/■ 
 
 I 
 
 
 o?V 
 
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 A NARRATIVE OF THE EVENTS 
 OF HIS LIFE 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES DYKES CAMPBELL 
 
 ILonDon 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK 
 1894 
 
bin 
 
C3:>' 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 This Memoir is mainly a reproduction of the bio- 
 graphical sketch prefixed to the one-volume edition 
 of Coleridge's Poetical Works^ published last spring. 
 Such an Introduction generally and properly consists 
 of a brief summary of some authoritative biography. 
 As, however, no authoritative biography of Coleridge 
 existed, I was obliged to construct a narrative for my 
 own purpose. With this view, I carefully sifted all 
 the old printed biographical materials, and as far as 
 possible collated them with the original documents ; 
 I searched all books of Memoirs, etc., likely to 
 contain incidental information regarding Coleridge ; 
 and, further, I was privileged by being permitted to 
 make use of much important matter, either absolutely 
 new, or previously unavailable. 
 
 My aim had been, not to add to the ever- 
 lengthening array of estimates of Coleridge as a 
 poet and philosopher, but to provide something 
 
 1 The Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Edited, with a Bio- 
 graphical Introduction, by James Dykes Campbell. London : Macmillan and 
 Co. 1893. 
 
SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 which appeared to be wanting — a plain, and as far 
 as possible, an accurate narrative of the events of 
 his life ; something which might serve until the 
 appearance of the full biography which is expected 
 from the hands of the poet's grandson, Mr. Ernest 
 Hartley Coleridge. 
 
 In preparing the present reprint of the ' Bio- 
 graphical Introduction ' I have spared no effort towards 
 making it worthy of separate publication, and of its 
 new title. It has been carefully revised ; and 
 though neither form nor scale has been materially 
 altered, I have not hesitated to expand the narrative 
 wherever a fuller or clearer statement appeared to be 
 desirable, or new facts which had come to light in the 
 interval required to be mentioned. 
 
 Although in the footnotes I have found frequent 
 opportunity of offering thanks for help rendered in 
 the preparation of this work, I am indebted to 
 many others who are not there mentioned ; and to 
 each of them I now tender my sincere thanks. To 
 the generous sympathy and assistance of Mr. Ernest 
 Hartley Coleridge my work owes more than I can 
 adequately express ; and in no less measure am I 
 grateful to two other friends, Canon Ainger and Mr. 
 Leslie Stephen, whose help in every direction has 
 been invaluable to me. 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 The portrait which forms the frontispiece has been 
 reproduced directly from the original, now in the 
 National Portrait Gallery. This belonged to Cottle, 
 and was admirably engraved in his Early Recollections, 
 where he thus writes of it : ' This portrait of Mr, 
 Coleridge was taken in oils by a Mr. [Peter] Vandyke 
 (a descendant of the great Vandyke). He was invited 
 over from Holland by the late Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
 to assist him in his portraits, particularly in the 
 drapery department ; in which capacity he remained 
 with him many years. Mr. Vandyke afterwards 
 settled in Bristol, and obtained great and just celebrity 
 for his likenesses. His portrait of ]\Ir. Coleridge did 
 him great credit, as a better likeness was never taken, 
 and it has the additional advantage of exhibiting Mr. 
 C. in one of his animated conversations, the expression 
 of which the painter has in good degree preserved.' 
 Hancock's portrait of the following year has been 
 more frequently engraved, and is therefore more 
 familiar. Cottle says it ' was much admired at 
 the time, and has an additional interest from having 
 been drawn when Mr. C.'s spirits were in a state 
 of depression, on account of the failure of the 
 Watchman.' Several later portraits are mentioned in 
 the text. 
 
 J. D. C. 
 
 ■ OF THE ^ 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
PRINTED AUTHORITIES CHIEFLY CITED 
 
 1. Letters, Conversations, and Recollections of S. T, Coleridge. With a Pre- 
 
 face by the editor, Thomas Allsop. Third edition, 1864. (The first 
 edition was published anonymously. Moxon. 1836. 2 vols.) 
 
 2. Early Years and Late Reflections. By Clement Carlyon, M.l). 4 vols. 
 
 1856-1858. 
 
 3. Biographia Literaria : or Biographical Sketches of my Literary Life and 
 
 Opinions. By S. T. Coleridge, Esq. 2 vols. 18 17. 
 
 4. Biographia Literaria [etc.] By S. T. Coleridge. Second edition, prepared 
 
 for publication in part by the late H. N. Coleridge : completed and 
 published by his widow. 2 vols. 1847. 
 
 5. Memoir and Letters of Sara Coleridge [Mrs. H. N. Coleridge]. Edited 
 
 by her daughter. 2 vols. 1873. 
 
 6. Memorials of Coleorton : being Letters from Coleridge, Wordsworth and 
 
 his sister, Southey, and Sir Walter Scott, to Sir George and Lady 
 Beaumont of Coleorton, Leicestershire, 1803-1834. Edited by William 
 Knight, University of St. Andrews. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1887. 
 
 7. Early Recollections : chiefly relating to the late S. T. Coleridge, during his 
 
 long residence in Bristol. By Joseph Cottle. 2 vols. 1837. 
 
 8. Reminiscences of S. T. Coleridge and R. Southey. By Joseph Cottle. 
 
 1847. (A recast of ' 7 ' with additions.) 
 
 9. Fragmentary Remains, literary and scientific, of Sir Humphry Davy, Bart. 
 
 [etc.] Edited by his brother, John Da\y, M.D. 1858. 
 
 10. Unpublislied Letters from .S. T. Coleridge to the Rev. John Prior Estlin. 
 
 Communicated by Henry A. Bright (to the Piiii.oiiiBi.ON Society), n.d. 
 
 11. The Life of S. T. Coleridge, by James Gillman. In 2 vols. ('Vol. L' 
 
 only was published.) 1838. 
 --12. The Letters of Cliarles Lamb. Edited by Alfred Ainger. 2 vols. 1888. 
 
 13. A Group of Englishmen (1795-1815) : being records of the younger Wedg- 
 
 woods and their Friends. By Eliza Meteyard. 187 1. 
 
 14. Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson. 
 
 Third edition. 2 vols. 1872. 
 
 15. Thomas Poole and his Friends. By Mrs. Henry Sandford. 2 vols. 1888. 
 
 16. The Life and Correspondence of R. Southey. 6 vols. 1849- 1850. 
 
 17. Selections from the Letters of R. Southey. 4 vols. 1856. 
 
 18. Letters from the Lake Poets — S. T. Coleridge, William Wordsworth, 
 
 Robert Southey — to Daniel Stuart, editor of The Afornvig Post and The 
 Courier. 1 800- 1 838. Printed for private circulation. 1889. Edited 
 by Mr. Ernest Hartley Coleridge, in whom the copyright of the contents 
 is vested. 
 
 19. Coleridge. By H. D. Traill. ' English Men of Letters ' series. 1884. 
 
 20. Memoirs of William Wordsworth. By Christopher Wordsworth, D.D., 
 
 Canon of Westminster [afterwards Bishop of Lincoln]. 2 vols. 1S51. 
 
 21. The Life of William Wordsworth. By William Knight, LL.D. 3 vols. 
 
 1889. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Printed Authorities Chiefly Cited . . ix 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Childhood — Christ's Hospital, a.d. i 772-1 791 . . i 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Cambridge, etc. a.d. i 791-1794 . . .21 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Marriage — The Watchman, a.d. i 795-1 796 . . 50 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Nether Stowev — Lyrical Ballads, a.d. i 797-1 798 . 62 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 Germany, a.d. i 798-1 799 . . . . .94 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 London — Greta Hall. a.d. i 799-1 801 . . . 103 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 Greta Hall. a.d. i 801-1804 .... 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Malta and Italy. a.d. 1804- 1806 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 i 
 Return to England — Lectures — The Friend, a.d. | 
 
 1806-1810 ...... 153 i 
 
 CHAPTER X i 
 
 London, a.d. 18 10-18 13 . . . . . 179 \ 
 
 I 
 
 ! 
 CHAPTER XI I 
 
 Bristol and Calne. a.d. 18 13-18 16 . . . 198 j 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 CHAPTER XII • 
 
 Highgate. A.D. 1 8 16-18 19 . . . . . 220 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Highgate — {continued), a.d. 181 9- 1825 . . . 241 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Last Years at Highgate. a.d. 1825-1S34 . . 259 
 
 Conclusion . . . . . .281 
 
 Appendix . . •. . . . 285 
 
 Index ...... 280 
 
ersitt) 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 CHILDHOOD — Christ's hospital 
 
 A.D. I772-I791 
 
 Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born at the Vicarage 
 of Ottery St. Mary, in Devonshire, on the 21st October 
 1772. His father was the Rev. John Coleridge, Vicar 
 of the Parish, and Chaplain-Priest and Master of its 
 Free Grammar School (commonly called the ' King's 
 School'), founded by Henry VHI. His mother was 
 the Vicar's second wife, and her maiden name was 
 Anne Bowdon. By his first wife, Mary Lendon, the 
 Vicar had three daughters, who were all alive in 1797 ; 
 and by his second, nine sons (of whom Samuel Taylor 
 was the youngest) and one daughter. The poet's 
 paternal grandfather, who had been ' a considerable 
 woollen trader in South Molton,' fell into poor circum- 
 stances when his son was about sixteen {c. 1735), and 
 John was then supported at school by a friend of the 
 family. When, in 1748,^ he matriculated at Sidney 
 Sussex College, Cambridge, he was already married, 
 and on leaving the University, without a degree, he 
 settled as a schoolmaster at South Molton,- where his 
 
 1 When about twenty-nine years of age, not ' twenty,' as misprinted in Bw^. 
 Lit. 1847, ii. 314. 
 
 2 Not 'Southampton,' as misprinted in Biog. Lit. 1847, ii. 314. 
 
 B 
 
2 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 1772 
 
 wife died in June 1 75 1. Having remarried ^tzV'*;^ 1754, he 
 removed in 1 760 to Ottery St. Mary, on being appointed 
 to the Hving and the mastership of the school. At that 
 time there were, besides a son who died in infancy, 
 two children of his second marriage — John, who died 
 in 1786, a captain H.E.I.C.S. ; and William, who died 
 in 1780, both unmarried. In 1760 was born James, 
 who entered the army and married one of the co- 
 heiresses of Robert Duke, of Otterton, Esquire. 
 James's second son became Sir John Taylor Coleridge 
 (better known as 'Mr. Justice Coleridge'), the father 
 of the present Lord Chief-Justice. James's fourth son 
 was Henry Nelson Coleridge, who married his cousin 
 Sara, the poet's only daughter. The Vicar's next two 
 sons, Edward and George, both took orders. The 
 latter succeeded (though not immediately) to the 
 Grammar School, and to the private boarding-school 
 which his father had carried on. The seventh son, 
 Luke Herman, became a surgeon, but died at an early 
 age, in 1790, leaving but one child, a son, who became 
 in 1824 the first Bishop of Barbadoes. Next came 
 Ann ('Nancy'), whose early death, swiftly following 
 on that of Luke, deeply affected the young poet. The 
 eighth son was Francis Syndercombe, who died in 
 1792, a lieutenant H.E.LC.S. The ninth son, and 
 latest born of the Vicar's thirteen children, was the 
 poet, baptized ' Samuel Taylor,' after one of his god- 
 fathers. Of all the thirteen, four alone have living 
 descendants — James, Edward, Luke, and Samuel 
 Taylor. Descendants of James are numerous; of 
 Edward there is a daughter ; of Luke there are a 
 grandson and great-grandson ; and of the poet, a grand- 
 son with his four children, and two grand-daughters. 
 The Vicar is said to have been an amiable, simple- 
 
1772 PARENTAGE 
 
 minded, and somewhat eccentric scholar, sound in 
 Greek and Latin, and profound in Hebrew. Many 
 stories of his absent-mindedness were told in the 
 neighbourhood,^ some of them probably true. His 
 famous son thus describes him to Poole : ' In learning, 
 good-heartedness, absentness of mind, and excessive 
 ignorance of the world, he was a perfect Parson 
 Adams.'- He printed several books ^ by subscription. 
 \x\ A Critical Latin Grammar, he proposed (among 
 other innovations) to substitute for the vulgar names 
 of the cases ('for which antiquity pleads in opposition 
 to reason ') ' prior, possessive, attributive, posterior, 
 interjective, and quale-quare-quidditive.' 
 
 The Vicar's wife was fortunately of a more practical 
 turn than himself She was comparatively an unedu- 
 cated woman, and unemotional ; but was an admirable 
 wife, mother, and housekeeper ; and although she 
 disliked 'your harpsichord ladies,' determined to make 
 
 1 See Gillman's Zz/J? of S. T. C. chap, i., and De Quincey in his IVor/cs (1863), 
 ii. 70. 
 
 2 Biog. Lit. 1847, ii. 315. 
 
 3 (I) MiscelLuieous Dissertations arising from the X^'IIth and XVIIIth 
 chapters of the Book of Judges. 1768. 8vo, pp. 275. 
 
 (II) A Critical Latin Gram mar, containing clear and distinct rules for boys 
 just initiated ; and Notes explanatory of almost every antiquity and obscurity in 
 the Language, for youth somewhat advanced in Latin learning. 1772. i2mo, 
 pp. xiv. ; 161. 
 
 (III) Also, ' For the use of Schools,' price 2s. bound, Sententia Excerpta, 
 explaining the Rules of Grammar, and the various signification of all the Pre- 
 positions, etc. [Advertisement in II.] 
 
 (IV) Government not originally proceeding from Human Agency, hut Divine 
 Lnstittition, shewn in a Sermon preached at Ottery St. Mary, Devon, December 
 13, 1776, on the Fast Day, appointed by reason of our much-to-be-lamented 
 American War, and published at the request of the hearers. By John Coleridge, 
 Vicar of and Schoolmaster at Ottery St. Mary, Devon. London : printed for the 
 Author, 1777. 4to, pp. 15. 
 
 To No. I. is appended a long school prospectus, setting forth the method of 
 teaching, etc., and to No. II. an advertisement referring to the prospectus. P^rom 
 these we learn that the Vicar took about twenty boys, who paid two guineas 
 entrance-fee, and sixteen guineas a year for board and the teaching of Latin, 
 Greek, and Mathematics. 'A Writing-Master attends, for those who chuse it, 
 at sixteen shillings per year ; and a Dancing Master (at present Air. Louis, of 
 Exeter) once a week, at two guineas per year.' 
 
 f TT TvT T \r T- "D T T "V 
 
4 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE i775- 
 
 gentlemen of her sons — an ambition in which their 
 father was deficient. 
 
 Our knowledge of Coleridge's childhood is derived 
 entirely from his letters to Poole ^ written in 1797 — 
 compositions which as fully as any of his poems are 
 instinct with the writer's extraordinary genius. Even 
 rememberino- the best successes of Charles Dickens 
 and George Eliot, it may be affirmed that no more 
 vivid and essentially truthful picture of a solitary and 
 imaginative childhood has ever been drawn. 
 
 Coleridge describes himself as a precocious and 
 imaginative child, never mixing with other boys. At 
 the age of three he was sent to a dame's school, where 
 he remained till he was six. * My Father was very fond 
 of me, and I was my Mother's darling ; in consequence 
 whereof, I was very miserable. For Molly, who had 
 nursed my brother Francis, and was immoderately 
 fond of him, hated me because my Mother took more 
 notice of me than of Frank ; and Frank hated me 
 because my Mother gave me now and then a bit of 
 cake when he had none' — •.Frank enjoying many 
 titbits from Molly, who had only ' thumps and ill- 
 names ' for 'Sam,' which through life was the family 
 abbreviation of the poet's name. ' So I became fretful 
 and timorous, and a tell-tale ; and the schoolboys drove 
 me from play and were always tormenting me. And 
 hence I took no pleasure in boyish sports, but read 
 incessantly.' He read all the children's books he 
 could find — Jack the Giant-Killer, and the like. 
 
 And I used to lie by the wall and mope ; and my spirits used 
 to come upon me suddenly, and in a flood ; and I then was ac- 
 customed to run up and down the churchyard and act over again 
 all I had been reading, on the docks and the nettles and the rank 
 
 1 *Biog. Supplement' to Biog. Lit. 1847, ii. 315-330- 
 
1778 CHILDHOOD 5 
 
 grass. At six years of age, I remember to have read Belisarius, 
 Rohinso7i Crusoe, and Philip Quarll \The Hcrmit\, and then I found 
 the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, one tale of which (the tale of a 
 man who was compelled to seek for a pure virgin) made so deep an 
 impression on me (I had read it in the evening while my Mother 
 was at her needle) that I was haunted by spectres whenever I was 
 in the dark ; and I distinctly recollect the anxious and fearful eager- 
 ness with which I used to watch the window where the book lay, 
 and when the sun came upon it, I would seize it, carry it by the 
 wall, and bask and read.^ My father found out the effect which 
 these books had produced, and burned them. 
 
 So I became a dreamer, and acquired an indisposition to all 
 bodily activity. I was fretful, and inordinately passionate ; and as I 
 could not play at anything, and was slothful, I was despised and 
 hated by the boys ; and because I could read and spell, and had, I 
 may truly say, a memory and understanding forced into almost un- 
 natural ripeness, I was flattered and wondered at by all the old 
 women. And so I became very vain, and despised most of the 
 boys that were at all near my own age, and before I was eight years 
 old I was a character. Sensibility, imagination, vanity, sloth, and 
 feelings of deep and bitter contempt for almost all who traversed 
 the orbit of my understanding, were even then prominent and 
 manifest. 
 
 That which I began to be from three to six, I continued to be 
 from six to nine. In this year [1778] I was admitted into the 
 Grammar School, and soon outstripped all of my age. 
 
 About this time the child had a fever. His nightly 
 prayer was the old rhyme, beginning ' Matthew, Mark, 
 Luke, John,' and 'frequently,' he adds, 'have I (half- 
 awake and half-asleep, my body diseased, and fevered 
 by imagination) seen armies of ugly things bursting 
 in upon me, and then four angels [" Four good angels 
 round me spread "] keeping them off.' 
 
 And so the child went on, living by himself in 
 a fairy world of nursery tales, and Arabian Nights, 
 ' cutting down weeds and nettles, as one of the Seven 
 Champions of Christendom.' 'Alas!' he exclaims, 
 ' I had all the simplicity, all the docility of the little ■■>^9 ^ 
 
 
 ^ See this reminiscence repeated, with some others, in The Friend, 1S18, i. 
 251 et scq. 
 
 s 
 
6 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1780- 
 
 child, but none of the child's habits. I never thought 
 as a child, never had the language of a child.' 
 Happily, wandering in Fairy Land is one of the 
 habits of most children, but in Coleridge's case the 
 usual correctives were wanting. One adventure of 
 those days is worth recalling, as it is not improbable 
 that its effects on his constitution were never entirely 
 got rid of. One evening, fearing punishment for a 
 somewhat serious fault, he ran away, not stopping 
 until he was a mile from home. Both rage and 
 fear passed off, but he felt 'a gloomy satisfaction 
 in making his Mother miserable,' and determined 
 not to return. He fell asleep, and in his slumber 
 rolled down to the unfenced bank of the Otter. 
 The night had become stormy, and he awoke about 
 five o'clock, wet, and so cold and stiff that he 
 could not move. The Sir Stafford Northcote of 
 the period, who, with the Vicar and many of the 
 neighbours, had been searching all night for the 
 lost child, found him, and he was carried home. 
 
 I remember, and never shall forget, my Father's face as he 
 looked upon me while I lay in the servant's arms — so calm, and the 
 tears stealing down his face ; for I was the child of his old age. My 
 Mother, as you may suppose, was outrageous with joy. ... I 
 was put to bed, and recovered in a day or so. But I was 
 certainly injured ; for I was weakly and subject to ague for many 
 years after. 
 
 Apparently, when Coleridge was no more than 
 eight, a career was marked out for him. 
 
 My Father (he writes), who had so little parental ambition in 
 him, that but for my Mother's pride and spirit, he would certainly 
 have brought up his other sons to trades, had nevertheless resolved 
 that I should be a parson. I read every book that came in my way 
 without distinction ; and my Father was fond of me, and used to 
 take me on his knee, and hold long conversations with me. I 
 
1 78 1 DEATH OF HIS FATHER 7 
 
 remember, when eight years old, walking with him one winter 
 evening from a farmer's house, a mile from Ottery ; and he then 
 told me the names of the stars, and how Jupiter was a thousand 
 times larger than our world, and that the other twinkling stars were , 
 suns that had worlds rolling round them ; and when I came home, 
 he showed me how they rolled round. I heard him with a profound 
 delight and admiration, but without the least mixture of wonder or 
 incredulity. For, from my early reading of fairy tales and about 
 genii, arid the like, my mind had been habituated to the Vast ; and 
 I never regarded my senses in any way as the criteria of my belief. 
 I regulated all my creeds by my conceptions, not by my sight, even 
 at that age. 
 
 The few glimpses of his childhood afforded by the 
 poems are inv^ariably pleasant.^ 
 
 The child seems to have been petted, not only by 
 his parents, but by his brother George, whom he 
 describes as his ' earliest friend.' All this, or the best 
 of it, came to an end when the boy had hardly com- 
 pleted his ninth year. His father died suddenly on 
 the 4th October 1781, and was succeeded, both as 
 vicar and as schoolmaster, by Mr. Smerdon, with 
 
 ^ Dear native Brook ! wild Streamlet of the West ! 
 
 How many various-fated years have past, 
 
 What happy, and what mournful hours, since last 
 I skimmed the smooth thin stone along thy breast, 
 Numbering its light leaps ! yet so deep imprest 
 Sink the sweet scenes of childhood, that mine eyes 
 
 1 never shut amid the sunny ray, 
 But straight with all their tints thy waters rise, 
 
 Thy crossing plank, thy marge with willows grey, 
 And bedded sand that veined with various dyes 
 Gleamed through thy bright transparence ! On my way 
 
 Visions of Childhood ! oft have ye beguiled 
 Lone manhood's cares, yet waking fondest sighs : 
 
 Ah ! that once more I were a careless Child ! 
 
 This sonnet was addressed To the River Otter, about 1792-93. Six years 
 later, in Lines composed in a Concert-room, Coleridge exclaimed — 
 
 O give me, from this heartless scene released, 
 
 To hear our old musician, blind and grey, 
 (W'hom stretching from my nurse's arms I kissed,) 
 
 His Scottish tunes and warlike marches play. 
 By moonshine, on the balmy summer-night, 
 
 The while I dance amid the tedded hay 
 With merry maids, whose ringlets toss in light ! 
 
 Further reminiscences of youthful Ottery days are to be found in Frost at 
 jMidnight and in Lines to a beautiful Spring in a Village. 
 
8 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE ^ 1781- 
 
 whom Coleridge remained as a day-scholar until the 
 following April, when a presentation to Christ's Hos- 
 pital was obtained for him from a Mr. John Way, 
 through the interest of Mr. Francis Duller (afterwards 
 the famous judge), who had been a pupil of the late 
 Vicar. Thus ' too soon transplanted, ere his soul had 
 fixed its first domestic loves,' Coleridge entered the great 
 school on the i8th July 1782, an intervening period of 
 about ten weeks having been spent in London with 
 his mother's brother, Mr. John Bowdon, who had a 
 shop in Threadneedle Street. This affectionate but 
 injudicious uncle, he relates, ' used to carry me from 
 coffee-house to coffee-house, and tavern to tavern, 
 where I drank, and talked, and disputed as if I had 
 been a man.' 
 
 After six weeks of the Junior School at Hertford 
 — ' where I was very happy on the whole, for I had 
 plenty to eat and drink ' — he was removed, in Sep- 
 tember, to the great London school, being placed in 
 the second, or 'Jefferies' Ward, and in the Under 
 Grammar School, Christ's Hospital, he says, then 
 contained about seven hundred boys, about one-third 
 being the sons of clergymen. The school and the 
 Coleridge of those days have been described for all 
 time in Lamb's essays — 'Recollections of Christ's 
 Hospital' (1813), and 'Christ's Hospital five-and- 
 thirty years ago' (1820). The former is a serious 
 historical account of the Foundation and its advan- 
 tages ; the latter presents the reverse of the medal — 
 the side which impressed itself most indelibly on the 
 Blue -coat boys of the essayist's time. Although 
 Lamb was Coleridge's junior by a little more than 
 two years, he entered Christ's Hospital a few 
 months earlier. His parents lived close at hand, 
 
1782 AT CHRIST'S HOSPITAL g 
 
 and Coleridge was the ' poor friendless boy ' for 
 whom he speaks — 
 
 My parents and those who should care for me were far away. 
 Those few acquaintances of theirs which they could reckon upon as 
 being kind to me in the great city, after a little forced notice, which 
 they had the grace to take of me on my first arrival in town, soon 
 grew tired of my holiday visits. They seemed to them to recur too 
 often, though I thought them few enough ; and, one after another, 
 they all failed me, and 1 felt myself alone among six hundred 
 playmates. . . . How, in my dreams, would my native town (far in 
 the west) come back, with its church, and trees, and faces ! How 
 I would wake weeping, and in the anguish of my heart exclaim 
 upon sweet Calne in Wiltshire ! 
 
 'Calne,' of course, is only Lamb's device for con- 
 cealing his friend's identity, and was selected, doubt- 
 less, partly for its cadence, and partly because Cole- 
 ridge resided there shortly before going to Highgate. 
 The words about the boy's dreams are but a reflection 
 of Coleridge's own lines in Frost at Midnight — 
 
 How oft, at school, with most believing mind, 
 
 Presageful, have I gazed upon the bars, 
 
 To watch that fluttering stranger ! and as oft 
 
 With unclosed lids, already had I dreamt 
 
 Of my sweet birth-place, and the old church-tower, 
 
 Whose bells, the poor man's only music, rang 
 
 From morn to e\ening, all the hot Fair-day, 
 
 So sweetly, that they stirred and haunted me 
 
 With a wild pleasure, falling on mine ear 
 
 Most like articulate sounds of things to come ! 
 
 So gazed I, till the soothing things, I dreamt. 
 
 Lulled me to sleep, and sleep prolonged my dreams ! 
 
 And so I brooded all the following morn. 
 
 Awed by the stern preceptor's face, mine eye 
 
 Fixed with mock study on my swimming book : 
 
 Save if the door half opened, and I snatched 
 
 A hasty glance, and still my heart leaped up, 
 
 For still I hoped to see the sirajigef^s face, 
 
 Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved, 
 
 ]\Iy play-mate when we both were clothed alike ! 
 
 It is the same poem, written in the Stowey cottage 
 in February 1798, which contains the remarkable 
 
lo SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1785- 
 
 prophecy how his beloved Hartley should wander like 
 a breeze by lakes and mountains, unlike his father, 
 who was 
 
 reared 
 In the great city, pent 'mid cloistei's dim, 
 And saw nought lovely but the sky and stars, 
 
 — sky and stars seen from the roof of Christ's Hos- 
 pital, as we learn through Wordsworth — 
 
 Of rivers, fields, 
 And groves I speak to thee, my Friend ! to thee 
 Who, yet a liveried schoolboy, in the depths 
 Of the huge city, on the leaded roof 
 Of that wide edifice, thy school and home, 
 Wert used to lie and gaze upon the clouds 
 Moving in heaven ; or, of that pleasure tired, 
 To shut thine eyes, and by internal light 
 See trees, and meadows, and thy native stream. 
 Far distant, thus beheld from year to year 
 Of a long exile.i 
 
 A long exile it proved, for it seems probable that 
 the boy did not return to Ottery until the summer of 
 1789. But Coleridge's school-days were not a mono- 
 tony of weeping and day-dreaming. Such, in some 
 measure, they may have been, perhaps, at first ; but 
 the clouds broke. A few of his letters from Christ's 
 Hospital have been preserved.^ The earliest is dated 
 February 4, 1785, when the writer was in his twelfth 
 year, and was addressed to his mother. He acknow- 
 ledges ' with gratitude ' ' two handkerchiefs, and the 
 half-crown from Mr. Badcock,' another half-crown and 
 the prospect of * a plumb-cake ' from Mrs. Smerdon ; 
 and he promises to take great care of the tips, ' as I 
 now consider that were it not for my kind friends I 
 should be as destitute of many little necessaries as 
 
 1 Prelude, Book VI. 
 
 '•^ Unpublished Letters of S. T. Coleridge. Edited by his Grandson, Ernest 
 Hartley Coleridge. Illustrated London N'ews, April i, 1893. 
 
1787 GEORGE COLERIDGE 11 
 
 some of my school-fellows are ; and Thank God and 
 my relations for them ! ' The letter ends with affec- 
 tionate messages, in which he is joined by his Bowdon 
 ' uncle, aunt, and cousins.' The many acknowledg- 
 ments of kindnesses received from the Bowdons 
 incline one to believe that there is a touch of artistic 
 exaggeration in Lamb's words quoted above. ' Miss 
 Calerica,'[i^] Coleridge writes, May 12, 1787, 'and my 
 cousin Bowdon behave more kindly to me than I can 
 express. I dine there every Saturday.' ' But, above 
 all,' he continues, ' I can never sufficiently express 
 my gratitude to my brother George. He is father, 
 brother, and everything to me.' About two years 
 before this, George had taken a situation as master in 
 Newcome's Academy at Hackney, where he remained 
 until he took up his permanent residence at Ottery 
 in 1794. He was probably the 'Dear Brother' to 
 whom the following request was addressed in a letter 
 described as ' undated, from Christ's Hospital, before 
 1 790 ' : ' You will excuse me for reminding you that, 
 as our holidays commence next week, and I shall go 
 out a good deal, a good pair of breeches will be no 
 inconsiderable accession to my appearance,' his present 
 pair being 'not altogether well adapted for a female eye.' 
 From the first Coleridge was full of ' natural glad- 
 ness,' and possessed in an extraordinary degree the 
 invaluable faculty of making friends. As close com- 
 panions, he had Lamb, and a litde host beside ; 
 for protector and encourager, Middleton (afterwards 
 Bishop of Calcutta) ; and as tolerable substitutes 
 for a home, the house of his Bowdon uncle, and, 
 later, that of Mrs. Evans, the mother of Mary and 
 other daughters. Boyer (whose floggings did his 
 pupil no serious harm that we know of) took a 
 
12 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1787- 
 
 paternal headmaster's interest in him, and brought 
 him up in the way a good scholar, and even a good 
 poet, should go ; ^ so that Coleridge, in spite of his 
 persistent waywardness, was enabled to carry off the 
 best honours the school afforded. In the letter of 
 May 12, 1787, already quoted from, he informs his 
 brother Luke : ' I suppose I shall be a Grecian in 
 about a year. Mr. Boyer says that if I take parti- 
 cular care of my exercises, etc., I may find myself 
 rewarded sooner than I expected. I know not exactly 
 what he means ; but I believe it is something concern- 
 ing putting me in the first form.' These anticipations 
 of promotion were not belied, for it was in 1788 that 
 he entered the ranks of the ' Grecians ' — the small 
 band selected by the headmaster for special training 
 under his own eye for the University Exhibitions of 
 the school,^ one of which Coleridge gained in due time. 
 But there were interruptions. When about fifteen 
 he took a fancy to be apprenticed to a friendly 
 cobbler in the neighbourhood of the school, and 
 induced the cobbler to make formal application to 
 Boyer. This was more than Boyer could stand, and 
 with assault and battery he drove the astonished 
 applicant from his sanctum. Coleridge himself seems 
 to have escaped unhurt from the fray. It was soon 
 after this that his brother Luke came up to walk the 
 London Hospital, and Coleridge then thought of 
 nothing- but how he too might become a doctor. 
 He read all the medical and surgical books he 
 could procure, went round the hospital -wards with 
 Luke, and thought it bliss if he were permitted 
 to hold a plaster. ' Briefly ' (he says) ' it was a 
 
 ^ Biographia Literaria, chap. i. 
 
