“You must, long ere this, have received my second
letter. I continue in comfortable health, and spirits that cast a sunshine upon
every thing. I pray you make peace, that I may return in the spring over
| Ætat. 26. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 95 |
“Thalaba is finished, and I am correcting it; the concluding books you shall shortly receive. Griantly is not a coinage, it is sterling English of the old mint; I used it to avoid the sameness of sound in the Giant Tyrant as it stood at first. You object to ‘fowls of the air,’ and do not remember the elision. You object likewise to a licence which I claim as lawful, that of making two short syllables stand for one long one. The eighth book explains enough what Azrael had been doing. The previous uncertainty is well. You will, I trust, find the Paradise a rich poetical picture, a proof that I can employ magnificence and luxury of language when I think them in place. The other faults you point out are removed. Thank you for —— letters. I shall enclose one to him when next I write, the only mode of conveyance with which I am acquainted. —— and I, both of us, were sent into the world with feelings little likely to push us forward in it. One overwhelming propensity has formed my destiny, and marred all prospects of rank or wealth; but it has made me happy, and it will make me immortal. ——, when I was his shadow, was almost my counterpart; but his talents and feelings found no centre, and perforce thus have been scattered: he will probably succeed in worldly prospects far better than I shall do, but he will not be so happy a man, and his genius will bring forth no fruits. I love him dearly, and I
* “I had written at first ‘fowls of heaven,’ but heaven occurs a few fines above. But the line is wholly altered this way.” |
| 96 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 26. |
| Ætat. 26. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 97 |
“I have written no line of poetry here, except the four books of Thalaba, nor shall I till they are corrected and sent off, and my mind completely delivered of that subject. Some credit may be expected from the poem; and if the booksellers will not give me 100l. for a 4to. edition of 500 copies, or 140l. for a pocket one of 1000, why they shall not have the poem.
“I long to see the face of a friend, and hunger after
the bread-and-butter comforts and green fields of England. Yet do I feel so
strongly the good effects of climate,—and I am now perspiring in my shirt
while I write, in the coolness of Cintra, a darkened room and a wet
floor,—that I certainly wish my lot could be cast somewhere in the south
of Europe. The spot I am in is the most beautiful I have ever seen or imagined.
I ride a jackass, a fine lazy way of travelling; you have even a boy to beat
old Dapple
| 98 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 26. |
“Here is a long letter about myself, and not a word about Portugal. My next shall be a brimming sheet of anecdotes.
“I am sorry —— is so disgusted with India, though I cannot wish he were otherwise. From all accounts, an English East-Indian is a very bad animal; they have adopted by force the luxury of the country, and its tyranny and pride by choice. A man who feels and thinks must be in solitude there. Yet the comfort is, that your wages are certain; so many years of toil for such a fortune at last. Is a young man wise who devotes the best years of his life to such a speculation? Alas! if he is, then am I a pitiable blockhead. But to me, the fable of the ant and grasshopper has long appeared a bad one: the ant hoards and hoards for a season in which he is torpid; the grasshopper—there is one singing merrily among the canes—God bless him! I wish you could see one, with his wings and his vermilion legs.
“God bless you! Write often, and let me have a very long letter upon short paper, as postage is by weight. Remember me to Elmsley; and pray pull Bedford’s ears, till I hear him bray: I wish my burro boy could get at him!”
