3595. Robert Southey to
[John May](people.html#MayJohn),
29 December
1820Address: To/ John May Esqre/ Richmond/ Surry
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmarks: 10 o’Clock/ JA. 1/ 1821 F.N.n; [1 illegible]
Endorsement: No. 217 1820/ Robert Southey/ Keswick 29th December/ recd. 1st Jany. 1821/ ansd. 5th April.
Seal: [partial] red wax;
arm raising aloft cross of Lorraine
MS: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin. ALS; 4pp.
Previously published: Charles Ramos (ed.), The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas,
1976), pp. 190–192.[Keswick](places.html#Keswick).29 Dec. 1820 My dear friend Yesterday my eyes were delighted by the sight of that barrel,A barrel of strong
beer sent to Keswick by John May; see Southey to John May, 15 November 1820, Letter 3556. the contents of which are in due
time to gladden the heart & to make the countenance chearful. Immediately upon receiving your alarming letter, I wrote to make
enquiry concerning it at Kendal, & behold, there it was, & there for some weeks it had been, snug in Mr
CooksonsThomas Cookson (1771–1833), Kendal wool merchant and friend of Wordsworth.
cellar, – he having ordered a cask of cyder of the same dimensions capacity from Bristol, & having supposed this to be
it. – I have now to ask the age of this “beloved beverage”,Madoc (1805), Part
Two, Book 4, line 31. & when it will be fit for drinking, that nothing may be done hastily or rashly in an affair of so
much importance.
You will have received ere this a reprint of the Carmen Triumphale &cA
combined second edition of Carmen Triumphale (1814) and Congratulatory Odes. Odes to His Royal Highness the
Prince Regent, His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia, and His Majesty the King of Prussia (1814). It was published
under the title Carmen Triumphale, for the Commencement of the Year 1814: Carmen Aulica. Written in 1814, on the Arrival of
the Allied Sovereigns in England (1821). in the same size as my other poem, of which if bound up with the Carmen
NuptialeThe Lay of the Laureate (1816); written on the occasion of the
marriage of [Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales](people.html#WalesCharlottePrincess). it will form
the 15th volume. Some few corrections have been made, & a postscript added to the notes, being an extract from
the letter which I had begun to [Brougham](people.html#BroughamHenryPeter), after his blackguard attack upon
me from the hustings at Appleby.Carmen Triumphale (London, 1821), pp. 45–53.
This ‘Postscript’ had originally been written in 1818 as a response to Brougham’s reported attack on Southey from the hustings on 30
June 1818 during the General Election contest in Westmorland. – The first poemi.e.
‘Carmen Triumphale’, the first poem in the 1821 volume. is a respectable copy of task verses, – originally it was something
better, but the conclusion not being thought proper for an official poem, because negociations with Buonaparte were then going on, the
ode was cut in half, & sprouted like a polypus, a new tail growing to the <one> portion which was published with my name as
P-L;Southey’s first Laureate ode ‘Carmen Triumphale’ had a complex history, which he
outlines here. The first version of the poem had contained a rousing finale that called on the people of France to rise up and
assassinate Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821; Emperor of the French 1804–1814, 1815). This was clearly a potential embarrassment to the
government, and in late 1813 these parts of the poem were removed on the advice of Croker and Rickman. A heavily revised version of
the poem was published by Longman as Carmen Triumphale on 1 January 1814. – & a new head to the other,
which I sent anonymously to the newspapers, & which is now to be found in the second volume of my Minor Poems.The material removed from ‘Carmen Triumphale’ in late 1813 formed the basis of a second ode, ‘Who
counsels peace’, which was published in the Courier on 3 February 1814. This was not issued in Southey’s official
capacity as Poet Laureate, and was therefore free (in principle at least) from the restrictions that post imposed on him. It had
been retitled ‘Ode, Written During the Negociations with Buonaparte, In January 1814’ and included in Minor Poems, 3
vols (London, 1815), II, pp. [215]–224. – The three court OdesThe poems first
published as Odes to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia, and His Majesty the
King of Prussia (1814), and republished as ‘Carmen Aulica. Written in 1814, on the arrival of the allied sovereigns in
England’ and alongside ‘Carmen Triumphale’ in the 1821 volume. are much better. They were written very rapidly but with good
will, & there are parts of them which no pains could have improved. – I have two other OdesSouthey’s official New Year Odes for January 1820 and January 1821, respectively. in the same rhymeless manner, which will
be printed with my Dialogues,The 1820 and 1821 odes did not appear in Southey’s Sir
Thomas More: or Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829), the work that emerged from his planned
‘Dialogues’. Instead, they were first published together as ‘The Warning Voice. Ode I’ and ‘The Warning Voice. Ode II’ in The
Englishman’s Library: Comprising a Series of Historical, Biographical and National Information (London, 1824), pp.
