My dear Wynn
Your letter & its contents have just
reached me – I wish there were a form of words that would
fitly acknowledge the receipt – the paper has lain this ten
minutes in waiting with the pen upon that dash there above.
thank you!
I had heard of the brawn receipt [1] from Turner who read
it in the original which is printed in the Archaiology. [2] it is true
because men do not invent such oddxxx <lies> & because it tallies with
half a hundred stories which Rickman & I
used to laugh over at Dublin Castle & talk of collecting one day
into an Anthologia Hibernica.
You shall <have> the dog story [3] which I will try to translate ere long.
it is not from the Araucana [4] – but from a poem which seems to be
written in imitation of it – by a man who like Ercilla had
served in the wars which he sung. A worse poem in every
respect – yet with some passages that amply repaid me for
reading above 10,000 verses. I have seen Miss Sewards
letter: its main drift seems to be a wish to vindicate the
versification of her own sonnets. [5] my versification she does not
understand & to her has
not learning enough to know that as far as precedent be good
for anything upon such subjects, it is justified by Greek –
German & Italian authority. one would think she wished
to provoke a controversy by twice [6] setting at me in public. the
best argument I ever heard against that metre was from
Sotheby. [7] he said there
was a danger of its becoming monotonous – & not having
the various harmony of blank verse. that it was <a>
more plain & palpable metre he fully allowed.
Lambe I see
is returned for Rye [8] – & probably in the
high road to place.
I have received a Portugueze glossary [9]
from Lisbon lately. a wretched book – but still of great
use. to day I shall finish the ninth reign [10] in its second state. in the
next begins the great period of discovery & victory. the
chapters of manners &c I cannot write till the oldest
codes reach me – & my Uncle
& I have had a heavy loss at Lisbon in the death of the
only honest & intelligent bookseller. [11] a young man with
the best physiognomy almost that I ever saw
God bless you.
R S.
July 26.
Notes
* Address: To/ C W Williams Wynn Esqr M.P./ Wynnstay/
Wrexham
Postmark: 122/ BRISTOL/ JUL 26
1802
Endorsement: July 26 1802
MS: National
Library of Wales, MS
4811D
Unpublished. BACK
[1] A recipe for brawn – a
seasoned, jellied meatloaf, made from the head and feet
of a pig or calf. BACK
[2]
The Myvyrian
Archaiology of Wales (1801-1807), edited by
William Owen Pughe, printed many medieval Welsh
manuscripts for the first time. BACK
[3] The ‘dog story’ came
from Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá (1555-1620), who served as
a captain in the 1598 expedition that first colonised
New Mexico. His epic Historia de la Nueva
México (1610), Canto 19, lines 221-244,
described how he was forced to kill his dog for food.
However, he then found he was unable to eat the
animal. BACK
[4] Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga (1533-1594),
Spanish soldier and author of La Araucana
(1569-1589). BACK
[5] For the letter sent by Anna Seward see
The Poetical Register, and Repository for
Fugitive Poetry, for 1801 (London, 1802),
pp. 475-486. BACK
[6] Seward had authored a widely published
attack on Joan of Arc, ‘Philippic on a
Modern Epic’ (1797). BACK
[7] The poet
and translator William Sotheby (1757-1833;
DNB) on the metre of Thalaba
the Destroyer (1801). BACK
[8] On 6 July 1802, Lamb had been elected as an MP for Rye,
a town whose political life his family dominated. His
connections served him moderately well, and he vacated
his seat in 1806 when appointed to the position of Law
Clerk at the Home Office. BACK
[10] Ferdinand I (1345-1383;
reigned 1367-1383). BACK
[11] Possibly Jorge Bertrand, a
bookseller and publisher, who Southey had known on his
visit to Portugal in 1800-1801. BACK
