ROBERT SOUTHEY “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Robert Southey HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1774 August 12, Friday: Robert Southey was born. NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT Robert Southey “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1793 When a fellow of Jesus College, William Frend, was arraigned for the publication of a politically seditious pamphlet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge became a student agitator. He developed his own plan for how to avoid the violence which was destroying the idealism of the early days of the French Revolution, and this scheme, which was referred to as “pantisocracy,” involved the creation of a self-contained community of 12 men and 12 women on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania which would govern itself and would educate its children according to its own lights. At this point he was in association with the poet Robert Southey in Cambridge. Granted, this was all pretty stupid, but no Thornstein Veblen had yet come along to explain about the recirculation of the elites, and no Simone Weil had yet come along to explain that “For centuries past, noble minds have regarded the power of oppressors as constituting a usurpation pure and simple, which one had to try to oppose either by simply expressing a radical disapproval of it, or else by armed force placed at the service of justice. In either case, failure has always been complete; and never was it more strikingly so than when it took on momentarily the appearance of victory, as happened with the French Revolution, when, after having effectively succeeded in bringing about the disappearance of a certain form of oppression, people stood by HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY helpless, watching a new oppression immediately being set up in its place.”1 “I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.” — W.H. Auden, September 1, 1939 1. Simone Weil, “Reflections concerning the Causes of Liberty and Social Oppression,” in OPPRESSION AND LIBERTY, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1958. HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1794 When a fellow of Jesus College, William Frend, was arraigned for the publication of a politically seditious pamphlet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge became a student agitator. He developed his own plan for how to avoid the violence which was destroying the idealism of the early days of the French Revolution, and this scheme, which was referred to as “pantisocracy,” involved the creation of a self-contained community of 12 men and 12 women on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania which would govern itself and would educate its children according to its own lights. During this year, whether before of after the “pantisocracy” idea I do not know, Coleridge went down into London under an assumed name, Silas Tomkyn Comberbache, and enlisted as a dragoon. When he was discovered there by his friends, his enlistment contract was bought out by his brothers and he was sent back to his college work in Cambridge. Then Coleridge and Robert Southey left Cambridge for good, and became public lecturers in Bristol, England. LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. June: Samuel Taylor Coleridge met Robert Southey, with whom he would plan a pantisocracy (essentially, a kibbutz thingie). August/September: Samuel Taylor Coleridge met Thomas Poole, a prosperous tanner who would become a good and longlasting friend, and became engaged to Sara Fricker, sister to the poet Robert Southey’s fiancée. October: Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey issued a tragedy, “The Fall of Robespierre.” Coleridge was at this point full of radical political fervor. From this point forward, little Louis-Charles in his prison cell would maintain an obdurate silence (this refusal to communicate would be explained, by others, as having arisen out of his having been induced to make that deposition against his mother Marie Antoinette). December: Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey left Cambridge, for good. Touring Wales, he began RELIGIOUS MUSINGS. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Robert Southey HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1795 January-June: Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey had become public lecturers on political and moral topics in Bristol, England. Coleridge met William Wordsworth. Summer: Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey quarreled, and abandoned their ideas of forming a “pantisocracy” and going to the New World. THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Robert Southey HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1798 At the age of 17, Ebenezer Elliott’s 1st poem, “The Vernal Walk,” was in imitation of the poems of James Thompson (he had also been reading in Byron and the Romantic poets, and Robert Southey). THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Robert Southey HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1799 William Godwin’s ST. LEON, A TALE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY (4 volumes, London: G.G. & J. Robinson). When Charles Lloyd accused Mary Hays of improprieties, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Lamb, Robert Southey, and William Godwin became involved in the furor. WILLIAM GODWIN’S LIFE DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. Robert Southey “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1801 Robert Southey’s THALABA. (At some point, having inhaled nitrous oxide, he would enthuse: “Oh Tom! Such a gas has Davey discovered, the geseous oxyd! Oh, Tom! I have had some; it made me laugh and tingle in every toe and fingertip. Davey has actually invented a new pleasure for which language has no name. Oh, Tom! I am going for more this evening; it makes one strong and so happy, so gloriously happy! Oh, excellent airbag!” Unfortunately, his THALABA would not have a similar impact on its readers.) WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF Robert Southey “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1805 Robert Southey’s MADOC. HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1807 Robert Southey’s LETTERS FROM ENGLAND BY DON ESPRIELLA. HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1808 Robert Southey’s THE CHRONICLE OF THE CID. Ebenezer Elliott wrote to Southey for advice on how to get published and Southey responded (they would correspond until 1824, and in 1823 they would meet each other in person). At Bristol, England Walter Savage Landor caught up with Southey, whom he had missed on a trip to the Lake District in the previous year. He also wrote a work “The Dun Cow” which was written in defence of his friend Dr. Samuel Parr who had been attacked in an anonymous work “Guy’s Porridge Pot,” which Landor was fierce to deny was any work of his. Landor felt impelled to participate in the Peninsular War. At the age of 33 he left England for Spain as a volunteer, to serve in the national army against Napoléon Bonaparte. He landed at Corunna, introduced himself to the British envoy, offered 10,000 reals for the relief of Venturada, and set out to join the army of General Joaquín Blake y Joyes. However, in this he would be disappointed, for he would not be permitted to take part in any real action and found himself assigned to mere support roles, and then at Bilbao he almost got captured. A couple of months later when the Convention of Sintra brought an end to the campaign, Landor returned to England. The Spanish Government offered him its gratitude, and King Ferdinand awarded him the credentials of a Colonel in the Spanish Army. However, the King of England would restore the Jesuit Order and Landor would on account of this return his commission. Returning to England, he joined Wordsworth and Southey in denouncing this Convention of Sintra. CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT Robert Southey “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1810 Robert Southey’s CURSE OF KEHAMA. HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1812 Friend Bernard Barton’s METRICAL EFFUSIONS put him in contact with Robert Southey. Soon he would also make the acquaintance of James Hogg. He would be able to publish volume after volume of his poetry, until 1828. HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1813 Robert Southey’s LIFE OF NELSON. September: Walter Scott’s THE VISION OF DON RODERICK, ROKEBY, and THE BRIDAL OF TRIERMAIN. Robert Southey was anointed Poet Laureate to the Royal Family of England after Scott declined that honor. HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1814 Robert Southey’s RODERICK, THE LAST OF THE GOTHS. HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1817 Robert Southey’s WAT TYLER. HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1819 January 30, Saturday: Poet Laureate Robert Southey wrote a long and carefully considered letter to Ebenezer Elliott, pointing out faults in the poem Night. HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1820 Robert Southey’s A VISION OF JUDGMENT. HDT WHAT? INDEX ROBERT SOUTHEY ROBERT SOUTHEY 1821 George Gordon, Lord Byron: SARDANAPALUS; CAIN; MARINO FALIERO (flopped in London); THE TWO FOSCARI; THE VISION OF JUDGEMENT (a poem written retaliating against Robert Southey’s “A Vision of Judgement,” which attacked “the Satanic School”); THE PROPHECY OF DANTE; DON JUAN III-V. This was the year of the Bowles controversy, during which Byron wrote two letters in defence of Pope, attacking the Lake Poets and the Cockneys.