| 58 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
Amidst all my father’s various and multiplied occupations, he was yet one of those of whom it might be truly said, that
“they can make who fail to find Brief leisure even in busiest days,” |
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 59 |
We have already seen how materially he had assisted, in conjunction with his friend Mr. Cottle, in establishing the reputation of Chatterton, and in procuring for his needy relatives some profit from his writings; he now engaged himself in a task not dissimilar, except in the perfect and unalloyed satisfaction with which the whole character of the subject of it could be drawn out and contemplated.
In the spring of the year 1804 he had observed, in the Monthly Review, what he considered a most harsh and unjust reviewal of a small volume of poems by Henry Kirke White; and having also accidentally seen a letter which the author had written to the reviewers, explaining the peculiar circumstances under which these poems were written and published, he understood the whole cruelty of their injustice. In consequence of this, he wrote to Henry to encourage him: told him that, though he was well aware how imprudent it was in young poets to publish their productions, his circumstances seemed to render that expedient from which it would otherwise be right to dissuade him; advised him therefore, if he had no better prospects, to print a larger volume by subscription, and offered to do what little was in his power to serve him in the business.
This letter, which I regret has not been preserved, produced a reply full
of expressions of gratitude,
| 60 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
On his decease, one of his friends wrote to my father, informing him of the event, as one who had professed an interest in his fortunes. This led to an inquiry what papers he had left behind him, to a correspondence with his brother Neville, and, ultimately, to the publication, under my father’s editorship, of two volumes of his “Remains,” accompanied with a brief Memoir of his Life.
To the preparation of these the three following letters refer;—others, relating to the same subject, as well as to more general matters, addressed to Kirke White’s two brothers, with whom, especially the elder, the acquaintance thus begun ripened into an intimate and life-long friendship, will appear in their proper places.
“Your letter and parcel arrived yesterday, just as I had completed the examination of the former papers. I have now examined the whole.
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 61 |
“What account of your brother shall be given it rests with you, sir, and his other nearest friends, to determine. I advise and entreat that it may be as full and as minute as possible. The example of a young man winning his way against great difficulties, of such honourable ambition, such unexampled industry, such a righteous and holy confidence of genius, ought not to be withheld. A full and faithful narrative of his difficulties, his hopes, and his eventual success, till it pleased God to promote him to a higher state of existence, will be a lasting encouragement to others who have the same uphill path to tread;—he will be to them what Chatterton was to him, and he will be a purer and better example. If it would wound the feelings of his family to let all and every particular of his honourable and admirable life be known, those feelings are, of course, paramount to every other consideration. But I sincerely hope this may not be the case. It will, I know, be a painful task to furnish me with materials for this, which is the most useful kind of biography, yet, when the effort of beginning such a task shall have been accomplished, the consciousness that you are doing for him what he would have wished to be done, will bring with it a consolation and a comfort.
“Let me beg of you and of your family, when you can
command heart for the task, to give me all your recollections of his childhood
and of every stage of his life. Do not fear you can be too minute; I will
arrange them, insert such poems as will best appear in that place, and add such
remarks as grow out of the circumstances. The narrative itself cannot be
| 62 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“Respecting the mode of publication, you had better consult Mr. ——. The booksellers will, beyond a doubt, undertake to publish them on condition of halving the eventual profits,—which are the terms on which I publish. The profit, I fear, will not be much, unless the public should be taken with some unusual fit of good feeling; and, indeed, this is not unlikely, for they are more frequently just to the dead than to the living.
“I shall be glad to see all his magazine publications; possibly some of the pieces marked by me for transcription may be found among them. There is one poem, printed in the Globe for Feb. 11. 1803, which I remember noticing when it appeared, and which may be more easily copied from the newspaper than from the manuscript. Whether any of his prose writings should be inserted, I shall better be able to judge after having seen the magazines. But the most valuable materials which could be entrusted to me would be his letters,—the more that could be said of him in his own words the better.
“I have been affected at seeing my own name among your brother’s papers;—there is a defence of Thalaba, a part of which I regard as the most discriminating and appropriate praise which I have received.* It seems to have been published in some
* It may not be uninteresting to the reader to see here that portion of Kirke White’s remarks on Thalaba which is thus refered to. After |
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 63 |
|
saying that “an innovation so bold as that of Mr. Southey is sure to meet with disapprobation and ridicule,” he continues—“Whoever is conversant with the writings of this author, will have observed and admired that greatness of mind and comprehension of intellect, by which he is enabled, on all occasions, to throw off the shackles of habit and prepossession. Southey never treads in the beaten track: his thoughts, while they are those of nature, carry that cast of originality which is the stamp and testimony of genius. He views things through a peculiar phasis; and while he has the feelings of a man, they are those of a man almost abstracted from mortality, and reflecting on and painting the scenes of life, as if he were a mere spectator, uninfluenced by his own connection with the objects he surveys. To this faculty of bold discrimination I attribute many of Mr. Southey’s excellencies as a poet. He never seems to inquire how other men would treat a subject, or what may happen to be the usage of the times; but, filled with that strong sense of fitness, which is the result of bold and unshackled thought, he fearlessly pursues that course which his own sense of propriety points out. “. . . . . At first, indeed, the verse may appear uncouth, because it is new to the ear; but I defy any man, who has any feeling of melody, to peruse the whole poem without paying tribute to the sweetness of its flow, and the gracefulness of its modulation. “In judging of this extraordinary poem, we should consider it as a genuine lyric production—we should conceive it as recited to the harp, in times when such relations carried nothing incredible with them. Carrying this idea along with us, the admirable art of the poet will strike us with tenfold conviction; the abrupt sublimity of his transitions, the sublime simplicity of his manner, and the delicate touches by which he connects the various parts of his narrative, will then be more strongly observable; and we shall, in particular, remark the uncommon felicity with which he has adapted his versification, and, in the midst of the wildest irregularity, left nothing to shock the ear or offend the judgment.”—Remains, vol. ii. pp. 285, 286. |
| 64 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“. . . . It will be well to print the Melancholy Hours, and some other of the prose
compositions. They mark the character, as well as the powers, of your
brother’s mind, and should, therefore, be preserved. The No. 10. which you mention
is, I believe, that criticism upon Thalaba the Destroyer, of which I spoke in a former letter. I may
be permitted to expunge from it, or to soften, a few epithets, of which it
gratifies me that your brother should have thought me worthy, but which it is
not decent that I should edit myself. . . . Believe me, sir, if I were not now
proving the high respect which I feel for your brother, it would give me pain
to think what value he assigned to the mere expression of it. How deeply I
regret that the little intercourse we ever had should have ended where it did,
it is needless now to say. I should have begged him to have visited me here,
but for this reason: when he told me he was going to Cambridge, there were some
circumstances which made me believe he was under the patronage of Mr. Henry Thornton, or of some other persons
of similar views; that his opinions had taken what is called an evangelical
turn, and that he was designed for that particular ministry. My own religious
opinions are not less zealous and not less sincere, but they are totally
opposite. I would not run the risk of disturbing his
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 65 |
“In reading and re-reading the poem, I have filled up a few of the gaps with conjectural words of correction, which shall be printed in italics, and to which, therefore, there can be no objection. The more I read them, the more is my admiration; they are as it should be—of very various merit, and show the whole progress of his mind. Many of them are excellently good—so good that it is impossible they could be better, and all together certainly exceed the productions of any other young poet whatsoever. I do not except Chatterton from the number; and I have a full confidence that, sooner or later, the public opinion will confirm mine. Perhaps this may be immediately acknowledged.
