Prophets in Southey’s Manuscripts and Correspondence
The excerpts from Southey’s manuscripts and letters presented here disclose his
continued interest in, and personal knowledge of, the prophets of his era—Bryan,
Brothers, Southcott. They also show that he based some of his fictional
characters on them—the prophet Neolin, in Madoc, being based on
Brothers. Most of the letters date from the period when he was writing
Letters from England by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella (1807),
and reveal the research he undertook for that volume: he even planned to visit
Southcott at home and Brothers in the asylum. The manuscript passages are from
the working draft of Letters from England now kept at Chetham’s
Library, Manchester; they reveal that the account published in 1807 differed in
wording and in the order of the sections discussing prophecy.
Robert Southey to William Taylor
- Date: 9 April 1805
- Address: To/ M W Taylor Jun./ Surry Street/ Norwich
- Location: Huntington Library, HM 4873
- Published: A Memoir of the Life and Writings of the late William Taylor,
of Norwich, ed. J. W. Robberds, 2 vols (London, 1843)
Neolin is the common mixture of rogue & madman to be found in all from
Zerdasht [1] to Richard
Brothers, with the courage & presence of mind of Mohammed.
Robert Southey to John Rickman
- Date: 19 March [1806] [dating from JR’s
endorsement]
- Address: To/ John Rickman Esqr
- Location: Huntington Library, RS 86
- Published: Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, ed. J.
W. Warter, 4 vols (London, 1856).
Besides the Asiatic fables are full of resemblances to Xtianity, which have been
advanced by Dupuis & Volney [2] on the one hand to prove that the whole
is astronomical allegory, — & by Maurice & Halhed [3] on the other to show that the mysteries of Religion were
revealed to the Patriarchs. These gentlemen should first have enquired to
all of these xxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxx the xxxxx <xxxx> <when>
this trade in xxxxxxxxx mythology was carried on.
If there be any one thing in which the world has decidedly regenerated it is in
the breed of Heresiarchs. They were really great men in former times, devoting
great knowledge & powerful talents to great purposes. In our days they are
either arrant mad men, or half rogues who pick out the worst parts of the
established creed. I am about to be the S Epiphanius [4] of Richard Brothers
& Joanna Southcote — what
say you to paying these worthies a visit some morning? the former is sure to be
at home Haslam [5] would
introduce us, & we might get xxx <Gods Nephew to give us
his> opinion of Joanna. I know some of his witnesses & could enter into
the depths of his system with him. D. Manuel ought to see Bedlam. As for Joanna,
though tolerably versed in the history of human credulity, I have never seen any
thing so disgraceful to common sense as her previous publications; — but I am
afraid that in all these cases it may be laid down as a general rule that the
more nonsense the better. Whenever a point of doctrine has been discussed the
most absurd has carried the day.
Metaphysicians have become less mischievous but a good deal more
troublesome. There was some excuse for them when they believed their opinions
were necessary to salvation — & it was certainly better for plain people
like you & I that they should write by the folio, than talk by the hour.
What a happy thing would it have been for Stoddart [6] had he been born
in those ages when transubstantion [sic] was xxx philosophically
explained, & the divine & human natures subjected to synthesis &
analysis in the crucible of a metaphysicians skull.
The reign of fabulous Xtianity must be drawing to its end. In
France it is over, unless Bonaparte should take it in his head to endow the
church better, — for which I do not think he wants inclination so much as money.
In Germany the thing is done. the clergy are philosophizing Xtians, or
Xtianizing philosophers. In my countries Spain & Portugal the old house
stands, but there is the dry rot in its timbers, the foundations are undermined,
& the next earthquake will bring it down. Here I do not like the
prospects,—sooner or later a hungry government will snap at the tithes;—the
clergy will then become state pensioners, or parish pensioners, x in
the latter case more odious to the farmers than they are now, in the former the
first pensioners to be ame[MS torn] of their stipends. Meantime the damned
system of Calvinism spreads like a pestilence among the lower classes. I have
not the slightest doubt that the Calvinists will be the majority in less than
half a century;—we see how catching the distemper is & do not see any means
of stopping it. There is a good opening for a new religion, but the founder must
start up in some of the darker parts of the world—it is Americas turn to send
out apostles. A new one there must be when the old one is worn out —I am a
believer in the truth of Christianity, but truth will never do for the
multitude; there is an appetite for faith in us, which if it be not duly
indulged turns to green sickness & xxxx feeds upon chalk &
cinders. The truth is man is not made for this world alone, & speculations
concerning the next will be found at last the most interesting to all of us—
Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn
- Date: 3 September 1806
- Address: To CWWilliams Wynn Esq M P./Wynnstay/ Wrexham
- Location: National Library of Wales MS 4812D
- Published: New Letters of Robert Southey, ed. Kenneth Curry (New
York, 1965).
