Het Bilderdijk-Museum. Jaargang 26

[p. 1]

Bij Bilderdijk aan tafel
Een uniek ooggetuigenverslag van Robert Southey uit 1825^1.

Willem Bilderdijk wordt, in de woorden van Johan Huizinga, vaak aangeduid als de ‘groote Ongenietbare’.^2. In het artikel ‘Een beminnelijke Izegrim? Bilderdijk van verschillende zijden belicht’,^3. waarin enkele tijdgenoten aan het woord werden gelaten, heeft Peter van Zonneveld dit beeld enigszins bijgesteld en laten zien dat de dichter ook een vriendelijke, huiselijke kant had. In zijn stuk citeerde hij onder meer uit de brieven van de Engelse dichter Robert Southey (1774-1843). Tijdens mijn onderzoek stuitte ik op unieke documenten, die een kijkje bij Bilderdijk thuis geven. Het gaat om een serie brieven die Southey vanuit Leiden aan zijn vrouw en kinderen stuurde. Ze werden postuum uitgegeven door zijn zoon Charles Cuthbert (1819-1888) in: The life and correspondence of Robert Southey (New York 1855). Daarin is één hoofdstuk gewijd aan de ontmoeting met Bilderdijk. Omdat het werk in geen Nederlandse openbare bibliotheek voorhanden is, werd dit bijzondere ooggetuigenverslag tot op heden onvoldoende opgemerkt.^4. Ook het werk Selections from the letters of Robert Southey (4 dln, London 1856) bevat relevante brieven. Deze documenten vormen een waardevolle aanvulling op het door Van Zonneveld geschetste beeld van de ‘beminnelijke Izegrim’.

De aanloop naar de ontmoeting tussen beide dichters is goeddeels bekend. Toen Southey in 1825 een reis naar Nederland maakte, bracht hij ook een bezoek aan Bilderdijk.^5. Ze waren reeds eerder met elkaar in contact getreden. Aanleiding daarvoor was de Nederlandse vertaling die Bilderdijks tweede vrouw, Katharina Wilhelmina Schweickhardt, gemaakt had van Southeys werk Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814). Uit de briefwisseling tussen Bilderdijk en Isaäc da Costa blijkt dat die laatste het op aanbeveling van vrouwe Bilderdijk uit Engeland had laten overkomen. Da Costa was nogal over het werk te spreken. In een brief van 20 september 1818 sprak hij van ‘echte, origineele poëzy’. Hij meende dat zijn leermeester er zijn eigen dichterlijke wereld in zou terugvinden.^6. Toen Bilderdijk het een maand later zelf gelezen had, schreef hij aan Da Costa dat hij in het werk ‘schoone brokken’ had gevonden. Zijn vrouw op haar beurt had veel zin gekregen om het werk te vertalen.^7. Enkele fragmenten van haar vertaling werden al in 1818-1820 gepubliceerd.^8. Maar het zou nog enige jaren duren voordat de vertaling in boekvorm zou verschijnen. Op 2 december 1821 schreef Bilderdijk aan Da Costa dat zijn vrouw het werk opnieuw had opgepakt.^9. Uiteindelijk verscheen de tweedelige vertaling in 1823-1824, onder de titel: Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje.^10. Op 31 januari stuurde Bilderdijk Da Costa een presentexemplaar.^11. Het werk werd voorafgegaan door een ode ‘Aan den Koninklijken Hofdichter Robert Southey’:

1. Dit artikel is geschreven in het kader van mijn promotieonderzoek naar ‘Het literaire leven in Leiden, 1760-1860’. Promotor: Prof. dr. Jaap Goedegebuure. Op advies van mijn co-promotor dr. Peter van Zonneveld, die suggereerde dat er meer te vinden zou moeten zijn over de ontmoeting met Bilderdijk, heb ik mij in Southeys geschriften verdiept. Marinus van Hattum, de secretaris van het Bilderdijk Museum, dank ik hartelijk voor zijn hulp en advies. Ik ben hem voorts erkentelijk voor het ter beschikking stellen van de door hem getranscribeerde briefwisseling Bilderdijk-Da Costa en van het afschrift van Southeys dagboek uit 1826.

2. De term is afkomstig uit J. Huizinga, ‘De beteekenis van 1813 voor Nederland's geestelijke beschaving’, Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (Leiden 1913) 28.

3. Gepubliceerd in Het Bilderdijk-Museum 24 (2007) 6-9.

4. Dankzij het internet (Google Books) kon ik gebruik maken van een digitale versie. Het is wenselijk dat de correspondentie tussen Bilderdijk en Southey in de toekomst in zijn geheel wordt uitgegeven. Southeys brieven werden overigens wel genoemd in het artikel ‘Robert Southey en Hollande’, Revue Brittannique (1852) 82-97. Ook in De tijdspiegel (1852/1) 290-293 en 368-385 werd er aandacht aan besteed. Een Nederlandse vertaling verscheen in de Vaderlandsche Letter-oefeningen (1852/2) 243-268. Ten slotte verschenen de brieven (in het Frans) in het door J.J.F. Wap uitgegeven blad Astrea, maandschrift voor schoone kunst, wetenschap en letteren 5 (1855) 271-284.

5. Zie over deze Hollandse reis ook C. van Dongen: ‘Robert Southey's reis door Holland in 1825’, Levende Talen (1964) 371-379. Over vriendschap en romantiek C. de Deugd, ‘Friendship and Romanticism: Robert Southey and Willem Bilderdijk’, Joep Leerssen & Karl Ulrich Syndram (red), Europa provincia mundi. Essays in comparative literature and European studies offered to Hugo Dyserinck on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday (Amsterdam/Atlanta 1992) 369-387.

6. Da Costa aan Bilderdijk, 20 september 1818 (bm E 2-9).

7. Bilderdijk aan Da Costa, 18 oktober 1818 (bm F 2-6).

8. De eerste zang verscheen in de door H.W. Tydeman geredigeerde reeks Mnemosyne vi (1818) 233-249, de tweede in Mnemosyne vii (1819) 301-312 en de derde in Mnemosyne viii (1820) 351-373.

9. Bilderdijk aan Da Costa, 2 december 1821 (bm F 4-10).

10. Het werk verscheen te 's-Gravenhage bij de Wed. J. Allart en Comp.

11. Bilderdijk aan Da Costa, 31 januari 1824 (bm F 12-6).

[p. 2]

Robert Southey met kinderen (1814) door A. Buck.

U voere 't windtjen van dees kust
De zucht toe van 't gevoelig harte,
Welks leed uw lier zoo dikwerf sust,
Zoo vaak verpoozing schonk in smarte;
Terwijl uw Oostersch dichtervier
De koudste boezems doet ontgloeien,
En met het tokklen van uw lier
Des weemoeds zoete tranen vloeien.^12.

Vrouwe Bilderdijk had een persoonlijke reden om Southeys werk te vertalen. In augustus 1818 was haar zoon Julius Willem (1798-1818), die als matroos (adelborst) op de Javazee voer, aan tuberculose overleden, een klap die ze nooit meer volledig te boven kwam.^13. Voordat ze het tragische bericht van zijn overlijden had ontvangen, toen ze nog in onzekerheid verkeerde over zijn lot, had ze zichzelf herkend in en gesteund geweten door sommige passages uit de Roderick. Ook daarin was immers sprake van een treurende moeder.^14. Een exemplaar van de vertaling werd door Da Costa naar Londen gestuurd, vergezeld van een Latijnse brief van Bilderdijk.^15. Southey ontving het werk op 27 maart 1824 en was er tamelijk positief over: ‘The translation appears to be very well done, as far as I am able to judge; that is, I can see in the trying passages she has fully understood the original’.^16.

Bilderdijk, zijn vrouw en hun dertienjarige zoon Lodewijk Willem woonden in 1825 aan de Oude Singel (thans nummer 86) in Leiden. Hier leidden ze een teruggetrokken bestaan. Bilderdijk was op dat moment zevenenzestig jaar oud; zijn vrouw was achtenveertig. In Leiden, waar hij jarenlang privécolleges aan huis had gegeven, werd hij bewonderd en gevreesd. Nog maar twee jaar eerder had zijn meest toegewijde leerling, Isaäc da Costa, zijn bekende kritiek op de tijdgeest geuit in zijn Bezwaren tegen den geest der eeuw (1813).^17. Het werk, waarin de auteur protesteerde tegen de verworvenheden van de Verlichting, had felle reacties teweeggebracht. De meeste intellectuelen in Leiden en daarbuiten hadden het stuk veroordeeld, maar de reactionaire Bilderdijk onderschreef de inhoud volkomen. Hij had er zelfs een toelichting bij gepubliceerd.^18. Southey had vermoedelijk, voordat hij een brief van de dichter kreeg, nog nooit van Bilderdijk gehoord. Hij kende hem slechts uit wat die zelf aan hem had geschreven:

Admiraal James Burney door R.H. Dyer, zie bijlage C.

‘He must be near eighty years of age, for he tells me he has been now threescore [zestig] years known as an author’.^19. Bilderdijk overdreef, zoals wel vaker. Hij had immers pas ruimere bekendheid gekregen met zijn prijsvers over De invloed der dichtkunst op het staetsbestuur, dat in 1776 door het Leidse dichtgenootschap Kunst wordt door arbeid verkreegen met een gouden erepenning was bekroond.

