The Review of English Studies Advance Access published online on April 1, 2009
The Review of English Studies, doi:10.1093/res/hgn170
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press 2009; all rights reserved
‘As Long-Winded as Possible’: Southey, Coleridge, and The Doctor &C.
DoshishaUniversity,Kyoto
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Abstract |
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From around 1813 until his death three decades later, Robert Southey was working on his eccentric, unfinished masterpiece, The Doctor &c. Although five volumes were published in his lifetime, and two more posthumously, the comic story of ‘Doctor Daniel Dove of Doncaster and his horse Nobs’ on which the work is based, and which is promised from the beginning, is never told. The present essay reveals what that originating story was, and traces it back to its appearance in Christopher Smart's periodical, the Midwife, in 1752. It shows that Southey almost certainly heard the story of Nobs from Coleridge, who was entertaining his friends with this piece of nonsense by 1799, and probably much earlier, making the original short tale ‘as long-winded as possible’. The expanded story was designed for improvised performance, and ‘never told twice alike’ ; the reasons why Southey, with Coleridge's encouragement, eventually decided to produce a written version are examined, as are his subsequent difficulties in writing it. The Doctor &c. is Southey's finest and most individual work, a monument to his love of silly stories and friendship with Coleridge.