The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 11 June 1804
“The first news of you was from Lamb’s letter, which arrived when I was
in London. I saw, also, your letter to Stuart, and heard of one to Tobin, before I returned and found my own. Ere this you are at
Malta. What an infectious thing is irregularity! Merely because it was
uncertain when a letter could set off, I have always yielded to the immediate
pressure of other employment; whereas, had there been a day fixed for the mail,
to have written would then have been a fixed business, and performed like an
engagement.
“All are well—Sara and Sariola,
Moses and Justiculus, Edith and the Edithling.
Mary is better.
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| Ætat. 29. |
OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. |
291 |
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“I was worn to the very bone by fatigue in
London,—more walking in one day than I usually take in a month; more
waste of breath in talking than serves for three months’ consumption in
the country; add to this a most abominable cold, affecting chesty bead, eyes,
and nose. It was impossible to see half the persons whom I wished to see, and
ought to have seen, without prolonging my stay to an inconvenient time, and an
unreasonable length of absence from home. I called upon Sir George* unsuccessfully, and received a
note that evening, saying he would be at home the following morning; then I saw
him, and his lady, and his pictures, and afterwards met him the same day at
dinner at Davy’s. As he immediately
left town, this was all our intercourse; and, as it is not likely that he will
visit the Lakes this year, probably will be all.
“I went into the Exhibition merely to see your
picture, which perfectly provoked me. Hazlitt’s does look as if you were on your trial, and
certainly had stolen the horse; but then you did it cleverly,—it had been
a deep, well-laid scheme, and it was no fault of yours that you had been
detected. But this portrait by Northcote
looks like a grinning idiot; and the worst is, that it is just like enough to
pass for a good likeness, with those who only know your features imperfectly.
Dance’s drawing has that merit
at least, that nobody would ever suspect you of having been the original.
Poole’s business will last yet
some weeks. As the Abstract is printed, I can give
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| 292 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 29. |
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you the very important result: one in eight throughout
Great Britain receives permanent parish pay*;—what is still more
extraordinary, and far more extraordinary, one in nine is engaged in some
benefit society,—a prodigious proportion, if you remember that, in this
computation, few women enter, and no children.
“I dined with Sotheby, and met there Henley, a man every way to my taste.
Sotheby was very civil, and as his civility has not
that smoothness so common among the vagabonds of fashion, I took it in good
part. He is what I should call a clever man. Other lions were Price, the picturesque man, and Davies Giddy, whose face ought to be
perpetuated in marble for the honour of mathematics. Such a forehead I never
saw. I also met Dr. —— at dinner; who,
after a long silence, broke out into a discourse upon the properties of the
conjunction Quam, Except his quamical
knowledge, which is as profound as you will imagine, he knows nothing but
bibliography, or the science of title-pages, impresses, and dates. It was a
relief to leave him, and find his
brother, the captain, at Rickman’s, smoking after supper, and letting out puffs at
the one comer of his mouth and puns at the other. The captain hath a son,—begotten, according to Lamb, upon a mermaid; and thus far is certain,
that he is the queerest fish out of water. A paralytic affection in childhood
has kept one side of his face stationary, while the other has continued to
grow, and the two sides form the most ridiculous whole you
* This seems almost incredible. |
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| Ætat. 29. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 293 |
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can imagine; the boy, however, is a sharp lad, the inside
not having suffered.
