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MS has not survived. Previously published: Monthly Magazine, 5 (April 1798), 275–276 [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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The second volume contains the “Selva Military
Politica,”Art of War” of Rebolledo will not bear comparison with
Mr. Fawcett’s excellent poem,
This poem begins with the existence of God, an explanation of the trinity, the history of the devil, an account of chaos, of the creation and fall; the progress of society is then described, and Rebolledo asserts, that distinctions were first made by nature, who gave active and enterprising minds to the rulers, and fitted the others for subjection, by making them stupid, indolent, and contented. If indolent and contented stupidity should characterise the governed, and active and enterprising minds were designed by nature to rule, this system has been strangely inverted.
The author next examines the various forms of government, and points out the inconveniences of all. He allows the dangers of monarchy, but observes that, in a christian state, these dangers are not to be feared. The right divine is asserted, and as the consummation of this policy, we have immediately the art of war.
To this poem sixteen little pieces are added, each containing
some example from history. One of these is upon the death of Uriah, and it
concludes thus: “if good kings can act thus wickedly, what ought we not to fear
from tyrants?”
The third volume is composed of religious poems, chiefly
paraphrased from the bible; among these are versions of the psalms, of the book
of Job, and of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. These he dedicated to Christina,
queen of Sweden;
In this volume the history of the “New
Testament” is thrown into a sacred Idylium. He commences it by saying,
that the mysteries of our redemption are properly concealed in the sacred books,
lest they should get into the profane hands of the vulgar: and the introduction
concludes thus; “ye who heard the profane thoughts of my first follies, hear now
my last accents, though not so poetical, much more pious.”sesquipedalia verba,
The “Selvas Danicas” fill the last volume, a
genealogical poem upon the succession of the kings of Denmark.
Such are the works of Rebolledo, who “to the manners of a
Christian and of a cavalier, united the virtues and
endowments that constitute a hero; such as nobility of blood,
and good fortune in his undertakings: and here (says Sedano)illustrious is perfectly applicable with regard to their
blood; not that this is any recommendation of the intrinsic merit of the
sciences; but because it confirms the opinion of those, who think that good
blood and an illustrious education contribute to a love of, and progress in
letters. He then shows, that it is not absolutely necessary that a good poet
should be poor.