ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to trace the vexed relationship between the two writers, and suggest the ways in which their writings were intertwined in the public sphere. It follows their relationship through three phases, involving firstly, De Quincey's early perception of Robert Southey as evidenced in his 1803 Diary; secondly, Southey's reception as an 'orientalist' poet and the consequences of this for De Quincey; and finally the author shall turn to De Quincey's responses to Southey's prose works, particularly the latter's 1829 Sir Thomas More. In thus identifying three focal points in their relationship, the author merely follows the textual evidence available; but at the same time the author aims to view each of these phases holistically within the biographical and historical contexts entailed. De Quincey's reputation as a proponent of high romanticism might suggest that his often less than charitable remarks on Southey are of the same ilk.
