Historical dream account · English · original published text
The Precious Cup and the King’s Daughter
Robert Southey
The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles; Appendix II: Southey’s Dreams (1881) · Appendix II: Southey’s Dreams, printed p. 366
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A certain king had a precious cup, giftee with some magical property, of such exceeding value that he suffered no person to see it, its loss would have been so great an evil. A model, however, was in his daughter's keeping, and by winning her love he who coveted the original obtained sight of this, which was doing much, for though the real cup could not be stolen nor won by any unworthy means (such was the spell), it was attainable by intensity of desire and fixedness of mind, as the Fakeers obtain beatitude, and Mainanduc pretended to heal diseases at a distance. Thus far had I got in the dream when the child awoke me. I was sensible that it was a fairy tale, and yet the story seemed to be acting before me.
Diary entry heading: November 7th, 1804.
Source & context
Southey records a sleep-dream in which a fairy-tale scene appeared to act before him; this is not a new invented tale or a claim that the magical events occurred. The child’s awakening of the dreamer and the narrator’s own fairy-tale assessment are retained. Historical claims about magical healing are reported as source wording, including the source’s word pretended. The apparent printed form giftee is preserved. Published in the 1881 edition edited by Edward Dowden, who is credited as editor rather than dreamer or recorder.
Robert Southey, dreamer and recorder, “Southey’s Dreams,” in The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles, edited with an introduction by Edward Dowden (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, & Co.; London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1881), printed p. 366. Original English text from the Robarts Library, University of Toronto copy digitized by Internet Archive. Descriptive title and navigation themes added by Synastry.
The full dated entry heading is printed. The other dream in the same entry is explicitly introduced as about ten days ago and is excluded. The entry heading is not asserted as a verified exact sleep date.
No Copyright – United States (1881 original English edition) ↗
Original English prose published in the witnessed 1881 edition; the original publication is public domain in the United States. Internet Archive metadata records NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT in the US and the title page visibly prints 1881. Robert Southey died in 1843 and the edition’s editor Edward Dowden in 1913; ordinary author-life-plus-70 terms have also elapsed where applicable. No modern translation, transcription edition or modern editorial additions are reused. No Copyright–United States identifies status, not a new exclusive license or a blanket worldwide reuse grant.
Source locator and text provenance
Appendix II: Southey’s Dreams, printed p. 366, IA leaf 408
The original text and redactions are preserved. The page title is an editorial navigation label.
Selected one complete recalled dream at explicit source boundaries; omitted adjacent accounts and page furniture. Joined typesetter line wraps and unambiguous split words, preserving source paragraphs and printed compounds including down-stairs and knick-knack. Applied only listed scan-verified OCR repairs; preserved the printed apparent form giftee. Added a descriptive navigation title, without translation, identity expansion or narrative generation.
- Account text SHA-256
- 832188278718d24ea1484aee3b25990ab475f0125ce795f6d68c7faae25ef471
- Source file SHA-256
- 3105e7a9afc2e0cc5725208180a55c12f8cff63aaa5ad4ea8fc4ac861c7a0b41
Connections in the Loom
Titles, theme labels, illustrations and map connections are editorial navigation aids. They are separate from the account’s words and do not establish connections between real people.