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 rce754 letterEEd.26.745 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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National Library of Wales, MS 4811D. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849-1850), II, pp. 196-198 [in part].

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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 NINES categories for Genre and Material Form at http://www.performantsoftware.com/nines_wiki/index.php/Submitting_RDF#.3Cnines:genre.3E on 2009-02-26 Architecture Artifacts Bibliography Collection Criticism Letters Drama Life Writing Politics Folklore Ephemera Fiction History Leisure Manuscript Reference Works Humor Education Music nonfiction Paratext Perodical Philosphy Photograph Citation Family Life Poetry Religion Review Visual Art Translation Travel Book History Law Southey Letters: Biographies Southey Letters: Places Laura Mandell XSLT Transforming after latest corrections Laura Mandell XSLT Transforming Averill Buchanan corrections from proofing Averill Buchanan Part II added
745. Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, [21 December 1802] Address: [partial; deletions and readdress in another hand] To/ C W Williams Wynn Esqr /  Lincolns Inn/ Lond Wynnstay/ Wrexham/ NWPostmark: FREE/ DEC 22/ 1802Endorsements: Dec 21 – 1802; [partial] ynneMS: National Library of Wales, MS 4811DPreviously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849-1850), II, pp. 196-198 [in part].

VidiThe Latin translates as ‘I saw’. the review of Edinburgh. Edinburgh Review, 1 (October 1802), 63-83, carried Francis Jeffrey’s hostile review of Thalaba the Destroyer (1801). The first part is designed evidently as an answer to Wordsworths Preface to the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads,William Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads, 2 vols (London, 1800), I, ‘Preface’, pp. [v]-xlvi. & however relevant to me quoadThe Latin translates as ‘with respect to’. Robert Southey is certainly utterly irrelevant to Thalaba. In their account of the story they make some blunders of negligence. they ask how Thalaba knew that he was to be the Destroyer forgetting that the Spirit told him so in the Tent. Thalaba the Destroyer (1801), Book 1, lines 660-669. they say that the inscription on the Locusts forehead teaches him to read the ring which is not the case Thalaba the Destroyer (1801), Book 3, lines 421-450. – & that Mohareb tries to kill him at last Thalaba the Destroyer (1801), Book 12, lines 375-397. tho his own life would be destroyed at the same time – without noting that that very “tho” enters into the passage & the reason why is given. I added all my notes for the cause which they suspect. they would have accusd me of plagiarism where they could have remembered the original hint; but they affirm that all is thus borrowed without examining when all xxxx xxxx xxx xxxxxxxx that belongs to another is subtracted what quantity of capital remains. this is dishonest. for – for the best parts of the poem & the most striking incident of story no hint is to be found elsewhere.

The general question concerning my system & taste is xx <one> point at issue. the metre another. these Gentlemen who say the metre of the Greek choruses is difficult to understand at a first reading, have perhaps made it out at last. else I should plead these choruses as precedent – & the odes of StolbergFriedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg (1750-1819), prolific translator of Greek and Roman poetry. in German, & the Ossian of CesarottiMelchiore Cesarotti (1730-1808), Poesie di Ossian (1772), an Italian translation of James Macpherson (1736-1796; DNB), The Works of Ossian (1765). in Italian – but for this has been done in the M. Magazine review of Thalaba. Monthly Magazine, 12 (January 1802), 581-584. for the question of taste I shall enter into it when I preface Madoc.Southey did not carry out this intention in the preface to Madoc (1805). I believe we are both classical in our taste – but mine is of the Greek theirs of the Latin school. I am for the plainness of HesiodHesiod (8th century BC), early Greek poet and author of Works and Days and Theogony. & of Homer, they for the richness & ornaments of Virgil. they want periwigs placed upon bald ideas. a narrative poem must have its connecting parts – it cannot be all interest & incident – no more than a picture all light – a tragedy all pathos.

It is ridiculous enough to be thus coupled with Wordsworth a man who probably despises my talents as much xxxx as the Reviewers despise his, & with whom perhaps I should hardly agree on any possible subject. for what they say of Coleridge, I only wish it were prudent for Coleridge to speak of them in return. ill as he employs his powers I am mistaken if his character for talents is not every day rising. talents must find their level. the moral world has its laws of gravitation.

The Review altogether is a good one & will be better than any London one because London Reviewers always know something of the Authors who appear before them. & this inevitably affects their judgement. I myself get the worthless poems of some good natured person whom I know. I am aware of what Review phrases go for & contrive to give that person no pain – & deal out such milk & water praise as will do no harm. to speak of smooth versification – & moral tendency &c &c – will take in some to buy the book – which it serves as an emollient mixture for the patient. I have rarely scratched without giving a plaister for it. except indeed where a fellow puts a string of titles by his name – or such a heinous offender as PybusCharles Small Pybus (1766-1810), MP for Dover 1790-1802. Author of The Sovereign: Addressed to His Imperial Highness, Paul, Emperour of All the Russias (1800). There is no evidence that Southey reviewed Pybus. appears & then my Inquisitorship instead of xxxxxx actually burning him – only ties a few crackers to his tail.Southey did, when the occasion, merited, tie more than a ‘few crackers’ to the ‘tail’ of an author. See, for example, his ferocious appraisal of Peter Bayley Jr (c. 1778-1823; DNB), Poems (1803), Annual Review for 1803, 2 (1804), pp. 546- 552, which began ‘STOP thief!’.

But when any Scotchmans book shall come to be reviewed – then see what the Edinburgh Critics will say. the first number smells already of brimstone from their fingers. their philosophy appears in their belief of Hindu chronology! Edinburgh Review, 1 (October 1802), 42-43, review of the sixth volume Asiatic Researches: or, Transactions of the Society Instituted in Bengal, for Inquiring into the History and Antiquities, the Arts, Sciences, and Literature of Asia (1801). God help them! – & when they abuse ParrsSamuel Parr (1747-1825; DNB), whose Spital Sermon Preached at Christ-Church Upon Easter Tuesday, April 15, 1800 (1801) was described in Edinburgh Review, 1 (October 1802), 18- 24, as constructed after ‘the manner of his wig’ (18). stile it is rather a kick at the dead lion old Johnson.Samuel Johnson (1709-1784; DNB), writer and lexicographer. A first number has great advantages – the Reviewers say their say upon all subjects – & lay down the law. that contains their Institutes – by & by they can only comment.

God bless you R S. Tuesday

I am disappointed of the Glamorganshire House – & very much disappointed for it was as lively a spot as heart could wish.

for a more comprehensive character of my Scotch Reviewer VideThe Latin translates as ‘see’. a letter to Dapple Southey to Charles Grosvenor Bedford, 21 December 1802, Letter 744. of this post.