Op zaterdag 25 juni 1825 arriveerde Southey, samen met zijn reisgenoten Henry Taylor, Neville White en Arthur Malet, tegen de avond in Leiden, nadat ze eerst Antwerpen, Breda en Rotterdam hadden bezocht. De reis was overschaduwd door een blessure. Bij zijn vertrek uit Engeland had Southey reeds last van zijn voet gehad, als gevolg van het dragen van te nauwe schoenen. Onderweg was deze kwaal onder invloed van het warme weer verergerd. In het Franse plaatsje Bouchain of Mons (nabij de stad Valenciennes) was hij bovendien in zijn voet gestoken door een insect. Toen hij in Antwerpen arriveerde, voelde hij zich zo beroerd, dat hij het liefste naar huis was gegaan. Toch besloot hij zijn reis voort te zetten, ‘which he did in great pain, suffering more from this trifling cause in one week than he ever remembered to have endured in his whole life,’ zoals zijn zoon Cuthbert het later verwoordde.^20. Bij zijn aankomst in Leiden was zijn voet zo pijnlijk, branderig en ontstoken, dat hij zich genoodzaakt zag een arts te raadplegen. Omdat in het logement waar hij verbleef niemand hem verstond, schreef hij een briefje aan zijn enige Leidse connectie: Bilderdijk. Zodra die hoorde dat de Engelsman in de stad was, spoedde hij zich naar hem toe. ‘We were friends at first sight,’ schreef Southey later aan zijn dochter.^21.

Bilderdijk nodigde hem al spoedig uit om bij hem te komen logeren, omdat hij geen hoge dunk had van de Leidse accommodaties. Southey nam het aanbod graag aan. Hij zou drie weken lang in huize Bilderdijk verblijven, ‘where every imaginable care is taken of me,’ schreef Southey aan zijn vrouw, ‘and every possible kindness shown, and where I have all the comforts which Leyden can afford’. Hoewel Bilderdijk zijn Engelse vriend hartelijk en gastvrij huisvestte, was hij in werkelijkheid niet zo blij met diens bezoek. In een brief aan zijn

12. Katharina Wilhelmina Bilderdijk, Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje (Den Haag 1823-1824) ii.

13. Peter van Zonneveld, ‘Julius Willem Bilderdijk (1798-1818)’, Het Bilderdijk-Museum 2 (1985) 9-15.

14. Aan Henry Taylor (bijlage B) schreef Southey: ‘She dedicates her translation to me in a very affecting poem, touching upon the death of her son, whom she lost at sea, and in what manner, before she knew his death, she had applied certain passages in Roderic to herself’. In de Roderick van Southey is sprake van een radeloze moeder. Vrouwe Bilderdijk schreef in haar vertaling bijvoorbeeld: ‘Thands weende ze om den zoon die op het slagveld viel,/ Met heel der zonden last, hem wegende op de ziel;/ Met al de schuld belaân, die heel een volk verplet had./ Ach zoo die moeder wist hoe de Almacht hem gered had!/ Wat vreugd, zoo zy dien zoon, zoo bitterlijk beschreid,/ Gespaard wist voor 't berouw dat tot behoudnis leidt!/ Gestraft wist door Gods hand met vaderlijk meêdogen!/Dat zy dien lievling, aan haar boezem opgetogen,/ Voor 's Heilands gloriethroon, gelouterd door zijn bloed,/ Hier namaals weêr zou zien [...]’. Zie Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje 25-26.

15. Willem Bilderdijk, Mengelingen en fragmenten (Amsterdam 1834) 122-123.

16. Bijlage A.

17. Isaäc da Costa, Dwaasheid, ijdelheid, verdoemenis! Een keuze uit het werk. Met inl. en aant. door G.J. Johannes (Amsterdam 1996) en het onlangs verschenen werk van A. & M. Kagchelland, Van dompers en verlichten, een onderzoek naar de confrontatie tussen het vroege protestantse Réveil en de Verlichting in Nederland (1815-1826) (Delft 2009).

18. Willem Bilderdijk, De bezwaren tegen den geest der eeuw van Mr. I. da Costa, toegelicht (Leiden 1823).

19. Bijlage A.

20. The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey (New York 1855) 433.

21. Bijlage C.

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Lodewijk Willem Bilderdijk (ca 1820) door onbekend kunstenaar.

leerling Abraham Capadose schreef hij: ‘Daar is de Engelsche Dichter Southey uit de lucht komen vallen, op reis een ongemak aan 't been hebbende opgedaan, dat hem nog veertien dagen of langer zal beletten te gaan [...] Hoe dit nu mede gèneert kunt gy begrijpen, zoo wel als dat dit my wederom veel tijd kost.’ Gelukkig vond hij de man ‘zijnen omgang wel waard’ en zag hij veel overeenkomsten met hem in gevoelens en denkwijze. Southey op zijn beurt schreef dat hij een politieke geestverwant had gevonden. Bilderdijk was volgens hem ‘just as much abused by the Liberals in his country as I am in mine, and does “contempt” them as heartily and as merrily as I do,’ schreef hij aan zijn vrouw.^22. Southey, die zijn pijnlijke voet op een stoel moest laten rusten, werd verpleegd en verzorgd door de vrouw des huizes. Bilderdijk zelf reikte zijn gast tal van boeken en zeldzame manuscripten van de oudste Nederlandse dichters aan om er de tijd mee te doden. Mogelijk waren die werken afkomstig uit de bibliotheek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde. Toen de jonge Duitse geleerde August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben in 1821 in Leiden verbleef, had ook hij zonder beperkingen oude drukken en manuscripten mogen bestuderen, en had hij zelfs de sleutel van de bibliotheek gekregen.^23. Southey voelde zich op zijn gemak en was nogal te spreken over zijn gastgezin. De periode die hij onder Bilderdijks dak had doorgebracht, was één van de plezierigste van zijn leven, schreef hij aan zijn broer Harry. Hij voelde zich op zijn gemak en had nergens anders zoveel oprechte vriendelijkheid kunnen ervaren als in deze ‘peculiar and almost insulated family’. Elders schreef hij: ‘It threw me upon the charity of Bilderdijk and his wife, two of the best and most interesting people with whom it has ever been my fortune to become acquainted. And no part of my life ever passed away more rapidly, more profitably, or more pleasantly, than while I was confined to the sofa under this roof.’ Over Bilderdijk schreef hij: ‘I find him a most agreeable and well informed

Titelgravure van Spreuken (1823) door D. Veelwaard.

man, and by no means repent my journey to Leyden, though I am laid by the leg here’.^24.

In de brieven die hij vanuit Leiden aan familieleden en kennissen stuurde, gaf Southey informatie over Bilderdijk. Hij had nog nooit zo iemand ontmoet: ‘So extraordinary a man, in all respects, I have seldom or never met with’. Vrouwe Bilderdijk vond hij ‘in her sex and her sphere, noways inferior to him, though without the slightest eccentricity or display’.^25. Bovendien was hij ontroerd door de getoonde vriendschap: ‘I would gladly purchase two such friends again at the same price, if it were possible that two such could be found’.^26. Zijn brieven waren echter te algemeen om Bilderdijk en zijn familie treffend te karakteriseren, zo vond hij.^27. In de meer persoonlijke brieven die hij aan zijn vrouw Edith Fricker (1774-1837), zijn zoon Charles Cuthbert (1819-1888) en zijn dochters Bertha (1809-na 1843) en Katherine (1810-?) stuurde, deed hij dit wel. Hierin sprak Southey vol lof over zijn gastgezin. Hij was blij dat hij in een confortabel huis kon verblijven, samen met zulke goede en aardige mensen. Bovendien zag hij zijn verblijf als een unieke kans om veel op te steken over de literatuur, de geschiedenis en de huiselijke gebruiken van de Nederlanders.^28.

De eerste avond verliep wat rommelig. De bereiding van het diner duurde ontzettend lang waardoor hij niet voor één uur 's nachts in bed lag. Hij sliep op de begane grond, in een kamer die grensde aan de zit- en eetkamer. ‘A little bottle of brandy is placed on the dressing-table, to be used in cleansing the teeth,’ aldus Southey. Het was voor hem echter een raadsel hoe je in een Nederlands bed diende te slapen. Hij wist niet wat hij met de vele kussen moest beginnen. 's Morgens dronk hij, zoals hij ook thuis altijd deed, een beker melk en realiseerde hij zich

22. Bilderdijk aan Capadose, 30 juni 1825: Brieven van mr. Willem Bilderdijk V (Rotterdam 1836-1837) 113. Verder bijlage D.

23. Kees Thomassen, ‘Hoffmann von Fallerslebens eerste bezoek aan Leiden,’ Nieuw letterkundig magazijn, mededelingenblad uitgegeven door de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde 13 (1995) 35-38.

24. Bijlage C, H en I.

25. Bijlage H.

26. Aan Mrs. Hughes, 6 december 1825: Selections from the letters of Robert Southey iii 517.

27. Aan Mrs. Hughes, 6 december 1825: ‘it would take a longer letter than this to contain all that I could say of these most excellent and most remarkable persons’: Selections from the letters of Robert Southey iii 517.

28. Bijlage E.

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dat hij het goed had getroffen: ‘The house is a good one, in a cheerful street, with a row of trees and a canal in front; large, and with every thing good and comfortable about it’.^29.

