If it was not
completely
ludicrous, it would be something worse.
Byron
[495]
And, 5thly, Putting the four preceding items together, with what
conscience dare _he_ call the attention of the laws to the publications
of others, be they what they may?
I say nothing of the cowardice of such a proceeding; its meanness speaks
for itself; but I wish to touch upon the _motive_, which is neither more
nor less than that Mr. S. has been laughed at a little in some recent
publications, as he was of yore in the _Anti-jacobin_, by his present
patrons. Hence all this "skimble scamble stuff" about "Satanic," and so
forth. However, it is worthy of him--"_qualis ab incepto_. "
If there is anything obnoxious to the political opinions of a portion of
the public in the following poem, they may thank Mr. Southey. He might
have written hexameters, as he has written everything else, for aught
that the writer cared--had they been upon another subject. But to
attempt to canonise a monarch, who, whatever were his household virtues,
was neither a successful nor a patriot king,--inasmuch as several years
of his reign passed in war with America and Ireland, to say nothing of
the aggression upon France--like all other exaggeration, necessarily
begets opposition. In whatever manner he may be spoken of in this new
_Vision_, his _public_ career will not be more favourably transmitted by
history. Of his private virtues (although a little expensive to the
nation) there can be no doubt.
With regard to the supernatural personages treated of, I can only say
that I know as much about them, and (as an honest man) have a better
right to talk of them than Robert Southey. I have also treated them more
tolerantly. The way in which that poor insane creature, the Laureate,
deals about his judgments in the next world, is like his own judgment in
this.
If it was not completely ludicrous, it would be something worse. I
don't think that there is much more to say at present.
QUEVEDO REDIVIVUS.
P. S. --It is possible that some readers may object, in these
objectionable times, to the freedom with which saints, angels, and
spiritual persons discourse in this _Vision_. But, for precedents upon
such points, I must refer him to Fielding's _Journey from this World to
the next_, and to the Visions of myself, the said Quevedo, in Spanish
or translated. [496] The reader is also requested to observe, that no
doctrinal tenets are insisted upon or discussed; that the person of the
Deity is carefully withheld from sight, which is more than can be said
for the Laureate, who hath thought proper to make him talk, not "like a
school-divine,"[497] but like the unscholarlike Mr. Southey. The whole
action passes on the outside of heaven; and Chaucer's _Wife of Bath_,
Pulci's _Morgante Maggiore_, Swift's _Tale of a Tub_, and the other
works above referred to, are cases in point of the freedom with which
saints, etc. , may be permitted to converse in works not intended to be
serious.
Q. R.
* * * Mr. Southey being, as he says, a good Christian and vindictive,
threatens, I understand, a reply to this our answer. It is to be hoped
that his visionary faculties will in the meantime have acquired a little
more judgment, properly so called: otherwise he will get himself into
new dilemmas.
And, 5thly, Putting the four preceding items together, with what
conscience dare _he_ call the attention of the laws to the publications
of others, be they what they may?
I say nothing of the cowardice of such a proceeding; its meanness speaks
for itself; but I wish to touch upon the _motive_, which is neither more
nor less than that Mr. S. has been laughed at a little in some recent
publications, as he was of yore in the _Anti-jacobin_, by his present
patrons. Hence all this "skimble scamble stuff" about "Satanic," and so
forth. However, it is worthy of him--"_qualis ab incepto_. "
If there is anything obnoxious to the political opinions of a portion of
the public in the following poem, they may thank Mr. Southey. He might
have written hexameters, as he has written everything else, for aught
that the writer cared--had they been upon another subject. But to
attempt to canonise a monarch, who, whatever were his household virtues,
was neither a successful nor a patriot king,--inasmuch as several years
of his reign passed in war with America and Ireland, to say nothing of
the aggression upon France--like all other exaggeration, necessarily
begets opposition. In whatever manner he may be spoken of in this new
_Vision_, his _public_ career will not be more favourably transmitted by
history. Of his private virtues (although a little expensive to the
nation) there can be no doubt.
With regard to the supernatural personages treated of, I can only say
that I know as much about them, and (as an honest man) have a better
right to talk of them than Robert Southey. I have also treated them more
tolerantly. The way in which that poor insane creature, the Laureate,
deals about his judgments in the next world, is like his own judgment in
this.
If it was not completely ludicrous, it would be something worse. I
don't think that there is much more to say at present.
QUEVEDO REDIVIVUS.
P. S. --It is possible that some readers may object, in these
objectionable times, to the freedom with which saints, angels, and
spiritual persons discourse in this _Vision_. But, for precedents upon
such points, I must refer him to Fielding's _Journey from this World to
the next_, and to the Visions of myself, the said Quevedo, in Spanish
or translated. [496] The reader is also requested to observe, that no
doctrinal tenets are insisted upon or discussed; that the person of the
Deity is carefully withheld from sight, which is more than can be said
for the Laureate, who hath thought proper to make him talk, not "like a
school-divine,"[497] but like the unscholarlike Mr. Southey. The whole
action passes on the outside of heaven; and Chaucer's _Wife of Bath_,
Pulci's _Morgante Maggiore_, Swift's _Tale of a Tub_, and the other
works above referred to, are cases in point of the freedom with which
saints, etc. , may be permitted to converse in works not intended to be
serious.
Q. R.
* * * Mr. Southey being, as he says, a good Christian and vindictive,
threatens, I understand, a reply to this our answer. It is to be hoped
that his visionary faculties will in the meantime have acquired a little
more judgment, properly so called: otherwise he will get himself into
new dilemmas.
