“Why, Tom! you
must be mad, stark staring mad, jumping mad, horn mad, to be lying in port all
this time! For plain or stark madness I should prescribe a simple
strait-waistcoat;—staring madness maybe alleviated by the use of green
spectacles;—for jumping madness I have found a remedy in a custom used by
the Siamese: when they take prisoners, they burn their feet to prevent them
from running away;—horn madness is, indeed, beyond my skill: for that
Doctor’s Commons is the place. I am vexed and provoked for you to see
prizes brought in under your nose. . . . . My books have had an increase since
you left. I have
| 210 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 28. |
“I have been very hard at history, and have almost finished, since your departure, that thick folio chronicle which you may remember I was about skindeep in, and which has supplied me with matter for half a volume. This war terrifies and puzzles me about Portugal. I think of going over alone this next winter, while I can. I have fifteen quartos on the way from Lisbon; and, zounds! if they should be taken! . . . . Next month I shall go to London. The hard exercise of walking the streets will do me good. My picture in the Exhibition* pleases everybody, I hear; I wish you had seen it.
“. . . . . Remember my advice about all Dutch captains in
* This picture was by Opie, and is the one engraved in this work. |
| Ætat. 28. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 211 |
