And duly seated on the immortal hill.
Notwithstanding all the attacks aimed at him, Southey continued to write in the interest of his patrons, and retained the office of Poet Laureate until his death in 1843, when it was conferred upon William Wordsworth, who already held a lucrative government appointment. For more complete details of the duties and emoluments connected with the post of Poet Laureate, readers may refer to my little history of the Poets Laureate of England.
The most witty and amusing attacks of Southey’s early republican poems proceeded from the pen of George Canning who started the Anti-Jacobin Review, a series of weekly papers, the avowed object of which was to expose the doctrines of the French Revolution, and to ridicule the advocates of that event, and the friends of peace and parliamentary reform. The editor was William Gifford, author of the Baviad and Mæviad, and John Hookham Frere, Lord Clare, and Lord Mornington, were amongst the contributors. Their purpose was to disparage and blacken their adversaries, and they spared no means in the attempt. Their most distinguished countrymen, whose only fault was their being opposed to the government, were treated with no more respect than their foreign adversaries, and were held up to public execration as traitors, blasphemers, and debauchees. So alarmed, however, became some of the more moderate supporters of the ministry at the violence of the language employed, that Mr. Pitt was induced to interfere, and after an existence of eight months, the Anti-Jacobin (in its original form) ceased to exist.
The Poetry which appeared in the Anti-Jacobin has been frequently reprinted, but the prose contents are now generally forgotten. The best of the poetry was contributed by George Canning, with some assistance from John Hookham Frere, and whilst ridiculing the utopian views of Southey, and his friends, with much point and spirit, it differed from the prose articles of the Anti-Jacobin in that it contained fewer insulting personal allusions, and was generally written in a style of good humoured banter.
It was in November, 1797, that the first parody on Southey appeared, founded upon the following
Inscription.
For the Apartment in Chepstow Castle, where Henry Marten,
the Regicide, was imprisoned Thirty Years.
For thirty years secluded from mankind
Here Marten linger’d. Often have these walls
Echoed his footsteps, as with even tread