The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Richard Duppa, 31 March 1809
“I am sorry for your loss,—a heavy one under any
circumstances, and particularly so to one who, being single at your time of
life, will now feel more entirely what it is to have no person who intimately
loves him. It is not in the order of nature that there should ever be a void in
the heart of man,—the old leaves should not fall from the tree till the
young ones are expanding to supply their place.
“I have now three girls living, and as delightful a
playfellow in the shape of a boy as ever man was blest with. Very often, when I
look at them, I think what a fit thing it would be that Malthus should be hanged.
“You may have known that I have some dealings, in the
way of trade, with your bookseller, Murray. One article of mine is in his first Quarterly, and he has bespoken more. Whenever I
shall have the satisfaction of seeing you once more under this roof, it will
amuse you to see how dextrously Gifford
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| Ætat. 35. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 227 |
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emasculated this article of mine of its most forcible
parts. I amused myself one morning with putting them all in again, and
restoring vigour, consistency, and connection to the whole. It is certainly
true that his Majesty gives me a pension of 200l.
a-year, out of which his Majesty deducts 60l. and a few
shillings; but, if his Majesty trebled or decupled the pension, and remitted
the whole taxation, it would be the same thing. The treasury should never
bribe, nor his judges deter me from delivering a full and free opinion upon any
subject which seems to me to call for it. If I hate Bonaparte, and maintain that this country never ought to accept
of any peace while that man is Emperor of France, it is precisely upon the same
principle that I formerly disliked Pitt,
and maintained that we never ought to have gone to war.
“I am glad you have been interested by the Cid; it is certainly the most
curious chronicle in existence. In the course of the summer,—I hope early
in it,—you will see the first volume of my History of Brazil, of which nine-and-twenty
sheets are printed. This book has cost me infinite labour. The Cid was an easy task; of that no other copy was made than what
went to the press; of this every part has been twice written, many parts three
times, and all with my own hand. For this I expect to get a sufficient quantity
of abuse, and little else; money is only to be got by such productions as are
worth nothing more than what they fetch per sheet. I could get my thousand
a-year, if I would but do my best en-![]()
| 228 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 35. |
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deavours to be dull,
and aim at nothing higher than Reviews and Magazines.
“God bless you!
Yours very truly,
R. Southey.”
Richard Duppa (1768-1831)
Writer and antiquary; a contributor to the
Literary Gazette; he
published
A Journal of the most remarkable Occurrences that took place in
Rome (1799) and other works.
William Gifford (1756-1826)
Poet, scholar, and editor who began as a shoemaker's apprentice; after Oxford he
published
The Baviad (1794),
The Maeviad
(1795), and
The Satires of Juvenal translated (1802) before becoming
the founding editor of the
Quarterly Review (1809-24).
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834)
English political economist educated at Jesus College, Cambridge; he was author of
An Essay on the Principles of Population (1798; 1803).
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
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.
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Concerning the Relations of Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal, to each other,
and to the common Enemy, at this Crisis; and specifically as affected by the Convention of
Cintra the whole brought to the Test of those Principles, by which alone the Independence
and Freedom of Nations can be preserved or recovered. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1809). Originally published in
The Courier.
