3084. Robert Southey to Charlotte Broome, 27 February 1818

3084. Robert Southey to Charlotte Broome, 27 February 1818*
Keswick. 27 Feby. 1818
Madam
I fear you may have thought me unmindful of my engagement − If the Inscription which I now transmit should not be suitable to your wishes, as very possibly it may not, it will not be for want of desire on my part to make it so. [1]
I return the lines with which you favoured me. The thought upon which they turn could not have been better expressed in any other language; − & they may be adapted to the present occasion (for which indeed there would be a melancholy fitness in preferring them) merely by reading the fifth line thus
His grave, − a narrow space of Earth assignd –
Believe me Madam
Yr faithful & obedient servant
Robert Southey.
Epitaph.
——
_______
Notes
* Address: To/ Mrs Broome/ Under the Hill/ Richmond/ Surry
Stamped: KESWICK/
298
Postmarks: E/ 2 MR 2/ 1818; [partial] Clock/ MR. 2/1818 F.N.n
Seal: black wax; arm raising aloft cross of
Lorraine
Watermark: B. E. & S. BATH/ 1814
Endorsements: epitaph
MS: Morgan Library, MA 63. ALS; 3p.
Unpublished. BACK