4105. Robert Southey to [John Taylor], 22 December 1823

MS: Beinecke Library, Osborn MSS File ‘S’, Folder 14183. ALS; 1p.
Unpublished.

Streatham. 22 Dec. 1823

My dear Sir

I should perhaps have made leisure for writing to you sooner concerning these last sheets,

if I could have better satisfied myself as to what should be expunged.

Were I to consult my own judgement only I should certainly omit two speeches in pp. 228–9, which might be struck out without leaving a chasm. If however the two lines which are offensive to good manners

⁽²⁾

be got rid of, the rest may pass

p 231 I would omit – In as from “at present to the bottom of the page,

⁽³⁾

& in p 241 from He has reason – to every thing that is.

⁽⁴⁾

– What cannot be made unexceptionable we must be content with making less offensive. The opinions may be right, or wrong. The personalities (even if the facts are true) are unbecoming & unworthy. And with these expurgations the sheets I think may be struck off.

I am obliged to you for the Magazines.

⁽⁵⁾

And I thank you also on Henry Taylors account. If I had not been well assured of his talents & acquirements I should not have introduced him to you, but the attention which that introduction has obtained deserves my thanks as much as it has gone beyond my expectations.

Yrs very truly
Robert Southey

Notes

1. Southey was helping to censor Landor’s Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen (1824) for publication.[back]

2. Probably, Dialogue XII of Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), II, p. 228, between ‘Prince Maurocordato’ and ‘General Colocotroni’: ‘a remonstrance against the letting of urine at the corners of streets, or lanes, or stable doors’; this passage and the surrounding two speeches were retained.[back]

3. This passage was omitted on p. 231. It attacked monarchy.[back]

4. Dialogue XIII of Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), II, pp. 237–258, was between Vittorio Alfieri (1749–1803), Italian dramatist, and ‘Salomon the Florentine Jew’. This passage was omitted. It was probably a criticism of aristocracy.[back]

5. Taylor had sent Southey copies of the London Magazine, which he published 1821–1829. Southey had introduced Henry Taylor to John Taylor, and Henry Taylor had gone on to contribute to the London Magazine.[back]

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4105. Robert Southey to [John Taylor], 22 December 1823

4105. Robert Southey to [John Taylor], 22 December 1823

Notes

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven

Lynda Pratt, Ian Packer