“Happily, pecuniary assistance is not needed. There is
reason to think I shall suffer no eventual loss. The price to have been paid me
was 1000 guineas. That sum not having been paid upon the completion of the
work, the copyright rests with me, and the property of the edition cannot be
sold without my assignment. The sum was intended to cover Cuthbert’s expenses through his
University course. Even if it should be materially diminished, or lost, it will
not distress me. Dr. Bell left me 1000l.: that sum is vested in the French funds, and, if need
be, may be drawn out for this purpose. But my own opinion is, that the
copyright is good security for payment in full. I had written good part of a
letter in reply to yours, saying that I have no other concern with the
publishers of my poems than to receive from them half the eventual profits,
which half is not the lion’s half. I was writing also playfully about
The Doctor; but it was
an effort, and I had no heart to go on, for our long tragedy is drawing to its
close. The change has been very rapid. Thank God, there is no suffering either
of body or mind. How long this may last it is impossible to say. To all
appearance she is in the very last stage of emaciation and weakness. There is
no strength for suffering left, she will probably fall asleep like an infant,
and you may imagine what a comfort it is for me to believe, as I verily do,
after two and forty years of
| Ætat. 63. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 343 |
“We are as well as we can be in this state. The event has long been to be desired,—the worst has long been past,—and when one sharp grief is over, we shall be thankful for her deliverance from the body of this death.
“God bless you, my dear Mrs. Hodson!
