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National Library of Wales, MS 4811D. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849-1850), II, pp. 196-198 [in part].
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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Vidixxxx xxxx xxx xxxxxxxx that belongs to another is subtracted
what quantity of capital remains. this is dishonest. for – for the best parts of the poem & the most striking incident of story no
hint is to be found elsewhere.
The general question concerning my system & taste is xx <one> point at issue.
the metre another. these Gentlemen who say the metre of the Greek choruses is difficult to understand at a first
reading, have perhaps made it out at last. else I should plead these choruses as precedent – & the odes of Stolbergfor this has been done in the M. Magazine
review of Thalaba.
It is ridiculous enough to be thus coupled with Wordsworth a
man who probably despises my talents as much xxxx as the Reviewers despise his, & with whom perhaps
I should hardly agree on any possible subject. for what they say of Coleridge, I only wish it were prudent for Coleridge to speak
of them in return. ill as he employs his powers I am mistaken if his character for talents is not every day rising. talents must find
their level. the moral world has its laws of gravitation.
The Review altogether is a good one & will be better than any London one because London Reviewers always know
something of the Authors who appear before them. & this inevitably affects their judgement. I myself get the worthless poems of
some good natured person whom I know. I am aware of what Review phrases go for & contrive to give that person no pain – & deal
out such milk & water praise as will do no harm. to speak of smooth versification – & moral tendency &c &c – will take
in some to buy the book – which it serves as an emollient mixture for the patient. I have rarely scratched without giving a plaister
for it. except indeed where a fellow puts a string of titles by his name – or such a heinous offender as Pybusxxxxxx actually burning him – only ties a few crackers to his
tail.
But when any Scotchmans book shall come to be reviewed – then see what the Edinburgh Critics will say. the first number
smells already of brimstone from their fingers. their philosophy appears in their belief of Hindu chronology!
I am disappointed of the Glamorganshire House – & very much disappointed for it was as lively a spot as heart could wish.
for a more comprehensive character of my Scotch Reviewer Vide