“We are under considerable uneasiness respecting Coleridge, who left Malta early in September to return overland from Naples, was heard of from Trieste, and has not been heard of since. Our hope is, that, finding it impracticable to proceed, he may have returned, and be wintering at Naples or in Sicily.
| Ætat. 32. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 19 |
“Wordsworth was with me last week; he has of late been more employed in correcting his poems than in writing others; but one piece he has written, upon the ideal character of a soldier, than which I have never seen any thing more full of meaning and sound thought. The subject was suggested by Nelson’s most glorious death, though having no reference to it. He had some thoughts of sending it to the Courier, in which case you will easily recognise his hand.
“Having this occasion to write, I will venture to make one request. My friend Duppa is about to publish a Life of Michael Angelo;—the book will be a good book, for no man understands his art better. I wish, when it comes in course of trial, you would save it from Judge Jeffrey, or intercede with him for as favourable a report as it may be found to deserve. Duppa deserves well of the public, because he has, at a very considerable loss, published those magnificent heads from Raffaelle and Michael Angelo, and is publishing this present work without any view whatever to profit; indeed, he does not print copies enough to pay his expenses.
“Mrs. Southey
and her sister join me in remembrance to
Mrs. Scott. I know not whether I shall
ever again see the Tweed and the Yarrow, yet should be sorry to think I should
not. Your scenery has left upon me a strong impression,—more so for the
delightful associations which you and your country poets have inseparably
connected with it. I am going in the autumn, if Bonaparte will let me, to streams as classical and as
lovely—the Mondego of
| 20 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 32. |
“Remember me to my two fellow-travellers. Heaven keep them and me also from being the subject of any farther experiments upon the infinite compressibility of matter.
“If Hogg should publish his poems, I shall be very glad to do what little I can in getting subscribers for him.”