 2 See Lamb's account of the group — ' seldom above two or three at a time 
 were inaugurated into that high order ' — in Recollections of Chrisfs Hospital. 
 
I78S 'LOGICIAN, METAPHYSICIAN, BARD!' 13 
 
 wild dream, which gradually blending with, gradually 
 gave way to, a rage for metaphysics, occasioned 
 by the essays on "Liberty" and "Necessity" in 
 Catds Letters,^ and more by theology. After I had 
 read Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary I sported 
 infidel ! but my infidel vanity never touched my 
 heart.' ^ Boyer took his 'short way,' and reconverted 
 his pupil by means of a sound flogging — 'the only 
 just one,' Coleridge was pleased in after-life to say, 
 he ever received from his master. This was doubt- 
 less but a fond and passing conceit, for elsewhere he 
 blesses the floQ^gino-s which saved him from beinpf 
 emasculated into a 'juvenile prodigy.' Yet prodigy 
 he must have been, if his own and Lamb's reminis- 
 cences are to be accepted — -accepted even with a sub- 
 stantial orrain of salt ; how he read straigfht throuQfh a 
 whole circulating library, of which he was made free 
 by a singular incident (his account of which is need- 
 lessly romantic) ; and how he invaded the murky 
 caves of the third-century Neo-Platonists^ with his 
 boyish rush-light. 
 
 Truth there must be, and even something of fact, 
 in Lamb's famous passage — 
 
 Come back into memory, like as thou wert in the dayspring of 
 thy fancies, with hope Hke a fiery column before thee — the dark 
 pillar not yet turned — Samuel Taylor Coleridge — Logician, Meta- 
 physician, Bard ! — How have I seen the casual passer through the 
 Cloisters stand still, entranced with admiration (while he weighed 
 the disproportion between the speech and the garb of the young 
 
 ^ By John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon. 4 vols. i2mo, 1755. 
 
 - GiUman's Life, p. 23. 
 
 2 In these adventures he was doubtless aided by the Latin translations usually 
 supplied with the original Greek, and by Thomas Taylor's, which appeared about 
 that time (translations which he once described as 'difficult Greek transmuted into 
 incomprehensible English '), though he asserts {Biog. Lit. i. 249) that he had 
 translated the eight hymns of Synesius from the Greek into English Anacreontics 
 before his fifteenth year ! 
 
 ^ OFTHF *^ \ 
 
 TTNIVERSITT] 
 
14 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1788 
 
 Mirandula), to hear thee unfold, in thy deep and sweet intonations, 
 the mysteries of Jambhchus, or Plotinus (for even in those years thou 
 waxedst not pale at such philosophic draughts), or reciting Homer 
 in his Greek, or Pindar — while the walls of the old Grey Friars re- 
 echoed to the accents of the inspired charity boy ! ^ 
 
 We hear nothing of games, but Coleridge enjoyed 
 bathing excursions in the summer hoHdays. Once, as 
 he told Gillman, he swam across the New River in his 
 clothes, and let them dry on his back, with the conse- 
 quence, apparently, that 'full half his time from seven- 
 teen to eighteen was passed in the sick-ward of Christ's 
 Hospital, afflicted with jaundice and rheumatic fever.' ^ 
 Coleridge was doubtless rendered the more suscept- 
 ible by the effects of his runaway adventure eight 
 years before. If the tradition^ be true, that Genevieve 
 was addressed to the daughter of his school 'nurse,' 
 the attachment may have been formed during this 
 illness — 
 
 When sinking low the suff'rer wan 
 Beholds no hand stretcht out to save, 
 
 I've seen thy breast with pity heave, 
 
 And therefore love I thee, sweet Genevieve ! 
 
 He has dated the poem ' cet. 14,' and the illness ' 17- 
 18,' but Coleridge was never sure of his own age, and 
 such figures of his are, as a rule, untrustworthy. 
 According, however, to his own statement,'* he was 
 a'boiat sixteen (1788) when he made the acquaintance 
 of the Evans family — a connection destined to exer- 
 cise an important influence on his career. It is 
 Gillman who thus reports : — 
 
 1 ' Christ's Hospital five-and-thirty years ago,' in Essays of Elia. 
 
 2 Gillman's Z?/c', p. 33. 
 
 3 There was a tradition in Christ's Hospital that Genevieve was addressed to 
 the daughter of Coleridge's school ' nurse.' For the head boys to be in love with 
 these young persons was an institution of long standing. The lines quoted are 
 taken from the earliest MS. text of the poem. 
 
 * Gillman's Life, p. 28. 
 
I7SS THE EVANS FAMILY 15 
 
 About this time he became acquainted with a widow lady, 
 ' whose son,' ^ says he, ' I, as upper boy, had protected, and who 
 therefore looked up to me, and taught me what it was to have a 
 mother. I loved her as such. She had three daughters, and, of 
 course, I fell in love with the eldest. From this time to my 
 nineteenth year, when I quitted school for Jesus, Cambridge, was 
 the era of poetry and love.' 
 
 In 1822 he said in a letter to Allsop" — 
 
 And oh ! from sixteen to nineteen what hours of paradise had 
 Allen and I in escorting the Miss Evanses home on a Saturday, 
 who were then at a milliner's, . . . and we used to carry thither, 
 of a summer morning, the pillage of the flower-gardens within six 
 miles of town, with sonnet or love-rhyme wrapped round the nose- 
 gay. To be feminine, kind, and genteelly (what I should now call 
 neatly) dressed, these were the only things to which my head, heart, 
 or imagination had any polarity, and what I was then, I still am. . 
 
 The latter reminiscence reflects more accurately 
 than the former the earlier relations between Cole- 
 ridge and the Evans sisters. Of the letters he wrote 
 to the family from Cambridge — which doubtless were 
 numerous — five have been preserved,^ the latest being 
 dated February 10, 1793. They are all strictly family 
 letters, such as a son and brother would write — he 
 seems to have been called ' Brother Coly ' by the 
 family — and are addressed indifferently to Mrs. Evans, 
 and to her daughters. The only exception noticeable 
 is that it is to Mary he addresses all his rhymes.^ But 
 there have been preserved also two letters addressed 
 to Mary towards the end of 1 794, in one of which 
 Coleridge first declares himself her lover, a passion 
 which he says he has 'Jbr four years endeavoured to 
 smother.' These letters will receive notice in their 
 
 ^ Afterwards a fellow-clerk with Lamb in the India House. 
 
 2 Letters, etc., 1864, p. 170. 
 
 3 Now in the great collection of Mr. Alfred Morrison at Fonthill, who has 
 kindly permitted me to use them. 
 
 * A Wish, the two poems which follow it, and the Co/iiplaiiit of Ninathoma. 
 See Poetical ]Vorks, 1893, PP- ^9' ^o. 
 
i6 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1789 
 
 proper place — here it is enough to show that in all 
 \ probability Coleridge was fancy-free until the end of 
 1790. As Mrs. Evans was as a mother or an aunt to 
 him, so were her daughters as his sisters or cousins. 
 Unless we are to believe implicitly Coleridge's dating 
 of Genevieve, it is clear that ' Poetry ' (or, at all events, 
 verse) preceded ' Love ' in his development, for the 
 X contributions to Boyer's albums^ begin with 1787; 
 and the dates attached to these are the only ones 
 which can be depended on. But it was not until the 
 end of 1789 that the poetical faculty in Coleridge was 
 quickened. The school exercises ^ were regarded by 
 him strictly as such, and at this particular period 
 poetry had become ' insipid,' and everything but 
 metaphysics distasteful.^ 
 i From * this preposterous pursuit ' he was ' auspi- 
 ( ciously withdrawn,' first by * an accidental introduction 
 < to an amiable family' (Evanses) ; next, and 'chiefly,' 
 ' by another accidental introduction — to the poetry of 
 1 Bowles. ' I had just entered on my seventeenth 
 year [October 1789] when the Sonnets of Mr. 
 Bowles,"* twenty in number, and just then published 
 in a quarto pamphlet, were first made known and 
 presented to me.'^ The donor was his friend 
 Middleton, who had left Christ's Hospital for Cam- 
 bridge a year before. These mild sonnets stirred 
 Coleridge. 
 
 1 The books into which tlie headmaster of Christ's caused his boys to tran- 
 scribe their best exercises, and which his grandson, Mr. James Boyer of Coopers' 
 Hall, has kindly placed at my disposal. 
 
 - See Dura Navis, Nil pejus est calibe vitd, Qiice Jiocent docent, first printed 
 in Poetical Works (1893); z.wd. Jtilia, first printed in TroUope's History ^of 
 Christ's Hospital, 1834 [P. IF. 1893, p. 4). 
 
 2 Biog. Lit. 1817, i. 16. 
 
 * Probably the second edition, which contained twenty-one sonnets. The 
 first was anonymous : Fourteen Sonnets, Elegiac and Descriptive, written during 
 a Tour. Bath, mdcclxxxix. Quarto. 
 
 o Biog. Lit, i. 13. 
 
17S9 BOWLES'S SONNETS 17 
 
 I My earliest acquaintances (he adds) will not have forgotten the 
 
 undisciplined eagerness and impetuous zeal w'xih. which I laboured to 
 
 ' make proselytes. . . . As my school finances did not permit me 
 
 ( to purchase copies, I made within less than a year and a half more 
 
 I than forty transcriptions as the best presents I could offer to those 
 
 , who had in any way won my regard, and with almost equal delight 
 
 did I receive the three or four following publications of the same 
 
 author. 
 
 One cannot help regretting that the inspiration did not 
 come more directly from Cowper or Burns, or from 
 both ; but I confess my inability to join in the expres- 
 sion of amused wonder which has so often greeted 
 Colerido-e's acknowledgments of his oblicration to 
 Bowles. Had he first met with Cowper, or with Burns, 
 doubtless Coleridge would have been less strongly im- 
 pressed by Bowles — certainly less strongly impressed 
 by his novelty or originality ; perhaps (but only perhaps) 
 less influenced by his work as a whole. As a matter of 
 fact, however, it happened that the first breath of 
 Nature, unsophisticated by the classical tradition, came 
 to Coleridge from Bowles's sonnets ; and he recognised 
 it at once. Nor was he alone in this experience. 
 Four years later, the same sonnets captivated 
 Wordsworth, He first met with them as he was 
 starting on a walk, and kept his brother waiting on 
 Westminster Bridge until, seated in one of its re- 
 cesses, he had read through the little quarto. Of 
 course, much that Coleridge and Wordsworth saw 
 I in Bowles's sonnets is hidden from us ; but 
 (surely, even to eyes looking across the century, 
 (they exhibit qualities, both intrinsic and adven- 
 titious, which sufficiently explain the influence they 
 (-exercised. 
 
 How this influence affected Coleridge is set forth 
 in the opening chapters of the Biographia, and is best 
 illustrated by the youthful poems of i 790 and following 
 
 c 
 
iS SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1790- 
 
 years, which can now be read in something which 
 ^approximates to chronological order.^ In one of the 
 /earliest, the Monody on Chattei'toji (1790), he passed 
 beyond his master, but the new influence pervades 
 others of succeeding years. The old leaven was not 
 purged out all at once, and throughout there is dis- 
 cernible more of the besetting weakness of the new, as 
 represented by the model, and less of the individuality^ 
 it helped to emancipate, than we could have wished or 
 expected. Even at the end of 1796 Coleridge wrote 
 to Thelwall of Bowles as 'the god of his idolatry,'! 
 and presented Mrs. Thelwall with a copy of his idols 
 poems (Bath, 1796) — it is now in the Dyce collection 
 at South Kensinofton — thus inscribed : ' I entreat . 
 your acceptance of this volume, which has given me • 
 more pleasure, and done my heart more good than ' 
 all the other books I ever read, excepting my Bible ' 1 
 (Dec. 18, 1796). How closely Coleridge would some- 
 times follow his model in subject, sentiment, and | 
 language, may be seen by comparing his sonnet To 
 tJie River Otter, written either in 1792 or 1793 (p. 7 
 supra), with Bowles's verses To the River Itchifi, fiear 
 IViiitoJi.- 
 
 The winter of 1 790-1 brought two severe trials to 
 
 1 7>b Poetical Works cf S. T. Coleridge. Macmillan and Co. 1893. 
 
 - Itchin. when I behold thy banks again. 
 
 Tb]r cnunbling maigin, and thy sflver breast. 
 
 On which the self-same tints stiD seem to rest, 
 WTiy feels my heart the shiv'ring sense of pain ? 
 
 Is it, that many a summer's day has past 
 Since, in life's mom, I carol'd on thy side? 
 Is it, that oft, since then, my heart has sigh'd 
 
 As Yoatb, and Hope's delusive gleams, flew fast ? 
 Is it, that those, who circled on thy shore. 
 Companions of my youth, now meet no more ? 
 
 Wfaate'er the cause, upon thy banks I bend 
 Sorrowing, yet feel such stdace at my heart, 
 
 As at the meeting of some long-lost friend. 
 
 From whom, in happier hours, we wept to part. 
 
 ^Fourteen Sonnets, 1789. No. VIII.) 
 
1 791 LEAVING SCHOOL FOR COLLEGE 19 
 
 Coleridge in the deaths successively of his brother Luke 
 — who had been the kindest of elder brothers durino- 
 
 o 
 
 the time they were together in London — and his 
 sister Ann. In the short space which intervened 
 between these bereavements he wrote the well-known 
 lines On recehing an account that Jiis only sister s 
 death was inevitable — 
 
 The tear which moum'd a brothers fate scarce dr)- — 
 
 Pain after pain, and woe succeeding woe — 
 
 Is my heart destined for another blow ? 
 
 O my sweet sister I and must thou too die ? 
 
 And four years later, during a serious illness of ]\Iary 
 Lamb, Coleridge thus wrote to her brother Charles : — 
 
 I too a Sister had. an only Sister — 
 
 She loved me dearly, and I doted on her .' 
 
 To her I pour'd forth all my puny sorrows, 
 
 (As a sick Patient in his Nurses anns) 
 
 And of the heart those hidden maladies 
 
 That even from Friendship's eye will shrink ashamed. 
 
 O ! I have woke at midnight, and have wept, 
 
 Because she was not ! — Cheerily, dear Charles ! 
 
 Thou thy best friend shalt cherish many a year : 
 
 Such warm presagings feel I of high Hope.i 
 
 The sadness of this winter was doubtless greatly 
 relieved by the knowledge that the next would be 
 spent at Cambridge. The worst of the school-boy 
 hardships had already been left behind, but even the 
 life of a Grecian was subject to restraints unknown to 
 an undergraduate ; and no doubt Coleridge had long 
 been looking forward to freedom. Yet when the day 
 came round for entering upon it, it was but natural 
 that the drawbacks of the chanq^e should have been 
 uppermost in his mind. Of his special school-friends, 
 onlv Middleton. who was three vears his senior in aofe. 
 would greet him at Cambridcre, while he was leavino^ 
 
 "^ To a Friend together with an unfinished Poetn. 
 
20 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1791 
 
 behind not a few with whom his relations had been 
 on a footing of greater equahty — Lamb, who, though 
 he had left the Cloisters two years before, was still 
 within hail ; Robert Allen, the brothers Le Grice, 
 Favell, and others, doubtless, whose names have 
 not come down to us. For the moment at least the 
 boy felt as the child had done nine years before, — 
 that he was leaving home, and it was in this regretful 
 strain that he sang his Diilce Doimtni : — 
 
 Farewell parental scenes ! a sad farewell ! 
 
 To you my grateful heart still fondly clings, 
 
 Tho' fluttering round on Fancy's burnish'd wings 
 
 Her tales of future Joy Hope loves to tell. 
 
 Adieu, adieu ! ye much-loved cloisters pale ! 
 
 Ah ! would those happy days return again, 
 
 When 'neath your arches, free froin every stain, 
 
 I heard of guilt and wonder'd at the tale ! 
 
 Dear haunts ! where oft my simple lays I sang, 
 
 Listening meanwhile the echoings of my feet, 
 
 Lingering I quit you, with as great a pang, 
 
 As when erewhile, my weeping childhood, torn 
 
 By early sorrow from my native seat. 
 
 Mingled its tears with hers — my widow'd Parent lorn. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, ETC. 
 A.D. 1791-I794 
 
 On the 12th January 1791 the Committee of Ahnoners 
 of Christ's Hospital appointed Coleridge to an Exhi- 
 bition at Jesus College, Cambridge, on the books of 
 which he was entered as a sizar on the 5th February. 
 His 'discharge' from the school is dated September 
 7th, 1 79 1, and he went into residence at Jesus in the 
 following month. He became a pensioner on November 
 5, and matriculated on March 26, 1792. The Official 
 'List of [C.H.] University Exhibitioners ' states that 
 Coleridge ' was sent to Jesus College, Cambridge, as 
 the prospect of his preferment to the Church would be 
 very favourable if he were preferred to that College.' 
 His Exhibition from the Hospital (besides the usual 
 allowance of ^40) was fixed at £40 per annum for 
 the first four years, and ^30 for each of the three 
 remaining years of the then usual period of C. H. 
 Exhibition tenure. Mr. Leslie Stephen states,^ on 
 official authority, that Coleridge obtained one of the 
 Rustat scholarships belonging to Jesus which are 
 confined to the sons of clergymen. ' He received 
 something from this source in his first termj and 
 
 1 Dictionary of N^ational Biography — Art. ' S..'T. CoIeridge.^HE *^ ^ 
 
 'UIUIVERSITT 
 ^ ^ OP . y 
 
 ^^ C// /FORMlA- ^ 
 
22 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1791- 
 
 about £2^ for each of the years 1792-94. He 
 became also a Foundation scholar on 5th June 1794.' 
 
 There is no certainty that Coleridge's London 
 school-life was ever broken by holiday visits to his 
 old home. A letter to his mother of 1785 suggests 
 a bare possibility that he went to Ottery in 1784; 
 if we are to accept the family date of 1789 given 
 to Life, and that of 1790 to Inside the Coach and 
 Devonshire Roads, he must have spent some of the 
 holidays of these years at Ottery. But these family 
 dates seem little to be depended on. There is, 
 however, no reasonable doubt that Coleridge went 
 home in 1791, between school and college, or that 
 Happiness must have been written at Ottery in that 
 year. In some cancelled lines of that doleful poem 
 he drew an unflattering portrait of himself, the faith- 
 fulness of which is to some extent certified by the 
 testimony of the member of the family who transcribed 
 the verses : * The Author was at this time remarkable 
 for a plump face ' — 
 
 Ah ! doubly blesl., if love supply 
 
 Lustre to this now heavy eye, 
 And with unwonted Spirit grace 
 
 That fat vacuity of face. 
 Or if e'en Love, the mighty Love 
 
 Shall find this change his powers above ; 
 Some lovely maid perchance thou'lt find 
 
 To read thy visage in thy mind. 
 
 Of his University career we know little. On 
 entering, he found Middleton at Pembroke College, 
 and to this old school ' patron and protector ' he 
 probably owed the stimulus which made him an 
 industrious student for the first year or two. He 
 certainly began well, for in his first year (1792) he 
 gained the Browne Gold Medal for a Sapphic Ode 
 
1793 THE BROWNE GOLD MEDAL 23 
 
 on the Slave Trade ; ^ and in the winter of the same 
 year he was selected by Porson as one of a ' short 
 leet ' of four (out of seventeen or eighteen) to com- 
 pete for the Craven Scholarship.- This was gained by 
 Samuel Butler, afterwards headmaster of Shrewsbury 
 and Bishop of Lichfield ; but as Coleridge's failure 
 has been reported to have depressed his spirits and 
 injuriously affected his future, it may be mentioned 
 that this view receives no confirmation from his 
 letter to Mrs. Evans, written immediately after the 
 award. 
 
 My dear Mrs. Evans — . . . The event of our examination 
 was such as surpassed my expectation, and perfectly accorded with 
 my wishes. After a very severe trial of six days' continuance, the 
 Number of the Competitors was reduced from 1 7 to 4 — and after a 
 further process of ordeal, we, the survivors, were declared equal each 
 to the other, and the Scholarship, according to the will of the Founder, 
 awarded to. the youngest of us, who was found to be a Mr. Butler of 
 St. John's College. I am just two months older than he is ; and 
 though I would doubtless have rather had it myself, I am not yet 
 at all sorry at his success, for he is sensible and unassuming, and, 
 besides, from his circumstances, such an accession to his annual 
 income must have been very acceptable to him. — So much for 
 myself. 
 
 I should be afraid to guarantee the strict accuracy ' 
 of this account of the award, but it shows clearly enough 
 that Coleridge did not take his loss of the scholarship 
 very much to heart. The whole letter is a cheerful 
 and hopeful one, much occupied by mock-heroics on 
 his sufferings from toothache, and thus it ends : — 
 
 1 Printed only in Poetical IVorks, 1893, p. 476. He also entered for the 
 Latin Ode and the Epigrams. 
 
 '^ The other three were Butler, Keate (afterwards headmaster of Eton), and 
 Bethell (afterwards Bishop of Bangor). One of the subjects set was a Greek 
 poem on ' Astronomy,' and though no copy of Coleridge's composition is extant, 
 an English translation of it was made by Southey, and included by him in the 
 1806 collection of his Poems. The translation is reprinted in the Appendix to 
 The Poetical and Dramatic Works of Samuel Taylor Colei-idge, ed. 1878 
 (i. 219). 
 
24 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE i793 
 
 My dear Mrs. Evans ! excuse the wanderings of my castle- 
 building Imagination ! I have not a thought which I conceal from 
 you. I write to others, but my Pen talks to you. Convey my 
 softest affection to Betty [an old servant], and believe me, your 
 grateful and affectionate Boy, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Feb. 5th [1793]. 
 
 Unfortunately, Middleton, from whom a coveted 
 and deserved fellowship had been withheld as a 
 punishment for his 'republicanism,' left the Uni- 
 versity in 1792, and there seems to have been 
 no one to take his place as a steadying influence. 
 In a letter to the Evanses of February 14, 
 1792, Coleridge speaks of a wine - party he at- 
 tended, at which ' three or four freshmen were most 
 deplorably intoxicated.'^ On the way home two of 
 them fell into the gutter, and one who was being 
 assisted * generously stuttered out ' a request that his 
 friend might be saved as he (the speaker) ' could swim.' 
 In another letter,^ written a year later, he describes 
 himself as ' general ' of a party of six undergraduates 
 who ' sallied forth to the apothecary's house with 
 a fixed determination to thrash him for having: 
 performed so speedy a cure ' on Newton, their 
 mathematical tutor, who had been half-drowned in 
 a duck - pond a week before. The same letter 
 announces that he is taking- lessons on the violin 
 in self-defence against fiddling and fluting neighbours. 
 It also contains this passage — ' Have you read Mr. 
 
 1 Writing to his wife from Gottingen in March 1799, Coleridge describes a 
 wild supper-party of students he had been attending, at which nearly all but him- 
 self had drunk to excess : ' I thought of what I had been at Cambridge, and of 
 
 /what I was, of the wild bacchanalian sympathy with which I had formerly joined 
 ' similar parties, and of my total inability now to do ought but meditate, and the 
 I feeling of the deep alteration in my moral being, gave the scene a melancholy 
 ^ interest to me' {Illnstrated London News, April 29, 1 893). I have an assured 
 / faith in the accuracy of the Cambridge reminiscence. 
 
 2 Printed in full in \ht. Illustrated London A'ews {ox h^x\\%, 1893. It was 
 addressed to Mary Evans, and included a copy of The Complaint of Ninathoma. 
 
1793 RADICAL AND UNITARIAN 25 
 
 iFox's letter to the Westminster Electors ? It is 
 I quite the political Go at Cambridge, and has con- 
 verted many souls to the Foxite Faith.' Coleridge >^ 
 himself had already been converted to a political faith 
 far in advance of that held by the average Foxite. 
 C. V. le Grice ^describes Coleridge's rooms at this time 
 as crowded by friends who came to hear their host 
 declaim, and repea t ' whole pas sage s^verbatim ' from 
 the_political painphjets^which then swarmed^lrbm 
 the press.- TThe rooms were also a centre for the 
 sympathisers with William Frend, a Fellow of Jesus, 
 who in May 1793 was tried in the Vice-Chancellor's 
 Court for having expressed too freely liberal views 
 in politics, and Unitarian opinions in religion. Cole- 
 ridge, who was in everything but mathematics, the 
 earnest disciple of Frend, made himself dangerously 
 conspicuous at the trial. - 
 
 In October of that year Christopher Wordsworth 
 entered at Trinity (of which he was afterwards 
 Master), and speedily became acquainted with Cole- 
 ridge.^ In November they joined with some other 
 undergraduates in forming a Literary Society. On 
 the 5th the pair discussed a review in the current 
 Monthly of the poems of Christopher's brother 
 
 ^ Gentleman'' s Magazine, Dec. 1834. He had come up, a year after Cole- 
 ridge, with a C.H. Exhibition to Trinity. 
 
 I 2 In the long vacation of this year Coleridge visited his famil)' at Ottery. See 
 
 "the following note attached in Poems, 1852, to the verses called Kisses (begin- 
 
 f ning ' Cupid, if storying legends tell aright ') : ' This Effusion and The Rose 
 
 I were originally addressed to a Miss F. Nesbitt, at Plymouth, whither the author 
 
 accompanied his eldest brother, to whom he was paying a visit, when he was 
 
 twenty-one years of age. Both poems are written in pencil on the blank pages 
 
 of a copy of Langhorne's Collins. Kisses is entitled Cupid turned Chymist ; is 
 
 signed S. T. Coleridge, and dated Friday evening, [July] 1793. The Rose has 
 
 this heading : " On presenting a Moss Rose to Miss F. Nesbitt." In both poems 
 
 the name of Nesbitt appears instead of Sara, afterwards substituted.' The Songs 
 
 of the Pixies belongs also to this summer. In the ' Pixies' Parlour,' near Ottery, 
 
 Coleridge's initials, cut by his own hand in the rock, are still legible. 
 
 ^ Social Life at the English Universities, by Christopher Wordsworth, M.A., 
 Fellow of Peter House, Cam., 1874. Appendix. 
 
26 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE i793 
 
 IWilliam, on which occasion Coleridge spoke of the 
 ^esteem in which WilHam 'was holden by a Society 
 ^ at Exeter.^ . . . Coleridge talked Greek, Max. Tyrius, 
 he told us, and spouted out of Bowles.' On the 7th 
 he repeated his Lines on an Auhtmnal Evening and 
 had them criticised. On the 13th the Society met 
 for the first time at Wordsworth's rooms. ' Time 
 before supper was spent in hearing Coleridge re- 
 peat some original poetry (he having neglected to 
 write his essay, which is therefore to be produced 
 next week).' 
 
 But there is no record of that essay having ever 
 been read, and it is probable that before the Society's 
 next meeting Coleridge had left Cambridge. Of the 
 immediate causes of his flight nothing positive is 
 known. Gillman - attributes it to debts incurred for 
 the furnishing of his college rooms ; Coleridge him- 
 self-^ to his debts generally, denying passionately a 
 report, believed by his family, that they had been 
 incurred disreputably ; Cottle "^ ascribes to Coleridge 
 the statement that he ran away in a fit of disgust 
 arising from Mary Evans's rejection of his addresses. 
 'It is not improbable that debts and disappointed love 
 'combined to drive him out of his course. Debts, how- 
 ever contracted, were evidently weighing on him at 
 the time. The artless appeal To Fortune — On buying a 
 Ticket in the Irish Lottery ^ seems to point to a specu- 
 \/ lative attempt to retrieve his position. The lines are 
 described as having been ' composed during a walk to, 
 and from the Queen's Head, Gray's Inn Lane, Hol- 
 
 ^ See an allusion to such a Society in Biog. Lit. i. 19. ^ Life, p. 42. 
 
 3 lb. p. 64. ■* Early Rixoll. ii. 54 ; and Ran. p. 279. 
 
 t ^ First collected in Poetical IVoiics (1893) from the Morning C/ironicle 6i 
 
 ' Nov. 7, 1793. This probably was the poem Stuart tells us Coleridge sold 
 t about this time to the Morning Chronicle for a guinea [Gent. Mag. Aug. 1838, 
 ■ p. 125). 
 
1793 ENLISTMENT 
 
 born, and Hornsby and Co.'s, Cornhill,' and in spite of 
 the conventionality of the phraseology are quite as 
 characteristic of the suppliant at any given period of 
 his life as anything he ever wrote. ' Mine is no 
 /common case,' was Coleridge's constant plea. It 
 always came from his heart as well as from his lips, 
 and to the end he never fully realised that the goddess 
 Fortune is deaf as well as blind : — 
 
 Promptress of unnumber'd sighs, 
 
 O snatch that circling bandage from thine eyes I 
 
 look, and smile ! No common prayer 
 Solicits, Fortune ! thy propitious care ! 
 For, not a silken son of dress, 
 
 1 clink the gilded chains oi poUiesses, 
 Nor ask thy boon what time I scheme 
 Unholy Pleasure's frail and feverish dream ; 
 Nor yet my view life's dazzle blinds — 
 
 Pomp ! — Grandeur ! Power ! — I give you to the winds ! 
 
