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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 98–100.
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.
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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.
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Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.
quâ non gravior mortalibus addita cura
Spes ubi longa venit
Grosvenor when you have lived upon that cameleon fare so long as I have done — you will acknowledge the wisdom of Solomon & feel the poetry of Statius.
I expect my Uncle daily. his determination is of such consequence to my immediate happiness or even comfort — that I feel heavings of heart strangely uncomfortable. yet have I little to fear. that he will enable me to study either law or physic is more than probable. Grosvenor I shall be happy. there is not one feeling in my heart that militates against happiness.
before Xmas. or a long long vagabond life. by the Lord I will disguise myself & turn butler or footman. if I am not settled & married before Xmas. this I will do. clean shoes — light fires & wait at table by day — by night — rise — or sink into Robert Southey.
If my Joan of Arc succeeds (— & my calm & sober judgement approves the poem—) whatever I write afterward will
find a ready sale. the poems are delayed till January for my booksellers
convenience. a most worthy little fellow Bedford — whom you must know
& love. a poet himselfto be had at Robinsons
———
st. Tuesday.
Grosvenor I have quitted Bristol after lodging there seven months. I
had determined on leaving it last night. Edith dined with me & my departure
was fixed for five o clock. Mrs Sawier sent to desire our company to tea. I
mentioned my intention of setting off — but her cheek was flushd with hope & she turned her head away to hide
tears from me — I slept there last night. I do not think any circumstance ever affected me like those tears. it was not a painful
sensation — but God preserve me from its repetition! — in the words of the Snorro Sturleson “do you or
do you not understand this”?
oh for one of the Nourjahads naps!
———
Grosvenor I have a curiosity for you. two sonnets by James Jennings — seriously intended. upon Metaphor & Personification.bold introduced it here.
Metaphor.
————
Personification.
poor Trauma is famous for Abbreviating words & actually wrote
Oh how my bosom glows with pathic fire
as a happy alternative for pathetic!
after these specimens — you will difficultly believe (what is really the case — that Jennings taken from poetry possesses more than common abilities. that he has without assistance acquired considerable information — learns Latin & a little Greek, & that I have always been pleased with his company & frequently instructed. he is foreman to a Chemist. about 23. — What is most valuable in him is the purity of his moral character.
direct to me Westgate Buildings.
my opinion of French politics.