3475. Robert Southey to [Isaac D'Israeli], [3 May 1820]

3475. Robert Southey to [Isaac D’Israeli], [3 May 1820]⁠* 

Wednesday Morning.

My dear Sir

Thank you for your information concerning the French Prophets. [1] 

Should you lay your hand on such of the books relating to them as are in your possession, you would oblige me greatly by allowing me to make a few memoranda from them during my stay in town.

On Friday the 12th I shall have great pleasure in accepting your invitation.

Believe me my dear Sir

Yrs faithfully

Robert Southey


Notes

* MS: Bodleian Library, Dep. Hughenden 246/4. ALS; 2p.
Endorsement: 3 May 1820
Previously published: C. L. Cline, ‘The Correspondence of Robert Southey and Isaac D’Israeli’, Review of English Studies, 17.65 (January 1941), 66.
Dating note: Dating is from an endorsement in another hand. Southey dined with D’Israeli on 12 May 1820; see Southey to Edith Southey, 12 [May 1820], Letter 3480.
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[1] The ‘French Prophets’ were Protestant exiles from France who showed signs of physical convulsions and speaking in tongues during their spiritual devotions; see Southey’s The Life of John Wesley; and the Rise and Progress of Methodism, 2 vols (London, 1820), I, pp. 272–284. They caused much controversy among the early followers of John Wesley (1703–1791; DNB). BACK