 But oh ! if ever song thine ear 
 
 Might soothe, O haste with fost'ring hand to rear 
 
 One Flower of Hope ! At Love's behest, 
 
 Trembling, I plac'd it in my secret breast : 
 
 And thrice Pve viewed the vernal gleam, 
 
 Since oft mine eye, with joy's electric beam, 
 
 Illum'd it — and its sadder hue 
 
 Oft moistened with the tear's ambrosial dew ! 
 
 Poor wither'd floweret ! on its head 
 
 Has dark Despair his sickly mildew shed ! 
 
 But thou, O Fortune ! can'st relume , 
 
 Its deaden'd tints — and thou with hardier bloom 
 
 May'st haply tinge its beauties pale, 
 
 And yield the unsunn'd stranger to the western gale ! 
 
 In one of his accounts of the adventure Coleridge 
 . speaks of having spent only a couple of days in London, 
 ; in another he gives himself a week.^ The latter is prob- 
 ably the correct version, for he may have come up to 
 await the lottery drawing, and, having drawn a blank, 
 .he apparently could not face a return to Cambridge. 
 On the 2nd December 1793 he enlisted under the 
 
 1 Gillman's Life, pp. 57 and 64 respectively. 
 
28 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE i793 
 
 jname of Silas Tomkyn Comberbacke, in the 15th, or 
 "King's Regiment of Light Dragoons. Two days 
 later he was inspected, attested, and sworn at Reading, 
 the headquarters of the regiment. His Majesty's 
 military needs must have been urgent at this time, for 
 Comberbacke was one of the few Englishmen of any 
 degree who could truthfully affirm that he had had all 
 his life ' a violent antipathy to soldiers and horses.' Of 
 , course, the dragoonship was a sorry farce. He could 
 i not stick on his horse ; he could not even groom it, or 
 ' clean the accoutrements. But he could charm his com- 
 ' rades into taking these latter duties off his hands by 
 writing their love-letters, telling them stories, and 
 \ nursing them when they were sick. In rather less than 
 two months Coleridge, feeling that he had had enough 
 of it, revealed his whereabouts in a letter to certain of 
 his old cronies who were still at Christ's, and they in 
 turn confided the intelligence to another — Tuckett, by 
 name — who had gone up to Cambridge. Tuckett 
 seems to have forwarded the letter to Ottery, and also 
 to have communicated with the commanding officer, 
 duly informing the trooper of what he had done. In 
 his reply to Tuckett, Coleridge makes some show of 
 indignation at what he calls the abuse of his con- 
 fidence ; but his gratitude for the results is even more 
 apparent. Tuckett seems to have sent on a letter 
 from Ottery, the seal of which Coleridge feared to 
 break — the earliest recorded instance we have of what 
 ) was a life-long habit : — 
 
 A letter from my brother George ! I feel a kind of pleasure 
 that it is not directed — it lies unopened — am I not already sufifi- 
 ciently miserable? The anguish of those who love me, of him 
 beneath the shadow of whose protection I grew up — does it not 
 plant the pillow with thorns and make my dreams full of terrors ? 
 Yet I dare not burn the letter — it seems as if there were an horror 
 
1794 RETURN TO CAMBRIDGE 29 
 
 in the action. . . . Alas ! my poor mother ! What an intolerable 
 weight of guilt is suspended over my head by a hair on one 
 hand ; and if I endure to live — the look ever downward — insult, 
 pity, and hell ! God or Chaos preserve me ! What but infinite 
 Wisdom or infinite Confusion can do it ? ^ 
 
 Coleridge apparently soon summoned up courage 
 to open the letter, and it was probably after some con- 
 fidential correspondence with George that a properly 
 humble and dutiful letter was concocted, and addressed,' 
 on February 20, by Samuel to the head of the family, 
 his brother Captain James Coleridge." His discharge 
 was procured, but not until the loth of April. The 
 many romantic stories afloat as to the circumstances 
 of Coleridge's release have little, if any, foundation. 
 Miss Mitford's and Mr. Bowles's Captain Ogle, who 
 did not appear on the scene until the secret was out, 
 may have rendered some kindly assistance, but the 
 caged bird himself took the initiative, and the business 
 of uncaging him, no doubt a troublesome one, was 
 carried through by his brothers. Little time was lost 
 by the prodigal son in returning to his Alma Mater — 
 for, according to Jesus College Register, it was on the 
 I, 1 2th April that he was admonished by the Master in 
 I the presence of the Fellows. No further notice of the 
 ' escapade seems to have been taken by the College 
 authorities, nor any report made to those at Christ's 
 Hospital, so that Coleridge got off very cheaply. 
 
 Before the middle of June, and in company with J. 
 Hucks (who afterwards became a Fellow of Catherine 
 Hall), Coleridge went to Oxford on a visit, which was 
 prolonged to three weeks, to his old schoolfellow Allen, 
 
 1 To G. L. Tuckett. Written Feb. 6 and 7, 1794, from Henley-on-Thames 
 Workhouse Hospital, where he had been left behind in charge of a sick comrade. 
 The letter is printed in full in the Illustrated London Neivs for April 15, 1893. 
 
 2 See the letter (or part of it), in Brandl's L ife of Coleridge, p. 65, where it 
 was first printed. .^^Cu^Ahy ' 
 
 ^ OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 ^ OF . 
 
 California-, 
 
30 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERLDGE i794 
 
 who had gone up two years before to University Col- 
 lege with a C.H. Exhibition. One of Allen's friends 
 was Robert Southey of Balliol, who thus wrote to 
 Grosvenor Bedford on June 12th : — 
 
 \ Allen is with us daily, and his friend from Cambridge, Cole- 
 
 I ridge, whose poems- you will oblige me by subscribing to, either at 
 
 I Hookham's or Edwards's. He is of most uncommon merit, — of 
 
 ( the strongest genius, the clearest judgment, the best heart. My 
 
 / friend he already is, and must hereafter be yours. ^ 
 
 The poerns mentioned by Southey must have been 
 a prgposed volume of Imitatio7ts from the Modern 
 Latin Poets, which Coleridge was at this time adver- 
 tising in the Cambridge Intelligencer,'^ interesting 
 chiefly as the first in a long series of ' projected 
 works ' which came to nothing. Probably little had 
 been provided for the volume except the translation 
 of Casimir's Ad Lyj-am,^ printed in the Watchman 
 two years later. The first draft of Lewti had prob- 
 ably been written shortly before, for in it the lines 
 are addressed to ' Mary ' — doubtless Mary Evans — 
 but they underwent much polishing before publication 
 ! in 1798. Even in its earliest form, however, the 
 : poem marks a great advance in lightness and indi- 
 
 \ viduality of touch.* 
 < 
 
 1 Life ami Con: of R. S. i. 210. 
 
 2 June 14 and July 26, 1794. 'Proposals for publishing by subscription 
 Imitations from the Modern Latin Poets, with a Critical and Biograpliical 
 Essay on the Restoration of Literature. By S. T. Coleridge, of Jesus College, 
 Cambridge. ' The work will consist of two volumes, large octavo, elegantly 
 printed on superfine paper : Price to Subscribers, 14s. in boards ; to be paid on 
 delivery. [Here follows a lengthy "Design."] In the course of the Work will 
 be introduced a copious Selection from the Lyrics of Casimir, and a new Transla- 
 tion of the Basia of Secundus. The Volumes will be ready for delivery shortly 
 after next Christmas. Cambridge, June \0, 1794.' 
 
 3 Poetical IVorks, 1893, p. 28. 
 * It opened thus : — 
 
 High o'er the silver rocks I roved 
 To forget the form I loved ; 
 In hopes fond fancy would be kind 
 And steal my Mary from my mind. 
 
1 794 SO UTHE Y AND PA NTISOCRA CV 31 
 
 I It was during the visit to Oxford that Pantiso- 
 j cracy was hatched. Southey gave his recollections of 
 
 the matter to Cottle in a letter dated March 5, 
 
 1836:- 
 
 In the summer of 1794 S. T. Coleridge and Hucks came to 
 'Oxford on their way into Wales for a pedestrian tour. Then Allen 
 I introduced them to me, and the scheme was talked of, but not by 
 ^ any means determined on. It was talked into shape by Burnett 
 and myself, when, upon the commencement of the long vacation, 
 we separated from them, they making for Gloucester, he and I pro- 
 ' ceeding on foot to Bath. After some weeks, S. T. C, returning 
 I from his tour, came to Bristol on his way and slept there. Then it 
 was that we resolved upon going to America, and S. T. C. and I 
 walked into Somersetshire to see Burnett, and on that journey it 
 was that he first saw Poole. He made his engagement with Miss 
 [Sarah] Fricker on our return from this journey at my mother's 
 house in Bath, not a little to my astonishment, because he had 
 talked of being deeply in love with a certain Mary Evans. I had 
 ' previously been engaged to my poor Edith [Fricker]. . , . He 
 remained at Bristol till the close of the vacation [?] — several weeks. 
 I During that time it was that we talked of America. The funds 
 were to be what each could raise — S. T. C. by the Specimens of the 
 Modern Latin Poets, for which he had printed proposals, and ob- 
 tained a respectable list of Cambridge subscribers before I knew 
 him; I, hy Joan of Arc, and what else I might publish. I had no 
 . . . other expectation. We hoped to find companions with 
 money.^ 
 
 The material required for filling in Southey's 
 rapid sketch is happily abundant. A minute itinerary 
 of the Welsh tour was published by Coleridge's com- 
 
 'Twas twilight, and the lunar beam 
 Sailed slowly o'er Tamaha's stream 
 As down its sides the water strayed. 
 Bright on a rock the moonbeam play'd, 
 It shone half-sheltered from the view, 
 By pendent boughs of tressy yew. 
 
 In another early MS. ' Sara' held the place of ' Mary,' but in this the poet's 
 pen crossed out ' Sara ' and substituted the impersonal ' Lewti.' 
 
 ^ The letter is printed in Cottle's Kcininisceuces, pp. 402-407, but veiy in- 
 accurately. I quote from the original now in the Fonthill collection. Cottle has 
 falsified the second sentence of the above extract, printing it thus : ' Allen intro- 
 duced them to me, and the scheme of Paiitisocracy was introduced by them ; 
 talked of, by no means determined on.' (The italics are Cottle's). There are 
 many other garblings, but this is the most important. 
 
32 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1794 
 
 panion Hucks,^ and Coleridge himself wrote a brief 
 account of part of it to a friend at Jesus, ^ while the 
 earlier developments of the visionary scheme which 
 then absorbed all the energies of both Southey and 
 Coleridge are vividly pictured in contemporary docu- 
 ments supplied by Mrs. Sandford in her admirable 
 account of TJwnias Poole and his Friends.^ It was on 
 the 1 8th August that the visit to Poole mentioned by 
 Southey took place, and, fortunately for us, Poole had 
 an opportunity given him of recording his impressions 
 while they were yet fresh. An acquaintance who had 
 heard rumours of Pantisocracy asked for information, 
 and to him Poole replied at length on the 22nd Sep- 
 tember : — 
 
 ' ' Coldridge ' [for so he spells the name], whom I consider the 
 Principal in the undertaking, and of whom I had heard much 
 [probably from George Burnett] before I saw him, is about five 
 and twenty [read, bareiy two and twenty], belongs to the Uni- 
 versity of Cambridge, [and] possesses splendid abilities. ... He 
 speaks with much elegance and energy, and with uncommon facility, 
 but he, as it generally happens to men of his class, feels the 
 
 ' "^ A Pedesti'ian Tour through North Wales, in a Series of Letters. By J. 
 .Hucks, B.A. London : printed for J. Debrett, 1795, i2mo, pp. 160. It was on 
 ( this tour that Coleridge wrote the Lines at the Kings Arms, Ross, and On Bala 
 ^ Hill. The last-mentioned poem is printed only m Poetical IVorks, ed. 1893. 
 
 ^ H. Martin, to whom The Fall of Robespierre was dedicated, and afterwards 
 , incumbent of Cucklington, Somerset. The letter was written at Carnarvon, 
 ' July 22, 1794, and was first printed in the New Monthly Mag. for August 1836 ; 
 ( and again in Biog. Lit. 1847, ii- 33^) ^^^ somewhat inaccurately. 
 
 2 Thomas Poole and his Friends. By Mrs. Henry Sandford. 2 vols. 1888. 
 Vol. i. chap. vi. — Thomas Poole was then his father's partner in a large tannery 
 business carried on in the little market-town of Nether Stowey, which lies at the 
 foot of the Quantock Hills, about seven miles from Bridgwater. In August 
 1794 he had almost completed his twenty-ninth year — a man of high and strong 
 character, eagerly interested in all that was going on in the national life, and him- 
 self a centre of progress in his neighbourhood. Unlike the great majority of his 
 family connections, he was in full sympathy with the principles of the French 
 Revolution, until the Reign of Terror began. So much is all that need be pre- 
 mised regarding this sterling Englishman, whose name is indissolubly connected 
 with that of Coleridge. The poet's vivid sketch of Poole in the tenth chapter 
 I of Church and State has been worthily filled in by Mrs. Sandford, whose book is 
 I one of the best biographies in our literature. It comprises the fullest account of 
 (Coleridge's life from 1795 to 1 804. 
 
1794 PANTISOCRACY DESCRIBED 33 
 
 justice of Providence in the want of those inferiour abilities which are 
 
 jssary to the rational discharge of the common duties of life. 
 
 .IS aberrations from prudence, to use his own expression, have 
 
 been great ; but he now promises to be as sober and rational as 
 
 his most sober friends could wish. In religion, he is a Unitarian, 
 
 if not a Deist ; in politicks a Democrat, to the utmost extent of the 
 
 iword. 
 
 Southey impressed Poole as lacking his com- 
 panion's 'splendid abilities,' but as more violent in his 
 principles. ' In Religion, shocking to say in a mere 
 Boy as he is [Southey was just twenty], I fear he 
 wavers between Deism and Atheism.' And then 
 Poole goes on to give the most complete account^ 
 which has come down to us of the scheme which 
 soon afterwards was named * Pantisocracy, ' and which 
 I thus summarise : — 
 
 r ' Twelve gentlemen of good education and liberal 
 principles are to embark with twelve ladies in April 
 next,' fixing themselves in some ' delightful part of the 
 new back settlements ' of America. The labour of each 
 man, for two or three hours a day, it was imagined, 
 would suffice to support the colony. The produce 
 was to be common property, there was to be a good 
 library, and the ample leisure was to be devoted to 
 study, discussion, and the education of the children on 
 a settled system. The women were to be employed 
 in taking^ care of the infant children and in other suit- 
 able occupations, not neglecting the cultivation of their 
 minds. Among other matters not yet determined was 
 'whether the marriage contract shall be dissolved, if 
 agreeable to one or both parties.' Every one was 'to 
 enjoy his own religious and political opinions, pro- 
 vided they do not encroach on the rules previously 
 made.' 'They calculate that every gentleman pro- 
 
 (^ A less detailed account was written about this time by Coleridge himself to 
 Mr. C. Heath of JNIonmouth. S&& Biog. Lit. 1847, ii. 344-5. 
 
 D 
 
34 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE i794 
 
 viding ^125 will be sufficient to carry the scheme into 
 Execution.' 
 
 It is necessary here to revert to the Welsh tour 
 of the previous month. In the letter written by 
 Coleridge to Martin, there is a remarkable passage 
 regarding Mary Evans. The travellers were at 
 Wrexham on the 13th and 14th of July. 
 
 I It had entirely escaped my memory (wrote Coleridge on the 
 22 nd) that Wrexham was the residence of a Miss E. Evans, a 
 
 ( young lady with whom, in happier days, I had been on habits of 
 fraternal correspondence ; she lives with her grandmother. As I 
 
 1 was standing at the window of the inn she passed by, and with her, 
 to my utter astonishment, her sister Mary Evans, qiiavi efflidim et 
 
 \ perdite amabajii, yea, even to anguish. They both started, and gave 
 a short cry, almost a shriek. I sickened, and well-nigh fainted, but 
 instantly retired. Had I appeared to recognise her, my fortitude 
 w'ould not have supported me. 
 
 Vivit, sed mihi non vivit — nova forte marita. 
 Ah ! dolor ! alterius nunc a cervice pependit. 
 Vos malefida valete accensas insomnia mentis 
 Littora amata, valete ! vale, ah ! formosa Maria. 
 
 Hucks informed me that the two sisters walked by the window 
 
 ' four or five times, as if anxiously. Doubtless, they think them- 
 selves deceived by some face strangely like me. God bless her ! 
 Her image is in the sanctuary of my bosom, and never can it be 
 
 I torn from thence but with the strings that grapple my heart to life. 
 This circumstance made me quite ill. I had been wandering 
 among the wild wood scenery and terrible graces of the Welsh 
 mountains to wear away, not to revive, the images of the past ! But 
 
 ' love is a local anguish : I am fifty miles distant, and am not half 
 
 ' so miserable. 
 
 I This incident makes it clear that the even flow of 
 , brother-and-sisterly affection between Coleridge and 
 Mary Evans had been disturbed, and imparts some 
 ' colour to the theory that disappointed love had had 
 ' more or less to do with the flight from Cambridge 
 j eight months before. It explains, though it hardly 
 .justifies, the readiness with which Coleridge, to 
 
1794 'THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE' 35 
 
 Southey's natural surprise, engaged himself, a few- 
 weeks afterwards, to Sarah Fricker. The eneaofe- 
 ment seems to have been a mere detail in the 
 preparations for carrying out the Pantisocracy. 
 
 Coleridge (wrote Southey to his midshipman brother Tom) 
 
 was with us nearly five weeks \t-ead four] and made good use of his 
 
 J time. We preached Pantisocracy and Aspheterism everywhere. 
 
 {These, Tom, are two new words, the first signifying the equal 
 
 [ government of all, and the other the generalisation of individual 
 
 ' property \ words well understood in the city of Bristol. . . . 
 
 The thoughts of the day, and the visions of the night, all centre 
 
 in America. Time lags heavily along till March. ... In 
 
 March we depart for America, Lovell, his wife \71ee Fricker], 
 
 brother and, two of his sisters; all the Frickers ; my mother, Miss 
 
 Peggy, and brothers ; Heath the apothecary, etc. ; G. Burnett, S. T. 
 
 Coleridge ; Robert Allen, and Robert Southey. . . . "We shall be 
 
 on the bank of a navigable river, and appoint you admiral of the 
 
 cock-boat.^ 
 
 One of the distractions of the Pantisocrats met 
 together in Bristol had been the joint composition of 
 a drama on the Fall of Robespierre. ' It originated,' 
 remembered Southey, ' in sportive conversation at 
 Lovell's, and we agreed each to produce an Act by 
 the next evening — S. T. C. the first, I the second, 
 and Lovell the third.' But it ended in Southey 
 writing both second and third. ' A dedication to 
 Mrs. Hannah More was concocted, and the notable 
 performance was offered for sale to a bookseller in 
 Bristol, who was too wise to buy it.' So, towards the 
 end of August, Coleridge carried off the MS. to 
 London, but in spite of encouragement from George 
 Dyer (who, as Lamb said, had an utter incapacity of 
 comprehending that there could be anything bad in 
 poetry), no publisher could be found. Cambridge 
 was more hospitable, and there it appeared in October, 
 
 ^ Sept. 20, 1794, Ltye and Con: of R. S. i. 220, 221. 
 
36 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1794 
 
 with Coleridge's sole name on the title-page and 
 ' Dedication.' ^ 
 
 While in London, Coleridge saw much of an old 
 schoolfellow, who had returned from a five -years' 
 residence in America to act as agent for the sale of 
 land there, and who strongly recommended the banks 
 of the Susquehannah as suitable for the Pantisocrats' 
 purpose — ' from its excessive beauty, and its security 
 from hostile Indians,' bisons, and mosquitos. ' Liter- 
 ary characters,' added this precursor of Generals 
 Scadder and Choke, 'make money there.' These 
 delightfully practical details were transmitted to 
 Southey on the 6th September. A fortnight later 
 Coleridoe announces his arrival at his rooms at 
 
 o 
 
 Jesus : — 
 
 Since I quitted this room what and how important events have 
 been evolved ! America ! Southey ! Miss Fricker ! . . . Panti- 
 socracy ! Oh ! I shall have such a scheme of it ! My head, my 
 heart, all are alive. I have drawn up my arguments in battle-array ; 
 they shall have the tactician excellence of the mathematician, with 
 the enthusiasm of the poet. The head shall be the mass ; the 
 heart, the fiery spirit that fills, informs, and agitates the whole. . . . 
 
 C has been laughing at me. Up I arose, terrible in reasoning. 
 
 He fled from me because 'he would not answer for his own sanity, 
 sitting so near a madman of genius.' He told me that the strength 
 of my imagination had intoxicated my reason, and that the acute- 
 ness of my reason had given a directing influence to my imagination. 
 Four months ago the remark would not have been more elegant 
 than just ; now it is nothing. 
 
 There were few periods in Coleridge's life at which 
 this remark would have been unjust, but it could hardly 
 be expected that he should have detected its special 
 aptitude just then. In the largest possible letters he 
 goes on : ' Shad goes with us : he is my brother ! ! 
 
 1 The Fall of Robespierre. An Historic Drama. By S. T. Coleridge, of 
 Jesus College, Cambridge. Cambridge : Printed by Benjamin Flower, for W. H. 
 Lunn [etc.], 1794. Price One Shilling. The Dedication was addressed to ' H. 
 Martin, Esq., of Jesus College, Cambridge,' and served as preface. 
 
1794 THE OLD LOVE AND THE NEW 37 
 
 — ' Shad ' being the man of all work of Southey's rich 
 aunt, Miss Tyler, who a month later turned Southey 
 out of her house on a wet nigrht on hearing of his 
 projected marriage and of Pantisocracy, vowing never 
 to see his face again. If Coleridge gave any 
 attention to his duties and privileges as an under- 
 graduate at this period, it must have been inter- 
 mittent. On the 24th October, Pantisocracy over- 
 flowed into, if it did not suggest, a serio-comic 
 Monologtie to a Young Jackass in Jesus Piece, ^ 
 which was afterwards toned down into unmitigated 
 sentimentality and sent to the ^lorning Chronicler 
 
 In November Coleridge lost a friend (a son of 
 Mr. Smerdon, the Vicar of Ottery), and mourned over 
 him in an elegy. It contains lines bewailing his own 
 condition — lines ever memorable, though rather as a 
 prophecy than on account of the passing mood which 
 prompted them. 
 
 As oft at twilight gloom thy grave I pass, 
 
 And sit me down upon its recent grass, 
 
 With introverted eye I contemplate 
 
 Similitude of soul, perhaps of — f'ate ! 
 
 To me hath Heaven with bounteous hand assigned 
 
 Energic Reason and a shaping mind. 
 
 The daring ken of Truth, the Patriot's part, 
 
 And Pity's sigh, that breathes the gentle heart — 
 
 Sloth-jaundiced all ! and from my graspless hand 
 
 Drop Friendship's precious pearls, like hour-glass sand, 
 
 I weep, yet stoop not ! the faint anguish flows, 
 
 A dreamy pang in Morning's feverish doze.^ 
 
 But there was another and a principal cause of 
 distraction and agitation of which nothing has hitherto 
 been known. It is revealed in the two letters to Mary 
 Evans before mentioned. The sight of her in July 
 
 ^ Printed only in Poetical Works, 1893, 'Appendix C,' p. 477. 
 
 2 The well-known lines To a Young Ass, its viother being tethered near it, 
 to be found, in their modified form, in all editions of Coleridge's Poems. 
 
 3 Lities on a Friend who died of a Frenzy Fever. 
 
38 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERLDGE i794 
 
 had stirred his heart ; but out of sight was out of, 
 mind, and beHeving there was a vacuum he incon- 
 Itinently filled it — as he thought, honestly enough, no 
 doubt — with love for Sarah Fricker. Again, in 
 respect of Sarah, out of sight was out of mind, and, 
 further, he learned that there had been no vacuum to 
 be filled. The old love was still there, and from his 
 despair of any fruition of it were wrung the well- 
 known lines On a discovery made too late, the 
 precise Interpretation of which has hitherto been a 
 puzzle. When first published in 1 796 the title was 
 To my own Heart : — 
 
 Thou bleedest, my poor Heart ! and thy distress ' 
 
 Reasoning I ponder with a scornful smile 
 
 And probe thy sore wound sternly, though the while 
 
 Swoln be mine eye and dim with heaviness. 
 
 Why didst thou listen to Hope's whisper bland ? 
 
 Or, listening, why forget the healing tale, 
 
 When Jealousy with feverish fancies pale 
 
 Jarred thy fine fibres with a maniac's hand ? 
 
 Faint was that Hope, and rayless ! — Yet 'twas fair 
 
 And soothed with many a dream the hour of rest : 
 
 Thou should'st have loved it most, when most opprest, 
 
 And nursed it with an agony of care. 
 
 Even as a mother her sweet infant heir 
 
 That wan and sickly droops upon her breast ! 
 
 The autograph copy of these lines is dated 
 'Oct. 21, 1794.' The very despair which would seem 
 to have prompted them appears to have provoked 
 a final attempt to fan an answering spark should 
 such remain ; or, in default, to learn his fate, beyond 
 all doubt. This attempt was made by a letter to Mary 
 Evans which, though undated, was probably written 
 some time in December. It opens thus abruptly : — 
 
 I Too long has my heart been the torture-house of suspense. 
 
 I After infinite struggles of Irresolution, I will at least dare to request 
 
 of you, Mary ! that you will communicate to me whether or no you 
 
 * are engaged to Mr. \sic in or/g.] I conjure you not to con- 
 
1794 A LETTER TO MARY EVANS 39 
 
 sider this request as presumptuous Indelicacy. Upon mine Honor 
 
 ' I have made it with no other design or expectation than that of 
 arming my fortitude by total hopelessness. Read this letter with 
 
 ^ benevolence, and consign it to oblivion. For four years I have 
 endeavoured to smother a very ardent attachment — in what degree 
 
 ^ I have succeeded, you must know better than I can. With quick 
 conceptions of moral Beauty, it was impossible for me not to 
 admire in you your sensibility regulated by Judgment, your Gaiety 
 
 i proceeding from a cheerful Heart, acting on the stores of a strong 
 Understanding. At first, I voluntarily invited the recollection of 
 
 ' these qualities into my mind. I made them the perpetual object of 
 my reveries — yet I entertained no Sentiment beyond that of the 
 immediate Pleasure annexed to the thinking of You. At length it 
 became a habit. I awoke from the delusion and found that I had 
 unwittingly harboured a Passion which I felt neither the power or 
 
 ' the courage to subdue. ... I thought of you incessantly : yet that 
 
 Spirit (if Spirit there be that condescends to record the lonely 
 
 * Beatings of my Heart), that Spirit knows that I thought of you with 
 
 the purity of a Brother. Happy were I, had it been with no more 
 
 than a Brother's ardor. ... I saw that you regarded me merely 
 
 with the kindness of a sister. What expectations could I form ? I 
 
 formed no expectations. I was ever resolving to subdue the dis- 
 
 I quieting Passion : still some inexplicable suggestion palsied my 
 efforts, and I clung with desperate fondness to this Phantom of 
 Love, its mysterious Attractions, and hopeless Prospects. It was a 
 
 \ faint and rayless Hope ! ^ Yet it soothed my solitude with many a 
 delightful Day-dream. It was a faint and rayless Hope ! yet I 
 nursed it in my bosom with an agony of Affection, even as a 
 Mother her sickly infant. . . . Indulge, Mary ! this my first, my 
 I last request — and restore me to Reality, however gloomy. Sad and 
 full of heaviness will the intelligence be — my heart will die within 
 me. ... I will not disturb your peace by even a look of Discontent, 
 still less will I offend your ear by the whine of selfish Sensibility. 
 
 , In a few months I shall enter at the Temple,^ and there seek 
 forgetful calmness "where only it can be found — in incessant and 
 useful activity. 
 
 The letter closes with an assurance that if a rival 
 is to be made happy he will be congratulated and not 
 hated ; and ends as abruptly as it began, with the 
 
 ^ Compare with the lines To my ozun Heart. 
 
 2 So far as I am aware the sole record of this project — if any such was ever 
 seriously entertained. About this time, proposals respecting the adoption of a 
 profession were made to Coleridge by his brothers, and the study of law may 
 have been one. 
 
40 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE i794 
 
 simple signature, ' S. T. Coleridge,' — followed by this 
 postscript, * I return to Cambridge to-morrow morning.' 
 This seems to show that the letter was written before 
 the end of the term (middle of December), in which 
 case Mary's answer was far from being prompt, for 
 Coleridge's response to it is dated ' 24th December, 
 1794.' It opens thus : — 
 
 I I have this moment received your letter, Mary Evans. Its firm- 
 
 ness does honor to your understanding, its gentleness to your 
 
 * humanity. You condescend to accuse yourself most unjustly : you 
 have been altogether blameless. In my wildest day-dream of 
 Vanity, I never supposed that you entertained for me any other 
 than a common friendship. To love you, habit has made unalter- 
 able. This passion, however, divested, as it now is, of all shadow 
 of Hope, will lose its disquieting. Far distant from you, I shall 
 journey through the vale of Men in calmness. He cannot long be 
 wretched who dares to be actively virtuous. . . . May God infinitely 
 
 ' love you ! — S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 t I think the Mary Evans affair, the termination of 
 ' which brought about one of the most important crises 
 in Coleridge's life, is only to be understood by 
 ' assuming that, soon before his enlistment he had 
 become convinced that while Mary continued to look 
 upon him as merely a clever boy whose companion- 
 ship was pleasant, she was giving her affections to 
 
 * Mr. ' ; and that thereupon, and without a word » 
 
 of declaration or explanation, he had suddenly broken ^ 
 off all relations with the family. It is clear that, at , 
 Wrexham, the Evans sisters had been anxious to meet < 
 Coleridge, hoping, doubtless, in their innocence, to 1 
 receive some explanation of conduct which appeared 
 to them mysterious ; while Coleridge's determination 
 to avoid the encounter is easily comprehensible. His 
 first letter of the December following must have come 
 to Mary as at once an explanation and a surprise, and 
 the delay in her reply was natural enough. The letter 
 
1794 LEAVES CAMBRIDGE 41 
 
 was one not easy to answer, and she must have learned 
 from it that the writer could no longer be looked upon 
 as a boy, and was worthy of a serious response. That 
 her reply was dictated by the old sisterly affection 
 mingled with pity and remorse, and that it was ex- 
 pressed in terms of simple womanliness may readily 
 be gathered from the soothing effect it exercised on 
 Coleridge's mind. Had he carried out his wise resolve 
 jto 'seek forgetful calmness in incessant and useful 
 /activity,' he would no doubt have been successful. 
 The whole episode, so far as we know it, appears to 
 have been highly creditable to Mary Evans, and in 
 no respect discreditable to Coleridge, 
 t About the middle of December, a few days before 
 I the close of term, Coleridge quitted Cambridge with- »^ 
 out taking his degree. Apparently, on the authority 
 of Dr. Pearce himself. Dr. Carlyon ^ informs us that the 
 Master of Coleridge's college ' made repeated efforts to 
 reclaim ' his errant pupil, but to no purpose. ' Upon 
 one occasion, after a long discussion on the visionary 
 and ruinous tendency of his conduct and schemes, Cole- 
 ridge cut short the argument by bluntly assuring him, 
 his friend and master, that he mistook the matter 
 1 altogether — "he was neither Jacobin," he said, "nor 
 ^ Democrat, but a Pantisocrat." ' Dr. Brandl" suggests 
 ^ that Coleridge did not take his degree because he 
 ^ could not have signed the Thirty-nine Articles, and 
 , adds (on what authority is not stated) that ' Dr. Pearce 
 gave him the benefit of the whole winter term for his 
 return, before removing, as he was bound to do, his 
 , name from the College boards. Finally, he obtained 
 for him one reprieve more, up to the 14th June 1795.' 
 