I have just finished an account of Joanna Southcott, which, if you are not well
informed upon the subject – will surprize you. You will hardly credit
believe that such blasphemies should be tolerated, or such credulity be found in
England at this time. It would be a fit thing to ship her & a ship load of
her disciples off for Botany Bay.
Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn
- Date: [March-April 1807]
- Address: None
- Location: National Library of Wales MS 4813D
- Unpublished.
My dear Wynn . . .
. . . This is a very miscellaneous cargo, & the dullest part
it – that is the account of Animal Magnetism – is the most
extraordinary. That & the accounts of Swedenborgianism & of Joanna
Southcott which are yet to come will show you that nothing is too monstrous to
find believers in this enlightened age.
Robert Southey to William Taylor
- Date: [July 1807?]
- Address: To/ W Taylor Jun Esq/ Surry Street/ Norwich/ Single
- Location: Huntington Library, HM 4856
- Published: A Memoir of the Life and Writings of the late William Taylor,
of Norwich, ed. J. W. Robberds, 2 vols (London, 1843).
Owen lent me when I was last in
town a tale of King Arthurs Court from the Mabinogion, truly Welsh & savage.
If it be possible to make him get thro this work Turner [7] will do it, but poor Owen is one of
Joanna Southcotts four & twenty Elders, – to whom Espriella will soon
introduce you, if you x are yet ignorant of this mystery of fatuity
rather than iniquity. You will find too an account of the Swedenborgian
mythology there, – if you make a Decameron take some of these wild heresies for
the creed of a tale, & let us see a Swedenborgian romance, a Manichæan one
&c –
Robert Southey to John May
- Date: 7 July 1807
- Address: To/ John May Esqr-/ Richmond/ Surry
- Location: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas,
Austin
- Published: The Letters of Robert Southey to John May, ed. Charles
Ramos (Austin TX, 1976).
In reading this book you will easily distinguish what is written for Espriella
from what is written thro him. Those letters which relate
to the state of sectarianism contain some curious matter. Bryan I knew personally, & heard
from his own lips his history, & his explanation of the system of Brothers.
He it was who took the knife to stab Brothers, as he himself told me. Where
these letters are not written from personal knowledge the materials have cost me
some money <in> x procuring them, & some time in examining
them — the facts are not affected by the Catholic colouring. It is the genuine
heretical history of our own times.
Robert Southey to James Grahame
- Date: 4 January 1808
- Address: None
- Location: National Library of Scotland, MS 20768
I should perhaps call myself a Quaker. But I have no Quaker superstitions, &
can see their errors with a strong eye. All sects appear to think unworthily of
man & his maker. You may recognise their opinions thro the assumed character
of a thorough Papist. – As for Joanna Southcote surely that such a woman can
find believers is an extraordinary fact in the history of the present times.
William Owen the Welsh
Scolar is one of her four and twenty elders! Bedlam is the place for such half
lunatic half-imposters because they infect others. I have seen instances of the
mischief Brothers did in making tradesmen leave their business & their
families, all that relates to him & Bryan is written from personal
knowledge. I knew Bryan & heard the whole system from his own mouth, &
he it was who went with the knife to stab Brothers & told me the fact
himself. The main value of the book is its thorough veracity. To the best of my
knowledge I have good authority for every single thing which it asserts.
Robert Southey to John Rickman
- Date: [July 1808] [dating from JR’s endorsement]
- Address: To/ John Rickman Esq./ S
Stephens Court/ New Palace Yard/ Westminster
- Location: Huntington Library, RS 131
- Published: The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, ed. C.
C. Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849-50)
Bonaparte has one benefit more to confer upon the Spaniards — to put both their
King & their Prince out of the way, — which I doubt not he will do. His work
of destruction is not quite completed, I hoped & expected to have seen him
destroy the House of Austria & the Turkish Empire. two great evils which
cumber the earth. He may perhaps turn upon these as an excuse for leaving Spain
alone, — but in Spain the fire has broken burst out which will
consume. — Well done my friend William Bryan the Prophet, you certainly did
prophecy to me in S Stephen Court concerning Spain, as
truly as Moore Francis Moore did in his Almanach last year concerning
the Grand Turk. [8]
Manuscript Draft of Letters from England
- Date: 1805-7
- Location: Chetham’s Library, Manchester. Mun. A.4.2.
- [cf. Letter LIV of the 1807 first edition]
But there is another class to whom it is pernicious:—these are they who having
read without knowledge think themselves qualified to explain difficult texts,
& meddle with the edged tools of theological controversy. One man reading
that my father is greater than I becomes without farther consideration an Arian.
The phrase Son of Man makes another a Socinian, a third extracts Calvinism out
of St Paul. There is a sect called the Jumpers who run out of their conventicle
into the streets shouting out Glory be to God in their own language, &
jumping the while with incessant vehemence—till their strength is literally
exhausted. If you ask the reason of their frantic devotion they can give you xxx
for it, the blind man whom Peter & John healed leaped & praised God,
& David danced before the Ark! These fanatics are confined to Wales, where
the people are half savages. [9]
Many of the higher class as you may suppose live so entirely
without God in the world, that to them it would be of no consequence if the
Scripture xxx was in no other language than the original Hebrew. But
in all ranks of society there are numbers of persons to whom the perusal of Gods
own word is an inestimable comfort, in sickness & in old age, in resignation
under sorrow or in thankfulness for xxx the blessing vouchsafed. the
Bible is to them in stead of beads or masses—they go it [sic] with humble hearts
& perfect faith, & fervently feel all that they understand, &
devoutly believe all which is above their comprehension. Father Antonio these
persons are schismatic because they are born so. it is their misfortune—not
their crime--& I hope I may be permitted to hope that in this case the sins
of the fathers may not be visited upon the children.
How far then Do I then think, from what I have
learnt <it has produced> in England, that the domestic use of
the Holy Scriptures would be beneficial in Spain? speaking with due diffidence
& perfect submission to xxx the Holy Catholic Church I am of
opinion that it would. Melius est aliquid nescire quam cum periculo discere—St
Jerome has said thus [10]
& St Basil compared the effect of the scriptures upon weak minds to that of
strong meat upon a sickly stomach—But the days of Julian Fernandez &
Cypriano de Valera [11] are happily over—we
have an authorised translation free from perversion & were it printed
it in a cheaper form, I think much of the good which it does in
England would be produced, & xxx some of the evil, especially if
according to the decree of the Council of the Trent, no person were permitted to
have it in his possession without the permission of his Priest. It might also
have the useful effect of supplanting some of the books of devotion which savour
too much of credulity, & do little honour to religion. But in saying this I
speak with humbly & with perfect submission to authority.
The English Bible is regarded as one of the most beautiful
specimens of the language, & the book which has fixed it. In order to
preserve the text correct the privilege of printing it is restricted to the two
universities, yet some impressions once got abroad wherein the negation in the
7 commandment had been omitted, & it was said Thou
shalt commit adultery. Booksellers There have <been> devised
a means of eluding this exclusive privilege by printing a
commentary with the text, & in two magnificent Bibles—the price of the one
being about 30 pieces of eight! this was so openly practised as a mere evasion,
that the commentary consisted in a single line in every sheet, printed in the
smallest type, & so near <close to> the bottom of the page
that it could be pared off in binding. These books it may be supposed are truly
magnificent & honourable to the state of arts in the country, but there are
a set of booksellers in xxx xxx whose main business consists in
printing worthless & catchpenny publications for the ignorant in the
country, & they have always a great Family Bible as they call it in course
of publication, ornamented with faithful engravings & published periodically
because most of the deluded people who purchase it could not pay for it in any
other manner. The cover of one of their number was wrapt round some trifling
article which I bought the other day at a stationers,—it professed to render the
most difficult passages clear & familiar, to rectify mistranslations,
reconcile the doubtful, confound the infidel, establish the peace &
happiness of Christian families in this world, & secure their eternal salvation
in the next!
