The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Richard Duppa, 23 May 1807
“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 |
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other steeple-hunting whippers-in, as light is to
darkness. The hostile article I have not seen;—one of the advantages of
living here is, that I never see these things till their season is over, and
then, like wasps in winter, their power of stinging is at an end. I should have
been angry at seeing your book abused when the abuse could do any hurt, and
should have felt that sort of heat in my cheek which denotes the moral
temperature of the minute to be above temperate. Now, whenever it falls in my
way, which, very likely, never may be the case, it will come as a matter of
literary history,—as what was said by some malevolent and ignorant person
when a good book first appeared, and so it will furnish me an anecdote to
relate when I speak of the book; or if I should ever live to old age, and have
leisure to leave behind me that sort of transcript from recollections which
would make such excellent materials for the literary history of my own times.
“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. |
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in London, and had assurances of assistance from
Sotheby, and, by way of Wynn, from Lord
Carysfort. His second letter to me, however, said he was going
to Cambridge, under Simeon’s protection. I plainly saw that the
Evangelicals had caught him; and as he did not want what little help I could
have procured, and I had no leisure for new correspondences, ceased to write to
him, but did him what good I could in the way of reviewing, and getting him
friends at Cambridge. He died last autumn; and I received a letter informing me
of it. It gave me a sort of shock, because, in spite of his evangelicism, I
always expected great things, from the proof he had given of very superior
powers; and, in replying to this letter, I asked if there were any intention of
publishing any thing which he might have left, and offered to give an opinion
upon his papers, and look them over. Down came a box-full, the sight of which
literally made my heart ache, and my eyes overflow, for never did I behold such
proofs of human industry. To make short, I took the matter up with interest,
collected his letters, and have, at the expense of more time than such a poor
fellow as myself can very well afford, done what his family are very grateful
for, and what I think the world will thank me for too. Of course I have done it
gratuitously. His life will affect you, for he fairly died of intense
application. Cambridge finished him. When his nerves were already so
over-strained that his nights were utter misery, they gave him medicines to
enable him to hold out during examination for a prize! The horse won,—but
he died after the race! Among his letters there is a great deal of ![]()
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Methodism: if this procures for the book, as it very
likely may, a sale among the righteous over-much, I shall rejoice for the sake
of his family, for whom I am very much interested. I have, however, in justice
to myself, stated, in the shortest and most decorous manner, that my own views
of religion differ widely from his. Still, that I should become, and that, too,
voluntarily, an editor of methodistical and Calvinistic letters, is a thing
which, when I think of it, excites the same sort of smile that the thoughts of
my pension does, and I wonder, like the sailor, what is to be done next.
“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. |
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you must not return to the south without touching at
Greta Hall, and seeing me in my glory. We have papered the parlour this very
day. It is not so fine a room as yours, Mr.
Duppa, but it is very beautiful, I assure you,—and the
masons are at this time making a ceiling to my study,—and I have got
curtains for it, the colour of nankeen,—and there is to be a carpet, and
a new fender, and all sorts of things that are proper. Miss Barker tells me she has seen you. I am in
good hope of persuading her to come down this summer; and if she comes, she
shall not go till I have a set of drawings for the parlour.
“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.
Mary Barker (1780 c.-1853)
Writer, painter, and Robert Southey's neighbor Keswick, 1812-17; she lived in France from
1819.
Richard Duppa (1768-1831)
Writer and antiquary; a contributor to the
Literary Gazette; he
published
A Journal of the most remarkable Occurrences that took place in
Rome (1799) and other works.
Robert Fellowes (1770-1847)
Educated at St Mary Hall, Oxford, after taking orders he published
Religion without Cant (1801) and was editor of the
Critical
Review (1806-11). Samuel Parr was instrumental in obtaining for him the post of
secretary to Queen Caroline.
Henry Fuseli (1741-1825)
Anglo-Swiss painter who settled in England in 1764 and became the friend of William
Blake.
Samuel Hamilton (1841 fl.)
The son of Archibald Hamilton; he was a London printer, active 1799-1841, who succeeded
his father as proprietor of the
Critical Review (1799-1804).
John Higgs Hunt (1780-1859)
Educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge, he edited the
Critical Review (1805-07), translated the
Gerusalemme
liberata (1818) and was vicar of Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire from 1823.
Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850)
Scottish barrister, Whig MP, and co-founder and editor of the
Edinburgh
Review (1802-29). As a reviewer he was the implacable foe of the Lake School of
poetry.
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
John Joshua Proby (1751-1828)
Educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was a poet and Whig MP created
Earl of Carysfort in 1789.
Sir John Simeon, first baronet (1756-1824)
Educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford, he was MP for Reading (1797-1802, 1806-18)
and a supporter of William Pitt. He obtained his baronetcy in 1815 for legal services to
George III.
William Sotheby (1757-1833)
English man of letters; after Harrow he joined the dragoons, married well, and published
Poems (1790) and became a prolific poet and translator,
prominent in literary society.
Henry Kirke White (1785-1806)
Originally a stocking-weaver; trained for the law at Cambridge where he was a
contemporary of Byron; after his early death his poetical
Remains
were edited by Robert Southey (2 vols, 1807) with a biography that made the poet
famous.
Christopher Wordsworth (1774-1846)
The younger brother of William Wordsworth; he was master of Trinity College, Cambridge
(1820-41) and chancellor of Cambridge (1820-21). He married the sister of the poet Charles
Lloyd. Robert Southey reports that he wrote for the
Critical
Review.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
With Coleridge, author of
Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth
survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.
Charles Watkin Williams Wynn (1775-1850)
The son of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, fourth baronet; educated at Westminster and Christ
Church, Oxford, Robert Southey's friend and benefactor was a Whig MP for Old Sarum (1797)
and Montgomeryshire (1799-1850). He was president of the Board of Control (1822-28).
The Critical Review, or, Annals of Literature. (1756-1817). Originally conducted by Tobias Smollett, the
Critical Review began
as a rival to the
Monthly Review, begun in 1749. It survived for 144
volumes before falling prey to the more fashionable quarterlies of the nineteenth
century.
The Monthly Review. (1749-1844). The original editor was Ralph Griffiths; he was succeeded by his son George Edward who
edited the journal from 1803 to 1825, who was succeeded by Michael Joseph Quin
(1825–32).
