The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Neville White, 14 June 1813
“Josiah Conder
had told me, though less particularly, the circumstances of your sister’s
happy death, ![]()
| 32 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 39. |
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for happy we must call it. The prayer in the
Litany against sudden death, I look upon as a relic of
Romish error, the only one remaining in that finest of all human
compositions,—death without confession and absolution being regarded by
the Romanist as the most dreadful of all calamities, naturally is one of the
evils from which they pray to be delivered. I substitute the word violent in my supplications; for since that mode of
dissolution which, in the Scriptures, is termed falling asleep, and which
should be the natural termination of life passed in peace and innocence and
happiness, has become so rare, that it falls scarcely to the lot of one in ten
thousand, instantaneous and unforeseen death is the happiest mode of our
departure, and it is even more desirable for the sake of our surviving friends
than for our own. I speak feelingly, for at this time my wife’s brother
is in the room below me, in such a state of extreme exhaustion, that having
been carried down stairs at two o’clock, it would not in the least
surprise me, if he should expire before he can be carried up again. He is in
the last stage of consumption,—a disease which at first affected the
liver having finally assumed this form; his recovery is impossible by any means
short of miracle. I have no doubt that he is within a few days of his death,
perhaps a few hours; and sincerely do I wish, for his sake and for that of four
sisters who are about him, that the tragedy may have closed before this reaches
you. According to all appearance it will.
“Your letter, my dear Neville, represents just that state of mind which I expected to
find you in. ![]()
| Ætat. 39. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 33 |
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The bitterness of the cup is not yet gone,
and some savour of it will long remain; but you already taste the uses of
affliction, and feel that ties thus broken on earth are only removed to heaven.
“Montgomery’s poem came in the same parcel with your
letter. I had previously written about it to the Quarterly, and was told, in reply, that it was
wished to pass it by there, because it had disappointed every body. I wish I
could say that I myself did not in some degree feel disappointed also; yet
there is so much that is really beautiful, and which I can sincerely praise,
and the outline of the story will read so well with the choicest passages
interspersed, that I shall send up a reviewal, and do, as a Frenchman would
say, my possible. Of what is good in the poem I am a
competent judge; of what may be defective in it, my judgment is not, perhaps,
so properly to be trusted, for having once planned a poem upon the Deluge
myself, I necessarily compare my own outline with
Montgomery’s. The best part is the death of
Adam. Oh! if the whole had been like that! or (for
that is impossible) that there had been two or three passages equal to it!
Montgomery has crippled himself by a metre, which, of
all others, is the worst for long and various narrative, and which most
certainly betrays a writer into the common track and commonplaces of poetical
language. He has thought of himself in Javan, and the
character of Javan is hardly prominent enough to be made
the chief personage. Yet there is much, very much to admire and to recur to
with pleasure.
“God bless you! Remember me to your mother, ![]()
| 34 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 39. |
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and tell James I
shall always be glad to hear from him, as well as of him.
Yours most truly,
R. Southey.”
Josiah Conder (1789-1855)
Poet, bookseller, and proprietor of the
Eclectic Review
(1814-1837).
James Montgomery (1771-1854)
English poet and editor of the
Sheffield Iris (1795-1825); author
of
The Wanderer of Switzerland (1806) and
The
World before the Flood (1813).
James White (1793 c.-1885)
The younger brother of Henry Kirke White; educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, he was
curate of St George's Manchester (1826-42), rector of Stalham, Norfolk (1846-52) and Sloley
Norfolk (1852-85).
John Neville White (1785 c.-1845)
The elder brother of Henry Kirke White; after working in medicine he was educated at
Peterhouse College, Cambridge, and was rector of Rushall (1828) and Tivetshall in Norfolk
(1832-45). The rumor that he died a suicide was denied in the
Gentleman's
Magazine.
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
