MS: MS untraced; text is taken from John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856)
Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), III, pp. 440–441.
It is a long time since I have written to you, and the reason has been that I have been otherwise employed than in finishing the “Tale of Paraguay.”
(1)
Southey’s A Tale of Paraguay (1825).
I am, however, far advanced in the third canto (four being its extent), and it will be ready for the next season.
The purport of my writing now is to propose a republication of Montluc’s “Commentaries,” the book which Henri said ought to be the soldier’s Bible. There is an old translation by Charles Cotton, the angler and poet.
(2)
Blaize de Lasseran-Massencome, Seigneur de Montluc (c. 1502–1577) Commentaires de Messire Blaise de Montloc, Mareschal de France (1592), referred to by Henry IV (1553–1610; King of France 1589–1610) as ‘the soldier’s Bible’, Collection Universelle des Memoires Particulieres Relatifs a l’Histoire de France, 62 vols (Paris, 1785–1790), XXII, p. xv, no. 1062 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. It was translated into English by Charles Cotton (1630–1687, DNB), The commentaries of Messire Blaize de Montluc, mareschal of France wherein are describ’d all the combats, rencounters, skirmishes, …
Coming from such a man, it is likely to be in a vein of genuine English. I would, however, correct it where needful; accompanying it with a preface and notes, and take care of it afterwards in the “Quarterly Review.” It is the very best book of its kind, and perhaps unequalled for the liveliness and naïveté of its manner.
Thank you for “Spix” and “Martius”
(3)
Johann Baptist von Spix (1781–1826) and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794–1868). Reise in Brasilien auf Befehl Sr. Majestät Maximilian Joseph I. Königs von Baiern, in den Jahren 1817 bis 1820 (1823) was translated by Hannibal Evans Lloyd (1771–1847; DNB) and published by Longmans in two volumes as Travels in Brazil in the years 1817–1820, Undertaken by Command of His Majesty the King of Bavaria (1824), no. 2722 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
– pupils of Humboldt’s
(4)
Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), the German polymath and traveller in the Americas.
school, but without his genius. Nevertheless, it is an interesting book, and to me peculiarly so.
Pray be kind enough to pay G. Dyer my subscription for his “Privileges of Cambridge,”
(5)
George Dyer, Privileges of the University of Cambridge; together with Additional Observations on its History, Antiquities, Literature and Biography (1824), no. 884 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
and to send in your next parcel the second volume of “May you like it,”
(6)
[Charles Benjamin Tayler], May You Like It. By a Country Curate (1824). The first volume had appeared in 1823.
the Oxford edition of “Strype’s Annals” (if it be published),
(7)
The Anglican clergyman and historian, John Strype (1643–1737; DNB), whose lives of sixteenth-century divines were important sources for church history. Southey acquired the twenty-three volume Clarendon Press edition of Strype’s Works (1816–1824), no. 2753 in the sale catalogue of his library. The ‘Annals of the Reformation’ appeared in three volumes (six parts) in 1824.
and Sir John Malcolm’s “Central India.”
(8)
Sir John Malcolm (1769–1833; DNB), A Memoir of Central India, including Malwa, and Adjoining Provinces (1823).
Yours very truly,
ROBERT SOUTHEY.
P.S. As you sometimes reprint American books, I recommend Buckminster’s “Sermons”
(9)
Joseph Stevens Buckminster (1784–1812), Minister at Boston’s Brattle Street Church from 1805 and Dexter Lecturer on Biblical Criticism at Harvard Divinity School 1811–1812. Buckminster was a key figure in early American Unitarianism and a noted preacher. Sermons by the Late Rev. J. S. Buckminster (1815) were printed in Boston, no. 392 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. A British edition appeared in 1827, but Longman did not take up Southey’s suggestion.
to your consideration. They are so striking and so good that they could not fail of success. He was an Unitarian, but his sermons must please all denominations. I lent them two or three years ago to Richard Sharpe, and he liked them so much that he said he should get over a dozen copies for his friends. I lent them to a clergyman,
and he preached one of them.
R.S.
