Narrative

22. Southey’s next epic poem, Madoc, was published in 1805. Madoc was based on the legend of a Welsh prince in the twelfth century and during the poem’s composition, Southey traveled to Wales in order to research the subject. As was the case when he wrote Mary, The Maid of the Inn (1796), Southey first conceived of the idea for Madoc years earlier while he was attending Westminster School. The process of writing and publishing Madoc was lengthy and arduous for Southey and the years he dedicated to the poem, 1794 to 1805, were particularly transformative for the poet and his politics. As he had also intended with The Fall of Robespierre (1794) and Joan of Arc (1796), Southey hoped to contribute any earnings from Madoc’s sales towards his Pantisocratic venture with Coleridge. However, during the poem’s composition, Southey and Coleridge officially abandoned their plans for a utopian society abroad. Nevertheless, Madoc remained an overtly political poem, further bolstered by Southey’s extensive footnotes and lengthy preface detailing his intentions with the piece.

Although he completed Madoc in 1799, Southey continued working on the poem until its publication in 1805. The poem proved to be expensive to publish and received only mixed critical reviews, including a lukewarm reception from Southey’s fellow Lake Poets, William and Dorothy Wordsworth. Despite initially garnering only mediocre sales and tempered reviews, the success of Southey’s later poems led to this re-edition of Madoc (1805) in 1812 for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row.