Action with the Sabina-Battle off Cape St. Vincent- Nelson commands the inner squadron at the blockade of Cadiz-Boat action in the Bay of Cadiz-Expedition CHAPTER V. Nelson rejoins Earl St. Vincent in the Vanguard -Sails in pursuit of the French to Egypt-Returns to Sicily, and sails again to Egypt-Battle of the Nile CHAPTER VI. Nelson returns to Naples-State of that Court and Kingdom-General Mack-The French approach Na- ples-Flight of the Royal Family-Successes of the Allies in Italy-Transactions in the Bay of Naples-Expulsion of the French from the Neapolitan and Roman States- PAGE CHAPTER VII. Nelson separates himself from his wife- Northern Confederacy-He goes to the Baltic under Sir Hyde Parker-Battle of Copenhagen, and subsequent Ne- gotiation-Nelson is made a Viscount CHAPTER VIII. Sir Hyde Parker is recalled, and Nelson ap- pointed Commander-He goes to Revel-Settlement of Affairs in the Baltic-Unsuccessful Attempt upon the Flotilla at Boulogne-Peace of Amiens-Nelson takes the Command in the Mediterranean on the Renewal of the War-Escape of the Toulon Fleet-Nelson chases them to the West Indies and back-Delivers up his Squadron to Admiral Cornwallis, and lands in England. CHAPTER IX. Sir Robert Calder falls in with the combined Fleets-They form a Junction with the Ferrol Squadron, INTRODUCTION Southey's Life of Nelson has a two-fold interest and value: as one of the best short biographies in the language, by a master of prose style; and as the classic life of one of the greatest figures in naval warfare. The place in literature of its author, Robert Southey, is less easy to define. In a life devoted entirely to literary pursuits, he wrote voluminously and in many fields, including poetry, history, biography, and literary criticism. His work, though always distinguished, was rarely of a quality to give it permanence; and he is remembered today chiefly by his biographies and a few shorter poems. In the history of literature, nevertheless, he is a figure of real importance, as a member of the Lake School of poetry, an influential critic and political writer, and a friend or acquaintance of most of the literary men of his time. His sterling qualities of character have also helped to give him a place not quite merited by his writings. England, August 12, Southey was born in Bristol, 1774, the son of a linen-draper. have a pleasant picture from his own pen, its details selected and colored a little, perhaps, to harmonize with his later career. Until his sixth year, he spent much of his time at Bath under the care of a maiden aunt, who was devoted to the theater, and in whose company he learned to enjoy, at a very early age it would seem, the pleasures of poetry and the stage. At eight he had explored Shakspere and Beaumont and Fletcher. Thence he passed to Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, Orlando Furioso, and The Faerie Queene; and at twelve he was essaying dramas and epics of his own. After four years at Westminster School, 1788-1792, well spent in study and association with boys who remained his life-long friends, he left, to quote his own words, "in a perilous state—a heart full of poetry and feeling, a head full of Rousseau and Werther, and my religious principles shaken by Gibbon."'1 In the summer of 1793, at the end of his first year at Balliol College, Oxford, he was at work sorting and transcribing his poetic effusions-10,000 verses burnt and lost, the same number preserved, and 15,000 worthless." If steadfast devotion and a fluent pen were to be of any avail, the young poet might feel assured of a safe place on Parnassus. To this summer belongs also his Joan of Arc, an epic in twelve books, romantic and chivalrous, a tribute to the ideals of revolutionary France. One may easily understand the immediate friendship that sprang up between the author of Joan and the Cambridge student, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who met him at Oxford in June of 1794. Pantisocracy-“equal government for all"-and Aspheterism-"the generalization of individual property"-were terms they invented to express their common ideals. "This Pantisocratic scheme," writes Southey, "has given me new. hope, new energy; all the faculties of my mind are dilated." There is no more characteristic episode in 1. Dowden's Life of Southey, English Men of Letters Series, p. 23. the rise of early nineteenth century romanticism than that of Coleridge, Southey, and their Bristol friends of both sexes planning a New Utopia on the banks of the Susquehanna, a region selected not only for the poetry of the name but also "for its excessive beauty, and security from hostile Indians.' Unfortunately, the difficulty of raising the £150 deemed necessary even for a beginning of the venture remained insuperable, especially since Southey's aunt, on hearing of the project, promptly turned him out of doors. During the following winter, the two poets lived together in Bristol lodgings, gaining a living by their poetry and by public lectures-Coleridge speaking on "A Comparative View of the English and the French Revolutions" and "Revealed Religion," Southey on "The Course of European History from Solon and Lycurgus to the American War." The vision of a Pantisocratic community faded; and in the autumn of 1795, at the invitation and expense of an uncle resident in Lisbon, Southey departed for six months of travel and study in Portugal and Spain. Before he left he married Edith Fricker, a sister to the wife of Coleridge, borrowing money to meet the expense of ring and fees. No similar responsibility, perhaps, was ever more rashly undertaken; or, it should be added, more faithfully and happily sustained. The effect of this journey abroad, and of a second longer one in his wife's company in 1800-1801, was to enlarge the poet's horizon by foreign scenes and characters, and to leave him with a life-long interest in the history and literature of the Spanish Peninsula. During the period between his first and second for eign visits, Southey lived for a time in the neighborhood of Bristol, and later in London, attempting in vain the studies of medicine and law. From his friend Wynn he received in 1798 an annuity of £160, retained until the latter's marriage in 1807; and to this was added the income from his writings. Joan of Arc brought £50; a volume of miscellaneous poems, £100; and he was busy with letters of travel and articles for magazines. In 1803, after a short and uncongenial service as private secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for Ireland, he took his books and family to share the home of Coleridge at Greta Hall, Keswick, in the lake district of northern England. “A library and a nursery," he remarked, "ought to be stationary." Here, aside from short journeys to Edinburgh, London, and the Continent, he spent the rest of his life. "I have five children," wrote Southey in 1809, "three of them at home, and two under my mother's care in Heaven." Of the two boys, only the younger, Cuthbert, lived to maturity. To his own family were added the wife and three children of Coleridge, who under the influence of ill-health and opium had drifted away from home ties and did not return to Keswick after 1809. Southey took up this added burden cheerfully, rejoicing, indeed, in the opportunity, as well as necessity, of devoting all his energies to the occupations that were his chief pleasures in life, "Here I possessed-what more should I require- 1. Dowden's Life of Southey, p. 62. |