801. Robert Southey to Thomas Southey, 23 June 1803*
John Bulls Invitation1
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O Bonaparte2 what I hear It is no lie then? is it? That in your goodness you intend To come & pay me a visit?
You shall find a hearty welcome – Tis the custom of John Bull, When strangers come to visit him To give them a belly-full O Bonaparte! my hero, my hearty, Come over! come over! come over!
I have treated my French neighbours well Even in their own country, And I shall treat them better still If they come over to me!
No ceremony <You’ll find pot-luck,>! & as you come To take what I have got,Pot luck, so <Why you should> tell the friends you bring To come & go to pot. O Bonaparte! my hero! my hearty! Come over! come over! come over!
To give you a good warm welcome In truth is my design, But there is David Jones who keeps A warmer fire-side than mine. And as you have been engaged to him I know for many a day, Why methinks it is not unlikely You may stop with him by the way. O Bonaparte &c –
There’s a little piece of water Which lies between you & me It’s rather troublesome to cross For folks who are sick at sea. But less trouble than you kindly mean To take, perhaps may do If I meet you half way over It will be all over with you
O Bonaparte &c
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There Tom – theres a Song for you, piping hot, which you may sing to the tune of Gregory Gubbins.3
R. S.
Thursday June 23. 1803
Notes
Address: To/ Lieutenant Southey./ H. M. S. Galatea/ Spithead./ Single
Postmark:
[partial] STOL/ UN 23 1803
MS: British Library, Add MS 30927. ALS; 3p.
Unpublished. Back
1. Published in the Morning Post, 5 July 1803. Back
2. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821, First Consul 1799-1804, Emperor of the French 1804-1814). Back
3. Gubbins was a character in George Colman, the younger (1762-1836; DNB), The Battle of Hexham (1789). Southey probably means Gubbins’s song ‘What’s a valiant hero?’; see Songs, Choruses, &c. in The Battle of Hexham; or, Days of Old (London, 1789), pp. 5-7. Back