My dear Wynn
I know not ubi diabolus [1] to direct to
you. losing the chance of hitting you at Oswestry I have
been in hope of hearing from you– but doubtless you have in
the same manner lost sight of me – I move the end of this
week for Keswick
where you will direct.
Ellis’s
book [2] made me angry that he had
incorporated the whole of his former volume instead of
leaving it untouched. new extracts could have been made with
little trouble – & very many might have been better. of
Quarles [3] he is strangely ignorant as indeed of all
the poets of that day with whom I am acquainted. his
historical sketch is very [MS obscured] & must have cost
great labour.
It is a serious evil that no man of adequate
talents will take the Welsh antiquities in hand, & that
no encouragement is given those who do. Owens
has translated
Llywarc Hen badly [4] – that
is evident – yet his version is better than none, &
eminently useful to all who want that information either in old history or our old
manners. I wish that the Literary Society [5] as they call themselves would employ
their fund better. they will give any man of Letters – ten
pounds – who will ask for it with proper certificates &c
– but they will not pay him for executing a wanted work. I
would have them pay Owen if no
abler can be found to translate Taliessin – Aneurin [6] &c & advance money
for the publication taking the risk themselves. he would
think himself well paid with fifty pounds a volume, – so
should the Metrical Romances &c be edited. thus would
their funds be of public utility – now they are only
collected for the ostentation of patronage & do no more
good than any common alms. I am fretted about your Welsh
books, feeling the want so sorely. & if ever it should
please God that I should have a settled home in England <this island> I
would wish it to be on the South side of some Welsh
mountain, that I might conversationally learn the language,
& do something for those who will come after me.
For Madoc [7] I am rummaging the dirty dunghill of Irish
antiquities – in which I have discovered two tricks of pure
Paddyism. the one that of dying their shirts &c with
saffron [8] – to keep them clean – a pretty origin of
the Orange badge – the other that of
making balls for their slingers of brick-dust &
blood. [9]
In the Welsh books – the Odyssey-part of
Madoc – I design to introduce old Giraldus [10]
excommunicating Owen Cyveilioc [11] (– as he did –) for not going to the
Crusade. & to remove the interview with Llewellyn [12] to the Island
of Bardsy – which I wish to visit. he shall also take a dog
who is to be found in Giraldus [13]
with him, – the poor beast watched his masters corpse for
eight days – I can make him useful & he ought to have
his fame – only how to christen him? have xxxx you any decent dog names
in Wales? – for the Propria quæ canibus [14] of
England are vile –
I have read & laughed over Irelands
Ballads [15] – a fellow who thinks that to write badly
is to write like the old Poets – & that hey no nonny is
worth reviving.
God bless you.
yrs affectionately
Robert Southey.
Aug. 19. 1801
Notes* Address: To/ C W Williams Wynn Esqr M. P./ 5. Stone Buildings/
Lincolns Inn/ London
Endorsement: Aug 29/
1801
MS: National Library of Wales, MS
4811D
Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.),
Selections from the Letters of Robert
Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp.
166-168 [misdated 29 August 1801]. BACK [1] The colloquial Latin
translates as ‘where the devil’. BACK [2] George
Ellis, Specimens of the Early English
Poets (1801). The first edition had been
published in 1790. BACK [3] Francis
Quarles (1592-1644; DNB), poet,
best-known for Emblemes, Divine and Moral
(1635). BACK [4] William Owen Pughe, The Heroic Elegies and Other
Pieces of Llywarc Hen (1792). BACK [5] The Royal Literary Fund, set
up in 1790. BACK [6] Taliesin (6th
century), Welsh poet, whose work survives in the
medieval Book of Taliesin; Aneurin
(6th-7th century), Welsh poet, author of the epic ‘Y
Gododdin’, contained in the 13th-century Book of
Aneirin. BACK [7] Southey had completed a version of
Madoc in 1797-1799 and was hoping to
revise it for publication. It did not appear until
1805. BACK [8] Sir James
Ware (1595-1666; DNB), ‘The Antiquities
of Ireland’ in The Works of James Ware Concerning
Ireland Revised and Improved, 3 vols
(Dublin, 1739-1746), II, p. 178. Southey noted this
down; see Common-Place Book, ed. John
Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), II, p.
255. BACK [9] Sylvester
O’Halloran (1728-1807; DNB), A
General History of Ireland, from the Earliest
Accounts to the Close of the Twelfth
Century, 2 vols (London, 1778), II, p. 224.
Southey made a note of this; see Common-Place
Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series
(London, 1849–1850), II, p. 238. BACK [10] Giraldus Cambrensis (c.
1146-c. 1223), clergyman and chronicler. BACK [11] Owain Cyveilioc (c. 1130- c. 1197), poet
and Prince of Powys. He was excommunicated in 1188 for
refusing to support the Third Crusade, an incident
Southey used in Part I, Book 15 of Madoc
(1805). BACK [12] Llewelyn ‘the Great’
(c. 1173-1240; DNB), Prince of Gwynedd
and effective ruler of Wales in his later years. Madoc’s
meeting with Llewelyn on Bardsey occurs in Part I, Book
13 of Madoc (1805). BACK [13] Giraldus Cambrensis (c. 1146- c. 1223),
Itinerary through Wales (1191), Book
2, Chapter 10. Southey was not able to introduce the
faithful dog into Madoc (1805). BACK [14] The Latin translates as
‘[names] which are appropriate for dogs’. BACK [15] William
Henry Ireland (1775-1835; DNB),
Ballads in Imitation of the Antient
(1801). BACK |
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