“I am greatly in hopes that many of his letters may be fit for publication. Till these arrive, it is not possible to judge to what extent the proposed introductory account (in which they would probably be inserted, or after it) will run; but as soon as this is ascertained, the volumes may be divided and the second go to press. Will you have the goodness to copy for me that abominable criticism in the Monthly Review upon Clifton Grove, and also the notice they took of your brother’s letter. That criticism must be inserted; and if you remember any other reviewal in which he was treated with illiberality, I shall be glad to hold up such criticism to the infamy which it deserves.
| 66 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“It will give me great pleasure if a likeness can be recovered—very great pleasure. Your brother Henry, sir, is not to be lamented. He has gained that earthly immortality for which he laboured, and that heavenly immortality of which he was worthy. I say this with tears, but they are tears of admiration as well as of human regret. If you knew me, sir, and how little prone I am to let such feelings as these appear upon the surface, you would understand these words in their literal sense, and in their full meaning.
“Your parcel reached me on Sunday evening, and I have
perused every line of its contents with deep and painful interest. The letters,
and your account (of which I should say much were I writing to any other
person), have made me thoroughly acquainted with one of the most amiable and
most admirable human beings that ever was ripened upon earth for heaven. Be
assured that I will not insert a sentence which can give pain or offence to any
one. There will come a time (and God only knows how soon it may come) when some
one will perform that office for me, which I am now performing for your
incomparable brother; and I shall endeavour to show how that office ought to be
performed. I will be scrupulously careful; and if, when the papers pass through
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 67 |
“When I obeyed the impulse which led me to undertake this task, it was from a knowledge that Henry White had left behind him an example, which ought not to be lost, of well-directed talents, and that, in performing an act of respect to his memory, I should at the same time hold up the example to others who have the up-hill paths of life to tread. No person can be more thoroughly convinced that goodness is a better thing than genius, and that genius is no excuse for those follies and offences which are called its eccentricities.
“The mention made in my last of any difference in religious opinions from your brother was merely incidental; nor is it by any means my intention to say any more upon the subject than simply to state that those opinions are not mine, lest it should be supposed they were, from the manner in which I speak of him.
“I shall now proceed as speedily as I can with the work.
| 68 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“The Ministry—by this time, perhaps, no longer a
Ministry—have made a very pretty kettle of fish of it; which phrase, by
the by, would look well in literal translation into any other language. Perhaps
you will be surprised to hear that on the Catholic Question I am as stiffly
against them as his Majesty himself. Of all my friends Coleridge is perhaps the only one who thinks
with me upon this subject; but I am clear in ray own mind. I am, however, sorry
for the business,—more to think what a rabble must come in, than for any
respect for those who are going out—though the Limited
Service and the Abolishment of the Slave Trade are great things. As
for any effect upon my own possible fortunes, you need not be told how little
any such possibilities ever enter into my feelings: they
have entered into my calculations just enough to keep me unsettled, and nothing
more. And here I am now planting garden-enclosures, rose-bushes, currants,
gooseberries, and resolute to become a mountaineer—perhaps for
ever—unless I should remove for final settlement at Lisbon. My study is
to be finished—my books gathered together; and if you do not come down
again, the very first summer you are not otherwise engaged, why—you may
stay and be smoke-dried in London for your good-for-nothingness. I have a man
called Willy, who is my Juniper in
this business.
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 69 |
“The reason of all this is, that some arrangements of
Coleridge’s made it necessary
that I should either resolve upon removing speedily, or remaining in the house.
The one I could not do, and was, not unwillingly, forced to the other. Indeed,
the sense of being unsettled was the only uneasiness I had; and these little
arrangements for future comfort give me, I am sure, more solid satisfaction and
true enjoyment than his great Howickship can
possibly have felt upon getting into that Downing Street, from whence he will
so reluctantly get out,—like a dog on a wet day out of the kitchen,
growling as he goes, with his tail between his legs, and showing the teeth with
which he dares not bite. Jackson—God
| 70 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“Sir, it would surprise you to see how I dig in the garden. I am going to buy the ‘Complete Gardener;’ and we do hope to attain one day to the luxuries of currant wine, and such like things, which I hope will meet your approbation, after you and I have been up Causey Pike again, and over the Fells to Blea Tarn,—expeditions to the repetition of which I know you look on with great pleasure.
“I shall miss Harry this summer,—an excellent boatman, and a companion whose good spirits and good humour never failed. If T. Grenville would make Tom a Captain, and send him down to grass for the summer, he would do a better thing than he has done yet since he went to the Admiralty. Wynn did mention my brother to him; but we had no borough interest to back us, and fourteen years’ hard service go for nothing, with wounds, blowing up, honourable mention, and excellent good conduct. Still I have a sort of faith (God willing) that he will be an Admiral yet.
“I am hurrying my printer with Espriella, for fear another
translation should appear before mine, which, you know, would be very unlucky.
Ten sheets of the second volume are done. I much wish it were out, having
better hopes of its sale than the fate of better books will perhaps warrant.
But this
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 71 |
“God bless you!
At the commencement of the preceding letter, my father alludes to the
tottering condition of the Grenville Ministry, of which his friend
Mr. Wynn was a member, who had been for some time
looking out for an opportunity of serving him; and under the impression that their
resignation had taken place, without any having occurred, he now
writes:—“When you have it in your power again, let the one thing you
seek for me be the office of Historiographer, with a decent pension. If 300l., it would satisfy my wishes—if 400l., I should be rich. I have no worldly ambition: a man who lives so much in
the past and the future can have none . . . . . When you are in, do not form higher
wishes for me than I have for myself. I am in that state of life to which it has
pleased God to call me, for which I am formed, in which I am contented; nor is it likely that I could be in any other so
usefully, so worthily, or so happily employed. If what I now receive shall in the
future come from the Treasury, I shall not then have any serious wish for any change of
fortune; nor would this be one, if you were wealthier. What more is necessary I
get—hardly enough, it is true, but still in my own way; and it is not impossible
but that some day or other one of my books should, by some accident, hit the fashion of
the day, and, by a rapid sale, place me in comparative affluence. I
| 72 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
The next letter shows that his friend had succeeded in obtaining for him a small pension, which, though it really diminished his income instead of increasing it, was very acceptable, for the reasons he here states.
“I am just now enabled to give you some intelligence concerning myself. In this topsey-turveying of ministers, Wynn was very anxious, as he says, ‘to pick something out of the fire for me.’ The registership of the Vice-Admiralty Court in St. Lucia was offered, worth about 600l. a-year. He wrote to me, offering this, or, as an alternative, the only one in his power, a pension of 200l.; but, before my answer could arrive, it was necessary that he should choose for me, and he judged rightly in taking the latter. Fees and taxes will reduce this to 160l.†, the precise sum for which I have hitherto been indebted to him; so that I remain with just the same income as before. The different source
* March 27. 1807. † The deduction proved to be 56l. reducing it to 144l. |
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 73 |
“I sent you the Specimens, and shall have to send you,
owing to some omissions of Bedford’s, a supplementary volume hereafter, which will
complete its bibliographical value. Of its other merits and defects, hereafter.
It will not be long before, I trust, you will receive Espriella: the printer promises to
quicken his pace, and I hurry him, anticipating that this book will give you
and my other friends some amusement, and deserve approbation on higher grounds.
Thank you for all your kindness to Harry. . . . . This change of ministry—I am as hostile to the
measure which was the pretext for it as the King himself; but, having conceded that measure, the
King’s conduct is equally exceptionable. Neither the country nor the
Commons called for the change, and they were getting credit, and deserving it,
by the ‘Arms Bill,’ the blessed ‘Aboli
| 74 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“God bless you!
