The Siamese make the happiness of the blessed to consist in
impassibility – in the enjoyment of deep repose, interrupted
by no thought or feeling, – only with the consciousness of existence. the
agitation which the receipt of letters in a far country
occasions has half converted me to the wish of dozing away
eternity with Sommono-Codom in the ever-blessed state of
Nireupan. [1] it wakes xx <xxx>
& startles, – & fevers me for the day. You have
given me something to dream of – but my dreams take a wild
course & instead of haranguing Sir Ts Strange [2] – shake
Strachey
by the hand, & return home thro Delhi [3] & by old Persepolis & Ispahan
& Bagdad. I would willingly go to India – & make a
fortune there & come home to enjoy it, – but I would
rather live in a Welsh cottage, & fill the largest room
with books – & enjoy the summer of life – as blessed be
God! I have enjoyed the spring. but there is a winter –
& must be a harvest time, – & if crops grow faster
at Madras – & if the climate be certain – why a wish to
see the Hindoos & old Brahma [4] might
tempt me to –. I have stopt there. the recollection of one
friend & of another has come upon me – each would miss
me – & I should miss all. & for what? to make
thousands insteads of the hundreds which England promises. I
have no ambition to rise in the world. – intellectual rank
satisfies my pride – & the object of life is happiness.
– The climate of the East would probably suit me – but how
it would blight & blast the mental powers, & the
better feelings to pass so large a portion of existence in
the only society possible there – among men with whom I have
nothing in common but language & the wants of nature! –
you see how the pros & cons are battling it –. & for
“hard & unremitting fag” [5] – that would
likelier fit me for Moorfields [6] than Madras. the instrument is
out of tune – I have lost ground of late. a journey to
Alcobaca & Batalha [7] will shake me into
order, & I purpose soon to set out on a jackass.
But of India I can talk & think in
England – England – the land of intellect & morality –
my own dear country where I grew up & where I would be
set down – which I should perhaps want heart to quit for a
long absence. & feeling <it [MS
illegible]> everlasting absence – unless with a new Madoc
to a new world – Of Walenstein you say what I should have
said, except that I like Coleridges version of [MS torn] song very much –
& Charles Lambs as little. [8] None of Schillers [9] plays has pleased me so much & it
does <not> excite wonder & impatience &
agitation like the Robbers – nor does it mangle the feelings
as the Minister did: but instead – a calm & constant
interest – the pleasure which results from a satisfied
judgement. there is great dramatic truth in all the
characters. less so in Max [10] – (curse
his monosyllable name!) than in the others. the scene in the
last act with Gordon is exquisite – & the repetitions of
the old mans name by Wallenstein (P. 141. 142) [11]
uncommonly fine. – The plays are too good to be popular. Of
Queen Mary [12] you shall soon have news, – & I
shall stimulate myself to an exertion which I almost fear;
by the determination of sending you act by act as written. –
You mistake the groundwork of the fancied Romance – it is
the old Persian mythology – the two principles of
Zoroaster [13]
– a system rich in all food for poetry. the character a son
of the Great King – by one of his thousand wives, & an
Athenian slave – who takes the Prince home & marries him
to his daughter. – & this is all – the seed will
germinate by & by. for a Hindoo tale [14] I have set another seed. there is a
singular absurdity in that system – prayers and penance have
a sterling – not a relative, value. they are actual coin for
which the Gods are obliged to sell their gifts even to the
wicked: & thus have they often given such power to the
Penitents as they are called, as to endanger themselves. now
one of these Penitents would I take, & set him on an
enterprize to get at the Amortam [15] – the food of immortality – & an
injured Paria [16] should
meet him, just as he had arrived at the place where it was
kept – & immortalize him in a more natural way. –
One Poet has already tried his fortune in
India. Camõens. he left Portugal with the bitter phrase of
Scipio on his lips Ingrata Terra non possidebis ossa
mea! [17] – yet in
the land of promise which he had reached – he lay down “by
the water of Babylon & wept at remembering the Sion he
had left.” [18] Camões went to make a fortune –
& he brought back – the Lusiad. I suspect that my fate
would be more likely to resemble the Portugals, than that of
Sir William Jones. [19]
You speak of Dauncey [20] – Once I saw him – calling on Mrs Dolignon, he & his wife only were
at home. he received me with much courtesy – & when he
accompanied me to the door requested that the distance of my
lodgings (twas when we were at Newington) – might excuse him
from calling on me. his visit I had neither expected nor
wished – but the apology somewhat hurt me. I had been in
that very house – almost a child of the family. – the next
time I passed along the street – the name was gone from the
door & the house to be lett. I had lost all traces –
they knew where I was. but I should not <have>
repeated my visit – the coldness of a stranger never hurts
me – I am sometimes ice myself – & may chill him who
comes in contact – but Mrs Dolignon had been to me almost as a
mother, & at this moment sure I am that neither of her
children can feel for her a deeper affection. – Here is a
letter drawing to its close – & all that it contains
might as well have been written in England. so let it be –
it is pleasant to live for an hour in old recollections,
& forget that all around me is foreign.
