3977. Robert Southey to George Taylor, 7 March 1823

Address: To/ George Taylor Esq^re/ Witton le Wear/ near/ Auckland
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Endorsement: 1823
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. d. 6. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished.

Keswick. 7 March. 1823

My dear Sir

I should think it likely that Murray, after the good proof which he has of your sons talents

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would be not unwilling to embark in so small an adventure as that of these poems.

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In octavo they would not exceed six sheets, in duodecimo four would comprize them: my guess must therefore be near the mark when I suppose that five & twenty pounds would cover the expences of 500 copies. – If you take the risk yourself, I am so well aware how little sale there is for poetry upon the score of its intrinsic worth, that I should advise half that number; – as for the purpose of feeling his way it is no matter how small the edition is. I read his article with pleasure, tho without the slightest suspicion of it being his. By all means keep that door open. Lord John Russels play I have not seen, & therefore know nothing of its merits.

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The subject has been treated by two great masters Alfieri

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& Schiller,

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by the former with his usual severity, by the latter with more than his xxxxxx extravagance – in my judgement but there are Germans who esteem it the finest of his compositions. Better materials for criticism could not be desired, than a comparative view of these productions may afford:

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– & the real story of the Infante, as it may be found in Llorente’s Memoirs of the Inquisition

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should by no means be overlooked.

But I ought to have given a more specific answer to your question. If a bookseller will not take the risk of publication, it would be a fair proposal to shxx take half the loss, xxx or half the profits as the sale might turn out.

The subject which you have turned your attention to is a most important one.

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Will not the books of which you stand in need be found in both the libraries at Durham?

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if so, when you return one set, the other would be accessible, & you might ride & tie

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with them. It is a most important period in human history, – & will lead you into a wider field of research than, perhaps, you are even yet aware of. In fact it is the history of the civilized world during those ages, – & in the rise & progress of Xtianity, & the destruction of Jerusalem it includes the most important of all topics, & the most aweful event recorded in human history. Nothing ever left so deep an impression upon my mind as the details of that catastrophe in Josephus.

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You will have to show how surely despotism

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produces the decline & fall of empires: – & yet what a blessing was that despotism after the age of Marius & Sylla!

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From anarchy to despotism, & from despotism to anarchy again, – this is the sad circle of human affairs which ancient history presents.

My brother is looking seriously towards Canada, & we are at this time trying what can be obtained for him from the Colonial Office. I wish this measure were not so expedient, as in sad reality it is.

God bless you my dear Sir
Yours very truly
Robert Southey.

Notes

1. Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), 139–144, published 15 February 1823, where Henry Taylor reviewed Thomas Moore (1779–1852; DNB), Irish Melodies (1822).[back]

2. Henry Taylor wrote a great deal of poetry in 1821–1823 but did not publish any of it; two of the longer poems were ‘The Cave of Ceada’ and ‘The Flight of Rhadamistus’, both on classical themes.[back]

3. John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792–1868; DNB), Don Carlos, or, Persecution; a Tragedy in Five Acts (1822), a play about Don Carlos (1545–1568), the eldest son and heir of Philip II (1527–1598; King of Spain 1556–1598). After Don Carlos showed signs of growing mental instability and threatened to kill his father, Philip II imprisoned him in the Alcazar Palace, where he died, probably of natural causes.[back]

4. Vittorio Alfieri (1749–1803), Filippo (1783).[back]

5. Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), Don Karlos, Infant von Spanien (1787).[back]

6. Henry Taylor’s review of Russell’s Don Carlos appeared in Quarterly Review 29 (July 1823), 370–382, published 30 December 1823.[back]

7. Juan Antonio Llorente (1756–1823), Histoire Critique de l’Inquisition d’Espagne, 4 vols (Paris, 1817–1818), I, pp. 151–182.[back]

8. George Taylor was thinking of writing a history of the end of the Roman Republic and beginning of the Roman Empire.[back]

9. Durham Cathedral Library and Bishop Cosin’s Library, a public library founded in 1669.[back]

10. A popular phrase used to describe two people on a journey who had only one horse between them and were forced to take turns at riding and walking.[back]

11. Titus Flavius Josephus (c. AD 37–100). His works included Bellum Judaicum (AD 78), which related the Romans’ destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. See Southey to John May, 29 June–17 July 1824, Letter 4208, for the early effect of Josephus’ work on Southey.[back]

12. The replacement of the Roman Republic by the Roman Empire, after 30 BC.[back]

13. Gaius Marius (157–86 BC) and Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138–78 BC), Roman generals and politicians. Both were central figures in the civil wars that divided the late Roman Republic.[back]

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3977. Robert Southey to George Taylor, 7 March 1823

3977. Robert Southey to George Taylor, 7 March 1823

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven

Lynda Pratt, Ian Packer