[marginal note facing the Jumpers and the miracle of the blind man] ‘the Babe
leaped in Elizabeths womb when she heard the salutation of Mary
.......................
[f. 229v Southcott]
If Adam she says had refused listening to a foolish ignorant woman at first, the
man might refuse listening to a foolish ignorant woman at last—
with Rulers the age of anarchy—with the people the age of Oppression
above all if we remember
.......................
[f. 230 a list of Southcott’s publications, indicating the extent of Southey’s
research and crossed through by him when cited in the text]
Title at the end of the Book—
Sealing 17.48 K.C> 301 4 Bible 1. Sound an alarm
The Evening Star. 7 B with title at the end.
Sealed Prophecies – 9 D
Pomeroy. 18 D Josephs Book Trial 139 1
Bible 57 Jehovakim
277. Sixth part – she a bone from Christ—as Eve was a bone from Adam.
285 D The Woman the 12 stars & 24 Elders. Trial
xxxiii.
287. D her request that Satan might be set off hard[?]
on the altar
Dreams 28. <23.> J.S. how she killed the Devil.—Cont. of
Prophec. 35.
30. D Drunk by the Lord
38 D
Mr Leach
70 D Day of Judgement begun
80 D
Sanderson D 101.
46. Cont. of Proph. the Rampant Witness
Sound an alarm. 11. J’s visitation—
--22. 23. The Devil
--36. four people call themselves Christ!
--61 The Woman
Word to the Wise. 20-- D
| Divine & Spiritual Letters. |
50. D |
|
60- D |
|
84. The Devil is with Moon
|
|
|
92- D
|
|
|
94- D
|
2 Book of S Prophecies—71. not lengthen the cushions[?]
..................
[f. 232v: a list of phrases on Southcott, crossed through by Southey when they
had been incorporated into the main text]
Her handwriting was illegible—so at last she found it convenient to receive
an order to throw the pen away--& dictate--& she says—or the Spirit
for her, that her words flow faster than her scribes can pen them
they believe that she hath claimed the promise in the creation for the
woman to be the helpmate to man.
Trial. 115. The Woman & the Devil
Now as the man was betrayed by the Woman, & cast his blame on me for
giving him the Woman, it is to man I must clear myself that I did not give
him the Woman in vain. Thus say they the Promise that Woman should be the
Helpmate of Man is fulfilled.
....................
[f. 233 the narrative begins differently for the first few lines from the 1807
first edition, letter LXX:]
An arch-heretic of the same sex is now establishing a sect in England, founded
upon the same portentous blasphemy. <the name of this woman is J S> she
however neither boasts of the charms of her forerunner—nor needs them--<she
is> old, vulgar & illiterate, -- xxx in all the
innumerable volumes which she has published there are not three
<connected> sentences of commonsense in sequence <in sequence> &
the matter & the language are alike in contempt of common sense & common
syntax. When Poets feign an enchantress <Then if the Poets> they
place a golden goblet in her hand, & the draught is <magic>
Yet this woman has her followers in England—in the educated classes--& even
among the beneficed clergy! * [mark indicating quotation to be inserted here]
The enchanted fountains which are described in romance flow with such
clear & sparkling water <streams water> which
tempting the traveller to thirst—here there may be a magic in the draught but he
who can drink of so foul a stream must <first previously> have lost his
senses xxx the filth & the abominations of daemonical witchcraft
are emblematical of such delusions—not the golden goblet & the bewitching
allurement of Circe & Armida.
