The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Grosvenor C. Bedford, 6 December 1805
“William’s iron-grey
had his advantages and disadvantages. He never required shoeing, for as the
hoof is harder than the flesh, so in just proportion to his metallic muscles he
had hoofs of adamant: but then, he was hard-mouthed. There was no expense in
feeding him; but he required scouring, lest he should grow rusty. Instead of
spurs, William had a contrivance for touching him
with aquafortis. It was a fine thing to hear the rain hiss upon him as he
galloped. . . . . The Butler wears a chest
of drawers—sometimes a bureau.
“Bedford, I
will break off all acquaintance with you if you do not publish the Butler. Who would keep a Phœnix with a
spaniel’s ear, a pig’s tail, C——’s nose,
and W——’s wig, all naturally belonging to him, in a
cage only for his own amusement, when he might show it for five shillings
a-piece, and be known all over the world as the man who hatched it himself?
“. . . . . By the 1st of January, send me the first
chapter, being the Mythology of the Butler,—or else——I will, for evermore, call you Sir when I speak to you, and
Mr. Bedford
when I speak of you; and, moreover, will always pull off
my hat when I meet you in the streets.
“I perceive that the reviewals of Madoc have in a certain degree influenced
you, which they will not do, if you will look at them when they are three
months old, or if you recollect that a review is the ![]()
| 356 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 30. |
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opinion of one man upon the work of another, and that it is not very likely,
that any man who reviews a poem of mine, should know quite as much of the
mechanism of poetry, or should have thought quite so much upon the nature of
poetry as I have done. The Monthly
is mere malice, and is beneath all notice; but look at the Edinburgh, and you will see that Jeffrey himself does not know what he is
about. He talks of Virgil, and Pope, and Racine, to
what I have set up against. I told him Pope was a model
for satire. That, he said, was a great concession. ‘No,’
said I, ‘if his style be a model for satire, how can it be for serious
narrative?’ And he did not attempt to hold up his Homer for imitation, but fairly and unequivocally
declared he did not like it. And yet Jeffrey attacks me
for not writing in Madoc like
Pope! The passages which he has quoted, for praise or
for censure, may just as well change places; they are culled capriciously, not
with my sense of selection. The real faults of Madoc have never been pointed
out. Wm. Taylor has criticised it for the Annual, very favourably and very ably; there are
remarks in Ms critiques to set one thinking and considering;—but
W. Taylor is a man who fertilises every subject he
touches upon.
“Don Manuel; how could you not understand it was a secret? Do you
not remember how covertly I inquired of you the text in Field’s Bible? . . . . . The use of secrecy is to excite
curiosity, and, perhaps, to pass through the reviews under cover; Rickman particularly recommended the foreign
cast of remarks through the whole of the journey. Thus do doctors differ. As
for the queerities, let them ![]()
| Ætat. 30. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 357 |
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stay: it is only they who
know me pretty nearly, know what a queer fish I am; others conceive me to be a
very grave sort of person. Besides, I have not the least intention of keeping
the thing concealed after the purpose of secrecy has answered.
“That wretch Mack has very likely
spoilt my voyage to Lisbon. If there be not peace, Bonaparte will show himself master of the Continent and turn us
out of Portugal, if only to show that he is more powerful in that peninsula
than Charlemagne was. I am afraid of
France, and wish for single-handed war carried on steadily and systematically.
We ought to have Egypt, Sicily, and the Cape; if we do not, France will. But
nothing good ever will be done while that wretched minister is at the head of affairs. . . . .
Tui favoris studiosissimus,
R. S.”
Grosvenor Charles Bedford (1773-1839)
The son of Horace Walpole's correspondent Charles Bedford; he was auditor of the
Exchequer and a friend of Robert Southey who contributed to several of Southey's
publications.
Emperor Charlemagne (742-814)
King of the Franks and Emperor of the West who built his palace school at Aachen.
Homer (850 BC fl.)
Poet of the
Iliad and
Odyssey.
Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850)
Scottish barrister, Whig MP, and co-founder and editor of the
Edinburgh
Review (1802-29). As a reviewer he was the implacable foe of the Lake School of
poetry.
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his
abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St.
Helena (1815).
William Pitt the younger (1759-1806)
The second son of William Pitt, earl of Chatham (1708-1778); he was Tory prime minister
1783-1801.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
English poet and satirist; author of
The Rape of the Lock (1714)
and
The Dunciad (1728).
Jean Racine (1639-1699)
French neoclassical playwright, author of
Andromaque (1667),
Bajazet (1672),
Mithridate (1673) and Phèdre
(1677).
John Rickman (1771-1840)
Educated at Magdalen Hall and Lincoln College, Oxford, he was statistician and clerk to
the House of Commons and an early friend of Charles Lamb and Robert Southey.
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.
Virgil (70 BC-19 BC)
Roman epic poet; author of
Eclogues,
Georgics, and the
Aenead.
The Monthly Review. (1749-1844). The original editor was Ralph Griffiths; he was succeeded by his son George Edward who
edited the journal from 1803 to 1825, who was succeeded by Michael Joseph Quin
(1825–32).
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.
