2545. Robert Southey to John Hookham Frere, 16 January 1815
2545. Robert Southey to John Hookham Frere, 16 January 1815 *
Keswick. Cumberland. 16 Jany. 1815
Dear Sir
It will be very gratifying to me to see the epitaph with which you have favoured me annexed to a work of mine. [1] Like that upon the Duke of Alburquerque [2] it is worthy of its subject.
When last I had the pleasure of seeing you, (seven years ago) you spoke of the Poem of Ferran Gonzalez [3] as existing in the Escurial. I have lately obtained a transcript of it, [4] – which if you are desirous of seeing, I will transmit by the first opportunity, thro Mr Murray. It is very inferior to the Poema del Cid. [5]
Believe me Sir
truly & respectfully yours
Robert Southey.
Notes
* Address: To/ The Right Honourable/ John Hookham Frere/ &c &c &c/ [in
another hand] Blake’s Hotel/ Jermyn St
Watermark: J. DICKINSON & CO/ 1811
Seal: Red wax; design illegible
MS: Newnham College, Cambridge, Harold Young
Papers 382. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. BACK
[1] Frere had sent an epitaph to be annexed to a future edition of Southey’s Life of Nelson. It was not attached to the third edition of 1825. BACK
[2] Frere’s Latin ‘Epitaph upon the Duque of Albuquerque’, paid tribute to the Spanish military commander, Jose Miguel de la Cueva, 13th Duke of Alburquerque (1774–1811), The Works of John Hookham Frere in Verse and Prose, 2 vols (London, 1872), I, p. 309. BACK
[3] The ‘Poem of Fernan Gonzalez’, a 13th-century account of the life of Fernando Gonzalez, Count of Castile 931–970. The poem survived in one 15th-century manuscipt in the royal archive at the Escurial. BACK
