285. Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle, [19 January 1798]*
If there were room here, or if I had time at present, I should reply somewhat fully to the first part of your letter. I can however sincerely congratulate you on the intelligence it gave me.
I have never told you how very unhandsome I think the conduct of Wordsworth & his sister to Charles Lloyd, respecting the passage which he has omitted, I never heard of so mean & overbearing an act of vanity.1
You say nothing of Rose2 & the 2nd Volume.3 the second half she[MS torn] from <this> [MS torn] begin the poem. I wish to let the 2nd Vol. be begun by another printer, if it were only to let Biggs know that I think he has behaved very ill to us.
I have not received the Hurri[MS torn]4 because I mean to apply for Lloyds novel,5 & it is not well to make many of those applica[Ms torn]
[MS torn] have writt[MS torn] some lines to my Cousin Margaret at Bath, which I think you would like. in my next volume of poems, a large department will be under the title of Metrical Letters.6 & I have planned several which I much wish to begin. at present the analysing Lope de Vegas most famous, & indeed best, poem takes up some time.7 it is in 20 huge books – but I see land. this book is from the Redcross Library.8
The books I have reviewed are The Minister.9 xTrifles in Verse & xCritical Trifles by Stewart. Christs Hospital. First Flights. Vales of Wever. xWilliam & Ellen. Scath of France. Trans. of Catullus. of the Kisses of Bonefonius. Cheethams Poems. xThe Church. Trip to Portsmouth.10 & Britains Genius.11 with two selections The Leaser, & the Temple of Apollo.12 I have x marked those already printed last month. God bless you.
yrs affectionately R Southey.
Friday.
Notes
Address: To/ Mr Cottle/ High
Street/ Bristol/ Single
Postmark: D.J.A./ 19/ 98
Endorsement: (101) 117
MS: Letter is
written on corrected proof sheets of Southey’s Joan of Arc, 2nd
edition, 2 vols (Bristol and London, 1798), I, pp. 57–64. Bristol Reference
Library, B20873. ALS; 2p.
Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.),
New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York,
1965), I, pp. 158–159. Back
1. The meaning of this passage is obscure. It possibly refers to something in Lloyd’s novel, Edmund Oliver (1798). Back
2. The Bristol printer and bookseller John Rose (fl. 1781–1803). Back
3. Southey was working on the two-volume edition of his Poems published in 1799. Volume 1 was a third, revised edition of the collection originally published in 1797; volume 2 was a new addition, and contained poems written since 1797. Back
4. William Gilbert, The Hurricane: A Theosophical and Western Eclogue (1796). Back
5. Charles Lloyd, Edmund Oliver (1798). Back
6. Poems, 2 vols (Bristol, 1799), II, pp. 85–88 contained one ‘Metrical Letter, Written from London’. It was addressed to Southey’s ‘Cousin Margaret’. Back
7. Probably Jerusalem Conquistada (1609) by Lope Felix de Vega Carpio (1562–1635). Back
8. Southey had been using Dr Williams’s Library, London, established by a bequest from Daniel Williams (c.1643–1716; DNB). Back
9. Southey’s review of Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805), The Minister: a Tragedy. In Five Acts. Translated from the German ... by M. G. Lewis (1797) appeared in Critical Review, 22 (January 1798), 103–104. Back
10. Southey’s reviews of the following appeared in Critical Review, 21 (December 1797): Charles Edward Stewart (c. 1751–1819), A Collection of Trifles in Verse (1797) and Critical Trifles, in a Familiar Epistle to John Fisher (1797), 463; Eaglesfield Smith (c. 1770–1838; DNB), William and Ellen, A Tale, (1796), 463–464; John Sharpe (1769–1859), The Church, A Poem (1797), 460–463. His reviews of the following were published in Critical Review, 22 (January 1798): Eaglesfield Smith, The Scath of France: or, The Death of St. Just and His Son, A Poem. To Which is Added, Sir Mordac and Balma, &c. (1797), 101; Thomas Skinner Surr (c. 1770–1847; DNB), Christ’s Hospital, A Poem, (1797), 102; John Gisborne (1770–1851; DNB), The Vales of Wever, a Loco-Descriptive Poem (1797), 100–101; A Trip to Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight from London, in Rambling Verses (1797), 103; Belinda; or, the Kisses of Joannes Bonefonius of Auvergne (1797), 103; John Heyrick Jnr (d. 1797), First Flights, containing Pieces in Verse on Various Occasions (1797), 102–103; The Poems of Caius Valerius Catullus, in English Verse (1795), 65–67; Robert Farren Cheetham (1777/8–1801), Odes and Miscellanies (1796), 84–86. Back
11. Christopher Anstey (1724–1805; DNB), Britain’s Genius; a Song: to the Tune of ‘Come and Listen to My Ditty.’ – Occasioned by the Late Mutiny on Board His Majesty’s Ships at The Nore (1797), reviewed by Southey in Critical Review, 22 (March 1798), 354. Back
12. Southey’s reviews of the following appeared in Critical Review, 22 (February 1798): The Leaser, being a Selection of the Best Poetic Effusions and Translations of that Immortal Bard, Alexander Pope (1797), 231; William Hodgson (1745–1851; DNB), The Temple of Apollo: being a Selection of the Best Poems, from the Most Esteemed Authors (1797), 231. Back