The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Thomas Southey, 12 July 1799
“Friday, July 12. 1799.
“My dear Tom,
“I write to you from Danvers’s, where we are and have been since we left
Westbury. I have been to Biddlecombe’s*, and surveyed Southey
Palace that is to be. We shall not get possession till Michaelmas. The place
will be comfortable; the garden is large, but unstocked, with a fish-pond and a
pigeon-house. My mother is in the
College Green. Edith and I are going
into Devonshire, first to the north coast, Minehead, the Valley of Stones, and
Ilfracombe, the wildest part of the country; perhaps we may cross over to the
south on our way to Burton. I wish to see Lightfoot at Kingsbridge, and there would be a likelihood of
seeing you.
“My miscellaneous volume, which is to be christened
Annual Poems, comes on rapidly;
they are now striking off the eleventh sheet.
“Yesterday I finished Madoc, thank God! and thoroughly to my own
satisfaction; but I have resolved on one great, laborious, and radical
alteration. It was my design to identify Madoc with Mango
* The name of a friend residing at Christchorch,
Hampshire. |
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| Ætat. 25. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 21 |
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Capac, the legislator of Peru: in this I have totally
failed, therefore Mango Capac is to be the
hero of another poem; and instead of carrying Madoc down the Marañon, I shall follow the more probable
opinion and land him in Florida: here, instead of the Peruvians, who have no
striking manners for my poem, we get among the wild North American Indians; on
their customs and superstitions, facts must be grounded, and woven into the
work, spliced so neatly as not to betray the junction. These alterations I
delay. . . . . So much for Madoc; it is a great work
done, and my brain is now ready to receive the Dom Daniel, the next labour in succession.
Of the metre of this poem I have thought much, and my final resolution is to
write it irregularly, without rhymes: for this I could give you reasons in
plenty; but, as you cannot lend me your ear, we will defer it till you hear the
poem. This work is intended for immediate publication.
“My first poems are going to press for a third edition;
by the time they are completed, I shall probably have a second volume of the
Annual Poems ready; and so I and
the printers go merrily on.
“Oh, Tom! such a
gas has Davy discovered, the gaseous
oxyde! Oh, Tom! I have had some; it made me laugh and
tingle in every toe and finger tip. Davy has actually
invented a new pleasure, for which language has no name. Oh,
Tom! I am going for more this evening; it makes one
strong, and so happy I so gloriously happy I and without any after-debility,
but, instead of it, increased strength of mind and body. Oh, excellent air-bag!
Tom, I am ![]()
| 22 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 25. |
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sure the air in heaven
must be this wonder-working gas of delight!
Charles Biddlecombe (1817 fl.)
Of Burton in Hampshire, where he was a neighbor of Robert Southey and John Rickman; he
corresponded with Southey, who reports meeting him in 1817 in Paris.
Charles Danvers (1763 c.-1814)
Bristol wine merchant, a friend and correspondant of Robert Southey.
Sir Humphry Davy, baronet (1778-1829)
English chemist and physicist, inventor of the safety lamp; in Bristol he knew Cottle,
Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey; he was president of the Royal Society (1820).
Nicholas Lightfoot (1771 c.-1847)
The son of Nicholas Lightfoot, Devon, he was educated at Balliol College, Oxford and was
curate of Churcheton, Devon (1795) and rector of Pomeroy, Devonshire (1831-47). He
corresponded with his schoolmate, Robert Southey.
Edith Southey [née Fricker] (1774-1837)
The daughter of Stephen Fricker, she was the first wife of Robert Southey and the mother
of his children; they married in secret in 1795.
Margaret Southey [née Hill] (1752-1802)
The daughter of Edward Hill, she married the elder Robert Southey in 1772; after the
death of her husband in 1792 she operated a boarding house in Bath.
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 Annual Anthology. 2 vols (Bristol: T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1799-1800). A poetical miscellany edited by Robert Southey.
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Madoc. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1805). A verse romance relating the legendary adventures of a Welsh prince in Wales and
pre-Columbian America.
