The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to C. W. W. Wynn, 15 January 1814
“One of our poets says, ‘A dram of sweet is worth a pound of
sour,’ which, if it be not good poetry, is sound practical
wisdom. I assure you you have gone far towards reconciling me to the Carmen, by praising the Dutch
stanza, of which I had conceived the only qualification to be, that it was as
flat as the country of which it treated, as dead as the water of the ditches,
and as heavy astern as the inhabitants. How often have I had occasion to
remember the old apologue of the painter, who hung up his picture for public
criticism! The conclusion also, laus Deo! has found favour
in your eyes.
“I have added three stanzas to the five which were
struck out, and made them into a whole, which is gone, sine
nomine, to the Courier, where you will be likely to see it sooner than if I were
to transcribe the excerpts.
“There was another stanza, which I expunged myself,
because it spoke with bitterness of those ![]()
| Ætat. 40. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 57 |
![]()
“Who deemed that Spain Would bow her neck before the intruder’s throne; |
![]()
and I should have been sorry to have had it applied in a manner to have
wounded you, its direction being against the Edinburgh Review. Upon this point your remarks
have in no degree affected my opinion, either as to the propriety of the attack
itself, or of the place for it. However rash I may be, you will, I think, allow
that my disposition is sufficiently placable. I continued upon courteous terms
with Jeffrey, till that rascally attack
upon the Register, in which he
recommended it for prosecution. As for the retaliation of which you are
apprehensive, do not suppose, my dear Wynn, that one who has never feared to speak his opinions
sincerely, can have any fear of being confronted with his former self? I was a
republican; I should be so still, if I thought we were advanced enough in
civilisation for such a form of society; and the more my feelings, my judgment,
my old prejudices might incline me that way, the deeper would necessarily be my
hatred of Bonaparte. Do you know that the Anti-Jacobin treats my Life of Nelson as infected with the leaven
of Jacobinism?
“If I were conscious of having been at any time swayed
in the profession of my opinions by private or interested motives, then indeed
might I fear what malice could do against me. True it is that I am a pensioner
and Poet Laureat. I owe the pension to you, the laurel to the Spaniards.
Whether the former has prevented me from speaking as I felt upon the measures
of Government, where I thought myself called upon to speak at all, let my
volumes of ![]()
| 58 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 40. |
![]()
the Register bear witness. The Whigs who attack me for celebrating our
victories in Spain, ought to expunge from the list of their toasts that which
gives ‘The cause of Liberty all the world over.’ The
Inscriptions are for the battles we have won, the towns we have retaken, and
epitaphs for those who have fallen,—that is, for as many of them as I can
find anything about whose rank or ability distinguished them.
“God bless you!
Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850)
Scottish barrister, Whig MP, and co-founder and editor of the
Edinburgh
Review (1802-29). As a reviewer he was the implacable foe of the Lake School of
poetry.
Edmund Spenser (1552 c.-1599)
English poet, author of
The Shepheards Calender (1579) and
The Faerie Queene (1590, 1596).
Charles Watkin Williams Wynn (1775-1850)
The son of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, fourth baronet; educated at Westminster and Christ
Church, Oxford, Robert Southey's friend and benefactor was a Whig MP for Old Sarum (1797)
and Montgomeryshire (1799-1850). He was president of the Board of Control (1822-28).
The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine. (1798-1821). Edited by John Gifford as a continuation of the brilliant
Anti-Jacobin
Magazine (1797-98) with no plates, less poetry, and more book reviews.
The Courier. (1792-1842). A London evening newspaper; the original proprietor was James Perry; Daniel Stuart, Peter
Street, and William Mudford were editors; among the contributors were Samuel Taylor
Coleridge and John Galt.
