3795. Robert Southey to Ann Holmes, 6 February 1822

 

Address: A Madame/ Madame St. Ann Holmes/ Hotel Gabriel. Place d’Armies/ Versailles
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298; 212
Postmarks: E/ PAID/ 8 FE 8/ 1822; FE 22
Seal: red wax; arm raising aloft cross of Lorraine
MS: Courtesy of Newstead Abbey, Nottingham City Museums and Galleries, RB H77. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: Catalogue of the Collection of Autograph Letters and Historical Documents Formed Between 1865 and 1882 by Alfred Morrison, 6 vols (London, 1883–1892), VI, p. 165.

Keswick. 6. Feby. 1822
Dear Madam

Among all the “whys & wherefores” which you may have found to account for my not acknowledging the receipt of a copy of D Carlos,

(1)

John Russell (1792–1868; DNB), Don Carlos; or Persecution. A Tragedy, in Five Acts (1822). As Russell was a leading Whig, Ann Holmes may have been doubtful about Southey’s reaction to this gift. Russell had travelled widely on the Continent and spent the months November 1820–January 1821 and June–September 1821 in Paris, so he may well have met Ann Holmes there.

& replying to the letter which you sent with it, – the true cause, I dare say, never occurred to you; – it is simply this, – that I never received either book or letter. My sentiments, Heaven be praised, are too tolerant, too kindly, too charitable (I will not call them liberal, abused as that word is) – to keep me at a distance from any one because of any difference in opinions religious or political. What your opinions may be I know not; – mine are before the world, for those who like them, in private I obtrude them upon no one.

If the Chevr de Sagrie

(2)

Pierre Hippolite Amillet de Sagrie (1785–1830), Roderic, Dernier Roi de Goths (1821), no. 2700 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. This was a translation of Southey’s Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814). Sagrie did not translate any more of Southey’s works.

thinks it worth his while to bestow any more time upon the translation of any of my works, I will very willingly communicate to you for his use such facts & dates relating to my own life as may serve his purpose.

A translation of Roderick in three small volumes was sent me August last by the translator, who signs himself Bon de Sorsum.

(3)

Antoine André Brugière, Baron de Sorsum, Roderick, le Dernier des Goths (1820), no. 2697 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library; see Southey to Antoine André Brugière, Baron de Sorsum, 30 October 1821, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3743.

Is it then a third translation of which you speak?

(4)

Amédée Pichot (1795–1877), French novelist, historian and prolific translator, began a translation of Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814), but abandoned the project once the two other versions in French appeared.

In looking over this which on the whole I liked as well as could be expected, I fell upon one odd mistake, – the motes in the sunbeam (in the 8th book) are translated papillons de nuit.

(5)

Papillons de nuit are moths: Roderick, le Dernier des Goths, 3 vols (Paris, 1820), I, p. 175, mis-translated Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814), Book 8, line 106. Southey drew attention to this mistake in his Poetical Works, 10 vols (London, 1837–1838), IX, pp. x–xiii.

Westall has made some drawings from this poem,

(6)

Richard Westall (1765–1836; DNB) produced a set of six illustrations. These were published by Longman as Illustrations of Roderick, the Last of the Goths. A Poem, by Robert Southey, Esq. from the Drawings of R. Westall, R.A. (1824), nos 2627–2628 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Purchasers could arrange for the engravings to be bound into their copy of Roderick, which was also published by Longman.

which I have not seen but which are described to me as very beautiful, – having been done con amore.

(7)

‘for love’.

They are now in the engravers hands.

(8)

Westall used a number of engravers for this project, including Charles Heath (1785–1848; DNB).

Lord Byron, I have little doubt, will return to the charge.