“William Owen
lent me three parts of the Mabinogion, most delightfully translated into so Welsh an idiom and
syntax, that such a translation is as instructive (except for etymology) as an
original. I was, and am, still utterly at a loss to devise by what possible
means, fictions so perfectly like the Arabian Tales in character, and yet so indisputably of Cimbric
growth, should have grown up in Wales, Instead of throwing light upon the
origin of romance, as had been surmised, they offer a new problem, of almost
impossible solution. Bard Williams
communicated to me some fine arcana of bardic mythology, quite new to me and to
the world, which you will find in Madoc. I have ventured to lend Turner your German Romances, which will be very useful to him,
and which will be replaced on your shelves before your return, and used, not
abused*, during your absence. I also sent him the Indian Bible, because I found
him at the Indian grammar, for he is led into etymological researches. That is
a right worthy and good man; and, what rarely happens, I like his wife as well as I do him. Sir, all the
literary journals of England will not bring you more news than this poor sheet
of Miss Crosthwaite’s letter-paper. I have proposed
to Longman to publish a collection of
the scarcer and better old poets, beginning with Pierce Ploughman, and to print a few only
* This was a gentle hint to Mr. Coleridge, who valued books
nonetheless for being somewhat ragged and dirty, and did not take the
same scrupulous care as my father to prevent their becoming so. |
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| 294 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 29. |
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at a high price, that they may sell as rarities. This he
will determine upon in the autumn. If it be done, my name must stand to the
prospectus, and Lamb shall take the job
and the emolument, for whom, in fact, I invented it being a fit thing to be
done, and he the fit man to do it.
“The Annual
Review succeeds beyond expectation; a second edition of the first
volume is called for. Certain articles respecting the Methodists and Malthus are
said to hare contributed much to its reputation. By the by, that fellow has had
the impudence to marry, after writing upon the miseries of population. In the
third volume I shall fall upon the Society for the Suppression of Vice.
“Thus far had I proceeded yesterday, designing to send
off the full sheet by that night’s post, when Wordsworth arrived, and occasioned one day’s delay. I
have left him talking to Moses, and
mounted to my own room to finish. What news, you will wish to ask, of Keswick?
The house remains in statu quo,
except that the little parlour is painted, and papered with cartridge-paper.
Workmen to plaster this room could not be procured when Jackson sent for them, and so unplastered it
is likely to remain another winter. A great improvement has been made by
thinning the trees before the parlour window,—just enough of the lake can
be seen through such a framework, and such a fretted canopy of foliage as to
produce a most delightful scene, and utterly unlike any other view of the same
subject. The Lakers begin to make their appearance, though none have, as yet,
reached us. But Sharpe has announced his
approach ![]()
| Ætat. 29. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 295 |
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in a letter to W. We are in
hourly expectation of Harry; and in the
course of the year I expect Duppa to be
my guest, and probably Elmsley.
“God bless you!
Charles Burney the younger (1757-1817)
Son of the musicologist; after a scandalous youth he became a noted scholar, book
collector, and schoolmaster at Greenwich. His collection of newspapers is now in the
British Library.
James Burney (1750-1821)
The brother of Fanny Burney; he sailed with Captain Cook and wrote about his voyages, and
in later life was a friend of Charles Lamb and other literary people.
Martin Charles Burney (1788-1852)
The son of Admiral James Burney and nephew of Fanny Burney; he was a lawyer on the
western circuit, and a friend of Leigh Hunt, the Lambs, and Hazlitts.
Derwent Coleridge (1800-1883)
The son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge; educated at St John's College, Cambridge, he was
rector of Helston in Cornwall, principal of St Mark's College (1841), and a writer on
education. He contributed to
Knight's Quarterly Review.
Hartley Coleridge [Old Bachelor] (1796-1849)
The eldest son of the poet; he was educated at Merton College, Oxford, contributed essays
in the
London Magazine and
Blackwood's, and
published
Lives of Distinguished Northerns (1832).
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
English poet and philosopher who projected
Lyrical Ballads (1798)
with William Wordsworth; author of
Biographia Literaria (1817),
On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other
works.
Sara Coleridge (1802-1852)
The daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge; in 1829 she married Henry Nelson Coleridge
(1798-1843); she translated, edited her father's works, and wrote for the
Quarterly Review.
George Dance the younger (1741-1825)
English architect who built St. Luke's Hospital and rebuilt Newgate prison; he was
professor of architecture at the Royal Academy (1798-1805).
Sir Humphry Davy, baronet (1778-1829)
English chemist and physicist, inventor of the safety lamp; in Bristol he knew Cottle,
Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey; he was president of the Royal Society (1820).
