Bristol.
Sunday. 21. Octor 1792.
Dear Bedford
Since my last I have been continually journying backwards
& forwards upon business which would not allow me to fix sufficient
attention upon any thing else. it is now over — I have time to look about
& I hope with fairer prospects for the future. one of my journeys was to
my fathers brother at Taunton to
request him to assist my father
& enable him to recover that situation whence the treachery of his
relations & injustice of his friends had thrown him. I had never seen
this uncle & you may easily conceive how unpleasant so humiliating an
errand must prove to so proud a spirit. he was absent I left a letter &
two days ago received an answer & refusal. fortunately my Aunt had prevented the
necessity but her goodness does not extenuate his unnatural parsimony. he is
single & possessed of property to the amount of 100,000 pounds without a
child to provide for. that part of his fortune which he inherited must one day
be mine — it will I hope enable me to despise the world & feel myself
independant.
I expect Lamb
every minute & have expected him since Thursday. I need not say I shall
be glad to see him as there are very few persons whose presence can give me so
much pleasure — I shall certainly detain him as long as possible & when
he departs set off to enter at Baliol. it wants not long to Xmas & these occupations will
shorten the time till I proceed to London on my way to Rye. Your good friend the Reverend Doctor Vincent may
perhaps visit his friends at Rye — our meeting would be curious — worse I am
sure for him than me — I should only feel indignant. that man may probably one
day be stiled the Right Reverend Father in God [1] — unlike other titles this
conveys some meaning. it conveys the idea of humility of charity of piety of
Christianity — I cannot help fancying to myself the Doctor entering his allotted
habitation in a more equitable world & the gentleman usher introducing
him as a Right Reverend Father in God — & as one deputed to instruct the
rising generation by his learning & edify them by his example — he
& I may perhaps appear upon a more awful trial than that for a libel
& instead of Ignoramus he may chance to hear “depart from me I know thee
not”. [2]
Look here thou hypocrite with studied face
Thou who attendest regular at church
Bring’st home the text but heedest not the comment
To this we all must come — the viel at length
Must be undrawn & all beneath exposed.
The sable gown, the wisdom of the wig
The sapient proverb & the lengthend prayer
Avail not then. the sevenfold shield of power
Weak, useless when Conviction strikes at once
The mouldering barrier — Conscience shrinks within
And Life & Pride & Falshood are no more
[3]
This Doctors liberality &
generosity will obtrude upon me. I feel myself in his debt & even your
splendide mendax will hardly tempt me to remain quietly so. I certainly could
worry him incessantly & that knavish virtue Prudence is all that
prevents me — may he be made a Bishop & Reformation take place in the
church — what can I wish more mortifying for him?
have you seen any of our Whitehall friends
since? have you called ever upon Mr Clarke? [4] I should like to keep up an acquaintance with this last as
he has been very civil & as I hope we shall one day employ him with more
success.
I am almost tempted to reply to your “let the troops led by
Brunswick &c but you shall probably know my sentiments in a flaming ode
to the spirit of Milton. [5] I can pity Louis the last
[6] as one who is unfortunate — the man deserves not pity —
the King less — the abject prisoner certainly claims it. perhaps they may
canonize him alamode Charles 1st [7] I hope not. I think not. now I am upon the republic system I
must tell you that Bristol seems preparing for it. a pamphlet [8] proposes the abolition
of the corporation as unconstitutional & arbitrary & hints the
same to all other corporate towns it is very well written — these little attacks
<upon the outworks> sap the foundations of the citadel. if France
models a republic & enjoys tranquillity who knows but Europe may become
one great republic & Man be free of the whole? [9] you see I use Paines words. but politics must not make
us quarrel. you know the fable of the oak & the reed. I have been the
oak & was pulled up by the roots & cast up. let me try to be the
reed.
some poems have been lately printed here by the Revd. E Holder [10] written between the age of 17
& 20. I only mention them as he happens to have translated two pieces
one which you sent me & the other I think you have seen translated by
your humble servant & an original by Bunbury & another of
your own. Integer vitæ etc [11] is the one. Gray
on the grande Chartreuse [12] the other. & seriously the printed ones are the worst
of all I will be obliged to you if you will send me your ode upon the grande Ch.
as I have it not & if you wish it you shall have my translation in
return or whatever else you may chuse to demand
“I promise to pay to C G Bedford any ode
sonnet legendary tale satire or poem of any description which he may demand.
value received.
