633. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, 30 November 1801 ⁠* 

My dear Henry

I have sent off the Review [1]  to Hamilton. [2]  its insertion does not depend upon me, however – unless another account should already be printed, I suppose he will in common decency oblige me. You directed your letter to me at Mr Corrys, instead of inclosing it to him – in consequence it was charged at the Post Office. the outside should be to him only – & remember you cannot send above an ounce weight.

Your reading now would be more immediately pleasant, & every way more profitable – if you erected land-marks as you went along. Hearing that you are at Ariosto [3]  an idea occurred to me which you may think of at leisure – & if you like pursue. about two or perhaps three year <ago,> a violent tho a well directed attack was made against the Italian Poets, in particular Ariosto, in the Monthly Magazine. [4]  I know you like Ariosto, – & if you could with critically defend the Orlando Furioso – it would not be difficult to get your paper inserted in the same Magazine – & thus put you perhaps in a way of adding a little to your yearly income, while you improved yourself still more – I should like to help you in tracing the history of that Paladin story thro all its families, from Turpin [5]  – or from ought older than Turpin – if it can be found, analysing & criticising the various poems. if this made too large a digression in my own book upon Spanish literature [6]  – it might be published in a separate form. Pulci [7]  & Boyardo [8]  are doubtless within your reach – the rarer books I will hunt out, & furnish all the triumphant poems upon Roncesvalles that are to be found in Spanish [9]  – I think you would like some such leisure pursuit – that the subject would stimulate you sufficiently, & eventually the result be useful & creditable.

Literary habits are not acquired late in life. if you think them worth acquiring, this is the time. they are always a source of pleasure – & that pleasure the most lasting. a more palpable & pressing motive may be urged to you. at present you are plentifully supplied with money, but hereafter you will be compelled to oeconomize, – if the resources of literature should not be absolutely necessary, you will find them convenient. I would now young as you are – introduce you to the Reviews – if it were in my power. but in this way I have no influence whatever. I could not even transfer my own employment on going abroad – neither can I now recover it.

You imagine me in the high road to wealth & power – & travelling full gallop – the whole truth is that for the next year I have an income without working – not exceeding what I should have else have earned & received. that what I write – in my vocation – will be for Mr Corry instead of a newspaper or a bookseller, & that at the years end the only certainty is that I shall be richer – by whatever my leisure hours may have produced. A possibility exists that some birth may be given me in Ireland – a bare possibility – naked as the legal phrase expre to which I have no claim – of which no expectation. the South of Europe is still the point of my wishes. a Secretaryship – & the regular salary there is but £300 – would satisfy my wants – & I would for it abandon far brighter prospects than lie before me. the climate annoys me here, & I find no advantages in England to counterbalance that heavy evil.

I wish it were in my power to visit Norwich – but God knows when that will be. if there were no other objection – I am tethered here.

Burnett is going on miserably & in a way that distresses all his friends. he is earning a poor & precarious subsistence by writing for Philips [10]  – a task for which he has neither activity nor knowledge. there is a hope – but a very poor one – that some office may be found for him in Ireland – if he will stoop to the duties of common attention. I labour to convince him, that if he has the power of ever producing any thing great – any situation is more favourable than that of a hackney author. that he ought to take a tutors place – or an Ushers if it could be got, & give his leisure to what he calls asserting his literary rank. he writes well – but he really possesses no knowledge – & from the little use he ever made of leisure I may say, no love of knowledge for its own sake. & now he has to get knowledge for the sake of getting literary reputation. It is not the first instance I have seen of Vanity misleading a man – but it is the most unfortunate one. poor fellow – I will do what I can to serve him – & wish heartily more were in my power.

I have turned over a whole bundle of Anthology <papers> to some new Editors [11]  who are about to publish print a third volume. the fault they find with my selection ought to imply severer conduct in themselves. Wm Taylors Hexameters [12]  are the great mark of xxxxx abuse in the last volume – I smile to hear the Authors of the very dullest poems there complain of the dull pieces inserted.

My Mother is coming to town with Mrs Lovell. I have been expecting them since Friday – & growling at the lazy & uncivil trick of not [MS torn] to prevent expectation. She was well enough to talk of travelling from Bath to Reading in one day. Of Tom I have not heard for many months. Edward & his Aunt both grow worse & worse – every thing I hear of them only vexes & irritates & distresses me –

Ediths love – God bless you –

yr affectionate brother

R Southey.

Monday. November – 30. 1801.