4290. Robert Southey and William Wordsworth to Walter Savage Landor, 11 December 1824

 

Address: To/ Walter Savage Landor Esqre-/ Florence/ Italy.
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298; CHAMBERY; [2 illegible] 
Postmarks: F/ 53/ 24
MS: National Art Library, London, MS Forster 48 D.32 MS 42. ALS; 4p [Southey]; 2p [Wordsworth].
Previously published: John Forster, Walter Savage Landor. A Biography, 2 vols (London, 1869), II, pp. 109–110 [in part, from Southey’s section of the letter]; The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth. The Later Years. Part 1. 1821–1828, ed. E. De Selincourt, 2nd edn rev. Alan G. Hill (Oxford, 1978), pp. 289–290 [Wordsworth’s section of the letter only].

Keswick 11 Dec 1824.

I am truly glad to hear of a third volume, – & that you have resumed Tiberius,

(1)

Dialogue X in Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 3 vols (London, 1824–1828), III, pp. 307–317, was between Tiberius (42 BC–AD 37; Roman Emperor AD 14–37) and Vipsania Agrippina (36 BC–AD 20), his first wife.

– a subject which you, & you only, can treat as it ought to be treated. Do not hesitate at sending over a fourth. The book is making you known, as you ought to be, – & it is one of those few books which nothing can put aside.

My Book of the Church, & the first vol. of the Peninsular War ought to have reached you by the same conveyance with the Vision of Judgement.

(2)

Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824), History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832) and A Vision of Judgement (1821).

Murray having been desired to send them to your publisher at the same time that Longman dispatched the others. If they have not reached you, let me know, that they may be sent with your third volume.

The misprints in the quotation from your Essay vexed me when I saw them.

(3)

A Vision of Judgement (London, 1821), pp. xix–xx, which quoted from Landor’s Idyllia Heroica Decem Phaleuciorum Unum Partim jam Primo Partim Iterum atq Tertio Edit Savagius Landor (Pisa, 1820), p. 197, no. 1598 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.

Your book arrived when the proof sheet was before me. I inserted the note in a hand so legible that I thought it might safely be trusted, & therefore did not require a revise of the sheet. But printers make wicked work, even when they are not trusted. The line in the first page at which you stumble, was ruined by their dropping a letter at the press, after the sheet had been corrected, to the destruction of the metre. Glaramara is the name of the mountain.

(4)

A Vision of Judgement (London, 1821), Canto 1, line 9.

– The And p 34. is redundant, & only inserted to lessen a little the catalogue-like appearance of a list of names – The other two lines I read thus

(5)

A Vision of Judgement (London, 1821), Canto 7, line 33; and Canto 11, line 6.

 

Pure it | was & diaphanous. | It had no | visible lustre.
That its | tribute of | honour | poor tho it | be was witholden

There is no difficulty in writing English hexameters upon the principles of adaptation on which I proceeded. They are not more difficult than blank verse, – & infinitely easier than the complicated stanza of Spenser, which I shall never again attempt when my present task is over, – on account of the time that it costs me.

(6)

Southey’s A Tale of Paraguay (1825), written in the Spenserian stanza of eight lines of iambic pentameter and a concluding hexameter, made famous by Edmund Spenser (1552/1553–1599; DNB).

I am not so certain that I may not write in hexameters again, – a little perhaps for the purpose of maintaining against the multitude what I know to be a right opinion, – but more because the character of a poem is greatly modified by the metre in which it is cast; – a new measure leads to new combinations of language, & prevents all danger of repeating oneself – of which there would be some danger were I to write another long poem in blank verse.

(7)

Southey’s last major work in blank verse was Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814).

– I think (it is as yet a mere thought –) of a Portugueze subject, – the first deliverance of Portugal from the Castillians, – tempted to it by the character of Nuno Alvares

(8)

St Nuno Alvares Pereira (1360–1431), a Portuguese general who secured Portugal’s independence from Castile. In later life he became a Carmelite friar, and was beatified in 1918 and canonised in 2009.

from whom I verily believe that of Amadis was drawn,

(9)

Southey had translated the medieval Iberian romance Amadis of Gaul (1803) and argued that its original author was Vasco de Lobeira (d. 1403), who had fought with Alvares Pereira at the Battle of Aljubarotta (1385), in which the forces of Castile were defeated and Portugal’s independence secured.

– & by the circumstance that his elder brother

(10)

Pedro Alvares Pereira (d. 1385), elder brother of Nuno Alveres Pereira, was killed at the Battle of Aljubarotta, fighting on the side of the Castilian forces.

(a most excellent man) took the other side. I know of no subject which would afford two characters so striking in themselves; & so strikingly opposed.

Our prospects are blackening for a storm. The system of conciliation as it is called is producing in Ireland its proper & inevitable consequences. We have taken up a nest of frozen vipers & laid them upon the hearth, & now unless we mean to leave the house to them (& the estate too) – we must set to work & scotch them. A rebellion is to be looked for, – the object being the separation of the two countries, & the establishment of the worst of all existing superstitions in its worst form. On the subject of that abominable system there is not a shade of difference between us; – but I deduce from my detestation of it, this principle that no person who holds it ought ever to be admitted to political power. Instead of trusting them with a seat in Parliament, they ought not to be trusted with the electors franchise. – But I must leave room for Wordsworth –

God bless you
RS.

