Address: To/ John Murray Esqre/ Albemarle Street/ London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 22 JY 22/ 1823
Seal: red wax; design illegible
Watermark: F/ 1821
Endorsement: July 9. 1823/ R. Southey Esq
MS: National Library of Scotland, MS 42552. ALS; 3p.
Unpublished.
My advice to you concerning Irving
(1)
Edward Irving (1792–1834; DNB), a Scottish clergyman, and a celebrity preacher currently attracting large congregations in London, including many from high society. Irving’s popularity had begun to wane by 1827, and in 1833 he was expelled from the Church of Scotland.
is to let him alone, – & in a very short time he will sink as low as Col. Wardle
(2)
Gwyllym Lloyd Wardle (c. 1761–1833), the MP for Okehampton 1807–1812, who had gained temporary fame when he publicised alleged corruption in army appointments in January 1809. However, his reputation plummeted later that year when it was revealed he had paid substantial sums to gain evidence of the events he condemned and was in collusion with some of the parties he had accused.
& the Young Roscius.
(3)
William Henry West Betty (1791–1874; DNB), child actor, known as the ‘Young Roscius’, after the famous Roman actor, Quintus Roscius Gallus (c. 126–62 BC). Betty had caused a sensation in a number of roles in 1804, but his reputation soon waned and his attempts at acting as an adult were complete failures.
it xxxx His delivery I suppose imposes upon the persons whom you have mentioned, but surely it is not possible that they <can> admire the bloated affectation of his book.
(4)
Edward Irving, For the Oracles of God, Four Orations. For the Judgement to Come: an Argument, in Nine Parts (1823), no. 1487 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
– I have long thought of writing a paper upon our Divines, when the new edition of South comes out
(5)
Robert South (1634–1716; DNB), Anglican clergyman and theologian. A new edition of his Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions (1823) was shortly to be published, but Southey did not write on this subject for the Quarterly Review. This edition was no. 2574 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
You shall have Charles 2.
(6)
Bishop Burnet’s History of his Own Time: with the Suppressed Passages of the First Volume and Notes by the Earls of Dartmouth and Hardwicke, and Speaker Onslow, Hitherto Unpublished; to Which are Added the Cursory Remarks of Swift, and Other Observations (1823), no. 498 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. This was a new edition of Gilbert Burnet (1643–1715; DNB), History of My Own Time (1724–1734), edited by Martin Routh (1755–1854; DNB). Southey reviewed it in Quarterly Review, 29 (April 1823), 165–214, published 27–28 September 1823, and used the occasion to survey the reign of Charl…
in the course of four weeks – The only book of Norths which I have is his Life of the Lord Keeper Guilford.
(7)
Roger North (1651–1734; DNB), The Life of the Right Honourable Francis North, Baron of Guildford (1808). This was a biography of Francis North, 1st Baron Guildford (1637–1685; DNB), the lawyer, judge and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal 1682–1685. A later edition of 1826 was no. 2045 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
– I am inclined to think that one of the most useful books you could supply with me with would be Sir Roger L’Estranges Observator,
(8)
Sir Roger L’Estrange (1616–1704; DNB), a royalist journalist and editor of The Observator (1681–1687), a pro-Tory newspaper and no. 1678 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
if you could lay your hands upon a set. Blanco White is of all men the fittest to write upon the state of Spain
(9)
Blanco White published a review of Michael Joseph Quin (1796–1843; DNB), A Visit to Spain; Detailing the Transactions which Occurred during a Residence in that Country in the Latter Part of 1822, and the First Four Months of 1823. With an Account of the Removal of the Court from Madrid to Seville; and General Notices of the Manners, Customs, Costume and Music of the Country, in Quarterly Review, 29 (April 1823) 240–276, published 27 or 28 September 1823.
He is thoroughly acquainted with his countrymen, & is moreover a most judicious & right-minded man.
Hayleys book seems to me a good thread for the literature of that age in which he was in flower, & it contains anecdotes enough to make an interesting life, if well put together.
(10)
Southey’s review of John Johnson (1769–1833; DNB), Memoirs of the Life and Writings of William Hayley, Esq. the Friend and Biographer of Cowper, Written by Himself; with Extracts from his Private Correspondence, and Unpublished Poetry; and Memoirs of his Son Thomas Alphonso Hayley, the Young Sculptor (1823), no. 1179 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library, Quarterly Review, 31 (March 1825), 263–311.
There is an admission on the editors part that his course of life had not been what it ought.
(11)
John Johnson (1769–1833; DNB), Memoirs of the Life and Writings of William Hayley, Esq. the Friend and Biographer of Cowper, Written by Himself; with Extracts from his Private Correspondence, and Unpublished Poetry; and Memoirs of his Son Thomas Alphonso Hayley, the Young Sculptor, 2 vols (London, 1823), II, p. 218. William Hayley (1745–1820; DNB) had a complex private life. He separated from his first wife, Eliza Ball (1750–1797), in 1789 and from his, much younger, second wife, Mary Welford (1781–1848), in 1812 after only three years of marriage. He also had at least one illegitimate child, …
As you say he survived his works, & yet he has the merit of having awakened that taste for Italian & Spanish Literature from which we are deriving so much.
(12)
William Hayley, An Essay on Epic Poetry; in Five Epistles to the Revd Mr. Mason. With Notes (London, 1782), pp. 202–273, included accounts of the life and work of Lope Félix de Vega y Carpio (1562–1635) and Alonso de Ercilla y Zuñiga (1533–1594), with quotations and translations. This provided Southey’s introduction to Spanish poetry.
Faust has disappointed me.
(13)
Lord Francis Leveson Gower (1800–1857; DNB), Faust; a Drama, by Goethe: and Schiller’s Song of the Bell (1823), no. 1110 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. This was an early translation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), Faust, Part One (1808).
The merits no doubt lie in the manner, & are therefore untranslatable, as is the case with Horace & Virgil.
(14)
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65–8 BC) and Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 BC), Roman poets.
It is plainly an imitation of the Spanish drama, – & our Elizabethan dramatists judged I think more rightly than Lord L Gower, when they preferred our dramatic blank verse to the manner of their Spanish prototypes. He has rhymed it with great skill & freedom; – but in the drama this is doing a bad thing well.
Yrs very truly
RS.
The French, you see, are announcing just such a collection of English Memoirs as I advised you to undertake.
(15)
See Southey to John Murray, 11 June 1821, The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Six, Letter 3693. However, Murray had not proceeded with this project. Possibly to try and stir Murray into action, Southey is here drawing Murray’s attention to the following report: ‘The success of the Collection of Memoirs, relative to the French Revolution, has induced the publication of a Collection of Memoirs relative to the English Revolution; two volumes are published, containing Memoirs of Warwick, in the reign of Charles I., and the first volume of Thomas May’s History of the Long Parliament. The …