“And so I am a Court Pensioner! It is well that I have not to kiss hands upon the occasion—or, upon my soul, I do not think I could help laughing at the changes and chances of this world! O dear, dear Wynn, when you and I used to hold debates with poor Bunbury over a pot of porter, how easily could your way of life have been predicted! And how would his and mine have mocked all foresight! And yet mine has been a straight-onward path! Nothing more has taken place in me than the ordinary process of beer or wine—of fermenting—and settling—and ripening!
“If Snowdon will come to Skiddaw in the summer, Skiddaw
will go to Snowdon at the fall of the leaf. I shall work hard to get the Cid ready for publication,
and must go with it to London. In that case my intention is to go first to
Bristol,
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 75 |
“The mystery of this wonderful history of the change in administration is certainly explained; but who are the King’s advisers? Are they his sons—or old Lord Liverpool? Mr. Simeon’s wise remark, that ‘the new Ministry was better than no Ministry at all,’ put me in mind of a story which might well have been quoted in reply. One of the German Electors, when an Englishman was introduced to him, thought the best thing he could say to him, was to remark that ‘it was bad weather;’ upon which the Englishman shrugged up his shoulders and replied, ‘yes—but it was better than none!’ Would not this have told in the House? You do not shake my opinion concerning the Catholics. Their religion regards no national distinctions—it teaches them to look at Christendom and at the Pope as the head thereof—and the interests of that religion will always be preferred to anything else. Bonaparte is aware of this, and is aiming to be the head of the Catholic party in Germany.
“These people have been increasing in England of late
years, owing to the number of seminaries established during the French
Revolution. It is worth your while to get their Almanac,—the ‘Lay Directory’ it is called, and
published by Brown and Keating, Duke Street, Grosvenor Square. They
| 76 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“I am for abolishing the test with regard to every other sect—Jews and all—but not to the Catholics. They will not tolerate: the proof is in their whole history—in their whole system—and in their present practice all over Catholic Europe: and it is the nature of their principles now to spread in this country; Methodism, and the still wilder sects preparing the way for it. You have no conception of the zeal with which they seek for proselytes, nor the power they have over weak minds; for their system is as well the greatest work of human wisdom as it is of human wickedness. It is curious that the Jesuits exist in England as a body, and have possessions here; a Catholic told me this, and pointed out one in the streets of Norwich, but he could tell me nothing more, and expressed his surprise at it, and his curiosity to learn more. Having been abolished by the Pope, they keep up their order secretly, and expect their restoration, which, if he be wise, Bonaparte will effect. Were I a Catholic, that should be the object to which my life should be devoted—I would be the second Loyola.
“Concessions and conciliations will not satisfy the
Catholics; vengeance and the throne are what they want. If Ireland were far
enough from our shores to be lost without danger to our own security, I would
say establish the Catholic religion there, as the easiest way of civilising it;
but Catholic Ireland would always be at the command of the Pope, and
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 77 |
“England condescends too much to the Catholic religion, and does not hold up her own to sufficient respect in her foreign possessions; and the Catholics, instead of feeling this as an act of indulgence to their opinions, interpret it as an acknowledgment of their superior claims, and insult us in consequence. This is the case at Malta. In India the want of an established church is a crying evil. Nothing but missionaries can secure in that country what we have won. The converts would immediately become English in their feelings, for, like Mahomet, we ought to make our language go with our religion,—a better policy this than that of introducing pig-tails, after our own home-plan of princely reform, for which ——, with all due respect to him, or whoever else was the agent in this inconceivable act of folly, ought to be gibbeted upon the top of the highest pagoda in Hindostan. God bless you!
| 78 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“. . . . . The preliminary account is nearly finished, I have inserted in it such poems as seem best suited to that place, because they refer to Henry’s then state of mind, and thus derive an interest from the narrative, and in their turn give it also. After the introduction I purpose to insert a selection of his letters, or rather of extracts from them, in chronological order. Upon mature consideration, and upon trial as well, I believe this to be better than inserting them in the account of his life. If the reader feel for Henry that love and admiration which I have endeavoured to make him feel, he will be prepared to receive these epistolary fragments as the most authentic and most valuable species of biography; and if he does not feel that love, it is no matter how he receives them, for his heart will be in fault, and his understanding necessarily darkened.
“I have, to the best of my judgment, omitted every
thing of which the publication could occasion even the slightest unpleasant
feeling to any person whatever; and if any thing of this kind has escaped me,
you will, of course, consider your own opinion as decisive, and omit it
accordingly, without any regard to mine. Assuredly we will not offend the
feelings of any one; but there are many passages which, though they can give no
pain to an individual, you
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 79 |
“My heart has often ached during this employment.
One extract from a letter written to Mr. Neville White at the close of the year I will place here, as it speaks of the completion of my father’s grateful office.
“The sight of the books now completed gave me a melancholy feeling, and I could not help repeating some lines of Wordsworth’s,—
“‘Thou soul of God’s best earthly mould, Thou happy soul, and can it be That this . . . . Is all that must remain of thee?’ |
| 80 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“Our intercourse will not be at an end. When I visit London, which will certainly be during the winter, and probably very soon, I shall see you. We shall have, it is to be hoped and expected, to communicate respecting after editions; and at all times it will give me great pleasure to hear from you.”
“Whether, Grosvenor, you will ascribe it to the cut of my nose, I cannot tell; nor whether it be a proof of the natural wickedness of the heart, but so it is, that I am less disposed to be very much obliged to the Treasury for giving me 200l. a year, than I am to swear at the Taxes for having the impudence to take 56l. of it back again. And if it were a pull Devil pull Baker between that loyalty which, as you know, has always been so predominant in my heart, and that jacobinism of which, you know how vilely, I have been suspected, I am afraid the 56 would give a stronger pull on the Baker’s side than the 144 on the Devil’s. Look you, Mr. Bedford of the Exchequer, it is out of all conscience. Ten in the hundred has always in all Christian states been thought damnable usury; and to say that a man took ten in the hundred was the same as saying that he would go to the Devil.* But this is eight-and-twenty in the
* So says the epigram attributed to Shakspeare, upon his friend Mr. Combe, an old gentleman noted for his wealth and usury:— |
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 81 |
“Politics are very amusing, and go to the tune of Tantara-rara. The king has been fighting for a veto upon the initiation of laws, and he has won it. I had got into good humour with the late ministry because of the Limited Service Bill, the Abolishment
It must be added that Mr. Knight strenuously opposes the tradition that Shakspeare wrote these lines.—Knight’s Shakspeare, a Biography, p. 488. |
| 82 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“I finish poor Henry White’s papers to-morrow. One volume of Palmerin still remains to do, and then there will be nothing to impede my progress in S. America. Our Fathers wrote to me about the same time that you did; they were then in pursuit of the culprits Hinchcliffe and Gildon. I’ll tell you what I would have done had I been in town and could not have found them. I would have made them a present of verses of my own, just enough in number to fill the gap, and dull enough to suit them. Nobody would have suspected it, and it would have been a very pious fraud to save trouble.
“It consoles me a little when I think of the reviewing* that is to take place: how much more you
* Of the Specimens of English Poets. |
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 83 |
“Circumstances have prevented me going to Portugal so
soon as I intended. I am, however, likely (God willing, I may say certain, as
far as human intentions can be so) to procure a whole holiday for your boys in
the month of November next. Business will then lead me to London, and when I am
so far south I have calls into the west, having an uncle and aunt near Taunton.
