4074. Robert Southey to John Taylor, 24 October 1823

Address: To/ John Taylor Esq^re/ at M^rs Taylors/ Market-Place/ Retford
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Seal: red wax, design illegible
MS: Beinecke Library, Osborn MSS File ‘S’, Folder 14181. ALS; 4p.
Unpublished.

Keswick. 24 Oct. 1823

Dear Sir

The three sheets H. J. K. require a great deal of pruning.

⁽¹⁾

It is a safe principle to say that every thing should be cut out in which the author, writing under the influence of personal feelings has expressed himself in a manner which may very possibly be injurious to others & hurtful in its consequences to himself. Upon this principle I would strike out the passage part of the speech of Sophocles pp. 109–10. from “Chlorus grew rich – to – the less for Sophocles.”

⁽²⁾

Personal as what precedes it is, it may I think stand, because its application will not be understood even by the parties themselves.

I would strike also out also the first paragraph in the speech of Pericles p111.

⁽³⁾

The second sentence of that paragraph is true, but the first is not, & would be deservedly deemed mischievous.

I hardly know what to say respecting the seventh Conversation,

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which is altogether such as Voltaire

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would have written, – & yet the difference between Voltaire & Landor is as great in every thing as between French & Englishman. Had the characters of the Dialogue been imaginary, the satire would not be exaggerated; I know enough of Catholic casuistry to say this: but <it> is so as applied to Louis 14. & appears even more so than it is. Xxx I should rather not lose the whole, & yet know not how to preserve it. Might it pass with the following corrections?

P 121 dele – on much slighter we read in the Old Testament.

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122 line 7 – for God Almighty, read their Deity, – or omit the sentence.

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125. for a clyster, read an enema – & omit the note, for the Latin hymn contains nothing in its meaning to justify the ridicule.

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If you think these alterations insufficient – as I fear they are, to remove xx serious objections against the whole Conversation, – let the whole be omitted: as the safest, & I believe the best course. What is really just in it, the author may introduce in an unobjectionable form.

p. 140 insert asterisks or lines – in place of the words Edinburgh, Valpy, & Classical.

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142. We must begin to expunge from One of these worthies – where to end I know not, whether at x xx “the same patriot? p. 144, or if what may follow in the ensuing sheet will require farther pruning.

⁽¹⁰⁾

I have not seen Charles Lambs letter to me,

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but have just heard in what temper it is written. When I reach London I shall if it requires <from me> any thing like explanation, or vindication xxxxxxx xxxxx say what is fitting at the end of the next Q Review. If any part needs a personal reply, that must be made in private.

⁽¹²⁾

But I hope & trust that no intemperance or injustice on his xxxxxx <part> will provoke in me a feeling of anger toward one whose genius I have always so heartily admired, & whose goodness of heart I have always so thoroughly respected. My disposition (thank God) is not irritable, – & with me at least, kindly feelings of nearly thirty years standing, are not easily cast off.

I remain Sir
Yrs faithfully
Robert Southey.

Notes

1. This refers to: Dialogue VI of Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), II, pp. 93–113, between Pericles (c. 495–429 BC), Athenian statesman and Sophocles (c. 497/6 BC–c. 406/5 BC), Athenian playwright; Dialogue VII of Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), II, pp. 115–129, between Louis XIV (1638–1715; King of France 1643–1715) and Francoise de la Chaise (1624–1709), the king’s confessor; and Dialogue VIII of Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), II, pp. 131–151, between ‘Cavaliere Puntomichino’ and ‘Denis Eusebius Talcranagh’.[back]

2. This passage was removed. ‘Chlorus’ was a thinly disguised portrait of Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (1769–1822; DNB), Foreign Secretary 1812–1822. Landor criticised him here for his rejection of Landor’s appeal to him to reprimand Edward Dawkins (1792–1865), a British diplomat, whom Landor believed had insulted his wife, Julia.[back]

3. This passage was removed; it remarked on the insanity of all royal families.[back]

4. Dialogue VII of Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), II, pp. 115–129, between Louis XIV (1638–1715; King of France 1643–1715) and Francoise de la Chaise (1624–1709), the king’s confessor.[back]

5. Francois-Marie Arouet (1694–1778), the French philosopher and writer and religious sceptic.[back]

6. This passage was retained in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), II, p. 119.[back]

7. This passage was retained in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), II, p. 120.[back]

8. These changes were made in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), II, p. 123.[back]

9. Dialogue VIII of Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), II, pp. 131–151, was between ‘Cavaliere Puntomichino’ and ‘Denis Eusebius Talcranagh’. The passage indicated here on p. 138 was replaced in the published version.[back]

10. This passage was omitted on p. 140. It again referred to Edward Dawkins (1792–1865), a British diplomat in Italy, whom Landor believed had insulted his wife, Julia.[back]

11. Southey had commended Lamb’s Essays of Elia (1823) in Quarterly Review, 28 (January 1823), 524, published 8 July 1823, but commented that the book ‘wants only a sounder religious feeling, to be as delightful as it is original’. Lamb took offence and responded with ‘Letter of Elia to Robert Southey, Esquire’, London Magazine, 8 (October 1823), 400–407.[back]

12. Southey did not refer to this matter in the Quarterly Review, but wrote to Lamb; see Southey to Charles Lamb, [19 November 1823], Letter 4088.[back]

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4074. Robert Southey to John Taylor, 24 October 1823

4074. Robert Southey to John Taylor, 24 October 1823

Notes

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven

Lynda Pratt, Ian Packer