2445. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 18 June 1814 ⁠* 

Keswick June 18. 1814.

In Elizabeths [1]  days the Portugueze were almost always called the Portugals. [2] 

Their trust in their good cause, not his, for either might be used after each, & his trust hisseth most wickedly.

You may expunge the four lines ‘Where shallow counsellors’.

Suppose you read

Give all the boys a holyday my dear Grosvenor against the world. Do you not know that the very excellence of burlesque consists in taking things good in themselves & putting them in a ridiculous situation? – or tacking on a ridiculous conclusion. Tom Thumb is very good, but the boys must have a holyday notwithstanding. As for anvil & loom they are words & images in which all poets have delighted. [5] 

I sent you a good insertion for the description of M^r Whitbreads Peace. [6] 

There is no harm in the repetition of the word ring, as there are at least twenty intervening lines, & the word also is used with a different shade of meaning. [7] 

There is little to chuse between nation & people, [8]  – only look that you do not chuse one which may occur <again> too near. This I cannot ascertain, having no other text to refer to than the turpissimum exemplar princeps, [9]  as existing in the Green Book, which by the by was opened with these odes.

Pope [10]  used to reserve any thing which might have brought him in danger of the law for a second edition. I do not like to speak of Bellingham [11]  without at the same time compassionating & criminating him. On a jury I should without hesitation have considered his madness as not in the slightest degree exempting him from the consequences of murder: yet surely he was a great & noble spirit overthrown. Suppose I imitate Pope here say for the present

Thou whom a maniac’s guilty act

Sent & –––  [12] & reserve the original reading for a future time. [13]  I must however protest that nothing like an intention to palliate exists <in> or can be inferred from the passage. It is expressly called a guilty act. Say to any body who may notice the omission of Pitts [14]  name, that I think Perceval was a very good minister, & Pitt a very bad one

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You may arrange arm & will as you please, – only let mind be in the middle, & then there is a reason for either way. [15] 

I have no motto & the title specifying the three beödeds persons will be very ugly – but it cannot be helped

Odes to the P Reg. the Emp. Alex. & the K of P. by RS. PL.

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I forgot Elmsley in Longmans list of donative copies, – do you mention this to the Row: & Wynn also I now see is not the list. Pray remedy this.

Croker will have four copies sent him, to use his discretion concerning presentation. There can however be no reason why the Prince should see them before they are published, – he might take it in his head to desire me to rhyme them, – or favour me with some other criticism which might be very flattering & exceedingly troublesome.

The Magrot is right respecting famous applied to a man like Peter. [16]  In such cases a word recovers its sterling value, – at <to> whatever depreciation it may have fallen in current use.

This will reach you on Tuesday. Tomorrow I may have your comments on the third ode, my reply will be by return of post, Pople therefore may have the last proof returned to him on Wednesday, & there will be nothing to prevent its publication by the end of the week. It would be silly to come out with such things after the Raree-folk [17]  are gone. As for the things themselves I expect from them little <immediate> credit & no profit: yet like them well enough to be glad that they are not x are written. They are sui generis, or mei generis  [18]  – which you please. My name may be carried by them to St Petersburgh & Berlin, & perhaps if the beöded hear them praised in England, they may cause them to be translated, & then I might have a chance of seeing how my name would look in Russian characters.

M^r Raymond [19]  shall receive all due hospitalities. You & the Magrot also may be assured that if you send a dog to Keswick with a ticket, tied to his tale saying who sent him, he shall dine in the parlour, & after dinner walk up to the hearth rug in the study.

I inclose your letter to Wynn, & shall request him to send it to the Xchequer: In case he should not be returned to town, my answer to all your criticisms is so explicit, that you will probably not be embarrassed for want of the original to refer to.

And so God bless you, I am making way in the 21 book, [20]  much to my content.

These Odes have put me in the vein & I could throw off some others of the same kind with a hearty good will, – to Joseph Buonaparte – the Emperor of Elba! – the King of France, – the Prince of Brazil & that beast Ferdinand. [21]  But I already given more time to poetry this year than I can afford. Reviewing pays ten guineas a sheet – & odes not ten shillings.

God bless you

RS.

Lord William Gordon [22]  has just told me that the Raree Men do not return from Portsmouth. Of course you will know this, & I suppose will get the Odes out without waiting for these corrections. N’importe. [23]