Who was Robert Southey?
Poet Laureate, Historian, and Biographer.
Date and Place of Birth:
12th August 1774, Bristol , Avon, England.
Family Background:
The son of a linen draper.
Education:
Westminster School (Expelled for his radical
ideas and denouncing flogging in the School magazine). Oxford University
(Left without taking degree).
Chronology/Biography of Robert Southey:
1794: Met Samuel
Taylor Coleridge in Bristol and the
two became great friends. They developed their own politico-religious
views which they called Pantiscocracy and decided to set up a settlement
in Pennsylvania, USA with their girlfriends the Fricker sisters.
They eventually abandoned the plans and stayed in England.
1795: Published
his first volume of poems. Visits Lisbon.
1796: Began writing
ballads.
1798: Wrote "The
Battle of Blenheim". His poetry did not make him much money
and he had to rely on an allowance made to him by a friend.
1800: Makes another
visit to Lisbon.
1802: Goes to Greta
Hall in Keswick to stay with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
1803: On September
7th Southey decides to stay permanently at Greta Hall., where he
will remain for the rest of his life. The rooms are plastered and
papered and the garden is planted.
Greta Hall, Main Street, Keswick. Southey's study was behind
the right hand window on the first floor.
This is one of the great literary houses of Britain. Besides being
the family home of the Coleridges and Southeys, visitors included
Wordsworth, Byron,
Keats, Shelley,
Walter Scott , De
Quincey, John Stuart Mill, Charles
Lamb, John Ruskin, Humphrey
Davy, William Hazlitt and William
Wilberforce amongst others.
(© Anthony Blagg)
1807: Gets an allowance
from the Government.
1809: Joined the
staff of the literary magazine "The Quarterly Review".
Death of the owner of Greta Hall, William Jackson, a retired wool
tradecarrier. The house is inherited by his brother Rev. J Jackson.
New roof beams are added and the house is given a new roof ("a
'cap of slate and an overcoat of rough-cast").
1813: Appointed
as the Poet Laureate. Heavily criticised by his former friends William
Hazlitt and Lord Byron
for betraying his radical ideas for money. Writes a biography of
Lord Nelson.
1820: Writes a biography
of Wesley.
1821: Commemorated
the Death of King George the Third in a Poem "A Vision of Judgment"
which was heavily satirised by Byron. He
began to turn his attention to biographies and historical works.
1824: Writes "The
Book of the Church."
1829: Writes "The
Lives of the British Admirals."
1830: Writes a biography
of John Bunyan.
St Kentigern's Church, Crosthwaite neat Keswick where the
Southey family regularly worshipped.
(© Anthony Blagg)
1834: Published
"The Doctor" which contained the now famous fairy tale
"The Three Bears".
1835: The Prime
Minister SIr Robert Peel increased his pension.
Written Works:
- 1794: “The
Fall of Robesspierre” (With Coleridge)
- 1796: “Joan
of Arc”.
- 1797: “Letters
Written from Spain and Portugal”. “Poems”.
- 1801:
“Thalaba the Destroyer”.
- 1803:
“Amadis of Gaul”.
- 1808:
“The Chronicle of Cid”.
- 1812:
“The History of Brazil”. “The Curse of Kehama”.
“Omniana” (With Coleridge).
- 1813:
“The Life of Nelson”.
- 1814:
“Odes to the Prince Regent, The Emperor of Russia and the King
of Prussia”. “Roderick The Last of the Gauls”.
- 1816:
“The Lay of the Laureate”. “A Poet's Pilgrimage to Waterloo”.
- 1817: “Wat
Tyler”.
- 1820: “The
Life of John Wesley”.
- 1821: “The Life
of Cromwell”. “Carmen Triumphale”. “A Vision of Judgement”.
- 1823:
“History of the Peninsular War”.
- 1825:
“A Tale of Paraguay”.
- 1829:
“Sir Thomas More”.
- 1834:
“The Doctor”.
- (1845):
“Oliver Newman and other Poetical Remains”.
- (1849):
“Commonplace Book”.
Marriage:
13th November 1795 to Edith Fricker at St. Mary
Redcliffe, Bristol . Edith was the sister of Sarah Fricker who became
the wife of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Places of Interest:
CUMBRIA:
Dove Cottage and Museum, Grasmere, LA22 9SH.
(Wordsworth Trust.)
Greta Hall, Keswick. Now a private family home
of the musician Scott Ligertwood and his partner Jeronime Palmer,
however parts of the house and buildings are available for holiday
let, including the Coleridge wing - see their website
for details) Southey lived here with (amongst other people) Coleridge
and his wife Sarah.
Wordsworth House, Cockermouth has a set of chairs
said to belong to Southey.
DEVON:
The Valley of the Rocks, Lynton, Devon. (Southey
walked here many times inspired by Coleridge
and was a great rock climber).
Watersmeet, near Lynmouth
LONDON:
National Portrait Gallery.
Date and Place of Death:
21st March 1843, Greta Hall, Keswick, Cumbria,
England.
Age at death:
68.
Site of Grave:
St. Kentigern's Churchyard, Crosthwaite,
Keswick, Cumbria. Grave monument restored in 1961 with a Grant form
the Brazilian Government.
Southey's Grave next to St Kentigern's
Church, Crosthwaite, near Keswick
(© Anthony Blagg)
