marvellous. In 1806, he was at the same time engaged in writing The History of Portugal, Espriella's Letters, The Chronicle of the Cid, and The Curse of Kehema. When writing to his friend, Mr. Bedford, communicating the tasks he had undertaken, he says, "I tell you I can't afford to do one thing at a time; no, nor two neither; and it's only by doing many things I continue to do as much; for I cannot work long at anything without hurting myself, and I do everything by heats; then by the time I am tired of one my inclination for another is at hand." Whether his works succeeded or failed it was all the same; his courage or perseverance never deserted him. He religiously believed future generations would recognise his talents, and he continued his almost gigantic epics. In 1807 he produced Specimens of the later English Poets, and Palmerin of England, a translation from the Portuguese; and we learn that in the same year he had a proposal from Walter Scott to contribute to the Edinburgh Review. But Southey had some time before abandoned his democratic creed and taken up one diametrically opposite, and for the remainder of his life he became a most uncompromising monarchist, and in his political opinions an extreme conservative. In his answer to Scott, Southey says, "To Jeffery, as an individual, I shall ever be ready to show individual courtesy, but of Judge Jeffery of the Edinburgh Review, I must ever think and speak as of a bad politician, a worse moralist, and a critic, in matters of taste, equally incompetent and unjust." Scott, who was one of Southey's most sincere friends, knowing the large claims on his income, through Canning, had an opportunity of offering Southey some appointment worth 300l. a-year, but that, as well as another of a professor at one of the universities, was declined. Southey had at this time a government pension of 1607. a-year, for literary services ; but a more certain income was opened to him, in the wellpaid remuneration provided by the Quarterly Review, which was set on foot, chiefly at his instigation. In 1813, on the death of Mr. Pye, the offer of the appointment of Poet Laureate was made to Scott, but was by him declined; at the same time he recommended Southey as the most competent, therefore upon Southey it was conferred. For the remainder of his life the labour of Southey was incessant, and by degrees the happiness of his home was flying away. First, he loses one child, of whom he was "foolishly fond;" then another-his daughter marries, and his "best days are over;" and at last, his wife, Edith, who had for forty years been the light of his life, was placed in a lunatic asylum. Upon this latter event, writing to his friend, Grosvenor Bedford, he says, "God, who has visited me with this affliction, has given me strength to bear it, and will, I know, support me to the end, whatever that may be. . . . Mine is a strong heart. I will not say the last week has been the most trying of my life, but I will say that the heart which could bear it can bear anything." While suffering under this trying affliction, the offer of a baronetcy was made him by Sir Robert Peel, then First Lord of the Treasury; and at the same time a private letter, requesting Southey to tell him (Sir R. Peel) frankly how the minister could serve him. Southey, declining the proffered distinction, replied by a clear statement of his position: Sir Robert, without loss of time, attached his name to a warrant, adding 3007. per annum to Southey's income. man. In 1837, his beloved wife, Edith, who had returned to her home, died in a pitiable state, after three years' affliction. After the death of his wife he became an altered He says, "There is no one to partake with me the recollections of the best and happiest portion of my life; and for that reason, were there no other, such recollections must henceforth be purely painful, except when I connect them with the prospects of futurity." To divert his mind, his friends proposed a continental journey, which took place in 1838. On the 5th of June, 1839, he was married a second time to Miss Caroline Anne Bowles, a lady long well known in the literary world, as the author of "Ellen Fitz-Arthur, and other Poems," "Chapters in Churchyards," &c.; Southey being then in his sixty-fifth year. Southey never recovered the loss of his wife Edith, and his friends could see that the vigour of his faculties was evidently now gone, and his melancholy decline became rapidly progressive: forty-five years' incessant literary toil had done its work-the candle was burnt to the socketthe brain was worn out. For the last year of his life it was an utter blank. He died on the 21st of March, 1843, and was buried in Crossthwaite churchyard, where lie his beloved Edith and some children that preceded him. We have seen that in 1806 Southey had begun his History of Portugal, and his correspondence frequently mentions the progress of this achievement; every spare moment from work of the moment was devoted to this cherished object, from which he always expected permanent profit; he laboured at it to the last, and it was left unfinished. |