remain longer than three weeks. This of course is speaking vaguely,
but as soon as he can leave them he will set out for Keswick. – I shall see him again either
tomorrow or Tuesday.
One of the letters which you forwarded was from James
Ballantyne, – my business in that quarter seems likely to terminate rather better than might have been expected.hint &
otherwise endeavoured to throw the office into your choice (this is not Scotts word – but I cannot decypher xxxx the right onest I have been luckier than you in holding two offices not usually conjoined;dly I did not refuse it
from any foolish prejudice against the situation, – otherwise how durst I mention it to you, my elder brother in the Muse? – but from a
sort of internal hope that they would give it to you upon whom it would be so much more worthily conferred. For I am not such an ass as
not to know that you are my better in poetry, tho I have had probably but for a time, the tide of popularity in my favour. I have not
time to add ten thousand other reasons, – but I only wished to tell you how the matter was, & to beg you to think before you reject
the offer which I flatter myself will be made you. If I had not been like Dogberry, a fellow with two gowns already,
– I thought this was so likely to happen that I had turned the thing over in my mind in expectation. So as soon as this
letter reached me I wrote a note to Croker to this effect, – that I would not
write odes as boys write exercises at stated times & upon stated subjects, – but that if it were understood that upon great public
events I might either write or be silent as the spirit moved, I should then accept the office as an honourable distinction, which under
those circumstances it would become.xxx salary xx is but a x nominal 120£ – & as
you see, I shall either reject it, or make the office title honourable by accepting it upon my own terms. The latter is the
most probable result.
I am writing before breakfast. It rains steadily & offers, as they say in Cumberland, for a wet day. This is
unlucky, for if the weather permits I must meet Harry at Mrs Gonnes. My plans are to walk home with him to night, dine with him tomorrow, & with Turner on Tuesday. Wednesday, Grosvenor goes with me to Courtenays near Bromleyxxx which is in good progress. It will not occupy me long & I have little doubt of executing it so as fully to answer
the purpose for which it is designed. The Barlows
Murray will return to town tomorrow. I am advised by Turner to accept his offer of the thousand guineas,r Barlow has received from his nephew (Sir George’s son)
Tell the children that I have bought for them the continuation of the Arabian Nights, in three volumes, – it is the
book in which I found the Domdaniel.xxxxx Obbut,xx also are greatly in vogue, & yesterday after inner I told
the story of the Three Bears
The day seems clearing, & I begin to want my breakfast. I have been among the books as you may suppose, &
purchased among others one which I have been some twelve years looking for; – tho it comes a day after the fair. It was designed for
the use of Kehama
____________
After breakfast & before church –
Do you wa[MS torn] marvellously cheap table linen? My Uncle has some which looks like [MS torn] his own old Portugueze cloth, two yards wide [MS torn] five shillings a yard, – so that the square [MS torn] ten shillings. My Governess will please to let me know if [MS torn] make my purchase of this article. It is coarse but quite good enough for family [MS torn].
No doubt I shall be [MS torn] better on my return for this course of full exercise, & full feeding which follows in
natural order. By good fortune this is the oyster season, & when in town I devour about a dozen in the middle of the day, so that
in the history of my life this year ought to be designated as the year of the oysters, – inasmuch as I shall have feasted on them more
than in any other year of my life. I shall work off the old flesh from my bones, & lay on a new layer in its place, – a sort of
renovation which makes meat better, & therefore will not make me the worse. Sir
Domine complains of me as a general disturber of all families. I am up first in the house here & at his quarters. &
the other morning when I walked from hence to breakfast with Grosvenor, I arrivd before any body except the servants was up. This is as it should be. I fall asleep as soon as I am in bed,
x wake regularly soon after six & turn out as soon as I am awake.
I will take this with me to London, & finish it after I have seen Croker, – so farewell my dear Edith for seven & twenty hours.
xx the Doctors bag, ruffles, sword & full-dress coat,some great neglect there is
no supplication in the Litany.
Coleridge
has left off laudanum & God grant that he may never return to it. When last he took it, it was in the
quantity of two quarts a week, the cost of which is five pounds, – & sometimes he swallowed a pint a day. He said he must die
without it, & Mrs Morgan (who told me this) replied he had better die than live
as he was living. For two or three days & nights he suffered dreadfully, upon falling asleep every minute & waking
xx xxxxxxxx & xxxx almost instantly with violent screams. He now sleeps as well as you do. I saw him yesterday, &
advised him as the best thing which could be done to take Mrs Morgan & her
sister
Mrs Gonne charges me to say all kind things, & has desired me to take
<bring> Robert & introduce him to her – she & the two girlsdisimproved: the younger boy a very fine one.xx numbered. Love to all – God bless you. RS.