568. Robert Southey to Charles
Danvers, 17 February 1801
*
Dear Danvers
Your queries admit of no delay in answering them. Book 11 – 439 –
prow may be used for heel. – “Treasure-house for treasury –” the pun is worth
the alteration. dead eye – because it was the eye of the
deceased Solomon. [1] my promise refers to Book 4 the beginning – where the spirit of
Zeinab says thou shalt behold me in the hour of death. [2] What is there awkward in
Jahia’s, & the blameless Barmecides – [3]
it means for whose name defiled by blood x the
blood of Jahia & the Barmecides – <Genius hath wrought salvation.>
[4] any alteration will hurt the sense. – the
other passages are better as they are.
By this packet a duplicate of the new lines is sent – I sent it
to Wynn desiring him, in case the
first copy may have been lost to frank it to you. [5]
You must be content with a hasty & foul scrawl – your letter
is just received & the packet sails tomorrow. I only write to answer the
queries, & must hurry on. Cottle ought a month ago to have received my judgement of Alfred [6] – censure as diluted
as it well could be – condemnation & water. the poem is worse than I
expected – yet I knew the British Critic [7] to
be so beastly stupid that I half believed they would praise it.
About Harry.
tho I had a hundred & fifteen good reasons for rejoicing that he was to read
the Athanasian creed [8] – yet in my heart & conscience
I am feel a more satisfactory pleasure at his
better choice. my information now comes from my Uncle who returned yesterday,
& from Wm
Taylors letter. [9] my Uncle makes up my 115£ – 200 guineas, which is the fee. 50£ more must
be paid at an after period for the Hospital study. the term 3½ years from Lady
day. the situation with a man of eminence [10] – connected with Harrys friends & in every
respect qualified to bring him forward. xxxxx
thus is he well settled but meantime there are his personal expences to be
supplied – his cloaths, washing, & the money necessary to support a decent
equality among his friends – my Uncle will do what he can – but he has deep drains in England, &
it is to me that Harry must
look.
The Boxes are arrived but not shore. the people thro whose they hands they must pass know not all the
eagerness & uneasy impatience we feel for letters – not to mention our new
cloaths. there will doubtless be a letter from you & as that will require an
answer I the less reluctantly send you this hasty sheet.
If a ship offers I shall pack off my books to Bristol – our
alarms are now so general, that tho my fears are little, it is become prudent to
secure my worldly treasure. in that case you will get them thro the accursed
custom house, & Davy has
houseroom enough to lodge the unexpensive guests without inconvenience.
As for Cottles
version of the psalms [11] – he
has had precedents enough in an absurd attempt. to paraphrase is to dilate, to
dilate is to weaken. What is fine in the Psalms cannot be improved by any new
dress. what is bad is not worth the attempt. it is sacrilege to spoil the good,
folly to meddle with the worthless. Of authors so very old the most naked
version is the most valuable. he has mangled Alfred – for which no Englishman
can excuse him – & now he sets upon K. David! [12]
for which none but his Calvinists [13] will praise him. still there may be honours in storex. Samuel Wesley [14] may compose new tunes for the new Sternhold [15] – Hannah More be the St Cecilia [16] in
private – & the “sweet singers” [17] of Broad Mead [18] delight Cottle with the anticipated choruses
of Methodist-Elysium. I am sorry to see some talents (for doubtless he possesses
them) & great industry – alas for the wicked quarto proof thus eternally
misdirected. he ought to translate, for which his abilities are exactly adequate
– & any given language might soon be acquired for that specific purpose. his
powers of versification fit him for the useful office.
God bless you. commend us to our friends. a short list – but we
may particularize your Mother &
Davy – & you may extend it
by the civility of some recollections to our acquaintance.
I long for the box & the proofs. they shall be kept
carefully.
yrs affectionately
R Southey.
Tuesday. Feby. 17. 1801.
Lisbon.
Notes
* Address: To/ Mr Danvers/ 9. St James’s Place/ Kingsdown/
Bristol./ Single
Stamped: LISBON
MS: British Library, Add MS
47890
Unpublished. BACK
[1] The following changes were all made in Thalaba the
Destroyer (1801): Book 11, line 439, ‘prow’; Book 12, line 484
‘Treasure-house’. The phrase ‘dead eye’ was retained in Book 4, line
289. BACK
[2]
Thalaba the Destroyer (1801), Book 4, line
22. BACK
[3]
Thalaba the Destroyer (1801),
Book 5, line 81. BACK
[4]
Thalaba the Destroyer
(1801), Book 5, line 82. BACK
[5] Southey to Wynn, 15 February 1801, Letter 567. BACK
[6] Joseph Cottle, Alfred, an Epic
Poem, in Twenty Four Books (1800). BACK
[7]
British Critic, 16 (December 1800), 607-614. BACK
[8] Southey believed he
would have to use the £115 he received from Longmans for Thalaba the
Destroyer (1801) to pay for his brother, Henry Herbert
Southey’s, medical training. If Henry accepted his uncle Herbert Hill’s
suggestion that he become an Anglican clergyman and subscribe to the
Athanasian creed, a 5th-century statement of Christian orthodoxy, Southey
would be relieved of this expense. BACK
[9] Taylor had
informed Southey of his brother’s decision to study medicine in a letter of
1 February 1801 (J.W. Robberds (ed.), A Memoir of the Life and
Writings of the Late William Taylor of Norwich, 2 vols (London,
1843), I, pp. 364-365). BACK
[10] Philip Meadows Martineau (1752-1829), surgeon at the Norfolk
and Norwich Hospital and a member of the Martineau family, prominent
Unitarians in Norwich. BACK
[11] Joseph Cottle,
A New Version of the Psalms of David (1801). BACK
[12] David (c. 1040-970 BC, King of Israel c. 1010-970 BC),
traditionally regarded as the author of the Psalms. BACK
[13] Jean
Calvin (1509-1564), French-born Swiss theologian, whose writings provided
the official doctrine of the Baptist church to which Joseph Cottle
belonged. BACK
[14] Samuel Wesley (1766-1837; DNB), Methodist
hymn-writer. BACK
[15] Thomas Sternhold (1500-1549;
DNB), writer of the first metrical version of the
Psalms in English. BACK
[16] St Cecilia (2nd
century), early Christian martyr and patron saint of music. BACK
[17] The
‘sweet singers’ were a radical religious group in Edinburgh in the
1680s. BACK
[18] Either
the Baptist chapel in Broad Mead, Bristol, founded in 1640, or the Methodist
New Chapel, founded in 1739 in the same area. BACK
