The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Allan Cunningham, 24 February 1828
“I will do anything for you*; but I wish you had been
fifteen days earlier in your application. For just so long ago, young Reynolds (son of the dramatist), called here,
and introducing himself by
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| 322 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 53. |
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a letter, then introduced Charles Heath. Charles Heath proceeded
expeditiously to business, presented me with a ‘Keepsake’ from his pocket, said that he had
been into Scotland for the express purpose of securing Sir Walter’s aid, that he had succeeded, that he now came
to ask for mine, and should be happy to give me fifty guineas for anything with
which I would supply him. Money,—money you know, makes the mare go,—and what
after all is Pegasus, but a piece of
horse-flesh? I sold him at that price a pig in a poke; a roaster would have
contented him: ‘perhaps it might prove a porker,’ I said;
improvident fellow as I was not to foresee that it would grow to the size of a
bacon pig before it came into his hands! I sold him a ballad-poem entitled
‘All for Love, or a Sinner
well saved,’ of which one-and-twenty stanzas were then
written. I have added fifty since, and am only half-way through the story. It
is a very striking one, and he means to have an engraving made from it. First
come, first served, is a necessary rule in life; but if I could have foreseen
that you would come afterwards, the rule should have been set aside; he might
have had something else, and the bacon pig should have been yours.
“Heath said
that Sharpe was about to start a similar
work of the same size and upon the same scale of expense: this I take it for
granted is yours; and he seemed to expect that these larger Annuals would
destroy the dwarf plants. The Amulet
will probably survive, because it has chosen a walk of its own and a safe one.
The Bijou is likely to fall, as
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| Ætat. 53. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 323 |
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Lord Goderich’s administration did,
for want of cordiality among the members concerned in it. Alaric will hold out like a Goth. Ackerman understands the art of selling his
wares, and has in that respect an advantage over most of his rivals. Friendship’s Offering is
perhaps in the worst way. But these matters concern not the present business,
which is—what can I do for you? One of two things.
“I can finish for you an Ode upon a Gridiron*, which is an
imitation of Pindar, treating the subject
as he treats his, heroically and mythologically, and representing both the
manner and character of his poetry more closely than could be done in a
composition of which the subject was serious. I should tell you that though I
think very well of this myself, it is more likely to please a few persons very
much than to be generally relished.
“Or, I can write for you a life of John Fox the Martyrologist, which may, I think,
be comprised in five or six and twenty of your pages. This, however, you cannot
have in less than three months from this time.
“Now, take your choice; and, remember, that when you
go into your own country, you are to make Keswick in your way, and halt with
me.
Yours with sincere regard,
Robert Southey.
“Heath has
sold 15,000 of the Keepsake,
and has bespoken 4000 yards of silk for binding the next volume!!!”
Rudolph Ackermann (1764-1834)
London bookseller born in Germany who specialized in illustrated books; he was the
pioneer of the literary annual.
Allan Cunningham [Hidallan] (1784-1842)
Scottish poet and man of letters who contributed to both
Blackwood's and the
London Magazine; he was author of
Lives of the most Eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and
Architects (1829-33).
John Foxe (1516-1587)
English martyrologist, the author of the oft-reprinted
Actes and
Monuments (1563).
Charles Theodosius Heath (1785-1848)
English illustrator and engraver whose work was published in
The
Keepsake and other literary annuals.
Pindar (522 BC c.-443 BC)
Greek lyric poet who celebrated athletic victories in elaborate odes that became models
for intricate and often elliptical odes in English.
Frederic Mansel Reynolds (1801-1850)
Son of the dramatist Frederick Reynolds; he edited
The Keepsake
and published a novel,
Miserrimus: a Tale (1833).
Frederick John Robinson, first earl of Ripon (1782-1859)
Educated at Harrow and St. John's College, Cambridge, he was a Tory MP for Carlow
(1806-07) and Ripon (1807-27), Chancellor of the Exchequer (1823-27), and prime minister
(1827-28) in succession to Canning.
John Sharpe (1777-1860)
London bookseller active 1801-1830 who published illustrated editions of
British Classics,
Sharpe's British Theatre,
and
British Poets.
Alaric Alexander Watts (1797-1864)
English poet and journalist who as editor of the
Literary Souvenir
(1824-35) was the prime mover behind the literary annual.
The Keepsake. 30 vols (London: Hurst, Chance and Co., 1828-1857). An illustrated annual edited by William Harrison Ainsworth (1828), Frederic Mansel
Reynolds (1829-35), and Caroline Norton (1836).
