The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to John May, 12 June 1816
“Keswick, June 12. 1816.
“My dear Friend,
“I have not written to you for some weeks. Time passes
on, and the lapse of two months may perhaps enable me now to judge what
permanent effect this late affliction may produce upon my habitual state of
mind. It will be long before I shall cease to be ![]()
| 188 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 42. |
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sensible
of the change in my relaxations, my pleasures, hopes, plans, and prospects;
very long, I fear, will it be before a sense of that change will cease to be my
latest thought at night and my earliest in the morning. Yet I am certainly
resigned to this privation; and this I say, not in the spirit with which mere
philosophy teaches us to bear that which is inevitable, but with a Christian
conviction that this early removal is a blessing to him who is removed. We read
of persons who have suddenly become gray from violent emotions of grief or
fear. I feel in some degree as if I had passed at once from boyhood to the
decline of life. I had never ceased to be a boy in cheerfulness till now. All
those elastic spirits are now gone; nor is it in the nature of things that they
should return. I am still capable of enjoyment, and trust that there is much in
store for me; but there is an end of that hilarity which I possessed more
uninterruptedly, and in a greater degree, than any person with whom I was ever
acquainted. You advised me to write down my recollections of Herbert while they were fresh. I dare not
undertake the task. Something akin to it, but in a different form, and with a
more extensive purpose, I have begun; but my eyes and my head suffer too much
in the occupation for me to pursue it as yet; and as these effects cannot be
concealed, I must avoid as much as possible all that would produce them. This,
believe me, is an effort of forbearance, for my heart is very much set upon
completing what I have planned. The effect upon Edith will be as lasting as upon myself; but she had not the
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| Ætat. 42. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 189 |
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same exuberance of spirits to lose, and therefore it
will be less perceptible. The self-command which she has exercised has been
truly exemplary, and commands my highest esteem. Your god-daughter, thank God, is well. Her daily
lesson will long be a melancholy task on my part, since it will be a solitary
one. She is now so far advanced that I can make some of her exercises of use,
and set her to translate passages for my notes, from French, Spanish, or
Portuguese. Of course this is not done without some assistance and some
correction. Still while she improves herself she is assisting me, and the
pleasure that this gives me is worth a great deal. She is a good girl, with a
ready comprehension, quick feelings, a tender heart, and an excellent
disposition. I pray God that her life may be spared to make me happy while I
live, and some one who may be worthy of her when it shall be time for her to
contract other ties and other duties.
“I suppose you will receive my Lay in a few days.
“God bless you, my dear friend!
Yours most affectionately,
Robert Southey.”
Edith Southey [née Fricker] (1774-1837)
The daughter of Stephen Fricker, she was the first wife of Robert Southey and the mother
of his children; they married in secret in 1795.