(9)

In the ‘Appendix’ to ‘The Two Foscari’, Sardanapulus, A Tragedy. The Two Foscari, A Tragedy. Cain, A Mystery (London, 1821), p. 328, Byron had cautioned: ‘I am not ignorant of Mr. Southey’s calumnies on a different occasion, knowing them to be such, which he scattered abroad on his return from Switzerland against me and others.’ Southey had visited Switzerland in his continental tour of May–August 1817. The ‘calumnies’ Byron believed Southey to have later spread were rumours that Byron and Shelley had engaged in a ‘League of Incest’ during their residence in Switzerland in 1816. Southey had re…

I have the great advantage of being right, & of being master of my temper. He can neither irritate nor injure me. The single charge which malice can bring against me is that I was a republican, or rather an Utopian at twenty, & that as I grew older I grew wiser: modifying my speculative opinions both political & religious, as I acquired more knowledge, but retaining always the moral principle with which I set out in life. Byron is not fool-enough to believe that this is any impeachment of my character, tho but he is dishonest enough to join in the cry of a set of cut throats; – they deserve no better name, – for cut-throats they would be, as surely as Marat, Chaumette, Hebert

(10)

Jean-Paul Marat (1743–1793), Jacobin journalist; Pierre Gaspard Chaumette (1763–1794), President of the Paris Commune; and Jacques Hébert (1757–1794), ultra-radical journalist. All were extremists and advocates of the Reign of Terror (1793–1794).

&c &c, if they ever attained the same power. I despise these wretches too much ever to notice them, otherwise than collectively & as regards the public weal. But if he persists in his ruffian-like attacks I will bestow upon him such farther chastisement as he deserves, well knowing that as I have the better cause, so also have I the stronger arm.

I write in haste, rather than lose a post, – because I have to clear myself from an appearance of gross incivility

farewell therefore Madam
& believe me
Your obliged

Robert Southey.

Notes

1. John Russell (1792–1868; DNB), Don Carlos; or Persecution. A Tragedy, in Five Acts (1822). As Russell was a leading Whig, Ann Holmes may have been doubtful about Southey’s reaction to this gift. Russell had travelled widely on the Continent and spent the months November 1820–January 1821 and June–September 1821 in Paris, so he may well have met Ann Holmes there. [back]
2. Pierre Hippolite Amillet de Sagrie (1785–1830), Roderic, Dernier Roi de Goths (1821), no. 2700 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. This was a translation of Southey’s Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814). Sagrie did not translate any more of Southey’s works. [back]
3. Antoine André Brugière, Baron de Sorsum, Roderick, le Dernier des Goths (1820), no. 2697 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library; see Southey to Antoine André Brugière, Baron de Sorsum, 30 October 1821, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3743. [back]
4. Amédée Pichot (1795–1877), French novelist, historian and prolific translator, began a translation of Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814), but abandoned the project once the two other versions in French appeared. [back]
5. Papillons de nuit are moths: Roderick, le Dernier des Goths, 3 vols (Paris, 1820), I, p. 175, mis-translated Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814), Book 8, line 106. Southey drew attention to this mistake in his Poetical Works, 10 vols (London, 1837–1838), IX, pp. x–xiii. [back]
6. Richard Westall (1765–1836; DNB) produced a set of six illustrations. These were published by Longman as Illustrations of Roderick, the Last of the Goths. A Poem, by Robert Southey, Esq. from the Drawings of R. Westall, R.A. (1824), nos 2627–2628 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Purchasers could arrange for the engravings to be bound into their copy of Roderick, which was also published by Longman. [back]
7. ‘for love’. [back]
8. Westall used a number of engravers for this project, including Charles Heath (1785–1848; DNB). [back]
9. In the ‘Appendix’ to ‘The Two Foscari’, Sardanapulus, A Tragedy. The Two Foscari, A Tragedy. Cain, A Mystery (London, 1821), p. 328, Byron had cautioned: ‘I am not ignorant of Mr. Southey’s calumnies on a different occasion, knowing them to be such, which he scattered abroad on his return from Switzerland against me and others.’ Southey had visited Switzerland in his continental tour of May–August 1817. The ‘calumnies’ Byron believed Southey to have later spread were rumours that Byron and Shelley had engaged in a ‘League of Incest’ during their residence in Switzerland in 1816. Southey had responded by writing to the Editor of the Courier, 5 January 1822, Letter 3776. His letter was published in the Courier on 11 January 1822. [back]
10. Jean-Paul Marat (1743–1793), Jacobin journalist; Pierre Gaspard Chaumette (1763–1794), President of the Paris Commune; and Jacques Hébert (1757–1794), ultra-radical journalist. All were extremists and advocates of the Reign of Terror (1793–1794). [back]
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