Robert Southey.
this promissory note you know will not hold good till you have accepted it
to return to Holder. he has translated both in the stanza of my
toasted cheese [13] which naturally
renders it too diffuse. they were lent me & are returned otherwise I
would copy both for you to show you your superiority.
you promised me long ago eheu fugaces Posthume Posthume? [14] have you yet finished the Penns parchments? [15] if you have I shall
have some hopes of hearing from you soon. that beast Pardulph has not wrote to me these
last three months — tis true he wrote last but sent me no direction. I know he
is now at Oxford but am almost too angry to write to him. at least he lies in
bed all day scratching himself. you know where he itches.
there is only one motive which makes me regret my rejection at
Christ Church. at Baliol I have no
acquaintance & I conceive the different Colleges much like different
boarding houses. I am much mistaken if their Wisdoms will not one day repent.
there is more joy over one sinner that repenteth than over ninety & nine
just persons. I was no sinner neither do I repent — but they may (&
will) have ninety nine from Westminster without finding one Gualbertus [16] amongst them. vain I own but all is vanity & I only
differ from others in avowing mine without palliation.
I am ashamed of my neglect to Collins but as I hope for
forgiveness I will deserve him & send him a very penitentiary epistle.
ask him from me what he thinks of France now? when he wrote last he shook his
head & turned up his eyes upon the subject — with a hum & ha
like a wise man who is doubtful of the event & wishes to be thought in
the secret.
you see I intended to fill up the sheet but the servant waits to
take this & it will rain soon so believe me yours sincerely
R Southey.
Notes
* Address: G C Bedford Esqr/ Old Palace Yard/ Westminster/ Single
Sheet
Stamped: BRISTOL
Postmark: EOC/ 22/ 92
Watermark: Rampant
lion holding scimitar with another figure; monogrammed initial
Seal: Red
wax [design illegible]
Endorsement: 21. Octor
1792
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22
Previously
published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert
Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 8–11;
Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert
Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, pp. 163–164 [in
part]. BACK
[1] That is, be made a Bishop. BACK
[2] An adaptation of Matthew 25: 12. BACK
[3] Look here … no more: Verse in double
columns. BACK
[4] Charles Clarke (fl. 1781–1802), London
printer. BACK
[5] If Southey wrote
an ode to John Milton (1608–1674; DNB), it has not
survived. BACK
[6] Louis XVI (1754–1793; reigned
1774–1792). BACK
[7] Charles
I (1600–1649; reigned 1625–1649; DNB) was declared
a martyr and added to the Anglican list of saints by Parliament in
1660. BACK
[8]
The Reply of the Delegates of
the Several Parishes, and of the Castle-Precincts, in the City of
Bristol, to the Report of the Committee of the Mayor, Aldermen, and
Common Council, in Answer to the Objections Delivered by the Delegates
on the 4th of August, 1792 (1792). BACK
[9] Thomas Paine (1737–1809; DNB),
The Rights of Man. Part the Second (London,
1792), p. 77. BACK
[10] Henry Evans Holder
(dates unknown). Born in Barbados, he settled in Bristol, where he was a
prominent defender of the slave-trade. Copies of Holder’s book do not seem
to have survived, but it was described in David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors of Great Britain, 2 vols
(London, 1798), I, p. 270, as comprising ‘miscellaneous Poems, composed from
the age of seventeen to twenty’. BACK
[11] Horace (65–8
BC), Odes, Book 1, no. 22. BACK
[12] Thomas Gray
(1716–1771; DNB), ‘O Tu Severi Religio Loci’
(1741). BACK
[13] Southey is referring to
his poem ‘Patience & Toasted Cheese’, sent to Grosvenor Charles
Bedford in [c. September 1792] (see Letter 23). BACK
[14] Horace, Odes,
Book 2, no. 14, line 1. The Latin translates as ‘Alas [the years slide by]
so fleetingly’. BACK
[15] Probably a reference to a work by
Grosvenor Charles Bedford which has not survived. BACK
[16] John Gualbert (c. 995–1073), founder of
the Vallombrosian order. The pseudonym ‘Gualbertus’ was used by Southey for
his controversial attack on flogging as an invention of the devil in the
fifth issue of The Flagellant (29 March
1792). BACK