The Barnstaple coach will carry me
| 84 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“Your last letter is fourteen months old, and they may have brought forth so many changes, that I almost fear to ask for my god-child Fanny. During that time I have had a son born into the world, and baptized into the Church by the name of Herbert, who is now six months old, and bids fair to be as noisy a fellow as his father,—which is saying something; for be it known, that I am quite as noisy as ever I was, and should take as much delight as ever in showering stones through the hole of the staircase against your room door, and hearing with what hearty good earnest ‘you fool!’ was vociferated in indignation against me in return. O, dear Lightfoot, what a blessing it is to have a boy’s heart! it is as great a blessing in carrying one through this world, as to have a child’s spirit will be in fitting us for the next.
“If you are in the way of seeing reviews and magazines,
they will have told you some of my occupations; the main one they cannot tell
you, for they do not know it, nor is it my intention that they shall yet
awhile. I am preparing that branch of the History of
Portugal for publication first, which would have been last in order,
had not temporary circumstances given it a peculiar interest and
utility,—that which relates to Brazil and Paraguay. The manuscript
documents in my possession are very numerous, and of the utmost importance,
having been
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 85 |
“Burnett is about to make his appearance in the world of authors with, I trust, some credit to himself. When we meet I will tell you the whole course of his eventful history,—for more eventful it has been than any one could have prognosticated on his entrance at old Balliol.
“Elmsley, I am sorry to say, is fatter than ever he was: he is one of my most intimate and most valuable friends. I hear from Duppa, or of him, frequently. His visit to Oxford at the Installation has been the occasion of throwing him quite into the circle of my friends in London. I sometimes think with wonder how few acquaintances I made at Oxford; except yourself and Burnett, not one whom I should feel any real pleasure in meeting. Of all the months in my life (happily they did not amount to years) those which were passed at Oxford were the most unprofitable. What Greek I took there I literally left there, and could not help losing; and all I learnt was a little swimming (very little the worse luck) and a little boating, which is greatly improved, now that I have a boat of my own upon this delightful lake. I never remember to have dreamt of Oxford,—a sure proof how little it entered into my moral being;—of school, on the contrary, I dream perpetually.
“C—— is become a
great disciplinarian. Some friend of Dr.
Aikin’s dined one day at Balliol, and I was made the
subject of conversation in the common room; poor C—— was
my only friend: I be-
| 86 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“When I wished you never to read the Classics again it
was because, like many other persons, you read nothing
else, and were not likely ever to get more knowledge out of them than
you had got already, especially as you chiefly (I may say exclusively) read
those from whom least is to be got, which is also another sin of the age. Your
letter contains the usual blunders which the ignorance of the age is
continually making, and upon which, and nothing else, rests the whole point at
issue between such critics as Jeffrey
and myself: you couple Homer and Virgil under the general term of classics, and
suppose that both are to be admired upon the same grounds. A century ago this
was better understood; the critics of that age did read what they wrote about,
and understood what they read, and they knew that whoever thought the one of
these
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 87 |
“You ask me about the Catholic question. I am against admitting them to power of any kind, because the immediate use that would be made of it would be to make proselytes, for which Catholicism is of all religions best adapted. Every ship which had a Catholic captain would have a Catholic chaplain, and in no very long time a Catholic crew: so on in the army; just as every rich Catholic in England at this time has his mansion surrounded with converts fairly purchased,—the Jerningham family in Norfolk for instance. I object to any concessions, because no concession can possibly satisfy them; and I think it palpable folly to talk or think of tolerating any sect (beyond what they already enjoy) whose first principle is that their church is infallible, and, therefore, bound to persecute all others. This is the principle of Catholicism everywhere, and when they can they avow it and act upon it.
“If our statesmen (God forgive me for degrading the
word),—if our traders in politics,—had better information of how
things are going on abroad, they would not talk of the distinction between
Catholic
| 88 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“I have a favour to ask of Horace,—which is, that he will do me the kindness to send
me the titles of such Portuguese manuscripts as are in the Museum. There cannot
be so many as to make this a thing of much trouble; and there are some of great
value, which were, I believe, part of the plunder of
Osorio’s library carried off from Sylvas by
Sir F. Drake. I wish to know what
they are, for the purpose of ascertaining how many among them are not to be
found in their own country, and either taking myself, or causing to be taken,
if a fit transcriber can be found, copies to present to some fit library at
Lisbon:
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 89 |
“I pray you remember that what I think upon the Catholic question by no means disposes me in favour of the new ministry. I, Mr. Bedford, am, as you know, a court pensioner, and have, as you well know, deserved to be so for my great and devoted attachment to the person of His Majesty and the measures of his government. Nevertheless, Mr. Bedford, his ministers are men of tried and convicted incapacity; they have always been the contempt of Europe; whether they can be more despised than their predecessors have uniformly and deservedly been, I know not. I cannot tell how far below nothing the political barometer can sink till it has been tried.
“God bless you!
| 90 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“Your book and your letter reached me at the same time. I have cut the leaves, collated the prints, and observe many valuable additions and some great typographical improvements. It was accompanied by a note from Mr. Murray of a very complimentary kind. I like to be complimented in my authorial character, and best of all by booksellers, because their good opinion gets purchasers, and so praise leads to pudding, which I consider to be the solid end of praise.
“I have Walter
Scott’s promise to do what he can for M. Angelo in the Edinburgh, with this sort of salvo,—that
Jeffrey is not a very practicable
man, but he would do his best with him. My acquaintance with
Scott is merely an acquaintance; but I had occasion once to write to him respecting the
sale of a MS. entrusted to me, and bought by him for the Advocate’s
Library, and in that letter I introduced the subject. I was greatly in hopes,
and indeed expected, that Wordsworth
would have done as much in the Critical, by means of his brother, who writes there. Had it not been for this, I might
perhaps have done something by applying to Fellowes, the Anti-Calvinist, a very interesting
man,—such a one, indeed, that, though I never met him but once, I could
without scruple have written to him. Wonderful to tell, he bears a part in that
Review, though his opinions are as opposite to Hunt’s, and all his
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 91 |
“You are mistaken about Henry White; the fact is briefly this:—at the age of
seventeen he published a little
volume of poems of very great merit, and sent with them to the
different Reviews, a letter stating that his hope was to raise money by them to
pursue his studies and get to college. Hamilton, then of the Critical, showed me this letter. I asked him to let me review the
book, which he promised; but he sent me no books after the promise. Well, the
M. Review noticed this little volume in the most
cruel and insulting manner. I was provoked, and wrote to encourage the boy,
offering to aid him in a subscription for a costlier publication. I spoke of
him
| 92 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 93 |
“Want of room has obliged me to reserve most of your letters, which I meant for the latter end of Espriella’s remarks*; but when I came to the latter end, the printing had got beyond my calculation of pages so much, that I was fain to stop. I have good hopes of such a sale as may induce my friend to travel again; my own stock of matter not being half exhausted, nor, indeed, my design half completed. The book ought to be published in a month. Palmerin will appear nearly at the same time, and, perhaps, tend to remove suspicion, if any should subsist. The reception of this book will determine whether it is to be followed up or not, but if it be, be assured that you shall have ample revenge upon Fuseli.
“I know nothing of botany, and every day regret that I do not. It is a settled purpose of my heart, if my children live, to make them good naturalists. If you come either into Yorkshire or Northumberland,
* Mr. Duppa had been furnishing him with some information for this book. |
| 94 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“I want to hear, in spite of great trouble and little profit, that you have fixed upon a new subject, and are again at work. There is no being happy without having some worthy occupation in hand.
