The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part 2: 1798-1803 A Romantic Circles Electronic Edition Southey, Robert, 1774-1843 Lynda Pratt Romantic Circles General Editor, Neil Fraistat General Editor, Steven E. Jones Technical Editor Laura Mandell 2011-08-15 rce298 letterEEd.26.289 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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MS has not survived. Previously published: Monthly Magazine, 5 (March 1798), 195–196 [from where the text is taken] under the pseudonym ‘T.Y.’. For attribution to Southey, see Kenneth Curry, ‘Southey’s contributions to The Monthly Magazine and The Athenaeum’, The Wordsworth Circle, 11 (1980), 216.

These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer

For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.

A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.

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289. Robert Southey to the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, [March 1798] MS: MS has not survivedPreviously published: Monthly Magazine, 5 (March 1798), 195–196 [from where the text is taken] under the pseudonym ‘T.Y.’. For attribution to Southey, see Kenneth Curry, ‘Southey’s contributions to The Monthly Magazine and The Athenaeum’, The Wordsworth Circle, 11 (1980), 216.

Bernardino de RebolledoBernardino de Rebolledo (1597–1676), Spanish aristocrat, ambassador and poet. was a count of the holy Roman empire, lord of Yrian, head of the Rebolledos of Castille, knight of the order of Santiago, comendador and alcayde of Villanueva de Alcardete, governor and captain general of the Lower Palatinate, general of artillery, minister plenipotentiary in Denmark, minister of the supreme council of war, &c. &c. but if Rebolledo had not been a poet, these titles would have been remembered only in the family pedigree, and on his own monument. On the 31st of May, 1597, he was baptized in Leon, his native city. From his earliest years, says the Spanish biographer, our Bernardino discovered his inclination for that happy union of arms and letters, which so many have made.Juan José Lopez de Sedano (1729–1801), El Parnaso Español, 9 vols (Madrid, 1768–1778), V, p. xxxiii. Two centuries ago this union was less extraordinary than at present: in England we had a Raleigh and a Sydney.Walter Raleigh (1557–1618; DNB) and Philip Sydney (1554–1586; DNB), English soldiers and poets. Spain affords more instances; Lope de Vega served in the Armada; Garcilaso died in battle, and the poem of Ercilla was written in his tent.Lope Felix de Vega Carpio (1562–1635), prolific Spanish poet and playwright, who served in the Armada sent to invade England in 1588 on the San Juan. Garcilaso de la Vega (1501–1536), Spanish poet and soldier, who died at Nice from wounds received in battle at Le Muy. Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga (1533–1594), Spanish soldier and author of La Araucana (1569–1589). But the world is grown wiser, though it may not have grown better, and the trade of war, once held so honourable, is now estimated as it should be. At the age of fourteen Rebolledo entered into the fleet of Naples and Sicily, in which service he remained eighteen years, and honourably distinguished himself. Afterwards he served in Lombardy, under Spinola.Ambrogio Spinola Doria, Marqués de los Balbases (1569–1630), Italian-born military commander who served in the Spanish forces. At the siege of Casal, his right arm was broken by a musket ball.The siege of Casale in Montferrat, 1628–1629, was an important engagement in the War of the Mantuan Succession (1628–1631), a subsidiary part of the Thirty Years War (1618–1648). Perhaps the poet remembers his wound, when, in that part of his “Selva Militar y Politica,” which treats of besieged places, he enumerates, among the provisions necessary for the siege, physicians, surgeons, and medicine chests.‘Selva Militar y Politica’ (1652), in Obras Poéticas del Conde Don Bernardino Rebolledo, 4 vols (Madrid, 1778), II. Southey paraphrases II, p. 68.

After serving in the Low Countries, and negociating with many of the German powers, the count was appointed plenipotentiary to the court of Denmark. But Copenhagen was besieged during his residence there, and for two years the Spanish ambassador assisted in defending the town. After so many toils and dangers he returned to Madrid, full of years and of glory; new honours were accumulated upon him, and he died in that city, universally respected, at the age of fourscore.