 ^ Early Years, etc. i. 27. 2 Life of Coleridge, p. 80. 
 
42 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1794 
 
 In the official 'List of [C.H.] University Exhibi- 
 tioners' it is stated that, on the 22nd April 1795, Cole- 
 ridge's case was considered by the C.H. Committee, 
 which then seems to have learnt for the first time of 
 his absence from Cambridge from Nov. 1793 to April 
 1 794 ; and also that he had left Cambridge a few days 
 before the expiration of the Michaelmas term in 
 1 1794. In this way ended Coleridge's official relations 
 with Christ's Hospital and Jesus College. 
 , He left Cambridge, — but not for Bristol. He did 
 not even write, either to Kis fiancee or to Southey. They, 
 and also Pantisocracy, seem to have been forgotten. 
 I He went to London and remained there, solacing 
 I his grief in the sympathetic society of Charles Lamb, 
 ^ and confiding his opinions on things in general to the 
 . public by way of * Sonnets on Eminent Characters,' 
 ' which were printed in the Morning Chronicle. It 
 was of this period that Lamb wrote two years later : 
 ' You came to town, and I saw you at a time when 
 your heart was yet bleeding with recent wounds. Like 
 yourself, I w^as sore galled with disappointed hope. . . . 
 I image to myself the little smoky room at the "Salu- 
 tation and Cat," where we have sat together through 
 the winter nights, beguiling the cares of life with 
 Poesy.' ^ The friends at Bristol gradually lost all 
 patience. ' Coleridge did not come back to Bristol,' 
 1 wrote Southey to Cottle,- ' till January 1795, nor would 
 j he, I believe, have come back at all, if I had not gone to 
 ' London to look for him. For having got there from 
 Cambridge at the beginning of winter, there he re- 
 mained without writing to Miss F[ricker] or to me, 
 
 1 Letter to Coleridge, June 10, 1796. Letters, i. 14. (Cf. letters of June 14 
 and December 2, 1796.) The tavern (17 Newgate Street) survived as such till 
 1884, when it was burnt down. 
 
 2 Cottle's Reminiscences, p. 405 — text corrected by the original letter. 
 
1794 PANTISOCRACY AND LOVE REVIVED 43 
 
 till we actually apprehended that his friends [family ?] 
 had placed him somewhere in confinement.' After 
 some difficulty, Southey found him at the 'Angel' 
 Inn in Butcher Hall Street, and carried him off to 
 Bristol. There was probably too much joy there over 
 the recovery of the truant to permit of reproaches, for 
 the relations with Sarah and with Pantisocracy, broken 
 by Coleridge's long silence (the result, it is to be 
 feared, of faded interest), were renewed. At all events 
 they were patched up, and Coleridge recommenced 
 ardent lover and Pantisocrat. 'The scheme,' Cottle 
 assures us, was ' the favourite theme of his discourse.' 
 
 Finance, naturally, was the difficulty. Coleridge, 
 Southey, and Burnett lodged together at 48 College 
 Street. Burnett's father was a well-to-do Somerset- 
 shire farmer, and sympathetic ; Southey had nothing, 
 and such of his relatives as had something were 
 I antagonistic ; Coleridge had nothing, and ignored his 
 relatives altogether. Lovell, who had married Mary 
 Fricker, could probably have provided his share of the 
 common capital, but without Coleridge and Southey 
 no move could be made. About a month after Cole- 
 / ridge's recapture, Southey wrote to Bedford (February 
 8' 1795)^: 'Coleridge is writing at the same table; 
 our names are written in the book of destiny, on the 
 same page ' ; and he went on to expound a plan for 
 J publishing a magazine, to be edited by Coleridge and 
 1 himself. Both hoped to get money by journalism, but 
 
 1 Life and Corr. of R. S. i. 231. On Januaty 29, 1810, Southey wrote to 
 I Miss Barker {Letters of R. S. ii. 188) of his intercourse with Coleridge in 1795 : 
 
 ' Disliking his inordinate love of talking, I was naturally led to avoid the same 
 ' fault ; when we were alone, and he talked his best (which was always at those 
 . times), I was pleased to listen ; and when we were in company, and I heard the 
 
 same things repeated — repeated to every fresh company, seven times in the week 
 f if we were in seven parties — still I was silent. . . . His habits have continued, 
 
 and so have mine.' This habit of unlimited repetition was noted by Coleridge's 
 1 clerk at ^lalta. (Dilke's /V^^'-f of ^ Ci-itic, i. 32.) 
 
44 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE i79S 
 
 their opportunities were few; and they tried lecturing — 
 \ Coleridge on politics and religion, Southey on history. 
 Their relations seem to have been ' Aspheteric,' for 
 two years later Southey declared that his earnings 
 during the earlier half of 1795 were as four to one of 
 Coleridge's, and that, besides supporting himself, he 
 almost supported Coleridge. Of all the lecturing, 
 nothing remains to us but what is contained in three 
 Httle pamphlets.^ 
 
 Lovell had lost no time in introducing Coleridge 
 to Cottle, then a young printer, bookseller, and 
 poetaster. He was very friendly to the Pantisocrats, 
 and when they could not quite make up a seven weeks' 
 lodging bill, he lent them a five-pound note, delighted 
 to be thus assured that the foolish emigration scherjie 
 was not progressing materially. Soon after this he 
 offered Coleridge thirty guineas- for a volume of poems, 
 the money to be advanced as required. Coleridge had 
 a good many short poems ready, but his 7uagmmi opzLS 
 
 1 A Moral and Political Lecture, delivered at Bristol, by S. T. Coleridge, of 
 Jesus College, Cambridge. Bristol : printed by George Routh, in Corn Street. 
 Price Sixpence. [1795-] This was probably published soon after the oral de- 
 livery in February. In November it was reprinted with some alterations as the 
 first of two Concio7ies ad Popiihiin ; or, Addresses to the People. By S. T. Cole- 
 ridge. 1795. I. Introductory Address. II. On the present War. The Pre- 
 face is dated 'Clevedon, Nov. 16, 1795.' At the same time was published The 
 Plot discovered ; or, An Address to the People against Ministerial Treason. By 
 S. T. Coleridge. Bristol, 1795. On the wrapper was the legend: A Protest 
 against certain Bills. Bristol : printed for the Author, Nov. 28, 1795.' The 
 * Bills ' were the Pitt and Grenville Acts for gagging Press and Platform. The 
 Condones and llie Plot discovered are reprinted in Essays on his own Time<;. The 
 first-named pamphlet is excessively rare. The other two have survived in numbers, 
 and are constantly advertised as 'privately printed.' The title pages have no 
 publisher's name, but they were advertised for sale at ninepence each, and sent to 
 the magazines for review. • 
 
 2 A statement that he only received half the sum, having been forgetfully 
 made by Coleridge in later life, and adopted by some biographers, it seems only 
 fair to Cottle to say that I have seen Coleridge's stamped receipt for the whole. 
 It runs as follows : — ' Received, the 28th March 1 796, the sum of Thirty guineas, 
 for the copyright of my Poems, beginning with the " Monody on the Death of 
 Chatterton," and ending with " Religious Musings." (Signed) S. T. CoLE- 
 
 VRIDGE.' 
 
1795 JOSEPH COTTLE 45 
 
 of those days, Religions Musings, was incomplete,^ and, 
 indeed, was not completed until the following year, 
 after all the rest of the volume had been printed. 
 Probably one of the first of the early poems which he 
 revised was the Monody on the Death of Chatterton, 
 adding to the Christ's Hospital version,- which had 
 I been printed in Lancelot Sharpe's edition of ' Rowley's 
 Poems' (i 794), the lines respecting Pantisocracy, which 
 scheme, however, had become but a bitter memory 
 before the volume was published. We are principally 
 dependent on Cottle for information regarding this 
 period, and he may be believed when he pictures 
 Coleridge as spending much time in ' conversation.' 
 It was probably, as in after-days, chiefly monologue, 
 and besides Pantisocracy ('an everlasting theme'), his 
 ' stock subjects were Bishop Berkeley, David Hartley, 
 and Mr. Bowles, whose sonnets he delighted in re- 
 citing.' Cottle forgets politics, but the lecture- 
 pamphlets are there to testify to the vigour of 
 Coleridge's campaign against the tyranny of Pitt. 
 
 The course of true love seems to have run smooth, 
 but not so that of friendship. Letters written by 
 Southey and Coleridge show that up to the middle of 
 September no breach had taken place, but on July 19, 
 1797, Southey states^ that he had lost confidence in his 
 friend 'as early as the summer of 1795.' The joint 
 lodging had to be given up, for financial reasons, says 
 ISouthey, who returned to his mother at Bath. ' Our 
 arrears were paid with twenty guineas which Cottle 
 
 1 It was doubtless the ' unfinished poem ' sent to Lamb (^Poetical Works, 
 
 1893. P- 37)- 
 
 Thus far my scanty brain hath built the rhyme 
 Elaborate and swelling : yet the heart 
 Not owns it. 
 
 2 Given in Poetical Works, 1893, p. 8. 
 
 3 Letters of R. S. i. 41. 
 
46 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE i795 
 
 advanced [to Southey]. During all this [Cole- 
 ridge] was to all appearance as he had ever been towards 
 me ; but I discovered that he had been employing 
 every possible calumny against me, and representing 
 ime as a villain.' ^ The only probable explanation of 
 the conduct attributed to Coleridge is that he must 
 have seen that Southey 's enthusiasm for Pantisocracy 
 ^ had been waning. When summer came it had so far 
 waned that, although he could not agree to prepare 
 for the Church, as he was urged to do by his uncle 
 \ Hill, he somewhat suddenly determined to study law. 
 In Coleridge's eyes this must have been black treason, 
 and it is much to be regretted that he did not at 
 , once accuse Southey to his face. It was only in 
 November, that Southey, when about to sail for 
 Lisbon, formally announced to Coleridge his abandon- 
 ment of Pantisocracy. Coleridge then broke out in 
 extravagantly -worded upbraidings, and the quarrel 
 was not made up until Southey 's return in the summer 
 , of the following year." 
 
 When he betook himself to his solitary lodging at 
 25 College Street, Coleridge must have earned some 
 ready money by his pen, for the thirty guineas re- 
 ceived for the copyright of his poems could not nearly 
 have sufficed to support him during the many months 
 which preceded publication, or the settlement of 
 accounts with Cottle which took place on the 28th 
 March 1796. But Cottl e must be held responsible 
 for Coleridge's determination not to postpone his 
 marriage. He offered to buy an unlimited number of 
 \ verses from the poet at the fixed rate of a guinea and 
 , a half per hundred lines (which works out at nearly 
 
 1 Letters of R. S. i. 41. See also letter in Cottle's Retn. p. 406. 
 ^ Cottle's Rem. pp. 104-107. 
 
1795 POETRY AS POT-BOILER — TV^O PORTRAITS 47 
 
 fourpence apiece), for when asked by a friend ' how he 
 was to keep the pot boiling when married,' Coleridge 
 ' very promptly answered that Mr. Cottle had made 
 him such an offer that he felt no solicitude on that 
 subject ' ! ^ 
 
 We are fortunate in possessing two graphic de- 
 scriptions of Coleridge as he appeared in this autumn 
 of 1795. The acquaintance with Thomas Poole, made 
 a year before, appears to have been renewed on 
 Coleridge's return to Bristol, and to have ripened into 
 intimacy. In September he paid a visit to Stowey, 
 during which he was thus sketched in the diary of a 
 keen but unsympathetic cousin of his host, Miss 
 ChajJ^tteJkiQlg of Marshmills : — 
 
 Tom Poole has a friend with him of the name of Coldridge : a 
 young man of brilhant understanding, great eloquence, desperate 
 fortune, democratick principles, and entirely led away by the 
 \ feelings of the moment. ^ 
 
 There is a fact undeniable in every stroke of the 
 etcher's needle, and a certain incomplete truth in the 
 general impression produced by the whole portrait. 
 It will be interesting as well as instructive to compare 
 and contrast it with another, drawn just a week before, 
 by an artist at least equally keen-sighted, but whose 
 vision was directed by sympathy. It is contained in a 
 copy of verses addressed to Coleridge by Poole. 
 
 ' However conventional the phrasing,' says Mrs. 
 Sandford, ' t/iey describe Coleridge — and Coleridge as 
 
 ^ Rem, p. 39. To Poole, Coleridge wrote on the third day after his 
 marriage : — ' Cottle has entered into an engagement to give me a guinea 
 and a half for every hundred lines of poetry I write, which will be perfectly, 
 sufficient for my maintenance, I only amusing myself in the mornings — and all my 
 prose works, he is eager to purchase.' In the same letter Coleridge says he is 
 going to return to Cambridge, but free from ' University control,' there to finish 
 his 'great work on Intitatiois in two volumes.' (Unpublished portion of a letter 
 partially printed in the Biographical Supplement to Biog. Lit. ed. 1847, ii. 347.) 
 
 ^ T. Poole and his Friends, i. 124. 
 
48 SAMUE^ TAYLOR COLERIDGE i79S 
 
 he was in the first early freshness of the dawn of his 
 marvellous powers " ^ : — 
 
 r Hail to thee, Coldridge, youth of various powers ! 
 1 I love to hear thy soul pour forth the line, 
 To hear it sing of love and liberty 
 
 As if fresh-breathing from the hand divine. 
 
 As if on earth it never yet had dwelt, 
 
 As if from heaven it now had wing'd its way ; j I 
 
 And brought us tidings how, in argent fields, it 
 
 In love and liberty blest spirits stray. 
 
 I love to mark that soul-pervaded clay. 
 
 To see the passions in thine eye-balls roll — 
 Their quick succession on thy weighty brow — 
 
 Thy trembling lips express their very soul. 
 
 I love to view the abstracted gaze which speaks 
 Thy soul to heavenward towering — then I say, 
 
 He's gone — for us to cull celestial sweets 
 Amid the flowerets of the milky way. 
 
 And now at home, within its mortal cage, 
 
 I see thy spirit pent — ah me ! and mourn 
 The sorrow sad, that weighs it down to earth. 
 
 As if the Cherub Hope would ne'er return. 
 
 And then I mark the starting tear that steals 
 
 Adown thy cheek, when of a friend - thou speak'st, 
 
 Who erst, as thou dost say, was wondrous kind, 
 But now, unkind, forgets — I feel and weep. 
 
 I hear thee speak indignant of the world, 
 
 Th' unfeeling world crowded with folly's train ; 
 
 I hear thy fervent eloquence dispel 
 
 The murky mists of error's mazy reign. 
 
 Anon thy Sarah's image cheers thy soul. 
 
 When sickening at the world, thy spirits faint ; 
 
 Soft balm it brings — thou hail'st the lovely maid, 
 \ Paint'st her dear fonn as Love alone can paint. 
 [• -Sf- * * * * 
 
 ^ T. Poole and his Friends, i. 124-126. It seems strange that the Pooles 
 should still have mistaken Coleridge's name. There is a Devonshire village 
 named ' Coleridge,' which, says the Rev. Isaac Taylor, in Words and Places, 
 means CoAZ-ridge (cf. Mount Algidus). In iSii, a 'John Coldridge' compiled a 
 ' Survey of the Rectorial Tythes of Pinhoe.' Poole first spells his friend's name 
 correctly in a letter of the following month. 
 
 - Southey, doubtless. 
 
1795 ' YOUTH OF VARIOUS POWERS P 49 
 
 No reader of Poole's opening stanzas can fail to 
 be reminded of Lamb's description, written in 1816, of 
 Coleridge's recitation of Kubla KJian — ' which said 
 vision he repeats so enchantingly that it irradiates and 
 brings heaven and elysian bowers into my parlour 
 when he sings or says it . . . his face when he re- 
 /peats his verses, hath its ancient glory ; an archangel 
 fa little damaged.' Lamb was writing as he watched 
 Coleridge retiring from the battle : Poole as he saw 
 him entering it, radiant as the Michael of Perugino. 
 
48 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 MARRIAGE THE WATCHMAN 
 
 A.D. 1795-1796 
 
 The visit to Stowey took place on the eve of Cole- 
 ridge's marriage. In August a cottage at Clevedon 
 had been taken — that 
 
 cot o'ergrown 
 With white-flowered Jasmin, and the broad-leaved Myrtle ^ — 
 
 which is still shown to the pilgrim and the tourist ; 
 and on the 4th October . Coleridge and Sarah 
 Fricker were married at the great church of St. 
 Mary Redcliffe, and the honeymoon began. The 
 
 • cottage wanted papering, and a good many indis- 
 pensable housekeeping articles ^ had been forgotten, 
 but Cottle promptly supplied all deficiencies. 
 Burnett and one of Sarah's sisters for a time 
 shared the limited accommodation of the jasmin- 
 ^ bound dwelling ; and we learn by some jottings in a 
 note-book that the household work was shared by all. 
 i-The two men got up at six, put on the kettle and 
 •cleaned the shoes; at eight Sarah laid the breakfast 
 'table, and so on. But Clevedon being found too far 
 
 1 The Eolian Hat-p ; but the poem did not receive its title until 1817. When 
 first published in Poems, 1796, it was called 'Effusion XXXV. Composed 
 August 20th, 1795, at Clevedon, Somersetshire.' 
 
 '^ The amusing list is given in Re7)i. p. 40, 
 
1796 'THE WATCHMAN' 51 
 
 from Bristol Library, was soon abandoned for rooms 
 on Redcliffe Hill. No doubt it had been an idle 
 honeymoon, and Coleridge's conscience smote him. 
 ' Ah ! quiet dell ! ' was one of his ' Reflections on 
 leaving ' this * place of retirement ' — 
 
 dear cot, and mount sublime ! 
 . I was constrained to quit you. Was it right, 
 
 While my unnumbered brethren toiled and bled, 
 , That I should dream away the entrusted hours 
 ' On rose-leaf beds, pampering the coward heart 
 ^ "V/ith feelings all too delicate for use ? 
 
 The Poems on various siibjects still lingered at press, 
 and Cottle's printers often waited in vain for ' copy.' 
 
 Religiotis Musings was still on the anvil, but it was 
 left thei'e, for the prosecution of a great project in 
 which he had interested a number of friends, probably 
 as inexperienced, if not quite as enthusiastic and un- 
 businesslike, as himself One evening in December 
 the party met *at the Rummer tavern,' in Bristol, and 
 ' it was settled that Coleridge should bring out a 
 periodical, something between a newspaper and a 
 I magazine, to be called The Watchman} To avoid 
 the stamp-tax it was to be issued, not weekly, but 
 on every eighth day ; and No. I. was announced to 
 appear on ' Friday the 5th day of February, price 
 four-pence.' Early in January, Coleridge started on a 
 » tour of the north country to procure subscribers — 
 ^ ' preaching,' as he says,- * by the way in most of 
 ' the great towns, as an hireless volunteer, in a blue 
 coat and white waistcoat, that not a rag of the woman 
 
 ^ A document which Cottle calls the prospectus of The Watchman was 
 printed by him in his Early Recollections and Reminiscences (p. 75). It may 
 possibly be a transcript of some later hand-bill, but it is not the original pro- 
 spectus. A copy of this, unique so far as I am aware, recently came into 
 the possession of Mr. H. Buxton Forman, who kindly allows me to print it. See 
 Appendix. 
 
 2 Biog. Lit. chap. ^. ._ 
 
 X "^ OF THE '^ 
 
J 
 
 52 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1796 
 
 \ of Babylon might be seen on me. For I was at that 
 I time and long after, though a Trinitarian (i.e. ad 
 normam Platonis) in philosophy, yet a zealous Uni- 
 tarian in religion.' Through eight pages of the 
 Biographia Coleridge gives a most vivid and 
 humorous account of his tour, from which, he says, 
 he returned with a subscription list of nearly a 
 thousand names.^ 
 
 / Not on the 5th February, but on March ist. No. 
 I. appeared, but it disappointed the subscribers by its 
 dulness. No. II. offended many by reason of an 
 essay it contained on ' National Fasts,' with the motto 
 — 'Wherefore my Bowels shall sound like an 
 Harp ' ; succeeding numbers gave umbrage to Jacobin, 
 Democrat, and Godwinite patrons, without attracting 
 opposite factions — and on the last page of ' No. X.' 
 I (May 13, 1796) an 'address to the reader' informed 
 him that ' this is the last number of the Watclwian. 
 I Henceforward I shall cease to cry the state of the 
 ' political Atmosphere. . . . The reason is short and 
 I satisfactory — the Work does not pay its expenses.' 
 I Six weeks before, the ever-helpful Thomas Poole had 
 foreseen the inevitable. He set to work to gather a 
 little money for Coleridge, and on the last ' magazine- 
 day' of the Watchman, its baffled proprietor was cheered 
 by the receipt of a well-filled purse, together with a 
 kindly and delicately-worded letter.^ This produced 
 
 1 See also an account of the Watchman, with some letters written by Cole- 
 ridge on the tour, in Cottle's Rem. pp. 74 et scq. 
 
 2 Which see, with Coleridge's response, in Thomas Toole and his Friends, i. 
 142-145. Poole's scheme was a testimonial in the form of an annuity. Each 
 subscriber was to give five pounds a year for six years. Some seven or eight of 
 Coleridge's friends subscribed, so that the purse must have contained ;^35 or;i^40. 
 It will be seen that the scheme was again acted on in the following year, but not 
 afterwards, as, says Mrs. Sandford, ' it may have been thought that the Wedg- 
 woods' annuity [begun in 1798] removed all further necessity for going on with 
 it.' There is an allusion to Poole's scheme in the Biog. Supp. to Biog. Lit. ed. 
 1847 (ii. 366), but it is inaccurate. 
 
1796 'POEMS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS ' 53 
 
 a grateful reply, which the ex-dragoon ended by asking 
 for ' a horse of tolerable meekness ' on which to ride 
 over to Stowey. The request was granted, and he 
 spent a peaceful fortnight with Poole. 
 
 Before this, probably in the first days of April, the 
 
 Poems^ had been published. The volume attracted 
 
 the notice of the principal reviews and magazines — 
 
 • its reception being generally favourable, and in one 
 
 or two instances enthusiastic. Some reviewers 
 
 ^ detected ' turgidness ' — the Monthly Magazine thought 
 
 , that Religious Mtisings reached ' the top scale of 
 
 I sublimity.' Coleridge agreed with both sets of 
 
 I critics, and so did Lamb. 
 
 The praise was gratifying, but the pudding had 
 long ago been eaten ; the Watchman s audience was 
 dwindling ; and when the purse collected by Poole 
 arrived in mid- May the cupboard was empty. The 
 purse had probably been considerably lightened by 
 the end of June when Coleridge received, through 
 the famous Dr. Beddoes, a proposal to go up to 
 % London to become assistant editor of the Alorning 
 I Chronicle, then the leading daily paper. This he at 
 once accepted, and on the 5th July he was hourly 
 expecting to receive particulars from James Perry, 
 the proprietor and editor-in-chief. ' My heart is very 
 heavy' (he wrote to Estlin-), 'for I love Bristol, and I 
 
 1 Poems on various subjects, by S. T. Coleridge, late of Jesus College, Cambridge. 
 
 Felix curarum, cui non Heliconia cordi 
 Serta, nee imbelles Parnassi e vertice laurus ! 
 Sed viget ingenium, et magnos accinctus in usus 
 Fert animus quascunque vices. — Nos tristia vitae 
 Solamur cantu. — Stat. Silv. Lib. iv. 4. 
 
 London : Printed for G. G. and J. Robinsons, and J. Cottle, Bookseller, Bristol, 
 1796. Octavo pp. xvi. ; 188 (plus one page of ' Errata'). See Preface, Con- 
 tents, etc., in Poetical Works, 1893, p. 537. The volume included four sonnets 
 by Lamb, signed ' C. L.' 
 
 2 Unpublished Letters of S. T. C. to the Rev. J. P. Estlin, printed for the 
 Philobiblon Society, p. 17. 
 
1 
 
 54 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1796 I 
 
 ^ do not love London. Besides, local and temporary | 
 
 (politics are my aversion. . . . But there are two giants j 
 leagued together, whose most imperious commands I i 
 must obey, however reluctant, — their names are Bread ' 
 and Cheese.' An undated letter from S. Purkis to T. : 
 Poole ^ shows that Coleridge intended to go up to ^ 
 London to see Perry, but at this point our information 
 fails, and we only know that the negotiations ended ; 
 fruitlessly. Next came an arrangement by which ; 
 Coleridge was to undertake the education of the sons 
 of Mrs. Evans of Darley Abbey, near Derby — a lady, , 
 it may be as well to mention, entirely unconnected with \ 
 the family of his old sweetheart, Mary Evans. This j 
 having been settled during a visit to Darley Abbey, ! 
 Coleridge left his wife there, and, about the end of \ 
 July, paid a visit of reconciliation to his family at \ 
 Ottery. Of this visit he wrote to Estlin ^ : ' I was I 
 received by my mother with transport, and by my j 
 brother George with joy and tenderness, and by my '■ 
 other brothers with affectionate civility.' I describe 
 this visit as one of reconciliation, because, although I . 
 have seen no documentary evidence of any preceding ^ 
 rupture, there is good reason for believing that Cole- j 
 ridge's intercourse with his family had been suspended \ 
 since his departure from Cambridge in the winter of - 
 1794. Proposals made by his brothers, to aid him on 
 the adoption of some profession, had been rejected, 
 
 I and they cannot have failed to disapprove of most of 
 his doings in the interval — his devotion to Pantiso- 
 cracy, his revolutionary lecturing, and his imprudent 
 
 ' marriage. i 
 
 On his return home from Ottery on the 7th August, 
 
 ^ Printed in T. Poole and his Friends, i. 151, 152. 
 2 Estlin Letters, p. 11. The letter is there misplaced. 
 
1796 UNREST 55 
 
 a fresh disappointment awaited him in the shape of a 
 letter from Mrs. Evans, informing him that her trustees 
 would not consent to the arrangements which had 
 been made, but begging him to come to her at once. 
 This request he complied with. At the end of a ten 
 days' visit there was an affectionate parting, and Mrs. 
 Evans, he wrote, ' insisted on my acceptance of ^95, 
 and she had given Mrs. Coleridge all her baby-clothes, 
 which are, I suppose, very valuable.' ^ Before leaving 
 Derby, Coleridge was further consoled by a proposition 
 made by Dr. Crompton, that he should set up a school 
 there, under the active patronage of Mrs. Evans's 
 influential family connections. An unfinished house 
 (Was at once engaged 'to be completed by the 8th 
 /October, for ^12 a year,' and the landlord won 
 (Coleridge's heart by promising 'to Rumfordize the 
 (chimneys.'^ This scheme also came to nothing. On 
 September 24, Coleridge writes to Poole ^ that his 
 ' heart is heavy respecting Derby ' — which I interpret 
 as meaning that he feared to settle so far away from 
 • Bristol and from Poole. A house at Adscombe (near 
 Stowey), with some land attached, was his desire, 
 and apparently with Poole's approval Derby was 
 given up,'^ and a letter written to Dr. Crompton to 
 which Coleridge received 'a very kind reply.' ^ 
 
 On his way home from Derby, Coleridge had 
 spent a week at Moseley, near Birmingham,^ and there 
 
 ^ Estlin Letters, pp. 12, 13. 
 
 2 Biog. Lit. 1847, ii. 372. See the Sonnet to Count Rumford in Poetical 
 Works, 1893, p. 64. See also letter of S. T. C. to Poole, Dec. 1796, T. Poole 
 and his Friends, i. 196. 
 
 3 T. Poole and his Friends, i. 158. 
 
 4 lb. i. 188. 
 
 5 Biog. Lit. 1847, ii. 377. See Lamb's letters to Coleridge of October 17 
 and 24, and November 8, 1796 (Ainger's ed. i. 39 et seq.) 
 
 1^ 'I preached yesterday morning from Hebrews iv. i, 2. It was my chef 
 d'oetivre. I think of writing it down and publishing it with two other sermons. 
 ... I should like you to hear me preach them. I lament that my political 
 
56 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1796 
 
 renewed the acquaintance with the Lloyds which had 
 
 been formed during the Watchman tour in January. 
 
 I Charles Lloyd had been fascinated by Coleridge, 
 
 and having a turn for verse-making and meditation, 
 
 rather than for the family business of banking, was 
 
 extremely desirous of becoming a philosopher and 
 
 a poet under the guidance and under the roof of 
 
 the philosopher and poet who was but two years 
 
 his senior. Nothing was then settled, but towards 
 
 the end of September, Lloyd's parents gave their 
 
 consent, and invited^ Coleridge to pay them a visit. 
 
