3910. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, 30 October 1822

 

Address: To/ Dr Southey/ Queen Anne Street/ Cavendish Square/ London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 2 NO 2/ 1822
Seal: red wax; design illegible
MS: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Don. d. 4. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), V, pp. 124–126 [in part].

Keswick 30 Oct. 1822
My dear Harry

As soon as you departed I settled regularly to my habitual course of life which had been so much to my benefit broken up thro the summer. At the same time, I very dutifully began to observe your directions, & have walked every day with the exception of one stormy one long enough & far enough to require rubbing down. This is against the grain but I feel how beneficial it is, & therefore do not grumble.

I finished a paper for the QR

(1)

Southey’s review of Henri Grégoire (1750–1831), Histoire des Sectes Religieuse, qui, Depuis de Commencement du Siecle Dernier Jusqu’a l’Epoque Actuelle, sont Nées, se sont Modifiées, se sont Éteintes dans le Quatre Parties du Monde (1814), Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), published 15 February 1823. The book was no. 2838 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.

– the first part of which I think you saw, – & the second detachment of proofs is now on the table. Something also has been done to the Book of the Church

(2)

Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824).

– a portion of copy will be ready for the next post. But my main employment has been upon a box of papers from Bart. Frere, about half which I have gone thro extracting as I go.

(3)

Used in Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).

They are very interesting, & will give me all the information I need down to the time when Sydenhams collection

(4)

Benjamin Sydenham (1777–1828), a soldier in India, friend of Marquess Wellesley and Commissioner of the Board of Excise 1809–1819, had sent Southey the papers of his brother, Thomas Sydenham (1780–1816), who had served in Spain 1811–1812 before becoming Minister Plenipotentiary at Lisbon 1814–1816.

xx begins. I have worked, & am working at them, with great perseverance.

The American books have arrived

(5)

Southey had been sent a consignment of books by George Ticknor.

& I am reading with much interest Dwights Travels

(6)

Timothy Dwight (1752–1817), Travels in New-England and New-York (1821–1822), no. 881 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library, reviewed by Southey in Quarterly Review, 30 (October 1823), 1–40, published 17 April 1824.

in his own country – a posthumous work. The author (whose unhappy name is Timothy) wrote in his youth some forty years ago an heroic poem upon the Conquest of Canaan,

(7)

Timothy Dwight, The Conquest of Canaan (1785). This was reprinted in London by Joseph Johnson (1738–1809; DNB) in 1788.

which was puffed & reprinted in London. Its stilted versification was admired in those days but it had little or no real merit. Dwight however tho a bad poet, – because of a bad school,

(8)

In heroic couplets, Dwight’s poem was much influenced by John Dryden (1631–1700; DNB), The Works of Virgil: Containing his Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis: Adorn’d with a Hundred Sculptures, Translated into English Verse by Mr Dryden (1697).

– was a sensible man, & he kept a journal of his jourxx travels & prepared it for publication from a conviction that a faithful description of New England in all its parts such as it then was would in a few generations become exceedingly interesting, how unimportant it might appear if published as soon as it was written. A great deal of course is only interesting locally, but on the whole the picture of what the country is, his fair views of the state of society there, with its advantages & disadvantages, & the number of curious facts which are brought together make it very well worth reading. I would give a good deal to see as trustworthy & minute an account of the Southern States. – This is just the sort of xx book which might be digested into a review.

The QR. will not do itself any good by the mealy-mouthed manner in which it has set xxx dealt with Lord Byron.

(9)

The review of Byron’s Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice. An Historical Tragedy, in Five Acts. With Notes. The Prophecy of Dante, a Poem (1821) and Sardanapulus, A Tragedy. The Two Foscari, A Tragedy, Cain, A Mystery (1821) by Reginald Heber, Quarterly Review, 27 (July 1822), 476–524, was not the swingeing condemnation that Southey would have liked.

The excuse for its previous silence is wretched, & to preach a sermon in refutation of so silly a piece of sophistry as Cain is pityful indeed.

(10)

Quarterly Review, 27 (July 1822), 476–477, provided a list of reasons why the journal had not reviewed Byron’s recent work, including: ‘the conflict of admiration and regret’ over Byron’s talents and the immorality of his poems; the ‘little effect which our advice had, on former occasions, produced’; and the belief that Byron could only interpret the Quarterly’s silence as ‘an appeal, of not the least impressive kind’ to repent. The fact that Murray was the publisher of both Byron and the Quarterly Review was not mentioned. The article (pp. 514–524) defended orthodox Christianity against the a…

– To crown all while they are treating his Lordship with so much respect & congratulating themselves on the improved morality of his productions

(11)

Quarterly Review, 27 (July 1822), 477: ‘Whatever may be the other merits of his tragedies, on the score of morals they are unimpeachable.’

– out comes “the Liberal”.

(12)

Byron’s The Vision of Judgment (1822), a parody of Southey’s A Vision of Judgement (1821), was first published in the Liberal, 1 (October 1822), 3–39.

