SOUTHEY, Robert, English poet-laureate, historian, miscellaneous writer : b. Bristol, Eng land, 12 Aug. 1774; d. Keswick, England, 21 March 1843. His father was Robert Southey, a linen draper; his mother was Margaret Hill, daughter of Edward Hill, gentleman, of Bed minster. Southey spent most of his boyhood in the care of his mother's half-sister, Miss Elizabeth Tyler of Bath. She gave him access to the theatre and to books, and, in his 14th year, sent him to Westminster School. There he remained four years; then, for publishing in the school paper a protest against excessive flogging, he was privately expelled. His moth er's brother, the Rcv. Herbert Hill, sent Southey to Oxford. He matriculated at Ballio College, 3 Nov. 1792. In his regular studies he was but little interested; but he read much and was especially influenced by the stoicism of Epictetus.
Southey's first important literary work, 'Joan of Arc,' an epic in 12 books, he composed during his summer vacation, 1793. He intended it as a tribute to the principles of the French Revolution; but the execution of the Girondins in October of that year cooled his enthusiasm, Then in June 1794 he found a new outlet for his ardor in the scheme of "pantisocracyo pro posed to him by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. For lack of funds their plan for a colony on the banks of the Susquehanna ultimately failed. Southey was glad to accept an invitation from his uncle, the Rev. Herbert Hill, to visit Lisbon. The intended emigration, however, had one per manent effect : Southey had engaged himself to Edith Fricker; Coleridge, to her sister Sara. Before Southey sailed for Lisbon he married Edith, 14 Nov. 1795.
This marriage proved a great steadying in fluence on Southey's life. Returning from the Peninsula early in 1797, he made a serious at tempt to study law, and, finding that he lacked ability in this, transferred his efforts to earning a livelihood with his pen. Within three years, besides much miscellaneous work, he published 'Minor Poems' (1797), completed 'Madoc' and planned 'Thalaba) and a 'History of Portugal.' In 1800 illness drove him again to Portugal, where he gathered material for his 'History' and completed 'Thalaba.) Recovered in health,
he accepted a secretaryship to Isaac Cony, chancellor of the Irish exchequer, na foolish office and a good salary') which he soon re signed. Back in England, he removed in 1803 from Bristol to Keswick. There Coleridge was established in "Greta Hall," and of this housd Southey— to enable his wife to be near her sis ter, Sara Coleridge— took one-half. In 1809 he became owner of the entire house and har bored with his own the family that Coleridge had deserted.
Here was Southey's home for life. Here were born all but the first of his seven children. Here he brought together his library of 14,000 volumes. Here he did his work: kept in hand the epics from which he hoped for fame; gath ered materials for that great history of Por tugal destined never to he written; ground out the translations, histories, biographies and mag azine articles, the glorified hack-work by which he met the growing needs of his own family and that of Coleridge. Pan tisocracy, despite the pleadings of Coleridge, Southey had abandoned. But Southey had found a more practical ideal ism: he worked steadily and cheerfully; he met his business engagements punctually; he aided younger literary aspirants with money and ad vice; and, although no longer as in youth a revolutionist, he championed in print more than one cause of progress and reform.
His work was not unrecognized. The Quar terly Review, to which, between 1808 and 1839, he contributed 95 articles, paid him during the latter part of that period f100 for each. In 1813 he was made poet-laureate. In 1820 Ox ford conferred on him the degree of D.C.L. In 1826, without his knowledge, he was elected member of Parliament for Downton; and, when he protested that he lacked the proper qualifi cation, Sir Robert Inglis promptly proposed that an estate of f.300 a year be purchased for him. Southey, averse to public life, declined this offer, as he did that of Sir Robert Peel, in 1835, to make him a baronet. Peel, however, found means to be of use to Southey, for, by a general act for the recognition of distinguished services to literature and science, he obtained for Southey a pension of 1.300.