Southey, Robert (1774–1843)

Robert Southey (b. 12 August 1774; d. 21 March 1843), British poet laureate, epic poet, playwright, and historian who wrote a three-volume History of Brazil.

Southey was born in Bristol, England, to a family of farmers and tradesmen and educated at Oxford. In 1800, he spent the first of two extended visits with his uncle, the Reverend Herbert Hill, in Portugal. Hill had begun to amass a collection of manuscripts and notes on Portugal and its colonies. Southey became interested in writing a history of Brazil as part of a set of historical volumes on Portugal, Spain, the Portuguese Empire in Asia, the Jesuits in Japan, and monasticism. Begun in 1807, the History of Brazil was the only work completed in the set.

Detailing Brazilian history from 1500 to 1808, the three volumes of the History of Brazil were published in 1810, 1817, and 1819. Criticized for incorporating too much detail and too little interpretation, Southey was nonetheless recognized for the tremendous scope of his work by the queen of Portugal, who honored him in 1839 by naming him knight of the Order of the Tower and Sword.

See alsoBrazil: The Colonial Era, 1500–1808 .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Geoffrey Carnall, Robert Southey (1964).

Jack Simmons, Southey (1968).

Robert Southey, The History of Brazil, 3 vols., edited by Herbert Cahn (1971).

Lionel Madden, Robert Southey: The Critical Heritage (1972).

Kenneth Curry, Southey (1975).

Additional Bibliography

Fulford, Tim. Romanticism and Millenarianism. New York: Palgrave, 2002.

Storey, Mark. Robert Southey: A Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

                                           Mary Jo Miles