Address: To/ The Reverend Herbert Hill/ Streatham
Stamped: [illegible]
Postmark: 10 o’Clock/ JY 5/ 1822 FNn
MS: Keswick Museum and Art Gallery, WC 218. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), III, pp. 315–317.
Clemente Libertino is D Francisco Manoel.
(1)
Francisco Manuel de Mello (1608–1666), Historia de los Movimientos, Separacion y Geurra de Cataluna en tiempo de Felipe IV (Madrid, 1808), p. v, no. 3427 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Southey also owned an edition from 1696, printed at Lisbon (no. 3502 in the sale catalogue of his library). The book was originally published in 1645 under the pseudonym ‘Clemente Libertino’.
I have two copies of his book, the one a reprint at Madrid in 1808 which speaks of the book (tho thrice printed) as of extraordinary rarity in Portugal as well as Spain. Rare in Portugal however it could not have been, or you would not have had two copies. The new edition has a life of the author. Here it was that I found the Miquelets, when I read the book several years ago.
(2)
Francisco Manuel de Mello, Historia de los Movimientos, Separacion y Geurra de Cataluna en tiempo de Felipe IV (Madrid, 1808), pp. xi–xxvi (‘Vida del Autor’); pp. 242–243 (origin of the term ‘Miquelet’ for Catalan irregular troops).
The Expedicion de los Catalanes is here.
(3)
Francisco de Moncada (1586–1635), Espedicion de los Catalanes y Aragoneses contra Turcos y Griegos (1623), no. 3547 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
To my great surprize, I found this day that one of Montaignes Essays is an account of the Brazilian savages drawn up by him from the communications of an ignorant man who had gone over with Villegagnon.
(4)
Southey was reading the works of Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) in Pierre Coste (1668–1747), Les Essais de Michel Seigneur de Montaigne, 10 vols (London, 1754), I, pp. 215–216, no. 1977 in the sale catalogue of his library. Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon (1510–1571) had tried to establish a French colony in Brazil in 1555–1558.
Among other things he gives two Tupinamba songs in French, one of them is a sort of death-song & turns upon that identical bravado which is given in the poem of Caramuru as a feat occurring in Para, & which I have noticed Vol 2. 641.
(5)
History of Brazil, 3 vols (London, 1810–1819), II, pp. 640–641, where Southey recounted the bravery of an indigenous man who was to be sacrificed and eaten. He gave as one of his sources José de Santa Rita Durão (1722–1784), Caramuru: Poema Épico do Descobrimento da Bahia (Lisbon, 1781), pp. 161–166. Southey had already translated this passage in his Letters Written During a Short Residence in Spain and Portugal (Bristol, 1797), pp. 488–489.
There are several curious things in this paper, which I shall fit into their proper places. It is more than five & twenty years since I read Montaigne in an old translation.
(6)
John Florio (1553–1625; DNB), Essayes, Written in French by Michael, Lord of Montaigne; done into English, according to the Last French Edition (1613), no. 1913 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
I am now going thro him in your small edition – having always some book at hand to take up in those fractions of time which would else run to waste.
What I said about your Chief, as you call him, & the Pen. War related arose wholly from the subject of the work, as rendering it not an appropriate present
(7)
Southey had advised his uncle not to give John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford (1766–1839; DNB), Whig politician and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1806–1807, a copy of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832) as it was critical of the Whigs; see Southey to Herbert Hill, [begun before and continued on] 8 May [1822], Letter 3834. Bedford had appointed Herbert Hill to his living at Streatham.
to one who is unhappily to be classed tra la perduta gente.
(8)
‘among the lost people’.
But I should be very sorry if you did not make use of as many copies of that or any other work of mine, as you like to dispose of. The volume is drawing near its close. 672 pages are printed, & the printer
(9)
Thomas Davison (1766–1831) was the printer of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832). The first volume ran to 806 pages.
has had the conclusion more than a week in his hands. – It will somewhat exceed 800. I have written the Preface;
(10)
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, pp. [v]–vi. The ‘Preface’ was dated ‘Keswick, July 22, 1822’.
