The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Grosvenor C. Bedford, 5 January 1821
“Keswick, Jan. 5. 1821.
“My dear G.,
“As for altering the movement of the six stanzas*, you
may as well ask me for both my ears, or advise me to boil the next haunch of
venison I may have, which, next to poaching a Simorg’s† egg, would,
I conceive, be the most inexpiable of offences. I cast them purposely in that
movement, and with forethought.
“Why should the rest of the world think meanly of me
for offering a deserved compliment to Haydon?‡ or for what possible reason consider it as a
piece of flattery to a man who might fancy it his interest to
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| Ætat. 46. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 55 |
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flatter me, but whom I can have no imaginable motive for
flattering? That point, however, you will press no farther when I tell you that
the very day after the passage was written Haydon himself
unexpectedly appeared,—that I read him the poem as far as it had then
proceeded,—and that he, who, from the nature of his profession, desires
contemporary praise more than anything in the world except abiding fame, values
it quite as much as it is worth. You have shown me that I was mistaken about
Handel, yet I think the lines may
stand, because the King’s patronage of
his music is an honourable fact.
“I have to insert Sir P.
Sidney among the elder worthies, and Hogarth among the later; perhaps Johnson also, if I can so do it as to satisfy myself with the
expression, and not seem to give him a higher praise than he deserves. Offence
I know will be taken that the name of Pitt does not appear there. The King would find him among the eminent men of his reign, but not
among those whose rank will be confirmed by posterity. The Whigs, too, will
observe that none of their idols are brought forward: neither Hampden, nor their Sidney, nor Russell. I
think of the first as ill as Lord Clarendon
did; and concerning Algernon Sidney, it is certain that he
suffered wrongfully, but that does not make him a great man. If I had brought
forward any man of that breed, it should have been old Oliver himself; and I had half a mind to do
it.
“I have finished the explanatory part of the preface,
touching the metre—briefly, fully, clearly, and fairly. It has led me (which
you will think odd till ![]()
| 56 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 46. |
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you see the connection) to pay off
a part of my obligations to Lord Byron and
——, by some observations upon the tendency of their
poems (especially Don Juan), which
they will appropriate to themselves in what proportion they please. If
—— knew how much his character has suffered by that
transaction about Don Juan, I think he would hang
himself. And if Gifford knew what is
said and thought of the Q. R. for
its silence concerning that infamous poem, I verily believe it would make him
ill. Upon that subject I say nothing. God bless you!
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)
English general and statesman; fought with the parliamentary forces at the battles of
Edgehill (1642) and Marston Moor (1644); led expedition to Ireland (1649) and was named
Lord Protector (1653).
William Gifford (1756-1826)
Poet, scholar, and editor who began as a shoemaker's apprentice; after Oxford he
published
The Baviad (1794),
The Maeviad
(1795), and
The Satires of Juvenal translated (1802) before becoming
the founding editor of the
Quarterly Review (1809-24).
John Hampden (1595-1643)
English statesman who led the parliamentarians in the political contest with Charles
I.
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
German composer who settled in England in 1712 where he composed oratorios, among them
The Messiah, first produced in Dublin in 1742.
Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846)
English historical painter and diarist who recorded anecdotes of romantic writers and the
physiognomy of several in his paintings.
William Hogarth (1697-1764)
English satirical painter whose works include
The Harlot's
Progress,
The Rake's Progress, and
Marriage à la Mode.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
English man of letters, among many other works he edited
A Dictionary
of the English Language (1755) and Shakespeare (1765), and wrote
Lives of the Poets (1779-81).
William Pitt the younger (1759-1806)
The second son of William Pitt, earl of Chatham (1708-1778); he was Tory prime minister
1783-1801.
Lord William Russell (1639-1683)
Rye-house plotter, the son of the first Duke of Bedford; after his execution for high
treason he was celebrated as a martyr to liberty.
Algernon Sidney (1623-1683)
English republican writer executed in connection with the Rye-House plot; he was
respected as a martyr by the Whig party; author of
Discourses concerning
Government (1698).
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
English poet, courtier, and soldier, author of the
Arcadia (1590),
Astrophel and Stella (1591) and
Apology for
Poetry (1595).
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824)
Don Juan. (London: 1819-1824). A burlesque poem in ottava rima published in installments: Cantos I and II published in
1819, III, IV and V in 1821, VI, VII, and VIII in 1823, IX, X, and XI in 1823, XII, XIII,
and XIV in 1823, and XV and XVI in 1824.
