My dear Wynn
Halto is the printers blunder. [1] Bishop is my own wilful one – however
the Arch may be hammered on with very little tinker trouble. according to my
authority here – which is Coryat the Oddcombian [2] – he was eat by
Mice & the Tower is called Mouse-Tower. read the
last stanza thus improved
And in at the window & in at the door
And thro the wall by thousands they pour
And down from the cieling, & up from the floor
From the right & the left, from behind & before
From within & without, from above & below,
And all at once to the Bishop they go.
[3]
This pain in my side troubles me – whether it be pleurisy – or
consumption – or some disease at heart for in that part it lies – I know not. I
am going to winter at Bristol for the sake of medical advice. this nervous fever
has left me very weak & emaciated.
Bedfords extract is
curious. Xx I should like to trace its
historical foundation. I weave the story into Thalaba, which is the why I sent
for it. [4] Purchas relates it from Marco Polo. [5] I have prest into my service most of
the ingenious lies which I have found in travellers. Maundeville is worth
reading [6] – he will tell you of a Valley
where the Devils head always appears above ground – & of a Faery Falcon
which whoso could watch for 7 days & nights should have his wish cum multis
aliis quæ nunc perseribere longum est. [7]
I am going to work at Queen Mary [8] with all the little spirits I
now possess. we go to Bristol on Monday – unless I should have a relapse – which
I am fearful of.
Heywood lies before me P. 600. the tale will do. [9] there is another in the
Sphynx of Heidfeldius. [10] of a man who sold his soul at a tavern to a strange man – the
famous single combat in France between the man & the dog would balladize,
but I want documents – & names. [11] Thalaba you will like I think – if
you will endure the metre ecce exemplum. [12]
Who shall seek thro Araby
Hodeirahs dreaded son?
They mingle the arrows of chance,
The lot of Abdaldar is drawn.
Thirteen moons must wax & wane
Ere his quest he may relinquish.
He must visit every tribe
That roams the desert wilderness or dwells,
Beside perennial streams, till he has found
The boy whose blood alone
Can quench that fated fire.
A ring of crystal formd Abdaldar bore,
The powerful gem condensed
Primæval dews that upon Caucasus
Felt the first winters frost.
Ripening there it lay beneath
Rock above rock & mountain ice up-piled
On mountain, till the mighty mass assumed
So huge its bulk, the oceans azure hue.
With this he sought the inmost den
There where the image of dark Eblis stood
And by it burnt the eternal flame
Like waters gushing from some channelld rock
Full thro a narrow opening, from a chasm
The eternal flame streamd up.
No eye beheld the xxxxx
fount
Of that up-flowing flame,
That blazed self nurtured, & for ever, there.
It was no mortal element. the Abyss
Supplied it, from the fountains at the first
Prepared, in the heart of earth it lives & glows
Her vital heat, till at the day decreed
The voice of God shall let its billows loose,
To deluge oer with no abating flood
The consummated world, that thro the heaven
Thenceforth must roll, the penal orb of fire.
Unturband & unsandalld there
Abdaldar stood before the flame,
And held the ring beside, & spake
The language that the Elements obey.
The obedient flame detached a portion forth
That in the crystal entering, was condensed
Gem of the gem, its living eye of fire.
When the hand that wears the spell
Shall touch the destined boy
Then shall that eye be quenchd,
And the freed element
Fly to its sacred & remembered spring.
[13]
This ring with a little hell-fire set in it, is a very material <important> ring. the regular blank verse is not
usually so much mingled with the shorter lines in the dialogue (for part is
dramatic) I employ it, & in parts that require a loftier tone.
God bless you. I am an unlucky fellow to have the heartache, with
every reason & inclination to be happy.
yrs affectionately
Robert Southey
Burton.
Thursday 28 Nov.
All the imprecations of Ernulphus on my Biographer! [14]
Notes
* MS: National Library of Wales,
MS 4811D
Unpublished. BACK
[1] ‘God’s Judgement On A Bishop’, Morning Post,
27 November 1799, dealt with legends that surrounded Hatto I (c. 850–913;
Archbishop of Mainz, 891–913). BACK
[2] Thomas Coryat (1577–1617; DNB),
Coryat’s Crudities Hastily Gobbled up in Five Months Travel to
France, Italy &c (London, 1611), pp. 571–572. Coryat was an
‘Oddcombian’ because he was from Odcombe in Somerset. BACK
[3] This revised version was used in the
penultimate stanza of ‘God’s Judgement On A Bishop’ in Annual
Anthology (Bristol, 1800), p. 263. BACK
[4] On 24 October 1799 (Letter 450)
Southey had asked Bedford to find information about the garden of Aloaddin
or Aladeules. It was used in a note to Thalaba the Destroyer
(1801), Book 7, line 256. BACK
[5] Marco Polo (c. 1254–1324); Samuel Purchas
(c. 1577–1626; DNB), Purchas his Pilgrimage,
2nd edn (1614), pp. 237, 317. BACK
[6] Sir John Mandeville,
The Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundeville (London,
1727), pp. 340–344, 176–178. For the ‘faery falcon’ see also
Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series
(London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 90–91. BACK
[7] The Latin translates as ‘with many others which now it would be too lengthy
to describe in full.’ BACK
[8] Southey’s proposed play on ‘The Days of Queen Mary’, set in
the time of Mary I (1516–1558; reigned 1553–1558; DNB); see
Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series
(London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 190–192. BACK
[9] Thomas Heywood (1570s–1641; DNB),
The Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells (1635), p. 600,
relates the tale of a nobleman who feasted with the ‘divells of hell’.
Southey did not turn this into a poem, though he had previously made use of
Heywood’s book in the supernatural ballads ‘Donica’ and ‘Rudiger’, both
published in Poems (1797). BACK
[10] Johannes Heidfeld
(1563–1629), Sextum Renata, Renovata ac Longe Ornatius Etiam, Quam
Anquam Autea Exculta Sphinx Theologica-Philosophica
(1612). BACK
[11] The
story that in France in c. 1400 the Chevalier Maquer murdered a man called
Montdidier. Montdidier’s greyhound found the corpse and accused Maquer by
attacking him. In a trial by combat between the man and the dog, Maquer was
overpowered, confessed to his crime and was executed; see
Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series
(London, 1849–1850), IV, p. 197. BACK
[12] The Latin translates as ‘behold an example’. BACK
[13] An early version of Thalaba the
Destroyer (1801), Book 2, lines 223–272. BACK
[14] Possibly a reference to Southey’s biography in
Public Characters of 1799–1800 (London, 1799), pp.
224–231. Ernulphus (c. 1040–1124, Bishop of Rochester 1115–1124) was
famous for a Latin curse, used in the excommunication rite. BACK
