Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Robert Southey
-
Standard Name: Southey, Robert
Robert Southey was a Romantic poet, one of the Lake Poets with Wordsworth
and Coleridge
. In addition to epics, ballads, and other verse, he penned several plays and contributed regularly to the ToryQuarterly Review. His prose works, for which he was celebrated during his lifetime, were primarily historical, ecclesiastical,and biographical, in addition to travel writing. He also produced translations (from French and Spanish), editions, and anthologies. He enjoyed an excellent reputation in his day, and for his last thirty years of life served as Poet Laureate.
Robert Southey
's triple-decker The Life of the Rev. Andrew Bell, edited and completed in part by Southey's widow CB
, was posthumously published on the heels of conflict among those concerned.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Textual Production
Caroline Bowles
She intended to move, with the publication of Chapters on Churchyards, from poetry to prose fiction. Her letter to Southey
written on 21 October 1833 shows her growing frustration with the very pretty poetry...
Textual Production
Caroline Bowles
CB
published the dramatic epic poem Robin Hood, A Fragment, by herself and her late husband, Robert Southey
.
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.
At the time of her marriage to Robert Southey
, CB
intended to produce a second story collection. She also entertained the idea of adding new pieces to an edition of Solitary Hours. By...
Material Conditions of Writing
Caroline Bowles
She had composed this poem while caring for Southey
. She later maintained that it was inspired by a true story.
Morlier, Margaret M. “A Note on ’Goblin Market’: A Literary Source in Caroline Bowles Southey’s ’Young Grey Head’”. The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, Vol.
CB
's letters to the poet she married were published in The Correspondence of Robert Southey
with Caroline Bowles, To which are added: Correspondence with Shelley
, and Southey's Dreams.
Shattock, Joanne. The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers. Oxford University Press.
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Caroline Bowles
She accused William Howitt of treating Southey
unfairly in this book.
Author summary
Caroline Bowles
CB
was a nineteenth-century poet, essayist, and writer of prose fiction. She published extensively in periodicals, particularly Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, and her works were often collected in volume form. Her verse is sometimes sentimental...
Literary responses
Caroline Bowles
In reference to the whole book, the Athenæum reviewer remarked that while Southey
remained a favourite writer his Muse, as she appears in this volume—like our own sense of appreciation perhaps—is no longer in her...
Friends, Associates
Caroline Bowles
CB
rarely travelled far from her home in Lymington. After the death of her old nurse in 1824, she lived alone. Alfred H. Miles
speculates that her parents' deaths tended to strengthen her nervous...
Family and Intimate relationships
Caroline Bowles
After the death of his first wife, Edith Fricker
, in 1838, Robert Southey
proposed to CB
. The original Dictionary of National Biography called her acceptance of his offer the most momentous step of her life.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
Family and Intimate relationships
Caroline Bowles
CB
was too old to have children with Robert Southey
, and the children of his first marriage were not disposed to welcome her warmly. Virginia Blain
speculates that their marriage was not consummated. Southey's...
Family and Intimate relationships
Caroline Bowles
But her relations with Southey
's other children were strained, especially with his youngest daughter, Kate
. Kate and her siblings Bertha
and Cuthbert
(who gives Bowles only slight mention in his edition of Southey
Family and Intimate relationships
Caroline Bowles
Robert Southey
died in March 1843, the immediate cause being typhus.
Blain
provides varying dates of death for Southey
throughout her biography of CB
, including the 20th and the 23rd of March. Most sources...
Wealth and Poverty
Caroline Bowles
Southey
left her only £2,000. His children received much larger inheritances. In 1854 her financial situation was eased when she was awarded an annual Civil List
pension of £200. It appears that the pension was...
