The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Walter Scott, 27 April 1814
“Keswick, April 27. 1814.
“Thank God we have seen the end of this long tragedy of
five-and-twenty years! The curtain is fallen; and though there is the
after-piece of the Devil to Pay to be performed, we have nothing to do ![]()
| Ætat. 40. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 69 |
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with that: It concerns the performers alone. I wish we had
been within reach of a meeting upon the occasion; and yet the first feeling was
not a joyous one. Too many recollections crowded upon the mind; and the sudden
termination putting an end at once to those hopes and fears and speculations
which, for many years past, have made up so large a part of every man’s
intellectual existence, seemed like a change in life itself. Much as I had
desired this event, and fully as I had expected it, still, when it came, it
brought with it an awful sense of the instability of all earthly things; and
when I remembered that that same newspaper might as probably have brought with
it intelligence that peace had been made with Bonaparte, I could not but acknowledge that something more
uniform in its operations than human councils had brought about the event. I
thought he would set his life upon the last throw, and die game; or that he
would kill himself, or that some of his own men would kill him; and though it
had long been my conviction that he was a mean-minded villain, still it
surprised me that he should live after such a degradation,—after the
loss, not merely of empire, but even of his military character. But let him
live; if he will write his own history, he will give us all some information,
and if he will read mine, it will be some set-off against his crimes.
“I desired Longman to send you the Carmen Triumphale. In the course of this
year I shall volunteer verses enough of this kind to entitle me to a fair
dispensation for all task work in future. I have made good way through a poem
upon the Princess’s
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marriage in the olden style, consisting of three
parts—the Proem, the Dream, and L’Envoy; and I am getting on with
the series of Military Inscriptions. The conclusion of peace will, perhaps,
require another ode, and I shall then trouble Jeffrey with a few more notes. As yet I know nothing more of
his reply than what some sturdy friend in the Times has communicated to me; but I shall not fail to pay all
proper attention to it in due season. He may rest assured that I shall pay all
my obligations to him with compound interest. The uses of newspapers will for a
while seem flat and unprofitable, yet there will be no lack of important matter
from abroad; and for acrimonious disputes at home, we shall always be sure of
them. I fear we shall be too liberal in making peace. There is no reason why we
should make any cessions for pure generosity. It is very true that Louis XVIII. has not been our enemy; but the
French nation has, and a most inveterate and formidable one. They should have
their sugar islands, but not without paying for them,—and that a good
round sum,—to be equally divided between Greenwich and Chelsea, or to
form the foundation of a fund for increasing the pay of army and navy.
“I am finishing Roderick, and deliberating what subject
to take up next; for as it has pleased you and the Prince to make me Laureate,
I am bound to keep up my poetical character. If I do not fix upon a tale of
Robin Hood, or a New England story
connected with Philip’s war, and Goffe the regicide, I shall either go far North or far East for
scenery and superstitions, and pursue my old scheme of my my-![]()
| Ætat. 40. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 71 |
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thological delineations. Is it not almost time to hear of something from you?
I remember to have been greatly delighted when a boy with Amyntor and Theodora, and with Dr. Ogilvie’s Rona. The main delight must have been from
the scenes into which they carried me. There was a rumour that you were among
the Hebrides. I heartily wish it may be true.
“Remember us to Mrs.
Scott and your daughter. These children of ours are now growing
tall enough, and intelligent enough to remind us forcibly of the lapse of time.
Another generation is coming on. You and I, however, are not yet off the stage;
and whenever we quit it, it will not be to men who will make a better figure
there.
Yours, very affectionately,
Robert Southey.”
Princess Charlotte Augusta (1796-1817)
The only child of George IV; she married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg in 1816 and died
in childbirth the following year.
William Goffe (1605-1679 c.)
An officer in Cromwell's New Model Army who signed the death warrant for Charles I; after
the Restoration he fled to America where he died in obscure circumstances.
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.
Thomas Norton Longman (1771-1842)
A leading London publisher whose authors included Southey, Wordsworth, Scott, and
Moore.
Louis XVIII, king of France (1755-1824)
Brother of the executed Louis XVI; he was placed on the French throne in 1814 following
the abdication of Napoleon.
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his
abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St.
Helena (1815).
John Ogilvie (1732-1813)
Educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, he was minister of Midmar, a friend of James
Beattie, and a prolific poet.
The Times. (1785-). Founded by John Walter, The Times was edited by Thomas Barnes from 1817 to 1841. In the
romantic era it published much less literary material than its rival dailies, the
Morning Chronicle and the
Morning
Post.