Dankzij Southey beschikken we over enkele rake typeringen van de gezinsleden. Bilderdijks enige nog in leven zijnde zoon, Lodewijk Willem, was vrijwel altijd thuis en ging niet naar school.^30. Zijn vader was namelijk, volgens Southey, ‘as little fond of schools as I am’. Lodewijk was volgens de Engelsman een eigenaardige jongen, die naar aandacht hunkerde: ‘The boy has a peculiar, and, to me, an interesting countenance.’ Hij had een zwak gestel. Zijn kleding was netjes, maar formeel. Zijn gedrag werd gekenmerkt door extreme verlegenheid. Iedere keer als Southey zich tot hem richtte, deed dat Lodewijk veel plezier. In een andere brief schreef hij over Lodewijk: ‘He is full of sensibility, and I look at him with some apprehension, for he is not strong, and I fear this climate, which suits his father better than any other, is injurious to him’.^31. Aan zijn zoon berichtte Southey dat hij van Lodewijk een boek had gekregen met Nederlandse versjes, die ze samen zouden lezen als hij weer thuis zou zijn. Toen Lodewijk nog een kleine jongen was, had zijn vader namelijk versjes voor hem gemaakt om hem te leren schrijven. En omdat ze nogal in de smaak waren gevallen, was het handschriftje van Lodewijk gepubliceerd. Southey doelt hier op het anoniem uitgegeven bundeltje Spreuken, dat in 1823 te Leiden bij uitgeverij L. Herdingh en zoon verscheen. Dat bevatte typisch Bilderdijkiaanse zinnen als: ‘Die altijd op zijn Heiland ziet,/ Zal nooit bezwijken in 't verdriet’ en ‘Al rot het lijf in 's aardrijks schoot,/ De ziel blijft leven na den dood’.^32. Hoewel er volgens Southey veel van waren verkocht, bleken er op de fondsveiling van uitgeverij Herdingh in 1835 nog 2260 exemplaren over te zijn.^33.

Lodewijk had nauwelijks contact met leeftijdgenootjes. Zijn enige speelmaatje was volgens Southey een ‘magnificent tabby cat, as old as himself, who, however, is known by no other name than puss, which is good Dutch as well as English’. Ook was Lodewijk, zo schreef Southey aan zijn zoon, druk in de weer met zijn ooievaar. Die was uit een nest gevallen, waarna iemand zijn vleugel geknipt had. Toen de ooievaar probeerde weg te vliegen, was hij in de tuin van Bilderdijk terechtgekomen, meer dood dan levend. Hij zou spoedig zijn doodgegaan als vrouwe Bilderdijk zich niet over hem had ontfermd. Samen met Lodewijk voedde zij hem, waardoor hij herstelde. ‘He was very fond of Lodowijk, and Lodowijk was as fond of his oyevaar, [...] and they used to play together in such a manner that his father says it was a pleasure to see them’. De ooievaar vertrapte met zijn grote poten alle aardbeistruiken en groentegewassen. Maar dat deerde Bilderdijk en zijn vrouw niet, omdat de ooievaar van Lodewijk hield. Ze lieten soms zelfs van ver paling voor hem halen, als die in Leiden niet te krijgen was. De eerste dag dat Southey bij Bilderdijk logeerde, vloog de ooievaar weg; zijn vleugels waren genezen. Lodewijk maakte zich grote zorgen en was bang dat de ooievaar het niet zou overleven. De dag daarna kwam de ooievaar echter weer terug en landde op een nabijgelegen muurtje. Het schemerde en ooievaars kunnen in het donker niets zien, maar toen Lodewijk hem riep met zijn koosnaampje ‘Oye! Oye!’, draaide hij zijn hoofd in de richting van het geluid. De volgende morgen was hij verdwenen, maar hij zou nog een keer terugkeren.^34.

Ten slotte schetste Southey een beeld van Bilderdijk en zijn vrouw. Hij was trots op zijn vrouw en hield veel van haar. Zij, op haar beurt, was minstens even trots op hem, aldus Southey. De Engelsman was op de hoogte van het leed dat ze te verduren had gekregen: de vele miskramen en sterfgevallen. ‘Her life seems almost a miracle after what she has gone through,’ schreef hij aan zijn vrouw. Hij verbaasde zich erover dat de bedeesde Katharina Wilhelmina een befaamde dichteres was: ‘One would think it almost impossible that a person so meek, so quiet, so retiring, so altogether without display, should be a successful authoress, or hold the first place in her country as a poetess’.

Het viel de Engelsman op dat zijn vrouw, die verscheidene jaren met haar ouders in Londen had gewoond, vloeiend Engels sprak, zonder haperingen en zonder buitenlands accent. Bilderdijk daarentegen had een zeer opmerkelijke spreektrant. Niets was vermakelijker dan zijn conversatie, schreef hij aan zijn vrouw. Over Bilderdijks curieuze taalgebruik schreef hij dat het een mix was van Engels, Latijn en Nederlands. Bovendien gebruikte hij dikwijls in Southeys ogen merkwaardige uitdrukkingen: ‘When he would say “I was pleased,” he says “I was very pleasant;” and instead of saying that a poor woman was wounded, with whom he was overturned in a stage-coach in England, he said she was severely blessed. Maar alles wat Bilderdijk zei, was volgens Southey informatief, levendig en karaktervol, ‘and there is such a thorough good nature, kindness, and frankness about him’.^35.

In zijn brieven beschreef Southey nauwgezet hoe zijn dagindeling er bij de familie Bilderdijk uitzag. 's Morgens om acht uur klopte Lodewijk op zijn deur. Hij kleedde zich en als hij daarna de eetkamer betrad, was het ontbijt al opgediend. Hij nam plaats aan tafel, die voor zijn gemak dichtbij de sofa was geplaatst. Zo kon hij zijn voet gemakkelijk op een kussen leggen. De maaltijd werd voorafgegaan door een dankgebed. Dan nam Bilderdijk zijn ‘little gray cap’ af en werd er op stille toon een gebed gepreveld. Na afloop pakte de dichter de hand van zijn vrouw. Ze zaten naast elkaar tegenover hun Engelse gast. Lodewijk zat aan het hoofd van de tafel. De familie dronk koffie, Southey warme melk. Ook stonden er brood, boter en twee soorten kaas op tafel, ‘one of which is very strong, and highly flavored with cummin and cloves: this is called Leyden cheese’. Tegen tienen arriveerde de huisarts, die Southeys voet opnieuw verbond. Daarna werd er thee gedronken. Terwijl vrouwe Bilderdijk de afwas deed, zaten Bilderdijk en zijn gast bij elkaar en praatten. De rest van de morgen las Southey Nederlandstalige werken (waaronder Jacob Cats), rustte hij in zijn slaapkamer of schreef hij brieven.^36.

In de vroege middag werd een glaasje gedronken en een plakje Deventer koek gegeten, die bij de Engelsman in de smaak viel. Een uurtje later, tussen half drie en drie uur, werd er gedineerd. Er werd nooit schaap of varken geserveerd, aldus de Engelsman. Dat vlees vond met niet geschikt voor iemand met een wond. Om dezelfde reden werd in gerechten slechts spaarzaam gebruik gemaakt van peper. De andere gerechten werden overigens wel kruidig bereid; de vissaus leek volgens Southey meer op ‘custard’ dan op botersaus. Er werden vis en geroosterd vlees opgediend en daarnaast allerlei groenten, zoals doperwten, peultjes, bloemkool, (kidney)bonen, wortelen, rapen en aardappelen. De gast verbaasde zich over de in zijn ogen vreemde gerechten als gestoofde zoete appeltjes met geroosterde kip. ‘I never know, when I begin a dish, whether it is sugared or will require salt,’ schreef hij. Hij vond het eten smakelijk. De diners duurden wel ontzettend lang. Na de hoofdmaaltijd werden er altijd aardbeien en kersen gegeten (soms met room) en een enkele keer meloen of bessen. Daarna werd er koffie gedronken en werd er een uurtje een dutje gedaan. Vervolgens werd rond half negen gesoupeerd. Bilderdijk dronk dan melk en Southey at nog wat gepekeld

29. Bijlage D en F.

30. J.L. van Essen, ‘Bilderdijk en zijn jongste zoon’, M. van Hattum [e.a.] (red.): Folia Bilderdijkiana, bladen voor Bosch (Amsterdam 1985) 71.

31. Bijlage D en F.

32. [Willem Bilderdijk], Spreuken (Leiden 1823) 19 en 33.

33. L.T. Monfils, Willem Bilderdijk bibliografie. Analytische bibliografie van de zelfstandige publicaties 1777-2004, bibliografische lijst van niet-zelfstandige publicaties 1772-1831 (Amstelveen 2006) 158-159.

34. Bijlage E en F.

35. Bijlage D en F.

36. Bijlage F.

[p. 5]

vlees. Rond half tien ging hij meestal naar bed, terwijl Bilderdijk nog lang opbleef. ‘Mr. B. sits up till three or four, living almost without sleep,’ schreef hij aan zijn vrouw.^37.

Geleidelijk ging het beter met Southeys voet en kon hij enkele uitstapjes maken: een tochtje naar de sluizen van de Rijn bij Katwijk, een rondgang langs Leidse boekhandels (hij kocht een grote hoeveelheid werken, die hij naar Engeland liet verschepen) en een bezoek aan Den Haag. Daar ontmoette hij de befaamde improvisator Willem de Clercq, met wie hij reeds gecorrespondeerd had.^38. Op donderdag 14 juli maakten Bilderdijk, zijn vrouw en hun gast na het diner een rijtoertje - ‘a walk in a carriage,’ zoals Bilderdijk het noemde. In een dorpje dronken ze thee. Daar gebeurde iets grappigs, toen de kasteleines Bilderdijk herkende en op hem afstapte. Ze was net jarig geweest en had een vers gekregen, dat ze naar de dichter bracht. Bilderdijk las het met krachtige stem en heftige gebaren voor, net zoals de Engelse dichter Wordsworth een stuk rijmelarij zou hebben gelezen. Dat leverde een komische situatie op. Vrouwe Bilderdijk bleef haar man bewonderend aankijken. ‘I sat by, not knowing whether the verses were good or bad, but infinitely amused by the scene,’ schreef Southey.^39. De volgende dag, 15 juli, nam hij afscheid. Bilderdijk en zijn gezin vergezelden hem tot aan de trekschuit naar Haarlem. Terwijl Southey Leiden verliet, overpeinsde hij de gastvrijheid die hem daar ten deel was gevallen. Bij zijn terugkeer in Engeland werd de briefwisseling hervat.^40. Ook werden over en weer cadeautjes verstuurd. Zo stuurde Southey voor Lodewijk een kleurdoos, waar de jongen erg blij mee was. ‘He wishes he could write English,’ schreef Bilderdijk op 5 december 1825 aan zijn Engelse vriend, ‘that he might show you his grateful thanks himself as he ought’.^41.