Amid the toils and occupations of so adventurous a life, Rebolledo produced those poems that have ranked him among the nine Castilian muses.Francisco de Quevedo Villegas (1580–1645); Garcilaso de la Vega (c. 1501–1536); Esteban Manuel de Villegas (1585–1669); Bernardino de Rebolledo; Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola (1559–1613); Bartolomè Leonardo de Argensola (1561–1631); Luis de Leon (1529–1591); Lope Felix de Vega Carpio (1562–1635); Francisco de Borja y Aragon, Prince of Esquilache (1577–1658). They were printed separately at Amberes and at Copenhagen.Bernardino de Rebolledo, Obras Poeticas, 3 vols (Amberes, 1660–1661), and Selves Danicas (Copenhagen, 1655). An edition, in four volumes, was published about thirty years since at Madrid; Obras Poéticas del Conde Don Bernardino Rebolledo, 4 vols (Madrid, 1778). but it is supposed, that some of his publications escaped the editor’s search. The first of these volumes contains his “Ocios” chiefly consisting of lyric pieces. From this volume a curious epistle is extracted in the “Parnaso Espanol,” hitherto my guide.‘Epistola’ (‘En fin os resistis a las prisiones’) in Juan José Lopez de Sedano, El Parnaso Español, 9 vols (Madrid, 1768–1778), IX, pp. 155–181. The editor selects it as, in his opinion, the best poem in the Ocios of Rebolledo, and as displaying profound erudition, solid piety, exquisite taste, and accurate judgment.Juan José Lopez de Sedano, El Parnaso Español, 9 vols (Madrid, 1768–1778), IX, ‘Indice de las Poesias’, pp. xxv–xxvi. This praise is somewhat enormous, for what he calls a Poema Bibliografico,Juan José Lopez de Sedano, El Parnaso Español, 9 vols (Madrid, 1768–1778), IX, ‘Indice de las Poesias’, p. xxvi. and what may properly be stated a catalogue in rhyme; for it is only a list of books recommended to a young student. In enumerating these, he begins with poetry; the names alone are mentioned of various poets, Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish, without one discriminating epithet or remark; except that Virgil is called, agreeably to Spanish gallantry, “the elegant defamer of Dido.”‘Epistola’ (‘En fin os resistis a las prisiones’) in Juan José Lopez de Sedano (1729–1801), El Parnaso Español, 9 vols (1768–1778), IX, p. 157. The translation is probably Southey’s own. England is only mentioned under the head of history, and the writers he recommends are Camden,William Camden (1551–1623; DNB), English antiquarian. Hector Boethius,Hector Boethius (c. 1465–1536; DNB), Scottish philosopher and historian. and Biondi,Sir Giovanni Francesco Biondi (1572–1644; DNB) Venetian-born historian. a name with which I am unacquainted. He advises his friend to fly from the madness of Copernicus, whose opinions are contrary to revelation and common sense.Nicolaus Copernicus’s (1473–1543) view that the earth moved round the sun was rejected by the Catholic church. Afterwards he mentions all the books in the Old and New Testaments, and gives the number of chapters in each; recommends for frequent perusal, the works of St. TeresaSt Teresa of Avila (1515–1582), Carmelite reformer, mystic and author. and Kempis,Thomas à Kempis (1379/1380–1471), author of The Imitation of Christ. and concludes thus; “as you now aspire to a more secure state you must abhor your former way of life; but if you look back upon iniquity, I shall regard you as a new pillar of salt.”‘Epistola’ (‘En fin os resistis a las prisiones’) in Juan José Lopez de Sedano (1729–1801), El Parnaso Español, 9 vols (Madrid, 1768–1778), IX, p. 181. The translation is probably Southey’s own.

In the same volume there is a madrigal, curiously exemplifying the text; “every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” Luke 14: 11. On the entrance into Biscay from Castile, through the Sierra de Orduna, between the little towns, or rather perhaps villages of Berberana and Lezama, a stream falls from the height of a mountain into a deep valley; through which a current of air continually passes, with such force, as to scatter the water on its fall, and sweep it away in vapour. The vapour, on its elevation, condenses and falls in perpetual rain. This singular sport of nature is the subject of this little poem.

With what a deafening roar yon torrent rolls Its weight of waters, from the precipice, Whose mountain mass darkens the hollow vale! Yet there it falls not, for the eternal wind, That sweeps, with force compressed, the winding straits, Scatters the midway stream, and, borne afar, The heavy mist descends, a ceaseless shower. Methinks that Eolus here forms his clouds, As Vulcan, amid Etna’s cavern’d fires, Shapes the red bolts of Jove. Sure if some sage Of elder times, had journied here, his art, With many a mystic fable shadowing truth, Had sanctified this spot, where man might learn Wisdom from nature; marking how the stream, That seeks the valley’s depth, borne upward, joins The clouds of heaven; but from its height abased, When it would rise, descends to earth in rain.Bernardino de Rebolledo (1597–1676), ‘Madrigal’ (‘De un risco dilatado’) in Juan José Lopez de Sedano (1729–1801), El Parnaso Español, 9 vols (Madrid, 1768–1778), IX, p. 157. The translation is Southey’s own; a copy in the Common-Place Book, ed. John Wood Warter, 4 series (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 271–272, dated 4 February 1798, suggests it was a recent one. T.Y.