The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Grosvenor C. Bedford, 28 November 1802
“I thought you would know from Wynn that I trespass on my eyes only for short
letters; or from
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| 194 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 28. |
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Rickman, to whom my friend Danvers will have carried the latest news of
me this day, if those unhappy eyes had been well you would ere this have
received Kehama. They have
been better, and are again worse, in spite of lapis
calaminaris, goulard, cayenne pepper, and the
surgeon’s lance; but they will soon be well, so I believe and trust. You
have seen my Cid, and have not seen what I wrote to
Wynn about its manner. Everywhere possible the story
is told in the very phrase of the original chronicles, which are almost the
oldest works in the Castilian language. The language, in itself poetical,
becomes more poetical by necessary compression; if it smack of romance, so does
the story: in the notes, the certain will be distinguished from the doubtful
passages quoted, and references to author and page uniformly given. Thus much
of this, which is no specimen of my historical style: indeed, I do not think
uniformity of style desirable; it should rise and fall with the subject, and
adapt itself to the matter. Moreover, in my own judgment, a little peculiarity
of style is desirable, because it nails down the matter to the memory. You
remember the facts of Livy; but you remember
the very phrases of Tacitus and Sallust, and the phrase reminds you of the matter
when it would else have been forgotten. This may be pushed, like every thing,
too far, and become ridiculous; but the principle is true.
“As a different specimen, I wish you could see a life of
St. Francisco, a section upon
Mohammedanism, and a chapter upon the Moorish period. Oh, these eyes! these
eyes! to have my brain in labour, ![]()
| Ætat. 28. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 195 |
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and this spell to
prevent delivery like a cross-legged Juno!
Farewell till to-morrow; I must sleep, and laze, and
play whist, till bedtime.
“. . . . . Snakes have been pets in England; is it not
Cowley who has a poem upon one?—
‘Take heed, fair Eve,
you do not make Another tempter of the snake.’ |
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They ought to be tamed and taken into our service, for snakes eat mice and
can get into their holes after them; and, in our country, the venomous species
is so rare, that we should think them beautiful animals were it not for the
recollection of the Old Serpent. When I am housed and
homed (as I shall be, or hope to be, in the next
spring; not that the negotiation is over yet, but I expect it will end well,
and that I shall have a house in the loveliest part of South Wales, in a vale
between high mountains; and an onymous house too, Grosvenor, and one that is down in the map of Glamorganshire,
and its name is Maes Gwyn; and so much for that, and there’s an end of my
parenthesis), then do I purpose to enter into a grand
confederacy with certain of the animal world: every body has a dog, and most
people have a cat; but I will have, moreover, an otter, and teach him to fish,
for there is salmon in the river Neath (and I should like a hawk, but that is
only a vain hope, and a gull or an osprey to fish in the sea), and I will have
a snake if Edith will let me, and I will
have a toad to catch flies, and it shall be made murder to kill a spider in my
domains: then, ![]()
| 196 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 28. |
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Grosvenor, when you come to visit me,—N.B., you will
arrive per mail between five and six in the morning at Neath; ergo, you will find me at breakfast about seven,—you will see
puss on the one side, and the otter on the other, both looking for bread and
milk, and Margery in her little great
chair, and the toad upon the tea-table, and the snake twisting up the leg of
the table to look for his share. These two pages make a letter of decent
length, from such a poor blind Cupid as
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.
Abraham Cowley (1618-1667)
English royalist poet; his most enduring work was his posthumously-published
Essays (1668).
Charles Danvers (1763 c.-1814)
Bristol wine merchant, a friend and correspondant of Robert Southey.
Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552)
Roman Catholic missionary and co-founder of the Jesuit Order who traveled in the
Portuguese colonies in Asia.
Livy (59 BC c.-17)
Roman historian; of his
History of Rome 35 books survive.
John Rickman (1771-1840)
Educated at Magdalen Hall and Lincoln College, Oxford, he was statistician and clerk to
the House of Commons and an early friend of Charles Lamb and Robert Southey.
Sallust (86 BC-35 BC)
Roman historian; author of
The War against Jugurtha and
The Conspiracy of Cataline.
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.
William Taylor of Norwich (1765-1836)
Translator, poet, and essayist; he was a pupil of Anna Letitia Barbauld and correspondent
of Robert Southey who contributed to the
Monthly Magazine, the
Monthly Review, the
Critical Review, and
other periodicals.
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).
