The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 3 August 1803
“I meant to have written sooner; but those little units
of interruption and preventions, which sum up to as ugly an aggregate as the
items in a lawyer’s bill, have come in the way. . . . . ![]()
| Ætat. 28. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 221 |
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Your plan is too good, too gigantic, quite beyond my
powers. If you had my tolerable state of health, and that love of steady and
productive employment which is now grown into a necessary habit with me, if you
were to execute and would execute it, it would be, beyond all doubt, the most
valuable work of any age or any country; but I cannot fill up such an outline.
No man can better feel where he fails than I do; and to rely upon you for whole
quartos! Dear Coleridge, the smile that
comes with that thought is a very melancholy one; and if Edith saw me now, she would think my eyes were
weak again, when, in truth, the humour that covers them springs from another
cause.
“For my own comfort, and credit, and peace of mind, I
must have a plan which I know myself strong enough to execute. I can take
author by author as they come in their series, and give his life and an account
of his works quite as well as ever it has yet been done. I can write connecting
paragraphs and chapters shortly and pertinently, in my way; and in this way the
labour of all my associates can be more easily arranged. . . . . And, after
all, this is really nearer the actual design of what I purport by a bibliotheca
than yours would be,—a book of reference, a work in which it may be seen
what has been written upon every subject in the British language: this has
elsewhere been done in the dictionary form; whatever we get better than that
form—ponemus lucro.
“The Welsh part, however, should be kept com-![]()
| 222 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 28. |
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pletely distinct, and form a volume, or half a volume, by
itself; and this must be delayed till the last in publication, whatever it be
in order, because it cannot be done till the whole of the Archæology is
printed, and by that time I will learn the language, and so, perhaps, will you.
George Ellis is about it; I think
that, with the help of Turner and
Owen, and poor Williams, we could then do everything that
ought to be done.
“The first part, then, to be published is the Saxon;
this Turner will execute, and to this
you and William Taylor may probably both
be able to add something from your stores of northern knowledge. The Saxon
books all come in sequence chronologically; then the mode of arrangement should
be by centuries, and the writers classed as poets, historians, &c., by
centuries, or by reigns, which is better. . . . . Upon this plan the Schoolmen
will come in the first volume.
“The historical part of the theology, and the
bibliographical, I shall probably execute myself, and you will do the
philosophy. By the by, I have lately found the book of John Perrott the Quaker, who went to convert
the Pope, containing all his epistles to the Romans, &c., written in the
Inquisition at Rome; for they allowed him the privilege of writing, most likely
because his stark madness amused them. This fellow (who turned rogue at last,
wore a sword, and persecuted the Quakers in America to make them swear) made a
schism in the society against ![]()
| Ætat. 28. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 223 |
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George Fox, insisting that hats should be
kept on in meeting during speaking, (has not this prevailed?) and that the
Friends should not shave. His book is the most frantic I ever saw, quite
Gilbertish; and the man acted up to it. . . .
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
English poet and philosopher who projected
Lyrical Ballads (1798)
with William Wordsworth; author of
Biographia Literaria (1817),
On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other
works.
George Ellis (1753-1815)
English antiquary and critic, editor of
Specimens of Early English
Poets (1790), friend of Walter Scott.
George Fox (1624-1691)
Founder of the Quaker sect; his autobiography was first published in 1694.
John Perrot (d. 1665)
Irish Quaker who travelled in Italy to convert the pope and spent his latter years as an
exile in the West Indies; he published
Battering Rams Against Rome
(1661).
William Owen Pughe (1759-1835)
Welsh poet, translator, antiquary and lexicographer; he was a follower of Joanna
Southcott.
Edith Southey [née Fricker] (1774-1837)
The daughter of Stephen Fricker, she was the first wife of Robert Southey and the mother
of his children; they married in secret in 1795.
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.
Sharon Turner (1768-1847)
Attorney, historian, and writer for the
Quarterly Review; he wrote
History of the Anglo-Saxons, 4 vols (1799-1805).
Edward Williams [Iolo Morganwg] (1747-1826)
Welsh poet and antiquary who followed Chatterton's example in forging manuscripts to
support his ideas about medieval history.
