4088. Robert Southey to Charles Lamb, [19 November 1823]

 

MS: MS untraced; text is taken from E. V. Lucas (ed.), The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, 7 vols (London, 1903–1905)
Previously published: E. V. Lucas (ed.), The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, 7 vols (London, 1903–1905), VI, p. 628.
Dating note: This letter was written on 19 November 1823; see Southey to Caroline Bowles, 19 November 1823, Letter 4087.

My Dear Lamb – On Monday I saw your letter in the LONDON MAGAZINE,

(1)

Southey had commended Lamb’s Essays of Elia (1823) in Quarterly Review, 28 (January 1823), 524, published 8 July 1823, but commented that the book ‘wants only a sounder religious feeling, to be as delightful as it is original’. Lamb took offence and responded with ‘Letter of Elia to Robert Southey, Esquire’, London Magazine, 8 (October 1823), 400–407.

which I had not before had an opportunity of seeing, and I now take the first interval of leisure for replying to it.

Nothing could be further from my mind than any intention or apprehension of any way offending or injuring a man concerning whom I have never spoken, thought, or felt otherwise than with affection, esteem, and admiration.

If you had let me know in any private or friendly manner that you felt wounded by a sentence in which nothing but kindness was intended – or that you found it might injure the sale of your book – I would most readily and gladly have inserted a note in the next Review to qualify and explain what had hurt you.

You have made this impossible, and I am sorry for it. But I will not engage in controversy with you to make sport for the Philistines.

The provocation must be strong indeed that can rouse me to do this, even with an enemy. And if you can forgive an unintended offence as heartily as I do the way in which you have resented it, there will be nothing to prevent our meeting as we have heretofore done, and feeling towards each other as we have always been wont to do.

Only signify a correspondent willingness on your part, and send me your address,

(2)

Lamb responded with a letter to Robert Southey, 21 November 1823, published in Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795–1854; DNB), The Letters of Charles Lamb, with a Sketch of His Life, 2 vols (London, 1837), II, pp. 136–137; and Southey visited Lamb on 24 November 1823, to make up their quarrel.

and my first business next week shall be to reach your door, and shake hands with you and your sister. Remember me to her most kindly and believe me – Yours, with unabated esteem and regards, ROBERT SOUTHEY.

Notes

1. Southey had commended Lamb’s Essays of Elia (1823) in Quarterly Review, 28 (January 1823), 524, published 8 July 1823, but commented that the book ‘wants only a sounder religious feeling, to be as delightful as it is original’. Lamb took offence and responded with ‘Letter of Elia to Robert Southey, Esquire’, London Magazine, 8 (October 1823), 400–407.[back]
2. Lamb responded with a letter to Robert Southey, 21 November 1823, published in Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795–1854; DNB), The Letters of Charles Lamb, with a Sketch of His Life, 2 vols (London, 1837), II, pp. 136–137; and Southey visited Lamb on 24 November 1823, to make up their quarrel.[back]
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