In juni 1826 zagen de vrienden elkaar nog een keer, toen Southey Leiden opnieuw bezocht. Een deel van een afschrift van het dagboek dat Southey bijhield van zijn reis in 1826 wordt bewaard in het Bilderdijk Museum. Hij noteerde dat hij de eerste ooievaar al gezien had. Al eerder had Bilderdijk geschreven dat de ooievaars waren teruggekeerd, ‘but none of them shewd any remembrance of our Lodewyk's fostering. Perhaps he had met with some misadventure on the way, or it may be a French one’.^42. In Leiden werd Southey wederom hartelijk door Bilderdijk ontvangen en opnieuw voor het diner uitgenodigd. Ze bezochten onder meer boekhandel Luchtmans, de Burcht en de Pieterskerk. Bilderdijk was zienderogen verzwakt in vergelijking met het jaar daarvoor. Toen Southey Katharina Wilhelmina daarover aansprak, schoten haar de tranen in de ogen. Zelf was ze ook niet gespaard. Ze leed aan de gevolgen van een zware verkoudheid. ‘I talked as hopefully as I could of possibilities and seeing them again,’ schreef Southey in zijn dagboek, maar Bilderdijk had gezegd: ‘when you come again, Sir, you will find Hic situs est. [hier is gelegen]’. Bij zijn afscheid kreeg Southey van vrouwe Bilderdijk een kookboek cadeau.^43. De vrienden hebben elkaar daarna niet meer gezien.

Rick Honings

37. Bijlage F.

38. Over De Clercq en Southey: M.H. Schenkeveld, Willem de Clercq en de literatuur (Groningen 1962) 213-215.

39. Bijlage G.

40. Verschillende brieven van Bilderdijk aan Southey werden gepubliceerd in De Nederlandsche spectator (1902) 180-181, 198-199, 262-263 en 270-271.

41. Bilderdijk aan Southey, 5 december 1825: De Nederlandsche spectator (1902) 181.

42. Bilderdijk aan Southey, 21 april 1826: De Nederlandsche spectator (1902) 198.

43. Aan Edith Southey, 16 juni 1826: Selections from the letters of Robert Southey iv (London 1856) 4.

Bijlagen

A

To Grosvenor C. Bedford, Esq.^44.

March 27, 1824.

MY DEAR GROSVENOR,

To-day I received the first volume of Roderic in Dutch verse, translated by the wife of Bilderdijk, who is one of the most distinguished men of letters in that country. The translation appears to be very well done, as far as I am able to judge; that is, I can see in the trying passages she has fully understood the original; and her command of her own language is warranted by her husband's approbation, who is a severe critic as well as a skillful poet himself. He must be near eighty years of age, for he tells me he has been now threescore years^45. known as an author. His letter to me is in Latin. The book comes in a red morocco livery; it is dedicated to me in an ode, and a very beautiful one, describing the delight she had taken in the poem, and the consolation she had derived from it, when parts of it come home to her own feelings in a time of severe affliction.

She calls me the Crown Poet.^46. I mean to send her a set of the Illustrations^47. as soon as I know how to transmit them. The packet came to me through a merchant at Amsterdam,^48. who inclosed it in a Dutch-English letter of his own, and an essay upon the character of my Cid,^49. which he had read in some literary society, and printed afterward.^50. They give me praise enough in Holland: I would gladly commute some of it for herrings and Rhenish wine.

Do let me hear from you.

God bless you!

R.S.

44. Aan Southey aan Grosvenor C. Bedford, 27 maart 1824: The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey (New York 1855) 422-423. Grosvenor C. Bedford (1773-1839) was minister. Southey en hij waren schoolvrienden. Ze correspondeerden hun hele leven lang. Esq.: afkorting van ‘Esquire’: weledelgeboren heer.

45. Threescore years: zestig jaar.

46. In 1813 was Southey benoemd tot ‘Poet Laureate’ (hofdichter).

47. Southey stuurde Bilderdijk de serie prenten, behorende bij Roderick, (en ook andere prenten) pas later. In een brief van Bilderdijk aan Southey van 26 juni 1825 schreef hij: ‘The prints belonging to the poem, and the romantic views of the environs where you reside are indeed beautiful; and peculiarly interesting to Mrs. Bilderdijk and myself for being the abode [woonplaats] of the Poet to whom we own the unrivalled Roderick’. Zie De Nederlandsche spectator (1902) 180. Ook Katharina Wilhelmina ontving een brief van Southey, gedateerd: 25 juni 1825 (bm D 47). Daarin belooft hij haar eveneens de serie Roderick-prenten te sturen. Over de betreffende prenten: Ton Geerts, Het Bilderdijk-Museum. Catalogus van kunstvoorwerpen (Leiden 1994) 146-147.

48. Willem de Clercq.

49. Robert Southey, Chronicle of the Cid, from the Spanish (London 1808).

50. De Clercq had op 18 februari 1823 een verhandeling voorgelezen bij de Amsterdamse afdeling van de Hollandsche Maatschappij van Fraaije Kunsten en Wetenschappen, getiteld: ‘De Cid, voorgesteld als het ideaal van den held der Middeleeuwen’. Zijn stuk werd gepubliceerd in Van Kampen's Magazijn van Wetenschappen, Kunsten en Letteren (1824). Zie Schenkeveld (1962) 211.

B

To Henry Taylor, Esq.^51.

Keswick, May 2, 1825.

MY DEAR H.T.,

You do not expect enough from Holland. It is a marvelous country in itself, in its history, and in the men and works which it has produced. The very existence of the country is at once a natural and a moral phenomenon. Mountaineer as I am, I expect to feel more in Holland than in Switzerland. Instead of climbing mountains, we shall have to ascend church towers. The panorama from that at Harlaem is said to be one of the most impressive in the world. Evening is the time for seeing it to most advantage.

I have not yet forgotten the interest which Watson's Histories of Philip II. and III.^52. excited in me when a school-boy. They are books which I have never looked into since; but I have read largely concerning the Dutch war against the Spaniards, on both sides, and there is no part of Europe which could be so interesting to me as historical ground. Perhaps my pursuits may have made me more alive than most men to associations of this kind; but I would go far to see the scene of any event which has made my heart throb with a generous emotion, or the grave of any one whom I desire to meet in another state of existence.

My translatress, Katharina Wilhelmina Bilderdijk, is old enough to be your mother. She dedicates her translation to me in a very affecting poem, touching upon the death of her

51. Southey aan Henry Taylor, 2 mei 1825: The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey 432. Henry Taylor (1800-1886) was een Engelse dichter en bevriend met Southey en Wordsworth.

52. Robert Watson, The history of the reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain (London 1777) en The history of the reign of Philip the Third, King of Spain (London 1783).

[p. 6]

son, whom she lost at sea, and in what manner, before she knew his death, she had applied certain passages in Roderic to herself.

God bless you!

R.S.

C

To Miss Bertha Southey.^53.

Antwerp, June 22. 1825.

MY DEAR BERTHA,

Ik beklaage myzelve, and you will beklaage me too, when you hear that I am lamed by a bug-bite, and detained here in consequence. The bite is on ‘the pig which stayed at home’ when the great pig went to market. It is the same pig^54. which was hurt by the shoe when we walked up Latrigg, and which presently healed. However, I suppose some disposition to inflammation remained in the part. The bite took place either at Bouchain or Mons, and was not troublesome till Sunday evening, when I applied eau-de-Cologne. Monday I travelled to Antwerp in a slipper, and with my foot up. Yesterday and to-day I have been confined to the house and poulticed. Tomorrow I hope the evil will be over, and that we may proceed. At present the poor wolf is the wolf of Uz,^55. and finds it dismal enough to be shut up in an inn in a strange place, and where, for want of a sofa or settee, he is disaccommodated with three chairs. So you have all the bad news, if such news can deserve to be called bad, serving only as a little excuse for patience. The good news is that I have got the books I wanted, and that my cold appears to be effectually cured. Six days' travelling in the hottest weather put it to a sharp trial. I blew en sneezed pretty well for part of the way, but by the end of the journey it was exhausted, and I have not felt the slightest indication of it since. And I believe it to be cured, because there are certain sensations which make me always know when it is only suspended.

I bought at Brussels a cooler cap than my own, the material of which is horse-hair, and which, if my governess will not let me wear it at Keswick, she may appear in herself, or let E. May^56. or you have it; and if every body else scorns it, it will do for Aunt Lovell's woman.^57. But I must tell you that it is the very pink of the fashion at Brussels, Brussels being the most fashionable place in these parts. The weather is cooler, but continues fine. No post for England leaves this city before Saturday next. I shall, therefore, continue my letter when I have more to say, and perhaps carry it on with me.

Leyden, Sunday, June 26.