Of the concluding books of Thalaba [21] the ninth is, I think, rich in poetry –
& the description of Khawla filling herself with the
Devil, among the most powerful lines I have ever written.
the value of the tenth B. does not appear till its close.
that it turns upon an equivocation is no fault. Apollo [22] has
quibbled upon occasions more important & Crœsus &
Pyrrhus may excuse me. [23] from the speech of
the Simorg to the actual descent into the Domdaniel all is
new written, & the new lines may possibly reach you
before the old ones. those in the eleventh you will like –
they excite that calm & unagitating expectation which is
perhaps the pleasantest state of mind that poetry can
occasion. In the 12th the object of the
new lines was to connect the overthrow of the Domdaniel with
some obvious good, & not let Thalaba work so wholly in
obscurity. The other Books are all corrected, & in some
of them passages of some length are inserted. Should you
wish to see the copy designed for the Press it will be
within your reach. Rickman is my agent with the Booksellers & he
lodges at 33 Southampton Buildings, chancery Lane, where a
note from you may in five minutes reach him.
I wish your brother [24] as actual King of Wales – & according
to the story God in xxxxxxx
remainder – would set some of his subjects at work. [MS
obscured] Taliessin, [25]
xx xx you Welshmen ought for
the honour of the old country & the [MS obscured] language <tongue> to
rescue your Bards from what may be a very ancient &
mellifluous language, xxx
& what is certainly but
which is too ugly & too difficult ever to tempt a
learner.
Stanier Clarke [26] who is about the
Progress of Naval Discovery has applied to me for assistance
here. not I think in a civil way. he writes a letter to his
booksellers [27] containing queries to any “literary character” in
Portugal– “who will no doubt contribute his assistance with
all the spirit of a liberal scholar.” now instead of thus
writing thro his booksellers, he ought upon learning my
address from them to have written immediately himself. his
queries give me no high idea of his talents some of them are
too unimportant to deserve to cross the Bay, & others of
such consequence that he ought to have crossed it himself.
xxxx xx xxxxx xxx xxxxxxxxxx
xx xxx xxxxxxx xxxxx, xxxxx xx xxxxxxxx xxxx
xxxxxx he wants to know the dates of all the
Editions of Camões. His Prospectus talks too much about
Patronage to please me, – & I almost suspect that a man
capable of making a good scientific work upon such a subject
– would be less anxious to make a puppy-book. [28] – The Disease rages
dreadfully at Seville. by our last accounts 25,000 are sick
– & the average daily deaths amount to 250. it will be
miraculous if Lisbon escapes. I have just room for the
Contents of Thalaba.
1. The Exterpation.
2. The Education
<Incantation>
3. The Education
4. The Conversation
5. The Expiation
6. The Preservation
7. The Temptation
8. The Peregrination
9. The Salvation
10. The Explanation
11. The Navigation
12. The Consummation [29]
Notes* Address: To/ C W Williams Wynn Esqr/ 5. Stone Buildings/ Lincolns
Inn
Endorsement: Oct 1800
MS: National Library
of Wales, MS 4811D
Previously published: Adolfo
Cabral (ed.), Robert Southey: Journals of a
Residence in Portugal 1800–1801 and a Visit to
France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), pp.
125–129. BACK [1]
Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood
Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 40–42
contains Southey’s notes on the Siamese god,
Sommona-Codom. Nireupan equated to the Buddhist concept
of Nirvana. BACK [2] Sir Thomas Strange (1756–1841; DNB),
President of the Madras Court, 1798–1817. BACK [3] Southey inserts a footnote:
‘& “that was to day” is very bad. the conclusion
fails – but surely the first [MS torn] is well
done.’ BACK [4] The Hindu god of creation. BACK [5] Probably a quotation from Wynn’s letter
to Southey, which has not survived. BACK [6] The site in London of the Bedlam Hospital
for the insane. BACK [7] The Monasteries of Alcobaca and Batalha
were enormous royal foundations of the 12th and 14th
centuries, respectively. BACK [8]
The Piccolomini, or the First Part
of Wallenstein, a Drama in Five Acts. Translated
from the German of Frederick Schiller by S. T.
