86. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 13 April 1794
86. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 13 April 1794 *
College Green. Bristol. April 13th. Sunday. 1794
My dear Grosvenor
tis a long while since any thing in the shape of a letter has reachd me from your part of the world. your brother is obstinate either in anger or in system. you are busied in the concerns of the nation — & I have been — at Oxford the worst place in the world for letter writing. Friday morning. Burnett called me before the clock struck three. up I got — we breakfasted & talked till five when I departed in the Mail. the folly of my companions taciturnified me — their frigidity of intellect petrified my organs of voice. his most amorous Majesty was an outside passenger but I could not approach his person & was silent all the way. the next morning I conveyd my baggage to the inn. & secured a place in the Caravan newly launched on the plan of your Greenwich machines. [1] this was seven o clock & the coach was to set out at eight. I walked on leisurely. the morning was warm & when I had got four miles — I sat me down by a brook to wait the coach. the spot was within a mile of the school where some of my younger days were passed. [2] & upon viewing the course of the brook I discovered it to the same in which every morning I washed my hands & face. the lapse of twelve years have not obliterated one image from my memory — & I have seldom past half an hour more agreably in solitude than the one yesterday morning. the caravan came — in I went — & away to Bristol.
there is something in the recollection of scenes of childhood that give a pleasing melancholy to the mind. I remember the various hours of alternate gaiety & sorrow, business & play that diversied my time at Corston. on this subject Bowles has written so very beautiful a sonnet, that I am sure the inserting it will delight you.
To the river Itchin near Winton [3]
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The author of this sonnet, tho indisputably one of the first poets of the day, is little known. he was of Trinity College Oxford. I have only seen his sonnets — they are so scarce that a friend of mine [4] transcribed them, & so beautiful that I have copied his transcription.
now Grosvenor I have two pieces of poetry of a very different nature to fill up my letter. the first is by an undergraduate whom I saw at the Anatomy School — physiognomised, & introduced myself to. a man of extraordinary ability.
To a Painter
from Anacreon [5]
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the four last lines run more literally thus.
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This translation pleases me much. Charles Collins has met the author at my rooms & taken a great liking to him. by the by poor Carlo has met with a grievous misfortune. Don Quixotes library has been purged. Wynn & I — guess whats to come. the Curate & the Barber — twas a good fire. the book case open. Jack [7] you know is of an inflammable nature & he burnt well. Wynn & Maule [8] held Signor Carlo on the sofa & I burnt Jack. next morning Maule carried off La Pucelle [9] & poor Collins has nothing luscious left to amuse himself with except Solomons Song & the story of Potiphars Wife. [10] we made a most incomparable ballad on the subject. a parody of the Son of Alknomok [11]
“But Ill buy my Johannes Secundus again.”
Ode to my Stick yclept the Sans Culottes
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Robert Southey.
how is Mrs Bs gout?
Notes
* Address: Grosvenor Charles Bedford Esqr./ New Palace
Yard/ Westminster./ Single
Stamped: BRISTOL
Postmark: AAP/ 15/ 94
Watermarks: G R in a circle; figure of
Britannia
Endorsements: Wrote to R.S. Apl. 11/ 1794; Received this Apl. 14. & 15th/ 1794
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 52–53 [in part; verses not
reproduced]. BACK
[2] This incident inspired Southey’s ‘To a Brook near the Village of Corston’, published in Poems (1797). BACK
[3] First published in William Lisle Bowles, Fourteen Sonnets, Elegiac and Descriptive. Written during a Tour (1789). BACK
[5] The Greek lyric poet Anacreon (fl. C6 BC). Allen’s translation of Anacreon’s Ode, no. 16, follows. BACK
[7] A reference to Johannes Secundus (1511–1536), Liber Basiorum (Book of Kisses), published in 1541. BACK
[8] George Maule (d. 1851), educated at Westminster School and Christ Church (matric. 1793, BA 1797, MA 1800). He was a friend of Southey’s during his time at Oxford, and possibly during his school days. Maule pursued a legal career, and in 1818 was made Solicitor to the Treasury. BACK
[10] The Song of Solomon is concerned with secular love. Genesis 39: 7–19 describes the attempts of Potiphar’s wife to seduce Joseph. BACK
[11] The popular ballad composed by Anne Hunter (1742–1821; DNB) and anthologised as ‘The Death-Song of a Cherokee Indian’ in [Joseph Ritson (1752–1803; DNB)], A Select Collection of English Songs, 3 vols (London, 1783), I, p. ii. BACK
