3442. Robert Southey to
[John Murray](people.html#MurrayJohn),
19 February 1820Address: To/ John
Murray Esqre./ Albemarle Street/ London.
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 22 FE
22/ 1820
Seal: black wax; arm raising aloft cross of Lorraine
Watermark: W D & Co/ 1819
Endorsement: R Southey Esq / Feby 19. 1820
MS: National Library of Scotland, MS 42552.
ALS; 4p.
Previously published: Samuel Smiles, A Publisher and His Friends. Memoir and Correspondence
of the Late John Murray, with an Account of the Origin and Progress of the House, 1768–1843, 2 vols
(London, 1891), II, pp. 109–110 [in part].[Keswick](places.html#Keswick).19 Feby 1820.My
dear Sir Thank you for your letter & its inclosure. I reckoned upon Marlborough for this number,Southey’s review of William Coxe, Memoirs of John Duke of Marlborough,
with his Original Correspondence; Collected from the Family Records at Blenheim, and Other Authentic Sources.
Illustrated with Portraits, Maps, and Military Plans (1818–1819) appeared in Quarterly
Review, 23 (May 1820), 1–73. He did not, as he had hoped, have an article in Quarterly
Review, 22 (January 1820), published on 17 March 1820. & the New Churches for the next.Southey’s review of Benjamin Haydon, New Churches, Considered with
Respect to the Opportunities they Offer for the Encouragement of Painting (1818) and other volumes
appeared in Quarterly Review, 23 (July 1820), 549–591. Let the latter paper have the last
place in the number, for which it will be fitted, by its direct bearing upon the diseased opinions of the
times.
You have sent me duplicates of Chaboulon de FleuryPierre
Alexandre Édouard, Baron Fleury de Chaboulon (1779–1835), Memoirs of the Private Life, Return, and Reign of
Napoleon in 1815 (1820), published by Murray. Southey had a copy of the French edition, Mémoires
pour servir à l’Histoire de la Vie Privée: du Retour et du Règne de Napoléon (1819–1820), no. 563 in the
sale catalogue of his library. & of Burkhardt,The Swiss
traveller and orientalist Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1784–1817). Murray had published his Travels in
Nubia (1819) on behalf of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of
Africa. which I will return cum multis aliis.‘With many others’. Burkhardt is an excellent traveller, in every respect.
Oliver Cromwells Book is one of the very worst that was ever made by a dull man, & will
hardly be of the smallest use in drawing up a life of old Oliver.Oliver
Cromwell (c. 1742–1821; DNB), Memoirs of the Protector, Oliver Cromwell, and of His Sons,
Richard and Henry. Illustrated by Original Letters, and Other Family Papers (1820). This book provided
one of the occasions for Southey’s ‘Life of Cromwell’, Quarterly Review, 25 (July 1821),
279–347. It will serve however for text. The French lifeAbel
Francois Villemain (1790–1870), Histoire de Cromwell, d’après les Mémoires du Temps et les Recueils
Parlementaires (1819). I have not yet examined, farther than to see that some pains have been
taken with it, & that even pains-taking French<men> are wretchedly acquainted with our bibliography; –
the author conceives De-Foe’s Mem: of a Cavalier to be authentic history,Daniel Defoe’s (c. 1660?–1731; DNB) fictional Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720).
& knows nothing of what Noble has done. Nobles Cromwell I will return in the next parcel, having a copy of it.
I want his Memoirs of the Regicides.Mark Noble (1754–1827;
DNB), Memoirs of the Protectoral House of Cromwell: Deduced from an Early Period, and
Continued Down to the Present Time (1787), no. 2040 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library; and
The Lives of the English Regicides, and Other Commissioners of the Pretended High Court of Justice,
Appointed to Sit in Judgement Upon their Sovereign, King Charles the First (1798), no. 2041 in the sale
catalogue of Southey’s library. The subject is very good, & much to my liking.