Coleridge (London, 1800), p. 89 contained
Coleridge’s prose version of Thekla’s song, and Charles
Lamb’s verse translation. BACK [9] Johann Christoph
Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805), German playwright;
author of The Robbers (1781), and
Intrigue and Love (1784) which was
translated into English as The Minister
(1796). BACK [10] Max Piccolomini, one of the central
characters in Coleridge’s translation of
Wallenstein (1800). BACK [11]
The Death of
Wallenstein. A Tragedy in Five Acts. Translated from
the German of Frederick Schiller by S. T.
Coleridge (1800), pp. 141–142. BACK [12] Southey’s
planned play, set in the time of Mary I (1516–1558;
reigned 1553–1558; DNB). Southey’s
original sketch of the play is dated ‘Westbury, April
1799’, but some further notes are dated ‘Cintra, October
10, 1800’; see Common-Place Book, ed.
John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp.
190–192. BACK [13] Zoroaster (11th/10th centuries BC), Prophet of
Zoroastrianism, the state religion in Persia until the
7th century. It was believed in Europe to be based on
the opposition between Ahura Mazda, the supreme being,
and Ahriman, the destructive principle. For Southey’s
idea for his unexecuted ‘romance’, see
Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood
Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, p. 128. BACK [14] This is Southey’s first
mention of the idea that would eventually become
The Curse of Kehama (1810); see
Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood
Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp.
12–15. BACK [15] Amrit, the drink of the gods in Hindu
mythology. BACK [16] A
member of one of the castes that Hinduism has
traditionally regarded as untouchable. BACK [17] Luis Vaz de
Camoens (1524–1580), Portuguese poet, author of
The Lusiad (1572). In a letter from
India, published in 1598, Camoens had quoted this Latin
phrase, which translates as ‘Ungrateful land, you shall
not have my bones’. It was first attributed to Publius
Cornelius Scipio Africanus (235–183 BC). BACK [18] A
translation of Camoens’s song, ‘Babylon and Sion’ (c.
1552), lines 1–2. BACK [19] Sir William Jones (1746–1794; DNB),
Oriental scholar and Puisne Judge to the Supreme Court
of Bengal. BACK [20] Philip Dauncey (d. 1819), a lawyer who
had a distinguished career, becoming Treasurer of Gray’s
Inn and a King’s Counsel. He was married to one of the
daughters of Mrs Dolignon, in whose house at Theobalds
in Hertfordshire Southey had spent much time as a boy.
The visit that caused Southey such offence must have
taken place in 1797, when he was lodging in Stoke
Newington. BACK [21] The Islamic romance
Thalaba the Destroyer, published in
1801. BACK [22] Greek god who
inspired the cryptic oracle at Delphi. BACK [23] Croesus (595–547 BC; King of Lydia
560–547 BC) and Pyrrhus (319–272 BC; King of Epirus
306–302 BC, 297–272 BC); both received ambiguous answers
from the oracle at Delphi when they asked about the
wisdom of embarking on wars. BACK [24] Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, 5th baronet
(1772–1840). The family traced its origins back to the
9th-century Princes of Wales and was so powerful that
the head of the family was known as ‘Prince in
Wales’. BACK [25] Taliesin (6th century) Welsh bard. BACK [26] James Stanier Clarke (1765–1834;
DNB), clergyman, social climber,
domestic chaplain to George IV (1762–1830; Prince Regent
1810–1820; reigned 1820–1830; DNB) and
author of The Progress of Maritime
Discovery (1803). BACK [27] Stanier Clarke had contacted Southey via Cadell and
Davies. The letter does not survive; see Southey to
Charles Danvers, [27 October 1800], Letter
552. BACK [28] Stanier Clarke’s
‘Prospectus’ to his proposed new book. When completed,
The Progress of Maritime Discovery
(1803) contained a lavish dedication to Clarek’s patron,
the future George IV. BACK [29] 1. The Extirpation ... Consummation: written at
right-angles to the main text of the letter. These
titles for individual books were not used in
Thalaba the Destroyer
(1801). BACK |
|
