4170. Robert Southey to Caroline Bowles,9 April 1824

 

Endorsement: xxxx To Miss Caroline Bowles 
MS: British Library, Add MS 47889. ALS; 3p. 
Previously published: Edward Dowden (ed.), The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles (Dublin and London, 1881), pp. 55–56 [in part].

Keswick 9 Apr. 1824.

Nearly a fortnight has elapsed since I received your letter with the notices which I requested.

(1)

Caroline Bowles had sent Southey information about her first cousin Paul Henry Durell Burrard (1790–1809), Ensign in the 1st Foot Guards, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Corunna (1809). Southey used this to compose ‘Lines. To the Memory of a Young Officer, Who was Mortally Wounded in the Battle of Coruña. By Robert Southey, Esq. Poet Laureate’, The Literary Souvenir; Or, Cabinet of Poetry and Romance (London, 1826), pp. [341]–344.

They are exceedingly affecting, – so much so indeed as to make me feel how flat & unprofitable any composition must appear when compared with the plain narration of such circumstances. However what I am contemplating will not be liable to any such comparison, – otherwise I might well be deterred from the attempt. – In my youth, the more striking xxx a story appeared to me, the stronger was my inclination to clothe it in verse; whereas in later years the feeling that circumstances affecting in themselves are more likely to be marred than rendered more so by versifying them, has repeatedly withheld my hand. – But for this subject, it will not be out of mind till I see how to cast it.

The vexatious part of your prosecution is the expence:

(2)

Caroline Bowles’s outhouses had been burgled and she was worried about the prospect of prosecuting the offenders at Winchester Assizes.

otherwise I should be hardly be sorry for so flagrant an instance of the egregious absurdity & injustice of our laws, such as they are in practice.

Since your letter arrived I have been engaged at one time with the prevalent catarrh (- not my annual visitor, or it would not have left me so easily, or so soon) – & afterwards with an unexpected guest.

(3)

Wade Browne (1796–1851), only son of Wade Browne and later a country gentleman at Monkton Farleigh in Somerset. He had been travelling in the Near East.

– I send you now a few more stanzas,

(4)

Stanzas for Bowles and Southey’s ‘Robin Hood’. The resulting incomplete work was published 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 next batch will probably conclude the canto – Send me some in return, – & take up the story where you will; – in the next canto if you like it, – with the infancy & childhood of the orphan, – & conclude it with the return of the few forlorn survivors who bring home their Lords heart. I shall proceed with the better will when I am assured that you are at work

Such resemblances in sound as that between faith & fate, I xxx xxx gladly avail myself of, when they occur without the appearance of being sought for. The use of alliteration in our poetry is as old as that of rhyme, indeed it supplies the place of rhyme in that one form of verse, – that in which Pierce Ploughmans Vision is written.

(5)

William Langland (c. 1332–c. 1386; DNB), Piers Ploughman (c. 1370–c. 1390), written in unrhymed alliterative verse. Southey possessed an edition from 1550, no. 1414 in the sale catalogue of his library.

Like every other artifice in versification it has been overdone, & thereby rendered disgusting. I was a great offender in this way in my boyhood, before I learnt the use of my tools.

You asked me why Sara C. did not rather begin with Joinville or Du Guesclin

(6)

Jean de Joinville (1224–1317), Livre des Sainte Paroles et des Bons Faiz de Nostre Saint Roy Looys (c. 1305–1309), a work on Louis IX (1214–1270; King of France 1226–1270); and La Vie Valliant de Bertran du Guesclin (c. 1380–1392), a rhymed chronicle of the life of Bertrand du Guesclin (c. 1320–1380), a Breton knight in the Hundred Years War.

than with Bayard

(7)

Sara Coleridge’s translation, The Right Joyous and Pleasant History of the Feats, Gests, and Prowesses of the Chevalier Bayard, the Good Knight without Fear and without Reproach (1825).

