The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Grosvenor C. Bedford, 5 December 1807
“Dec. 5. 1807.
“My dear Grosvenor,
“. . . . . 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. |
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| Ætat. 33. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 121 |
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You may have heard or seen that D. Manuel has a friend in the Courier and in the Morning Post. This is Stuart’s doing, who will befriend him still more by
giving me some facts for what farther is to be added to complete the object of
the book. As for the Specimens, I am perfectly satisfied that it will be very easy to
metamorphose them into a good book, if ever there should be a second edition.
“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. |
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on board his ship; boy-captains are the persons who make
mutinies. Oh, Grosvenor Bedford, what a
pamphlet would I write about the navy if my brother were not in it!
“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!
Grosvenor Charles Bedford (1773-1839)
The son of Horace Walpole's correspondent Charles Bedford; he was auditor of the
Exchequer and a friend of Robert Southey who contributed to several of Southey's
publications.
George Ellis (1753-1815)
English antiquary and critic, editor of
Specimens of Early English
Poets (1790), friend of Walter Scott.
John Quilliam (1771-1829)
Of Kirk Michael on the Isle of Man; he was first lieutenant of the Victory, fighting
under Nelson at Trafalgar. Robert Southey described him as “a sailor of the old Blake and
Dampier breed.”
Daniel Stuart (1766-1846)
Originally its printer, he was proprietor of the
Morning Post from
1795-1803; in about 1800 he became part-proprietor and editor of
The
Courier.
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.
The Courier. (1792-1842). A London evening newspaper; the original proprietor was James Perry; Daniel Stuart, Peter
Street, and William Mudford were editors; among the contributors were Samuel Taylor
Coleridge and John Galt.
The Monthly Magazine. (1796-1843). The original editor of this liberal-leaning periodical was John Aikin (1747-1822); later
editors included Sir Richard Phillips (1767-1840), the poet John Abraham Heraud
(1779-1887), and Benson Earle Hill (1795-45).
Morning Post. (1772-1937). A large-circulation London daily that published verse by many of the prominent poets of
the romantic era. John Taylor (1750–1826), Daniel Stuart (1766-1846), and Nicholas Byrne
(d. 1833) were among its editors.
