4161. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 27 March 1824

 

Endorsements: 27 March 1824; 27. March 1824; at the foot of page three, the following is written in another hand: ‘Note sent to Miss Southey 31 Mar: 1824/ 12.122. £20. – 22 Janry 1824/ J. Hogben.’
MS: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Eng. lett. c. 26. ALS; 3p.
Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), V, pp. 172–173 [in part].

My dear Grosvenor

What has become of you?? I have not seen your handwriting since I left town.

Will you send my daughter 20 £. – to Mrs Gonne’s, 16. York Place, Baker Street. – She has had a visit from the Savage

(1)

An unidentified suitor, whom Southey referred to as ‘Hunter the Savage’.

there

To day I received the first volume of Roderick in Dutch verse, translated by the wife of Bilderdijk,

(2)

Katherina Bilderdijk, née Schweickhardt (1776–1830), Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje (1823–1824), no. 2701 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library, where it was described as ‘red morocco, gilt leaves’. This was a translation of Southey’s Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814).

who is one of the most distinguished men of letters in that country. The translation appears to be very well done, as far as I am able to judge: that is, I can see in the trying passages she has fully understood the original; & her command of her own language is warranted by her husbands approbation, who is a severe critic as well as a skilful poet himself. He must be near 80 years of age, for he tells me he has been now threescore years known as an author

(3)

Bilderdijk was only 63 years old at this time, but he was a chronic hypochondriac. His first poem was published in 1776 and his first major publication was the anonymous verse collection Mijn Verlustiging (1781), so his fame as a poet dated back 43 years, rather than the 60 years that Southey assumed to be the case. Bilderdijk and Schweickhardt married in 1802 but had lived together since 1797.

His letter to me is in Latin. The book comes in a red morocco livery. I shall send it is dedicated to me in an ode,

(4)

Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje, 2 vols (The Hague, 1823–1824), I, pp. i–xii.

– & a very beautiful one describing the delight she had taken in the poem, & the consolation she had derived from it, – when parts of it came home to her own feelings in a time of severe affliction.

She calls me the Crown-Poet.

(5)

Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje, 2 vols (The Hague, 1823–1824), I, p. i, described Southey as ‘Koninklijken Hofdichter’.

– I mean to send her a set of the Illustrations

(6)

Richard Westall (1765–1836; DNB), Roderick, the Last of the Goths, by R. Southey. Illustrated with Engravings from the Designs of R. W. (1824), nos 2627–2628 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.

as soon as I know how to transmit them. The packet came to me thro a merchant at Amsterdam, who inclosed in it a Dutch-English letter of his own, & an essay upon the character of My Cid – which he had read in some literary society, & printed afterwards.

(7)

Willem de Clercq, ‘De Cid, Voorgesteld als Het Ideaal van den Held der Middeleeuwen’, originally published in Magazijn voor Wetenschappen, Kunsten en Lettern, 3 (1824), 192–244.

They give me praise enough in Holland: I would gladly commute some of it for herrings & Rhenish wine.

(8)

Two famous imports from the Netherlands.

I am getting on with my second volume of the War, & with the Tale of Paraguay,

(9)

The second volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832) and his A Tale of Paraguay (1825).

&c –

Do let me hear from you

God bless you
RS

27 March 1824.

Notes

1. An unidentified suitor, whom Southey referred to as ‘Hunter the Savage’.[back]
2. Katherina Bilderdijk, née Schweickhardt (1776–1830), Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje (1823–1824), no. 2701 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library, where it was described as ‘red morocco, gilt leaves’. This was a translation of Southey’s Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814).[back]
3. Bilderdijk was only 63 years old at this time, but he was a chronic hypochondriac. His first poem was published in 1776 and his first major publication was the anonymous verse collection Mijn Verlustiging (1781), so his fame as a poet dated back 43 years, rather than the 60 years that Southey assumed to be the case. Bilderdijk and Schweickhardt married in 1802 but had lived together since 1797.[back]
4. Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje, 2 vols (The Hague, 1823–1824), I, pp. i–xii.[back]
5. Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje, 2 vols (The Hague, 1823–1824), I, p. i, described Southey as ‘Koninklijken Hofdichter’.[back]
6. Richard Westall (1765–1836; DNB), Roderick, the Last of the Goths, by R. Southey. Illustrated with Engravings from the Designs of R. W. (1824), nos 2627–2628 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]
7. Willem de Clercq, ‘De Cid, Voorgesteld als Het Ideaal van den Held der Middeleeuwen’, originally published in Magazijn voor Wetenschappen, Kunsten en Lettern, 3 (1824), 192–244.[back]
8. Two famous imports from the Netherlands.[back]
9. The second volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832) and his A Tale of Paraguay (1825).[back]
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