628. Robert Southey to William Taylor, 19 November 1801 ⁠* 

My dear friend –

I have, perhaps & probably, enough interest in the Critical Review to insert any puff of decent praise & long brevity – but there my interest ends. once I attempted to introduce a friend there, [1]  who would have been a very Goliath or Samson [2]  – but no notice was taken of my application. at present Hamilton [3]  sends me no books – I conjecture because my account is far has been long promised to come with them, & unhandsomely delayed, to use the softest word.

Supposing a new Review were set on foot – would you like to amuse your leisure by assisting it? I could I think present such a list of names as would encourage any bookseller to the adventure – if there were but an approvable conductor – it is one of the schemes upon which Coleridge & I have speculated in conversation – & it made the distinguishing character of our scheme, that Authors should be allowed to give an account of their own works first, limited to a certain length, & produce extracts themselves. a little attention to decency would secure it an decided advantage over the existing Journals. Davy would be our Chemist – for financial – commercial & agricultural subjects – I think Rickman might be put down – a most original minded & strong headed man, who is quite my oracle. here too we might find a nitch for poor Burnett –. a manager seems the stumbling block – & it is one which I cannot remove. Phillips [4]  would at once start it – but that would involve it with the Aikin-family [5]  – & we are oil & vinegar. all the shaking possible could never amalgamate two particles. this scheme is not uppermost in my head – & yet I could take an interest in its success.

If reviewing were as it ought to be, merely analytical, or according to any fair & written Canons of Criticism – I should be glad to see Henry so employed. as it is I doubt his knowledge, & should scruple to introduce a boy of eighteen to such an employment – if it were in my power. a foolish scruple perhaps when the work is so foolishly done. I have ever apprehended a disposition to expence in Henry. he will be fortunate if it does not involve him hereafter in distress. Henry I think has talents – not genius. I have often felt a silent displeasure at his want of reserve – his forwardness, with his person, that fault will not generally offend – yet it is likely to make him many every-day common-place sort of friends, & to repel those whose friendship is valuable. – If he can make any thing by writing for hire, of course it would please me – I wish him to learn to write – & profit is perhaps the only adequate motive. He is reading Italian – could he criticise the authors he reads in that language decently enough for insertion in the Dissenters Obituary – alias, the Monthly Magazine? some two or three years back there <were> some Zoilan [6]  – but really able papers [7]  hewing down the laurels from the graves of Dante & Petrarch & Ariosto. [8]  it would exercise him well to see what could be said in defence of the Orlando. – I know his love for such books – to trace the history & progress of that noble story would amuse him & his notes would swell into a tolerable size. Turpin [9]  – Boyardo [10]  in his own dress & that of Berni [11]  – the scyons round the root of Ariosto – these books would induce a love of research – the Spanish part of the history the Ronscesvalles poems [12]  – he might look to me for – you have these hints as they arise, − & will know better than I can do how fara my scheme is fit for Henry & whether he be capable of it.

Thallaba – as you will have the double l – to please your ear – take it in spite of my eye – has not been monthly-reviewed. I alluded to the reviews of the Anthology [13]  & to the sprinklings of abuse in other articles – I learn from its publication that novelty is not always a source of pleasure. for if my ear be not as unsusceptible of poetry as it is of music – that metre is more perceptible than common blank verse – & more readable by common readers, because the pause is more made out for them.

I design soon to draw out the scheme of my Hindoo Romance [14]  & lay it upon your dissecting table. fault-finding with the story would be serviceable to it, & alteration would be attended with little trouble as the first book is not finished. you & I differ upon one great article of poetical belief – the use of machinery. in Milton & in Klopstock [15]  (God forgive me for yoking two such names together! sxxkxx Mxxxx Ulysses [16]  <did not> ploughed xxxxt with two more dissimilar beasts –) the Supernaturals are the agents – the figures – not the wires. thus also in <the> Romances of my future manufactory. Indra – Yamen & the Sorgon Spirits [17]  – the two families of Light & Darkness – the Gods & Heroes of Valhalla [18]  – these are to be the acting as well as aiding personages of the tale. For Madoc [19]  I assume a higher tone & demand a higher place.

You think me better situated than at Palermo. I do not feel the advantage. Southern climate is very much to me – it blends with all my comforts & makes no inconsiderable part of them. moreover the utmost probable hope now is [MS torn] decent income in Ireland – & surely Sicily is the more interesting & more lovely Island, in as much as an orange garden is better than a patch of potatoes in a bog. my wish would be to settle in Portugal of all other possible situations – but that is not possible – at least not now – so I take what I can get, & grumble at nothing but my compulsory residence in London which I do loathe & abhor with all my moral & physical feelings.

farewell.

yrs

R Southey.