 Mrs. Coleridge having miscalculated times and seasons 
 
 allowed him to go, and while at the Lloyds' house 
 
 he was surprised by an announcement that on the 
 
 previous day, the 19th September, he had become 
 
 a father. He hastened home, taking Charles Lloyd 
 
 I with him. The poet's and the father's tumultuous 
 
 \ feelings in presence of this crisis required three 
 
 ( sonnets^ for their expression, but they were summed 
 
 / up in these lovely lines with which the third closes : — 
 
 So for the mother's sake the child was dear, 
 And dearer was the mother for the child. 
 
 fThe father having at this period a great dislike for 
 lall sacramental rites,^ the child was not baptized, but 
 ,he was named ' David Hartley,' in honour of the 
 
 notoriety prevented my relieving you occasionally at Bristol.' S. T. C. to Estlin, 
 ' Moseley, Birmingham, August 22, 1796' {Estlin Letters, p. 15). To Poole 
 he wrote (same date) : — ' In preaching on Faith yesterday, I said that Faith was 
 infinitely better than Good Works, as the cause is greater than the effect, — as a 
 fruitful tree is better than its fruits, and as a friendly heart is of far higher value 
 than the kindnesses which it naturally and necessarily prompts. It is for that , 
 friendly heart that I now have thanked you, and which I so eagerly accept of ; J 
 for with regard to settlement, I am likely to be better off now than before, as I 
 shall proceed to tell you.' {Biog. Lit. 1847, ii. 370, corrected by original.) 
 
 1 S. T. C. to Poole, September 24; printed in Biog. Lit. 1847, ii. 374. 
 
 2 Poetical Works., 1893, p. 66. 
 
 3 Letter to Estlin {Estlin Letters, p. 35). 
 
1796 BIRTH OF HARTLEY 57 
 
 * wisest of mortal kind,' ^ and solemnly dedicated to 
 
 the service of the truths 'so ably supported by that 
 
 <great master of Christian Philosophy.'- So he in- 
 
 I formed Poole, going on to write about his other 
 
 ,son, born to him, as it were, on the same day as 
 
 David Hartley. 
 
 Charles Lloyd wins upon nie hourly. His heart is uncommonly 
 (pure, his affections delicate, and his benevolence enlivened, but not 
 \ sicklied, by sensibility. He is assuredly a man of great genius. . . . 
 ' His joy and gratitude to Heaven for the circumstance of his domesti- 
 cation with me, I can scarcely describe to you ; and I believe his 
 Ifixed plans are of being always with me. . . . My dearest Poole, 
 can you conveniently receive us in the course of a week ? We can 
 both sleep in one bed, as we do now ; and I have much, very much, 
 to say to you, and to consult you about ; for my heart is heavy 
 respecting Derby ; and my feelings are so dim and huddled, that 
 though I can, I am sure, communicate them to you by my looks 
 and broken sentences, I scarcely know how to convey them in a 
 letter. C. Lloyd also wishes much to know you personally.^ 
 
 Poole, of course, replied, ' Come at once ' ; and truly 
 iColeridge was never more in need of the wise 
 
 jsympathy and advice which always awaited him at 
 IStowey. He had no settled prospects. Lloyd's 
 contribution to the household expenses was limited 
 to £Zo a year, and this was supplemented only by 
 the proceeds of a little reviewing, etc., which Cole- 
 ridge hoped might yield £\o in a year.^ The 
 deficiency could not always be filled up by sym- 
 pathetic offerings, nor could he have contemplated 
 with complacency the continued acceptance of such 
 
 I aid. His consuming desire was to live in the country, 
 
 ', near Poole, and to support himself by a combination 
 
 [of literature and husbandry. 
 
 ^ Religious Musings, 11. 368, 369. 
 
 2 Letter to Poole, Sept. 24, 1796 (71 Poole and his Friends, i. 157). 
 
 ^ Biog. Lit. 1847, ii. 375 — corrected and supplemented from the original. 
 
 * T. Poole and his Friends, i. 189. 
 
58 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1796 
 
 A vivid and comprehensive picture of Coleridge, 
 and of his views and tastes at this period, survives 
 in a series of unprinted letters addressed by him 
 to Thelwall, which once had a place in the late 
 Mr. F. W. Cosens's MS. collections. When Cole- 
 ridge wrote the passage which follows (Nov. 19, 1796) 
 the two men had not yet met. 
 
 \ Your portrait of yourself interests me. As to me, my face, unless 
 I when animated by immediate eloquence, expresses great sloth, and 
 great, indeed almost idiotic, good nature. 'Tis a mere carcase of a 
 ^ face : fat, flabby, and expressive chiefly of inexpression. Yet I am 
 ' told that my eyes, eyebrows, and forehead are physiognomically good; 
 but of this the Deponent knoweth not. As to my shape, 'tis a good 
 shape enough, if measured — but my gait is awkward, and the walk of 
 I the whole man indicates indolence capable of energies. ... I cannot 
 , breathe through my nose, so my mouth with sensual thick lips is 
 I almost always open. ... I am, and ever have been, a great reader, and 
 have read almost everything — a library cormorant. I am deep in all 
 out-of-the-way books, whether of the monkish times or of the puri- 
 I tanical aera. I have read and digested most of the historic writers, 
 but I do not like history. Metaphysics and poetry and ' facts of 
 mind ' {i.e. accounts of all strange phantasms that ever possessed 
 I your philosophy-dreamers, from Theuth the Egyptian to Taylor the 
 English pagan) are my darling studies. In short, I seldom read 
 I except to amuse myself, and I am almost always reading. Of useful 
 ' knowledge — I am a so-so chemist, and I love chemistry — all else is 
 1 blank — but I will be (please God) an horticulturist and a farmer. I 
 compose very little, and I absolutely hate composition. Such is my 
 I dislike that even a sense of duty is sometimes too weak to over- 
 power it. ... In conversation I am impassioned, and oppose what 
 ' I deem error with an eagerness which is often mistaken for personal 
 asperity, but I am ever so swallowed up in the thing that I perfectly 
 'forget my opponent. Such am I. 
 
 A month later he writes to the same unseen friend : 
 ' As to my own poetry, I do confess that it frequently, 
 both in thought and language, deviates from "nature 
 and simplicity." But that Bowles, the most tender, 
 and with the exception of Burns, the only always 
 natural poet in our language, that he should not 
 escape the charge of Delia - Cruscanism, this cuts 
 
1796 RECONCILED WITH SOU THEY 59 
 
 the skin and surface of my heart.' His own poetry, 
 he goes on to say — 
 
 seldom exhibits unmixed and simple tenderness or passion. My 
 philosophical opinions are blended with or deduced from my feel- 
 ings, and this, I think, peculiarises my style of writing, and like 
 I everything else it is sometimes a beauty and sometimes a fault. 
 But do not let us introduce an Act of Uniformity against Poets. I 
 have room enough in viy brain to admire, aye, and almost equally, 
 the head and fancy of Akenside and the heart and fancy of Bowles, 
 the solemn lordliness of Milton, and the divine chit-chat of Cowper : 
 and whatever a man's excellence is, that will be likewise his fault. 
 
 ,In the same letter he speaks of Bowles as 'the bard 
 .of my idolatry,' and sends a commission to Thelwall 
 ,to buy for him the works of lamblichus, Proclus, 
 .Porphyry,^ the Emperor Julian, Sidonius Apollinaris, 
 and Plotinus — a little Neo-Platonic library. 
 
 In the summer of this year (1796) Southey had 
 
 returned from Portugal. The quarrel revived, but 
 
 ^ about the time of Hartley's birth Southey made over- 
 
 , tures which were accepted with seeming cordiality.'^ 
 
 , But it was only seeming, for at the end of the year 
 
 Coleridge wrote to Thelwall : ' We are now recon- 
 
 ' ciled ; but the cause of the difference was solemn, and 
 
 " the blasted oak puts not forth its buds anew " ; we 
 
 are acquaintances, and feel kindliness towards each 
 
 other, but I do not esteem or love Southey as I must 
 
 * esteem and love whom I dare call by the holy name 
 
 ^ of Friend! . . . And vice versa, Southey of me.'^ 
 
 , As the days shortened, Coleridge grew more and 
 
 imore impatient with the delays and disappointments 
 
 which dogged his efforts to find a house near Poole. 
 
 He was sick at heart, and the depression brought on 
 
 neuralgia, and the neuralgia brought on laudanum — 
 
 1 See also Lamb's letter to Coleridge, July ist, 1796. Letters, i. 28. 
 
 2 Biog. Lit. 1847, ii. 376. 
 
 3 Unprinted letter once in Mr. F. W. Cosens's collection. 
 
6o SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1796 : 
 
 , a disease of which he was never completely cured. '>■ 
 f The attack of the temporary evil, which began on the 
 
 ' 2nd November, was renewed on the 3rd, when Cole- ; 
 
 • ridge took I 
 
 ' between 60 and 70 drops of laudanum, and sopped iX^^ Cerberus just j 
 
 ■ as his mouth began to open. . . . My medical attendant decides it I 
 to be altogether nervous, and that it originates either in severe j 
 application or excessive anxiety. My beloved Poole, in excessive 1 
 
 ■ anxiety, I believe, it might originate. I have a blister under my j 
 
 ■ right ear, and I take 25' drops of laudanum every five hours, the j| 
 ease and spirits [italics in original] gained by which have enabled 
 
 *'j me to write you this flighty but not exaggerating account.^ 
 
 ' Two days later,' says Mrs. Sandford, * he wrote that j 
 he was better, though "totally inappetent of food, and , 
 '^languid even to an inward perishing." ' ] 
 
 The baby son flourished, but not so Lloyd ; and i 
 the epileptic fits to which he was subject, caused the \ 
 household much anxiety. Its master had yet found no \ 
 money-making employment, so that a gift of fifteen 
 guineas, which came through Estlin, must have been ' 
 welcome. On the 15th November Coleridge wrote ■ 
 ( to Poole : ' My anxieties eat me up. ... I want , 
 < consolation — my Friend ! my Brother ! write and con- ' 
 sole me.'^ Poole's consolation was of a modified 
 character. He told his friend of a wayside cottage I 
 obtainable at Stowey, but had little but evil to say of ' 
 its accommodations. These seemed to be unequal ; 
 even to the poor poet's modest requirements. But 
 by the end of the month Coleridge confesses to Poole \ 
 \ that he is 'childishly impatient,' and, as nothing better 
 offers, will put up with the cottage. One day he 
 1 writes, ' I will instruct the maid in cooking'; the next 
 ' that he will ' keep no servant ' — will himself be every- ! 
 
 1 S. T. C. to Poole, Nov. 5, 1796 {T. Poole and his Friends, i. 177, and 
 Biog. Lit. 1847, ii. 380). J 
 
 ^ T. Poole and his Friends, i. 179. I 
 
1796 DESIRE FOR COUNTRY LIFE 6i 
 
 ithing, even 'occasional nurse.' This last heroic re- 
 solve was communicated to Poole in a letter of the 
 nth December. It was crossed by one in which 
 Poole not only reiterated the disadvantages of the 
 cottage, but dissuaded the poet strongly from burying 
 himself in a village so remote, as was Stowey, from 
 libraries and from the society of a stimulating and 
 helpful group of friends. This letter caused Cole- 
 I ridge ' unexpected and acute pain." His frenzied reply 
 must be read at its full length of ten printed pages in 
 Mrs. Sandford's book (i. 184- iQ.^). No summary could 
 do it the least justice. It is a whirl of appeals, adjura- 
 'tions, reproaches, cries de profiindis, plans and plans 
 'of life framed and torn up, and resumed to be again 
 'abandoned, in bewildering profusion: a vivid and 
 ^sincere (because unconscious) revelation, not merely 
 of the passing mood, but of the very deeps of char- 
 * acter and nature, which is probably unique in auto- 
 biography. As truly as of any Lucy Gray — 
 
 'Tis of a little child 
 I Upon a lonesome wild, 
 
 Not far from home, but she hath lost her way : 
 . And now moans low in bitter grief and fear, 
 
 And now screams loud, and hopes to make her mother hear. 
 
 Dejection : an Ode. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 NETHER STOWEY LYRICAL BALLADS 
 
 A.D. 1797-1798 
 
 This letter was begun immediately on the receipt of 
 Poole's, and concluded on the following day, but it 
 concluded as it began, with the expression of a deter- 
 mination to settle at once in the cottage, if only Poole 
 will assure him that he has kept back no reason to the 
 contrary — for he fears that Poole's family connections 
 are at the bottom of the dissuasion. He must have 
 received the reassurance he wanted, for he took up 
 his abode in the cottage on the last day of the year/ 
 A poor cottage now, then a poorer ; but then it had a 
 garden of an acre and a half, and that garden touched 
 Poole's at the rear. Just at that time no place in the 
 world could have been more attractive. ' Literature,' 
 he told Poole, ' though I shall never abandon it, will 
 always be a secondary object with me. My poetic 
 vanity and my political furor have been exhaled, and 
 
 1 On June 9, 1893, a tablet inscribed, 'Here Samuel Taylor Coleridge made 
 his home — 1797- 1800,' was affixed to the cottage. An effort is now being made 
 to obtain funds for the purchase of the cottage, that it may be preserved as a 
 memorial of Coleridge, as Uove Cottage has been secured as a memorial of Words- 
 worth. For the moment it has been saved from impending mutilation by a lease, 
 with option of purchase, and will be used as a Village Lending Library. The 
 treasurer, both for the temporary scheme, and for the purchase money, is H. St. B. 
 Goldsmith, Esq., Manager of Stuckey's Banking Company, Bridgwater. (See 
 Athencziim iox ]\xn.<t 17, 1893 — Art. 'Coleridge and Nether Stowey.') 
 
1797 'ODE ON THE DEPARTING YEAR' 63 
 
 I would rather be an expert self-maintaining gardener 
 
 than a Milton, if I could not unite both.' To Thel- 
 
 wall he wrote, in an unpublished letter, Dec. 17, 
 
 1796:— 
 
 My farm will be a garden of one acre and an half, in which I 
 ' mean to raise vegetables and corn enough for myself and wife, and 
 I feed a couple of snouted and grunting cousins from the refuse. My 
 . evenings I shall devote to literature, and by reviews in the Maga- 
 zine \_Moiit}ily'\ and other shilling - scavenger employments, shall 
 ' probably gain ^40 a year — which Economy and Self-denial, gold- 
 I beaters, shall hammer till it covers my annual expenses. ... I am 
 not fit for public life ; yet the Light shall stream to a far distance 
 ' from the taper in my cottage window. 
 
 Coleridge's last employment before finally quitting 
 Bristol with his wife and child on the 30th December 
 was 'to get some review-books off his hands.' ^ A 
 week before, he had executed an order from his friend 
 Benjamin Flower for an ode to be published on the 
 last day of the year in the Cambridge Intelligencer — 
 the paper he had recommended to the disappointed 
 subscribers to the Watchman. The ode duly 
 appeared, and at the same time Coleridge published 
 it in an expanded form in a thin quarto pamphlet with 
 the title, Ode on the Depai'ting Year,' and a dedication 
 to Thomas Poole. The superfluous page at the end 
 he filled with the lines Addressed to a Young Man of 
 Fortune who abandoned hi7nself to an indolent and 
 cazLseless melancholy — probably intended for Charles 
 Lloyd's benefit. 
 
 When Lamb heard of the ' farm,' he asked sceptic- 
 #ally, 'And what does your worship know about farm- 
 * ing ? ' and recommended the cultivation of the muse as 
 •something more in his friend's way, reminding him of 
 
 ^ Estlin Letters, p. 25. 
 
 2 Ode on the Departing Year, by S. T. Coleridge. [Motto from 
 yEschylus.^ Bristol : Printed by N. Biggs, and sold by J. Parsons, Paternoster 
 Row, London, 1796. Quarto, 16 pp. 
 
64 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1797 
 
 a project for an epic on the Origin of Evil. But the 
 first thing to be done at Stowey was to continue pre- 
 parations begun three months before for a second 
 edition of the Poems, the first having been sold out. 
 Passages contributed to Southey's Joan of Arc were 
 to be reclaimed, and recast into an independent poem, 
 The Visions of the Maid of Arc y with which the new 
 edition was to lead off. ' I much wish ' (wrote Cole- 
 iridge to Cottle early in January 1797) 'to send my 
 ' Visions of the Maid of Arc and my corrections to 
 Wordsworth, who lives not above 20 [really about 40] 
 .miles from me, and to Lamb, whose taste and y?^*^- 
 ' ment I see reason to think more correct and philo- 
 ( sophical than my own, which yet I place pretty high.'^ 
 The arrangements for a ' second edition ' of the 
 Poems had been made in October 1 796. Cottle pro- 
 posed to give Coleridge twenty guineas for an edition 
 of five hundred, reminding us (as he probably reminded 
 Coleridge) that this was an act of pure charity, the 
 copyright being his. If the poet chose to omit and 
 alter and add, it was his affair. In his reply, Coleridge 
 hinted very strongly that he thought the proposal 
 unjust, but that ' bartering ' with Cottle was ' abso- 
 
 1 The letter is mutilated and inaccurately printed by Cottle. This portion 
 occurs at p. 130 of the Reminiscences — another at p. 100. Wordsworth and his 
 sister were then living at Racedown, in Dorsetshire (the post-town being Crew- 
 kerne), a house lent to them by a member of the Bristol family of Pinney. The 
 precise date of the first meeting o f r^lnridgp nnd 'Wrr^l^^^rtji (a point which has 
 been discussed) has not been ascertained, but a careful examination of all the 
 evidence available, published and unpublished, has all but convinced me that it 
 may have probably taken place ^ f- enily as Se ^ Jtember I70'^ - The men do not 
 appear to have met a second time until tne autumn of i29^, after which inter- 
 course seems to have become more or less frequent. Nothing, however, like 
 intimacy was formed until Coleridge's visit to Racedown in June -1797 ) when 
 Dorothy saw him for the first time. 
 
 Cottle has added to the difficulty by garbling seriously the letter of Coleridge 
 printed in the Early Recollections, i. 159 [Reminiscences, pp. 81-82). In Cole- 
 ridge's list of persons to whom presentation copies of the Poems {1796) were to 
 be sent, Cottle has inserted the names of Wordsworth, Lamb, and Dr. Parr ; 
 and omitted a suggestion that a copy should be sent by liim to Mrs. Barbauld, or 
 to her brother Dr. Aikin. 
 
1797 ' OSORIO ' 65 
 
 lutely intolerable.' He was clearing out the rubbish, 
 
 and especially the political verses — the absence of 
 
 ^ which would ' widen the sphere of his readers ' — and 
 
 supplying their place with new poems of better and 
 
 more attractive quality. If he left Cottle to reprint 
 
 Hhe old volume, and himself published the new, he 
 
 ^ would make more money, and save the copyright in 
 
 ".them. He ends, however, by accepting Cottle's pro- 
 
 < posal, being ' solicitous only for the omission of the 
 
 , sonnet to Lord Stanhope, and the ludicrous poem ' 
 
 ( W^'itien after a Walk before Supper)} The printing 
 
 dragged on till March 1797, and when the volume 
 
 was almost completed, Coleridge wrote thus to Cottle, 
 
 in a letter which has not been fully published : 
 
 ' Charles Lloyd has given me his poems, which I give 
 
 to you on condition that you print them in this volume 
 
 — after Charles Lamb's poems.' He goes on to 
 
 ' explain that although the bulk of the volume will thus 
 
 . be increased, so also will be its saleability, seeing that, 
 
 he doubts not, ' Lloyd's connections will take off a 
 
 great many, more than a hundred.' 
 
 It was about this time that Coleridge received a 
 . request from Sheridan that he would write a play for 
 I Drury Lane, and with a feeling in which confidence 
 and misgivings were pretty equally mingled, the 
 attempt was begun. The composition occupied a good 
 deal of his time until the middle of October, when the 
 finished manuscript of Osorio was despatched to the 
 theatre. But these months were varied by many 
 other interests and occupations, and by one fateful 
 event — the settlement of the Wordsworths at Alfox- 
 den. On most Sundays — whether in blue coat and 
 
 1 See Cottle's Ron. p. 115. In the E. Recoil. (1837) Cottle suppressed 
 most of Coleridge's letter ; but in the Reminiscences professes to give it complete. 
 I have not seen the original. 
 
 F 
 
66 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1797 
 
 white waistcoat, or in some more conventional costume, 
 is unknown — Coleridge preached in the Unitarian 
 chapels of Bridgwater or Taunton, often travelling 
 on foot, and never receiving hire : on week-days he 
 learned a hundred practical things by precept and 
 example in the kindly companionship of Thomas 
 
 iPoole, whose well-assorted library was as much at 
 Colerido;e's service as if it had been his own : Charles 
 Lloyd occupied some hours of each morning when the 
 neophyte's health permitted. Stowey had not brought 
 wealth or even competency, but it had revived hope, 
 
 land Coleridge generally found that a sufficing diet. He 
 had not, perhaps, like another great poet, waited very 
 patiently, but nevertheless his cry had been heard, he 
 
 <felt that his feet had been set upon a rock, and his 
 
 'goings established, and he was soon to learn that a 
 
 (new song had been put into his mouth. 
 
 I Coleridge was certainly not idle, but money was 
 not coming in, and about the beginning of June, 
 Poole saw that a fresh subscription was needful. 
 Confiding his views to Lloyd and Estlin, he begged 
 the latter to be treasurer,^ and to apply to none ' but 
 to those who love him, for it requires affection and 
 purity of heart to offer, with due associations, assist- 
 ance of this nature to such a man.' Coleridge had 
 /'preached an excellent sermon at Bridgwater' on the 
 
 {previous day ' on the necessity of religious zeal in 
 these times,' and from Bridgwater he seems to have 
 proceeded to Racedown on a visit to Wordsworth. 
 
 1 ' I stated to Mr. Garnett that, according to our agreement, it was neces- 
 sary we should again come forward, and desired him to call on you, and make 
 the necessary arrangements.' (Poole to Estlin, June 5j 1797) if^ ^' Poole and 
 his Friends, i. 230.) Poole wrote to Lloyd on the same day, a letter of similar 
 purport, which is printed at the same reference. Lloyd had not been one of the 
 original subscribers, but, now that he had ceased to live at Stowey, Poole 
 assumes he will join them. ' You will, I know, become one of us.' 
 
1797 VISITS THE WORDSWORTHS AT RACEDOWN 67 
 
 Thence, probably on the 9th, and again on the loth, 
 he wrote to Estlin asking him to give to Mrs, 
 Fricker and to Mrs. Coleridge five guineas each, out 
 of the subscription money, expressing ' a hope and a 
 trust that this will be the last year ' in which he can 
 ^conscientiously accept of those contributions, which, 
 ' in my present lot, and conscious of my present occupa- 
 ' tions, I feel no pain in doing.' To Cottle he wrote ^ 
 with some corrections for the Ode on the Depa7'ti7ig 
 Year (then at press for the Poems. 179 7) and announ- 
 cing his return to Stowey on a * Friday,' which may be 
 calculated as probably the i6th June. Wordsworth, 
 J he announces, admires his tragedy, 'which gives me 
 s great hopes ' ; and then he goes on to estimate Words- 
 ■ worth's own tragedy in terms which, when we remem- 
 , ber he is speaking of The Borderers, compel a smile. 
 1' His drama is absolutely wonderful. . . . There are in 
 the piece those profound truths of the human heart, 
 which I find three or four times in the Robbers of 
 , Schiller, and often in Shakespere, but in Wordsworth 
 ' there are no ineq^ialities! He feels himself a 'little 
 man ' by Wordsworth's side ; and adds (a passage sup- 
 pressed by Cottle), ' T. Poole's opinion of Wordsworth 
 ( is that he is the greatest man he ever knew. I 
 coincide.' This seems to point to a previous visit or 
 visits to Stowey paid by W^ordsworth, or of meetings 
 I with Poole at Bristol, of which direct record is lack- 
 ing. Curiously enough the letter makes no mention of 
 Miss Wordsworth, who then saw Coleridge for the 
 first time. Yet in 1845 — across the mists of nearly 
 half-a-century — she as well as her brother retained the 
 * liveliest possible image ' of Coleridge on his arrival at 
 
 ^ Cottle prints this important letter {Rem. p. 142) in a form both garbled and 
 incomplete, and with the date 'June 1796.' The original was lent me by the 
 late Mr. F. \V. Cosens. 
 
68 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1797 1 1 
 
 Racedown, how 'he did not keep to the high road, but | 
 
 leapt over a gate and bounded down the pathless field, .;; 
 
 by which he cut off an angle.' ^ And at the time she 1 \ 
 
 thus recorded her first impressions of the visitor : — ■ \ 
 
 He is a wonderful man. His conversation teems with soul, j \ 
 
 mind, and spirit. Then he is so benevolent, so good-tempered and ; : 
 
 cheerful, and, like William, interests himself so much about every \ 
 
 little trifle. At first I thought him very, plain, that is for about three ' 1 
 
 minutes : he is pale, thin, has a wide mouth, thick lips, and not \ , 
 
 very good teeth, longish, loose-growing, half-curling, rough black : i 
 
 hair. But, if you hear him speak for five minutes, you think no | \ 
 
 more of them. His eye is large and full, and not very dark, but ! 
 
 grey — such an eye as would receive from a heavy soul the dullest ; 1 
 
 expression ; but it speaks every emotion of his animated mind ; it ' i 
 
 has more of ' the poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling ' than I ever ■( 
 
 witnessed. He has fine dark eyebrows, and an overhanging forehead.^ j i 
 
 If Coleridge carried out his first intention of • 
 
 returning to Stowey on the i6th June, he must soon \ 
 
 have gone back, for he appears to have arrived again at ; . i 
 
 Stowey from Racedown on the 28th, and again on the i \ 
 2nd July, on the last occasion bringing with him^ the 
 two Wordsworths on that famous visit to the Quan- 
 tock country, which was destined to be prolonged for 
 
 a whole year. The visitors spent a fortnight with j 
 
 Coleridee, and it was then that he drew his famous: ' 
 portrait of Wordsworth's 'exquisite sister.'^ 
 
 It was about this time that the s econd editi oa. of \ 
 
 Coleridge's Poems appeared.^ Much of the ultra- j 
 
 1 Knight's Life, i. III. 
 
 2 Memoirs of Wordsworth, i. 99. 
 
 3 Information from unpublished letters, kindly given me by Mr, Ernest H. | 
 Coleridge. 
 
 * Letter to Cottle, Rem. p. 144. 
 
 L5 Poems by S. T. Coleridge, Second Edition. To which are added PoEMS 
 y Charles Lamb, and Charles Lloyd. 
 
 Duplex nobis vinculum, et amicitice et similium junctarumque Camoenarum ; 
 quod utinam neque mors solvat, neque temporis longinquitas ! Groscoll. EpistX 
 ad Car. Uienliov. et Ptol. Lux. Tast. 
 
 Printed by N. Biggs, for J. Cottle, Bristol, and Messrs. Robinsons, London^ 
 1797. Octavo, pp. XX. ; 278. 
 
 Lloyd's verses occupied pp. 153-213 : and Lamb's, pp. 217-240. 
 
1797 A SECOND EDITION OF THE 'POEMS' 69 
 
 'juvenile and most of the political verse had been dis- 
 carded in favour of new, or at least hitherto uncol- 
 lected, matter, and he intended (as he expressed it to 
 
 ' Cottle) to admit nothing to the new volume 'but my 
 choicest fish, picked, gutted, and clean'd.' The most 
 notable additions were the dedicatory poem to his 
 brother George ; a much revised version of the Ode to 
 the Departing Year ; the second and third sonnets 
 on the birth of Hartley ; and the companion poem to 
 The Eoliaii Harp, entitled ReJIections on having left a 
 place of retirement (Clevedon). The Religious Mus- 
 ings was included, but in a much altered form.^ The 
 Visions of the Maid of Arc, intended, as we have 
 seen, for the first place in the new edition, was 
 never completed, having been abandoned in deference 
 to the adverse criticisms of Lamb — possibly also to 
 those of Wordsworth. The fragments first saw the 
 light in 181 7, when they were printed in Sibylline 
 Leaves, under the title of The Destiny of Nations, 
 Cottle pretends to remember that the ' De dication ' was 
 prompted by himself, but the reasons he assigns for 
 his alleged suggestion are so absurd that it is probable 
 that his memory was altogether at fault. Opening 
 with a description of his brothers' happy fate in being 
 settled prosperously amid the surroundings of their 
 youth, Coleridge proceeds to contrast it with his own : — 
 
 , ^ The ' Preface to the Second Edition ' thus opens : — 
 
 r ' I return my acknowledgments to the different Reviewers for the assistance, 
 
 which they have afforded me, in detecting my poetic deficiencies. I have 
 
 endeavoured to avail myself of their remarks : one-third of the former Volume I 
 
 have omitted, and the imperfections of the republished part must be considered as 
 
 errors of taste, not faults of carelessness. My poems have been rightly charged 
 
 with a profusion of double-epithets, and a general turgidness. I have pruned the 
 
 double-epithets with no sparing hand ; and used my best efforts to tame the 
 
 / swell and glitter both of thought and diction. This latter fault however had 
 
 I insinuated itself into my Religions Musings with such intricacy of union, that 
 
 sometimes I have omitted to disentangle the weed from the fear of snapping the 
 
 ' flower.' 
 
70 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE i797 
 
 To me the Eternal Wisdom hath dispensed 
 A different fortune and more different mind — 
 Me from the spot where first I sprang to light 
 Too soon transplanted, ere my soul had fixed 
 Its first domestic loves ; and hence through life 
 Chasing chance-started friendships. A brief while 
 Some have preserved me from life's pelting ills. 
 
 Others, he goes on, have proved 'most false.' 
 
 But, all praise to Him 
 Who gives us all things, more have yielded me 
 Permanent shelter ; and beside one friend, 
 Beneath the impervious covert of one oak, 
 I've raised a lowly shed, and know the names 
 Of Husband and of Father ; not unhearing 
 Of that divine and nightly-whispering voice, 
 Which from my childhood to maturer years 
 Spake to me of predestinated wreaths, 
 Bright with no fading colours ! 
 
