The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to C. W. W. Wynn, 15 August 1798
“Hereford, August 15. 1798.
“You will, I think, be somewhat amused at this copy of
a note from a west-country farmer’s daughter: it is genuine I assure
you:—
“’Dear Miss,
“’The energy of the Races prompts me
to assure you that my request is forbidden; the idea of which I had awkwardly
nourished, notwithstanding my propensity to reserve. Mr. T. will be there; let
me with confidence assure you that him and brothers will be very happy to meet
you and brothers. Us girls cannot go for reasons; the attention of the cows
claims our assistance in the evening.
Unalterably yours.’
Is it not admirable?
“I have seen myself Bedfordized*, and it has been a
subject of much amusement. Holcroft’s likeness is
* This is explained in the next letter.
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| Ætat. 23. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 345 |
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admirably preserved. I know not what poor Lamb has done to be croaking there. What I
think the worst part of the anti-Jacobine abuse, is the lumping together men of such opposite
principles; this was stupid. We should have all been welcoming the Director,
not the Theophilanthrope. The conductors of the Anti-Jacobine will have much to answer for in thus inflaming the
animosities of this country. They are labouring to produce the deadly hatred of
Irish faction; perhaps to produce the same end. Such an address as you mention
might probably be of great use; that I could assist you in it is less certain.
I do not feel myself at all calculated for anything that requires methodical
reasoning; and though you and I should agree in the main object of the
pamphlet, our opinions are at root different. The old systems of government I
think must fall; but in this country the immediate danger is on the other
hand,—from an unconstitutional and unlimited power. Burleigh saw how a parliament might be employed
against the people, and Montesquieu
prophesied the fall of English liberty when the legislature should become
corrupt. You will not agree with me in thinking his prophecy fulfilled.
“Violent men there undoubtedly are among the democrats,
as they are always called, but is there any one among them whom the
ministerialists will allow to be moderate? The Anti-Jacobine certainly speaks the sentiments
of government.
“Heywood’s Hierarchie is a most lamentable poem,
but the notes are very amusing. I fancy it is in most old libraries. I do not
see anything that promises ![]()
| 346 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 23. |
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well for ballads. There are
some fine Arabic traditions that would make noble poems. I was about to write
one upon the Garden of Irem; the city and garden still exist in the deserts
invisibly, and one man only has seen them. This is the tradition, and I had
made it the groundwork of what I thought a very fine story; but it seemed too
great for a poem of 300 or 400 lines.
“I do not much like Don Carlos: it is by far the worst of
Schiller’s plays.
Yours affectionately,
R. Southey.”
Thomas Heywood (1573 c.-1641)
English poet and playwright; he wrote
A Woman Killed with Kindness
(1603) and
An Apology for Actors (1612).
Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809)
English playwright and novelist; a friend of William Godwin indicted for treason in 1794;
author of
The Road to Ruin (1792). His
Memoirs (1816) were completed by William Hazlitt.
Charles Lamb [Elia] (1775-1834)
English essayist and boyhood friend of Coleridge at Christ's Hospital; author of
Essays of Elia published in the
London
Magazine (collected 1823, 1833) and other works.
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. (1797-1798). A weekly magazine edited by William Gifford with contributions by George Canning, John
Hookham Frere, and George Ellis. It was the model for many later satirical
periodicals.