“The pleasantest season in the country for one who
lives in it, is undoubtedly the month of blossoms and beauty, when we have not
only immediate enjoyment but summer before us. The best season for seeing a
country, and especially this country, is during the turn of the leaf. September
and October are our best months. We have usually long and delightful autumns,
extending further into the winter than they do in the south of England. Our
harvests, such as
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 95 |
“Mrs. Rickman has seen all that water colours can do for our lakes, in seeing them as delineated by Glover, who is of all our artists the truest to nature. But I will show her sights beyond all reach of human colouring,—such work as nature herself makes with travelling clouds, and columns of misty sunshine, falling as if from an eye of light in Heaven, like that upon Guy Fawkes in the prayer-book. Every point of sight is beautiful, and Derwentwater can only be judged by a panorama, such as you will have from our boat. Do not wait for another year for the sake of including your Scotch journey. God knows what another year may produce, either of good or evil, to both of us. There is always so much chance of being summoned off on the grand tour of the universe, that a man ought not, without good reason, to delay any little trip he may wish to take first upon our microcosm. . . . .
What you say about breeding up a boy to understand the
Keltic language, has often been in my mind. Have you seen a good book in reply to Malthus by Dr.
Jarrold? This disjointed question comes in, because he shows how
animals that are the most highly finished are most apt, like looking-glasses,
to break in the making; and I have always the fear of too much sensorial power
in my children so before my eyes, as never willingly to shape any plan about
them which might occasion more cause for disappointment. How easy would it be
for the London
| 96 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“God bless you!
Some differences having arisen between the Messrs. Longman and Co. and the editor of the Edinburgh
Review, it was at this time in contemplation to carry on the work under a different
management; and on this supposition they wrote to my father, requesting him to furnish them
with certain articles “in his best manner,” and offering payment at a higher
rate than he had received for the Annual Review.
His reply shows that his principle was,
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 97 |
“I will review the books as soon as they arrive, and as well as I can, but I cannot do them better for an Edinburgh Review than for an Annual one. There are many articles which are valued precisely in proportion to the time and labour bestowed upon them, and which therefore can be accurately fixed accordingly; these articles are not of that description. The worst reviewals you have ever had from me have cost me more time and labour than the best. When the subject is good, and I am acquainted with it, the pen flows freely; otherwise it is tilling an ungrateful soil. I can promise you a better review of Clavigero than any other person could furnish; upon the other books, I will do my best. All reviewals, however, which are not seasoned either with
* Ecclesiastes, ix, 10. |
| 98 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“Some time ago, the Bishop of Llandaff observed to me, that few things were more wanted than a regular collection of translations of the ancient historians, comprising the whole of them in their chronological order. It is worth thinking of; and if you should think of it, modern copyright need not stand in your way. Littlebury’s Herodotus is better than Beloe’s, and Gordon’s Tacitus far superior to Murphy’s. Such a collection, well annotated, &c., could not fail to sell, and might best be published volume by volume; if it were carried to the end of the Byzantine history, so much the better both for the public and the publishers. This is not a plan in which I could bear any part myself, but it is worth your consideration.
“. . . . .The Spanish Joinville, I fear, perished at Hafod. If, however, by good fortune, it should have been returned to you before the fire, have the goodness to enclose it in the next parcel. I wait the arrival of one, expected by every carrier, to make up a bundle for Dr. Aikin: the reason is this; one of the books which I sent for, implies by the title that I have been deceived in one of the Omniana articles, and I ordered the book for the sake of ascertaining the truth and correcting the error.
“Is there not a new edition of Whitehead’s Life of Wesley? If you will send me it,
and with it the
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 99 |
“I hope you will accommodate matters with Jeffrey; for if there should be two Edinburgh Reviews, or if he should set up another under a new title, you would probably be the sufferer, even though yours should manifestly be the best,—such is the force of prejudice.”
The following playful effusion was addressed to Hartley Coleridge, who is often referred to in the earlier
letters by the name of Moses, it being my father’s humour to
bestow on his little playfellows many and various such names. When those allusions and this
letter were selected for publication, my cousin was yet amongst us, and I had pleasantly
anticipated his half-serious, half-playful remonstrances for thus bringing his childhood
before the public. Now he is among the departed; and those only who knew him intimately can
tell how well-stored and large a mind has gone with him, much less how kind a heart, and
how affectionate a disposition. He has found his last peaceful resting-place (where
Dr. Arnold so beautifully expresses a wish that
he might lie), “beneath the yews of Grasmere churchyard, with the Rotha, with its
deep and silent pools,
| 100 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“Stern and wild. Meet nurse for a poetic child.” |
“First, I have to thank you for your letter and your poem; and, secondly, to explain why I have not done this sooner. We were a long time without knowing where you were, and, when news came from Miss Barker that you were in London, by the time a letter could have reached you you were gone; and, lastly, Mr. Jackson wrote to you to Bristol. I will now compose an epistle which will follow you farther west.
“Bona Marietta hath had
kittens; they were remarkably ugly, all taking after their father Thomas, who there is reason to believe was either
uncle or grandsire to Bona herself, the prohibited
degrees of consanguinity which you will find at the end of the Bible not being
regarded by cats. As I have never been able to persuade this family that
catlings, fed for the purpose and smothered with onions, would be rabbits to
all eatable purposes. Bona Marietta’s ugly
progeny no sooner came into the world than they were sent out of it; the river
nymph Greta conveyed them to the river god Derwent, and if neither the
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 101 |
“We have been out one evening in the boat,—Mr. Jackson, Mrs. Wilson, and the children,—and kindled our fire upon the same place where you drank tea with us last autumn. The boat has been painted, and there is to be a boat-house built for it. Alterations are going on here upon a great scale. The parlour has been transmogrified. That, Hartley, was one of my mother’s words; your mother will explain it to you. The masons are at work in my study; the garden is enclosed with a hedge; some trees planted behind it, a few shrubs, and abundance of currant trees. We must, however, wait till the autumn before all can be done that is intended in the garden. Mr. White, the Belligerent, is settled in the General’s house. Find out why I give him that appellation.
“There has been a misfortune in the family. We had a
hen with five chickens, and a gleed has carried off four. I have declared war
against the gleed, and borrowed a gun; but since the gun has been in the house,
he has never made his appearance. Who can have told him of it? Another hen is
sitting, and I
| 102 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“The weather has been very bad; nothing but easterly winds, which have kept every thing back. We had one day hotter than had been remembered for fourteen years: the glass was at 85° in the shade, in the sun in Mr. Calvert’s garden at 118°. The horses of the mail died at Carlisle. I never remember to have felt such heat in England, except one day fourteen years ago, when I chanced to be in the mail-coach, and it was necessary to bleed the horses, or they would have died then. In the course of three days the glass fell forty degrees, and the wind was so cold and so violent that persons who attempted to cross the Fells beyond Penrith were forced to turn back.
“Your friend Dapper, who
is, I believe, your god-dog, is in good health, though he grows every summer
graver than the last. This is the natural effect of time, which, as you know,
has made me the serious man I am. I hope it will have the same effect upon you
and your mother, and that, when she returns, she will have left off that evil
habit of
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 103 |
“Remember me to Mr. Poole, and tell him I shall be glad when he turns laker. He will find tolerable lodgings at the Hill; a boat for fine weather, good stores of books for a rainy day, and as hearty a shake by the hand on his arrival as he is likely to meet with between Stowey and Keswick. Some books of mine will soon be ready for your father. Will he have them sent anywhere? or will he pick them up himself when he passes through London on his way northward? Tell him that I am advancing well in South America, and shall have finished a volume by the end of the year. The Chronicle of the Cid is to go to press as soon as I receive some books from Lisbon, which must first be examined. This intelligence is for him also.