381–389. – the one was written last Xmas, the other last week, both ex officio, but e
cordei.e. written as part of his duty as Poet Laureate and also ‘From the heart’,
something that was not the case with the majority of Southey’s official compositions. also, & with somewhat of the spirit
of Hebrew poetry.
I wish you could have given me a more chearful account of your own mercantile concerns, in which you are made so
dependent upon a judgement inferior to your own,William Henry May (1785–1849), May’s younger
brother and business partner. & which for that reason are conducted with far too little regard for your comfort &
tranquillity, however they may be with regard to your interests. I cannot but think that there is time enough to provide against the
threatening storm, which whether it may break or not in Brazil, ought to be guarded against.A
liberal revolution in Portugal in August 1820 had led to the election of a Cortes in December 1820 and demands for the monarchy to
return from Brazil, where it had fled in 1807–1808. The progress of revolution is not likely to be rapid there, – the desire
for it at Pernambuco was confined to the movers, & to a few great proprietors.There was an
unsuccessful revolution in Pernambuco March–May 1817, which aimed to make Brazil an independent republic. I hope also that
Portugal may get thro the crisis better than SpainAn army revolt in January 1820 led to the
restoration of the liberal Constitution of 1812 in March 1820; but Spain remained deeply divided between Royalists and
Liberals. is likely to do. If one of the royal family comes over, he will be received, & will have the advantage of
beginning with the popular feeling in his favour. The disposition that has been indicated of uniting with Spain is also in favour of
the Government, because it will provoke a Portugueze spirit; & if they only keep within bounds, till the Spaniards advance in their
career, & plunge into all the horrors of revolution, that example may give them a timely warning. – In your case what I hope &
trust is that your brother will wind up his affairs with the Government as soon as possible, & secure himself against any other
risques than such as are inseparable from all mercantile adventure
On Xmas day I received the first four proofs of the History of the WarSouthey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832). – with a note from [Murray](people.html#MurrayJohn) apologizing for not giving it to Wm Nicol to print, as he had
promised, – the shame of making which apology has I have no doubt been the real cause why the mss has been kept about four months in
his hands.William Nicol (d. c.1855), printer and bookseller. The History of the
Peninsular War (1823–1832) was printed by Thomas Davison (1766–1831), the usual collaborator of its publisher John
Murray, not by Nicol. In the press however it is; & the pleasure of correcting the first proofs was a very great one. I
have had no time to be born yet: but I shall endeavour to get thro that event soon.Southey’s series of autobiographical letters that he was sending to John May had not yet reached the time of his
birth in 1774. Of late I have been chiefly employed in finishing the poem in hexameters.A Vision of Judgement (1821). It has exceeded 600 lines in length, & such lines hold a
great deal. Last week I sent it up to [Bedford](people.html#BedfordGrosvenorCharles) on its way to [Longman](people.html#LongmanThomas) for publication.See Southey to
Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 21 December 1820, Letter 3587. I have to write a preface concerning the metre, which with a few
notes will make the book thick enough to be put in boards,A Vision of Judgement
(1821) was published as a quarto volume. The ‘Preface’ occupied 18 pages, the poem itself ran to 46 pages and the ‘Notes’ and
‘Specimens’ a further 31 pages. & you will have it in the course of four or five weeks.A Vision of Judgement was published in early March 1821.
[Your God-daughter](people.html#SoutheyEdithMay) is at [Wordsworths](people.html#WordsworthWilliam), whither I am going on Tuesday next, for the purpose of bringing her home.
At present thank God we are all tolerably well.
Remember me to [M](people.html#MaySusannah)rs May & believe me my
dear friend
Yrs most affectionately Robert Southey.