1865. Robert Southey to Herbert Hill, 5 February 1811 ⁠* 

Keswick, Feb^y. 5. 1811.

An examination of the Arte de Furtar, which I had not read since I was last at Lisbon, convinces me that it is not Vieyra’s. [1]  He speaks as an eyewitness of things in Algarve & in Castille, – now it does not appear either from his life or letters that he had been in either country. It has nothing of his character or manner, – I think too that I perceive a mode of expression <which> never occurring in any of his undisputed works. – The defence of the Inquisition would not have come from Vieyra. On the whole I have not a doubt upon the subject.

Ballantyne watches, with all the anxiety of a printer & publisher over the Register, & serves me as a safety-valve. Not that there can be any political danger, – the section opinions of the book are a sufficient security against that; – but he keeps a keen x eye upon any thing which might by possibility injure the sale. My second vol. [2]  makes vigorous war upon the Burdettites. I do not apprehend any possible inconvenience to myself from the freedom with which it is written, – that which so strenuously supports the Government both Church & State, may be allowed to censure the Administration, – & as for any personal offence which might be taken, if any man were fool enough to challenge me, I should turn over the correspondence to a Lawyer, – first taking the opportunity of delivering in a summary manner my opinions respecting duelling.

I urged Coleridge to double the intended number of Omniana [3]  volumes xxxxx merely for the sake of making him do something for his family, this requiring literally no other trouble than either cutting out of his commonplace books what has for years been accumulating there, – or marking the passages off for a transcriber. He promised to add two volumes, – & has contributed about one sheet, which I xxx dare say, unless he soon returns to Cumberland will be all.

Robinson is the man who introduced me to Abella & Gen. Caroll [4]  who writes to say that he will obtain for me an account of Romanas [5]  operations from R. himself. This portion of the years annals I hope will be far less imperfect than in the former volume. I have also satisfied myself in the Walcheren affair. [6]  Rickman is my right hand in supplying all parl. documents & much private information beside. Some also I obtain from Wynn, & I have access to the Admiralty thro Bedfords brother, – tho what I wanted was not to be found.

With regard to Kehama [7]  I was perfectly aware that I was planting acorns while my contemporaries were setting Turkey Beans. The oak will grow, & tho I may never sit under its shade my children will. Of the Lady of the Lake 25,000 copies have been printed, [8]  of Kehama 500. – & if they sell in seven years I shall be surprized. [9]  It is of no consequence. My annual & quarterly labours now support me & enable me to pay off <lessen> a debt to J May which I expect to pay off entirely in another year. [10]  Meantime my property in Longmans hands is clearing off its mortgages, – & the sale of all the current edition will leave a balance in my favour. So as I feel no want of the <any> profit from those works which are for futurity, I am compleatly indifferent concerning their immediate success. The only effect the total non-sale of Kehama could have would be to make me take measures against the iniquitous laws of literary property, & convert the other poems which I hope to write into so many post-obits. – The fault which you point out in Kehama arose in the way such faults are most likely to arise, – in correction, I had written

And, having occasion to use the word dispread elsewhere in the same paragraph struck it out, – without perceiving that this omission made the use of the preceding verb improper. [11] 

I go on slowly with Pelayo, [12]  – only a few lines before breakfast. Xxxx Other subjects are floating in my head, particularly that upon Philips war, [13]  which was pointed out in the reviewal of Holmes’s American Annals. [14]  It has almost matured into a compleat fable, – & you will smile to hear that the principal personage is to be a primitive Quaker, – certainly a character new to heroic poetry. I am undetermined upon the metre, – it has long been a favourite project of mine to write one poem in hexameters written of course by accent, – & formed upon the model of the Greek or German. The thing is practicable, experto crede Roberto. [15]  I can write them with as much facility as any other metre; – but they will not suit a subject which requires to have some of its parts pitched in a high key, – for rapidity they are unequalled, they fail in solemnity, they are unfit for the dramatic parts of poetry, & yet will not, I think allow well of any transition to another mode of verse.

Tell my Aunt that, God willing, she will see me early in May. – Her god-daughter is not a thriving child, in fact the season has been unusually sickly, owing perhaps to the very variable weather we have had. One or other of the children has been ailing for the last two months, sometimes two, three, or even all four at once. – I long to see Don Duardos.

The Capitaneus need not be much puzzled in finding paper for his third volume, [16]  as he has to chuse whether it shall be of the size of the first or the second, – he having contrived not to match them by about half an inch.

I am going to send for Dulan’s [17]  & Cuthell’s [18]  Catalogues.

God bless you.

RS.