“I am desired to send you as much love as can be enclosed in a letter: I hope it will not be charged double on that account at the post-office: but there is Mrs. Wilson’s love, Mr. Jackson’s, your Aunt Southey’s, your Aunt Lovell’s, and Edith’s; with a purr from Bona Marietta, an open-mouthed kiss from Herbert, and three wags of the tail from Dapper. I trust they will all arrive safe, and remain.
| 104 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“I have been told by persons most capable of judging,
that the old translation of Don
Quixote is very beautiful. The book has never fallen in my way. If
it be well translated, the language of Elizabeth’s reign must needs accord better with the style
of Cervantes than more modern English would
do; and I should think it very probable that it would be better to correct
this, than to translate the work anew. As for my undertaking any translation,
or indeed any revision, which might lead to the labour, or half the labour,
which Palmerin cost me, it
is out of the question; but if Mr. Heber
can lend you this translation, I will give you my opinion upon it: and I will
do for you, if you want it, what you would find much difficulty in getting done
by any other person,—add to a Life of Cervantes an
account of all his other writings, and likewise of the books in Don Quixote’s library, as far as my own
stores will reach, and those which we may find access to; and make such notes
upon the whole book as my knowledge of the history and literature of Spain can
supply. I believe a new translation has been announced by Mr. ——, whose translation of Yriarte proved that either
he did not understand the original, or that of all translators he is the most
impudent. Such preliminaries as these which I propose might fill half a volume,
or extend to a whole one, just as might
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 105 |
“As the new Joinville is, beyond all comparison, the most unreasonably dear book I ever saw, so is your Holinshed the cheapest; and I shall keep the copy you have sent accordingly. Dear books may not deter the rich from purchasing, but here is proof for you that cheap ones tempt the poor.
“To-morrow I will make up my parcel for the Athenæum. At Dr. Aikin’s request I have undertaken (long since) the Spanish and Portuguese literary part of his Biography. Some articles appeared in the last volume, and, few as they are, I suppose they entitle me to it. Will you ask Dr. A. if this be the case?
| 106 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“The motives which induced me to propose selling an edition of the Cid may be very soon explained. I have been settling myself here in a permanent place of abode, and in consequence many unavoidable expenses have been incurred. Among others, that of removing from Bristol a much larger library than perhaps any other man living, whose means are so scanty, is possessed of. I thank you for the manner in which you have objected to purchasing it, and am more gratified by it than I should have been by your acceptance. The sale of this book cannot be so doubtful as that of a poem. A part of it shall be sent up in a few days, and the sooner it is put to press the better. If it suit you, I should much like to let Pople print it. He has not made all the haste he could with Palmerin, but he has taken great pains with it; for never had printer a more perplexed copy to follow, and he has been surprisingly correct.
“I do not know what the state of my account with you
is. Mr. Aikin has sent me no returns
either for this year’s reviewing or the last. I suppose, however, that
the edition of Espriella will about balance it; and if I may look to you for about
150l. between this and the end of the year, my
exigencies will be supplied. Meantime I am desirous that my exertions should be
proportionate to my wants. The old edition of Don Quixote, if carefully collated and
corrected, will, I believe, be very superior to any
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 107 |
“The ‘Catalogue Raisonné’ cannot be executed by a single person. I could do great part of it,—probably all except the legal and scientific departments. Upon this matter I will think, and write to you in a few days.
“What is this History of South America which I am told is announced? I am getting on with my own Brazil and the River Plata, and it is not possible that any man in England can have one-tenth part of the materials which I possess for such a work. Were you to see the manuscripts which I possess, you would be fully convinced of this; and without seeing them you can hardly form an estimate of their value and importance. . . . .
“I have been considering and re-considering the plan
of a Critical Catalogue. On the scale which you propose, it approaches so
nearly to what we had formerly projected as a complete Bibliotheca Britannica,
that I should be loth to go so near it, and yet stop short. On the present
scale (and were you
| 108 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“Of the possible size of such a work I cannot form
even a decent conjecture. Scarce books are more numerous than good ones, have
longer titles, and require sometimes a long description. Perhaps the best way
would be to begin with a chronological list of all that have been printed
before the accession of Henry VIII., when
printing may be said to have become common. All these books have a great value
from their scarcity,—indeed, their main value,—and better be
classed together than under any separate heads. A complete list might be
furnished by Mr. Dibdin, who must
already have collected all the necessary knowledge for his edition of Ames. Mr.
Park could supply the poets, and, indeed, manage the whole
better than any other person. I could give a better opinion of works than he
could, and believe that I know more of them: but there is a sort of title-page
and colophon knowledge—in one word, bibliology,—which is exactly
what is wanted for this purpose, and in which he is very much my superior. The
way in which I could be best employed would be in looking over the MS., adding
to it anything in my knowledge, if anything there might be, which had escaped
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 109 |
“Any such assistance I should willingly give; but upon slow and frequent consideration, I certainly think the whole may be better executed in London than here, and by many others than by me; for of all sorts of work it is that in which there must be most transcription, and in which it will be most inconvenient to employ an amanuensis.
“The extent of such a book will probably be wholly immaterial to its sale. None but those who have libraries will buy it; and all those may almost be calculated upon. There will also be some sale for it abroad, more than is usual for English books. The one thing In which it seems possible to improve upon the best catalogue is, by arranging the books In every subdivision chronologically, according to the time when they were written. . . . .
“I have desired Longman to send you a copy of Palmerin of England, knowing that you,
who love to read as well as to sing of knights’ and gentle ladies’
deeds, will not be dismayed at the sight of four volumes more corpulent than
volumes are wont to be in these degenerate days. The romance, though not so
| 110 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“I rejoice to hear that we are to have another Lay, and hope we may have as many Last Lays of the Minstrel, as our ancestors had Last Words of Mr. Baxter. My own lays are probably at an end. That portion of my time which I can afford to employ in labouring for fame is given to historical pursuits; and poetry will not procure for me anything more substantial. This motive alone would not, perhaps, wean me from an old calling, if I were not grown more attached to the business of historical research, and more disposed to instruct and admonish mankind than to amuse them.
“The Chronicle of the Cid is just gone to press,—the most ancient and most curious piece of chivalrous history in existence,—a book after your own heart. It will serve as the prologue to a long series of labours, of which, whenever you will take Keswick in your way to or from London, I shall be very glad to show you some samples. I am now settled here, and am getting my books about me; you will find a boat for fine weather, and a good many out-of-the-way books for a rainy day.
“I beg to be remembered to Mrs. Scott. Yours very truly,
|
* It has since been proved that the real author of Palmerin was Luis Hurtado, a Spaniard. See Quarterly Review, vol. lxxii. p. 10. |
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 111 |
“We have certainly some reason to complain of Cadell and Davies; poor Cervantes, however, has more. . . . . Their splendid edition will be sure to sell for its splendour. I would have made such a work as should have been reprinted after the plates were worn out. I thank you for offering to engage in it, but my nature is as little disposed to this kind of warfare as yours; and I have as many plans to execute as I shall ever find life to perform. Let it pass. Morte d’ Arthur is a book which I shall edit with peculiar pleasure, because it has been my delight since I was a school-boy. There is nothing to be done in it but to introduce it with a preface, and accompany it with notes. No time need be lost. As soon as you can meet with a copy, it may be put into Pople’s hands; and by the time he has got through it, the introduction and annotations will be ready. I will send back Heber’s books (which I have detained, expecting to use them for the D. Quixote). For the Athenæum, it will be sufficient to say that I am preparing an edition of Morte d’ Arthur, with an introduction and notes.
