3934. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 15 December 1822

 

MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4813D. ALS; 3p.
Unpublished.

My dear Wynn

I shall be very much obliged to you both for the Cambro-Briton, & the Cymmrodorion Transactions.

(1)

The Cambro-Briton (1819–1822), a journal on Welsh history, no. 527 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library; and Transactions of the Cymmrodorion, or Metropolitan Cambrian Institution (1822), no. 2829 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Wynn had played a central role in re-founding the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion in 1820 as a society of London-based Welshmen interested in the history of Wales. Southey was elected a member of the Society in 1821.

– They may very likely afford me hints for the Ode which you desired,

(2)

Southey did not write this ode on Wales.

– & which I am the more bound to produce, having prxx lauded the Scotch ex officio this year,

(3)

‘Scotland, an Ode, Written after the King’s Visit to that Country. By Robert Southey, Esq. Poet Laureat’, The Bijou: Or Annual of Literature and the Arts (London, 1828), pp. 81–88. This poem was Southey’s New Year’s ode for 1823 in fulfilment of his obligations as Poet Laureate.

as (God forgive me!) I did the Irish the last.

(4)

‘Ireland’, Sir Thomas More: or. Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society, 2 vols (London, 1829), I, pp. [295]–302. The poem was Southey’s New Year’s ode for 1822, in fulfilment of his duty as Poet Laureate.

– You see I put my Welsh honours in my title page – & that my name has now a tolerably long tail.

(5)

Southey’s History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, p. [ii], where the author was described as ‘Honorary Member of the Royal Spanish Academy, of the Royal Spanish Academy of History, of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands, of the Cymmrodorion, of the Massachusetts Historical Society, &c.’

How much it would have gratified me to have been at your christening!

(6)

Mary Wynn had given birth, on 4 October 1822, to her last child, Charles Williams-Wynn (1822–1896), who became MP for Montgomeryshire 1862–1880. He was baptised on 8 December 1822 at St Martins-in-the-Fields, Westminster.

Old friends & old books are the best things that this world affords (I like old wine also) – & in these I am richer than most men. (The wine excepted.) – I have now known you & Bedford & Strachey four & thirty years. When I look at our respective lots in life, yours & Dapples are regularly what they ought to be. – mine also is what it should be, tho the course has been an erratic one. Strachey I think might have been as well off in fortune, & better in other respects, if he had not spent the best years of his life in India. Made for domestic life as he is, he ought to have been a married man.

Elmsley is right in not sacrificing the enjoyment of his books & his friends.

(7)

Elmsley had declined Wynn’s offer of the post of Bishop of Calcutta.

I marvel that any man will sacrifice them, except from a sense of duty a leisure which he is able to enjoy, except from a sense of duty. – Middleton

(8)

Thomas Fanshaw Middleton (1769–1822; DNB), who had been appointed first Bishop of Calcutta in 1814, with jurisdiction over the whole territory of the East India Company.

is a great loss. – That establishment was made with too niggardly a hand; & much more was required from Middleton than was any ways reasonable. – If Elmsley had gone to India I should have had a large episcopal acquaintance, – the new Irish Bp. Jebb, is an acquaintance of mine, – & one for whom I have a very high respect.

I am looking thro D’Israeli’s new Curiosities.

(9)

Isaac D’Israeli, A Second Series of Curiosities of Literature; Consisting of Researches in Literary, Biographical and Political History; of Critical and Philosophical Inquiries; and of Secret History (1823).

He is a man whom I generally dine with when I visit London, – an oddly furnished head he has & an odd good natured sort of creature he is altogether, – thoroughly good natured, – the strangest mixture of information & ignorance, – cleverness & folly. Having ceased to be a Jew himself, without becoming a Christian, he has, happily for his children,

(10)

Sarah Disraeli (1802–1859); Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881; DNB), Prime Minister 1868, 1874–1880; Ralph Disraeli (1809–1898); and James Disraeli (1813–1868). They were all baptised into the Church of England in July 1817.

allowed Sharon Turner to take them quietly to church & have them christened.

Of forthcoming books there is none which I am so desirous to see as Sir John Malcolms,

(11)

Major-General Sir John Malcolm (1769–1833; DNB), A Memoir of Central India, including Malwa and Adjoining Provinces: with the History, and Copious Illustrations of the Past and Present Condition of that Country (1823).

– part of which he showed me when he was on his way to London in the summer.

Dibdin has written to ask if I am willing to undertake a continuation of Wartons History of Poetry:

(12)

Thomas Warton (1728–1790; DNB), The History of English Poetry from the Close of the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century (1774–1781). A new edition appeared in 1824, edited by Richard Price (1790–1833; DNB), no. 2986 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.

& I expect to receive proposals from the publisher

(13)

Thomas Tegg (1766–1845; DNB), publisher of popular works and abridgements of literary standards. Southey did not undertake any work for him.

– whoever he may be. If they are such as may enable me to draw off from reviewing I shall xx be disposed to accept them.

