651. Robert Southey to John Rickman,
[c. 17 January 1802]
*
My dear Rickman
You will not be surprized to learn that I
have lost my
Mother. She had so long made a part of all my
cares & calculations & hopes that I shall very long
feel the loss. but enough of this. I have something of your
philosophy. which old Epictetus [1] taught me, & know how
foolish it is to foster unavailing thoughts of
disquietude.
The disturbances & inconveniences of a
sick house have hitherto kept me from seeing your
cousin. [2] I had
engaged Lamb to
meet him, & was obliged to put him off on that account.
We are now meditating a removal from lodgings that are
become unpleasant. Mr Corry has offered me
apartments on the second floor of his official house. they
are bad rooms, & unfurnished. still if I can hire
furniture I am disposed to like the scheme – because we
become as independant as dwellers in the Inns of Court or
Colleges, & because I may doubtless lock up my books
there when we migrate to green Erin. [3] The little intercourse we
have of late had has been of the same kind. – except indeed
that I am a gainer by a ream of this paper, a ream of
foolscap & another of note-sheetlings, all of the same
quality with appropriate pens & sealing-wax. Likewise he
offered & paid me a second quarter in advance. in all
this there is an kind
attention of which I am duly sensible. he introduced me
yesterday to his nephew, a young man of Patrician speech
& countenance. [4] but still no dinner –
& nothing to do except reading Gregorys Economy of
Nature [5]
with William. [6]
The uncomfortable state of feelings to which
of late I have been subject, have produced some good. I felt
a stronger necessity for employment, & my historical
papers [7] are considerably increased thereby. my
collateral reading & collections are so extensive that
there is some reason to suspect I may find a surplus enough
for a volume of Works of Supererogation. [8] Some of the wild Tales which are half
history & half invention – the romance of history – but
the history of manners – I shall berhyme – & then you
will see them in the Morning Post. [9] You will easily recognize
the mark of the beast. Madoc [10]
proceeds <grows> very
slowly – symptoms of a long-living tree.
Lambs play is
not yet born. [11] the Press is parturient & I am
looking with the expectation of hope for little
Margaret. [12]
Cottle – he who
brayed thro the epic trumpet, & played afterwards upon
the Jews-harp, hath committed another work, an anonymous
satire named the Methodist. [13] quite as long &
rather more fanatical than the extempore sermon of his own
Angel in Alfred. [14] Methodism has been very hurtful to him.
his head has lost something – but such a head it matters not
what becomes. but since he has taken to faith he has taken
leave of good works. this rascally sect is growing with a
dangerous rapidity. old Vincent has
resented their attack upon Public Education with spirit
& abilities that gave me very great satisfaction. [15] there is a war
brooding between our old Clergy, & these fanatics, who
if they get the upper hand would torment us in all
imaginable ways – from compelled attendance on hour-long
sermons – up to roasting alive. – I take shelter in the
Church that I may not be driven to the Meeting-House. &
shall roar aloud if the Mother Church be in danger, with
hearty good will. from ignorant Calvinistic persecution Good
Lord deliver me! if I must believe or burn let me at least
turn to a Jesuits faith.
I know not whether it is worth while to
transfer the Westminster ticket [16] – I have
enough employment upon the old books of the Redcross Street
Library. [17] yesterday the
three first volumes of the Acta Sanctorum [18] reached me from
thence. noble books in which I find materials for every
thing. perhaps you do not know that the first article in
this immense work is – De sacrosancto Praeputio Christi
& of where it was kept as a relic till immani
Calvinistarum furore deperditum! –
Controvertitur a quibasdam an Christus cum
praepartio resurrexit. de quo consuli posount [19] &c &c –
however you may like to hear the most
probable opinion up[MS torn] article of faith Quod resectum
est censet probabile esse in terris mansisse. corpus tamen
resurgens habuisse praeputium formatum ex aliquâ parte
materiae illius, quae aliquando fuerat in corpore Xti, &
per continuam erat nutritionem resoluta. [20]
As a better specimen of the same volume I
find the warm bath used in Ireland about the age of St Patrick. [21]
The famous Preface [22] which underwent elaboration
proportionally longer than the nine years gestation of a
classical poet [23]
– shall be bought & carried to Ireland – & if need
be deposited in the Library for Irish
Information –
God bless you.
yrs
R S.