“I have materials for a volume of Travels in Portugal,
which the expulsion of the English from that country, and the consequent
impossibility of my returning there to visit the northern provinces, as was my
intention, induces me to think of preparing
| 112 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“. . . . . The D. Quixote shall be returned in my first parcel. The only reason I have for regretting that Mr. Balfour has elbowed me out of an office to which he certainly has no pretensions whatever is, that I wished to do something, the emolument of which should be certain, for I cannot be anticipating uncertain profits without feeling some anxiety. I have translations enough almost to make a little volume like Lord Strangford’s, but then I am not a lord. I have ballads enough for half a volume, but people are more ready to ask copies of them now, than they would be to buy them; and were I to write as many more, according to all likelihood I should not get more by publishing them than any London newspaper would give me for any number of verses, good, bad, or indifferent, sold by the yard, and without the maker’s name to warrant them. What I feel most desirous to do is to send Espriella again on his travels, and so complete my design; but this must not be unless ho hits the fancy of the public.
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 113 |
“I do not know that I should have taken up my pen with
the intention of inflicting a letter upon you, if it had not been for a
suspicion, produced by your last letter, that you expect me in London sooner
than it is anyways possible for me to be there, and that peradventure,
therefore, you may think it is not worth while to look after my pension till I
arrive in proper person to receive it. Now, Mr.
Bedford, touching this matter there are two things to be said.
My going to London seems to me no very certain thing. It depends something on
my uncle’s movements, of whose
arrival from Lisbon I daily expect to hear; and, of course, if I go, my journey
must be so timed as to meet him. It depends, also, something on my finances;
and I begin to think that I cannot afford the expense of the journey, for I
have had extraordinary goings-out this year in settling myself, and no
extraordinary comings-in to counterbalance them. The Constable is a
leaden-heeled rascal, and if I do not take care, will be left confoundedly
behind. I must work like a negro the whole winter to set things right, and the
nearer the time for my projected journey approaches, the less likely is it that
I can spare it. My object in going would be to consult certain books for the
preliminaries and notes for the
Cid; and these books I should assuredly feel myself bound to consult
if it required no other sacrifices than those of time
| 114 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“I thought to have brought up my lee-way by doing a
specific piece of job-work, of which I have been rather unhandsomely
disappointed. The story is simply this:—Smirke has projected a splendid edition of Don Quixote with Cadell and Davies. They
proposed to Longman to take a share in
it, and he was authorised by them to ask me to translate it. While I was
corresponding with them upon the fitness of revising the first translation in
preference, and forming such a plan for preliminaries and annotations as would
have made a great body of Spanish learning, Cadell and
Davies, unknown to them, struck a bargain with a
Mr. Balfour, who is no more able to
translate Don Quixote than he would have been to
write it. This is some disappointment to me, as I should have been paid a
specific sum for my work, and could have calculated upon it. The
Longmans behave as they ought to do in the business.
They refuse to take any share in the work, in consequence of this unhandsome
dealing towards me, and offer to
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 115 |
“My affairs are not in a bad train, except for the present. The profits of the current edition of Espriella, and of the unborn one of the Cid, are anticipated and gone. Those of the Specimens, of the small edition of Madoc, and of Palmerin, are untouched. But if the three send me in 100l., at the end of the year’s sale, it will be more than I expect. The first volume of Brazil will be ready for the press next summer. I think also of publishing my travels in Portugal, for which good materials have long lain by me, and we are now talking of editing Morte d’ Arthur. Reviewing comes among the ordinaries of the year; in my conscience I do not think anybody else does so much and gets so little for it. Have I told you that my whole profits upon Madoc up to Midsummer last amount to 25l.? and the whole it is likely to be, unless the remaining 134 copies be sold as waste paper.
“I shall do yet; and if there be anything like a
dispirited tone in this letter, it is more because my eyes are weak, than for
any other cause. It is likely that Espriella will bear me out,—I
must be more than commonly unlucky if it does not,—and if it does not, I
will seek more review employment, write in more magazines, and scribble verses
for the newspapers. As long as I can keep half my time for labours worthy of
myself and of posterity, I shall not feel debased by sacrificing the other,
however unworthily it may be employed. You will say, why do
| 116 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“Now do not fancy me bent double like the Pilgrim, under this load upon my back; I am as bolt upright as ever, and in as wholesome good spirits, and, as soon as this letter is folded and sent off, shall go on with reviewing Buchanan’s Travels, and forget everything except what I know concerning Malabar.
“God bless you!
“I am now about to edit Morte d’ Arthur. My Round-table
knowledge is as extensive as that of any, perhaps, but my Round-table library
is scanty: of old books it contains none except the English Geoffrey of Monmouth and the two long Poems of
Luigi Alemanni. My plan is, to give
the history of Arthur, and collect, by the
aid of Turner, Owen, and Edward
Williams, all that the Welsh themselves can supply, and then the
critical bibliography of the Round Table. The notes will refer to the originals
from which this delightful book has been compiled, and give all the
illustrations that I can supply. Once more, therefore, I must beg your
assistance, and
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 117 |
“The printer’s copy of Palmerin was, I hope, returned to you, according to your desire and my directions. It will show you that I am not an idle editor, whatever those unhappy Specimens may have induced you to think. Should this Palmerin sell, I would gladly follow it with the third part, if the original could be procured; but the only chance of meeting with one would be in the King’s library, and there, of course, it would be useless.
“I have many things in hand. The Chronicle of the Cid will be likely to please
you. It will soon be followed by the History of Brazil, and that by the other
part of the History of Portugal and its Conquests. With poetry I must have
done, unless I could afford another Madoc for five and twenty pounds, which is all that it has pleased
the public to let me get by it. I feel some pride in having done well, but it
is more than counterbalanced by the consciousness that I could do better, and
yet am never likely to have an opportunity. St. Cecilia
herself could not have played the organ if there had been nobody to blow the
bellows for her. Drafts upon posterity will not pass for current expenses. My
poems have sold exactly in an inverse ratio to their merit; and I cannot go
back to boyhood, and put myself again upon a level with the taste of the
book-
| 118 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“You will see, in the preface to Palmerin, that I have tracked Shakspeare, Sydney, and Spenser to Amadis of Greece. I have an imperfect copy of Florisel of Nequea, the next in the series,—and there I find the mock execution of Pamela and Philoclea, and Amoret with her open wound.
“Mine is a strong spirit, and I am very desirous that
you should not suppose it to be more severely tried than it is. The temporary
inconvenience which I feel is solely produced by unavoidable expenses in
settling myself, which will not occur again; and if Espriella slides into a good sale,
or if one edition of our deplorable Specimens should go off, I shall be
floated into smooth water. Bear this in mind, also, that I can command an
income, fully equivalent to all my wants, whenever I choose to write for money,
and for nothing else. Our Fathers in the Row would find me task-work, to any
amount which I might wish to undertake, and I could assuredly make 300l.
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 119 |
“Old John Southey dealt unjustly by me,—but it was what I expected, and his brother will, without doubt, do just the same. In case of Lord Somerville’s death without a son, a considerable property devolves to me or my representatives—encumbered, however, with a lawsuit to recover it; and, as I should be compelled to enter into this, I have only to hope his Lordship will have the goodness to live as long as I do, and save me from the disquietude which this would occasion. I used to think that the reputation which I should establish would ultimately turn to marketable account, and that my books would sell as well as if they were seasoned with slander or obscenity. In time they will; it will not be in my time. I have, however, an easy means of securing some part of the advantage to my family, by forbearing to publish any more corrected editions during my lifetime, and leaving such corrections as will avail to give a second lease of copyright, and make any bookseller’s editions of no value. As for my family, I have no fears for them; they would find friends enough when I am gone; and having this confidence, you may be sure that there is not a lighter-hearted man in the world than myself.
