3975. Robert Southey to Bernard Barton, 6 March 1823

 

MS untraced; text is taken from Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965)
Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), II, pp. 241–242.

My dear Sir

I can at last thank you for your Verses on the death of the miserable Shelley,

(1)

Barton’s Verses on the Death of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1822).

which did not reach me till yesterday evening, whereby you will perceive that my communication with the booksellers is not very frequent. But this parcel has been a fortnight longer than it should have been, on the way, owing I suppose to the accumulation of packages in the warehouse during the continuance of snow. The panegyrical Elegy

(2)

John Chalk Claris (c. 1797–1860; DNB) [Arthur Brooke], Elegy on the Death of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1822).

which called forth your wiser verses was sent me also by its author, whom I know not, but who probably writes under a nom de guerre. Whether the sending it was intended as a compliment, or as an insult, is to me a matter of perfect indifference. Shelleys is a flagitious history, and by far the worst tragedy in real life which has ever fallen within my knowledge. As I told him myself in the last communication I had with him, it is truly the Atheist’s Tragedy.

(3)

Southey to Shelley, 12 October 1820, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3538, in which Southey invoked Cyril Tourneur (d. 1626; DNB), The Atheist’s Tragedy (1611). The eponymous ‘Atheist’ kills himself at the end of the play.

It is indeed a strange piece of ill-fortune that an act of robbery should have drawn upon you so heavy a burthen of unprofitable and ungrateful employment: and but a poor satisfaction that when this unusual imposition is over the regular task work will appear almost like a holyday.

(4)

Barton was a clerk in Messrs Alexander’s Bank in Woodbridge. The Ipswich branch of the bank sustained a major loss on 11 September 1822 when a parcel of banknotes, to the value of over £30,000, which it had received from their London bankers, was stolen from the mail coach at Colchester. The bank offered a reward of £5,000 for information leading to the recovery of the notes but ended up having to negotiate their return with the thieves.

Meantime however your name is making its way, and I think I might venture to predict, that if you were to try a volume of tales in verse, you would find a lucrative adventure.

Peradventure I may see you in the course of spring, as I have the intention of passing a day with Thomas Clarkson on the way between Norwich and London.

(5)

Barton and Southey did indeed meet at Thomas Clarkson’s house in 1824.

Farewell, and believe me Yours truly

Robert Southey.

When you see Major Moor have the goodness to present my remembrances to him, and say that I received his friendly letter yesterday, and with it the Ms. Volume.

(6)

Possibly letters and documents collected by Sir Augustus Simon Frazer (1776–1835; DNB), a career soldier, who had seen service in the Peninsular campaign as a highly effective senior commander of horse artillery. He was Moor’s brother-in-law, and Moor had offered these papers to help with Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).

Notes

1. Barton’s Verses on the Death of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1822).[back]
2. John Chalk Claris (c. 1797–1860; DNB) [Arthur Brooke], Elegy on the Death of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1822).[back]
3. Southey to Shelley, 12 October 1820, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3538, in which Southey invoked Cyril Tourneur (d. 1626; DNB), The Atheist’s Tragedy (1611). The eponymous ‘Atheist’ kills himself at the end of the play.[back]
4. Barton was a clerk in Messrs Alexander’s Bank in Woodbridge. The Ipswich branch of the bank sustained a major loss on 11 September 1822 when a parcel of banknotes, to the value of over £30,000, which it had received from their London bankers, was stolen from the mail coach at Colchester. The bank offered a reward of £5,000 for information leading to the recovery of the notes but ended up having to negotiate their return with the thieves.[back]
5. Barton and Southey did indeed meet at Thomas Clarkson’s house in 1824.[back]
6. Possibly letters and documents collected by Sir Augustus Simon Frazer (1776–1835; DNB), a career soldier, who had seen service in the Peninsular campaign as a highly effective senior commander of horse artillery. He was Moor’s brother-in-law, and Moor had offered these papers to help with Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).[back]
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