I have only seen some newspaper extracts

(13)

The Leeds Intelligencer and Yorkshire General Advertiser, 21 October 1822, which had been sent to Southey.

from this journal, among them the description of myself. He may go with such satire till his heart aches, before he can excite in me one uncomfortable emotion. In warring with him I have as much advantage in my temper as Orlando had in his invulnerable hide.

(14)

Matteo Boiardo (1440–1494), Orlando Innamorato (1495). The eponymous hero had an invulnerable skin.

But there is no necessity for striking a blow at one who has so compleatly damned himself. I wish the Liberals joy of their journal.

Do not forget to arrange for the transmission of my cyder from Liverpool, & as soon as you have done this & let me know to whose care it should be directed there. I will write to Lightfoot & have it sent off. I should like a glass of it at this moment.

I shall be glad to hear a good account of Louisa & also of your own domiciliary arrangements. This reminds me of a certain letter which it is time that I should write & which therefore shall no longer be delayed.

We are all well thank God. Kate had her head shaved on Monday.

(15)

Possibly a treatment for head lice.

Tom talks very absurdly about his wife, he xxx says she has never recovered – Miss Wilbraham,

(16)

Mary Laetitia Wilbraham (1799–1874), Tom Southey’s lodger. She had just married Joseph Harrison Fryer (1777–1855) of Whitley House, Northumberland. Fryer was a surveyor, geologist and mining engineer who spent part of each year at Keswick. At this time he was renting Ormathwaite, a large house about a mile and a quarter from Keswick.

& that she repents ever having had her under their roof. – If this sort of language lessened ones anxiety about them as much as it does ones sympathy, it were well.

Love from all:
God bless you
RS.

Notes

1. Southey’s review of Henri Grégoire (1750–1831), Histoire des Sectes Religieuse, qui, Depuis de Commencement du Siecle Dernier Jusqu’a l’Epoque Actuelle, sont Nées, se sont Modifiées, se sont Éteintes dans le Quatre Parties du Monde (1814), Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), published 15 February 1823. The book was no. 2838 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]
2. Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824).[back]
3. Used in Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).[back]
4. Benjamin Sydenham (1777–1828), a soldier in India, friend of Marquess Wellesley and Commissioner of the Board of Excise 1809–1819, had sent Southey the papers of his brother, Thomas Sydenham (1780–1816), who had served in Spain 1811–1812 before becoming Minister Plenipotentiary at Lisbon 1814–1816.[back]
5. Southey had been sent a consignment of books by George Ticknor.[back]
6. Timothy Dwight (1752–1817), Travels in New-England and New-York (1821–1822), no. 881 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library, reviewed by Southey in Quarterly Review, 30 (October 1823), 1–40, published 17 April 1824.[back]
7. Timothy Dwight, The Conquest of Canaan (1785). This was reprinted in London by Joseph Johnson (1738–1809; DNB) in 1788.[back]
8. In heroic couplets, Dwight’s poem was much influenced by John Dryden (1631–1700; DNB), The Works of Virgil: Containing his Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis: Adorn’d with a Hundred Sculptures, Translated into English Verse by Mr Dryden (1697).[back]
9. The review of Byron’s Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice. An Historical Tragedy, in Five Acts. With Notes. The Prophecy of Dante, a Poem (1821) and Sardanapulus, A Tragedy. The Two Foscari, A Tragedy, Cain, A Mystery (1821) by Reginald Heber, Quarterly Review, 27 (July 1822), 476–524, was not the swingeing condemnation that Southey would have liked.[back]
10. Quarterly Review, 27 (July 1822), 476–477, provided a list of reasons why the journal had not reviewed Byron’s recent work, including: ‘the conflict of admiration and regret’ over Byron’s talents and the immorality of his poems; the ‘little effect which our advice had, on former occasions, produced’; and the belief that Byron could only interpret the Quarterly’s silence as ‘an appeal, of not the least impressive kind’ to repent. The fact that Murray was the publisher of both Byron and the Quarterly Review was not mentioned. The article (pp. 514–524) defended orthodox Christianity against the arguments put forward by the characters in Byron’s Cain, especially on the issue of the compatibility of a supreme deity with the existence of evil.[back]
11. Quarterly Review, 27 (July 1822), 477: ‘Whatever may be the other merits of his tragedies, on the score of morals they are unimpeachable.’[back]
12. Byron’s The Vision of Judgment (1822), a parody of Southey’s A Vision of Judgement (1821), was first published in the Liberal, 1 (October 1822), 3–39.[back]
13. The Leeds Intelligencer and Yorkshire General Advertiser, 21 October 1822, which had been sent to Southey.[back]
14. Matteo Boiardo (1440–1494), Orlando Innamorato (1495). The eponymous hero had an invulnerable skin.[back]
15. Possibly a treatment for head lice.[back]
16. Mary Laetitia Wilbraham (1799–1874), Tom Southey’s lodger. She had just married Joseph Harrison Fryer (1777–1855) of Whitley House, Northumberland. Fryer was a surveyor, geologist and mining engineer who spent part of each year at Keswick. At this time he was renting Ormathwaite, a large house about a mile and a quarter from Keswick.[back]
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