The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Allan Cunningham, 21 December 1828
“Having no less than seven females in family, you will
not wonder that as yet I have seen little more than the prints in your book* and its table of contents.
It is, I do not doubt, quite as good in typographical contents as any of its
rivals. The truth is, that in this respect there can be little to choose
between; they are one and all of the same
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| Ætat. 53. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 339 |
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kind; the same contributors are mostly to be found in all
of them, and this must of necessity bring the merits of all pretty much to an
average. I am not sure that it would be for your interest to monopolise three
or four writers, whose names happen to be high on the wheel of Fortune, if by
so doing you should exclude some of those that are at present on the lower
spokes. To me it seems the best policy that you should have many contributors,
because every one would, from self-love, wish to promote the sale of the
volume; and, moreover, every writer is the centre of some little circle, within
which what he may write is read and admired. But the literary department, make
what exertions you will, must be as inferior in its effect upon the sale to the
pictorial one, as it is in its cost. At the best, Allan, these Annuals are picture-books for grown children. They
are good things for the artists and engravers, and, therefore, I am glad of
their success. I shall be more glad if one of them can be made a good thing for
you; and I am very sure that you will make it as good as a thing of its kind
can be made; but, at the best, this is what it must be.
“I have not seen the Keepsake yet, neither have I heard from its
editor. He has
‘o’erstept the modesty of puffing’ in his
advertisements, and may very likely discover that he has paid young men of rank
and fashion somewhat dearly for the sake of their names. You know upon what
terms I stand with that concern.
“You wish for prose from me. I write prose more
willingly than verse from habit, and because the hand ![]()
| 340 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 53. |
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of
time is on me; but, then, I cannot move without elbow room. Grave subjects
which could be treated within your limits, do not occur to me; light ones I am
sure will not; playfulness comes from me more naturally in verse. I have one or
two stories which may be versified for you, either as ballads or in some other
form, and which will not be too long. Want of room, I am afraid, would apply
equally to a life of John Fox, which
would better suit the Quarterly
Review, if Dibdin should
bring out his projected edition. Sometimes I think the Bust may afford me a
subject; but whether it would turn out song or sermon, I hardly know, perhaps
both in one.
“Your book is very beautiful. The vignettes are especially clever. Of the
prints Sir Walter interests me most for its
subject, Pic-a-Back perhaps for its execution. It is
the best design I ever saw of Richard
Westall’s. To make your book complete as exhibiting the
art of the age, I should like something from Martin and something from Cruikshank, otherwise I do not see how it could be improved.
“God bless you!
Yours very truly,
Robert Southey.”
George Cruikshank (1792-1878)
English caricaturist who illustrated the satirical periodical
The
Scourge (1811-16) and later Dickens's
Sketches by Boz
(1836).
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).
Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776-1847)
English bibliographer and original member of the Roxburghe Club (1812); his most popular
book was
Bibliomania (1809).
John Foxe (1516-1587)
English martyrologist, the author of the oft-reprinted
Actes and
Monuments (1563).
John Martin (1789-1854)
English landscape and historical painter who illustrated
Paradise
Lost in mezzotint (1825-27).
Frederic Mansel Reynolds (1801-1850)
Son of the dramatist Frederick Reynolds; he edited
The Keepsake
and published a novel,
Miserrimus: a Tale (1833).
Richard Westall (1765-1836)
English poet and illustrator who favored literary subjects and published a collection of
verse,
A Day in Spring and other Poems (1808).
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).
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.