 Yet at times 
 My soul is sad, that I have roamed through life 
 Still most a stranger, most with naked heart 
 At mine own home and birth-place : chiefly then, 
 When I remember thee, my earliest friend ! 
 Thee, who didst watch my boyhood and my youth ; 
 Didst trace my wanderings with a father's eye ; 
 And boding evil yet still hoping good, 
 Rebuked each fault, and over all my woes 
 Sorrowed in silence ! He who counts alone 
 The beatings of the solitary heart. 
 That Being knows, how I have loved thee ever, 
 Loved as a brother, as a son revered thee ! 
 Oh ! 'tis to me an ever new delight. 
 To talk of thee and thine : or when the blast 
 Of the shrill winter, rattling our rude sash. 
 Endears the cleanly hearth and social bowl ; 
 Or when as now, on some delicious eve. 
 We in our sweet sequestered orchard plot 
 Sit on the tree crooked earth-ward ; whose old boughs. 
 That hang above us in an arborous roof. 
 Stirred by the faint gale of departing May, 
 Send their loose blossoms slanting o'er our heads ! 
 
 Nor dost not thou sometimes recall those hours, 
 When with the joy of hope thou gavest thine ear 
 To my wild firstling-lays. Since then my song 
 
1797 AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL POEM 71 
 
 ■f^ Hath sounded deeper notes, such as beseem 
 
 Or that sad wisdom folly leaves behind, 
 Or such as, tuned to these tumultuous times, 
 Cope with the tempest's swell ! 
 
 I regret that considerations of space do not permit 
 fme to quote the whole of this beautiful and touching 
 i poem. I think it was conceived in a spirit of perfect 
 (sincerity ; it is full of character and autobiography ; in 
 ^construction it is more firmly knit, and (spite of an 
 intolerable passage about the ' Manchineel ') in expres- 
 sion more natural, more individual, than anything 
 which preceded it. The style moves in easy accord 
 with the thought, gravity and pensive gaiety alternat- 
 ing and mingling with unfailing sweetness and grace. 
 But withal, the deficiency of the poem, from one point 
 of view, is more notable than its achievement : it 
 gives no hint — nothing in the volume to which it is 
 a prelude gives the least hint — that Coleridge's hand 
 was already on the latch of the magic casements 
 which were to open on the perilous seas sailed by the 
 Ancie7it Mariner, and the fairy -lands of Christabel 
 and Kubla Khan. He must have himself been 
 unaware, for he was then contentedly and almost hope- 
 fully giving his days and nights to the tragedy called 
 Osorio. 
 
 The Wordsworths were still at the Stowey 
 cottage when Charles Lamb ^ came to spend 
 his week's holiday — the visit which the host 
 commemorated in This Lime-tree Bower my Prison. 
 
 1 A marginal note which Coleridge in 1834 wrote on the explanatory intro- 
 duction to the poem has led to the assumption that Mary Lamb accompanied her 
 brother to Stowey in 1797. There can be little doubt that Coleridge's memory 
 — after thirty-seven years — had failed him. In none of Lamb's letters to him, 
 written either before or after the visit, is there any indication that he was to be, 
 or had been, accompanied by his sister. Mary Lamb was at that period in a 
 very precarious state of health, and living apart from her father and brother. 
 
72 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1797 
 
 In this poem Coleridge addresses his three guests 
 as 
 
 f 
 
 Friends whom I never more may meet again. 
 
 Lamb, of course, was a bird of passage, and so, to 
 all appearance on that evening, were the Wordsworths, 
 for Alfoxden had not yet been seen, or if seen had not 
 yet been secured. But the delay was short. On the 
 14th August, Dorothy Wordsworth wrote thus from 
 i^lfbxden : ' We spent a fortnight at Coleridge's ; in 
 the course of that time we heard that this house was 
 
 I to let, applied for it, and took it. Our principal 
 inducement was Coleridge's society. It was a month 
 yesterday since we came to Alfoxden.' ^ The Cole- 
 ridges' guests had scarcely quitted them — Lamb for 
 London, and the Wordsworths for Alfoxden — when, 
 on the 17th July, a new claimant for hospitality, in 
 the person of John Thelwall^f arrived^at^thejco^tage. 
 It was nine o'clock m the evening, and he found only 
 Sara, who had left her husband at Alfoxden for a day 
 or two that she might 'superintend the wash-tub.' 
 In the morning, between five and six, Sara and her 
 guest * walked over to Alfoxden — a distance of about 
 three miles — to breakfast.'^ * Faith, we are a most 
 
 1 The agreement, dated 14th July 1797, is printed in full in T. Poole and hi s"- 
 Friends, i. 225. It provided for a year's tenancy of the furnished house, etc., 
 from Midsummer to Midsummer at the rent of £2^,, including all rates and taxes.' 
 Wordsworth may i-etain the house, etc., for an indefinite period beyond Mid- . 
 summer 1798, at the same rent. 
 
 ^ Known as ' Citizen Thelwall ' in those days, and hardly known at all in 
 these. Coleridge and he had been carrying on for about a year the correspond- 
 ence from which I have already quoted, but they had now met for the first time. 
 By this time Thelwall had abandoned his somewhat silly, but always honestly 
 conducted career of political martyrdom, and desired to settle as meditative and 
 poetical farmer in some remote part of the country. In quest of a suitable 
 retreat he had travelled, mostly on foot, from London, and had now arrived at 
 Stowey in acceptance of an invitation from the ever-hospitable Coleridge. 
 
 ^ The details respecting Thelwall are partly taken from a letter to his wife 
 printed in T. Poole and his Friends (i. 232) ; and partly from Thelwall's MS. 
 Diary, now in my own possession. — Sarah had now become ' Sara.' t 
 
1797 THE WORDS WORTHS AT ALFOXDEN 73 
 
 philosophical party ' (Thelwall writes to his wife), ' the 
 enthusiastic group consisting of Coleridge and his 
 Sara, Wordsworth and his sister, and myself, without 
 any servant, male or female. An old woman, who 
 lives in an adjoining cottage, does what is requisite 
 for our simple wants.' The party remained there for 
 three days. It was at this time, and in one of 
 Alfoxden's romantic glens, that (as Wordsworth re- 
 membered long afterwards) Coleridge exclaimed, 
 I 'This is a place to reconcile one to all the jarrings 
 [and conflicts of the wide world ! ' and that Thelwall 
 replied, 'Nay, to make one forget them altogether!'^ 
 A few days at Stowey succeeded. The Wordsworths 
 , accompanied their guests part of the way, and they 
 ' talked of many things — the ' moral character of Demo- 
 crats, of Aristocrats,' and of ' pursuits proper for literary 
 men — unfit for management of pecuniary affairs — 
 Rousseau, Bacon, Arthur Young ! ' ^ This visit of 
 Thelwall shocked the neighbourhood, which con- 
 sidered Poole responsible, and he was called upon to 
 answer for Wordsworth to the owner of Alfoxden. 
 This Poole did manfully,^ but a Government spy was 
 sent down to watch the poets and their patron. Most 
 I of Cottle's ^ stories of the suspicions excited in the 
 : neighbourhood by the poets' goings on, and much 
 . of Coleridge's ^ own account of the spy's proceedings, 
 I wear a dubious complexion ; but there is no room for 
 ' doubt that it was Thelwall's visit which brought about 
 the cessation of Wordsworth's tenancy of Alfoxden. 
 
 1 Memoirs of Wordsworfh, i. 105. 
 
 2 MS. Diary of Thelwall, July 21, 1797. 
 ^ T. Poole and his Friends, i. 240. 
 
 * Reminiscences, p. 181. 
 
 ^ Biog. Lit. 1847, i. 196-200. That a spy was actually sent down to watch 
 the poets seems certain (Southey's Life and Corr. ii. 243), but in later life 
 Wordsworth declared that he never heard of the circumstance until the publica- 
 { tion of the Biog;. Lit. 
 
74 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE i797- 
 
 In late life he stated, in reply to assertions that he 
 had been refused a renewal, that he had never asked 
 for one — but his memory had failed, and the truth was 
 that he either received notice to quit, or did not think 
 it worth while to attempt to assert the right to remain 
 which the agreement accorded him. Coleridge's 
 friendship with Thelwall, begun by correspondence, 
 was cemented by personal intercourse, and continued 
 /for some years ; but later on, when the ex-Citizen had 
 a short season of prosperity, he showed himself 
 the poor creature he was by alternately patronising 
 and sneering at Coleridge. After leaving Stowey, 
 he asked Coleridge to interest Poole in securing him 
 a farm in their neighbourhood, but the passing visit 
 had caused Poole trouble enough, and Thelwall had 
 to move into Wales. He ultimately procured a farm 
 at Llyswen, in Brecon, where he was visited by the 
 Wordsworths and Coleridge in 1798.^ 
 
 Soon after Citizen Thelwall's departure, came a 
 Mr. Richard Reynell, who wrote to his brother a 
 pleasing picture of the cottage and its inmates : — ' On 
 my arrival at Stowey and at Mr. Coleridge's house, I 
 found he was from home, having set out for Bristol to 
 see Mrs. Barbauld a few days before. I think he had 
 never seen her, and that he now had zvalked all the 
 way to gratify his curiosity. He returned on Saturday 
 evening after a walk of 40 miles in one day, apparently 
 not much fatigued.' Mr. Reynell describes Mrs. 
 Coleridge as uniformly * sensible, affable, and good- 
 natured — thrifty and industrious, and always neat and 
 prettily dressed. I here see domestic life in all its 
 beauty and simplicity. . . . Love seems more pure 
 than it in general is to be found, because of the 
 
 1 Fenwick-note to Wordsworth's Anecdote for Fathers. 
 
1798 ' THREE PEOPLE BUT ONE SOUL' 75 
 
 preference that has been given in the choice^/ a 
 life-friend to mental and moral rather than to personal 
 and material charms — not that you are to infer that 
 Coleridgelind his wife have no personal recommend- 
 ation. Mrs. Coleridge is indeed a pretty woman. 
 \. . . It is a treat, a luxury, to see Coleridge hanging 
 \over his infant and talking to it, and fancying what he 
 Iwill be in future days.' The house is described as 
 ' very small and very simple. Three rooms below, 
 and three above — all small.' ' Here you can be 
 jhappy,' he adds, 'without superfluities.'^ 
 I The intercourse between Coleridge and the 
 IWordsworths was almost daily. Coleridge says 
 I somewhere, that they were 'three people but one 
 soul.' The character of the intimacy is fully shown 
 in his exquisite lines entitled The Nightingale : a 
 Conversation Poem (April, 1798), and in the printed 
 fragments of Miss Wordsworth's journal." The 
 entries cover the first four months of 1798, but 
 doubtless illustrate equally the whole year during 
 which the two families were neighbours. ' Feb. nth. 
 Walked with Coleridge near to Stowey. 12th. 
 Walked alone to Stowey. Returned in the evening 
 with Coleridge. 13th. Walked with Coleridge 
 through a wood.' On the 17th they walked together. 
 On the 19th Dorothy walked to Stowey. On the 
 2 1 St 'Coleridge came in the morning. . . . William 
 went through the wood with him towards Stowey : 
 a very stormy night. 22nd. Coleridge came in the 
 morning to dinner. . . . 23rd. William walked with 
 Coleridge in the morning. 26th. Coleridge came in 
 the morning . . . walked with Coleridge nearly to 
 
 ^ 'Stowey, August, 1797.' Printed in Illustrated London Neivs for April 
 22, 1S93. The whole of Reynell's long letter is full of interest. 
 2 Knight's Life of Wordsworth, vol. i. chap. ix. 
 
76 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE i797- 
 
 Stowey after dinner ' — and so on. They saw as much 
 of one another as if the width of a street, and not a 
 pair of coombs, had separated their several abodes. 
 It was a rich and fruitful time for all three — seed- 
 time at once and harvest ; and its happy influences 
 spread far beyond their own individual selves. The 
 gulf-stream which rose in the Quantocks warmed and 
 is still warming distant shores. Although Dorothy 
 Wordsworth produced nothing directly, her influence 
 on both men was of the highest importance. Cole- 
 ridge answered to many a touch which the slower 
 Wordsworth could not feel ; but Dorothy's quick 
 sympathy, keen observation, and rapid suggestion — 
 qualities she possessed in greater measure than her 
 brother — were invaluable to both. The best work of 
 both poets was done, alike by the Quantocks and by 
 the Lakes, under the direct influence of her com- 
 panionship. Nor was the influence, in action and 
 reaction, of the men on one another less potent. 
 
 I Coleridge's was by far the most active, as well as the 
 finer and more penetrating, and the immense re- 
 Iceptiveness of Wordsworth must have acted as a 
 strong incentive to its exercise. And this is true, I 
 .believe, notwithstanding that there are more distinct 
 ,traces of Wordsworth's influence on Coleridge's poetry 
 )than of the converse. It was a consequence of 
 Coleridge's quicker sense, that he took up readily the 
 tone and accent as well as the substance of another's 
 ^thoughts, whereas, in Wordsworth's case, everything 
 ( that entered his mind from without underwent a slow 
 'process of assimilation, and when it re-appeared, sub- 
 stance and expression were equally his own. 
 
 There are several indications, however, that this 
 summer of 1797 was not to Coleridge one of unmingled 
 
1798 COMPLETION OF 'OSORW 77 
 
 happiness. Poole's letter to Charles Lloyd, written 
 on 5th June, already quoted, seems to show that 
 Lloyd was then no longer ' domesticated ' with Cole- 
 ridge. The particular date at which domestication 
 ceased, and with it the payment of the ^80 a year, is 
 unknown ; but although Lloyd came and went ^ until 
 the final rupture in the spring of 1 798, he probably 
 ceased to contribute regularly to Coleridge's household 
 expenses after the summer of 1 79*7. The deprivation 
 must have been severely felt, and this it may have been 
 which caused the fit of ' depression too dreadful to be 
 jdescribed,' of which he wrote in an undated letter to 
 |Cottle 2 : 'A sort of calm hopelessness diffuses itself 
 over my heart. Indeed every mode of life which has 
 ypromised me bread and cheese, has been, one after 
 /another, torn away from me ; but God remains. I have 
 no immediate pecuniary distress, having received ten 
 pounds from Lloyd. I employ myself now on a book 
 J of morals in answer to Godwin, and on my tragedy.' We 
 have already seen that, in June, Coleridge was accept- 
 ing pecuniary aid from Poole and other friends. Poole 
 at that time describes him as ' industrious, considering 
 
 I the exertion of his mind necessary when he works,' 
 adding that three acts of the tragedy are completed.^ 
 
 About the 6th of September, having completed 
 Osorio to the middle of the fifth act, he took it over to 
 Sy Shaftesbury to exhibit it to the 'god of his idolatry,' 
 Bowles.* Idol and worshipper then met for the first 
 tim^, and if we may believe Cottle,^ some disillusion 
 
 1 Cottle {Rem. p. 150) says he met Charles Lloyd at Coleridge's house in 
 August 1797. 
 
 2 Rem. p. 102. The reference to 'my tragedy' shows that the letter must 
 have been written before the middle of October. The ' answer to Godwin ' 
 never appeared. 
 
 3 T. Poole Mid his Friends, i. 231. 
 
 4 Cottle's Rem. p. 133. 5 /^j. p. 21. 
 
78 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1797- 
 
 must have resulted — on Coleridge's part, at all events.^ 
 A month later Osoido was completed and sent off to 
 Drury Lane, without much hope that it would be 
 accepted. Although Coleridge's memory so far failed 
 him that, during all his later life, he made it his pet 
 grievance that Sheridan returned him neither MS. nor 
 reply, he really received the reply by the beginning of 
 December. It was to the effect that Osorio was 
 rejected on account of the obscurity of Acts III., IV., 
 and V.^ Wordsworth stated^ that in November 1797 
 Osorio was offered with his own tragedy to Covent 
 Garden, but his statement was made doubtfully, and 
 there is no corroborative evidence. Both tragedies 
 were about this time proposed to Cottle for publication, 
 and he offered thirty guineas for each, but the offer 
 was declined — ' from the hope ' (says Cottle) ' of intro- 
 ducinsf one or both on the stao^e.' * 
 
 The air, as usual, was full of projects. An epic, to 
 which at least twenty years should be devoted, was 
 not, strictly speaking, one of them, but the necessary 
 preparations were suggested — ten years for collecting 
 material, five for composition, five for correction — ' So 
 
 1 During his residence at Calne in 18 14- 18 16, Coleridge saw much of 
 Bowles, whose parsonage at Bremhill was not far off. Coleridge showed Bowles 
 the first chapter of his Biographia, and wondered what Bowles thought of it — 
 ' if, indeed, he collated the passages concerning himself, with his own speeches, 
 etc., concerning me, Alas ! I injured myself irreparably with him by devoting 
 a fortnight [probably in 181 5] to the correction of his poems. He took the 
 corrections, but never forgave the corrector. Nihil fecisse bciiigne est : Immo 
 etiam tcedet, tadet obestqiie luagis' (Letter to Brabant, December 5, 181 6, in 
 West. Rev. July 1870, p. 21). The Latin words are from Catullus (Carmen 
 LXXIIL In Ingratum). The passage to which they belong is quoted, with 
 reference to Hazlitt, in the last chapter of the Biog. Lit. (ed. 1847, ii. 302). 
 
 2 ' I received a letter from Linley [Sheridan's brother-in-law and secretary], 
 the long and short of which is that Sheridan rejects the Tragedy — his sole 
 objection is, the obscurity of the three last acts.' {From mi nnprinted letter 
 zuritten by Coleridge at ' Cottle's shop,' undated, but received by Poole on ' Dec. 2, 
 
 1797-') 
 
 3 Fenwick-note to The Borderers. 
 * Rem. pp. 166, 167. 
 
1798 ' THE ANCIENT MARINER' 79 
 
 would I write, haply not unhearing of that divine and 
 nightly whispering voice, which speaks to mighty 
 minds, of predestinated garlands, starry and unwither- 
 ing.' ^ A great poem on Man and Nature and 
 Society, to be symbolised by a brook in its course 
 from upland source to sea," was planned in conversa- 
 tion with Wordsworth, and a translation of Wieland's 
 Oberon seems to have been actually undertaken. 
 This was in November 1797. On the 13th of that 
 month, ^ at half-past four in the afternoon, Coleridge 
 and the two Words worths set off to walk to Watchet 
 671 rotite to Linton and the Valley of Stones — a little 
 tour the expense of which they meant to defray 
 {solvitttr amhilando) by a joint composition of the two 
 poets, to be sold for ^5 to the editor of the Monthly 
 Magazine:^ Before the first eight miles had been 
 covered the attempt at joint composition broke down, 
 and Coleridge took the business into his own hands. ^ 
 
 ^ To Cottle. Rem. p. 103. Cf. the lines in the 'Dedication' to George 
 Coleridge — quoted at p. 70 supra. 
 
 I 2 See Coleridge's .iccount of the projected poem on ' The Brook ' in Biog. Lit. 
 chap. X. ' My walks were almost daily on the top of Quantock, and among its 
 sloping coombs. With my pencil and memorandum-book in my hand, I was 
 making studies, as the artists call them, and often moulding my thoughts into 
 verse with the objects and imagery immediately before my senses. Many circum- 
 stances, evil and good, intervened to prevent the completion of the poem which 
 was to have been entitled "The Brook."' In the course of the 'Fenwick-note ' 
 to the Duddon sonnets, Wordsworth makes an interesting comparison between 
 what he had accomplished in that series, and what Coleridge had planned for his 
 poem on The Brook. 
 
 3 Dorothy Wordsworth's letter, Nov. 20, 1797, in Memoirs of Words- 
 worth (1851, i. 106), and the 'Fenwick-note' which follows the letter. There 
 the date of the Ancient Mariner tour is given as 'the autumn of 1797.' The 
 date given to Miss Fenwick by Wordsworth seems to have been ' the spring of 
 179S,' but the error was silently corrected in the Memoirs. It has unfortunately 
 been allowed to stand without a corrective note in all editions of Wordsworth's 
 poems, and in later biographies. 
 
 * Commonly given as ' The i\1'OT Monthly Magazine' — a periodical which 
 did not begin until 18 14. 
 
 5 A few lines which Wordsworth had composed were adopted by Coleridge. 
 The ' Fenwick-note,' in which Wordsworth gave an account of the genesis of the 
 poem, with many other particulars regarding it, too voluminous for reproduc- 
 tion here (even were it the place), will be found in the ' Notes ' to Coleridge's 
 Poetical Works, 1893, pp. 593-599. 
 
8o SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1798 
 
 The magnificent result was The Ancient Mariner. 
 But it was not sent to the Monthly Magazine, and the 
 travellers' expenses must have come from some other 
 fund. It 'grew and grew' (says Wordsworth) until 
 March came round. On the 23rd of that month (1798) 
 Dorothy records : ' Coleridge dined with us ; he 
 brought his ballad finished. We walked with him to 
 the miner's house. A beautiful evening, very starry, 
 the horned moon.' No doubt the poet read the 
 ballad to his friends — his one perfect and complete 
 achievement — 'inimitable,' as with just pride he 
 affirmed. 
 
 Of Christabel, which Coleridge tells us was begun 
 at Stowey in 1797, there is no contemporary record 
 or manuscript. But the originals of the ' thin gray 
 cloud ' which made the moon ' both small and dull ' ; 
 of ' the one red leaf the last of its clan ' ; of ' 'Tis a 
 month before the month of May, And the Spring 
 comes slowly up this way,' and of other lines are 
 to be found in Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal from 
 January 21 to March 25, 1798, and show, not only 
 how much Coleridge was aided by her keen observa- 
 tion of nature, but fix unmistakably the date of com- 
 position of Part I. The enchantment was all his own, 
 but, as in the case of the Ancient Marhier and Kubla 
 Khan, the elements were gathered from every quarter. 
 
 Sometime in 1797, possibly earlier, Coleridge had 
 been introduced by Poole to Xhomas andj-osi^h 
 Wedgwood, sons of the great potter! Tneir brother 
 J^n reside'd at Cote House, Westbury, near Bristol ; 
 Thomas was a patient of Dr. Beddoes, and the com- 
 bined circumstances caused the brothers, Thomas and 
 Josiah, to be frequent visitors to the neighbourhood. 
 Coleridge probably often met them at Bristol and at 
 
1798 ' CHRISTABEL'—THE WEDGWOODS 8i 
 
 Poole's, and as both were cultivated men they could 
 not fail to be greatly interested in the poet. In 
 December 1797, and during the absence of the Words- 
 worths in London, Coleridge received an invitation to 
 preach at the Unitarian chapel at Shrewsbury, as a can- 
 didate for the pastoral charge about to become vacant 
 by the retirement of the Rev. Mr. Rowe. In spite of 
 'old prejudices against the preaching of the Gospel for 
 hire, he was tempted by the emolument of ^150 pe r 
 annum which was attached to the pastorate. This 
 step coming to the knowledge of the brothers Josiah 
 and Thomas Wedgwood, they hastened to send him a 
 present of ^100 to relieve his immediate necessities, 
 and to dissuade him from abandoning poetry and 
 philosophy for the ministry. The cheque was imme- 
 diately returned by Coleridge with a grateful letter, 
 explaining that the £\oo would soon be consumed, 
 and prospectless poverty recur. He therefore pro- 
 ceeded to Shrewsbury, and preached there * with much 
 acceptance' on the second Sunday of 1798. One of 
 his hearers was William Hazlitt, then a youth of 
 twenty, living with his father, the Unitarian minister 
 at Wem, a village ten miles from Shrewsbury. A 
 quarter of a century afterwards, Hazlitt gave an 
 account of that Sunday which is immortgj.^ He 
 describes how he rose before daylight, and walked ten 
 miles in the mud ' to hear this celebrated person preach.' 
 
 When I got there, the organ was playing the looth Psalm, and, 
 when it was done, Mr. Coleridge rose and gave out his text, 'And 
 He went up into the mountains to pray, Himself^ alone. ^ As he gave 
 out this text, his voice ' rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes,' 
 and when he came to the two last words, which he pronounced 
 loud, deep, and distinct, it seemed to me, who was then young, as 
 
 ^ The Liberal, No. III. (1823): 'My first acquaintance with Poets' — an 
 expansion of an article printed in The Examiner for Jan. 12, 181 7. 
 
 G 
 
K' 
 
 82 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1798 
 
 . if the sounds had echoed from the bottom of the human heart, and 
 as if that prayer might have floated in solemn silence through the 
 universe. . . . The preacher then launched into his subject like an 
 eagle dallying with the wind. The sermon was upon peace and 
 war : upon church and state — not their alliance, but their separation 
 — on the spirit of the world and the spirit of Christianity, not as the 
 same, but as opposed to one another. He talked of those who had 
 ' inscribed the cross of Christ on banners dripping with human 
 gore.' ^^ made a poetical and pastoral excursion, — and to show the 
 fatal effects of war, drew a striking contrast between the simple 
 shepherd boy, driving his team afield, or sitting under the hawthorn, 
 ■q/^ piping to his flock ' as_thojighJie should never Jbe__old,' and the same 
 poor country-lad, crimped, kidnapped . . . turned into a wretched 
 drummer-boy . . ^nd decked out in the loathsome finery of the 
 profession of bloodTT 
 
 The discourse seemed to young- Hazlitt as the 
 
 music of the spheres : ' Poetry and Philosophy had 
 
 met together, Truth and Genius had embraced, under 
 
 the eye and with the sanction of ReHgion.' On the 
 
 following Tuesday Coleridge came to the manse at 
 
 Wem, and spent the first two hours in talking to the 
 
 youth. 
 
 His complexion (says Hazlitt) was at that time clear, and even 
 bright. His forehead was broad and high, light as if built of ivory, 
 with large projecting eyebrows, and his eyes rolling beneath them 
 like a sea with darkened lustre. ' A certain tender bloom his face 
 o'erspread,' a purple tinge as we see it in the pale thoughtful com- 
 plexions of the Spanish portrait-painters, Murillo and Velasquez. 
 His mouth was gross, voluptuous, open, eloquent ; his chin good- 
 humoured and round, but his nose, the rudder of the face, the index 
 of the will, was small, feeble, nothing — like what he has done. . . . 
 Coleridge in his person was rather above the common size, inclining 
 to the corpulent, or like Lord Hamlet, ' somewhat fat and pursy.' 
 His hair (now, alas ! gray) was then black and glossy as the raven's, 
 and fell in smooth masses over his forehead. 
 
 The day passed off pleasantly, and the next morn- 
 ing Coleridge was to return to Shrewsbury. 
 
 When I came down to breakfast I found that he had just re- 
 ceived a letter from his friend T. [J.] Wedgwood, making him an 
 offer of ;^i5o a year if he chose to waive his present pursuit, and 
 
1798 ACCEPTS AN ANNUITY FROM THE WEDGWOODS 83 
 
 devote himself entirely to the study of poetry and philosophy. 
 Coleridge seemed to make up his mind to close with this proposal 
 in the act of tying on one of his shoes. It threw an additional 
 damp on his departure. . . . He was henceforth to inhabit the Hill 
 of Parnassus, to be a Shepherd on the Delectable Mountain. Alas ! 
 I knew not the way thither. 
 
 So mourned Hazlitt — who was but imperfectly con- 
 soled by an invitation to Stowey. He accompanied 
 Coleridge part of the way back to Shrewsbury, and 
 'observed that he continually crossed me on the way by 
 shifting from one side of the footpath to the other. . . . 
 He seemed unable to keep in a straight line.'^ Hazlitt 
 himself trod on air, for the talk was divine. ' The very 
 milestones had ears, and Harmer Hill stooped with all 
 its pines to listen to a poet.' 
 
 The letter which Coleridge had received, and which 
 had been written by Josiah Wedgwood, on his own 
 and his brother Thomas's behalf, was printed in full 
 by Mrs. Sandford." The terms of their offer, then 
 first made public, were contained in these sentences : 
 ' After what my brother Thomas has written [with the 
 present of a hundred pounds], I have only to state the 
 proposal we wish to make to you. It is that you shall 
 accept an an7unty for life of ^^150, to be regula7'ly 
 paid by us, no condition zu/iatsoever being annexed to it. 
 Thus your liberty will remain entire. ... I do not 
 now enter into the particulars of the mode of securing 
 
 ^ Compare Carlyle in Xhe Life of Sterlhtg : 'A lady once remarked that he 
 [Coleridge, at the Grove, Highgate] never could fix which side of the garden- 
 walk would suit him best, but continually shifted, in corkscrew fashion, and kept 
 '.lying both' (p. 71). 
 
 - T. Poole and his Friends, i. 259-261. The example of the brothers 
 Wedgwood in the disposal of their wealth, seems to be as difficult of imitation as 
 the artistic skill by which, in large measure, the wealth had been acquired by 
 their father : — ' My brother and myself are possessed of a considerable superfluity 
 f fortune ; squandering and hoarding are equally distant from our inclinations. 
 IJut we are earnestly desirous to convert this superfluity into a fund of beneficence, 
 ^n d we have now been accustomed for some time, to regard ourselves rather as 
 Trustees than Proprietors.' 
 
84 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 179J 
 
 the annuity, etc. — that will be done when we receive 
 
 your consent to the proposal we are making ; and we 
 
 shall only say that we mean the annuity to be inde 
 
 pendent of everything bnt the wreck of our for time! 
 
 Coleridge delayed not a post in accepting the pro 
 
 posal, and in announcing this to Poole, on the sam( 
 
 day, he wrote-: 'High benevolence is something s( 
 
 new, that I am not certain that I am not dreaming. 
 
 He adds that he is obliged to remain two Sunday 
 
 longer at Shrewsbury. ' The congregation is small 
 
 and my reputation had cowed them into vast respect 
 
 fulness, but one shrewd fellow remarked that he wouk 
 
 rather hear me talk thsin preach.' On the 19th, Cole 
 
 ridge sent in his official resignation of candidature 
 
 and on the 29th went off to meet his benefactors a 
 
 Cote House/ With the invitation mentioned in th 
 
 footnote (4), there went a letter from Daniel Stuar 
 
 proprietor of the Mornino- Post, suggesting subjects fc 
 
 contributions in prose and verse, the remuneratio 
 
 for which (as we gather from an allusion in Poole 
 
 accompanying letter) was to be a guinea a weel 
 
 Stuart's letter incidentally reveals the fact that Cok 
 
 ridge had been already a contributor to his pape 
 
 Poole urges Coleridge to attend at once to Stuart 
 
 request, but on the 27th Poole is told that he will t 
 
 vexed to hear that Coleridge has, so far, writte 
 
 nothing for the Morning Post. He has been muc 
 
 1 It is unaccountable how the unconditional terms of this offer came to | 
 forgotten or ignored by all parties when in 1811 Josiah Wedgwood saw fit 
 withdraw his half of the annuity. Thomas had died in the meantime, but ] 
 half had been secured legally, and was paid regularly until Coleridge's death. 
 
