3994. Robert Southey to John Kenyon [fragment], 3 April 1823

 

Address: To/ John Kenyon Esqre / Bath
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Endorsements: In return for a keg/ of Laver/ J.K.; No. 7; Southey 
Seal: red wax; design illegible
MS: Keswick Museum and Art Gallery, 1996.5.237. AL; 4p.
Unpublished.

Keswick. 3 Apr. 1823
My dear Sir

It was with no little pleasure that I recognized your hand writing yesterday upon a casket (fit word for what contains a treasure) of that sea plant

(1)

Kenyon had sent a present of laver, an edible seaweed and a favourite of Southey’s.

which I conceive to have originally sprung from ambrosia seeds dropt by Jupiter when he took the water with Europa,

(2)

Ambrosia was the food of the gods in Greek myth and Jupiter the Roman equivalent of Zeus, the king of the gods. Zeus took the form of a white bull to abduct Europa and swum with her on his back to the island of Crete.

 & “evolved thro all the intestinal God”.

(3)

For Southey’s plan for a poem – ‘Laver; how it was ambrosia, which when Jupiter came for Europa was evolved through all the intestinal government’ – see Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, p. 21.

Some five & twenty years <ago> I thought of relating its history in verse, in honour of a preparation which in flavour bears witness to its Olympian derivation, & in appearance to the theotaurine vehicle wherein it was committed to the sea-shore.

(4)

In Greek myth, Mount Olympus was the home of the gods; and Zeus was a god who had taken the form a bull (‘theotaurine’).

– I was very glad also to see where a letter would find you, – not having for a long time known in what part of this wide world you were to be found. The question was asked of me six or eight months ago by Ticknor, who was desirous of writing to you. Tell me where I may tell him to direct, – for at Bath I suppose you are only a bird of passage.

I am at this time employed more continuously upon one thing than is usual with me, that I may the sooner take wing for a longer flight & longer absence than I like to think of, – to London first, – then Devonshire, & to Norwich on my way back. Probably I shall [MS torn]t town <London> about the second week in May,

(5)

Southey did not leave home until 3 November 1823.

– which of all times in the year xis that which a lover of the country would with the most reluctance pass in town. Wordsworth is there at present with his wife, & Miss Hutchinson. He has been placing his <eldest> son at Oxford.

(6)

John Wordsworth entered New College, Oxford, in 1823.

His daughter left us this morning to return to her Aunt at Rydal. – Mrs Coleridge <& Sara> have been making a round of visits since the beginning of November: they are now at Ottery with Mr C’s relations, – & their last visit will be to Poole on their way home.

Since last I saw you my course of life has been xxxx very little varied, – thank Heaven it has been disturbed by no afflictions, which after a certain stage are almost the only variations we have to expect. Edith is now a young woman; – Bertha has almost shot up to the an equal stature; – the two other girls

(7)

Kate and Isabel Southey.

keeping their due proportion, & so grown out of playthings; & Cuthbert, thank God, a fine & thriving boy. For myself I am in better condition than I have been for several years, owing mainly to a course of exercise commenced last summer, & steadily continued till this time. If you ask whether I am “a sadder & a wiser man”,

(8)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere’, Part 7, line 111, in William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems (Bristol, 1798), p. 51.

the children will answer no, without hesitation; – but I perhaps should hesitate before I replied to the first part of the question. With regard to the second – I hope I shall always be able to say, Anch’ io imparo.

(9)

‘I too learn’.

Your brother

(10)

Edward Kenyon (d. 1856), who lived in Vienna. Like his brother John Kenyon, he was noted for giving away much of his wealth.

would think so if he saw me reading nursery-tales in German,

(11)

Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Karl Grimm (1786–1859), Kinder-und Hausmärchen (1812), translated as German Popular Stories (1823).

as a daily lesson, for myself, from which the young ones are not willing to grant me a holyday. I have learnt a little of the Danish during the winter, & in due time shall get at the Teutonic sources of our language, – & of our literature as far as these exist.

The book which I am now finishing is my long-meditated sketch of English Ecclesiastical History.

(12)

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

It will provoke obloquy enough I dare say from bigots of every denomination: but I think it will have the effect not indeed of altering any persons opinions, – but of confirming those of many, – & giving many a right bias when they begin their course. In the course of my reading it has been mortifying to observe, with what want of care, & still more with what want of good faith & good feeling this subject has been usually treated.

My wife & Mrs Lovell desire me to present their xxx remembrances. Tell me something of yourself, – & whether I may hope to meet you in London. – The General, you probably know, is at Clifton at this time.

God bless you [MS missing]

Notes

1. Kenyon had sent a present of laver, an edible seaweed and a favourite of Southey’s.[back]
2. Ambrosia was the food of the gods in Greek myth and Jupiter the Roman equivalent of Zeus, the king of the gods. Zeus took the form of a white bull to abduct Europa and swum with her on his back to the island of Crete.[back]
3. For Southey’s plan for a poem – ‘Laver; how it was ambrosia, which when Jupiter came for Europa was evolved through all the intestinal government’ – see Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, p. 21.[back]
4. In Greek myth, Mount Olympus was the home of the gods; and Zeus was a god who had taken the form a bull (‘theotaurine’).[back]
5. Southey did not leave home until 3 November 1823.[back]
6. John Wordsworth entered New College, Oxford, in 1823. [back]
8. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere’, Part 7, line 111, in William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems (Bristol, 1798), p. 51.[back]
9. ‘I too learn’.[back]
10. Edward Kenyon (d. 1856), who lived in Vienna. Like his brother John Kenyon, he was noted for giving away much of his wealth.[back]
11. Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Karl Grimm (1786–1859), Kinder-und Hausmärchen (1812), translated as German Popular Stories (1823).[back]
12. Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824).[back]
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