The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Edward Moxon, 19 July 1837
“Keswick, July 19. 1837.
“My dear Sir,
“I received Lamb’s Letters yesterday evening, and not very
wisely looked through both volumes before I went to bed; for, as you may
suppose, they kept possession of me during the night. Of late, I have seen much
of myself in a way that thus painfully brings back the past; Sir Walter’s Memoirs first, then Joseph Cottle’s Recollections of so many things which had
better have been forgotten; and now these Memorials of poor Charles
Lamb. What with these, and the preparation of my own poems for
an edition which I have set about in the same mood of mind as if it were
designed for posthumous publication, my thoughts and feelings have been drawn
to the years that are past far more than is agreeable or wholesome. . . . .
“I wish that I had looked out for Mr. Talfourd the letter* which Gifford wrote in reply to one in which
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| 336 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 63. |
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I remonstrated with him upon his designating Lamb as a poor maniac. The words were used in
complete ignorance of their peculiar bearings, and I believe nothing in the
course of Gifford’s life ever occasioned him so much
self-reproach. He was a man with whom I had no literary sympathies; perhaps
there was nothing upon which we agreed, except great political questions; but I
liked him the better ever after for his conduct on this occasion. He had a
heart full of kindness for all living creatures except authors; them he regarded as a fishmonger regards eels, or as
Isaac Walton did slugs, frogs, and
worms. I always protested against the indulgence of that temper in his Review; and I am sorry to see in
this last number that the same spirit still continues there.
“A few remarks I will make upon these volumes as they
occur to me. There was nothing emulous intended in Coleridge’s Maid of Orleans. When Joan of Arc was first in the press (1795), he
wrote a considerable portion of the second book, which portion was omitted in
the second edition (1798), because his style was not in keeping with mine, and
because the matter was inconsistent with the plan upon which the poem had been
in great part re-cast. All that Coleridge meant was to make his fragment into a
whole.
“I saw most of Lamb in 1802, when he lived in the Temple, and London was my
place of abode,—for the last time, God be thanked.
“It was not at Cambridge that Lloyd was attracted to Coleridge. He introduced himself to him at
Bristol in 1796, resided with him afterwards at ![]()
| Ætat. 63. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 337 |
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Stowey,
and did not go to Cambridge till three or four years later, after his own
marriage. . . . .
Remember me to
Mrs.
Moxon;
And believe me always,
Yours very truly,
Robert Southey.
“Remember me most kindly to Mr. Rogers when you see him. I am sorry
that Cary has been so ill-treated. It
may be hoped that the Archbishop may think it fitting to mark his sense of
the transaction by giving him some preferment.
“Mr.
Talfourd has performed his task as well as it could be done,
under all circumstances. The book must be purely delightful to every one,
the very few excepted to whom it must needs recall melancholy
recollections.”
Henry Francis Cary (1772-1844)
English poet; he was assistant-keeper of printed books at the British Museum (1826) and
translator of Dante (1805-19).
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
English poet and philosopher who projected
Lyrical Ballads (1798)
with William Wordsworth; author of
Biographia Literaria (1817),
On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other
works.
Joseph Cottle (1770-1853)
Bristol bookseller and poet; he published the
Lyrical Ballads,
several heroic poems that attracted Byron's derision, and
Early
Recollections, chiefly relating to the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 2 vols
(1837).
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).
Charles Lamb [Elia] (1775-1834)
English essayist and boyhood friend of Coleridge at Christ's Hospital; author of
Essays of Elia published in the
London
Magazine (collected 1823, 1833) and other works.
Charles Lloyd (1775-1839)
Quaker poet; a disciple of Coleridge and friend of Charles Lamb, he published
Poetical Essays on the Character of Pope (1821) and other
volumes.
Emma Lamb Moxon [née Isola] (1809-1891)
The orphaned daughter of Charles Isola adopted by Charles and Mary Lamb; after working as
a governess she married Edward Moxon in 1833.
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855)
English poet, banker, and aesthete, author of the ever-popular
Pleasures of Memory (1792),
Columbus (1810),
Jaqueline (1814), and
Italy (1822-28).
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854)
English judge, dramatist, and friend of Charles Lamb who contributed articles to the
London Magazine and
New Monthly
Magazine.
Izaak Walton (1593-1683)
The friend and biographer of John Donne, and author of
The Compleat
Angler (1653).
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.