Notes* Address: To/
Mr John Rickman Esqr
Endorsement: R.S. Jan 17/ 1802
MS: Huntington
Library, RS 19
Previously published: Kenneth Curry
(ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2
vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 266-268 [dated
January 1802]. BACK [1] Epictetus (c. 55-135 AD), Greek Stoic
philosopher. His ideas were preserved by his pupil,
Lucius Flavius Arrianus (before 86-after 146 AD) in the
Enchiridion, or Handbook of
Epictetus’s thought. BACK [2] Mr
Beaumont (first name and dates unknown). BACK [4] Unidentified; a relative of either Corry or his
long-term partner, and mother of his six children, Jane
Symms (dates unknown). BACK [5] George
Gregory (1754-1808; DNB), The
Economy of Nature Explained (1796). BACK [6] William
Corry (c. 1786-1853), son of Isaac Corry. Southey was
employed as Isaac Corry’s secretary, a post paid for by
government funds. In fact, he was participating in a
parliamentary expenses scandal. The secretarial post was
a front, and Corry fraudulently diverted Southey’s
services, using him to tutor his children. BACK [7] Papers and
notes relating to Southey’s projected ‘History of
Portugal’. BACK [8] In Catholic theology, works
of supererogation are those beyond what is required by
God. So Southey’s supplementary volume would include all
his research beyond what was needed for his ‘History of
Portugal’. BACK [9] Southey had recommenced writing for the
Morning Post in autumn 1801, but only
contributed three poems. Two of them would fit the
description he gives here: ‘O Thou Moor of Moreria’,
Morning Post, 18 September 1801; and
‘Ballad. From The Spanish’, Morning Post,
23 December 1801. He contributed nothing in 1802, but
published 13 poems (translations and original works) in
the newspaper in 1803. BACK [10] Southey had completed a version of
Madoc in 1797-1799 and was revising
it for publication. It did not appear until 1805. BACK [11] Charles Lamb’s John Woodvil: A Tragedy
(1802). BACK [12] Margaret is a central character in John Woodvil:
a Tragedy (1802). BACK [13] Cottle’s Alfred, An Epic Poem, in
Twenty Four Books (1800); A New
Version of the Psalms of David (1801); and,
pseudonymously, The Methodist (1801). The
latter was reviewed as ‘entirely of the ironical kind,
and is intended as a severe and biting satire against
those who are not Methodists, particularly of the
Established Church, and, above all, the Bishops. The
author writes in the character of a zealous opposer of
Methodists’, British Critic, 20
(September 1802), 320-321. BACK [14] Joseph Cottle, Alfred, An Epic Poem, in Twenty
Four Books (London, 1800), pp.
417-437. BACK [15] Southey’s old enemy
William
Vincent, Headmaster of Westminster School. His
A Defence of Public Education (1801)
refuted charges that religious education was being
neglected in public schools. BACK [16] A ticket for Westminster Public Library,
a subscription library, founded in 1789. BACK [17] Dr
Williams’s Library, London, which was established by a
bequest from the dissenting minister, Daniel Williams
(c. 1643–1716; DNB). BACK [18]
Acta
Sanctorum (1643-1940) , a 68-volume
hagiography of Catholic saints, organised by calendar
date of the saints’ feast-days. BACK [19] The passage is taken from
Acta Sanctorum, 1. Jan.,
‘Commemoratio Sacrosancti Praeputtii Christi’ and
translates as: ‘About Christ’s sacred foreskin & of
where it was kept as a relic until destroyed by the
manic fury of the Calvinists. Some dispute whether the
resurrected Christ had a foreskin. They demand a
consultation on it’. January 1 is the Feast of the
Circumcision, hence this is the first article in the
first volume of the Acta
Sanctorum. BACK [20] The passage translates as:
‘What was cut off he thinks probably remained on earth,
but the resurrected body had a foreskin made from some
part of the substance which had once been in Christ’s
body, and had been kept supple by continuous
feeding.’ BACK [21]
Acta Sanctorum, 1. Jan.,
‘De S. Mochua sive Cuano Abbate in Hibernia’. BACK [22] The ‘Preface’ to George Dyer’s
Poems and Critical Essays
(1802). BACK [23] Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65-8 BC), Ars
Poetica, line 388, advised poets to keep
their works back from publication for nine years. BACK |
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