1263. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 23 [January] 1807*
Dear Grosvenor
I have let one of your emendations pass & no more.1 How comes it man that thou who hast often enough a smile upon thy own face wilt never allow me to have one upon mine when I am writing in my authoritative capacity? Who can think of King James without thinking of King Solomon? – if one does not mention with <him with> contempt one must with abhorrence, & I incline to the side of mercy.2 – There is a fitness in the word unreadably – which by the by is to be found in many a modern book – however not withstanding the sentence subscribed thereunto you may substitute intolerably if your Worship pleases.3 The passage relating to Milton must stand: it means his Defence of the People of England ‘Libertys defence’ – as he himself calls it in the former part of the line quoted.4 nor if it meant Regicide alias Rascalicidexxxxx exclusively, should I alter it, as it is not irrelevant, but on the contrary, essential in this place, as one cause of the neglect of his great poem. – The Creed is not mentioned disrespectfully [MS obscured] the passage again & you will see this – it is coupled with the Paradise Lost – as what people believe – & ought to believe – but cannot comprehend – This is its meaning – if more be looked for in it than ought to be looked for, – for certainly I do not mean to imply that belief in myself.5
Poor Isaac Reid.6 – I have a vile influenza upon me, & some vile ipecacuanha7 upon the table waiting to be taken —
God bless you RS.
Friday 23. 1807.
If your worship is very obstinate you may omit the sentence containing the quotation from Milton – as the wise Mr Winstanleys remark (the dog had been a Barber) fills up the sense sufficiently.8 Only please you to remember Mr Bedford that in the case of Charles I <I hold> Regicide & Rascalicide xxx to <be> synonimous, & that in my sober & serious purpose no man could leave behind him a more honourable autograph than at the bottom of his sentence.
Notes
Address: To/ G. C. Bedford Esqr
Endorsement: 23 Janry 1807
MS: Bodleian Library, Eng. Lett. c. 24. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished. Back
1. This letter is concerned with the preface to Specimens of the Later English Poets (1807), the anthology which Southey was editing with Bedford. Back
2. Southey mocks the pedantry of King James I’s (1566–1625; reigned 1603–1625; DNB) rules for Scots poetry, by contrast with Solomonic wisdom, in the preface to Specimens of the Later English Poets, 3 vols (London, 1807), I, pp. viii–ix. Back
3. The phrase ‘unreadably dull’ describes Henry More’s (1614–1687; DNB) ‘Song of the Soul’, in the preface to Specimens of the Later English Poets, 3 vols (London, 1807), I, p. xxv. Back
4. This passage concerning Milton and his times does not appear in Specimens of the Later English Poets. Back
5. The passage concerning the Creed stood: ‘Every-body believes in the merit of Paradise Lost as they believe in their Creed, and in ninety-nine instances out of a hundred, with as little comprehension of the mysteries of the one as of the other’. See the preface to Specimens of the Later English Poets, 3 vols (London, 1807), I, p. xxviii. Back
6. Isaac Reed (1742–1807; DNB), editor of Biographia Dramatica, or, a Companion to the Playhouse (1782), and proprietor of the European Magazine, had died. Back
7. A popular medication for a variety of illnesses, it was used as an emetic and an agent to cause sweating. Back
8. ‘His fame, says Winstanley, is gone out, and stinketh like the snuff of a candle, because he was a most notorious traitor, and did belie the memory of that blessed martyr King Charles I’. See the preface to Specimens of the Later English Poets, 3 vols (London, 1807), I, p. xxvii. Southey quotes The Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (London, 1687), p. 195, by William Winstanley (c.1628–1698; DNB), poet and biographer, and formerly a barber. Back