SOURCE: “Introduction,” Robert Southey: The Critical Heritage, edited by Lionel Madden, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972, pp. 1-31.

In the following essay, Madden discusses Southey's critical reputation from his own time through the twentieth century.

Imagine me in this great study of mine from breakfast till dinner, from dinner till tea, and from tea till supper, in my old black coat, my corduroys alternately with the long worsted pantaloons and gaiters in one, and the green shade, and sitting at my desk, and you have my picture and my history.

This was Southey's description of himself as a professional author in 1804.¹ Nine years later Byron wrote in his journal: ‘His appearance is Epic; and he is the only existing entire man of letters. All the others have some pursuit annexed to their authorship’ (No. 45). Byron proceeded to praise Southey's ‘talents of the first order’, finding them displayed in his ‘perfect...