Being assured that I might travel without injury to my foot, if I only continued to poultice it, we set off on Thursday from Antwerp, reached Breda that day, Rotterdam the next, and came to Leyden last night, where the first thing I had to do was to write to Mr. Bilderdijk, and request him to recommend me a surgeon. He came immediately with one, by whose account, and by my own feelings, I am now already thirty per cent. better; though it will be three of four days before I shall be able to move, as there is a great sore. The inflammation, however, is lessening just as it should do, and all going on well. Mrs. B. has sent me a bundle of rags and lint; she is unwell herself at this time, and therefore I have not yet seen her. But it was quite a comfort to me to see her husband when I felt myself in want of a surgeon. The surgeon, who speaks nothing but Dutch, is surprisingly like my brother Harry, but rather and old man. His manner is such that, even without the character which Mr. B. gives of him as his friend, I should have entire confidence in him. My new friend Mr. Bilderdijk, for we were friends at first sight, is seventy years of age, and would remind your mother, both in figure, countenance, and manner, of poor Admiral Burney,^58. only that his dress is very neat. The wife is twenty-four years younger. Should I like her as much as I do him, my governess might perhaps have greener feelings that would be agreeable. I can only say at present that I am very curious to see her. He understands English well, and speaks it, though it requires great attention to follow him, owing sometimes to pronunciation, sometimes to the want or the misapplication of words. He came at eleven this morning, and sat with me about two hours. In the evening he is coming again. I find him a most agreeable and well informed man, and by no means repent my journey to Leyden, though I am laid by the leg here. The accident will shorten my journey and not prolong my absence. It was a disappointment to me not to find a letter here, but perhaps the next post will bring one. My cold is quite gone, and when I get upon my feet again I shall be a sound man. My fellow travellers are all very desirous of assisting me in any way, and I take things quietly and cheerfully.

Monday.

My foot is going on as well as possible; but as it must of necessity confine me for some days to the house, we have determined upon taking lodgings, to which Henry Taylor will accompany me, while Neville White and Malet extend their travels by running up the Rhine to Mentz, rejoining us or not as may be found expedient. Mrs. Bilderdijk will arrange our concerns. I have not yet seen her, but I like her husband so much that I am quite sure I shall regard this detention at Leyden as a fortunate circumstance when I get home, however unlucky the cause. I suffer little or no pain now, the inconvenience of having one leg always on a chair is all. I am provided with books, and my time will pass neither unpleasantly nor without profit. Indeed by no other means could I possibly obtain so much information as by the society into which I am thus thrown. You are to understand, therefore, that I am in good health all over, except one toe and a piece of the foot, and in good spirits, without any exception at all. And so God bless you, one and all. I shall write again in a few days; but as I do not know when or how the post goes, there may be delays, for which I am not responsible. Once more, love to all, and God bless you.

Written with the ruby pen.^59.

R.S.

53. Southey aan zijn dochter Bertha Southey, 22/26/27 juni 1825: Selections from the letters of Robert Southey iii (London 1856) 489-492.

54. pig: versta hier: voet.

55. Niet gevonden. De passage verwijst in elk geval niet naar het werk van de Duitse dichter Johann Peter Uz (1720-1796).

56. Edith May Southey (1804-1843), een dochter van Southey.

57. Aunt Lovell: de weduwe van de dichter Robert Lovell, met wie Southey bevriend was geweest. Samen hadden ze een werk gepubliceerd: Poems, containing The retrospect, odes, elegies, sonnets, &c. (Bath 1795).

58. Admiraal James Burney (1750-1821), die onder meer met James Cook had gevaren. Later had hij zich op de literatuur gericht en diverse werken gepubliceerd.

59. Written with the ruby pen: geschreven met de robijnrode pen.

D

To Mrs. Southey.^60.

Leyden, Thursday, June 30, 1825.

MY DEAR EDITH,

My foot is going on as well as possible, and will, according to all appearances, be completely healed in the course of three or four days. Having begun with this statement, pour votre tranquillité, as the aubergists at Besançon said at every word,^61. I have next to tell you that I am quartered at Mr. Bilderdijk's, where every imaginable care is taken of me, and every possible kindness shown, and where I have all the comforts which Leyden can afford.

How I came here you are now to learn. Upon applying to

60. Southey aan zijn vrouw Edith Southey, 30 juni 1825: The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey 433-434.

61. pour votre tranquillité: om u gerust te stellen; the aubergists at Besançon: de herbergiers in de Franse stad Besançon. Het gezegde van de herbergiers heb ik niet kunnen achterhalen.

[p. 7]

Mr. B. to procure a lodging for Henry Taylor and myself, he told me there was a difficulty in doing it, gave a bad account of Leyden lodgings, and proposed that we should both go to his house. Such an offer was not lightly to be accepted. Henry Taylor made inquiries himself, and looked at lodgings which would have contented us; but when he was asked for how low they might be wanted, and said a week or perhaps ten days, the people said that for so short a time he might be lodged at a hotel. The matter ended in my yielding to solicitations which were so earnest that I could not doubt their sincerity, and in his remaining at the hotel.^62. So on Tuesday morning Neville and Arthur Malet departed for the Hague; they may fall in with us at Ghent or they may not, as it may happen. And in the evening I and my lame leg, and my trunk and bag, were deposited at Mr. Bilderdijk's.

You may imagine how curious I was to see the lady of the house,^63. and yet I did not see her when we first met, owing to the shade of the trees and the imperfectness of my sight. She was kind and cordial, speaking English remarkably well, and with very little hesitation, without any foreign accent. The first night was not well managed: a supper had been prepared, which came so late, and lasted so long by the slowness which seems to characterize all operations in this country, that I did not get to bed till one o'clock. My bedroom is on the ground floor, adjoining the sittingroom in which we eat, and which is given up to me. Every thing was perfectly comfortable and nice. I asked for my milk at breakfast,^64. and when Mr. Droesa, the surgeon,^65. came in the morning, I had the satisfaction of hearing that he should not dress the wound again in the evening, but leave it four-and-twenty hours, because there was now a disposition to heal. Mr. Bilderdijk brought me some curious manuscripts of the eldest Dutch poets; the morning passed pleasantly. Henry Taylor dined with us at half past two; dinner lasted, I hardly know how, till six or seven o'clock. I petitioned for such a supper as I am accustomed to at home, got some cold meat accordingly, and was in bed before eleven. I slept well, and the foot is proceeding regularly toward recovery. Mr. Droesa just left me before I begun to write. By Sunday I hope to be able to walk about the house, and then my imprisonment will soon be over. I am in no pain, and suffer no other inconvenience than that of keeping the leg always on a chair or settee.

You will now expect to hear something of the establishment into which I have been thus, unluckily shall I say, or luckily, introduced. The house is a good one, in a cheerful street, with a row of trees and a canal in front; large, and with every thing good and comfortable about it. The only child, Lodowijk Willem, is at home, M. Bilderdijk being as little fond of schools as I am. The boy has a peculiar, and, to me, an interesting countenance. He is evidently of a weak constitution; his dress neat, but formal, and his behavior toward me amusing from his extreme politeness, and the evident pleasure with which he receives any attempt on my part to address him, or any notice that I take of him at table. A young vrouw waits at table. I wish you could see her, for she is a much odder figure than Maria Rosa^66. appeared on her first introduction, only not so cheerful a one. Her dress is black and white, perfectly neat, and not more graceful than a Beguine's. The cap, which is very little, and has a small front not projecting further than the green shade which I wear sometimes for my eyes, comes down to the roots of the hair, which is all combed back on the forehead; and she is as white and wan in complexion as her cap; slender, and not ill made; and, were it not for this utter paleness, she would be rather handsome. Another vrouw, who appears more rarely, is not in such plain dress, but quite as odd in her way. Nothing can be more amusing than Mr. Bilderdijk's conversation. Dr. Bell^67. is not more full of life, spirits, and enthusiasm; I am reminded of him every minute, though the English is much more uncouth than Dr. Bell's.^68. He seems delighted to have a guest who can understand, and will listen to him; and is not a little pleased at discerning how many points of resemblance there are between us; for he is as laborious as I have been; has written upon as many subjects; is just as much abused by the Liberals in his country as I am in mine, and does ‘contempt’ them as heartily and as merrily as I do. I am growing intimate with Mrs. Bilderdijk, about whom her husband, in the overflowing of his spirits, tells me every thing. He is very fond of her and very proud of her, as well he may; and, on her part, she is as proud of him. Her life seems almost a miracle after what she has gone trough.

Friday morning.. - My foot continues to mend, and proceeds as well as possible toward recovery. I can now, with the help of a stick, walk from room to room. My time passes very pleasantly. A more remarkable or interesting a person, indeed, than my host it was never my fortune to meet with; and Mrs. Bilderdijk is not less so. I shall have a great deal to talk about on my return. Early next week I hope to be at liberty; and I may travel the better, because we move here by trekschuits, so that the leg may be kept up. Now do not you vex yourself for an evil which is passed, and which had led to very pleasant consequences. One more God bless you!

R.S.

62. Henry Taylor logeerde in hotel de Lion d'or: Van Dongen (1964) 379 (noot 11). Hij ontleende de informatie aan het boekje Bilderdijkherdenking te Leiden door het Genootschap Willem Bilderdijk, op Zaterdag 26 Maart 1938 (Den Haag 1938) 37.

63. Opmerking Cuthbert Southey: ‘She was not less curious to see him, and, on Mr. Bilderdijk's return from the hotel, eagerly inquired “how he looked;” to which the reply was given that “he looked as Mr. Southey ought to look:” a description which delighted my father exceedingly’.

64. Opmerking Cuthbert Southey: ‘A basin of hot milk was for many years my father's substitute for tea or coffee at breakfast’.

65. Frederik Jan Haver Droeze (1779-1850), die sinds 1799 in Leiden als arts werkzaam was. Zie Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek 3, 301.

66. Opmerking Cuthbert Southey: ‘A Portuguese servant’.

67. De Engelse theoloog Andrew Bell (1753-1832). Southey schreef over hem: The life of the Rev. Andrew Bell, comprising the history of the rise and progress of the system of mutual tuition (3 dln) (London 1844). ‘The first volume by Robert Southey, edited by Mrs. Southey; the two last by Charles Cuthbert Southey’.

68. Opmerking Cuthbert Southey: ‘Dr. Bell spoke with a strong Scotch accent.’

E

To C.C. Southey.^69.

