The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Grosvenor C. Bedford, 13 April 1805
“April 13. 1805.
“Dear Grosvenor,
“There is a translation of Sallust by Gordon. I
have never seen it, but having read his Tacitus, do ![]()
| Ætat. 30. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 327 |
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not
think it likely that any new version would surpass his, for he was a man of
great powers. It is not likely that Longus
Homo, or any other Homo would pay for such a
translation,—because the speculation is not promising, every person who
wishes to read Sallust, being able to read the original. .
. . . There are some Greek authors which we want in English, Diodorus Siculus in particular; but why not chuse
for yourself, and venture upon original composition? In my conscience I do not
think any man living has more of Rabelais in his nature than you have. A grotesque satire à la Gargantua would set all the kingdom
staring, and place you in the very first rank of reputation. . . . . You ask if
I shall come to town this summer? Certainly not, unless some very material
accident were to render it necessary. I do not want to go, I should not like to
go, and I can’t afford to go; solid reasons, Mr. Bedford, as I take it, for not going. This is an
inconvenient residence for many reasons, and I shall move southward as soon as
I have the means, either to the neighbourhood of London or Bath. When that may
be, Heaven knows; for I have not yet found out the art of making more money
than goes as fast as it comes, in bread and cheese, which these ministers make
dearer and dearer every day, and I am one of that class which feels every
addition. However, I am well off as it is, and perfectly contented, and ten
times happier than half those boobies who walk into that chapel there in your
neighbourhood, and when they are asked if I shall give sixteen pence for
tenpenny-worth of salt, say yes,—for which the Devil scarify ![]()
| 328 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 30. |
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them with wire whips, and then put them in brine, say I.
“. . . . . I shall endeavour to account for the
decline of poetry after the age of Shakspeare and Spenser,
in spite of the great exceptions during the Commonwealth, and to trace the
effect produced by the restorers of a better taste, of whom Thomson and Gilbert
West are to be esteemed as the chiefs before the Wartons, with this difference, that what he
did was the effect of his own genius, what they, by a feeling of the genius of
others. This reign will rank very high in poetical history. Goldsmith, Cowper, Burns, are all
original, and all unequalled in their way. Falconer is another whose works will last for ever. . . . .
Grosvenor Charles Bedford (1773-1839)
The son of Horace Walpole's correspondent Charles Bedford; he was auditor of the
Exchequer and a friend of Robert Southey who contributed to several of Southey's
publications.
Robert Burns (1759-1796)
Scottish poet and song collector; author of
Poems, chiefly in the
Scottish Dialect (1786).
William Cowper (1731-1800)
English poet, author of
Olney Hymns (1779),
John
Gilpin (1782), and
The Task (1785); Cowper's delicate
mental health attracted as much sympathy from romantic readers as his letters, edited by
William Hayley, did admiration.
Diodorus Siculus (30 BC fl.)
Sicilian author who wrote a history of the world in Greek that survives in an incomplete
state.
William Falconer (1732-1770)
Scottish seaman and poet; author of a long-popular poem,
The
Shipwreck (1762), and
The Universal Marine Dictionary
(1769).
Oliver Goldsmith (1728 c.-1774)
Irish miscellaneous writer; his works include
The Vicar of
Wakefield (1766),
The Deserted Village (1770), and
She Stoops to Conquer (1773).
Thomas Gordon (1788-1841)
Political pamphleteer and editor of the
Independent Whig; he also
translated Sallust and Tacitus.
Thomas Norton Longman (1771-1842)
A leading London publisher whose authors included Southey, Wordsworth, Scott, and
Moore.
Francçois Rabelais (1494 c.-1533)
French physician and satirist; author of
Gargantua and Pantagruel
(1532-34, 1546-52, 1562); the English translation by Urquhart and Motteux (1653, 1693-94)
has been much admired.
Sallust (86 BC-35 BC)
Roman historian; author of
The War against Jugurtha and
The Conspiracy of Cataline.
Edmund Spenser (1552 c.-1599)
English poet, author of
The Shepheards Calender (1579) and
The Faerie Queene (1590, 1596).
James Thomson (1700-1748)
Anglo-Scottish poet and playwright; while his descriptive poem,
The
Seasons (1726-30), was perhaps the most popular poem of the eighteenth century,
the poets tended to admire more his Spenserian burlesque,
The Castle of
Indolence (1748).
Thomas Warton (1728-1790)
English scholar and poet; author of
The Pleasures of Melancholy
(1747),
Observations on the Fairy Queen of Spenser (1754),
The History of English Poetry, 3 vols (1774-78). He succeeded
William Whitehead as poet laureate in 1785.
Gilbert West (1703-1756)
English poet educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford; he was an influential imitator
of Spenser, though in his lifetime held in higher esteem for
Observations
on the History and Evidence of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (1747).
