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MS has not survived. Previously published: Monthly Magazine, 1 (July 1796), 451–453 [from where the text is taken] under the pseudonym ‘T.Y.’. For attribution to Southey, see Kenneth Curry, ‘Southey’s contributions to The Monthly Magazine and The Athenaeum’, The Wordsworth Circle, 11 (1980), 215.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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THAT the literature of Spain and Portugal is not attended to at present, when the stores of German imagination are open
to us, is not to be wondered at; but it is strange, that the same neglect should have prevailed in those earlier periods, when
translations were so common, so useful, and so honourable. The best Italian poets were naturalized in England, during the reigns of
Elizabeth and James;
It is my intention, Mr. Editor, in your future Numbers, to give some account of the best Spanish and Portuguese poets, to analyze the plans of their most esteemed works, and translate such specimens as, while they are brief enough to suit your Magazine, may give some idea of the genius, taste, and manner of the authors.
The prose writers of these countries (except the great Cervantes
Spain and Portugal had reached the meridian of their glory, while the arts were yet in their infancy. Individual genius
will be found then to have flourished most when the community shall have been most flourishing; Athens was most glorious when Sophocles
and Euripides succeeded the aged Aeschylus;
It may, perhaps, raise a smile, to assert that the poetry of Spain was purified and corrected, by introducing an
Italian taste into the country. At this period, however, such a revolution in literature was effected by such means. Marino
Spain has never recovered herself since the ruinous reign of Philip the Second.
Affiliated with Spain, by the gentle ties of Russian-like adoption, Portugal partook of its decline. She shook off her
chains indeed, but “the iron had entered her soul;”
Thus has the tyranny of superstition co-operated with the decline of the country, to check the progress of literature
in Spain and Portugal. Yet, during what may be called their Augustan age, such was accomplished. The applause of Cervantes should
excite some attention to the productions of the two Leonardos;
Spain has been wonderfully prolific in poets. In the Parnaso Espanol,
Mr. Dillon’s Letters on the Origin and Progress of Poetry in Spain,
The subject of Portuguese poetry has barely been touched upon by Mr. Dillon; he has only deduced it from the Galician, and mentioned a very few of their authors; this field may therefore be looked upon as new.
I can promise the reader some information on these subjects: of this he may be assured, that I shall not assume the appearance of information when I possess it not; in treating of those authors who are familiar to me, my own opinion may properly be expressed; with respect to those of whom I know little, I shall consequently say little from myself: the man who can enjoy credit for acquisitions which he does not possess, must be dreadfully distempered with vanity.
The Spaniards call their nine most favourite authors the nine Spanish muses: they are Garcilaso de la Vega, Don Esteban
de Villegas,
The poet is indeed a citizen of the world; in every country, and in every age, he meets with some congenial spirit; to
him time is annihilated, and he converses with Homer and with Ossian:
July 3, 1796.