4163. Robert Southey to Herbert Hill, 28 March 1824

 

Address: To/ The Reverend Herbert Hill,/ Streatham/ Surrey
Stamped: KESWICK 298
Postmarks: E/ 31 MR 31/ 1824; [illegible]/ 1824
Seal: red wax; design illegible
MS: Keswick Museum and Art Gallery, WC 241. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished.

Keswick. 28 March. 1824

Your Spanish newspapers stand me in good stead.

(1)

Southey eventually acquired a collection of 24 volumes of Spanish Gazetas, 1808–1813, no. 3472 in the sale catalogue of his library. These included Gazetas ‘de Gobierno’ (‘of the Government’) and from the Juntas of Seville and Valencia.

They supply two volumes for 1808, – of which year I had none; & very nearly fill up the deficiencies in my series for 1809, – from that time till the end of the war I have them compleat, 23 vol. in all. Ferdinands return

(2)

Ferdinand VII (1784–1833; King of Spain 1808, 1813–1833) restored royal absolutism in 1814.

was as great an evil to me as it has proved to his country; – the Junta of Aragon were at that time collecting for me a set of their Gazette, when he broke them up all the Juntas. This was a great disappointment for that Gazette was much more ably conducted than any of the others which I had seen. – A series of Madrid Gazettes while Joseph

(3)

Joseph Bonaparte (1768–1844; King of Spain 1808–1813).

was master there would be very useful, if I could obtain it; – & so would the Lisbon papers for 1809–10–11, – it is quite certain that I should find something in them. But neither of the one or the other have I any hope.

Yesterday I received in red morocco dress the first volume of Roderick in Dutch verse,

(4)

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).

with a Latin letter from Bilderdijk, the husband of the translator – “Our great Bilderdijk” the Amsterdam merchant calls him, who forwarded the packet, & sent with it an essay of his own on the Cid, & a Dutch-English epistle.

(5)

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.

The husband is a very old man, having he tells me been known as a poet in his own country threescore years;

(6)

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 42 years, rather than the 60 years that Southey assumed to be the case.

& he is plainly a man of great learning, as appears by the occasional notes which he has added to mine. The wife must be much younger, as he speaks of having been married more than a quarter of a century, & calls her his pupil.

(7)

Bilderdijk and Schweickhardt married in 1802 but had lived together since 1797. She had been his pupil when he was in exile in London in 1796–1797.

She has dedicated the translation to me, in an ode of some length,

(8)

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

wherein she touches with much feeling upon the loss of her a son at sea,

(9)

Julius Willem Bilderdijk (1798–1818). He died from fever during a journey from China to the Dutch East Indies.

& the manner in which parts of the poem had in consequence affected her. The translation itself where I compared it is very faithful: for its merit in other respects the husbands word may be taken. No person he says acquainted with Dutch literature will doubt her competence to the task; he calls himself a severe critic & gives good proof of it in the preface which is his writing, – where he begins by saying that it is no great thing to be the best poet of the present generation, & he should think it a very poor compliment to Roderick to compare it with any contemporary production in any language.

(10)

Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje, 2 vols (The Hague, 1823–1824), I, p. [xiii].

– The metre is the 12 syllable couplet, – like the French heroic verse.

One use I shall make of the communication which is thus opened, – I shall seek thro this channel for all books Dutch books relating to Brazil, – & shall most probably obtain some materials for my Quaker-history, Holland having been a great scene of their operations.

We have heard at last of an escort for Bertha, & she is to set off on the 7th of April. Soon after, the three younger ones are going for a few days to visit Mrs Wordsworth, – so we shall have an xxxx empty house.

I am getting on with my second volume,

(11)

The second volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).

& if I do not receive the long looked-for books from Spain

(12)

Southey had read John Mitford’s ‘On Spanish Literature, with some Account of Francisco de Olivarez’, New Monthly Magazine, 10 (October 1818), 221–223. It mentioned Olivarez’s Account of the War in Catalonia, published in four volumes at Seville in 1815; Anecdotes of Chiefs Employed in the Catalan War (1816); and Memoirs of the Spanish Monarchy to the Abdication of Charles 4 & the Usurpation of Joseph Bonaparte (1816). However, none of these works seem to exist. Southey had already asked Murray to try and acquire them; see Southey to John Murray: 10 July 1820, The Collected Letters of Robert So…

by the begi first of May, will put it to press without waiting longer. Meantime I shall make good progress.

How is my Aunt? how are you with your rheumatism? & how stands Errol with regard to the College?

(13)

Errol Hill was a pupil at Winchester College.

My love to all –

God bless you
RS.

Notes

1. Southey eventually acquired a collection of 24 volumes of Spanish Gazetas, 1808–1813, no. 3472 in the sale catalogue of his library. These included Gazetas ‘de Gobierno’ (‘of the Government’) and from the Juntas of Seville and Valencia.[back]
2. Ferdinand VII (1784–1833; King of Spain 1808, 1813–1833) restored royal absolutism in 1814.[back]
3. Joseph Bonaparte (1768–1844; King of Spain 1808–1813).[back]
4. 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]
5. 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]
6. 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 42 years, rather than the 60 years that Southey assumed to be the case.[back]
7. Bilderdijk and Schweickhardt married in 1802 but had lived together since 1797. She had been his pupil when he was in exile in London in 1796–1797.[back]
8. Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje, 2 vols (The Hague, 1823–1824), I, pp. i–xii.[back]
9. Julius Willem Bilderdijk (1798–1818). He died from fever during a journey from China to the Dutch East Indies.[back]
10. Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje, 2 vols (The Hague, 1823–1824), I, p. [xiii].[back]
11. The second volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).[back]
12. Southey had read John Mitford’s ‘On Spanish Literature, with some Account of Francisco de Olivarez’, New Monthly Magazine, 10 (October 1818), 221–223. It mentioned Olivarez’s Account of the War in Catalonia, published in four volumes at Seville in 1815; Anecdotes of Chiefs Employed in the Catalan War (1816); and Memoirs of the Spanish Monarchy to the Abdication of Charles 4 & the Usurpation of Joseph Bonaparte (1816). However, none of these works seem to exist. Southey had already asked Murray to try and acquire them; see Southey to John Murray: 10 July 1820, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3509; 27 February 1821, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3641; 11 June 1821, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3693; and 27 July 1822, Letter 3877; and 1 November [1822], Letter 3911. Murray had then written to Spain to try and obtain these books for Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832), and Herbert Hill had also offered to help. Finally, Southey had sought the assistance of George Canning.[back]
13. Errol Hill was a pupil at Winchester College.[back]
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