 2 Letter of January i6th, unpublished. I 
 '^ His letter is printed in full in the Christian Kcforiiicr for 1834, p. 838. 
 
 '^ Cottle's Reifi. p. 172 ; but Cottle mistakes in supposing the letter th( 
 printed to be Coleridge's acceptance of the annuity. It was in reply to an (i 
 published) invitation from T. Wedgwood dated ' Penzance, January 20,' whi 
 had been forwarded by Poole. 
 
1798 CONTRIBUTIONS TO 'THE MORNING POST' 85 
 
 feted at Shrewsbury, he says ; and I suspect that 
 his detention there beyond the date of resignation 
 was voluntary. He was certainly unwise in post- 
 poning both his visit to the Wedgwoods and his con- 
 tributions to the newspaper. The introduction to 
 Daniel Stuart, who had become proprietor and editor 
 of the Morning Post in 1796, must have come from 
 the Wedgwoods, either directly or through their inti- 
 mate friend (Sir) James Mackintosh, who in 1789 had 
 married Stuart's sister Catherine. 
 
 I have not detected any of Coleridge's contribu- 
 tions to the Morning Post before the beginning of 
 1798, but between January 8 and the departure for 
 Germany several poems of various merit appeared.^ 
 The magnificent Ode to France was by far the most 
 important of these. In calling it The Recantation, 
 Coleridge meant, of course, that he recanted his pre- 
 vious deeply-felt and loudly-expressed belief in the 
 French Revolution as the incarnation of the principle 
 of Liberty. The base treatment of Switzerland by 
 the Revolutionist leaders had opened his eyes.^ 
 Though not published till April, the ode and Frost 
 at Midnight are both dated ' February 1 798 ' ; Fears 
 in Solitude, ' written during the alarm of an invasion,' 
 was written two months later. The Wanderings oj 
 Cain ^ and The Nightingale : a Conversation Poem 
 belong to this rich spring and summer, which also saw 
 
 ^ Fire, Famine, and Slaughter ; The Raven; Lezvti ; The Recantation [i.e. 
 France: an die] ; and The A/ad Ox [i.e. Recantation]. 
 
 " ' No man was more entluisiastic than I was for France and the Revolution ; 
 it had all my wishes, none of my expectations. Before 1793, I clearly saw, and 
 often enotigh stated in public, the horrid delusion, the vile mockery of the whole 
 affair' {Table Talk, July 23, 1832). The editor of T.7\ quotes stanzas iv. and 
 V. of France in support of Coleridge's imperfect recollection. It would have 
 been more useful had he quoted stanzas ii. and iii. in correction of it. 
 
 ^ Hazlitt says Coleridge told liim the Valley of Stones near Linton was to 
 .ave been the scene. {My first acquaintance with Poets.) 
 
the gathering together of the Lyrical Ballads. Before 
 
 the end of March The Ancient Mariner was ready ; on j, 
 the 1 2th April, Wordsworth tells Cottle he has been 
 going on * very rapidly, adding to his stock of poetry.' 
 
 The season, he adds, is advancing with extraordinary k 
 
 rapidity, ' and the country becomes almost every hour \ 
 
 more lovely.'^ It was of this season, the splendour '\ 
 
 of which has become traditional, that he reminded \k 
 
 Coleridge in the closing lines of The Prelude : — I 
 
 That summer, under whose indulgent skies, ' ! 
 
 Upon smooth Quantock's aiiy ridge we roved l| 
 
 Unchecked, or loitered 'mid her sylvan combs, \ 
 
 Thou in bewitching words, with happy heart. 
 
 Didst chaunt the vision of that Ancient Man, 
 
 The bright-eyed Mariner, and rueful woes 
 
 Didst utter of the Lady Christabel ; 
 
 And I, associate with such labour, steeped 
 
 In soft forgetfulness the livelong hours. 
 
 Murmuring of him who, joyous hap, was found, 
 
 After the perils of his moonlight ride. 
 
 The prospect of Wordsworth's enforced quittance of 
 Alfoxden at Midsummer seems to have produced as 
 early as March a feeling of unrest among the whole 
 party. ' We have come to a resolution ' (wrote Words- 
 worth to his friend James Losh ^), ' — Coleridge, Mrs. 
 Coleridge, my sister, and myself, of going into Ger- 
 many, where we purpose to pass the two ensuing 
 years in order to acquire the German language, and to 
 furnish ourselves with a tolerable stock of information 
 in natural science.' As time and discussion went on, 
 this large scheme underwent some modification. 
 
 It was probably in May that Hazlitt paid the visit 
 to Coleridge which he has brilliantly described in The 
 Liberal? He heard Coleridge recite 'with a sonorous 
 
 1 Rem. p. 175. 
 
 2 Of 'Woodside, near Carlisle.' Letter of March 11, 1798, quoted in 
 Knight's Life, i. 147. 
 
 "* No. IIL, 1823, ]My first acquaintance with Poets. ^ 
 
 \ 
 
1 798 HAZLITT AT STO WE V 87 
 
 and musical voice the ballad of Betty Foy.' He saw 
 Wordsworth, 'gaunt and Don Quixote-like,' in his 
 'brown fustian jacket and striped pantaloons.' 
 
 Wordsworth read us the story oi Peter Bell'^ in the open air. . , . 
 There is a chaunt in the recitation both of Coleridge and Words- 
 worth which acts as a spell on the hearer, and disarms the 
 judgment. . . . Coleridge's manner is more full, animated, and 
 varied ; Wordsworth's more equable, sustained, and internal. . . . 
 \Coleridge has told me that he himself liked to compose in walking 1 
 over uneven ground, or breaking through the straggling branches of 
 a copsewood. . . . Returning that same evening, I got into a 
 metaphysical argument with Wordsworth, while Coleridge was 
 explaining the different notes of the nightingale to his sister, in 
 which we neither of us succeeded in making ourselves perfectly clear 
 and intelligible. Thus I passed three weeks at Nether Stowey and 
 in the neighbourhood, generally devoting the afternoons to a 
 delightful chat in an arbour made of bark by the poet's friend Tom 
 Poole, sitting under two fine elm trees and listening to the 
 bees humming around us while we quaffed owx flip. 
 
 Coleridge took Hazlitt on a walk to Linton, That 
 the five-and-thirty miles of roughest road was covered 
 in one day — 'our feet kept time to the echo of 
 Coleridge's tongue ' — speaks convincingly as to 
 Coleridge's robust condition at this time. In this 
 walk John Chester made a third — 'a native of 
 Nether Stowey,' says Hazlitt, 'one of those who 
 were attracted to Coleridge's discourse as flies are 
 to honey, or bees in swarming time to the sound of 
 a brass pan. . . . He told me his private opinion, that 
 Colerido^e was a wonderful man. . . . He afterwards 
 followed [accompanied] Coleridge into Germany,' 
 
 Of Coleridge's literary likes and dislikes as pro- 
 nounced during the walk, Hazlitt gives a tolerably 
 long list. His narrative is not improbably tinged a 
 little by his own prejudices, and distorted by the per- 
 
 ^ Peter Bell was begun on April 20, says Dorothy Wordsworth in her 
 Journal.' Knight's Life, i. 143. 
 
in the main a true account of the vivid impressions he 
 carried away, and should be read in its entirety. 
 Another account of the Coleridge of this period has 
 survived ; but as it was written by himself to his 
 brother George, on whom he was doubtless anxious 
 to produce a favourable impression, it must be re- 
 ceived with due caution. It is a very long and 
 deeply interesting letter, and will doubtless be printed 
 in full in the biography now preparing by the poet's 
 grandson. Coleridge begins by saying that he has 
 been troubled by toothache, and has found relief in 
 laudanum — not sleep, but that kind of repose which is 
 as a ' spot of enchantment, a green spot of fountains 
 and trees in the very heart of a waste of sand.' 
 He has 'snapped his squeaking baby -trumpet of 
 sedition,' and given himself over entirely to poetry 
 and philosophical contemplation — but he discreetly 
 refrains from mentioning the preaching in Unitarian 
 chapels. The letter ends by proposing an early walk 
 down to Ottery. Had he carried out this intention 
 he would doubtless have announced the German plan 
 which was then chiefly occupying his thoughts. 
 
 The letter was written in April. In the same 
 month, probably, but certainly about this time, came 
 the rupture with Lloyd ; and, consequent on the pain- 
 ful depression it produced, that famous retirement ' to 
 a lonely farm-house between Porlock and Linton,' and 
 resort to 'an anodyne,' of which Kiibla Khan was the 
 costly but delightful result.^ 
 
 1 In the Preface to Kiibla Khan Coleridge gives the date as ' the summer of 
 1797,' and in 'Ca^ Poet. Works {\^()t^ I have so placed the poem. But, after 
 the text of that volume had been printed, a MS. note by Coleridge, dated 
 Nov. 3, 1810, was discovered, and kindly communicated to me by Mr. Ernest Cole- 
 ridge. In this, Coleridge states that the retirement to the farm-house, and the 
 recourse to opium — he calls it ' the first,' meaning, doubtless, the first recourse 
 
1798 DIFFERENCES WITH LAMB AND LLOYD 89 
 
 On the 14th May Coleridge's second child was 
 born, and named (but not baptized) ' Berkeley ' in 
 honour of the philosopher, the keystone of whose 
 system was still, in his disciple's eyes, indestructible. 
 In announcing this event to Poole, then waiting by 
 his only brother's death -bed, he claims to be the 
 better able to sympathise with him because of 
 'sorrows of his own that have cut more deeply into 
 his heart than they ought to have done ' — alluding, 
 doubtless, to the rupture with Lloyd, and to his know- 
 ledge that Lamb was being alienated from him by 
 Lloyd. 
 
 In March there had been talk of a third edition 
 of Coleridge's poems, and on hearing of it Lloyd 
 begged Cottle to * persuade ' Coleridge to omit his. 
 This caused Coleridge to reply, smilingly, that no 
 persuasion was needed for the omission of verses 
 published at the earnest request of the author ; and 
 that though circumstances had made the Groscollian 
 motto ^ now look ridiculous, he accepted the punish- 
 ment of his folly. The letter closes with the charac- 
 teristically sententious reflection — * By past experience 
 we build up our moral being.'- The story is much 
 obscured by Cottle. He mixes up with it the Higgin- 
 bottom Sonnets^ of November 1797, and omits to 
 supply his documents with dates, but it would seem 
 
 for relief from inetttal trouble — were caused by the breach with Lloyd. He goes 
 on to say that the nervous disquietude and misery which he suffered prevented 
 him from finishing Christabel. Coleridge is generally unreliable in the matter of 
 dates assigned to particular single events, but I think we may trust him when 
 he synchronises. Besides, it seems far more probable that Kiibla Khan was 
 composed after Christabel (I.) and The Ancient Mariner, than that it was the 
 first breathing on his magic flute. 
 
 ^ See footnote 5j P- 68 supra. 
 
 2 S. T. C. to Cottle, March 8, 1798, in Rem. p. 164. 
 
 ^ Poet. Works (1893), p. no. These satirical sonnets were printed in Nov. 
 1797, and one of Lamb's most affectionate letters to Coleridge was written in 
 the following January. {Letters, i. 85.) 
 
 ^'^^BE LlBRAy^y - 
 
 / ^ OF THE 
 
go SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1798 
 
 that by June some sort of reconciliation between 
 Lloyd and Coleridge had been patched up. ' I love 
 \ Coleridge,' wrote Lloyd to Cottle/ 'and can forget 
 all that has happened ' ; but things must have gone 
 jfwrong again, for Lloyd resumed, and too successfully, 
 I his attempt to poison Lamb's mind. On July 28, 
 Lamb wrote thus to Southey : ' Samuel Taylor Cole- 
 ridge, to the eternal regret of his native Devonshire, 
 emigrates to Westphalia. " Poor Lamb " (these were 
 his last words), "if he wants any knowledge, he may 
 apply to me." ... I could not refrain from sending 
 him the following propositions, to be by him defended 
 or oppugned (or both) at Leipsic or Gottingen ' ; and 
 then come the Theses qucedaDi TheologiccE} If any 
 such speech was ever uttered by Coleridge, it must 
 have been curiously misrepresented to have aroused 
 in Lamb's gentle spirit the extreme bitterness mani- 
 fested in the letter^ he wrote to Coleridge conveying 
 the Theses. In after-years* Lamb told Coleridge that 
 the brief alienation between them had been caused by 
 Lloyd's tattle, adding that Lloyd's unfortunate habit 
 had wrought him other mischief.^ The quarrel must 
 
 1 Birmingham, June 7, 1798. In the same letter he mentions that Lamb 
 had quitted him the day before after a fortnight's visit, and that he will write to 
 Coleridge i^Rem. p. 170). 
 
 2 Letters of Latub, i. 88. 
 
 3 lb. i. 321. 
 
 4 lb. ii. 32. 
 
 5 '[Coleridge, in 1821] spoke in the highest terms of affection and considera- 
 tion of Lamb. Related the circumstance which gave rise to The Old Familiar 
 Faces. Charles Lloyd, in one of his fits, had shown to Lamb a letter, in which 
 Coleridge had illustrated the cases of vast genius in proportion to talent, and pre- 
 dominance of talent in conjunction with genius, in the persons of Lamb and 
 himself. Hence a temporary coolness, at the termination of which, or during 
 its continuance, these beautiful verses were written ' (Allsop's Letters, etc. p. 
 141). The Old Familiar Faces was first printed in Blank Verse (by C. L. and 
 C. LI.) 1798, and dated 'January 1798.' As this date is probably correct, the 
 ' friend of my bosom ' was certainly Coleridge ; the friend whom Lamb had ' left 
 like an ingrate,' Lloyd, — and Allsop's (or Coleridge's) recollection, therefore, as 
 regards Lamb's verses, at fault. 
 
1798 PREPARES TO GO TO GERMANY 91 
 
 I have been a source of much pain both to Lamb and 
 Coleridge — especially to Coleridge, who was conscious 
 of having thought no evil of Lamb. Coleridge's 
 feelings had by this time (July 1798) been embittered 
 by the publication of Lloyd's novel, Ednmnd Oliver, 
 in which, under the thinnest disguise, and in no 
 particularly friendly spirit, Coleridge's enlistment 
 and other adventures had been introduced. The 
 irritation could not have failed to be increased by the 
 circumstances, that the book was dedicated to Charles 
 Lamb, and published by Cottle. 
 
 In May, Cottle was invited to Alfoxden and spent 
 a week there. During this visit, arrangements were 
 made for the publication of the Lyrical Ballads, and 
 he carried off with him the MS. of The Ancient 
 Mariner. The price of the copyright was fixed at 
 thirty guineas, payable in the last fortnight of July — 
 the ' money being necessary to our plan,' wrote Cole- 
 ridge — the plan being doubtless the German one, 
 although its details had not then been finally arranged. 
 It was probably with the view of consulting the Wedg- 
 woods^ that about the middle of June, Coleridge paid 
 them a visit at Stoke d'Abernon, near Cobham,- dur- 
 ling which he learnt that Godwin was anxious to be 
 'reintroduced to him. Coleridge hopes to see him 
 
 ^ It may be as well, at this point, to clear away a misunderstanding with 
 regard to the relations between the Wedgwoods on the one part, and Coleridge 
 and Wordsworth on the other, in the matter of the cost of the German expedi- 
 tion. In her very interesting miscellany, A Group of Englishmen (1871, p. 98), 
 INIiss Meteyard quotes from the accounts-current between the Wedgwoods and 
 their Hamburg Agents, P. and O. Von Axen, entries of large payments to Cole- 
 ridge and Wordsworth during the poets' residence in Germany. She jumps to 
 the conclusion, which unfortunately has been accepted by biographers of both, 
 that (i) Wordsworth's expenses came out of the Wedgwoods' pockets, and (2) 
 that this was the case also with Coleridge's, over aiid above his ajttiuity. I 
 believe the facts to be, that (i) Wordsworth merely banked with the Von Axens, 
 and (2) all Coleridge's drawings were debited to his annuity, except those made 
 for account of Chester, whose family paid all his expenses. 
 
 2 T. Poole Mid his Friends, i. 271. 
 
92 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1798 
 
 in the following week, but I think the meeting did not 
 take place until 1800. On the 3rd August he was 
 with the Wordsworths at Bristol, and wrote to Poole 
 that he considered ' the realisation of the [German] 
 scheme of great importance to his intellectual activity, 
 and, of course, to his moral happiness.'^ He is 
 doubtful whether Mrs. Coleridge should accompany 
 him, but inclined to think that as this would involve 
 borrowing, he had better go alone — at first, at all 
 events. He begs for Poole's advice to be laid before 
 him on his return to Stowey, in a week, after he has 
 taken a 'dart into Wales.' The Wordsworths had 
 quitted Alfoxden at Midsummer, and, after staying 
 a week with the Coleridges, they walked to Bristol, 
 where they took lodgings, and superintended the print- 
 ing of the Lyrical Ballads. Before the end of August 
 they were in London, in readiness for their journey. 
 
 We have no details, but during these weeks it 
 must have been settled that Mrs. Coleridge and the 
 two children. Hartley and Berkeley, should remain at 
 Stowey, under the wing of Poole, and that Coleridge 
 should take with him the young Stowey man mentioned 
 by Hazlitt, John Chester. Coleridge met the Words- 
 worths in London about the loth September, and 
 spent a few hurried days. He arranged with Johnson 
 (Cowper's publisher), in St. Paul's Churchyard, for the 
 printing of the little quarto which contains Fears in 
 Solitude,'^ etc., but unfortunately he found no time for his 
 most important call — that on Daniel Stuart respecting 
 
 1 T. Poole and his Friends, i. 272. 
 
 2 Fears in Solitude, written in 1798, during the alarm of an invasion. 
 To which are added, France, an Ode ; and Frost at Midnight. By S. T. 
 Coleridge. London : Printed for J. Johnson, in St. Paul's Church-yard. 
 1798. Quarto, pp. 23. 'Fears in Solitude' is dated at the end, 'Nether 
 Stowey, April 20th, 1798.' Each of the other poems is dated 'at the end — 
 ' February 1798.' 
 
1798 THE 'LYRICAL BALLADS' 93 
 
 promised contributions to the Morning Post. The 
 party left London on the 14th, and, having taken 
 packet at Yarmouth on the i6th, reached Hamburg 
 on the third day after. 
 
 The volume of Lyrical Ballads, with a few other 
 Poems, had been published a few days before. It 
 was anonymous, and in the preface {' Advertisement') 
 no hint was given that more than one author was con- 
 cerned. Coleridge's contributions were: — The Rime 
 of the Ancyeiit Alarinei-e ; The Nightingale : a Con- 
 versation Poem; The Foste7'-Mother s Tale ; and The 
 Dungeon — the two last being overflowings from Osorio. 
 The reception accorded to the little volume was far 
 from being enthusiastic, but, everything considered, 
 was not altogether discreditable to the reviewers. If 
 they were shocked by the Ancient Ma?'iner, so were 
 Southey and Lloyd, and so, a little, was William 
 Wordsworth. They saw merit in Goody Blake and 
 in The Thorn and in The Idiot Boy, but only Southey, 
 among them all, took the least notice of Lines at Tin- 
 tern Abbey. He was likewise alone in noticing the 
 Lines left on a Yew-tree Seat ; and not even he was 
 attracted by 'It is the first mild day of March,' or 
 ' Written in Early Spring,' or by the exquisite close of 
 Simon Lee — plain evidence of the small extent to which 
 the sweet influences of Cowper and Burns had up to 
 that time affected the dry places of metropolitan 
 criticism. The sale of the volume was slow, but the 
 poets heard nothing at all about it during their absence, 
 except a cheerful report from Mrs. Coleridge that 'the 
 Lyrical Ballads are not liked at all by any.' 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 GERMANY 
 
 A.D. 1 798-1 799 
 
 The passage from Yarmouth and the events of the 
 early days spent by the united party at Hamburg, are 
 amusingly described by Coleridge in his ' Satyrane's 
 Letters.'^ In Hamburg they greatly enjoyed them- 
 selves in simple tourist fashion. They met Klopstock 
 and had discussions, of greater length than importance, 
 with him on the literatures of their respective coun- 
 tries. After four days' junketing, Coleridge went off 
 by himself to Ratzeburg, carrying a letter of intro- 
 duction to the Anit7nann (Magistrate) of that town, 
 who introduced him to a pastor, with whom he arranged 
 to live (himself and Chester) e7i pension. He then 
 returned to Hamburg, said good-bye to the Words- 
 worths, and on the ist October left again for 
 Ratzeburg, remaining there for the next four months. 
 The early separation from the Wordsworths has never 
 
 1 Spenser's Satyrane {F.Q. I. vi.) — 
 
 Who far abroad for strange adventures sought. 
 
 The Letters were first printed in The Friend iox Nov. 23, Dec. 7, and Dec. 21, 
 1809. They were reprinted in the Biog. Lit. vol. ii. Coleridge, I believe, saw 
 Klopstock only on the first occasion, and the whole of the account of the conver- 
 sations must have been taken from Wordsworth's notes, for the language used was 
 French, which was practically unintelligible to Coleridge. 
 
1 798 STUDIES AT RA TZEB URG 95 
 
 been fully explained, and has given rise to unfounded 
 suspicions, such as those which seized on Charles 
 Lamb when he heard the news ^ that the poets had 
 quarrelled. The only allusion to the reasons with 
 which I am acquainted is contained in a letter from 
 Poole,- which apparently reflects Coleridge's account 
 of the matter. * The Wordsworths have left you — so 
 there is an end of our fears about amalgamation, etc. 
 I think you both did perfectly right. It was right for 
 them to find a cheaper situation ; and it was right for 
 you to avoid the expense of travelling, provided you 
 are where ptLre German is spoken.' He adds, ' You 
 will, of course, frequently hear from Wordsworth,' — 
 which shows that the separation took place under no 
 shadow even of momentary unfriendliness. On the 
 day on which the Wordsworths left Hamburg for 
 Goslar {via Brunswick), William wrote to Poole : 
 ' Coleridge has most likely informed you that he and 
 Chester have settled at Ratzeburg. Dorothy and I 
 are going to speculate further up the country.' They 
 went further only to fare worse, for at Goslar they 
 were nearly frozen to death, saw little or nothing of 
 German society, and learnt little or nothing of the 
 language or literature. Wordsworth, however, did 
 better, for he wrote some of his best poetry, though of 
 course he could have done that under more comfort- 
 able circumstances in England. A most cordial corre- 
 spondence was kept up between the separated friends,^ 
 and in February Wordsworth and his sister seem to 
 have visited Coleridge at Gottingen.'* They also 
 
 1 Lamb to Southey, Nov. 28, 1798 [Letters, i. 98). 
 ^ To Coleridge, Oct. 8, 1798. T. Poole aiid his Friends, i. 278. 
 '■^ Oct. 3, 1798. Knight's Z?y6', i. 178. 
 
 3 Knight's Life, i. 184. See 7i\so Hexameters, z.ndiAd Vilmum Axiologuin, in 
 Poet. Works (1893), PP- I37> ^S^- 
 ■ * Knight's Life, i. 183. 
 
96 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1798 j 
 
 . ( 
 
 Spent a day or two with him, in April, on their way 1 
 
 home/ , ^ 
 
 Coleridge's purpose in remaining at Ratzeburg was j 
 
 to acquire a thorough knowledge of German. 
 
 It was a regular part of my morning studies for the first six 
 weeks of my residence at Ratzeburg, to accompany the good and 
 kind old pastor with whom I lived, from the cellar to the roof, 
 
 through gardens, farm-yard, etc., and to call every, the minutest, j 
 
 thing by its German name. Advertisements, farces, jest-books, and I 
 
 the conversation of children while I was at play with them, contri- I 
 
 buted their share to a more home-like acquaintance with the I 
 language than I could have acquired from works of polite literature 
 
 alone, or even from polite society.^ -m 
 
 .1 
 
 By the end of those six weeks he ' amazes ' his i 
 
 Stowey friends by his report of progress ; and vexes | 
 
 them by the accounts of his home-sickness. ' You say \ 
 you wish to come home ! ' responds Poole, and advises 
 
 him to be of good cheer and think of nothing but the -^ 
 
 accomplishment of the object of his exile. He adds • 
 
 that Stuart is anxiously expecting the promised con- ; 
 
 tributions to the Morning Post — contributions which j 
 
 never arrived.^ 4, 
 
 Coleridge certainly wrote warmly affectionate ■ 
 
 and dolorously home-sick letters to his wife and to '\ 
 
 Poole, but my impression is that he had distractions. ; 
 
 He made little excursions into the adjoining country ; • 
 
 the ' nobility and gentry ' of the little town paid him | 
 
 much attention, for he was Coleridge, and Englishmen j 
 
 were naturally popular in a town which fired a salute i 
 
 of twenty-one guns in honour of the battle of the Nile, j 
 
 But the mails were very irregular, and he no doubt j 
 
 fretted sometimes — especially when news came that j 
 
 little Berkeley's inoculation had been swiftly followed i 
 
 1 Knight's Life, i. 193. " Biog. Lit. 181 7, i. 201 «. i 
 
 3 T. Poole and his Friends, i. 282. > 
 
1799 STUDIES AT GOTTINGEN 97 
 
 by an attack of smallpox which spoiled his fair beauty. 
 Zoleridge tried total abstinence from fermented 
 iquors, and ate little animal food, but after three 
 months' experience of the regimen, found that 
 though his digestion improved and his spirits became 
 more equable, sleeplessness had been induced. With 
 what he considered a sufficient stock of German, he 
 eft Ratzeburg on Feb. 6th for Gottingen, where 
 le arrived on the 12th. He matriculated at the 
 University, at which he found three Cambridge men, 
 including two Parrys, elder brothers of the Arctic 
 xplorer. He attended the lectures of Blumenbach 
 Dn Physiology and Natural History; those of the 
 ationalising Eichhorn, on the New Testament,^ he 
 itudied at second-hand from a student's notes.^ ' But 
 ny chief efforts were directed towards a grounded 
 knowledge of the German language and literature,' 
 nd he went deep into the earlier forms of the lan- 
 guage — Gothic, etc. All this he did, and, in addition, 
 read and made collections for a history of the belles 
 'ettres in Germany, before the time of Lessing, and 
 nade very large collections for a life of Lessing.'^ 
 For these last four months,' he adds, ' I have worked 
 arder than, I trust in God Almighty, I shall ever 
 ave occasion to work again : this endless transcrip- 
 on is such a body-and-soul wearying purgatory. I 
 hall have bought thirty pounds' worth of books, 
 
 ' Coleridge, an able vindicator of these important truths [Christian Evi- 
 ;nces], is well acquainted with Eichhorn, but the latter is a coward, who dreads 
 s arguments and his presence. . . . Coleridge is much liked, notwithstanding 
 any peculiarities. He is very liberal towards all doctrines and opinions, and 
 mnot be put out of temper. . . . The great fault which his friends lament is the 
 iriety of subjects which he adopts, and the too abstruse nature of his ordinary 
 leculations, ext>-a homines positas.' Parry, in a letter of May 25, 1799, quoted 
 Carlyon's Early Years and Late Reflections, i. 100 n. 
 
 2 Biog. Lit. 181 7, i. 202. 
 
 3 Letter to J. Wedgwood, May 21, 1799, in Cottle's Rem. p. 427. 
 
 H 
 
98 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE i799 
 
 chiefly metaphysics, and with a view to the one work, 
 to which I hope to dedicate in silence the prime of my 
 Hfe ; but I beHeve, and indeed doubt not, that before 
 Christmas I shall have repaid myself.' i 
 
 On the 22nd March Carlyon arrived at Gottingen 
 fresh from Pembroke College (Cambridge) with a 
 travelling fellowship. With him came one or two 
 other young men, so that there was then a friendly little 
 band of Englishmen, with Coleridge for its centre, il 
 not its leader. For he, we are assured, was ' the 
 noticeable Englander.' From Carlyon's rather dreary 
 farrago of a book, thrown together when he was an 
 old man, we learn that, as at Ratzeburg, so at Gottin- 
 gen, Coleridge was not without distractions. Of course 
 he talked — he never wearied of talking, and frequently 
 over the heads of his companions, for he tried to make 
 metaphysicians of them. He was the life and soul ol 
 an excursion which the Englishmen made to the 
 Harz Mountains, during which he composed the 
 Lines written in the Albwn at Elbinzerode and 
 Home -sick, and a picturesque letter to Mrs. Cole- 
 ridge describing his adventures.^ Carlyon says he 
 contributed the Home-sick lines to the Stamm-Bucl: 
 at the Wermingerode inn. To Poole he sent them ir 
 a letter, thus prefacing them : — ' O Poole ! I am home- 
 sick. Yesterday, or rather yesternight, I dittied the 
 following hobbling Ditty ; but my poor muse is quite 
 gone — perhaps she may return and meet me ai 
 Stowey.' ^ 
 
 'Tis sweet to him who all the week ^ 
 
 Through city-crowds must push his way, 
 
 To stroll alone through fields and woods, 
 
 And hallow thus the Sabbath-day. S 
 
 1 The letter was printed partially in the Amulet for 1829, and completely ii 
 
 the New Monthly Magazine for 1835. i 
 
 i 
 
1799 HOME-SICK 99 
 
 And sweet it is, in summer bower, 
 
 Sincere, affectionate and gay. 
 One's own dear children feasting round, 
 
 To celebrate one's marriage-day. 
 
 But what is all, to his delight. 
 
 Who having long been doomed to roam. 
 
 Throws off the bundle from his back, 
 Before the door of his own home ? 
 
 Home-sickness is a wasting pang ; 
 
 This feel I hourly more and more ; 
 There's healing only in thy wings. 
 
 Thou breeze that play'st on Albion's shore ! 
 
 May 26, 1 799. 
 
