733. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 19 November [1802] ⁠* 

I bought eight volumes of old French Poetry at Lisbon, [1]  published about 1720 by Contellier. perhaps this is the same – or part of the same collection which you mention as Cretin [2]  is among them – & that fellow whom Gibbon [3]  mentions. Villon [4]  I think his name who wrote a long poem xxxx when under sentence of death. but the metrical chronicle is not Cretins. Les Vigilles de Charles 7. [5]  I forget by whom, my ear is so Antigallican it never retains a French sound. that poem is very curious – I have many extracts from it. the most curious piece in the collection is I believe by Cretin – about 200 stanzas each of some remarkable thing of his time. I am more desirous to see the poems by Froissart [6]  than any thing else in the language – you will find a better view of old French poetry in Pasquier [7]  than in any other author.

Your censure of the Cid [8]  has rather pleased me because what you as well as I myself have felt to be in the xxxx spirit of poetry is nothing more than the genuine language of the chronicles whence I have compiled. I am very sure that the passages you would point out as most striking are literal translation. the phrase denaturalize so exactly conveys its meaning that I have not now to alter it – where it first occurs in the book I must explain that it was a form whereby vassals legally threw off their allegiance, becoming enemies instead of vassals. now to naturalize being an English word & precisely in the converse meaning. it appears to me that the to compound it with a privative was the shortest & most obvious of rendering the meaning desired. the Cid is not so fair a specimen of my stile, as it is of the manner in which I weave costume xxx <with> the main thread. the oldest Spanish chronicle – that is in Spanish – the one compiled by order of Alonso the Wise [9]  is made up in great part of tradition preserved as is usual chiefly in ballads. many of the facts are evidently the invention of these poets, & tho the metre be lost the character of poetry generally appears. this is the case with all their heroic period – from Bernardo del Carpio [10]  down to the Cid. you must believe a little more than you do of Theseus & Hercules. [11]  in the notes I shall distinguish what is certain truth but they enter my preliminaries as the history <a picture> of manners necessary to be understood than as history. xx xxx daylight begins only with in the Cids time.

I still suffer from weak eyes, an inflammation of the lower lids, so painful at night that I am usually obliged to sit in a dark room. this has sadly impeded my progress. I get on as well as I can but the loss of the candle light hours destroys half of the best half of my time.

God bless you

yrs

R Southey.

Kingsdown.  November 19