The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Thomas Southey, 25 November 1809
“I write to you for two reasons. . . . . ; the other,
a more interesting one, is to tell you that I have this day finished Kehama, having written two
hundred lines since yesterday morning. Huzza, Aballiboozobanganorribo!* It is
not often in his lifetime a man finishes a long poem, and as I have nobody to
give me joy, I must give myself joy. 24 sections, 4844 lines; 200 or 300 more
will probably be added in course of correction and transcription; all has been
done before breakfast (since its resumption) except about 170 lines of the
conclusion. Huzza! better than lying a-bed, Tom; and though I am not quite ready to begin another, I will
rise as usual to-morrow, and work at the plans of Pelayo and Robin Hood. And now I am a little impatient
that you should see the whole, and shall feel another job off
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| 268 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 35. |
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my hands when your copy is completed. By beginning
earlier with the next poem, I shall be able to keep pace with it, and send it
to you as fast as it proceeds. . . . .
“Very very few persons will like Kehama; everybody will wonder at it; it
will increase my reputation without increasing my popularity: a general remark
will be, what a pity that I have wasted so much power. I care little about
this, having in the main pleased myself, and all along amused myself; every
generation will afford me some half dozen admirers of it, and the everlasting
column of Dante’s fame does not stand
upon a wider base. There will be a good many minor ornaments to insert, the
metre will in many places be enriched, and the story perhaps sometimes be
rendered more perspicuous. Now that the whole is before me, I can see where to
add and alter. If it receives half the improvements which Thalaba did, I shall be well content.
“Pelayo is to be in blank verse: where the whole interest is to be
derived from human character and the inherent dignity of the story, I will not
run the hazard of enfeebling the finer parts for the sake of embellishing the
weaker ones. I shall pitch Robin
Hood in a different key,—such as the name would lead one to
expect,—a wild pastoral movement, in the same sort of plastic metre as
Garci Ferrandez.* I shall
aim it at about 2000 lines, and endeavour not to exceed 3000.
“The state of home politics is perfectly hopeless.
Bonaparte seems thoroughly to despise
all we can do; all that we have done he is certainly entitled to
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| Ætat. 35. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 269 |
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despise; but if we had Marlborough or Peterborough
alive again, six months would close his career for ever even now. It remains to
be seen whether he despises the Spaniards enough to let things go on in their
present course, or if he will enter Spain again and overrun the open country.
In that case there is a line of large towns between Barcelona and Cadiz, along
the coast, some of which may be expected to hold out like Zaragoza and Gerona,
which we could assist by sea, and which would afford opportunities for such men
as Cochrane or Sir S. Smith grievously to annoy the besiegers,—indeed to
cut them off if they had a good force. There ought to be four flying squadrons
of 5000 men, each ready to land wherever they were wanted; under
Cochrane they would keep five times their number of
French in continual alarm. The only possible hope from the Marquis Wellesley is, that he may insist on a
vigorous effort; what we are doing now is just worse than nothing. Our men
drink themselves to death; our officers learn to despise the Spaniards and
Portuguese, because they do not dress, eat, and drink like themselves; and
their opinions pass current here in England; and the consequence is, that never
were a people so cruelly and basely calumniated as this nation, which has done
more against the powers of France, and under every possible disadvantage, than
all the rest of Europe conjointly. What a different story Sir Robert Wilson would tell, who has kept the
field with his legion of Portuguese, through all the perilous season! . . . . .
Thomas Cochrane, tenth earl of Dundonald (1775-1860)
After an adventurous naval career in the Napoleonic wars he was caught up in financial
scandal and dismissed; he secured the independence of Chile and Peru (1819-22) but was less
successful as admiral of the Greek navy (1827-28); he was MP (1806, expelled 1814) and
succeeded to the earldom in 1831.
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Florentine poet, the author of the
Divine Comedy and other
works.
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).
Sir William Sidney Smith (1764-1840)
Naval commander; he made his reputation by raising the French siege of Acre (1799); he
was MP for Rochester (1801) and promoted to admiral (1821). He spent his later years on the
Continent avoiding creditors.
Thomas Southey (1777-1838)
The younger brother of Robert Southey; he was a naval captain (1811) and afterwards a
Customs officer. He published
A Chronological History of the West
Indies (1828).
Richard Wellesley, first marquess Wellesley (1760-1842)
The son of Garret Wesley (1735-1781) and elder brother of the Duke of Wellington; he was
Whig MP, Governor-general of Bengal (1797-1805), Foreign Secretary (1809-12), and
Lord-lieutenant of Ireland (1821-28); he was created Marquess Wellesley in 1799.
Sir Robert Thomas Wilson (1777-1849)
Soldier, author, radical Whig MP for Southwark (1818-31), and diplomat; he wrote
History of the British Expedition to Egypt (1802) and was governor
of Gibraltar (1842).
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
The Doctor &c.. 7 vols (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, 1834-1847). A rambling biographical satire that contains the first publication of the story of The
Three Bears.
