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. Previously published: in E. L. Griggs, ‘Robert Southey and the Edinburgh Review’, Modern Philology, 30 (August 1932), pp. 101–103.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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Overtures have been made me thro Walter Scott to bear a part in
the Edinburgh review ‘chusing my own books, & expressing my own opinions’. This is the answer which I have returned, – I send it
only to you; – not to be shown & talked of.
‘I am very much obliged to you for the offer which you make concerning the E. Review & fully sensible of your
friendship, & the advantage which it holds out. I bear as little ill-will to Jeffrey as he does to me; & attribute whatever civil things he has said of me to especial civility; & whatever pert
ones, (a truer epithet than severe would be) to the habit he has acquired of taking it for granted that the Critic is, by virtue of his
office, superior to every writer whom he chuses to summon before him. The reviewals of Thalaba & Madocart
& part in a system which I thoroughly disapprove. This is not said hastily. the emolument to be derived from writing at ten
guineas a sheet Scotch measure, instead of seven pounds annual, would be considerable; the pecuniary advantage resulting from the
different manner in which my future works would be handled, xxxx probably still more so. But my moral character
feelings must not be compromised. To Jeffrey as an individual I shall ever be
ready to show every kind of individual courtesy: but to of Judge Jeffrey
xxxx & speak, as of a bad
politician, a worse moralist, & a critic in matters of taste equally incompetent & unjust.’
Now Coleridge tho xxxx <this> be plain English, it may not be quite understood in Scotland. Why have I
transcribed it xxxx for you? – that you may chew the cud upon it. Perhaps the late reviewal of Wordsworth
Run down
Wordsworth cannot be, – but he will be run hard. I
think him injudicious in publishing many of these poems, – some few of them seem even to me, absolutely worthless. But I lose patience
at the blindness of heart which dwells upon these & the greater the outcry is the more desirous I am of lifting up a louder voice
in opposition to it. A man named Merrival abused him in the Critical
There are two ways in which Jeffrey should be attacked. by an
exposure of all his errors, moral political &c &c & by a stinging satire – I think I have a sting in my tail long enough to
run him thro. You may remember an old notion of mine that the Man in the Moon was dead? – I would go to the Moon express upon a Night
Mare just when the election for his successor was to take place – & among other candidates bring up Jeffrey. – I have floating fancies enough to make this a poem of some length &
plentiful oddity.
Longman will give you Espriella, & with it Palmerin & the small edition
of Madoc if you think it worth asking for.xxxx duodecimo Madoc
for the [MS torn] & means of the ensuing year. – during which I shall bring forward the first vol. of Brazil, &
most likely my travels in Portugal.
I wish you to review Wordsworths Poems for two especial reasons – the first that you will do it more to my satisfaction <than I myself should>. – the second that you will do it more to his. For tho I
should bestow praise upon him as high as his deserts – that is as high as I have language to convey, I should without scruple blame
what I disapprove. This might be the best way of serving the book. but it would not be the best way of pleasing him, & tho I would
not go an inch to the left hand to please any one <all the men in the world> I would go a yard to the right to avoid
displeasing xxxx any one. If you are too busy – (– yet be you as busy as you may you must have more
time than I have) write me a letter upon the subject & I will fill up any skeleton you may send.
Clarkson has probably talked to you about a new review. Were it possible that
you could undertake the management (oh that I thought this were possible!) you might secure to yourself an income of 500 £ a year.
xxxx challenge all
England at eating gooseberry pye. by myself I challenge all England for good spirits, & making a noise. with you I would
xxxx <challenge> all the critics in England & make open war upon them. – Setting this aside as a thing not to
be hoped for, my main object for obtruding a letter xxxx upon you, who neither like to receive nor to write xxxx
one – was the business of the Edinburgh. If you will attack it in a series of letters, exploring all its falshood & ignorance, I
will bear a full part in this good work: – & if you will join with me in my Man of the Moon I will xxxx be in earnest
about it, & send you the plan for your attention. The Devils Thoughts