– Because Bayards

(8)

Pierre Terrail, Seigneur de Bayard (1473–1524), French knight.

is a popular name, – & Joinville had been translated about fifteen years ago by Johnes of Hafod,

(9)

Thomas Johnes (1748–1816; DNB), Memoirs of John Lord de Joinville, Grand Seneschal of Champagne, Written by Himself: Containing a History of Part of the Life of Louis IX (1807).

– villainously enough Heaven knows, never man having more liking for such works, with less taste.

A Lady has translated Roderick into Dutch verse, & dedicated it to me in verse also.

(10)

Katherina Bilderdijk, née Schweickhardt (1776–1830), Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje, 2 vols (The Hague, 1823–1824), I, pp. i–xii, 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).

Her husband is the most eminent man of his age as a poet & critic – Bilderdijk by name & the translation appears to be very well done: that is – I can see it is true to the original, & the husband assures me of its merits in other respects. The dedication would please you, as it does me. She has lost a son at sea,

(11)

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

I know not whether in battle or by course of nature, & she describes in these verses, how while she hoped for his return, she used to apply that part of the poem about Alphonso & his mother to her own heart.

(12)

Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje, 2 vols (The Hague, 1823–1824), I, pp. vii–viii. Alphonso I (c. 693–757; King of Asturias 739–757) is a character in Southey’s Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814). In Book 11 he unexpectedly returns to his mother, having escaped from Moorish territory.

God bless you – dear Caroline
RS.

Notes

1. Caroline Bowles had sent Southey information about her first cousin Paul Henry Durell Burrard (1790–1809), Ensign in the 1st Foot Guards, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Corunna (1809). Southey used this to compose ‘Lines. To the Memory of a Young Officer, Who was Mortally Wounded in the Battle of Coruña. By Robert Southey, Esq. Poet Laureate’, The Literary Souvenir; Or, Cabinet of Poetry and Romance (London, 1826), pp. [341]–344.[back]
2. Caroline Bowles’s outhouses had been burgled and she was worried about the prospect of prosecuting the offenders at Winchester Assizes.[back]
3. Wade Browne (1796–1851), only son of Wade Browne and later a country gentleman at Monkton Farleigh in Somerset. He had been travelling in the Near East.[back]
4. Stanzas for Bowles and Southey’s ‘Robin Hood’. The resulting incomplete work was published 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.[back]
5. William Langland (c. 1332–c. 1386; DNB), Piers Ploughman (c. 1370–c. 1390), written in unrhymed alliterative verse. Southey possessed an edition from 1550, no. 1414 in the sale catalogue of his library.[back]
6. Jean de Joinville (1224–1317), Livre des Sainte Paroles et des Bons Faiz de Nostre Saint Roy Looys (c. 1305–1309), a work on Louis IX (1214–1270; King of France 1226–1270); and La Vie Valliant de Bertran du Guesclin (c. 1380–1392), a rhymed chronicle of the life of Bertrand du Guesclin (c. 1320–1380), a Breton knight in the Hundred Years War.[back]
7. Sara Coleridge’s translation, The Right Joyous and Pleasant History of the Feats, Gests, and Prowesses of the Chevalier Bayard, the Good Knight without Fear and without Reproach (1825).[back]
8. Pierre Terrail, Seigneur de Bayard (1473–1524), French knight.[back]
9. Thomas Johnes (1748–1816; DNB), Memoirs of John Lord de Joinville, Grand Seneschal of Champagne, Written by Himself: Containing a History of Part of the Life of Louis IX (1807).[back]
10. Katherina Bilderdijk, née Schweickhardt (1776–1830), Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje, 2 vols (The Hague, 1823–1824), I, pp. i–xii, 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]
11. Julius Willem Bilderdijk (1798–1818). He died from fever during a journey from China to the Dutch East Indies.[back]
12. Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje, 2 vols (The Hague, 1823–1824), I, pp. vii–viii. Alphonso I (c. 693–757; King of Asturias 739–757) is a character in Southey’s Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814). In Book 11 he unexpectedly returns to his mother, having escaped from Moorish territory.[back]
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