3612. Robert Southey to John
Rickman, 20 January [1821] *
My dear R.
I have devised a hieroglyphic for a great Whig landholder, it is – an
Elephant with a Dodo’s head. that <combination> I conceive
expressing the great proportion between their power & their
intellect.
My hexameters look well in print, & read well. I am finishing the
preface & in three weeks you will receive the book [1]
Pandemonium will have opened when this reaches you. [2]
RS.
20 Jany.
Notes
* Address: To/ J Rickman Esqre
Endorsement: Fr RS./ 20 Jany 1821
MS: Huntington
Library, RS 406. ALS; 2p.
Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.),
Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London,
1856), III, pp. 230–231.
Dating note: Year from endorsement. BACK
[1] Southey’s A Vision of Judgement (London, 1821),
pp. xvii–xxii. BACK
[2] The capital of Hell in John Milton (1608–1674;
DNB), Paradise Lost (1667) and Southey’s term for
the House of Commons. Following the withdrawal of the Bill of Pains and Penalties
on 10 November 1820, the government had immediately suspended parliament until 23
January 1821. BACK
