[3] Letter to Bedford, under date of December, 1793.—Life and Correspondence, p. 69.
[4] In the Imaginary Conversation between Southey and Porson, Landor makes Porson say: “It is pleasant to find two poets [Southey and Wordsworth] living as brothers, and particularly when the palm lies between them, with hardly a third in sight.”
Lamb, too, in a letter to Mr. Coleridge (p. 194, Moxon edition of 1832, London), says: “On the whole, I expect Southey one day to rival Milton; I already deem him equal to Cowper, and superior to all living poets besides.” This is apropos of Joan of Arc, which had then recently appeared. He begins his letter: “With Joan of Arc I have been delighted, amazed; I had not presumed to expect anything of such excellence from Southey.”
[5] George IV. was appointed Regent in the year 1811, the old king, George III., being then plainly so far bereft of his senses as to incapacitate him even for intelligent clerical service. He died, as we shall find later, in the year 1820, when the Regent succeeded, and reigned for ten years.
The Croker Papers (1884), recently published, make mention of Mr. Croker’s intervention in the matter of the bestowal of the Laureate-ship upon Southey. Croker was an old friend of Southey, and a trusted go-between in all literary service for the royal household.
[6] The sixth and seventh volumes appeared after the poet’s death, in 1847.
[7] Henry Crabb Robinson, b. 1775; d. 1867. Diary, Reminiscences, etc. (ed. by Sadler), 1869.
[8] Best edition is that of Macmillan, London, 1869.
[9] Thomas De Quincey, b. 1785; d. 1859. Confessions of an English Opium Eater, 1821. Complete edition of works, 1852-55. Life and Writings: H. A. Page, 2 vols. London, 1877.
[10] The entry is of 1812, p. 391, chap. xv. Macmillan’s edition. London, 1869.