Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Grasmere, to Robert Southey, 1804 January 13 : autograph manuscript signed.

Beginning "Rain, soaking Rain: and my two last Nights have been poisoned by it"; describing an extraordinary dream: "I dreamt [...] that I came up into one of our Xt Hospital Wards, & sitting by a bed was told that it was Davy in it, who in attempts to enlighten mankind had inflicted ghastly wounds on himself, & must henceforward live bed-ridden. The image before my Eyes instead of Davy was a wretched Dwarf with only three fingers; which however produced, as always in Dreams, no Surprize. I however burst at once into loud & vehement Weeping, which at length, but after a considerable continuance, awakened me / My cheeks were drowned in Tears, my pillow & shirt collar quite wet / & the hysterical Sob was lingering in my breast"; describing further a "profound death-like Sleep," feelings of paralysis and a night full of "loud Screams, that disturbed the Household"; writing about his skin, and the lack of medical knowledge about "that sympathy that exists in so remarkable a degree between the Skin & Stomach"; writing in great detail about inflammation, rashes, ulcers, boils and other symptoms, and the effect that increased levels of opiates have on different aspects of the illness; saying that he is searching for "words & a theory to explain my own disease by"; mentioning a Mrs. Wilson who had the same symptoms for many years, until "after many years burst out a burning Eruption on her Skin [...] & since that time she has been well"; saying that he too believes "that I have that which common people mean, when they say / that an Eruption has been driven in, or driven back into the Blood"; adding that he thinks it isn't damp air per se that affects him, but "a defect of electrical, or other imponderable fluid instrumental to vital action, in the air at such times"; writing of his hopes for the effects of a hot climate; saying that he was sorry to hear that another batch of books had arrived for Southey to review and urging him to continue to work on his poem "Madoc" above all, regardless of finances or other projects (including his History of Portugal); arguing forcefully that "the Voyage of Madoc should have altogether no Resemblance to that of [Christopher] Columbus" and making other points about the influence of accounts of South American exploration on the poem ("I cannot help believing, that your Heart & Imagination had been so pre-occupied by Wales, & by S. America, so filled with Thoughts & Images relating to these, that at that time you had not room for a true poetic Conception of the Voyage"); making suggestions about various scenes and characters; adding "Wordsworth feels the weight of this resemblance to Columbus as strongly as I, tho' of course, I am the more haunted by it"; saying that he is eager to be off, though he has not been idle and has filled "a full Third of that large Metallic Pencil Pocket-book with Hints, Thoughts, Facts, Illustrations, &c &c"; sending "kind remembrances" to Edith Southey and Mary Lovell; asking Southey to convey various messages to his wife Sara and saying that he wishes he could see his daughter Sara "tottling alongside the Sopha"; discussing Derwent's health; directing his wife that "Hartley should immediately be taught at least to read Hand Writing -- & that if she will immediately set about it -- (You can give her a little distinct Writing for him to read) in about a fortnight I will write him a Letter by the Post in very plain writing -- but she must not give him a Hint of this."