The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Henry Taylor, 2 December 1837
“Keswick, Dec 2. 1837.
“My dear H. T.,
“I have received Spring
Rice’s circular about the pensions, and take for granted
that it comes as a mere circular, and therefore requires no answer.
“Moore and I
being coupled upon this occasion, it is not likely that our pensions will be
objected to, on either side of the House, upon the ground that literature, like
any other profession, brings with it its own emoluments. But if that argument
should be used against an enlargement of the copyright, which is not unlikely,
it will be fitting that some one should state how the case stands in my
instance. That followed as a profession, with no common diligence, and no
ordinary success, it has enabled me to live respectably (which without the aid
of my first pension it would not have done), and that all the provision I have
been able to make for my family consists in a life-insurance, of which about
three-fourths are covered by the salary of the Laureateship. Were I to die
before Talfourd’s Bill passes, the
greater part of my poems, and no little of my prose, would be seized
immediately by some rascally booksellers, as property which the law allowed
them
breast. After that he
never moved for several hours; but passed imperceptibly to
a state, I hope and trust, of happiness. Excuse me for
this, but I always dwell upon the recollection of that act
with delight, and though it be of the tenderest character,
it is unmingled with pain. . . . . |
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| Ætat. 64. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 355 |
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to scramble for. It is true that, as the law now stands,
I secure a new term of copyright by the corrected edition now in course of
publication. But these fellows would publish from the former copies, and
thereby take in all those purchasers who know nothing about the difference
between one edition and another.
“It is well that Windham is not living, and that there is no one in either House
on whom his mantle has fallen. For he would surely have taken the opposite side
to Talfourd, and argued upon the folly
of altering an established law, for the sake of benefiting one or two
individuals in the course of a century. He would ask what the copyrights are
which would at this time be most beneficial to the family of the author: the
Cookery Book would
stand first: within my recollection, the most valuable would have been
Blair’s Lectures, the said
Blair’s Sermons, Taplin’s Farriery, Burn’s Justice, and Lindley
Murray’s English Grammar. . . . .
“Monday, 4.
“Thank you for the Examiners; they shall be duly returned. I would never desire better
praise, and must not complain because there is more of it than is good. In the
piece which they praise as resembling Cowper, there is nothing Cowperish. And on the other band, in
the substitution of the general crimes of the Terrorists in France, for the
instances of Brissot and Madame Roland, there is nothing but what is in
perfect accord with the pervading sentiment of the poem.![]()
| 356 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 64. |
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Madame Roland’s praise is left where it was
appropriate, in the second volume. As for Brissot, I knew
him only by newspapers, when his deaths and that of the great body of the
Girondists with him, kept me (as I well remember) a whole night sleepless. But
I know him now by two volumes of his Memoirs, which though made up, are from
family materials; and I know him by nine volumes of his own works, and thereby
know that he was a poor creature. And I know by Garat’s book, that the difference between the Brissotines
and the Jacobines was that, playing for heads, the Brissotines lost the game.
“God bless you!
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.
Hugh Blair (1718-1800)
Scottish man of letters and professor of rhetoric at Edinburgh University; author of the
oft-reprinted
Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, 2 vols (1784)
and much-admired
Sermons, 5 vols (1777, 1780, 1790, 1794,
1801).
Richard Burn (1709-1785)
Educated at Queen's College, Oxford, he was a justice of the peace for the counties of
Westmorland and Cumberland who legal manuals were reprinted into the nineteenth
century.
William Cowper (1731-1800)
English poet, author of
Olney Hymns (1779),
John
Gilpin (1782), and
The Task (1785); Cowper's delicate
mental health attracted as much sympathy from romantic readers as his letters, edited by
William Hayley, did admiration.
Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
Irish poet and biographer, author of the
Irish Melodies (1807-34),
The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and
Lalla
Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.
Lindley Murray (1745-1826)
A Philadelphia Quaker and lawyer who emigrated to England in 1784; in 1795 he published
English Grammar, a work that went through dozens of editions in
the nineteenth century.
Thomas Spring Rice, first Baron Monteagle (1790-1866)
The son of Stephen Edward of Limerick; he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and
was MP for Limerick City (1820-32) and Cambridge borough (1832-39). He was chancellor of
the exchequer (1835-39) and contributed to the
Edinburgh
Review.
Madame Roland (1754-1793)
An early supporter of the French Revolution, she was guillotined with other leaders of
the Girondist faction.
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose
works, among them the
Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813),
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and
The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).
Edward Stanley, first Baron Monteagle (1460 c.-1523)
The son of Thomas Stanley, first earl of Derby; fighting under Thomas Howard, earl of
Surrey, he was instrumental in the English victory at Flodden Field.
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854)
English judge, dramatist, and friend of Charles Lamb who contributed articles to the
London Magazine and
New Monthly
Magazine.
William Taplin (1740 c.-1807)
Veterinary surgeon and popular writer, author of
The Gentleman's Stable
Directory.
William Windham (1750-1810)
Educated at Eton and University College, Oxford, he was a Whig MP aligned with Burke and
Fox and Secretary at war in the Pitt administration, 1794-1801.
The Examiner. (1808-1881). Founded by John and Leigh Hunt, this weekly paper divided its attention between literary
matters and radical politics; William Hazlitt was among its regular contributors.
