In 1829 Robert Southey published a book of his imaginary conversations with the original Utopian: Sir Thomas More; or Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society. The product of almost two decades of social and political engagement, Colloquies is Southey’s most important late prose work, and a key text of late 'Lake School' Romanticism. It is Southey’s own Espriella’s Letters (1807) reimagined as a dialogue of tory and radical selves; Coleridge’s Church and State (1830) cast in historical dramatic form. Over a series of wide-ranging conversations between the Ghost of More and his own Spanish alter-ego, ‘Montesinos’, Southey develops a richly detailed panorama of British history since the 1530s - from the Reformation to Catholic Emancipation. Exploring issues of religious toleration, urban poverty, and constitutional reform, and mixing the genres of dialogue, commonplace book, and picturesque guide, the Colloquies became a source of challenge and inspiration for important Victorian writers including Macaulay, Ruskin, Pugin, and Carlyle.
Introduction
-Origins, Composition, Plates (collaboration with Westall), Sales, Reception, Second Edition, Projected 'New Colloquies' (1831-2) with John Rickman
-Contexts, Guidebooks and Views, Catholic Emancipation and Reform, Southey's Romantic Historicism, Victorian Legacies
-Bibliographical features and apparatus, Extant Manuscripts
Reading Text
Facsimiles of Frontispiece and Title Page, Epigraphs, 'Dedication' and Preface
Colloquy I - Introduction
Colloquy II - The Improvement of the World
Colloquy III - The Druidical Stones - Visitations of Pestilence
Colloquy IV - Feudal Slavery - Growth of Pauperism
Colloquy V - Decay of the Feudal System - Edward VI - Alfred
Colloquy VI - Walla Crag - Owen of Lanark
Colloquy VII - The Manufacturing System
Colloquy VIII - Steam - War - Prospects of Europe
Colloquy IX - Derwentwater - Catholic Emancipation - Ireland
Colloquy X - Crosthwaite Church - St Kentigern - Part II - The Reformation - Dissenters - Methodists
Colloquy XI - Infidelity - Church Establishment
Colloquy XII - Blencathra - Threlkeld Tarn - The Cliffords - Part II - Privileged Orders ・ The American Governments
Colloquy XIII - The River Greta - Trade - Population - Colonies
Colloquy XIV - The Library
Colloquy XV - The Conclusion
Appendix
Notes and Illustrations
Editorial Notes
Editorial Appendices
-Appendix A ・ Reviews in Edinburgh Review; Monthly Review; Fraser's Magazine; selective critical heritage 1829
present
-Appendix B - Selective manuscript transcriptions and selective facsimiles (inc. Westall plates for 1829 and 1831/2 'lost' 2nd series)
-Appendix C - List of Southey's Sources
-Appendix D - Index to Topics
Biography
Tom Duggett, Tim Fulford