– & hesitate about the dedication. I have written two, & when I have fitted the conclusion to a third – I will send them to you – to choose.
(11)
Southey wrote draft dedications to George IV, Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth (1757–1844; Prime Minister 1801–1804 and Home Secretary 1812–1822; DNB), and Spencer Perceval.
William Westall lives out of the way, – 19 Mornington Place, Hampstead Road. & it is very likely that he may be on the road to the North. He sent me two magnificent specimens of his peninsular views
(12)
A Series of Views of Spain and Portugal, to Illustrate Mr. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War; Drawn on Stone by W. Westall, A.R.A., from Sketches by General Hawker, Mr. Locker, Mr. Heaphy, &c. Part I, containing Eight Views, illustrating Vol. I (1823). These could be inserted into the first volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).
– the Tagus at Villa Velha,
(13)
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, p. 758, where Southey noted that the crossing of the Tagus at Villa Velha was ‘a point, which, in former wars, has been considered the key to Lisbon’.
– & the town of Maravam.
(14)
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, pp 483–486, where Southey recounted the heroic resistance to the French invaders of Portugal by Antonio Leite de Araujo Ferreira Bravo (dates unknown), the magistrate of Marvão, a small border town.
Concerning the latter I have a fine story quite in the spirit of old Portugueze history, but to introduce the former, I was obliged to drive a peg in on purpose.
Two Danish poets have very civilly sent me some of their works, Oehlenschlager,
(15)
Adam Oehlenschläger (1779–1850), Danish poet and playwright. Three volumes of Oehlenschläger’s works were no. 786 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
& Ingemann
(16)
Bernhard Severin Ingemann (1789–1862), Danish novelist and poet. Ten volumes of Ingemann’s works were no. 1480 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
are their names. I am looking at that language. This is not supererogatory work, because I have long been accumulating notes & materials for a history of English manners & literature,
(17)
This project did not result in a book; the surviving notes that Southey put together were posthumously published as ‘Collections for the History of Manners and Literature in England’, Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), I, pp. 439–578.
– meaning to combine them.
Have you seen Leucadio Doblado ( Blanco Whites ) letters from Spain?
(18)
Letters from Spain by Don Leucadio Doblado (1822).
They are very amusing. He is writing Memoirs of the reign of Juan 2d
(19)
Either John II (1405–1454; King of Castile 1406–1454) or John II (1398–1479; King of Aragon 1458–1479). Blanco White does not seem to have completed this project.
Yesterday I received advice of a present of Yankey books from my friend at Boston.
I am now pretty well recovered from the effects of my annual cold, which this year seemed disposed to make a settlement on my chest, & laid me up for a considerable time. A little brisk exercise will I hope compleatly set me up, & this I shall have in prospect. A fellow collegian whom I have not seen for eight & twenty years, but with whom I have always kept up some communication is coming from Crediton, where he keeps a school, to visit me during his holydays. I expect him on Thursday or Friday, & truly glad shall I be to see him, – changed as we shall see each other. John May also is coming, & lastly the Doctor. I shall be the better for all this rousing, – & for the mountain air, & for lake-exercise. My family thank God are well; & Edith May seems to have derived the expected benefit from her stay at Harrogate.
Ostervalds friend
(20)
A German visitor called Bielh, who had called on Southey on 24 February 1822. Jean Frédéric Ostervald (b. 1749), a Swiss from Neuchatel and son of Frédéric Samuel Ostervald (1713–1795), publisher and founder of the Société Typographique de Neuchatel (STN). Ostervald was in Portugal in the 1790s and was secretary to the legation and chargé d’affaires at the British Embassy 1792–1793 while Robert Walpole (1736–1810; DNB), Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary 1771–1800, was in Britain. Ostervald was an old friend of Herbert Hill, and Southey had written to him during his continental j…
has not made his second appearance.
I am now upon the Book of the Church,
(21)
Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824).
which I think you will be pleased with, & the Catholics will not. It is long since they have had so hard a blow. But I have harder in store for them.
Love to my Aunt & the boys. – I wish I could hear that the unusual warmth of this summer had taken away your rheumatism.
God bless you
RS.
Keswick. 2 July. 1822.
