“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.
