1202. Robert Southey to John Rickman, 19 July [1806]*
My dear Rickman
I handsel (heaven knows the orthography of that word) my seal upon my brother Harrys thesis. One is directed to Carlisle – one to George Dyer – both having expressed a wish to have one – the third you may look at or not at your before it goes into one of the lateral receptables of your Privy Cabinet, – or while it is there in course of use – at your own pleasure. Being of softer texture than acts of Parliament it is better suited for the xxxxxxxxxx use to which it will be applied.
Country air I hope will effectually restore Mrs R.s health. The rumour concerning Coleridge is false. We believe he is living at Rome under a feigned name as necessary precaution.1 this is Stoddarts news.2
Tom is come home to England, & hopes to get a spell here.3 In that case you may probably see him as he passes this town.
Your Sphynx forms an excellent seal. My blackletter is not orthodoxly shaped, & might have been a little larger & a little deeper cut – but I like it well on the whole.4
I am providing a Chronicle of the Cid for English Readers, which is as curious a fiction of manners & society as you have ever seen.5
Turners Review will never fall in my way till I get to London again. I am obliged to him for a friendly shove, which would have been a hearty one had it been in a more effectual place.6 But the circulation of that journal cannot be extensive, nor its effect much.
The Printer & I go on as slowly as I could wish – for the Cid delights me more than my ideal Spaniard7 – I shall write speedily to Duppa of & concerning him. –
God bless you RS.
Saturday. July 19. —
Notes
Endorsement: RS./ 19 July 1806
MS: Huntington Library, RS
92. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. Back
1. Coleridge was in the process of returning from Malta via the continent and reached England in August 1806. Back
2. Sir John Stoddart (1773–1856; DNB), writer and lawyer, who from 1803 to 1807 was an advocate for the king and the admiralty at Malta, in which capacity he became an associate of Coleridge. Back
3. Thomas Southey had been serving in the West Indies as part of the British campaign to achieve naval dominance in the Caribbean during the Napoleonic wars. Back
4. Southey’s seal bore the motto ‘In Labore Quies’, meaning ‘In Labour Rest’, borrowed from the sixteenth-century Spanish historian Esteban de Garibay (1533–1600), and also engraved on his bookplate. Back
5. Southey’s Chronicle of the Cid was published in 1808. Back
6. Sharon Turner, review of Madoc in General Review of British and Foreign Literature, 1 (June 1806), 505–526. Back
7. Letters from England by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella; Translated from the Spanish (1807) was being printed by Richard Taylor (1781–1858; DNB), printer and naturalist, who would go on to establish the publishing firm of Taylor and Francis with his son William Francis (1817–1904; DNB) in 1852. Back