The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Thomas Southey, 24 December 1797
“. . . . . I have also another motive for wishing to
live out of the town, to avoid the swarms of acquaintances who buzz about me
and sadly waste my time,—an article I can but little afford to throw
away. I have my law, which will soon occupy me from ten in the morning till
eight in an office, excepting the dinner-time. My Joan of Arc* takes
* He was at present engaged in revising Joan of Arc for a second
edition, in which all that part which had been written by Mr. Coleridge
was omitted. |
![]()
![]()
| Ætat. 23. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 327 |
![]()
up more time than you would suppose, for I have had a mine
of riches laid open to me in a library belonging to the Dissenters, and have
been disturbing the spiders; add to this that I write now for the ‘Critical Review,’ and you will
see that I cannot afford to keep levee days. . . . . I keep a large copy of my
poems for you. They
have sold uncommonly well; 1000 were printed, and I hear 750 are already gone.
The Joan of Arc is scandalously delayed at Bristol. I
have had only five proofs in all, and this delay, as the book is wanted, is a
serious loss. A print of the Maid will be prefixed, solely for the sake of
giving Robert Hancock some employment,
and making his name known as an engraver. I have got a promise of having him
introduced to Alderman Boydell, the
great publisher of engravings; he is still at Bath, and I am in hopes I shall
be the means of essentially serving him.
“You will be surprised to hear that I have been
planning a charitable institution, which will in all probability be
established. It was planned with John May
and Carlisle, and the outline is simply
this,—many poor victims perish after they have been healed at the
hospitals, by returning to unwholesome air, scanty and bad food, cold and
filth. We mean to employ them in a large garden, for many persons may be
usefully employed in some manner there. When in good order, the produce of the
garden will support the institution; in the long winter evenings the people
will be employed in making nets, baskets, or matting; and the women in making
sheeting—all things that will be wanted at ![]()
| 328 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 23. |
![]()
home, and
for the overplus a ready sale will be had among the supporters of the
Convalescent Asylum. My name will not appear in the business: I leave the
credit to Lords and Esquires. I will send you our printed plan as soon as it is
ready. Six hours’ labour is all that will be required from the strongest
persons: for extra work they will be paid; then they may leave the Asylum with
some little money, and with some useful knowledge.
“We are much pleased with this scheme, as it will make
every body useful whom it benefits; a man with one leg may make holes for
cabbages with his wooden leg, and a fellow with one arm follow and put in the
plants
“Would you were here to-morrow! we would keep holiday:
but ’tis very long since Christmas has been a festival with us. God bless
you.
Yours affectionately,
R. Southey.”
John Boydell (1720-1804)
Engraver, print-seller, and lord mayor of London (1790); in 1786 he commissioned his
famous series of Shakespeare illustrations which he exhibited in a gallery in Pall
Mall.
Sir Anthony Carlisle (1768-1840)
English surgeon and professor of anatomy at the Royal Academy (1808).
Robert Hancock (1793-1858)
English engraver and portraitist; he illustrated books and while working in Bristol made
drawings of Coleridge, Southey, and Lamb.
John May (1775-1856)
Wine merchant and close friend of Robert Southey; after the failure of the family
business in Portuguese wines he was a bank manager in the 1820s.
Thomas Southey (1777-1838)
The younger brother of Robert Southey; he was a naval captain (1811) and afterwards a
Customs officer. He published
A Chronological History of the West
Indies (1828).
The Critical Review, or, Annals of Literature. (1756-1817). Originally conducted by Tobias Smollett, the
Critical Review began
as a rival to the
Monthly Review, begun in 1749. It survived for 144
volumes before falling prey to the more fashionable quarterlies of the nineteenth
century.