(And these things are believed in England! in England where Catholick Xtians are
so heartily despised for their superstitions—in England where the people think
themselves so enlightened in the country of reason & philosophy & free
enquiry.—It is amusing to observe how this life of ours is denominated by every
writer as it suits his own views—with the Infidel it is the Age of Reason, with
the churchman the Age of Infidelity, with the chemist the Age of Philosophy –
with the speculator the Age of Free Enquiry & Every man beholding the
prospect thro a coloured glass & making <giving> it
sunshine or shade <shade> frost or verdure, according to his
own fancy—none looking round him & seeing things <it>
fairly as they are <it is>. Truly there never was an age or
country so favourable for the success of imposture & the growth of
superstition as this very age & this very England. If we remember the
unlimited toleration which the law allows, the contemptuous indifference of the
clergy to all opinions <any blasphemy> which does not immediately threaten
themselves—the want of anchorage for the ignorance of the great majority of the
people, & that mere knowledge of reading & writing which makes them
satisfied then with their own knowledge because they can read the delusive books
which are addressed to them & compare them with the bible—of which they are
instructed to consider themselves competent expounders—the want of anchorage for
their faith—the want of able direction for their souls, so that – the
rapidity with which news of every kind false as well as true is circulated thro
the kingdom—the eagerness with which they who are disposed to credit imposture
listen to any new blasphemy. the contemptuous &c--& the unlimited &c
we must acknowledge that there never was any &c)
[this paragraph appears in parenthesis--marked
for transposition. It appears at the end of Letter LXX of the 1807 edition:]
Notes
[1] Zoroaster, Zarathustra: the
Persian prophet, born over a thousand years before Jesus, who founded the
religion of Zoroastrianism. One of Southey’s earliest schemes was to write
epic poems on all the world’s major religions and mythologies, including
Zoroastrianism, about which he had read in Bernard Picart’s Cérémonies
et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde (1723-43)
and in the 1771 French translation of the Avesta by
Abraham-Hyacinthe Anquetil Du Perron. He never fulfilled this
purpose. BACK
[2] Charles
François Dupuis (1742-1809), French scientist and politician, who published
his extensive, twelve volume, Origine de tous les Cultes, ou la
Réligion Universelle in 1795, positing the common origin of all
astronomical and religious mythologies. He continued this argument in his
Mémoire Explicatif du Zodiaque, Chronologique et
Mythologique (1806); Constantin François de Chassebœuf, Comte de
Volney (1757-1820), French philosopher, historian and orientalist, who
predicted the union of the world's religions in recognition of their shared
common truths in Les Ruines, ou Méditations sur les Révolutions des
Empires (1791). BACK
[3] Thomas Maurice (1754-1824), oriental scholar and
historian, who published Indian Antiquities (1792-1796) with the polemical
intent of defending the historicity of the Bible against the French
scholars, Dupuis and Volney, who argued that all the world's religious myths
were allegorical; Nathaniel Brassey Halhed (1751-1830), orientalist and
philologist, who saw aspects of Hinduism as anticipated by Biblical
tradition. BACK
[4] Saint Epiphanius (ca. 310-403), Bishop of
Salamis, compiled a huge compendium of heresies. BACK
[5] John Haslam (1764-1844),
surgeon-apothecary at Bethlem Lunatic Asylum (Bedlam). BACK
[6] John Stoddart (1773-1856), lawyer, Tory journalist,
acquaintance of Southey and of Coleridge in Malta. BACK
[7] Sharon Turner (1768-1847): lawyer and historian of English
and Welsh culture who lived at Red Lion square near the British Museum and
used the manuscripts thus accessible to him to compile a History of
the Anglo-Saxons, 4 vols (1799-1805), on which Southey drew in
Madoc (1805). BACK
[8] Francis Moore
(1657-1715), founder of Moore’s Almanac, in which the
downfall of the Sultan Selim III was forecast. Selim (1761-July 1808) was
assassinated. BACK
[9] A practice
among some Calvinistic Methodists in Caernarvon, North Wales, beginning in
the 1740s, and spreading through Cardiganshire, persisting into the early
nineteenth century. BACK
[10] ‘It is better to
remain without knowledge, safe, than with danger to learn’, St Jerome,
Letter 22, Ad Eustochium de custodia virginitatis. BACK
[11] Julian Fernandez, a
sixteenth-century Spanish Protestant who smuggled Protestant translations of
the Bible into Spain from Germany; Cypriano de Valera (1532?-1602?), editor
of a translation of the Bible into Spanish, 1602, who, in fear of
persecution in Spain, lived in exile in Britain. BACK
