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Ballantyne Press

BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO., EDINBURGH CHANDOS STREET, LONDON

THE

LIFE OF NELSON

BY

ROBERT SOUTHEY

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HENRY MORLEY

LL.D., PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AT

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON

LONDON

GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS

BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL

NEW YORK: 9 LAFAYETTE PLACE

1886

MORLEY'S UNIVERSAL LIBRARY,

VOLUMES ALREADY PUBLISHED.

SHERIDAN'S PLAYS.

PLAYS FROM MOLIÈRE. By English Dramatists.
MARLOWE'S FAUSTUS & GOETHE'S FAUST.
CHRONICLE OF THE CID.

RABELAIS' GARGANTUA and the HEROIC
DEEDS OF PANTAGRUEL.

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DEFOE'S JOURNAL OF THE plague YEAR.
LOCKE ON CIVIL GOVERNMENT & FILMER'S
"PATRIARCHA."

SCOTT'S DEMONOLOGY and WITCHCRAFT.
DRYDEN'S VIRGIL.

BUTLER'S ANALOGY OF RELIGION.

HERRICK'S HESPERIDES.

COLERIDGE'S TABLE-TALK.

BOCCACCIO'S DECAMERON.

STERNE'S TRISTRAM SHANDY.

CHAPMAN'S HOMER'S ILIAD.

MEDIEVAL TALES.

VOLTAIRE'S CANDIDE & JOHNSON'S
RASSELAS

PLAYS and POEMS by BEN JONSON.
LEVIATHAN. By THOMAS HOBBES.
HUDIBRAS. By SAMUEL Butler.

IDEAL COMMONWEALTHS.
CAVENDIsh's life of WOLSEY.
DON QUIXOTE. IN Two Volumes.
BURLESQUE PLAYS and POEMS.

DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY. LONGFELLOW'S

TRANSLATION.

GOLDSMITH'S VICAR of WAKEFIELD, PLAYS
and POEMS.

FABLES and PROVERBS from the SANSKRIT.
CHARLES LAMB'S ESSAYS OF ELIA.

THE HISTORY OF THOMAS ELLWOOD.

EMERSON'S ESSAYS, &c.

SOUTHEY'S LIFE OF NELSON.

"Marvels of clear type and general neatness.'

Daily Telegraph.

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IN the volume of this Library that contained his version of "The Chronicle of the Cid," some account has been given of Robert Southey's earlier life, with especial reference to the beginnings of his interest in Spanish literature. He produced "The Chronicle of the Cid" in the year 1808, when his age was thirty-four. His "Life of Nelson" was first published in 1813, when his age was thirty-nine. It was one of the best, if not the best, of his prose writings; and while busy upon it, he was busy also upon the best of his poems, Roderick, the Last of the Goths," which was published in 1814. This book belongs, therefore, to the time of Southey's life when his genius was mature, and his energies were at their fullest stretch of power.

66

After his young enthusiasm for an ideal community had been disciplined by some hard facts, and he had come back from his run in Spain with his uncle Hill, to begin the world as he could with the young wife whom he had married before starting, Southey had only his pen to live by. His friend Lovell had died during his absence, leaving a widow with an infant. Of the widow (his wife's sister) Southey took charge. As long as he lived he supported her, and after his death the care of her passed on to his son. But the generous sense of fellowship that made Southey helpful to others, made also an old schoolfellow and college friend, Charles Wynn, helpful to Southey, with an annuity of £160 in aid of his establishment in life. Southey, who liked neither lawyers nor large towns, entered at Gray's Inn, and settled in London, played at the study of law, worked at his poem of "Madoc," translated for a bookseller, and wrote essays on Spanish and Portuguese poetry for the Monthly Magazine. Then he asked himself why law could not be studied in the country, and settled in Hampshire, by the sea, near the New Forest, with his wife, his mother-whom also he had to supportMrs. Lovell and her child. There he prepared a second edition of his "Joan of Arc," omitting passages that had been written by Coleridge, and wrote articles for the Critical Review. He was active also in pro

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