2788. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 15 May 1816⁠* 

Wednesday 15 May. 1816

My dear G.

I received a proof [1]  on Monday, kept it as is my custom four & twenty hours for due consideration, & sent it back by yesterdays post. It contains the first 15 stanzas of the dream. So that all to which you or Wynn object up to that point is irrevocable, – & to let you into a secret had the case been otherwise, not a syllable of it would I have altered. The Guards indeed I admit to have stood there <only> for this apparent cause – that the throng which they repelld – is a true & lawful rhyme, – which is cause sufficient. [2]  But as for Dream it would have been mere waste of time to have changed the word, if it could have been done in that place, – in my judgement (quoad the use, & weight & current value of words I am not disposed to submit it to any mans) – there was not the slightest reason for changing it. [3] 

Stanzas 30–1- are meant to be congratulatory. [4] 

If egotism in poetry be a sin God forgive all great poets! But perhaps it is allowable in them when they have been dead a few centuries, – & therefore they may be permitted to speak of themselves & appreciate themselves provided they leave especial orders that such passages be not made public <statute> till the <critical> limitation expires. How can Wynn be weak enough to suppose that the man who wrote that third stanza [5]  would be deterred from printing it by any fear of reprehension on the score of vanity! Who is to reprehend him? None of his peers assuredly: not one person who will sympathize with him as he reads, – not one person who enters into his thoughts & feelings, not one person who can understand the strain & enjoy it. Those persons indeed may who live wholly in the present, – but I have taken especial care to make it known that a faith in hereafter is as necessary for the intellectual as the moral character, & that to the man of letters (as well as the Xtian) the present forms but the slightest portion of existence. – He who would leave any durable monument behind him must live in the past, & look to the future. The poets of old scrupled not to say this, – & who is there that is not delighted with these passages whenever the event has justif time has set his seal upon the prophecy which they contain?

____

My spirits do not recover; [6]  – that they should again be what they have been I do not expect; – that indeed is impossible. But except when reading or writing I am deplorably depressed; – the worst is that I cannot conceal this; – to affect any thing like my old hilarity, & that presence of joyous feelings which carried with it a sort of perpetual sunshine, is of course impossible, – but you may <well> <well> imagine that the absence of all this must make itself felt. The change in my daily occupations, – in my sports, my relaxations, my hopes – is so great that it has chan seems to have changed my very nature also. Nothing is said, – but I <often> find anxious eyes fixed upon me & watching my countenance. – The best thing I can say is that time passes on, & sooner or later remedies every thing.

____

So you have put me in large paper, & your whole list of nominees consists of my friends! [7]  Thank you. I will have the books bound separately, – because a book is a book, & two books are worth as much again as one, – & if a mans library comes to the hammer this is of consequence, – & whenever I get my knock-down blow, – the poor books will be knocked down after me. – But when did I touch upon this string! – Alas Grosvenor it is because all things bear upon one subject, – the centre of the whole circumference of my natural associations.

I should like Nash to have one of the vacant copies: – a proper compliment to a man who has laid me under a great obligation; – & upon whom I have farther designs of the same kind. John May will thank you very heartily – he is one of the best men living. – I hope Elmsley gets all my books according to my instructions: he has an ungracious way of never acknowledging them, & therefore I never know whether he has received them or not. – See in your copies that the half title to the Proem [8]  be put in its right place

God bless you

RS.

Remember; small copies for my Governess & the Prince of Cobourg’s. [9]