3221. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 21 December 1818
3221. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 21 December 1818*
Ode [1]
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My dear Grosvenor
I send you as bad an exercise as I ever shewed up at Westminster. [3] flat as a flounder, & absolutely good for nothing; – fit indeed to be fiddled, – but fitter to be bum-fiddled. They were written doggedly, – there was nothing in my head, & therefore nothing could come out of it: – but in pure courtesy to the composer [4] (my old enemy being defunct) I put the words into a regular stanza, in order that the music which does for five lines, may do for all. Transmit it to Shields with my compliments, – & if you see him, say something xxxx civil to him on my part, – for I have met him formerly at poor Mr Barbaulds, [5] & should be glad to meet him again.
Tell me who James Fontaine [6] of Hornsey is, – a friend of Mr Fielding [7] thro whom, & {so} thro you he meant to have introduced a subject to me, – which he has now done in a xxx more direct way. – A book about Eternal Punishment on which I am sure he is right in the main. But his book is far too long, & wants method. And he does not seem to know that the same opinions have been held by others before him.
God bless you
RS.
Keswick. 21 Dec. 1818.
I had almost forgotten a commission of main importance. When you go in the way of your Tea dealer send us two dozen lb. of seven shilling souchong, three pounds of ten shilling Do. & four lb. of ten or twelve shilling green. N. B. Desire them not to send it in lead, – for we have lead to keep it in when it arrives, & the lead paper last time added nearly a full third to the carriage.
Notes
* Address: To/ G. C. Bedford Esqre/ 9. Stafford Row/ Buckingham Gate/ London
Stamped:
KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 21 DE 21/ 1818
Endorsement: In Ltr of 21
Decr 1818; 21. Decr 1818/ Ode on the
Queen’s death
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. d. 47. ALS; 3p.
Unpublished. BACK
[1] Southey’s annual New Year’s Ode as Poet Laureate, mourning Queen Charlotte (1744–1818; DNB), who had died on 17 November 1818. The ode was neither performed at court, nor published – until Southey let it appear in Friendship’s Offering and Winter’s Wreath (London, 1829), pp. 106–108. BACK
[2] On the occasion of the death of Princess Charlotte, only child of the Prince Regent, on 6 November 1817. BACK
[4] Part of the ode would need to be set to music in case it was required to be performed at Court, by William Shield, Master of the King’s Music. BACK
[5] Rochemont Barbauld (1749–1808; DNB), schoolmaster, Unitarian minister, writer and husband of Anna Barbauld. BACK