[Wordworth’s hand begins]

My dear Sir,

I have begged this space from S – which I hope you will forgive, as I might not otherwise for some time had courage to thank you for your admirable Dialogues.

(11)

Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen (1824).

They reached me last May, at a time when I was able to read them, which I did with very great pleasure. I was in London then, and have been a Wanderer most of the time since. But this did not keep me silent. I was deterred such is the general state of my eyes, by a consciousness that I could not write what I wished. I concur with you in so much and differ with you in so much also, that though I could have easily disposed of my assent, easily and most pleasantly, I could not face the task of giving my reasons for my dissent! For instance it would have required almost a pamphlet to set forth the grounds upon which I disagreed with what you have put into the mouth of Franklin on Irish affairs, the object to my mind of constant anxiety.

(12)

Dialogue II of Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), II, pp. 19–48, was between George Washington (1732–1799; President of the United States 1789–1797) and Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), American polymath. On pp. 35–41, Landor had Franklin expound an enormous scheme of reform in Irish affairs, including the reorganisation of the Anglican Church of Ireland, endowment of the Catholic clergy, security of tenure for tenants and the appointment of Irishmen only to government or church posts in Ireland.

What would I not give for a few hours talk with you, upon Republics, Kings and Priests – and Priest craft. This last I abhor, but why spend one line in declaiming against it. Better endeavour to improve priests, whom we cannot, and ought not therefore endeavour to do without. We have far more to dread from those who would endeavour to expel not only organized Religion but all religion from society, than from those who are slavishly disposed to uphold it. at least I cannot help feeling so. – Your dialogues are worthy of you and great acquisitions to literature. The classical ones I like best, and most of all that between Tully and his Brother;

(13)

Dialogue XVIII of Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), II, pp. 349–394, between the Roman statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC), and his brother, Quintus Tullius Cicero (102–43 BC).

That which pleases me the least is the one between your self and the Abbe de Lille.

(14)

Dialogue XV of Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), I, pp. 249–310 between Landor himself and Jacques Delille (1738–1813), a French poet and translator.

The observations are invariably just I own but they are fitter for illustrative notes than the body of an Dialogue; which ought always to have some little spice of dramatic effect. I long for the third Volm;

(15)

The third volume of Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen finally appeared in 1828.

a xxxxx feeling which after my silence I should not venture to express, were you not aware of the infirmity which has been the cause of it. xxxx I sent a message of thanks, from Cambridge through Julius Hare whom I saw at Cambridge in May last. ever affectionately and gratefully yours,

W Wordsworth

Notes

1. Dialogue X in Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 3 vols (London, 1824–1828), III, pp. 307–317, was between Tiberius (42 BC–AD 37; Roman Emperor AD 14–37) and Vipsania Agrippina (36 BC–AD 20), his first wife.[back]
2. Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824), History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832) and A Vision of Judgement (1821).[back]
3. A Vision of Judgement (London, 1821), pp. xix–xx, which quoted from Landor’s Idyllia Heroica Decem Phaleuciorum Unum Partim jam Primo Partim Iterum atq Tertio Edit Savagius Landor (Pisa, 1820), p. 197, no. 1598 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]
4. A Vision of Judgement (London, 1821), Canto 1, line 9.[back]
5. A Vision of Judgement (London, 1821), Canto 7, line 33; and Canto 11, line 6.[back]
6. Southey’s A Tale of Paraguay (1825), written in the Spenserian stanza of eight lines of iambic pentameter and a concluding hexameter, made famous by Edmund Spenser (1552/1553–1599; DNB).[back]
7. Southey’s last major work in blank verse was Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814).[back]
8. St Nuno Alvares Pereira (1360–1431), a Portuguese general who secured Portugal’s independence from Castile. In later life he became a Carmelite friar, and was beatified in 1918 and canonised in 2009.[back]
9. Southey had translated the medieval Iberian romance Amadis of Gaul (1803) and argued that its original author was Vasco de Lobeira (d. 1403), who had fought with Alvares Pereira at the Battle of Aljubarotta (1385), in which the forces of Castile were defeated and Portugal’s independence secured.[back]
10. Pedro Alvares Pereira (d. 1385), elder brother of Nuno Alveres Pereira, was killed at the Battle of Aljubarotta, fighting on the side of the Castilian forces.[back]
11. Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen (1824).[back]
12. Dialogue II of Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), II, pp. 19–48, was between George Washington (1732–1799; President of the United States 1789–1797) and Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), American polymath. On pp. 35–41, Landor had Franklin expound an enormous scheme of reform in Irish affairs, including the reorganisation of the Anglican Church of Ireland, endowment of the Catholic clergy, security of tenure for tenants and the appointment of Irishmen only to government or church posts in Ireland.[back]
13. Dialogue XVIII of Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), II, pp. 349–394, between the Roman statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC), and his brother, Quintus Tullius Cicero (102–43 BC).[back]
14. Dialogue XV of Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), I, pp. 249–310 between Landor himself and Jacques Delille (1738–1813), a French poet and translator.[back]
15. The third volume of Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen finally appeared in 1828.[back]
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