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Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), II, pp. 116–117; Joseph Cottle, Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey (London, 1847), p. 386 [in part, as the final paragraph of a cut-down version of Southey to Cottle, 27 October 1814, Letter 2493]
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.
I have delayed longer than I ought to have done, to thank you in Hartleys name & in his
mother for your unsolicited kindness toward him,xxx would embrace
the whole of so extensive a plan. Have you ever seen Sylvesters translation of Du Bartas?
I do not see why you should not enlarge your plan to three parts, & carry on the history in the second thro the
whole intermediate period between the Psalmist & the commencement of the New Testament. There are many splendid subjects, & the
connection of the whole would appear more clearly than if you pass at once, with so long a skip to the Gospel Dispensation.
I admire the general flow, & the frequent felicity of your verses. Some of the liberties which you take with
language, such as omitting the article, & inserting the & some occasional inversions, I should not have used. But
your ear is always good, & one <anyone> who studies the rhymed-couplet would do well to go to school to you.
We are going on well, God be thanked. I am working away at sundry employments, continually accumulating materials for
more works than I can possibly live to compleat, – yet it xx this is not loss of time, for it is a
continual accumulation of knowledge which is always turning to account, x I have not got thro the introduction to my Tale of
Paraguaylabours undertaking.
I recognized your hand on a Bristol newspaper last night.
Is it in vain to say how truly we should rejoice if you & your
sister would pass your summer holy days here? – I think I could promise you pleasures which would leave a
lasting gratification behind them. The mountain-ponies are sure footed, – & xxxx <a> boat would give you air &
enjoyment with perfect ease & without exertion.
I beseech you make this your summers arrangement: you & I are of an age to know that what we mean to do should not be unnecessarily delayed, – & I will hope that you mean to see this delightful scenery; & visit one of your oldest & most affectionate friends