Note 4 — Chapter I
Reading edition
In the Imaginary Conversation between Southey and Porson, Landor makes Porson say: “It is pleasant to find two poets [Southey and Wordsworth] living as brothers, and particularly when the palm lies between them, with hardly a third in sight.”
Lamb, too, in a letter to Mr. Coleridge (p. 194, Moxon edition of 1832, London), says: “On the whole, I expect Southey one day to rival Milton; I already deem him equal to Cowper, and superior to all living poets besides.” This is apropos of Joan of Arc, which had then recently appeared. He begins his letter: “With Joan of Arc I have been delighted, amazed; I had not presumed to expect anything of such excellence from Southey.”