Leyden, July 2, 1825.

MY DEAR CUTHBERT,

I have a present for you from Lodowijk Willem Bilderdijk, a very nice, good boy, who is of the age of your sister Isabel.^70. It is a book of Dutch verses, which you and I will read together when I come home.^71. When he was a little boy and was learning to write, his father, who is very much such a father as I am, made little verses for him to write in his copy-book; and these verses pleased some good people so much, that leave was asked to print them. They were printed from Lodowijk's writing, and have been thought so fit for the purpose, that a great many of them have been sold. Lodowijk will write his name and yours in the book. He is a very gentle, good boy, and I hope that one of these days somewhere or other he and you may meet.

I must tell you about his stork. You should know that there are a great many storks in this country, and that it is thought a very wicked thing to hurt them. They make their nests, which are as large as a great clothes basket, upon the houses and churches, and frequently when a house or church is built, a wooden frame is made on the top for the storks to build in. Out of one of these nests a young stork had fallen, and somebody, wishing to keep him in a garden, cut one of his wings. The stork tries to fly, but fell in Mr. Bilderdijk's garden, and was found there one morning almost dead; his legs and his bill had lost their color, and were grown pale, and he would soon have died if Mrs. Bilderdijk, who is kind to every body and every thing, had not taken care of him, as we do of the dumbeldores^72. when they have been in the house all night. She gave him food, and he recovered. The first night they

69. Southey aan Charles Cuthbert Southey, 2 juli 1825: The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey 434-435. C.C. Southey (1819-1888) was Southeys zoon, de enige die op dat moment nog in leven was.

70. Isabel Southey (1812-1826).

71. [Willem Bilderdijk], Spreuken (Leiden 1823).

72. dumbeldores: hommels of (mei)kevers: .

[p. 8]

put him into a sort of summer-house in the garden, which I can not describe to you, because I have not yet been there; the second night he walked to the door himself that it might be opened for him. He was very fond of Lodowijk, and Lodowijk was as fond of his oyevaar, which is the name for stork in Dutch, though I am not sure that I have spelled it rightly, and they used to play together in such a manner that his father says it was a pleasure to see them; for a stork is a large bird, tall and upright, almost as tall as you are, or quite. The oyevaar was a bad gardener; he ate snails, but with his great broad foot he did a great deal of mischief, and destroyed all the strawberries and many of the smaller vegetables. But Mr. and Mrs. Bilderdijk did not mind this, because the oyevaar loved Lodowijk, and therefore they loved the oyevaar, and sometimes they used to send a mile out of town to buy eels for him, when none could be had in Leyden.

The very day I came to their house the stork flew away. His wings were grown, and most likely he thought it time to get a wife and settle in life. Lodowijk saw him rise up in the air and fly away. Lodowijk was verry sorry, not only because he loved the oyevaar, but because he was afraid the oyevaar would not be able to get his own living, and therefore would be starved. On the second evening, however, the stork came again and pitched upon a wall near. It was in the twilight, and storks can not see at all when it is dusk; but whenever Lodowijk called Oye! oye! (which was the way he used to call him), the oyevaar turned his head toward the sound. He did not come into the garden. Some fish was placed there for him, but in the morning he was gone, and had not eaten it; so we suppose that he is married, and living very happily with his mate, and that now and then he will come and visit the old friends who were so good to him.

It is very happy for me that I am in so comfortable a house, and with such excellently kind and good people [...] where I learn more of the literature, present and past state, and domestic manners of the country, than it would have been possible for me to do in any other manner.

Yesterday Mr. Bilderdijk received a letter from Algernon Thelwall,^73. who is at Amsterdam, saying he had heard that I was here, and expressing a great desire to see me. Both Mr. And Mrs. Bilderdijk speak very highly of him. This news is for your mamma. I shall have a great deal to tell her on my return.

I hope you have been a good boy, and done every thing that you ought to do, while I am away. When I come home you shall begin to read Jacob Cats with me. My love to your sisters and to every body else. I hope Rumpelstilzchen^74. has recovered his health, and that Miss Cat is well, and I should like to know whether Miss Fitzrumpel has been given away, and if there is another kitten. The Dutch cats do not speak exactly the same language as the English ones. I will tell you how they talk when I come home.

God bless you, my dear Cuthbert!

Your dutiful father,

ROBERT SOUTHEY

73. De Engelse predikant Algernon Sydney Thelwall (1790-1863) was sinds 1819 voorganger bij de Episcopaalse Gemeente in Amsterdam en zag net als Bilderdijk in de overstromingen van 1825 de straffende hand van God: W. van der Zwaag, Réveilen afscheiding. Negentiende-eeuwse kerkhistorie met bijzondere actualiteit (Kampen 2006) 266; A. & M. Kagchelland, Van dompers en verlichten 605 e.v.

74. De huiskat van de Southeys: Katherine M. Rogers, The Cat and the Human Imagination. Feline Images From Bast To Garfield (Michigan 2001) 94.

F

To Mrs. Southey.^75.

Leyden, Thursday, July 7, 1825

MY DEAR EDITH,

[...] This is our manner of life. At eight in the morning Lodowijk knocks at my door. My movements in dressing are as regular as clock-work, and when I enter the adjoining room, breakfast is ready on a sofa-table, which is placed for my convenience close to the sofa. There I take my place, seated on one cushion, and with my leg raised on another. The sofa is covered with black plush. The family take coffee, but I have a jug of boiled milk. Two sorts of cheese are on the table, one of which is very strong, and highly flavored with cumin and cloves: this is called Leyden cheese, and is eaten at breakfast laid in thin slices on bread and butter. The bread is soft, in rolls, which have rather skin than crust; the butter very rich, but so soft that it is brought in a pot to table, like potted meat. Before we begin Mr. B. takes off a little gray cap, and a silent grace is said, not longer than it ought to be; when it is over he generally takes his wife's hand. They sit side by side opposite me; Lodowijk at the end of the table. About ten o'clock Mr. Droesa comes and dresses my foot, which is swathed in one of my silk handkerchiefs. I bind a second round the bottom of the pantaloon, and if the weather be cold I put on a third, so that the leg has not merely a decent, but rather a splendid appearance. After breakfast and tea Mrs. B. washes up the china herself at the table. Part of the morning Mr. B. sits with me. During the rest I read Dutch, or, as at present, retire into my bed-room and write. Henry Taylor calls in the morning, and is always pressed to dine, which he does twice or thrice in the week. We dine at half past two or three, and the dinners, to my great pleasure, are altogether Dutch. You know I am a valiant eater, and having retained my appetite as well as my spirits during this confinement, I eat every thing which is put before me. Mutton and pork never appear, being considered unfit for any person who has a wound, and pepper, for the same reason, is but sparingly allowed. Spice enters largely into their cookery; the sauce for fish resembles custard rather than melted butter, and is spiced. Perch, when small (in which state they are considered best), are brought up swimming in a tureen. They look well, and are really very good. With the roast meat (which is in small pieces), dripping is presented in a butter-boat. The variety of vegetables is great. Peas, peas of that kind in which the pod also is eaten, purslain, cauliflowers, abominations,^76. kidney beans, carrots, turnips,^77. potatoes. But, besides these, many very odd things are eaten with meat. I had stewed apples, exceedingly sweet and highly spiced, with roast fowl yesterday; and another day, having been helped to some stewed quinces,^78. to my utter surprise, some ragout of beef was to be eaten with them. I never know, when I begin a dish, whether it is sugared or will require salt; yet every thing is very good, and the puddings excellent. The dinner lasts very long. Strawberries and cherries always follow. Twice we had cream with the strawberries, very thick, and just in the first stage of sourness. We have had melons also, and currants - the first which have been produced. After coffee they leave me to an hour's nap. Tea follows. Supper at half past nine, when Mr. B. takes milk, and I a little cold meat with pickles, or the gravy of the meat preserved in a form like jelly; olives are used as pickles, and at half past ten I go to bed. Mr. B. sits up till three or four, living almost without sleep.

Twice we had a Frisian here, whom we may probably see at Keswick, as he talks of going to England on literary business. Halbertsma^79. is his name, and he is a Mennonite pastor at Deventer.^80. Twice we have had the young Count Hoogmandorp, a fine young man, one of the eight who for six weeks watched day and night by Mr. B. in his illness;^81. and once a Dr. Burgman,^82. a young man of singular appearance and much learning, drank tea here. My host's conversation is amusing beyond any thing I ever heard. I can not hope to describe it so as to

75. Southey aan Edith Southey, 7 juli 1825 The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey 435-437.

76. abominations: walgelijk iets. Opmerking Cuthbert Southey: ‘Broad beans, which he always so denominated’.

77. turnips: rapen.

78. quinces: kweeappels, kweeperen.

79. Joost Hiddes Halbertsma (1789-1869), Fries taalkundige en tot 1856 doopsgezind predikant. Zijn relatie met Bilderdijk: Ph.H. Breuker: ‘De vriendschap tussen Bilderdijk en Halbertsma’, in: Het Bilderdijk-Museum ii (1994) 1-14. Opmerking Cuthbert Southey: ‘Mr. Halbertsma is a very good and learned man, who has particularly directed his attention to the early languages of these countries, and is now planning a journey to England for the purpose of transcribing some mss. of Junius's which are at Oxford. He speaks English, and made his first essay at conversing with an Englishman with me. His pronunciation was surprisingly good, considering that till that moment he had never heard English spoken by an Englishman. But the Frisians have nothing in their own language which it is necessary for them to forget: he read me some verses in their tongue that I might hear the pronunciation. To my ear they were much less harsh than the Dutch, being wholly free from gutturals. The language however, is regarded as a barbarous dialect.’ Vervolgens citeert Cuthbert Southey enkele fragmenten uit het reisjournaal van zijn vader over de mennonieten, de patriottenstrijd en de deplorabele toestand van de Leidse universiteit.