Richard Duppa (1768-1831)
Writer and antiquary; a contributor to the
Literary Gazette; he
published
A Journal of the most remarkable Occurrences that took place in
Rome (1799) and other works.
Peter Elmsley (1774-1825)
Classical scholar educated at Christ Church, Oxford, who published in the
Edinburgh Review and
Quarterly Review.
Southey described him to W. S. Landor as “the fattest under-graduate in your time and
mine.”
Davies Gilbert (1767-1839)
Originally Giddy; born in Cornwall and educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, he was a
Whig MP for Helston (1804-06) and Bodmin (1806-32), and president of the Royal Society
(1827-30)
William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
English essayist and literary critic; author of
Characters of
Shakespeare's Plays (1817),
Lectures on the English Poets
(1818), and
The Spirit of the Age (1825).
Samuel Henley (1849-1903)
Educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, he was professor at William and Mary, translator
of
Vathek, commentator on Shakespeare, and principal of the East
India College at Haileybury (1805-15).
William Jackson (d. 1809)
A retired carrier, he was the builder of Greta Hall and landlord of Coleridge and
Southey. Coleridged described him as “a truly good and affectionate man, a father to my
children, and a friend to me.”
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.
Thomas Norton Longman (1771-1842)
A leading London publisher whose authors included Southey, Wordsworth, Scott, and
Moore.
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834)
English political economist educated at Jesus College, Cambridge; he was author of
An Essay on the Principles of Population (1798; 1803).
James Northcote (1746-1831)
English portrait-painter and writer who exhibited at the Royal Academy; he wrote a
Life of Titian (1830).
Thomas Poole (1766-1837)
Of Nether Stowey; he was a farmer, tanner, and the early friend of Samuel Taylor
Coleridge.
Sir Uvedale Price, first baronet (1747-1829)
Of Foxley in Herefordshire; he was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and
published
Essay on the Picturesque (1794).
William Owen Pughe (1759-1835)
Welsh poet, translator, antiquary and lexicographer; he was a follower of Joanna
Southcott.
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.
Richard Sharp [Conversation Sharp] (1759-1835)
English merchant, Whig MP, and member of the Holland House set; he published
Letters and Essays in Poetry and Prose (1834).
William Sotheby (1757-1833)
English man of letters; after Harrow he joined the dragoons, married well, and published
Poems (1790) and became a prolific poet and translator,
prominent in literary society.
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.
Henry Herbert Southey (1783-1865)
The younger brother of Robert Southey; educated at Edinburgh University, he was physician
to George IV, Gresham Professor of Medicine, and friend of Sir Walter Scott.
Daniel Stuart (1766-1846)
Originally its printer, he was proprietor of the
Morning Post from
1795-1803; in about 1800 he became part-proprietor and editor of
The
Courier.
James Webbe Tobin [blind Tobin] (1767-1814)
The son of a plantation-owner, he was an abolitionist, follower of Godwin, friend of
Coleridge, and contributor to Southey's
Annual Anthology. He was the
brother of the dramatist John Tobin.
Mary Turner [née Watts] (1768-1843)
The wife of historian Sharon Turner; the married in 1795 and had at least six
children.
Sharon Turner (1768-1847)
Attorney, historian, and writer for the
Quarterly Review; he wrote
History of the Anglo-Saxons, 4 vols (1799-1805).
Edward Williams [Iolo Morganwg] (1747-1826)
Welsh poet and antiquary who followed Chatterton's example in forging manuscripts to
support his ideas about medieval history.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
With Coleridge, author of
Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth
survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.
The Arabian Nights. (1705-08 English trans.). Also known as
The Thousand and One Nights. Antoine Galland's
French translation was published 1704-17, from which the original English versions were
taken.
Mabinogion. (1300 c.). A collection of four Welsh tales recorded in fourteenth-century manuscripts first
translated into English by Lady Charlotte Guest.
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Madoc. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1805). A verse romance relating the legendary adventures of a Welsh prince in Wales and
pre-Columbian America.