“Basta,—or, as we say in Latin, Ohe jam
satis est. My eyes are better, which I attribute to an old velvet
bonnet of Edith’s, converted
without alteration into a most venerable studying cap for my worship; it keeps
| 120 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“We had an interesting guest here a few evenings ago, who came to visit Tom,—Captain Guillem, Nelson’s first lieutenant at Trafalgar, a sailor of the old Blake and Dampier breed, who has risen from before the mast, was in Duncan’s action, and at Copenhagen, &c. He told us more of Nelson than I can find time to write. . . . . .
“God bless you!
“. . . . . Our Fathers inform me that about 300 copies of Espriella remain unsold, and that probably it would be expedient to begin reprinting it in about a month.
* A species of ophthalmia, from which he formerly suffered. |
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 121 |
“I have seen only one reviewal of it, which was in the Monthly Magazine some months ago, and then the author contrived to invalidate all the censure which he had cast upon it, by abusing me in toto as a blockhead, coxcomb, &c. &c.
“I am a good deal surprised at your saying that the dunces of 1700 were like the dunces of 1800: surely you have said this without thinking what you were saying; they are as different as the fops of the two periods. You are wrong also in your praise of Ellis’s book: his is a very praiseworthy book, as far as—matter of fact, history, and arrangement go; but the moment that ends, and the series of specimens begins, all views of manner, and all light of history, disappear, and you have little else than a collection of amatory pieces selected with little knowledge and less taste. . . . .
“Captain
Guillem is at home in the Isle of Man, having realised from ten
to fifteen thousand pounds. He has no chance of being employed, having no
interest to get a ship, and, what is better, no wish to have one. Yet he is
precisely such a man as ought to be employed,—a true-bred English sailor.
Let him be at sea forty years, and there would be no mutiny
| 122 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“I do not send you Henry White’s Remains, because, though as many copies were offered me as I should choose to take, I declined taking any more than one for myself. I hope they will sell, and believe so; his piety will recommend the book to the Evangelicals, and his genius to men of letters.
“God bless you!
My father’s acquaintance with Sir Walter
Scott, commenced by the short visit he had made to Ashestiel in the autumn
of 1805, and, continued, as we have seen, by letter, now began to assume a closer
character, and through his friendly mediation some overtures were now made to him to take
service in the corps of his opponent Jeffrey, in the
Edinburgh Review. “As you
occasionally review,” Sir Walter wrote to him at this
time (November 1807), “will you forgive my suggesting a circumstance for your
consideration, to which you will give exactly the degree of weight you please? I am
perfectly certain that Jeffrey would think himself both happy and
honoured in receiving any communications which you might send him, choosing your books and
expressing your own opinions. The terms of the Edinburgh Review
are ten guineas per sheet, and will shortly be advanced considerably. I question if the
same unpleasant sort of work is anywhere else so well compensated. The
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 123 |
In this letter (which is published in Sir Walter Scott’s Life) he speaks also of his intention of publishing a small edition of the Morte d’ Arthur, which, as the reader has seen, was ground already preoccupied by my father, who, in his reply, explains this, as well as answers at length his friend’s proposal
| 124 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“I am very much obliged to you for the offer which you
make concerning the Edinburgh
Review, and fully sensible of your friendliness, and the advantages
which it holds out. I bear as little ill-will to Jeffrey as he does to me, and attribute whatever civil things
he has said of me to especial civility, whatever pert ones (a truer epithet
than severe would be) to the habit which he has acquired of taking it for
granted that the critic is, by virtue of his office, superior to every writer
whom he chooses to summon before him. The reviewals of Thalaba and Madoc do in no degree influence me. Setting
all personal feelings aside, the objections which weigh with me against bearing
any part in this journal are these:—I have scarcely one opinion in common
with it upon any subject. Jeffrey is for peace, and is
endeavouring to frighten the people into it: I am for war as long as Bonaparte lives. He is for Catholic
emancipation: I believe that its immediate consequence would be to introduce an
Irish priest into every ship in the navy. My feelings are still less in unison
with him than my opinions. On subjects of moral or political importance no man
is more apt to speak in the very gall of bitterness than I am, and this habit
is likely to go with me to the grave; but that sort of bitterness in which he
indulges, which tends
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 125 |
“Your letter was delayed a week upon the road by the
snow. I wish it had been written sooner, and had travelled faster, or that I
had communicated to you my own long-projected edition of Morte d’ Arthur. I am sorry to have
forestalled you, and you are the only person whom I should be sorry to forestal
in this case, because you are the only person who could do it certainly as
well, and perhaps better, with less labour than myself. My plan is to give the
whole bibliology of the Round Table in the pre-
| 126 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“The reviewal of Wordsworth I am not likely to see, the Edinburgh very rarely lying in my way. My own notions respecting the book agree in the main with yours, though I may probably go a step farther than you in admiration. There are certainly some pieces there which are good for nothing (none, however, which a bad poet could have written), and very many which it was highly injudicious to publish. That song to Lord Clifford, which you particularise, is truly a noble poem. The Ode upon Pre-existence is a dark subject darkly handled. Coleridge is the only man who could make such a subject luminous. The Leech-gatherer is one of my favourites; there he has caught Spenser’s manner, and, in many of the better poemets, has equally caught the best manner of old Wither, who, with all his long fits of dulness and prosing, had the heart and soul of a poet in him. The sonnets are in a grand style. I only wish Dundee had not been mentioned. James Grahame and I always call that man Claverhouse, the name by which the devils know him below.
“Marmion is expected as impatiently by me as he is by ten thousand
others. Believe me, Scott, no man of real
genius was ever yet a puritanical stickler for correctness, or fastidious about
any faults except his own. The best artists, both in poetry and painting, have
produced the most. Give me more lays, and correct them at leisure for after
editions—not laboriously, but when the amendment comes
| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 127 |
“The Cid is about half through the press, and will not disappoint you. It is much in the language of Amadis, both books having been written before men began to think of a fine style. This is one cause why Amadis is so far superior to Palmerin. There are passages of a poet’s feeling in the Cid, and some of the finest circumstances of chivalry. I expect much credit from this work.
“To recur to the Edinburgh Review, let me once more assure you that, if I do not
grievously deceive myself, the criticisms upon my own poems have not influenced
me; for, however unjust they were, they were less so, and far less uncourteous,
than what I meet with in other journals; and, though these things injure me
materially in a pecuniary point of view, they make no more impression upon me
than the bite of a sucking flea would do upon Garagantua. The business of reviewing, much as I have done in
it myself, I disapprove of, but, most of all, when it is carried on upon such a
system as Jeffrey’s. The judge is
criminal who acquits the guilty, but he is far more so who condemns the
innocent. In the Annual I have only
one coadjutor, all the other writers
being below contempt. In the Edinburgh I should have
had many with whom I should have felt it creditable to myself to have been
associated, if the irreconcileable difference which there is between Jeffrey
and myself upon every great principle of taste, morality, and policy, did not
occasion an irremovable difficulty. Meantime, I am as sincerely
| 128 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 33. |
“I am very curious for your Life of Dryden, that I may see how far your estimate of his merits agrees with my own. In the way of editing we want the yet unpublished metrical romances from the Auchinleck MS., of which you have just given such an account as to whet the public curiosity, and a collection of the Scotch poets. K. James, who is the best, has not been well edited; Blind Harry but badly; Dunbar, and many others, are not to be procured. Your name would make such a speculation answer, however extensive the collection might be. I beg my respects to Mrs. Scott, and am,
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