457. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 28 November [1799]
457. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 28 November [1799] *
My dear Wynn
Halto is the printers blunder. [1] Bishop is my own wilful one – however the Arch may be hammered on with very little tinker trouble. according to my authority here – which is Coryat the Oddcombian [2] – he was eat by Mice & the Tower is called Mouse-Tower. read the last stanza thus improved
This pain in my side troubles me – whether it be pleurisy – or consumption – or some disease at heart for in that part it lies – I know not. I am going to winter at Bristol for the sake of medical advice. this nervous fever has left me very weak & emaciated.
Bedfords extract is curious. Xx I should like to trace its historical foundation. I weave the story into Thalaba, which is the why I sent for it. [4] Purchas relates it from Marco Polo. [5] I have prest into my service most of the ingenious lies which I have found in travellers. Maundeville is worth reading [6] – he will tell you of a Valley where the Devils head always appears above ground – & of a Faery Falcon which whoso could watch for 7 days & nights should have his wish cum multis aliis quæ nunc perseribere longum est. [7]
I am going to work at Queen Mary [8] with all the little spirits I now possess. we go to Bristol on Monday – unless I should have a relapse – which I am fearful of.
Heywood lies before me P. 600. the tale will do. [9] there is another in the Sphynx of Heidfeldius. [10] of a man who sold his soul at a tavern to a strange man – the famous single combat in France between the man & the dog would balladize, but I want documents – & names. [11] Thalaba you will like I think – if you will endure the metre ecce exemplum. [12]
This ring with a little hell-fire set in it, is a very material <important> ring. the regular blank verse is not usually so much mingled with the shorter lines in the dialogue (for part is dramatic) I employ it, & in parts that require a loftier tone.
God bless you. I am an unlucky fellow to have the heartache, with every reason & inclination to be happy.
yrs affectionately
Robert Southey
Burton. Thursday 28 Nov.
All the imprecations of Ernulphus on my Biographer! [14]
Notes
[1] ‘God’s Judgement On A Bishop’, Morning Post, 27 November 1799, dealt with legends that surrounded Hatto I (c. 850–913; Archbishop of Mainz, 891–913). BACK
[2] Thomas Coryat (1577–1617; DNB), Coryat’s Crudities Hastily Gobbled up in Five Months Travel to France, Italy &c (London, 1611), pp. 571–572. Coryat was an ‘Oddcombian’ because he was from Odcombe in Somerset. BACK
[3] This revised version was used in the penultimate stanza of ‘God’s Judgement On A Bishop’ in Annual Anthology (Bristol, 1800), p. 263. BACK
[4] On 24 October 1799 (Letter 450) Southey had asked Bedford to find information about the garden of Aloaddin or Aladeules. It was used in a note to Thalaba the Destroyer (1801), Book 7, line 256. BACK
[5] Marco Polo (c. 1254–1324); Samuel Purchas (c. 1577–1626; DNB), Purchas his Pilgrimage, 2nd edn (1614), pp. 237, 317. BACK
[6] Sir John Mandeville, The Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundeville (London, 1727), pp. 340–344, 176–178. For the ‘faery falcon’ see also Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 90–91. BACK
[7] The Latin translates as ‘with many others which now it would be too lengthy to describe in full.’ BACK
[8] Southey’s proposed play on ‘The Days of Queen Mary’, set in the time of Mary I (1516–1558; reigned 1553–1558; DNB); see Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 190–192. BACK
[9] Thomas Heywood (1570s–1641; DNB), The Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells (1635), p. 600, relates the tale of a nobleman who feasted with the ‘divells of hell’. Southey did not turn this into a poem, though he had previously made use of Heywood’s book in the supernatural ballads ‘Donica’ and ‘Rudiger’, both published in Poems (1797). BACK
[10] Johannes Heidfeld (1563–1629), Sextum Renata, Renovata ac Longe Ornatius Etiam, Quam Anquam Autea Exculta Sphinx Theologica-Philosophica (1612). BACK
[11] The story that in France in c. 1400 the Chevalier Maquer murdered a man called Montdidier. Montdidier’s greyhound found the corpse and accused Maquer by attacking him. In a trial by combat between the man and the dog, Maquer was overpowered, confessed to his crime and was executed; see Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, p. 197. BACK