80. Opmerking Cuthbert Southey: ‘The Mennonites were Dutch Baptists’.

81. Het betreft Dirk van Hogendorp (1797-1845). De ziekte vond plaats in de eerste helft van juni 1818. Het gaat hier dus om een oude en dierbare herinnering van Bilderdijk. Vergelijk de Brieven van mr. Willem Bilderdijk ii (Rotterdam 1836-1837) 208.

82. Mogelijk Antony Brugmans (1799-1877), die privécolleges bij Bilderdijk volgde.

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make you conceive it. The matter is always so interesting, that it would alone suffice to keep one's attention on the alert; his manner is beyond expression animated, and his language the most extraordinary that can be imagined. Even my French can not be half so odd. It is English pronounced like Dutch, and with such a mixture of other language, that it is an even chance whether the next word that comes be French, Latin, or Dutch, or one of either tongues shaped into an English form. Sometimes the oddest imaginable expressions occur. When he would say ‘I was pleased,’ he says ‘I was very pleasant;’ and instead of saying that a poor woman was wounded, with whom he was overturned in a stage-coach in England, he said she was severely blessed. Withal, whatever he says is so full of information, vivacity, and character, and there is such a thorough good nature, kindness, and frankness about him, that I never felt myself more interested in any man's company. Every moment he reminds me more and more of Dr. Bell.

I gather by one word which dropped from him that Mrs. B. is his second wife. They are proud of each other, as well they may. She has written a great many poems, some of which are published jointly with some of his, and others by themselves. Many of them are devotional, and many relate to her own feelings under the various trials and sufferings which she has undergone. In some of them I have been reminded sometimes of some of my own verses, in others of Miss Bowles's.^83. One would think it almost impossible that a person so meek, so quiet, so retiring, so altogether without display, should be a successful authoress, or hold the first place in her country as a poetess. The profits of literature here are miserably small. In that respect, I am, in relation to them, what Sir Walter Scott is in relation to me. Lodowijk (thus the name is spelled) is a nice, good boy, the only survivor of seven children. He is full of sensibility, and I look at him with some apprehension, for he is not strong, and I fear this climate, which suits his father better than any other, is injurious to him. Tell Cuthbert that the oyevaar has paid him another visit, and that Lodowijk's other playmate is a magnificent tabby cat, as old as himself, who, however, is known by no other name than puss, which is good Dutch as well as English.

English books are so scarce here that they have never seen any work of mine except Roderic. Of course I have ordered over a complete set of my poems and the History of Brazil,^84. and as E. May^85. is in London, I have desired her to add, as a present from herself to Mrs. B., a copy of Kirke White's Remains.^86. I can never sufficiently show my sense of the kindness which I am experiencing here. Think what a difference it is to be confined in a hotel, with all the discomforts, or to be in such a family as this, who show by every word and every action that they are truly pleased in having me under their roof.

I manage worst about my bed. I know not how many pillows there are, but there is one little one which I used for my head till I found that it was intended for the small of my back. Every thing else I can find instruction for, but here is nobody to teach one how to get into a Dutch bed, or how to lie in one. A little bottle of brandy is placed on the dressing-table, to be used in cleansing the teeth. Saffron is used in some of the soups and sauces. The first dish yesterday was marrow^87. in a tureen, which was eaten upon toast. I eat every thing, but live in daily fear of something like suety^88. pudding or tripe.^89. About an hour before dinner a handsome mahogany case containing spirits is produced; a glass waiter is taken out of it, and little tumblers with gilt edges, and we have then a glass of liqueur with a slice of cake. Deventer cake it is called; and an odd history belongs to it. The composition is usually intrusted only to the burgomaster of that city, and when the baker has made all the other ingredients ready, the chief magistrate is called upon, as part of his duty, to add that portion of the materials which constitute the excellence and peculiarity of the Deventer cake.^90. I shall have much to tell you, for I know not where I have heard so much to amuse, so much to affect, so much to interest and inform me as since I have been a prisoner here.

Love to the children. God bless you, my dear Edith!

Your affectionate husband,

R.S.

83. Caroline Anne Bowles (1786-1854) was een Engelse dichteres. Na de dood van zijn vrouw Edith in 1838 trouwde Southey met haar.

84. Robert Southey, History of Brazil (3 dln.) (London 1810-1819).

85. Edith May Southey (1804-1843) was één van Southeys dochters.

86. Robert Southey, The remains of Henry Kirke White, of Nottingham, Late of St. John's College, Cambridge, with an account of his Life by Robert Southey (2 dln). (London 1808).

87. marrow: pompoen.

88. suety: niervetachtige.

89. tripe: pens.

90. Het verhaal over de Deventer koek is een fabeltje, zo werd al in de Algemeene Konst- en Letterbode (1852/1) 247 opgemerkt. Toch wordt het tot op de dag van vandaag verteld.

G

To Miss Katherine Southey.^91.

Amsterdam, Saturday, July 16, 1825.

MY DEAR KATE,

[...] Tuesday we had a pleasant day on the water, and saw at the sluices of the Rhine enough to undeceive us concerning the common statements about this country. That the sea is higher than the towers of Leyden is altogether false: the truth is, that the general level of Holland is above the low-water mark, and a little below that of high-water; and though the lands are much below the rivers and canals, it is because the beds of the rivers have been raised by what they bring down, or because the lands were formerly large meres or deep morasses, which have been drained. Wednesday I went with Henry Taylor to the Hague, saw the museum of pictures, called on one of my Dutch curmudgeons,^92. Mr. De Clerc, who is an improvisatore poet, and returned in the evening. Thursday I settled my business as to booksellers. Oh, joy when that chest of glorous folios shall arrive at Keswick! the pleasure of unpacking, of arranging them on the new shelves that must be provided, and the whole year's repast after supper which they will afford! After dinner we took what Mr. Bilderdijk calls a walk in a carriage, and drank tea in a village, where we had a very entertaining scene with the hostess - a woman shaped very much like a jumping Joan,^93. supposing the said Joan to be tall, and lean in the upper half. Her birth-day had occurred a few days before, and on that occasion a poem had been addressed to her by the surgeon's man: this poem she brought to Mr. Bilderdijk to read, and he read it just as Mr. Wordsworth would have read a piece of doggerel,^94. if under like circumstances it had been brought to him in some such public house as John Stanley's. The woman stood by in silent delight at hearing her own praises entoned by his powerful voice, and set off by his gestures and emphatic manner: Mrs. Bilderdijk kept her countenance to admiration. I sat by, not knowing whether the verses were good or bad, but infinitely amused by the scene, and the girl of the public house coming out at the unusual sound, stood among the shrubs of the garden listening - like Eve in de Paradise Lost.^95.

Yesterday our kind friends accompanied us a little way in the trekschuit on our departure, and we parted with much regret on both sides. If Mr. Bilderdijk can muster spirits for the undertaking, they will come and pass a summer with me, which of all things in the world would give me most pleasure, for never did I meet with more true kindness than they have shown me, or with two persons who have in so many essential respects so entirely pleased me. Lodowijk, too, is a very engaging boy, and attached himself greatly to me; he is the only survivor of eight children whom Mr. Bilderdijk has had

91. Southey aan zijn dochter Katherine Southey, 16 juli 1825: The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey 437-438.

92. curmudgeons: zuurpruim, vrek.

93. jumping Joan: verwijst mogelijk naar Don Quixote: ‘from a reserved lady to a jumping Joan’. Zie Cervantes, Don Quixote (Lincolnwood 1993) 536. Wellicht is ‘jumping joan’ ook wel een vrouwelijke versie van een ‘jumping jack’ (trekpop).

94. doggerel: rijmelarij.

95. John Milton, Paradise lost. A poem written in ten books (London 1667).

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by his present wife, and of seven by the first! I can truly say, that, unpleasant as the circumstance was which brought me under their roof, no part of my life ever seemed to pass away more rapidly or more pleasantly. We got to Harlaem by dinner-time, and to Amsterdam afterward.

God bless you, my dear child!

Your affectionate father,

R.S.

H

To Dr. H.H. Southey.^96.

Amsterdam, July 16. 1825.

MY DEAR HARRY,

Here I am, sound of wind and limb, save and excepting only just enough remains of a wound to require a simple covering till the healing is complete. But in truth I have had an escape from what might have been a very serious affair. I suspect that the bug of Bouchain (may the finger and thumb overtake him!) found an ill disposition in the toe which he attacked, left by that ulceration^97. with which it arrived in London, otherwise such a cause would hardly have produced such effects. The foot, almost up to the ankle, was in a fearful state of inflammation when I reached Leyden. It began immediately to amend under Mr. Docra's^98. treatment (who, by-the-by, is more like you than any of your brothers are); but it was not till after a fortnight's confinement to the sofa that I was allowed to put one a cloth shoe. That fortnight, past under Bilderdijk's roof, was one of the pleasantest of my life. So extraordinary a man, in all respects, I have seldom or never met with; and his wife is, in her sex and her sphere, noways inferior to him, though without the slightest eccentricity or display. Not that he has the latter in any degree - the former in a very great one, but incidentally only, in speaking English for my accommodation; for language so excellently amusing in every possible respect, never before fell from mortal lips. It was English in the main, with a pronunciation sometimes French, but generally Dutch, and with such an intermingling of French, Dutch, and Latin - sometimes pure, sometimes Anglicised in termination (now and then a little Spanish to boot^99.), that at every word it was an even chance to which vocabulary you must recur in following him. I was presently at ease, and could not anywhere have received more genuine and unremitting kindness, than from father, mother, and child, in that peculiar and almost insulated family.

