2747. Robert Southey to John Murray, 29 March 1816
2747. Robert Southey to John Murray, 29 March 1816*
Keswick. 29 March 1816
My dear Sir
You will have M.l de la Roche Jacqueline next week. [1] The advertisement of the translation smells of Jeffreys phraseology. It is a very interesting book, – but the article to be compleat must not confine itself to these memoires, – & the books you have sent me will be of great use, especially Puisayes Memoirs. Too great a part of these are necessarily employed in developing dirty intrigues, – a thing necessary for his own justification, but I scarcely know any book in which xxx more political wisdom (in the best meaning of the words) is contained. I should still be glad of Beauchamps War in La Vendee, of Hoche’s Rouxxxx <Life>, & of General Tureau’s <memoirs> upon the subject. [2]
You will not have room for the Poor [3] –
I am collecting materials for Aikins Annals. [4] There cannot be a better subject.
In a day or two I shall have made all the use I can of the Mines de l’Orient & will send them back with Evlias MSS. [5] Of the latter work I can only repeat my opinion what I said upon the two last volumes of it. It is exceedingly curious, but cannot possibly meet with a general sale: It is precisely one of those works which can only answer by subscription.
I am very busy, & longing to get my Brazil out of the press that I may go in with the history of the war. [6]
What is become of my article upon Monsieur the Frenchman with half a dozen initials? [7] – I shall do something with all these foreign travellers. [8]
believe me my dear Sir
yrs very truly
Robert Southey.
Notes
* Address: To/ John Murray Esqr/ Albemarle Street/ London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/
1 AP 1/ 1816
Watermark: J DICKINSON & Co/ 1811
Endorsement: 1816
March 29/ Southey Rob
MS: National Library of Scotland, MS 42551. ALS;
3p.
Unpublished. BACK
[1] Southey reviewed in Quarterly Review, 15 (April 1816), 1–69, Mémoires de Madame la Marquise de la Roche Jaquelein (1815). BACK
[2] Southey’s Quarterly Review article discussed, as well as the Memoires of Marie Louise Victoire de Donnissan, Marquise de La Rochejaquelein (1772–1857), the following works: Vie du Général Charette, Commandant en Chef les Armées Catholiques et Royales dans la Vendée. Extrait d’un Manuscrit sur la Vendée (1809); Précis Historique de la Guerre Civile de la Vendée, depuis son Origine jusqu’à la Pacification de la Jaunaise, &c. (1802); Mémoires du Comte Josephe de Puisaye, Lieutenant-Général, &c. &c. qui pourront servir à l’Histoire du Parti Royaliste Français, durant la derniére Révolution (1803–1808); Louis-Marie Turreau, Baron de Garambouville (1756–1816), Mémoires pour servir à l’Histoire de la Guerre de la Vendée, 2nd edn (1815); Alphonse de Beauchamp (1767–1832), Histoire de la Guerre de la Vendée et des Chouans, depuis son Origine jusqu’à la Pacification de 1800, 3rd edn (1809); Alexander Charles Omer Rousselin de Corbeau, Comte de Saint Albin (1773–1847), Vie de Lazare Hoche, Général des Armées de la République Française. Suivie de sa Correspondence publique et privée, &c. (1798); Louis-Marie Prudhomme (1752–1830), Histoire Générale et Impartiale des Erreurs, des Fautes, et des Crimes, commis pendant la Révolution Française (1797). BACK
[3] Southey’s review article ‘On the Poor’ appeared in the Quarterly Review, 15 (April 1816), 187–235. BACK
[4] John Aikin, Annals of the Reign of King George III (1816) was not reviewed by Southey in the Quarterly Review. The book was no. 20 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. BACK
[5] Mines de L’Orient (1809–1818), a periodical published in Vienna by the Austrian orientalist, Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1774–1856); and the seventeenth-century travel narrative of the Turk ‘Evlia Effendi’, Evliya Çelebi (1611–1682), in the Ottoman Empire, which von Hammer-Purgstall had translated into German in 1814. Southey had been asked by Murray to advise on whether the book should be published in England, but an English translation did not appear until Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in the Seventeenth Century (1834). BACK
[6] Southey’s History of Brazil (1810–1819); meanwhile, he was gathering information towards his History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832). BACK
