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 Chatterton's works for the benefit of Chatterton's sister. He was actively, if not lucratively, employed when, in April 1800, a serious illness again drove him to Portugal, accompanied this time by his wife. The visit lasted nearly a year. In Portugal ‘Thalaba’ was finished, and copious materials were amassed for the ‘History of Portugal.’ On his return he established himself at Keswick, which he quitted for Dublin to undertake a secretaryship to Isaac Corry [q. v.], chancellor of the Irish exchequer. Neither the appointment nor the Irish metropolis proved congenial. Southey was soon back in England, and spent some time at Bristol. The death of his mother and infant daughter, however, rendered the place irksome, and, mainly that his wife might be near her sister, Mrs. Coleridge, Southey removed in 1803 to Greta Hall, Keswick, his residence for the remainder of his life. Greta Hall consisted of two houses under a single roof. Coleridge and his family had occupied one of the houses since 1800. Southey now took the other, and in 1809 became owner of the whole. Coleridge had then practically left his family, and his wife and children continued to be inmates of Southey's house. Life at Keswick brought Southey into more intimate relations with Wordsworth, who was settled at Grasmere, and thus he acquired his undeserved reputation as a poet of the ‘Lake school.’ ‘Thalaba’ had been published in 1801 (London, 2 vols. 8vo). ‘Madoc’ was soon afterwards completed, and it appeared in 1805 (London, 4to.; 4th edit. London, 1815, 12mo). This poem was to be the ‘pillar’ of his reputation. The hope was exaggerated; but, though it was rudely assaulted by Jeffrey in the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ both it and ‘Thalaba’ obtained considerable literary success. The pecuniary results were small, and ‘The Curse of Kehama,’ which had been begun in 1801 under the title of ‘Keradin,’ was for a time abandoned.

The need of a substantial income compelled Southey to put aside his design of versifying ancient and exotic mythologies. He had magnanimously insisted on relinquishing Wynn's annuity upon his friend's marriage in 1806. A government pension of 160l. a year soon filled its place, but Southey was disinherited at the same time by a rich uncle, who deemed his manservant a fitter object of his bounty. He had to provide not only for his own family, but in a large degree for Coleridge's. Apart from his pension, his pen was his sole resource. ‘To think,’ he exclaims, ‘how many mouths I must feed out of one inkstand!’ Never was a life of drudgery more courageously accepted, and the amount of work done was not more remarkable than the quality. With his unswerving conscientiousness Southey combined an innate love of books and a remarkable agility in passing from one subject to another. Among the works undertaken and rapidly carried on after his settlement at Keswick, where he formed a library consisting of fourteen thousand volumes, were translations of the Spanish prose romances of Amadis of Gaul (1803, 4 vols. 12mo), Palmerin of England (1807, 4 vols. 12mo), and the Cid (1808, 4to); ‘Specimens of the Later English Poets, with preliminary notices’ (1807, 3 vols. 8vo; 1811, 8vo); ‘Letters from England by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella’ (London, 1807, 3 vols. 12mo; 5th edit. 1814), a lively account of this country, written in the guise of letters assigned to a fictitious Spanish traveller; a highly valued edition of the ‘Remains of Kirke White, with an account of his Life’ (1807, 2 vols. 8vo); a reprint of Malory's ‘Morte D'Arthur’ (1817, 2 vols. 4to); and the ‘History of Brazil’ (3 vols. 4to, 1810–19). The last was a portion, and the only portion published, of the intended ‘History of Portugal.’ The style of the book has been preferred to that of any other of Southey's prose works, except the ‘Life of Nelson,’ but the scale is much too large. A minor episode, however, published separately as ‘The Expedition of Orsua and the Crimes of Aguirre’ (London, 1821, 12mo), is a masterpiece of narrative. In August 1822 Southey wrote that his ‘History of Portugal’ was substantially complete down to the accession of Don Sebastian in 1557, and his son-in-law stated that the manuscript and additional materials were in his possession, but no more was published.

Two of his principal poems meanwhile appeared. ‘The Curse of Kehama,’ his chef d'œuvre, was resumed and completed, and published in 1810 (London, 4to; 4th edit. 1818, 12mo). ‘Kehama’ is based upon a really grand conception of the Hindoo mythology. The gorgeous shows of Indian courts and Indian nature are admirably reproduced in intricate and sonorous rhymed stanzas. The striking catastrophe owes much to ‘Vathek.’ The second poem, ‘Roderick, the last of the Goths’ (London, 1814, 4to; 4th edit. 1826, 12mo), although rather a work of reflection than of inspiration, contains Southey's best blank verse.

Southey had contracted in 1808 an engagement which impaired his activity as an author of books, while extending his influence and contributing materially to the support of his family. This was the