Sunday. October 28.
an ugly cold & cough has delayed my journey to Oxford which was
fixed for to day. I wish it were over. tho these huge wigs have nothing
really in them they look very formidable.
My dear Sir —
I am less grieved at my disappointment than for the occasion of
it — that vile old grey was only foaled for mischief
Ille & nefasto te posuit die,
Quicumque primum, & sacrilega manu
Produxit, arbos, in nepotum
so said Horace to the tree that fell upon him — if you like to look at the
original it is the 13th ode of the 2nd
book.
if the Baron of Thundertentroncks castle had not been destroyd
(said Dr Pangloss to Candidus) if Miss Cunegonda had not
been ript up alive by the Bulgarian soldiers — if I had not been hung, if you
had not killd an inquisitor & been burnt by the inquisition, we should
not have been now eating pistachio nuts. alls for the best. [2]
according to this mode of reconciling grievances, if the grey had not nearly
broke your neck & your
sons (not to mention how I seated myself) I should never have imitated
this ode of Horace
Unlucky was (I ween) that dolt
Old Grey, who reard thee from a colt —
Oft from thy dam (unlucky jade)
He in the mire & dirt was laid —
Nor he alone, for one & all
Who rode have met with many a fall.
Unlucky too the grooms who deck
The horse to break the riders neck.
For Memory pictures in my mind
That hour when I got up behind —
Some evil Daemons envious power
Presided at thy natal hour
Some evil Daemon sure thee sped
To pitch thy master on his head
And turnd thy wandering eyes about
Your Bessey
[3] still will dread that day
That saw her midst old Oceans sway
Resolvd to tempt his rage no more
She fears but for her friends on shore.
The German hireling
[4] dreads to fight
Exposd to France & Freedoms might —
Proud Prussias disciplind hussar
Trembles again to meet the war
France only dreads the Despots chain
And chuses Death or Freedoms reign.
Death unprovokd & unforeseen
Stalks sternly oer the smiling scene
He grasps his unsuspecting prey
And sweeps whole nations in his sway.
Well nigh my friend in Plutos reign
[5]
Hadst thou beheld the dark domain
Well nigh hadst seen in sable row
The well [MS torn]ggd justices below
And stalking thro the realms of night
Unlucky Gualbertus
[6] sprite
Where fearless he complains to Jove
[7]
How stupid boys are floggd above.
There Milton
[8] might he hear thy lyre
Pour forth the flow of godlike fire
And rear thy Cromwells
[9] praise
& sing
How fallen how mean a tyrant King
Whilst listning crowds in silence hear
And Truths unheard before appear
But chief to hear thy patriot song
Hampden & Sidney
[10] move along
And Brutus
[11] bends thy voice
to know
And Nature listens in Rousseau.
What wonder when the Cherub choir
From their celestial song respire
And bend their piniond heads to hear
And more exalted strains revere
The very ghosts forget their woe
So grand thy godlike numbers flow
Een I oer whose ill fated head
Has Fate her dreary mantle spread
Amid dark Fortunes sharpest shower
Forget that Fortune for an hour
And lost amid thy blaze of day
Forget my very woes away.
___________
You ask me where Tom can be safe
on the continent. I answer in no one place. insurrections are frequently
announced at Brussels & at Berlin & tho’ the intelligence has
been always contradicted it is still more than probably that it will soon
happen. never was there a period more eventful or more astonishing.
Dumourier [12] promises
to winter at Brussels. he talks like Brunswick did & may perhaps act in
the same <manner>.
is xx the report of the secret
treaty between France & Prussia very probable? if it be so I shall
despise his Prussian majesty [13] more than I formerly
detested him. he leads on his desperadoes when there was little to fear
& abandons his allies when there is little to hope!
the French have rid themselves of a while of foreign enemies they
will now quarrel among themselves. I long to see their new Constitution. I beg
my best respect to Mr L. & Mrs
Lamb.
your humble servant
Robert Southey
Notes
* Address: Thomas Philips Lamb
Esqr/ Mountsfield Lodge/ Rye/ Sussex
Stamped:
BRISTOL
Postmark: [partial] OC/ 92
Endorsement: Southey
MS: Duke
University Library, Southey papers
Previously published: John Wood
Warter, Selections From the Letters of Robert
Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 10–13 [where it is dated
‘Bristol, Dec. 1792.’]. BACK
[1] Horace (65–8
BC), Odes, Book 2, no. 13. The Latin translates
as: ‘It was a godless man who planted you upon a lawless day, pernicious
tree, bequeathing ruin to his offspring.’ BACK
[2] A paraphrase of events in Voltaire (1694–1778),
Candide, ou l’Optimisme (1759). BACK
[4] Hesse Cassel, a German state notorious for hiring out its troops as
mercenaries, and an ally of Prussia and Austria during their invasion of
France in 1792. BACK
[5] In Roman mythology, Pluto was the god of the
underworld. BACK
[6] John
Gualbert (c. 995–1073), founder of the Vallombrosian order. The
pseudonym ‘Gualbertus’ was used by Southey for his controversial attack
on flogging as an invention of the devil in the fifth issue of The Flagellant (29 March 1792). BACK
[7] In Roman mythology, the king of the gods. BACK
[8] John
Milton (1608–1674; DNB), poet and polemicist.
His works in praise of Oliver Cromwell included ‘Sonnet 16. To the Lord
General Cromwell’ (1652). BACK
[9] Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658; DNB),
parliamentary general and Lord Protector (1653–1658). BACK
[10] John Hampden (1594–1643; DNB),
parliamentarian and opponent of Charles I (1600–1649; reigned 1625–1649;
DNB). He died in a skirmish at Chalgrove
Field. Algernon Sidney (1622–1683; DNB),
politician and republican, executed for his alleged involvement in the
Rye House plot. BACK
[11] Either
Lucius Junius Brutus, the man credited with expelling the last king of
Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, in 510 BC, or Marcus Junius Brutus (85–42
BC), assassin of Julius Caesar (100/102–44 BC). BACK
[12] Charles-Francois du Perier
Dumouriez (1739–1823), French general, victor at Valmy on 20 September 1792.
In 1793, he switched allegiance to Austria and her allies. BACK
[13] Frederick
William II (1744–1797; reigned 1786–1797). BACK
