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The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to John May, 4 March 1821
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Preface
Vol. I Contents
Early Life: I
Early Life: II
Early Life: III
Early Life: IV
Early Life: V
Early Life: VI
Early Life: VII
Early Life: VIII
Early Life: IX
Early Life: X
Early Life: XI
Early Life: XII
Early Life: XIII
Early Life: XIV
Early Life: XV
Early Life: XVI
Early Life: XVII
Ch. I. 1791-93
Ch. II. 1794
Ch. III. 1794-95
Ch. IV. 1796
Ch. V. 1797
Vol. II Contents
Ch. VI. 1799-1800
Ch. VII. 1800-1801
Ch. VIII. 1801
Ch. IX. 1802-03
Ch. X. 1804
Ch. XI. 1804-1805
Vol. III Contents
Ch. XII. 1806
Ch. XIII. 1807
Ch. XIV. 1808
Ch. XV. 1809
Ch. XVI. 1810-1811
Ch. XVII. 1812
Vol. IV Contents
Ch. XVIII. 1813
Ch. XIX. 1814-1815
Ch. XX. 1815-1816
Ch. XXI. 1816
Ch. XXII. 1817
Ch. XXIII. 1818
Ch. XXIV. 1818-1819
Vol. IV Appendix
Vol. V Contents
Ch. XXV. 1820-1821
Ch. XXVI. 1821
Ch. XXVII. 1822-1823
Ch. XXVIII. 1824-1825
Ch. XXIX. 1825-1826
Ch. XXX. 1826-1827
Ch. XXXI. 1827-1828
Vol. V Appendix
Vol. VI Contents
Ch. XXXII. 1829
Ch. XXXIII. 1830
Ch. XXXIV. 1830-1831
Ch. XXXV. 1832-1834
Ch. XXXVI. 1834-1836
Ch. XXXVII. 1836-1837
Ch. XXXVIII. 1837-1843
Vol. VI Appendix
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“Keswick, March 4. 1821.
“My dear Friend,

“Yesterday I received a letter from my uncle with the news of Miss Tyler’s death, an event which you will probably have learnt before this reaches you. My uncle is thus relieved from a considerable charge, and from the apprehension which he must have felt of her surviving him. She was in the eighty-second year of her age. She will be interred (to-morrow, I suppose,) in the burial place of the Hills, where her mother and two of the Tylers are laid, and my father with five of my brothers and sisters.

“Her death was, even for herself, to be desired as well as expected. My affection for her had been long and justly cancelled. I feel no grief, therefore, but such an event of necessity presses for a while like a weight upon the mind. Had it not been for the whim which took her to Lisbon in the year of my birth, you and I should never have known each other: my uncle would never have seen Portugal, and in how different a course would his life and mine in consequence have run! I have known many strange characters in my time, but never so extraordinary a one as hers, which, of course, I know in-
Ætat. 46. OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. 63
timately. I shall come to it in due course, and sooner than you may expect, from the long intervals between my letters.

“Yesterday’s post brought me also an intimation from my musical colleague, Mr. Shield, that ‘our most gracious and royal master intends to command the performance of an Ode at St. James’ on the day fixed for the celebration of his birth-day.’ Of course, therefore, my immediate business is to get into harness and work in the mill. Two or three precious days will be spent in producing what will be good for nothing; for as for making any thing good of a birth-day ode, I might as well attempt to manufacture silk purses from sows’ ears. Like Warton, I shall give the poem an historical character; but I shall not do this as well as Warton, who has done it very well. He was a happy, easy-minded, idle man, to whom literature in its turn was as much an amusement as rat-hunting, and who never aimed at anything above such odes.

March 20.—I now send you the fourth letter of the promised series, dated at the beginning nearly four months before it was brought to an end. Were I to proceed always at this rate with it, I should die of old age before I got breeched in the narrative; but with all my undertakings I proceed faster in proportion as I advance in them. Just now I am in the humour for going on; and you will hear from me again sooner than you expect, for I shall begin the next letter as soon as this packet is dispatched. It is a long while since I have heard from you, and I am somewhat anxious to hear how your affair goes
64 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE Ætat. 46.
on in Brazil. If
O Grande Marquez could have been raised from the dead, he would have had courage and capacity to have modelled both countries according to the circumstances of the age. But I am more anxious about the manner in which these events may affect you, than concerning their general course; that is in the will of Providence; and with regard to the state of the Peninsula, and of Italy, I really see so much evil on both sides, and so much good intent acting erroneously on both, that if I could turn the scale with a wish, I should not dare to do it.

“God bless you, my dear friend!

Yours affectionately,
R. S.”