I am learning Danish, & reading Dutch poetry. That I should get a great deal from Dutch history you will not wonder,

(14)

Southey had read widely in Dutch history for his History of Brazil (1810–1819).

but you will wonder that I should get any thing from their poetry. I trace however old Joshua Sylvester

(15)

Joshua Sylvester (1563–1618; DNB), English poet, who translated Guillaume de Saluste Du Bartas (1544–1590), Sepmaine; ou, Creation du Monde (1578) as Bartas his Devine Weekes and Workes (1605). Sylvester lived in Holland in later life and knew Dutch. Southey claimed Sylvester ‘learnt some of the peculiarities of his versification’ from Dutch poetry, in his review of John Johnson (1769–1833; DNB), Memoirs of the Life and Writings of William Hayley, Esq. the Friend and Biographer of Cowper, Written by Himself; with Extracts from his Private Correspondence, and Unpublished Poetry; and Memoirs of …

there, – & – if I am not mistaken, Milton also.

(16)

John Milton (1608–1674; DNB), Paradise Lost (1667). It has been suggested that Joost van den Vondel’s (1587–1679) Lucifer (1645) and Adam in Ballingschap (1664) influenced Milton’s work; see Southey to Richard Heber, 9 January 1816, Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Five, Letter 2696.

God bless you
RS.

Keswick 15 Dec. 1822.

Notes

1. The Cambro-Briton (1819–1822), a journal on Welsh history, no. 527 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library; and Transactions of the Cymmrodorion, or Metropolitan Cambrian Institution (1822), no. 2829 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Wynn had played a central role in re-founding the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion in 1820 as a society of London-based Welshmen interested in the history of Wales. Southey was elected a member of the Society in 1821.[back]
2. Southey did not write this ode on Wales.[back]
3. ‘Scotland, an Ode, Written after the King’s Visit to that Country. By Robert Southey, Esq. Poet Laureat’, The Bijou: Or Annual of Literature and the Arts (London, 1828), pp. 81–88. This poem was Southey’s New Year’s ode for 1823 in fulfilment of his obligations as Poet Laureate.[back]
4. ‘Ireland’, Sir Thomas More: or. Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society, 2 vols (London, 1829), I, pp. [295]–302. The poem was Southey’s New Year’s ode for 1822, in fulfilment of his duty as Poet Laureate.[back]
5. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (London, 1823–1832), I, p. [ii], where the author was described as ‘Honorary Member of the Royal Spanish Academy, of the Royal Spanish Academy of History, of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands, of the Cymmrodorion, of the Massachusetts Historical Society, &c.’[back]
6. Mary Wynn had given birth, on 4 October 1822, to her last child, Charles Williams-Wynn (1822–1896), who became MP for Montgomeryshire 1862–1880. He was baptised on 8 December 1822 at St Martins-in-the-Fields, Westminster.[back]
7. Elmsley had declined Wynn’s offer of the post of Bishop of Calcutta.[back]
8. Thomas Fanshaw Middleton (1769–1822; DNB), who had been appointed first Bishop of Calcutta in 1814, with jurisdiction over the whole territory of the East India Company.[back]
9. Isaac D’Israeli, A Second Series of Curiosities of Literature; Consisting of Researches in Literary, Biographical and Political History; of Critical and Philosophical Inquiries; and of Secret History (1823).[back]
10. Sarah Disraeli (1802–1859); Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881; DNB), Prime Minister 1868, 1874–1880; Ralph Disraeli (1809–1898); and James Disraeli (1813–1868). They were all baptised into the Church of England in July 1817.[back]
11. Major-General Sir John Malcolm (1769–1833; DNB), A Memoir of Central India, including Malwa and Adjoining Provinces: with the History, and Copious Illustrations of the Past and Present Condition of that Country (1823).[back]
12. Thomas Warton (1728–1790; DNB), The History of English Poetry from the Close of the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century (1774–1781). A new edition appeared in 1824, edited by Richard Price (1790–1833; DNB), no. 2986 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]
13. Thomas Tegg (1766–1845; DNB), publisher of popular works and abridgements of literary standards. Southey did not undertake any work for him.[back]
14. Southey had read widely in Dutch history for his History of Brazil (1810–1819).[back]
15. Joshua Sylvester (1563–1618; DNB), English poet, who translated Guillaume de Saluste Du Bartas (1544–1590), Sepmaine; ou, Creation du Monde (1578) as Bartas his Devine Weekes and Workes (1605). Sylvester lived in Holland in later life and knew Dutch. Southey claimed Sylvester ‘learnt some of the peculiarities of his versification’ from Dutch poetry, in his review of John Johnson (1769–1833; DNB), Memoirs of the Life and Writings of William Hayley, Esq. the Friend and Biographer of Cowper, Written by Himself; with Extracts from his Private Correspondence, and Unpublished Poetry; and Memoirs of his Son Thomas Alphonso Hayley, the Young Sculptor (1823), Quarterly Review, 31 (March 1825), 282.[back]
16. John Milton (1608–1674; DNB), Paradise Lost (1667). It has been suggested that Joost van den Vondel’s (1587–1679) Lucifer (1645) and Adam in Ballingschap (1664) influenced Milton’s work; see Southey to Richard Heber, 9 January 1816, Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Five, Letter 2696.[back]
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