The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to C. W. W. Wynne, 5 July 1805
“Fox has written
me a very civil letter of thanks; saying, however, that he had not yet had time
to read the poem, so his praise can of course only have been of detached parts.
“They tell me the duty upon foreign works is not worth
collecting, and that it might be repealed if any member thought it worth his
while to take up the matter. If this be the case, I pray you take into
consideration the case of your petitioner; there is now a roomful of books
lying for me at Lisbon, all of use to me, and yet literally and truly such the
major part, that were they to be sold in England, they would not yield the
expense of the duty. I cannot smuggle them all in, to my sorrow, being obliged
to get over only a box at a time, of such a smuggleable size that a man can
easily carry it, and this I cannot do at London, where I wish to have them.
What my uncle has sent over, and fairly paid for, has cost about a hundred
pounds freight and duty—the freight far the smaller part. Now, if this
barbarous tax can be repealed, whoever effects its repeal certainly deserves to
be esteemed a benefactor to literature, and it may also be taken into the
account that you would save me from the sin of ![]()
| Ætat. 30. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 333 |
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smuggling,
which else, assuredly, I have not virtue enough to resist. Seriously, if the
thing could be done, it would be some pride to me, as well as some profit, that
you should be the man to do it. . . . . I have just received a good and
valuable book from Lisbon, the Barbarorum Leges Antiquæ, well and laboriously edited by a monk at
Venice, in five folios, the last published in 1792. An excellent work it
appears to me, upon the slight inspection I have yet given it,—one that
by its painful and patient labour reminds one of old times; such a book as
monasteries do sometimes produce, but universities never. My books here are few
but weighty, and every day I meet with something or other so interesting to me,
that a wish arises for some friend to drop in, to whom and with whom I could
talk over the facts which have appeared, and the speculations growing out of
them. What profit the History may ultimately produce. Heaven knows; but I would
not for anything that rank or fortune could give, forego the pleasure of the
pursuit.
“The story of Pelayo, the restorer of the Gothic or founder of the Spanish
monarchy, has been for some time in my thoughts as good for a poem. I would rather it were
a Portuguese than a Spanish story; that, however, cannot be helped. The
historical facts are few and striking, just what they should be; and I could
fitly give to the main character, the strong feelings and passions which give
life and soul to poetry, and in which I feel that Madoc is deficient. There is yet half an
hour’s daylight, enough to show you what my ideas are upon the ![]()
| 334 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 30. |
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subject, in their crude state.
Pelayo revolted because his sister was made by force
the concubine of a Moorish governor, or by consent; and because his own life
was attempted by that governor, in fear of his resentment, he retreated to the
mountains, where a cavern was his stronghold; and from that cavern miraculously
defeated an army of unbelievers: the end is that he won the city or castle of
Gijon, and was chosen king. There are for characters, Pelayo himself; the young Alphonso, who married his daughter, and succeeded to his
throne; Orpas, the renegade archbishop,
killed in the battle of the Cave; Count
Julian; his daughter Florinda, the innocent cause of all the
evil, who killed herself in consequence; and, lastly. King Rodrigo himself, who certainly escaped from the battle,
and lived as a hermit for the remainder of his days. If I venture upon
machinery, of all subjects here is the most tempting one. What a scene would
the famous Cave of Toledo furnish, and what might not be done with the ruined
monasteries, with the relics and images which the fugitives were hiding in the
woods and mountains! I forgot to mention among the historical characters the
wife of Rodrigo, who married one of the
Moorish governors. Monks and nuns (the latter not yet cloistered in
communities), persecuted Arians, and Jews, and slaves, would furnish fictitious
and incidental characters in abundance. You see the raw materials; if English
history could supply me as good a subject, it would on every account be better,
but I can find none. That of Edmund Ironside
is the best, which William Taylor
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| Ætat. 30. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 335 |
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threw out to me as a lure in the Annual Review; but when an historical story is
taken, the issue ought to be of permanent importance.
“I have never thought so long at one time about Pelayo as while thus talking to you about
him; but Madoc does not fully
satisfy me, and I should like to produce something better—something
pitched in a higher key. A Spanish subject has one advantage, that it will cost
me no additional labour of research; only, indeed, were I to chuse
Pelayo, I would see his cave, which is fitted up as a
chapel, has a stream gliding from it, and must be one of the finest things in
Spain. God bless you!
Charles James Fox (1749-1806)
Whig statesman and the leader of the Whig opposition in Parliament after his falling-out
with Edmund Burke.
William Taylor of Norwich (1765-1836)
Translator, poet, and essayist; he was a pupil of Anna Letitia Barbauld and correspondent
of Robert Southey who contributed to the
Monthly Magazine, the
Monthly Review, the
Critical Review, and
other periodicals.
Charles Watkin Williams Wynn (1775-1850)
The son of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, fourth baronet; educated at Westminster and Christ
Church, Oxford, Robert Southey's friend and benefactor was a Whig MP for Old Sarum (1797)
and Montgomeryshire (1799-1850). He was president of the Board of Control (1822-28).
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Madoc. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1805). A verse romance relating the legendary adventures of a Welsh prince in Wales and
pre-Columbian America.
