‘Really, I do not see the signal!’, by Robert Southey

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He now paced the deck, moving the stump of his lost arm in a manner which always indicated great emotion. “Do you know,” said he to Mr Ferguson,* “what is shewn on board the commander-in-chief? No. 39!” Mr Ferguson asked what that meant. “Why, to leave off action!” Then, shrugging up his shoulders, he repeated the words “Leave off action? Now, damn me if I do! You know, Foley,”* turning to the captain, “I have only one eye, I have a right to be blind sometimes:” and then, putting the glass to his blind eye, in that mood of mind which sports with bitterness,* he exclaimed, “really I do not see the signal!”

Presently he exclaimed, “Damn the signal! Keep mine for closer battle flying! That’s the way I answer such signals! Nail mine to the mast!”*

by Robert Southey 1774-1843

abridged

Abridged from ‘Life of Nelson’ Vol. 2 (1814) by Robert Southey (1774-1843). Additional information from ‘Life Of Admiral Lord Nelson, from His Lordship’s Manuscripts’ Vol. 2 (1809) by James Stanier Clarke (1766-1834) and John McArthur (1755-1840).

* The surgeon aboard Nelson’s ship HMS Elephant.

* Later Admiral Sir Thomas Foley (1757-1833).

* That is, that mood in which people make a joke out of any painful feelings they may have.

* Nelson was vindicated. Within half an hour, the enemy’s guns had been silenced. “The brave Danes are the brothers,” Nelson wrote to the Crown Prince of Denmark, proposing an armistice, “and should never be the enemies of the English.” He sealed his letter not with the proffered disc of dampened starch (a ‘wafer’) but with wax and a large seal. “This is no time to appear hurried and informal” he observed.

Précis

When Nelson at last learnt of the signal calling on him to retreat, he was incredulous. Then, remembering that he was blind in one eye, he put his telescope to his eye-patch and declared triumphantly that he could not see Parker’s message. Nelson then pressed ahead into battle, flying his own signal to attack, and went on to win.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

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