661. Robert Southey to William Taylor, 26 February 1802*
My dear friend
Last night John May transmitted to me your letter. as it is now on its way back I infer that an answer from me will reach you one day sooner than it could from him, – & hope delayed I know by experience to be among the damnabilia – the Ahriman-works1 of this world. So Harry gets his first passport2 – & I wish him well thro the next stages <xxxxxxxx> of Mr Martineau3 & the Secretary of State. Moreover the quarterage shall not embarrass him. he shall have another when I receive mine. this is not due till Midsummer – but will perhaps be paid at Ladyday in advance, as heretofore. in either case he not in time for his going. there will be no harm in this – & you hint at the utility of empty pockets in Paris. just at his age I had planned a weeks amusement in France, & actually embarked twice from Rye. the wind prevented my voyage – & this is one of the very <few> circumstances in my life which I remember with regret.4
xxxxx xxxx
I long to show you the λεωυες μεγιοτοι5 of my catalogue – Davy & Coleridge & Rickman, whom we expect in town.
Thank you for helping a lame dog over a stile in the Monthly Magazine.6 x & thank you William Taylor for your kindness to Harry – as warmly & truly & affectionately as he himself can do it –
God bless you. Robert Southey.
26 Feby. 1802.35. Strand.
N.B. cigars in the cupboard, whatever I may deserve on this head – exit in fumum7 will be the end of it I hope.
Notes
Address: To/ Mr Wm Taylor Junr/ Surry Street/ Norwich./ Single
Stamped: 449 STRAND
Postmark: AFE/ 17/ 1802
MS: Huntington Library, HM 4834. ALS; 2p.
Previously published: J. W. Robberds (ed.), A Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late William Taylor of
Norwich, 2 vols (London, 1843), I, pp. 399-400. Back
1. In Zoroastrianism, the destructive spirit. Back
2. Henry Herbert Southey accompanied William Taylor on a visit to France in the summer of 1802. Back
3. Henry Herbert Southey was studying medicine under the tutelage of the distinguished surgeon Philip Meadows Martineau (1752-1829), a member of a family of prominent Norwich Unitarians. Back
4. This adventure occurred when Southey was visiting the Lamb family at Rye in c. June 1792. Back
5. The Greek translates as ‘biggest lions’. Back
6. Taylor’s review of Thalaba the Destroyer (1801) had appeared in Monthly Magazine, 12 (Supplement, 1801), 581-583. Back
7. The Latin translates as ‘goes up in smoke’. Back