The reign of George 3. is a wide subject, – & I must talk seriously with you concerning
it.Southey did not produce the proposed history of the reign of George
III (1738–1820; King of Great Britain 1760–1820; DNB). Such a work, in its general design,
as Voltaires Age of Louis 14,i.e. Francois-Marie Arouet (1694–1778),
Siècle de Louis XIV (1751), a history of Europe 1661–1715. upon a larger scale in
proportion to the greater extent of the subject, is what I have long thought of. A comprehensive &
philosophical view of all the revolutions which have occurred during those eventful sixty years, with no more
detail than is required for effect: for a detailed history would be a tremendous undertaking,
almost beyond any mans strength. But I am sure that a most popular work upon my plan might be produced within the
compass of four octavos, or perhaps of three; – a book which every body would read, & which would keep its
place. – And this may, & would in all likelihood, be so great an object, that I you & I must
consider whether it be good policy to employ as much time in treating it upon a smaller scale for the
Review to employ as much time, as would suffice for one third of the work, upon a likely computation.
Antar will be a manageable subject & a good one.Southey did not review Antar, A Bedoueen Romance. Translated from the Arabic by Terrick Hamilton
(1819) for the Quarterly Review. – There is a life of Camoens announced, – upon which I dare
say the author has bestowed a great deal of minute labour. I can make a good article upon this subject, – the
limits of a review being quite sufficient.The book was by Southey’s
occasional correspondent [John Adamson](people.html#AdamsonJohn), Memoirs of the
Life and Writing of Luis de Camoens (1820); Southey’s copy was no. 10 in the sale catalogue of his
library. Southey noticed it favourably in Quarterly Review, 27 (April 1822), 1–39. You
should consign to me also Prince Maximilian Travels in Brazil.The
explorer, ethnographer and naturalist, Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (1782–1867), who had travelled
extensively in south-eastern Brazil. He published an account of his journeys, Reise Nach Brasilien in
Denjahren 1815 bis 1817 (1820), which was translated into English as Travels in Brazil in the
Years 1815 to 1817 (1820); Southey’s copy was no. 1865 in the sale catalogue of his library. Southey did
not review it for the Quarterly Review.
Dobrizhoffer calls his book a History.Martin
Dobrizhoffer (1717–1791), Historia de Abiponibus Equestri, Bellicosaque Paraquariae Natione (1784).
Murray was to publish Sara Coleridge’s translation as An Account of the Abipones (1822). It
will be better to announce it as “An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian people <in the interior> of South
America translated from the original Latin of Martin Dobrizhoffer, one of the Ex-Jesuits, two & twenty years a
Missionary in Paraguay.” The best way of describing the nature & value of the book will be by annexing the
following passage from my Hist: of Brazil – – “the Abipones have been in one thing fortunate above all other
savages; for the history of their manners & fortunes by Martin Dobrizhoffer, a German Jesuit, who devoted the
prime of his years to the task of converting them, & in old age after the extinction of his order, found
consolation in recording the knowledge which he had so painfully acquired, & the labours which had so miserably
been frustrated, is of all books relating to savage life, the most curious, & in every respect the most
interesting.”Southey’s History of Brazil, 3 vols (London,
1810–1819), III, p. 397. Murray took Southey’s advice, advertising An Account of the Abipones thus,
and as no. 25 on the list of ‘Works Preparing for Immediate Publication’ that he issued in December
1820.
I must tell Lord RadstockWilliam Waldegrave, 1st Baron
Radstock (1753–1825; DNB), admiral, philanthropist and Governor of Newfoundland, 1797–1800. He was
of central importance in helping John Clare (1793–1864; DNB) to publish his Poems
Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery (1820). what you will not be surprized <to hear,>
because you will very well understand the reason of my resolution, – that I have been obliged to make the
resolution never of never reviewing a volume of poems.
Believe me my dear Sir Yrs very
truly R Southey. Will you lay by for me a set of proofs of the MarlboroughSouthey’s review of William Coxe, Memoirs of John Duke of Marlborough, with his Original
Correspondence; Collected from the Family Records at Blenheim, and Other Authentic Sources. Illustrated with
Portraits, Maps, and Military Plans (1818–1819) appeared in Quarterly Review, 23 (May
1820), 1–73. – that I may have it as it is written. Its great length is a reason for curtailment: but I
know not how I could have written it in less compass, the quantity of matter being so great in [Coxes](people.html#CoxeWilliam) volumes. I have avoided throughout all technical details, all
general history, & kept as close as possible to Marlborough. Yet it is longer by a full third that you would
have wished to have, or I to make it. The length however may show that I never spare time or labour.