582. Robert Southey to John May, 23 May 1801 ⁠* 

My dear friend

A letter of mine, chiefly relating to Henry, must assuredly have been lost. it matters little. at this distance, all I could do was to express a full satisfaction in what you & William Taylor have agreed. [1]  To Henry I wrote some five or six weeks ago – recommending an unbiased choice – rather wishing him to follow his Uncles plan, than recom advising it. of his private allowance – I could only promise him five pounds quarterly – a sum which if good fortune enabled me I should willingly double, but which you must be aware – knowing the extent of my resources – to be the utmost that I can spare from my own wants & the demands upon me from other quarters. some little – a possible ten pounds – may be yearly hoped from Tom, who is ready to do all he can. my Uncle will I know supply any deficiency. yet I think in calculating from 30 to 40 pounds yearly as necessary, circumstances have not been sufficiently considered. my own personal expences have never reached even to the smaller sum. I do not expend 15 pounds yearly in <the whole of my> dress. with all linen Henry would be supplied from home. it is however always better to allow a young man too much than too little. I have felt the latter evil myself. – The great expence of returning will sink me for some time below the world. hitherto my resources have always been kept equal with my expenditure, by obscure & unintermitted labour. from those means a residence here has inevitably cut me off. my expences also have been increased by travelling. I could indeed make my journeys more than pay the<ir> own cost did I deem it advisable to publish the materials which I have collected for a miscellaneous volume relative to this country. from 60 to 80 pounds would doubtless be paid me for a first edition – but from the time it would deduct from the greater work I should think it a bad speculation in a pecuniary point of view – & in that point I must consider it. I have therefore no literary pay to expect, (except from the success of Thalaba) till a first volume of my History [2]  be published – or ready for publication. a labour for which one compleat year will be little. meantime I can review – I can write rhymes to the amount of 100£ – but this is improvident work – it is spending the day in getting only enough for the dinner. Like you good people in England I have corn enough in the ground – but there is a famine till the harvest be ripe.

Portugueze news you know as regularly & correctly as it can be known. yet is M^r Coppendale [3]  an infidel – incredulity saves him from the fear-fever which infects everybody else. I believe at all events – except a general peace speedily terminates the calamities of Europe – that the port of Lisbon will be shut against English vessels. S^t Cyr [4]  is with the Spaniards about Elvas – which is or will be beseiged. [5]  we had a rumour of its capture which is not believable. they are in great force & have refused to write any terms in the carte blanche which Pinto [6]  proffered. so far is certain. When the moon shines upon the sea – the line of moonlight always terminates in your own ship – so we view all things chiefly with relation to self. I want my Uncle to England – & verily <believe> him so rooted here that he must be turned out or he never will move. for ourselves – the sooner we are home the better. I am enquiring for a vessel Bristol bound – if there be none we shall return by Yescombe [7]  when next he is here. but the difference of expence is to me of heavy importance – it cannot be less than thirty guineas. We have now lost most of our hill acquaintance – in Miss Seton particularly we have a daily & hourly loss. Tis like the end of the Pilgrims Progress [8]  – one by one our friends go before us & leave us at the side of the Great Water that we all must cross!

I am no ways weary of Portugal. it would be the country of my choice residence certainly – its climate so entirely suits me – & its materials now afford me such ample employment that I could beguile a more total solitude than that in which we live. It is almost a solitude – & I look with a hunger & thirst for the free & intimate society of my English friends – of those who can look back with the same recollections – observe the present with the same feelings, & look on to futurity with the same hopes.

My history [9]  advances well. I have stewed down many a folio into essential sauce. half the labour of a first volume is done – that is the timbers are ready & the stones hewn tho little of the edifice appears above ground. to the end of Fernandos [10]  reign the first sketch is done – the second draught to that of Diniz [11]  – the third & decent copy is now finishing the second Sancho. [12]  my guides have been Faria [13]  – Duarte Galvao [14]  & Ruy de Pina – Duarte Nunes. [15]  Mariana [16]  – the Rainhas of Barbosa [17]  – Zurita [18]  – step by step. the Provas of the Genealogical History [19]  have been indispensably useful. the Monarquia Lusitana [20]  I have not yet been able to procure, & indeed the books already named, with the number of others collaterally consulted were enough to carry on at first.

God bless you. I do not ask you to write – there will I trust be no time to hear from you. – When three months are elapsed from the time when you sent Harry the ten pounds – have the goodness to send him five. I will do all I can to prevent him from feeling any inconvenience for money – even any unpleasant feeling – but these are my worst times – I live at more cost here than at home – & have running expences in England also. Harry will I hope do well. he promises well.

– We have yet no accounts of Tom here tho two packets have arrived since that that brought his name in the list of the wounded. [21] 

God bless you

yrs truly

R Southey.

Lisbon 23 May. 1801.