3901. Robert Southey to George Taylor, 4 October 1822

 

Address: To/ George Taylor Esqre/ Witton le Wear/ near Auckland/ Durham
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
MS: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Eng. lett. d. 6. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished.

Keswick 4th Oct. 1822
My dear Sir

I finished your sons tragedy

(1)

Henry Taylor’s unpublished tragedy ‘King Don Philip the Second’.

this evening, & am glad to perceive by it that if no luckier occupation is afforded him, authorship will not be to him, as it is to so many, – a desperate profession: & that if there is, he may still find in it an a profitable & honourable pursuit.

The play is not, I think suited for representation: & at this time there is very little likelihood that any bookseller would undertake the risk of publishing it, – the book-trade more than any other having felt the effects of that retrenchment which those who formerly had money to spare are now compelled to make. My advice to him is that he should chuse a subject adapted for the stage, where if he gets a footing, he may easily obtain a good subsistence. And I would recommend a happy catastrophe as likely to promote its success. The old mixed drama

(2)

Tragicomedy, popular on the English stage in the first half of the seventeenth century.

must always be more popular, – more fitted to gratify xx a mixed audience, – more congenial in fact to general feelings, than pure tragedy, which few but the young can bear.

There is a great deal of true feeling & genuine poetry in this play. The plot has some improbabilities, – of a kind to excite displeasure. And the versification frequently requires a mute syllable to be pronounced, which generally baulks a reader, & always attenuates the rhythm. In our verse the syllables bear better to be crowded than stretched.

These are trifling faults, & easily corrected, if it were worth while. But it is better to build upon a new foundation, & chuse an unexceptionable subject. There are very serious objections to the present. The story if it were true, would be monstrous, – therefore in my judgement unfit for the stage, or for relation. But in point of fact, it is as false as the tale, still asserted by Romish writers that Henry 8 married Anna Boleyn knowing her to be his own daughter.

(3)

Henry VIII (1491–1547; King of England 1509–1547; DNB), married Anne Boleyn (1501/1507–1536; DNB) as his second wife in 1532. The allegation that Anne Boleyn was the king’s daughter, following an alleged affair with her mother, Lady Elizabeth Boleyn, née Howard (c. 1480–1538; DNB), was widely made by Catholic writers, who were critical of Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church over his marriage.

In every thing which regards D Carlos his father is an object of compassion, – not of hatred.

(4)

Don Carlos (1545–1568), the eldest son and heir of Philip II (1527–1598; King of Spain 1556–1598). After Don Carlos showed growing signs of mental instability and threatened to kill his father, Philip II imprisoned his son in the Alcazar Palace, where he died, probably of natural causes.

The love-story is altogether fictitious

(5)

Taylor may have made use of the story, used, for example, in Thomas Otway (1652–1685; DNB), Don Carlos, Prince of Spain (1676), that Don Carlos was the lover of Elizabeth of Valois (1545–1568), the third wife of Philip II.

– the Prince was much x xx such a character as the Czarewitz whom Peter the Great thought it necessary to put to death.

(6)

Peter I (1672–1725; Tsar of Russia 1682–1725), imprisoned and tortured his son and heir, Alexei (1690–1718), for conspiring against him. Alexei was sentenced to death, but died before the sentence could be carried out.

He meant to murder his father; – the crime was proved, – the process against him strictly legal, the sentence its necessary termination,

(7)

Don Carlos was not put on trial or subjected to any formal legal process.

– & after all the Prince died in his bed, not of poison, but as there is every reason to believe, of a natural disease. You may find the whole authentic statement in Llorentes Histoire Critique de l’Inquisition d’Espagne.

(8)

Juan Antonio Llorente (1756–1823), Histoire Critique de l’Inquisition d’Espagne, 4 vols (Paris, 1817–1818), I, pp. 151–182, no. 1738 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.

Philip was an odious tyrant, but for that very reason we should be careful to do him justice. The truth is that he had some good qualities & some great ones, & that his misdeeds arose rather from the circumstances in which he was placed, than from an evil heart.

