I differ from you concerning La Fayette. [1] on what pretext is he confined but as the prisoner of the
allies? he cannot be supposed the prisoner of the Emperor individually.
therefore instead of seeing any impropriety in the interference of England, I
think for its own honor this country should wash its hands of so infamous a
transaction. La Fayette is not amenable to the Emperor for aught he may have
done. I am glad to see the French are opening their eyes to his conduct. how did
you like Mr Wyndhams speech [2] upon this subject?
“Mary” is a bad poem [3] — but it is generally liked. it has been selected as a
favorite by Dr
Beddoes — a hypercritic of the Darwin [4] school, who writes bad verses himself, & of
course criticises every body all others
severely.
Si el sabio no aprueba, malo!
Si el necio aplaude, peor!
[5]
I begin to think that our opinions upon poetry are not consonant. I am no friend
to the harmony with which we have been cloyed since the days of Pope. [6] Churchill [7] is too
rough: but there is a medium, & I am on the side of Bowles versus
Reviewers: [8] who by the by are in general a set of stupid fellows. Coleridge has the Monk to
review for the Critical [9] — & I am somewhat curious to see how he will
handle Lewis. I am engaged when in town to write for the Analytical &
should very much like to begin by dissecting Ambrosio. I do not think the Monk
can be praised too highly, or blamed too severely.
I wish Bob would
insert a review of my writing in the British Critic. there a it is upon a strange poem with still stranger notes, written
by a man of brilliant genius & polishd manners who is deranged. it is
easy to imply this without doing it in such terms as would wound his feelings.
the book is “the Hurricane a Theosophical & Western Eclogue by William
Gilbert.” [10]
Gilbert has been called to the
bar. he was clerk to the House of Commons at Antigua, & came to England
as Counsel on a celebrated cause in the annals of Military Law. I know him
& pity him —
where a sight shall Sorrow find
Sad as the ruins of the human mind!
[11]
My book is done. [12] & I wait only to get your copies
hot pressed to dispatch them. I was obliged to cancel two complete sheets — such
blunders did they make in my absence.
to night I return to Bristol to visit the only friend I have
there. you know that now I do not rashly use the word. we are going to see the
skeletons of which you may have seen some account in the papers — you may expect
a true & particular account. [13]
I am about to send a Joan of Arc to St Pierre. [14] you know he
earnestly recommends the subject — for a drama [MS torn] there is a
communication by means of Remnant [15] [MS torn]German bookseller to Hambro — Rotterdam — &
[MS obscured] Paris — & a present from one literary man to another does
not come within the penalties of the Traitrous Correspondence bill. [16]
farewell.
R Sou[MS torn]
Notes
* Address: [MS torn] W Williams
Wynn Esqr/ No 5. Stone Buildings/
Lincolns Inn/ London/ Single
Stamped: BATH
Postmark: [partial] BJ/
30/ 97
Endorsement: Southey/ Jan 26/ 1797
MS: National Library of
Wales, MS 4811D
Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New
York, 1965), I, pp. 119–20.
Dating note: The letter is dated from the
endorsement; the postmark suggests a date before c. 30 January
1797. BACK
[1] Marie-Paul-Joseph-Roch-Gilbert Motier, Marquis de La Fayette
(1757–1834), French general and politician. He was an active supporter of
the American side in the War of Independence, but took a moderate position
during the French Revolution and eventually fled to Austria, where he was
imprisoned. BACK
[2] William Windham (1750–1810; DNB),
Secretary of War, 1794–1801, declared in the House of Commons on 16 December
1796 that La Fayette’s imprisonment was not a matter for the British
government. BACK
[3] Southey’s ballad ‘Mary’ was published in his Poems
(1797). BACK
[4] Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802; DNB). BACK
[5] A poem by Tomás de Iriarte (1750–1791), translated by
Southey as ‘The Dancing Bear’. Southey’s version of these lines appeared
in his Letters Written During a Short Residence in
Spain and Portugal (London, 1797), p. 551, as ‘Bad is the
censure of the wise/ The Blockhead’s praise is worse’. BACK
[6] Alexander Pope (1688–1744; DNB). BACK
[7] Charles Churchill (1732–1764; DNB). BACK
[8] Negative assessments of
the versification and language of William Lisle Bowles (1762–1850; DNB), Hope, An Allegorical Sketch on
Recovering Slowly from Sickness (1796) had appeared in the
Critical Review, 19 (January 1797), 235–236,
and the British Critic, 9 (January 1797),
190–191. BACK
[9] Matthew Gregory
Lewis (1775–1818; DNB), author of the controversial
The Monk (1796), which Samuel Taylor Coleridge
reviewed in the Critical Review, 19 (February
1797), 194–200. BACK
[10] William Gilbert’s The Hurricane had been published in 1796. BACK
[11] An adaptation of William Lisle Bowles, Verses on the Benevolent Institution of the Philanthropic
Society (Bath, 1790), p. 16. Southey had previously used
these lines as an epigraph to the four ‘Botany-Bay Eclogues’ published
in his Poems (1797). BACK
[12] Southey’s Letters Written During a Short Residence in Spain and
Portugal (1797). BACK
[13] For
Southey’s account of the skeletons found in 1797 at Aveline’s Hole in the
Mendip Hills, near Burrington Combe, see his letter to the Editor of the
Monthly Magazine, 28 January 1797 (Letter 196)
and to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 29 January [1797] (Letter
197). BACK
[14] Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
(1737–1814), author of Paul et Virginie (1788) and
Etudes de la Nature (1784). BACK
[15] James
Remnant (fl. 1790s) a bookseller in High Holborn, who specialised in German
books. BACK
[16] The Traitorous Correspondence Act of 1793 was
designed to prevent British citizens from aiding France in any
way. BACK