Yesterday I left them and reached Amsterdam. I have been at the book Winckel this morning, and am now expecting ****** to drink tea with me,^100. who is settled here as a missionary from the Society for converting the Jews.^101. Mens sana in corpore sano^102. there certainly is not in his case. His complexion is, to the last degree, pale, dyspeptic,^103. and melancholic, his eyes very much like those of a maniac. This tendency has found a vent; but whether it will serve the purpose of a safetyvalve time must show. At twelve years of age he was the finest boy I ever beheld, and ofter have I spoken of him as such. A paralytic stroke withered him in his youth; and in passing from the dogmatical Atheism in which he was bred up, he has gone completely to the opposite extreme, and looks as if, in Homer's phrase, he was day and night employed in ‘eating his dear heart’.^104.

Here I have bought the Latin Glossary of Ducange, in six volumes,^105. for ten guilders, which for this portion of his works I suppose to be very cheap. I have found here also the well-known, or rather much-talked-of, volume of ‘Taliacotius.’^106. My purchases here go to Leyden, there to join another and larger detachment, which I hope will arrive in London almost as soon as I shall. I send from thence one work of Durand and Martene, in five folios,^107. another in nine;^108. which, with what I have at Keswick, will go for towards completing that important collection. I have got also that edition of Erasmus's ‘Epistles’^109. for seven guilders for which my uncle would have given thirty shillings in London; a good glossary of the Middle German tongue; another of the more Northern dialects; some rare and very valuable collections of mediaeval remains, &c., - enough, in short, to require the assistance of Glover^110. when I get home, for supplying them with shelves, to regale myself for two or three years, every night after supper, and to furnish my arsenal for the services in which I may be required to engage.

To-morrow we go for Utrecht. I hope on Saturday to start in the steam-packet from Calais, or Dunkirk (if there be one there), for London. In that case you will see me that night. The journey has succeeded in enabling me to throw off my cold as often as the hot weather (excessive at this time) has renewed it; and though grievously annoyed by another infirmity till I was laid prostrate by the accident on my foot, I have felt no tendency towards it during the present week, though I have been quite enough on my feet to have brought it on had the relaxation continued. My journey, therefore, will have answered, in all respects, according to present experience.

I suppose you will, ere this, have seen Neville White and Arthur Malet. Henry Taylor is with me; and though he lodged at the hotel during my confinement at Leyden, seems not to regret that he stuck to the wreck. We have both learnt more concerning the country at Bilderdijk's than one could have done by travelling through every corner of it. My stay in London must be but very short. I shall go forthwith to Streatham, then once down to Rickman's, and return to start for Cumberland with the least possible delay. Love to all. God bless you.

R.S.

96. Southey aan zijn broer Harry Southey, 16 juli 1825: Selections from the letters of Robert Southey iii 492-495.

97. ulceration: zweer.

98. Bedoeld wordt de reeds eerder genoemde dokter Droeze.

99. to boot: op de koop toe.

100. Bedoeld wordt de reeds eerder genoemde predikant Algernon Thelwall.

101. Het genootschap was genaamd: de London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews.

102. Mens sana in corpore sano: een gezonde geest in een gezond lichaam.

103. dyspeptic: lijdend aan slechte spijsvertering.

104. Voetnoot bij brief: ‘Ipse suum cor edens, hominum vestigia vitans.’ (‘Zijn hart verterend en vermijdend de voetsporen der mensen.’): Ilias vi 202.

105. Charles du Fresne Du Cange, Glossarium ad scrip tores mediae et infimae Latinitatis (6 dln). (Parijs 1733-1736).

106. Vermoedelijk Gaspar Tagliacozzi, De curtorum chirurgia per insitionem libri ii (Venetië 1597).

107. Vermoedelijk Ursinus Durand & Edmond Martène, Thesaurus novus anecdotorum (5 dln). (Parijs 1717).

108. Vermoedelijk Ursinus Durand & Edmond Martène, Veterum scriptorum et monumentorum historicorum, dogmaticorum, moralium, amplissima collectio (9 dln). (Parijs 1724-1733).

109. Vermoedelijk Desiderius Erasmus, Epistolae familiares (Basel 1779).

110. Niet gevonden.

I

To John May, Esq.^111.

Utrecht, July 17. 1825.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

You bespoke a letter from Franeker, and as I could not go to Franeker to write it, your expectation of receiving one was in some danger of being disappointed. If you knew the might of the thermometer in Utrecht at this time (seven in the evening), and if there were any hygrometer which could ascertain the degree of exudation now going on from every pore of my not-at-this-time ‘too solid flesh,’^112. you would consider it an act of heroic virtue in me, to have walked from one chair to another for the purpose of taking a penknife from my coat-pocket, mended a pen at the window, and then mustered courage to begin an epistle.

You will have heard of my mishap from Harley Street.^113. The consequences might have been very serious. Such as they were they crippled me for three whole weeks; and from June 25th to July 16th I was under the surgeon's care. The wound is nearly healed, but the limb is weakened, and every night the foot is swollen, as it used to be after two nights' mail-coach travelling. It will require care when I reach home, and, I fear,

111. Southey aan John May, 17 juli 1825: Selections from the letters of Robert Southey III 495-498. John May (1775-1856) was een goede vriend en weldoener van Southey.

112. Citaat uit Hamlet 1.2.129.

113. Harley Street: een straat in de ‘City of Westminster’ in Londen, waar sinds de negentiende eeuw veel artsenpraktijken, ziekenhuizen en andere medische instellingen gevestigd zijn.

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may disable me from taking sufficient exercise to keep my general system in the condition which it has regained even during this confinement, and in spite of it; for in all other respects I feel like a sound man.

That confinement I cannot but regard as singularly fortunate, unpleasant as the cause was. It threw me upon the charity of Bilderdijk and his wife, two of the best and most interesting people with whom it has ever been my fortune to become acquainted. And no part of my life ever passed away more rapidly, more profitably, or more pleasantly, than while I was confined to the sofa under this roof. I parted with them on Friday with great regret, though not without a hope of seeing them at Keswick, and a determination of revisiting them at Leyden, should life and circumstances render it possible. Thursday I proceeded to Haarlem and Amsterdam with Henry Taylor, who stuck by the wreck when our party was broken up. We stayed one day in the stinking city of Amsterdam (the noisiest as well as the most stinking of all cities at this time), and came this morning in de treckshut to Utrecht, a passage of eight hours. Our places are taken in the diligence for Antwerp to-morrow, and by Saturday next we hope to be in London.

I shall bring home a journal^114. which is all the better for my tarriance at Leyden, though, peradventure, it may be the worse for my laying it aside in order to hurry through this letter. I have sent home seventy-five goodly folios (Heaven send them a safe delivery at Keswick) and about as many more volumes of smaller calibre. It does me good to think of them, to anticipate the joy I shall have in receiving and arranging, and the pleasure and profit in using them. Among them are some of those which I most wanted: - the first edition of ‘Wadding,’ containing his whole works, but not the supplements;^115. Mabillon's ‘Annales,’^116. but not his ‘Acta;’ two of Durand and Martene's Collections; the Latin Glossary of Ducange; and some other excellent books. I have seen some curious persons, and heard many curious things; I have eaten of all Dutch dishes that were set before me, in unimaginable compounds and conjunctions; I have drunk of all strong liquors that were set before me, and all weak ones; I have regaled upon cakes, the receipt for making which is a state secret, entrusted only to the Burgomaster of Deventer; I have been called Mynheer, and also Master Soudey; and, finally, I have been disturbed after I had gone to bed, and as nearly to sleep as the ever-to-be-execrated watchmen and dogs of Amsterdam would permit, to receive a letter of reproof from the missionary of the London Society for Converting the Jews, for my intention of travelling by the trekschut to Utrecht this morning, instead of tarrying a day to hear him preach an extempore sermon. Since my midnight arrest with Senhor Aqua Casa at Lagos,^117. this is the most comical adventure that has befallen me.

Heaven send us cooler weather to-morrow, and thin Dutchmen in the diligence! I shall take the latter on to Antwerp; and if I should find no scraps of time there for adding to it, thus much will suffice for letting you know that I am in good health and in good spirits, but desperately hot at this present writing. God bless you.

Yours affectionately,

ROBERT SOUTHEY

114. Voetnoot bij brief: ‘On a card inside the pocket of his mss. diary of 1826, I find these lines: - “Amsterdam we reached by schooner,/And not liking, left the sooner:/ Never city such a sink was,/ Weak the drink was, strong the stink was.”’

115. Vermoedelijk Luke Wadding, Annales Minorum (6 dln). (Lyon 1628-1648).

116. Jean Mabillon, Annales ordinis S. Benedicti occidentalium monachorum patriarchae. In quibus non modo res monasticae, sed etiam ecclesiasticae historiae non minima pars continetur (6 dln). (Parijs 1703-1739).

117. Southey verwijst hier naar een reis die hij in 1800-1801 had gemaakt naar Portugal. In april 1801 had hij samen met Samuel Waterhouse een excursie gemaakt naar de Algarve. Portugal was op dat moment in oorlog met Frankrijk en Spanje. Er was sprake van een gespannen situatie. Op 23 april kwamen de reizigers aan in Lagos. Rond middernacht werd hun kamerdeur met geweld opengebroken. Een groep soldaten, gewapend met bajonetten, drong hun hotelkamer binnen. Southey en Waterhouse werden gezien als verdachte individuen en gearresteerd. De volgende morgen werden ze vrijgelaten. Southey wuifde het incident weg als ‘petty officialdom’. Zie W.A. Speck, Robert Southey, Entire man of letters (New Haven 2006) 86-87. Over de Portugese reis Robert Southey, Journals of a residence in Portugal 1800-1801 and a visit to France, 1838 (Oxford 1960).