I am glad to find you in the Quarterly, – tho your object has been to bolster up one whom I consider a miserable quack;

(9)

Thomas Malthus (1766–1834; DNB). Southey loathed Malthus’s arguments about the tendency for population to outstrip resources and his proposals to abolish poor relief. Taylor had reviewed William Godwin, Of Population. An Inquiry Concerning the Power of Increase in the Numbers of Mankind, being an Answer to Mr. Malthus’s Essay on that Subject (1820) in Quarterly Review, 26 (October 1821), 148–168, published 21 December 1821.

– a writer who has advanced nothing but what had been clearly & explicitly stated before (xxx by Townsend for example in his Travels)

(10)

Joseph Townsend (1739–1816; DNB), A Journey through Spain in the Years 1786 and 1787; with Particular Attention to the Agriculture, Manufacture, Commerce, Population, Taxes and Revenue of that Country, 3 vols (London, 1791), III, pp. 183–185, describing the reform of poor relief in the Spanish city of Alicante. An edition of 1814 was no. 2865 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.

& has brought that forward in such a manner as to render a salutary truth offensive & danger[MS mssing] – Men who mean well, agree in feeling, however they may differ in opinion, & in opinion the longer they live the nearer they approach each other. I am putting together my views & reflections upon this & other subjects connected with the progress of society.

(11)

Southey’s Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829).

– & I think you will go far with me in my conclusions.

I hope you will contribute frequently to the QR, a hold there will be the best introduction for any work which you may undertake & it may also be useful to your son, – who if he writes prose as well as verse might try his hand there with advantage.

farewell my dear Sir & believe me
With true regard & respect
Yours faithfully
Robert Southey.

Notes

1. Henry Taylor’s unpublished tragedy ‘King Don Philip the Second’.[back]
2. Tragicomedy, popular on the English stage in the first half of the seventeenth century.[back]
3. Henry VIII (1491–1547; King of England 1509–1547; DNB), married Anne Boleyn (1501/1507–1536; DNB) as his second wife in 1532. The allegation that Anne Boleyn was the king’s daughter, following an alleged affair with her mother, Lady Elizabeth Boleyn, née Howard (c. 1480–1538; DNB), was widely made by Catholic writers, who were critical of Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church over his marriage.[back]
4. Don Carlos (1545–1568), the eldest son and heir of Philip II (1527–1598; King of Spain 1556–1598). After Don Carlos showed growing signs of mental instability and threatened to kill his father, Philip II imprisoned his son in the Alcazar Palace, where he died, probably of natural causes.[back]
5. Taylor may have made use of the story, used, for example, in Thomas Otway (1652–1685; DNB), Don Carlos, Prince of Spain (1676), that Don Carlos was the lover of Elizabeth of Valois (1545–1568), the third wife of Philip II.[back]
6. Peter I (1672–1725; Tsar of Russia 1682–1725), imprisoned and tortured his son and heir, Alexei (1690–1718), for conspiring against him. Alexei was sentenced to death, but died before the sentence could be carried out.[back]
7. Don Carlos was not put on trial or subjected to any formal legal process.[back]
8. Juan Antonio Llorente (1756–1823), Histoire Critique de l’Inquisition d’Espagne, 4 vols (Paris, 1817–1818), I, pp. 151–182, no. 1738 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]
9. Thomas Malthus (1766–1834; DNB). Southey loathed Malthus’s arguments about the tendency for population to outstrip resources and his proposals to abolish poor relief. Taylor had reviewed William Godwin, Of Population. An Inquiry Concerning the Power of Increase in the Numbers of Mankind, being an Answer to Mr. Malthus’s Essay on that Subject (1820) in Quarterly Review, 26 (October 1821), 148–168, published 21 December 1821.[back]
10. Joseph Townsend (1739–1816; DNB), A Journey through Spain in the Years 1786 and 1787; with Particular Attention to the Agriculture, Manufacture, Commerce, Population, Taxes and Revenue of that Country, 3 vols (London, 1791), III, pp. 183–185, describing the reform of poor relief in the Spanish city of Alicante. An edition of 1814 was no. 2865 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]
11. Southey’s Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1829).[back]
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