3429. Robert Southey to
[John Murray](people.html#MurrayJohn),
1 February 1820Address: To/ John
Murray Esqre/ Albemarle Street/ London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: [partial] E/
FE 4/ 820
Seal: [partial] black wax; lower part of raised arm
Watermark: GW/ 1816
Endorsement: R
Southey Esq/ Feb 1. 1820
MS: National Library of Scotland, MS 42552. ALS; 4p.
Previously published:
Samuel Smiles, A Publisher and His Friends. Memoir and Correspondence of the Late John Murray, with an
Account of the Origin and Progress of the House, 1768–1843, 2 vols (London, 1891), II, pp. 108–109 [in
part].[Keswick](places.html#Keswick). 1 Feby. 1820. My
dear Sir Thank you for your parcel, which has reached me this afternoon. The last portion of
MarlboroughSouthey’s review of William Coxe, Memoirs of John Duke
of Marlborough, with his Original Correspondence; Collected from the Family Records at Blenheim, and Other
Authentic Sources. Illustrated with Portraits, Maps, and Military Plans (1818–1819), Quarterly
Review, 23 (May 1820), 1–73. should have reached you in the middle of last week. – You mention
BurchardtThe Swiss traveller and orientalist, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
(1784–1817). Murray had published his Travels in Nubia (1819) on behalf of the Association for
Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa. in your note, but it is not in the parcel.
I have made a good beginning of a little book upon the dangers of the times & the prospects
of society, – & as my thoughts would not have been so much occupied upon this subject, if they had not been
directed that way by the Q. R. you have a right to the publication.Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829), published by
Murray. The form upon which I have fixed is that of a dialogue between the author & the spirit of Sir
Thomas More,Sir Thomas More (1478–1535; DNB), Lord
Chancellor 1529–1532 and opponent of the Reformation. – or rather a series of dialogues, in which a
parallel between the present age & that of the Reformation is drawn, as two grand climactericks of society.
Under this form I can advance more than I should chuse to make myself responsible for, without occasion. I shall
bring together a great some curious historical matter, & relieve the subject by interspersing a few
pieces of poetry, (as Boethius has done, from whom indeed the conception of the book was taken)Southey’s model was Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c. 480–525), De
Consolatione Philosophiae, a dialogue between the author and the character of Lady Philosophy, consisting
of both prose and verse. & by some local descriptions so managed as to be introductory of the dialogue.
And it may be worth while to give the volume an attractive appearance by a few views, which [W](people.html#WestallWilliam)m Westall may make when he comes next into this
country.Sir Thomas More (1829) contained a frontispiece of
More and six engravings of scenes in the Lake District taken from drawings by Westall. I have very little
doubt that it will excite considerable attention, & lead many persons into a wholesome train of thought. The
first dialogue in which the Ghost introduces himself is finished much to my satisfaction;An early version of ‘Colloquy I’, Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and
Prospects of Society, 2 vols (London, 1829), I, pp. [1]–21. & I shall take great pains with
the composition of the whole, – for there is scarcely any form of composition which requires so much care as the
dialogue. When I come to town, which will be in the course of five or six weeks, I must endeavour to borrow Sir T.
More’s works from some blackletter libr collector.Southey
approached his friend and fellow bibliophile Heber and managed to borrow some of the required books from him; see
Southey to Richard Heber, 25 November 1820, Letter 3566. Southey later acquired More’s Opera Latina
(1565), no. 1918 in the sale catalogue of his library. I have only his Utopia,The sale catalogue of Southey’s library, no. 2001, indicates that he owned an edition of More’s
Utopia published in Amsterdam in 1629. & his life in [D](people.html#WordsworthChristopher)r Wordsworths Ecclesiastical Biography.An account of More’s life in Christopher Wordsworth, Ecclesiastical
Biography: or, Lives of Eminent Men Connected with the History of Religion in England, 6 vols (London,
1810), II, pp. 53–232. Southey’s copy was no. 3041 in the sale catalogue of his library.
My main employment at this time is in finishing Wesley,The Life of Wesley; and the Rise and Progress of Methodism (1820). which I shall have
compleated in little more than a fortnight, – & in filling up the paper upon the New Churches for your number
after the next.Southey’s review of Benjamin Haydon, New Churches,
Considered with Respect to the Opportunities they Offer for the Encouragement of Painting (1818) and
other volumes appeared in Quarterly Review, 23 (July 1820), 549–591. The old books which you
collected for me have been of the greatest service, & I have also obtained some curious papers connected with
this subject from the [Bishop of London](people.html#HowleyWilliam). As soon as these two
things are done I think of setting my face towards London. And immediately on my return I begin the peninsular
campaign.Southey’s History of the Peninsular War
(1823–1832).
You had better send me Cromwells Memoirs, – there can be no better subject for a biographical
article.Oliver Cromwell (c. 1742–1821; DNB),
Memoirs of the Protector, Oliver Cromwell, and of His Sons, Richard and Henry. Illustrated by Original
Letters, and Other Family Papers (1820). This book provided one of the occasions for Southey’s
‘Life of Cromwell’, Quarterly Review, 25 (July 1821), 279–347. And with it Nobles Memoirs
of the Regicides,Mark Noble (1754–1827; DNB), The
Lives of the English Regicides, and Other Commissioners of the Pretended High Court of Justice, Appointed to Sit
in Judgement Upon their Sovereign, King Charles the First (1798), later no. 2041 in the sale catalogue of
Southey’s library. – I have his Memoirs of the Cromwell family,Mark Noble, Memoirs of the Protectoral House of Cromwell (1787),
no. 2040 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. & I have also the Cromwelliana,Cromwelliana; a Chronological Detail of Events in Which Oliver Cromwell Was
Engaged, From the Year 1642 to His Death in 1658 (1810), no. 708 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s
library. & Harris,William Harris (1720–1770;
DNB), Account of the Lives of James I and Charles I, Oliver Cromwell and Charles II
(1814), no. 1286 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. & I believe most, if not all, the
important books connected with his history.
The translation of Dobrizhoffer is nearly finished in such forwardness that it may go
to press as soon as you please.Sara Coleridge’s An Account of the
Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay (1822). It was a translation of Martin Dobrizhoffer
(1717–1791), Historia de Abiponibus Equestri, Bellicosaque Paraquariae Natione (1784).
Believe me my dear Sir Yrs very
truly Robert Southey. –– I have just received the Gazette!George III
(1738–1820; King of Great Britain 1760–1820; DNB) had died on Saturday, 29 January 1820. His death
was announced in an Extraordinary issue of the London Gazette on Sunday, 30 January 1820. A copy
of this was sent to Southey by Bedford; see Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 11 February 1820, Letter
3438.