4083. Robert Southey to Caroline Bowles, 4 November 1823

 

Address: [in another hand] To/ Miss Bowles/ Buckland/ Lymington/ CW Williams Wynn
Postmark: FREE/ 8 NO 8/ 1823
Endorsements: No 36 To Miss Caroline Bowles; Kirkby Lonsdale
MS: British Library, Add MS 47889. ALS; 3p. (A copy in Bowles’s hand is in the National Library of Scotland, MS 4081, where the letter forms part of the ‘Preface’ to Robin Hood: A Fragment.)
Previously published: Robert Southey and Caroline Southey, Robin Hood: A Fragment. With Other Fragments and Poems (Edinburgh, 1847), pp. [vii]–ix; Edward Dowden (ed.), The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles (Dublin and London, 1881), pp. 41–43.

Nov. 4. 1823

We left home yesterday, & are now at Kirkby Lonsdale, waiting for weather that may allow us to see the Caves,

(1)

Yordas and Weathercote Caves – both of which were show caves and near Kirkby Lonsdale.

for from the time of our departure till this moment it has not ceased raining. The same ill fortune which persecuted you at Ambleside, seems fated to attend us, the females

(2)

Louisa Charter, and Elizabeth Charter (1782–1860), friend of the poet George Crabbe (1754–1832; DNB). They were the sisters of Emma Peachy, first wife of William Peachy, and nieces of Sir Charles Malet (1752–1815; DNB), 1st Baronet, prominent diplomat with the East India Company. Peachy had lent the Charter sisters his home on Derwent Island. They were accompanied by Lady Susanna Malet, née Wales (1779–1868), widow of Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet (1752–1815; DNB), maternal uncle of the Charter sisters. Their other companion was one of the three children born in India to Sir Charles Malet and Amber Kaur (b. 1772): Eliza (b. 1791); Henry Charles (1793–1844); and Louisa (b. 1795). They accompanied Malet to Britain in 1798 and were brought up with his children by Susanna Malet. Eliza Malet married, in 1812, Robert Ekins (1785–1874), Vicar of Godalming 1810–1833, Rector of Folke, Dorset 1833–1843, Perpetual Curate of North Wootton 1843–1854. Southey is probably referring here to Louisa Malet.

however are company for each other: – they have taken out their work, & the opportunity is favourable for performing a part of mine. – which is to ask you whether one of those day dreams to which you have given birth, – (& a very delightful one to me it is) shall come to pass.

I have put up among my papers the memoranda which were made many years ago for a poem upon Robin Hood.

(3)

‘Robin Hood’, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. These notes are dated ‘Oct 28. 1808’, ‘July 19. 1814’ and there is an undated, earlier, ‘Original Sketch’. The resulting unfinished work was published as ‘Robin Hood’ in Robin Hood: a Fragment. By the Late Robert Southey, and Caroline Southey. With Other Fragments and Poems By R.S. and C.S. (London, 1847), pp. [1]–36. The publisher was William Blackwood, not John Murray.

They are easily found <shaped> into a regular plan, & in my judgement a promising one. Will you xxxxx xxx poetry xxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxx of xxxxxx for xxxxxx my death xxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx it form an intellectual union with me, xxxxxxx xxx execute it that it may be executed? We will keep our own secret as well as Sir Walter Scott has done.

(4)

All Sir Walter Scott’s novels from Waverley (1814) onwards were published anonymously.

Murray shall publish it & not know the whole mystery, that he may make the more of it. – the result will be means in abundance for a summers abode at Keswick, & an additional motive for it that we may form other schemes of the same nature. Am I dreaming when I think that we may derive from this much high enjoyment, & that you may see in the prospect something which is worth living for? The secret itself would be delightful while we thought proper to keep it, still more so the spiritual union which death would not part.

Now on your side there must be no hesitation from diffidence. You can write as easily & as well as I can plan. You are as well acquainted with forest scenery & with whatever is required for the landscape part, as I am with the manners of the time. You will comprehend the characters as distinctly as I have conceived them; – xxx when we meet we will sort the parts so as x each to take the most suitable, & I will add to yours, & you to mine whatever may improve it. Beaumont & Fletcher

(5)

Francis Beaumont (1584–1616; DNB) and John Fletcher (1579–1625; DNB), who wrote about 12–15 plays together.

composed plays together with such harmony of style thought & feeling that no critic has ever been able to determine what parts were written by one & what by the other, why should not RS & CAB succeed as happily in the joint execution of a poem?

As there can be no just cause or impediment why these two persons should not be thus joined together, –

(6)

A quotation from the marriage banns in the Church of England.

tell me that you consent to the union, – & I will send you the xxx rude outline of the story & of the characters. Direct <to me at> xxx Sir G. Beaumont’s – Bart. Cole Orton Hall, Ashby de la Zouch, where I expect to arrive on Monday next & to remain till the Friday.

Dear friend – God bless you
RS.

Notes

1. Yordas and Weathercote Caves – both of which were show caves and near Kirkby Lonsdale.[back]
2. Louisa Charter, and Elizabeth Charter (1782–1860), friend of the poet George Crabbe (1754–1832; DNB). They were the sisters of Emma Peachy, first wife of William Peachy, and nieces of Sir Charles Malet (1752–1815; DNB), 1st Baronet, prominent diplomat with the East India Company. Peachy had lent the Charter sisters his home on Derwent Island. They were accompanied by Lady Susanna Malet, née Wales (1779–1868), widow of Sir Charles Malet, 1st Baronet (1752–1815; DNB), maternal uncle of the Charter sisters. Their other companion was one of the three children born in India to Sir Charles Malet and Amber Kaur (b. 1772): Eliza (b. 1791); Henry Charles (1793–1844); and Louisa (b. 1795). They accompanied him to Britain in 1798 and were brought up with his children by Susanna Malet. Eliza Malet married, in 1812, Robert Ekins (1785–1874), Vicar of Godalming 1810–1833, Rector of Folke, Dorset 1833–1843, Perpetual Curate of North Wootton 1843–1854. Southey is probably referring here to Louisa Malet.[back]
3. ‘Robin Hood’, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. These notes are dated ‘Oct 28. 1808’, ‘July 19. 1814’ and there is an undated, earlier, ‘Original Sketch’. The resulting unfinished work was published as ‘Robin Hood’ in Robin Hood: a Fragment. By the Late Robert Southey, and Caroline Southey. With Other Fragments and Poems By R.S. and C.S. (London, 1847), pp. [1]–36. The publisher was William Blackwood, not John Murray.[back]
4. All Sir Walter Scott’s novels from Waverley (1814) onwards were published anonymously.[back]
5. Francis Beaumont (1584–1616; DNB) and John Fletcher (1579–1625; DNB), who wrote about 12–15 plays together.[back]
6. A quotation from the marriage banns in the Church of England.[back]
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