 From Carlyon we learn that Coleridge dressed 
 badly, ' but I have heard him say, fixing his prominent 
 eyes upon himself (as he was wont to do whenever 
 there was a mirror in the room), with a singularly 
 coxcombical expression of countenance, that his dress 
 was sure to be lost siq-ht of the moment he bes:an to 
 talk, an assertion which, whatever may be thought of 
 its modesty, was not without truth.' ^ 
 
 He had, however, fits of depression, especially 
 when the intervals between home letters were pro- 
 longed. He describes himself as languishing for hours 
 together in vacancy. ' Love,' he cries out, * is the vital 
 air of my genius,'- and in Germany he has seen no 
 
 1 Early Years, etc., i. 29. 
 
 ■^ Letter to Mrs. Coleridge from Gottingen, ' March 12, 1799. Sunday 
 night ' — a long and affectionate letter of the highest interest in every respect. It 
 is printed in the Ilhisi rated London News for April 29, 1893. He tells his wife 
 that he is ' deeply convinced that if he were to remain a few years among objects 
 for whom he had no affection, he should wholly lose the powers of intellect.' An 
 intense craving for sympathy in all that it produces is one of the concomitants of 
 the artistic nature. But in Coleridge's case the craving was rather for sympathy 
 with himself. 
 
 To be beloved is all I need, 
 And whom I love, I love indeed, 
 
 are the closing lines of The Pains of Sleep ; and in a letter to Beaumont of the 
 same year (1803) he exclaims : ' Me, who from my childhood have had no avarice, 
 no ambition, whose very vanity, in my vainest moments was, nine-tenths of it, 
 the desire and delight, and necessity of loving and of being loved ! ' (Coleorton 
 Letters, i. 15.) 
 
loo SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1799 
 
 \ ■\ 
 
 one to love. In the first days of April a sad blow fell , 
 on him. Letters from Mrs. Coleridge and from Poole \ 
 reached him with news that little Berkeley was dead. ! 
 They were dated March 15, but the child had died] 
 nearly five weeks before. Poole's letter reveals the ; 
 reason of the delay ^ — he feared to disturb Coleridge's 1 
 mind, and would have kept him in ignorance until his \ 
 arrival in England. Mrs. Coleridge seems to have ' 
 shared Poole's notion, but both must have come to ' 
 see that they could not write at all without mentioning ■ 
 the sad news, and so, in a month, their hand was •'■, 
 forced. So far from having ' never forgotten herself ' i 
 in her sorrow (as Poole, with the kindest of intentions, J 
 feigned), Mrs. Coleridge was distracted with grief, i 
 and her letter to her husband is very touching. She * 
 adjured him not to fail to return in May as he ; 
 had promised. Coleridge was simply stunned. So * 
 perfect was his confidence in the love and affection \ 
 which had prompted the delay that it drew from him ; 
 no word of reproach. In his letter to Poole he recalls ' 
 the lines in Osorio — altering them slightly — \ 
 
 ' Grief, indeed, \ 
 
 Doth live and dally with fantastic thought, '^j 
 
 And smiling like a sickly moralist, ■,'■ 
 
 Finds some resemblance to her own concerns "., 
 
 In the straws of chance, and things inanimate ! 1 
 
 ' But I cannot truly say that I grieve — I am perplexed ; 
 — I am sad, and a little thing, a very little thing would | 
 make me weep ; but for the death of the baby, I have | 
 not wept. Oh ! this strange, strange, strange scene- | 
 shifter. Death — that giddies one with insecurity, and ■ 
 so unsubstantiates the living things that one has i 
 grasped and handled ' ; and he goes on to transcribe 
 
 ^ Poole's letter is peculiarly interesting. See T. Poole and his Friends, i. 
 290-295. 
 
1799 LEAVES GERMANY loi 
 
 the * sublime epitaph ' which Wordsworth had sent 
 him some months before — ' A slumber did my spirit 
 seal.' He fancies that perhaps the thought of the 
 possibility of Dorothy's death had suggested the lines. 
 A month later (May 6) he writes : ' O my God, how I 
 long to be at home ! ' The nightingales are singing 
 around him and make him think, he writes, of his own 
 verses, ' only because I thought of Hartley, my on/y 
 child. ^ Dear lajnb, I hope he won't be dead before I 
 get home. ... I have a strange sort of sensation, as 
 if, while I was present, none could die whom I intensely 
 loved.' - 
 
 In the same letter Colerido^e informs Poole that 
 the Wordsworths had passed through Gottingen ^ — 
 
 They were melancholy and hypp'd. W. was affected to tears 
 at the thought of not living near me — wished me, of course, to live 
 in the north of England, near them and Sir F. Vane's great library. 
 I told him that, independent of the expense of removing, and the 
 impropriety of taking Mrs. Coleridge to a place where she would 
 have no acquaintance, two insurmountable objections, the library 
 was no inducement, for I wanted old books chiefly, such as could be 
 procured anywhere better than in a gentleman's new fashionable 
 collection. Finally, I told him plainly that yoti had been the man 
 in whova first, and in whom alone, I had felt an anchor. 
 
 But Wordsworth reiterated that a library was a 
 necessity."* Coleridge goes on to say that it is painful 
 to him to think of not living near Wordsworth, ' for he 
 is a good and kind man, and the only one whom in all 
 things I feel my superior.' 
 
 On the 24th June Coleridge left Gottingen for 
 
 1 The Nightingale : a Conversation Poem, in which Hartley is alluded to. 
 
 2 T. Poole and his Friends, i. 297. 
 
 ^ This visit must have taken place about April 25. See Dorothy Words- 
 worth's letter to Poole in Knight's Life of William Wordsworth, i. 193. There 
 had been a previous visit, ' soon after Coleridge's arrival at Gottingen ' (Feb. 12), 
 and previous to March 22. vSee Carlyon, i. 196. 
 
 ■* Up to July the Wordsworths were willing to go to the Stowey neighbourhood 
 if Poole could find them a house. See Knight's Life, i. 194. 
 
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 1799 1 
 
 England. On the evening before, he and some of his ' 
 English friends were entertained at supper by Professor ■ 
 Blumenbach. Coleridge was In the best of spirits, \ 
 talking away, says Carlyon, 'with the worst German j 
 accent imaginable,' and occasionally appealing to his 
 pocket dictionary for a word. Carlyon and Greenough 
 accompanied Coleridge and Chester as far as Bruns- 
 wick. The party paid a second visit to the Harz — 1 
 again, without finding the Brocken Spectre at home — • 
 and spent a day over the Lessing relics at Wolfenblittel ; 
 on the way. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 LONDON — GRETA HALL 
 A.D. 1799-180I 
 
 Coleridge arrived at Stowey at some uncertain date 
 between the 2nd and 29th July, and on the latter day 
 he wrote a friendly letter to Southey, who was at 
 Minehead. Southey seems to have responded ten- 
 tatively, accusing Coleridge of evil-speaking. Cole- 
 ridge replied by denying that he had ever accused 
 Southey of anything but enmity to himself, an enmity 
 founded on delusion — and he appealed to Poole. Poole 
 backed up Coleridge, who, he says, had always spoken 
 of Southey with affection. ' As for C. Lloyd,' adds 
 Poole, ' it would be cruel to attribute his conduct to 
 aught but a diseased mind.' ^ Southey thus satisfied, 
 brought his wife to Stowey,- and there they remained 
 for two or three weeks. It was during this visit that 
 the two poets concocted TJie Devil's Thoughts, after 
 the casual, light-hearted fashion described, long after, 
 by Southey — 
 
 There while the one was shaving 
 
 Would he the song begin, 
 
 And the other, when he heard it at breakfast. 
 
 In ready accord join in. 
 
 1 From unpublished correspondence. ^ Letters of R. S, i. 78. 
 
I04 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1799 ; 
 
 Before the end of August the brothers-in-law and 1 
 
 their wives set out from Stowey — the Southeys for \ 
 Sidmouth, and the Coleridges for Ottery St. Mary, on 
 
 a visit to the old home. To Poole, Coleridge wrote ■ 
 
 assurances that he and his wife had been ' received '■■ 
 
 with all love and attention,' and Southey, who was 1 
 detained a few days at Ottery, gave a lively account 
 
 of the family party to his friend, John May.^ ' We ; 
 
 were all a good deal amused by the old lady [Cole- ; 
 
 ridge's mother]. She could not hear what was going ■ 
 
 on, but seeing Samuel arguing with his brothers, took : 
 
 it for granted that he must have been wrong, and 1 
 
 cried out, "Ah, if your poor father had been alive, I 
 
 he'd soon have convinced you ! " ' The visit was pro- i 
 
 longed until near the end of September, and Coleridge j 
 
 tells Poole that he had enjoyed himself. Finding j 
 
 that his brothers' opinions, tastes, and creed differed "; 
 
 fundamentally from his own, he held his peace, and i 
 
 amiably pledged ' Church and King ' when the toast i 
 
 was going round, relieving his feelings occasionally in ] 
 the company of some friends at Exeter, whose views 
 
 more nearly coincided with his own — one of them ; 
 
 being Hucks, the travelling companion of 1794. On the i 
 
 30th September he writes to Southey of a rheumatic • i 
 
 attack which reminds him of his rheumatic fever at I 
 
 school ; and, a fortnight later, of much pain and sleep- ' 
 
 lessness, with sickness, through indigestion of food ; 
 
 taken by compulsion — symptoms, one fears, not without , 
 
 their suggestiveness. Southey was at this time col- \ 
 
 lecting verses for the second volume of his Annual \ 
 
 Anthology, and Coleridge had promised contributions • 
 
 — even Christabel, it would appear, for he promises to ; 
 
 set about the finishing of it with all speed, though he j 
 
 1 Letters of R. S. i. 81-83. \ 
 
1799 GOES TO LONDON 105 
 
 doubts if it would make a suitable poem with which to 
 open the volume. He thinks he may go to London. 
 
 A week later he went to London — but not directly. 
 He had received alarming accounts of Wordsworth's 
 health, and on the 26th October, in company with 
 Cottle, he arrived at Sockburn, where the Words- 
 worths were residintr with their old friend Tom 
 Hutchinson.^ Fortunately the cause of alarm had 
 passed away, and almost immediately the three visitors 
 started on a tour of the Lake Country." Cottle having 
 been dropped at Greta Bridge, his place was taken by 
 Wordsworth's sailor brother, John, and the tourists 
 probably penetrated into Gilsland, seeing Irthing 
 Flood, and Knorren Moor, and Tryermaine, and other 
 places whose names give local colour to the second part 
 of CJiristabel. Both poets were strongly attracted by 
 Grasmere, and with Wordsworth it became merely a 
 question of whether he should build a house by the 
 lake-side, or, as he finally decided, to take one which 
 was then available. Before Christmas, he and his 
 sister had taken up their abode in Dove Cottage, 
 which all the world now goes to see. 
 
 Coleridge did not go back to Stowey. While in the 
 north he seems to have received a definite proposal to 
 take up his residence in London, and write political 
 articles for the Morning Post. In return Stuart seems 
 to have promised to defray all his expenses. To 
 London accordingly he went directly by coach from 
 Sockburn, arriving on November 27. He imme- 
 diately took lodgings, which at the time he described 
 
 ^ The brother of Mary and Sarah Hutchinson. It was Coleridge's first meet- 
 ing with the sisters. Mary was then keeping house for her brother. In October 
 1802 she became the wife of Wordsworth. Sarah became one of Coleridge's 
 most attached friends. 
 
 2 Rem. p. 259. Wordsworth and Coleridge each wrote some account of the 
 tour. See Knight's Life of Woi'dsworth, i. 198-200. 
 
io6 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERLDGE 1799- 
 
 to Poole as 'quiet and healthful,' at 21 Buckingham ' 
 Street, Strand;^ and before the 9th December Mrs. : 
 Coleridge and Hartley had joined him. He tells \ 
 Southey that their DeviTs Thoughts has been a ; 
 great success, and that though he fears he has not ! 
 now poetical enthusiasm enough to finish ' Christabel' 1 
 for the Anthology, he will be ready in time with his j 
 other verses.^ As 'to permanent residence, beyond j 
 the four or five months he will be detained in London, ; 
 nothing is decided. Both for his own and his wife's | 
 sake he should like to fix it near Southey. To Southey j 
 he says nothing (in any of the letters which have been | 
 printed) of the engagement he had then taken to trans- j 
 late Schiller's Wallenstem for Longmans ; but in one j 
 dated Christmas Eve, he says that he 'gives his morn- - 
 inQs to the booksellers ' — the translation doubtless — , 
 and the time after dinner to Stuart, ' who pays all 1 
 expenses, whatever they are ' — the earnings of the 
 morning going towards replacing the annuity-money j 
 he had, by anticipation, spent in Germany. ' 
 
 Before this time he had renewed his intercourse 
 with Godwin. On New Year's Eve he wrote to 
 Poole, ^ — 'I work from I -rise to Lset (that is, from 
 9 A.M. to 12 at night) almost without intermission.' 
 Up to that time his contributions to the Morning 
 Post had been confined almost entirely to a few 
 verses; in January a good many political 'leading 
 
 1 The lodging at Howell's in King Street, Covent Garden, mentioned by 
 Stuart {Gent. Mag. May 183S), was occupied not then, but in 1802. 
 
 2 He must have been as good as his word, for the volume contained : — Lewti, 
 The RIad Ox, Lines at Elbingerode, A Christmas Carol, To a Friend who had 
 declared his Intention of writing no more Poetry, The Lime-tree Bower my 
 Prison, To W. Linley, The British Stripling s War-Song, Something childish, . 
 Homesick, Ode to the Dnchess of Devonshire, Fire, Famine, and Slaughter, \ 
 The Raven, To an Unfortunate Woman at the Theatre, and a number of j 
 ' Epigrams.' i 
 
 3 T. Poole and his Friends, i. i. 1 
 
i8oo ' THE MORNING POST' AND ' IVALLENSTEIN' 107 
 
 paragraphs ' (as ' leaders ' were then called) appeared ; ^ 
 in February they dwindled, and on the 14th Coleridge 
 informed Poole -' that he has given up the Morning 
 Post, adding that the editor was ' importunate against 
 it.' He did not give it up all at once, for on the 17th 
 he reported Pitt's speech from long-hand notes made 
 in the House. He tells Wedgwood^ he has been three 
 times to the House — one of them being 'yesterday,' 
 when he made that famous report. He went to 
 the House on Monday at 7.15 a.m., remained till 
 3 A.M. on Tuesday, and afterwards wrote and cor- 
 rected at the newspaper office till 8, — 'a good 24 
 hours of unpleasant activity.' He was very proud 
 of that feat in 'reporting' — in Johnson's manner. 
 To Poole he wrote at the time,^ ' My report of 
 Pitt's speech made a great noise here,' and in after- 
 years he seems to have told Gillman that it brought 
 Canning next day to the office to inquire of the 
 editor the name of the reporter. On the other 
 hand, Stuart^ says the report in the True Briton 
 was both * more faithful and more splendid,' and 
 that the story about Canning is 'altogether a 
 romance.' ' I never spoke to Mr. Canning ' (he 
 adds) ' until after I had left the Morning Post.' 
 
 This is a fair specimen of a little controversy which 
 in 1838 arose between Coleridge's biographers and 
 Stuart reo^arding- the connection with the Morning Post 
 and the CoiLrier. In the Gentleman s Magazine for 
 May and June 1838, Stuart printed his version of it, 
 
 ^ In 1850 Mrs. H. N. Coleridge collected her father's journalistic produc- 
 tions under the title, ' Essays on his own Times, being a second series of The 
 Friend. By Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Edited by his Daughter.' 3 vols, 
 (paged continuously i.-xciii. I -1034). 
 
 ^ T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 6. 
 
 ^ Letter printed in Cottle's Rem. p. 433. 
 
 * Essays on his own Times, p. 1009. ^ Gent. Mag. May 1838, p. 488. 
 
io8 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 1800 .] 
 
 ; \ j 
 
 lest, as he said, some future editor of the Table Talk \ 
 should ' hold him out as an ungrateful person, who was | 
 rolling about in his carriage while Coleridge, who made | 
 his fortune, was starving in Mr. Gillman's garret.' In \ 
 the Biographia (chap, x.) Coleridge asserted that on ! 
 Stuart's papers he had ' wasted the prime and manhood \ 
 of his intellect,' adding thereby ' nothing to his fortune : 
 or reputation.' The imputation was naturally resented \ 
 by Stuart, who called at Highgate and warmly ex- . 
 pressed his feeling, though he refrained from taking \ 
 any public notice. Then, in the Table Talk (1835, i. \ 
 173 — the sentence was suppressed in later editions) ' 
 Coleridge is made to say, ' I raised the sale of the i 
 Morning Post from an inconsiderable number to 7000 
 per day in the course of one year.' To this Stuart j 
 replied with figures showing that the statement had no ; 
 foundation. Only three of Coleridge's contributions, i 
 he says, made any sensation — a paragraph on a state- I 
 paper of Lord Grenville, the * Character of Pitt ' (March I 
 19, 1800), and The Devil's Thoughts. A companion ; 
 'Character of Buonaparte' was promised over and • 
 over again, but was never written. Stuart declares ; 
 that he let every one know who wrote the ' Pitt.' 
 Except for a few months in 1799- 1800 Coleridge was 
 away from London — how could he, asks Stuart, make 
 the fortune of a daily morning newspaper, the success 
 of which depends on constant temporary effect } 
 
 As regards Coleridge's remuneration, one sees 
 clearly from his letters that in his own opinion he 
 had been over-paid. Nevertheless, it cannot be 
 doubted that although Coleridge exaggerated his 
 services, the general reputation of the Moiming Post 
 and Courier must have been heightened by his 
 contributions. Mr. Traill, whose opinion on such 
 
i8oo CHARACTER OF HIS NEWSPAPER WORK 109 
 
 a matter is entitled to the greatest respect, con- 
 siders that so far from Coleridge's newspaper articles 
 being tainted with the defects which might have been 
 looked for — over-rhetorical diction, too much refine- 
 ment in argument, too much philosophic reflection — 
 * nothing is more remarkable than their thorough 
 workmanlike character . . . and the steadiness with 
 which he keeps his own and his readers' attention 
 fixed on the special political necessities of the hour.'^ 
 In March 1800 Coleridge wrote to Poole - : — 
 
 I am not anxious — I am sure, if God gives me health, to make 
 all even before the end of the year ; and I find that I can without 
 any straining gain 500 guineas a year, if I give up poetry — i.e. 
 original poetry. If I had the least love of money I could make 
 almost sure of ;^2ooo a year, for Stuart has offered me half shares 
 in the two papers, the Morning Post and the Courier, if I would 
 devote myself with him to them — but I told him I would not give 
 up the country and the lazy reading of old folios for two thousand 
 times two thousand pounds; in short, that beyond ^^250 a year I 
 consider money as a real evil — at which he stared. 
 
 He goes on to say that he will continue writing for 
 Stuart until he is ' clear ' — clear, that must have 
 been, of advances both from Stuart and the Wedof- 
 woods. Coleridge's statement has been considered 
 to receive corroboration from a passage in a letter 
 of Stuart, written long years afterwards to H. N. 
 Coleridge : ' Could Coleridge and I place ourselves 
 thirty years back, and he be so far a man of 
 business as to write three or four hours a day, there 
 is nothing I would not pay for his assistance. I 
 would take him into partnership, and I would enable 
 him to make a large fortune.' I do not think this 
 statement of contino^encies corroborates Coleridg-e's 
 
 ^ All that Mr. Traill has to say is valuable. ' English Men of Letters ' 
 series, — Coleridge, 1884, pp. 79-86. 
 
 2 The latter part of my extract is printed in the ' Introduction ' to Essays on 
 his own Times, p. xci. — ';i^25o' is there misprinted ';i^35o.' 
 
no SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE iSoo \ 
 
 I 
 
 ' ■ — j 
 
 letter to Poole. On the contrary, I believe that ' 
 had Stuart ever offered a partnership, he would , 
 have remembered the circumstance ; and that the offer I 
 would have been communicated to Wordsworth. In ] 
 such case Wordsworth could not have written to Mrs. | 
 H. N. Coleridge : ' So convinced was I of the great * 
 service that your father rendered to Mr. Stuart's paper, j 
 that I urged him to put in his claim to be admitted I 
 a proprietor, but this he declined, having a great , 
 disinclination to any tie of the kind.'^ Stuart knew | 
 that regular work for any length of time it was not \ 
 in Coleridge's nature to give ; and I have little doubt - 
 that the ' offer ' was a mere affair of ' ifs ' dropped by j 
 Stuart when urging Coleridge to contribute more than ; 
 he was doing.^ In journalism it was with Coleridge, 
 as in other matters, ' indolence capable of energies ' ; , 
 and so uniform was Stuart's experience of his friend, 1 
 that it is incredible that he should have ever seriously i 
 proposed to take him as a partner. Except in that ■ 
 unfortunate passage in the Biographia, Coleridge \ 
 always acknowledged Stuart's generosity — a gener- ■ 
 osity which was continued down to the latest months j 
 of the poet's life. \ 
 
 We left Coleridge at Buckingham Street, in the 1 
 middle of February, having given up his engagement 
 with Stuart. His immediate purpose must have been : 
 to get on more quickly with Wallenstein. Towards ' 
 the end of the month Mrs. Coleridge and Hartley left i 
 London, going probably to her mother's house at ; 
 Bristol ; Coleridge himself going to the Lambs', who | 
 
 1 Introd. io B log. Lit. 1S47. 
 
 '^ There is a mass of printed malter connected with this controversy, but I do ' 
 
 not think I have omitted anything essential. See Gent. Mag. May, June, July, ; 
 
 and August 1838 ; Introduction to Biog. Lit. 1847 ; and editorial introduction and | 
 
 notes in Essays on his own Times. ' 
 
i8oo RECONCILIATION WITH LAMB in 
 
 were then living at Pentonville. The reconciliation 
 
 between these old friends had taken place some time 
 
 before. The first evidence we possess occurs in a 
 
 friendly letter from Lamb, dated in all editions 'Jan. 2, 
 
 1800,' but which must have been written about the 
 
 23rd-2 7th. On March 17th Lamb wrote to Manning : 
 
 * I am living in a continuous feast. Coleridge has been 
 
 with me now for nigh three weeks, and the more I see 
 
 of him in the quotidian undress and relaxation of his 
 
 mind, the more cause I see to love him and believe him 
 
 a very good man, and all those foolish impressions to 
 
 the contrary fiy off like morning slumbers. He is 
 
 engaged in translations, which I hope will keep him 
 
 this month to come. He is uncommonly kind and 
 
 friendly to me. ' ^ 
 
 In a letter to Stuart written about this time, 
 
 Coleridge graphically describes his situation and 
 
 prospects : — 
 
 These cursed Plays play the Devil with me. I have been writing 
 from morning till night, and almost half the night too, and yet get 
 on too slowly for the printer. . . . My wife and child leave London 
 to-morrow ; and I was particularly desirous to have done enough 
 to have given me some claim on him [Longman] for the k\s pounds, 
 which I must draw on him for their journey. These things I 
 mention, not as justification of my breach of promise, but as 
 palliations. ... In about four or five days I shall have finished 
 the first Play ; and, that being finished, I may go on more leisurely 
 with the others. I shall then be able to give you some assistance, 
 probably as much as you may want. A certain number of Essays 
 I consider myself bound to send you as soon as possible, in 
 common honesty. After these, if it be worth your while, I 
 will do what I can, only not for any regular stipeiid. That harasses 
 me. I know that hitherto I have received from you much more 
 than I have earned, and this must not be. ... I will certainly fill 
 you out a good paper on Sunday.- 
 
 How long Coleridge remained with Lamb is 
 
 ^ Letters, i. pp. 113 and 115, respectively. 
 2 Letters from the Lake Poets, pp. 5, 6. 
 
112 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1800 ' 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 unknown, for the next glimpse we have of him is 1 
 
 in a letter written to Josiah Wedgwood on the 21st ; 
 April, from Wordsworth's cottage at Grasmere : ' To- 
 morrow morning I send off the last sheet of my irk- 
 some, soul-wearying labour, the translation of Schiller.'^ 
 
 'Of its success I have no hope,' he says, 'but with | 
 
 all this I have learnt that I have Industry and \ 
 Perseverance — and before the end of the year, if God 
 grant me health, I shall have my wings wholly un- 
 birdlimed.' He expects to be back in London in a 
 week. But he went to Stowey ^ instead. To Godwin 
 
 he writes from Poole's house on May 2ist^ : — : 
 
 I left Wordsworth on the 4th of this month ; if I cannot procure , 
 
 a suitable house at Stowey, I return to Cumberland and settle at ' 
 
 Keswick, in a house of such a prospect, that, if, according to you and \ 
 
 Hume, impressions and ideas constitute our being, I shall have a 1 
 
 1 Wallenstein. a Drama in Two Parts. Translated from the German 
 of Frederich Schiller by S. T. Coleridge. London : Printed for T. N. Longman ! 
 and O. Rees, Paternoster-Row, By G. Woodfall, No. 22 Paternoster-Row. 1800. 
 
 Octavo. — Titles; two unpaged leaves; and pp. 157: also, an engraved • 
 
 portrait of Wallenstein. The house of Longmans had acquired a manuscript ' 
 
 copy, which Schiller had made expressly for translation into English and : 
 publication simultaneously with the original in Germany. It was attested by 
 
 him on the 30th September 1799. { 
 
 The book was almost a complete failure from the publishers' point of view. 1 
 Most of the copies were probably sold off as ' a remainder ' ; and when, in 1824, 
 
 Carlyle was writing his Life of Schiller in the London Magazine, it was unpro- ; 
 
 curable, and he had to estimate it by quotations. Judging by these, he says, : 
 
 ' we should pronounce it, excepting Sotheby's Oheron, to be the best, indeed the ; 
 
 only sufferable translation from the German, with which our literature has yet .; 
 
 been enriched.' I 
 
 And in after years Coleridge himself looked back on his IVallenslein with i 
 
 some complacency. In a note to Essay XVI. of The Friend (18 18, i. 204— it is j 
 
 suppressed in later editions), he thanks Sir Walter Scott for quoting it (in Guy * 
 
 Mannering) 'with applause.' Elsewhere, Scott said that ' Coleridge had made I 
 
 Schiller's "Wallenstein" far finer than he found it' (Lockhart's Zyt', iv. 193). \ 
 
 About 1820, Coleridge told Allsop that Wallenstein was a specimen of his j 
 ' happiest attempt, during the prime manhood of his intellect, before he had been 
 buffeted by adversity or crossed by fatality' {Letters, etc., 1864, p. 51). ^ 
 
 2 Lette7-s from the Lake Poets, p. 7. ™ 
 ^ Portions of Coleridge's letters to Godwin were printed in Macmillan s ' 
 
 Magaziiie for April 1864. These, with some additions and some omissions, j 
 
 were reprinted in William Godwin : his Friends and Acquaintances, by C. , 
 Kegan Paul. 2 vols. 1876. Vol. ii. Coleridge and Godwin had become very 
 
 intimate in the winter of 1799- 1800. _ ; 
 
 I 
 
iSoo SETTLEMENT AT GRETA HALL 113 
 
 tendency to become a god, so sublime and beautiful will be the 
 series of my visual existence. . . . Hartley sends his love to Mary. 
 ' ^Vhat, and not to Fanny [Imlay] ? ' Yes, and to Fanny, but I'll 
 have Mary [afterwards Mrs. Shelley]. ... In Bristol I was much 
 with Davy [afterwards Sir Humphry] — almost all day.^ 
 
 No house was procurable at Stowey, and some 
 time in June Coleridge took his wife and child to 
 
 3ove Cottage. On the way thither they stayed 
 eight or nine days at Liverpool as the guests of 
 
 Dr. Crompton (a connection of the Evanses of Darley 
 Abbey), and saw much of the remarkable group of 
 which Roscoe, Rathbone, and Dr. Currie (editor of 
 
 Burns) were the principal members — all Liberals in 
 politics and relio^ion. The Coleridcfes remained with 
 
 IT O O 
 
 the Wordsworths from the 29th June until the 24th 
 uly, when they moved into Greta Hall. On the 
 
 ith of that month Coleridge writes to Stuart of a 
 ort of rheumatic fever, the result of a cold caught 
 >n the journey north, from which he was hardly then 
 •ecovered, and, making this the excuse for having 
 ent no contributions for two months, promises the 
 econd part of' Pitt ' and the 'Buonaparte' immediately. 
 
 e will at same time say ' whether or no he will be 
 ,ble to continue any species of regular connection 
 vith the paper ' ; and closes by announcing that his 
 ddress henceforward will be ' Greta Hall."' 
 
 On the day on which he entered that famous 
 welling, he wrote to J. Wedgwood ^ : ' I parted from 
 ■*oole with pain and dejection, for him, and for myself 
 n him. I should have given Stowey a decided 
 
 ^ Davy had been, since October 1798, at Bristol, as principal assistant in 
 r. Beddoes's Pneumatic Institution. Coleridge was introduced to him in 1799 
 :fore going to London. In January 1800 Coleridge told T. Wedgwood, who 
 lok much interest in Davy, that he had ' never met with so extraordinary a 
 (W<«o-man' (Cottle's Rem. p. 431). 
 
 2 Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 11. 
 
 ^ July 24th, 1800 ; in Cottle's Rem. p. 436. 
 
 I 
 
114 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE iSoo 
 
 preference for a residence . , . but there was no 
 suitable house, and no prospect of a suitable house.' 
 Coleridge, however, was by no means inconsolable. 
 As far back as March, Poole had become jealous of 
 his friend's ever-growing attachment to Wordsworth — 
 accusing him even of ' prostration ' ; ^ and I share Mrs. 
 Sandford's view, that ' Coleridge would never have been 
 contented to live in the west of England whilst Words- 
 worth was living in the north.' Coleridge, no doubt, 
 believed himself to be sorry for the necessity which 
 carried him away from Poole, and the two men parted 
 the best of friends ; and so they continued to be for 
 some years longer. But Coleridge had always some 
 one chief friend, generally the one nearest to him, to 
 whom he gave away so much of himself that he found 
 it impossible to meet fully other claims which, not the 
 less, he eagerly and sincerely acknowledged. 
 
 There is little need to describe Greta Hall. The 
 house and its surroundings are well known, and Cole- 
 ridge's impressions are to be found recounted at length 
 in many published ^ and unpublished letters. On July 
 29th he wrote, with a cordial invitation, to Purkis : — 
 
 I write to you from the leads of Greta Hall, a tenement in the ;( 
 possession of S. T. Coleridge, Esq. Gentleman — Poet and Philosopher 
 in a mist. This Greta Hall is a house on a small eminence a furlong 
 from Keswick in the County of Cumberland. Yes, my dear Sir ! 
 here I am, with Skiddaw at my back ; on my right hand the 
 Bassenthwait Water with .its majestic case of mountains, all of 
 simplest outline — looking aslant over the feather of this infamous 
 pen, I see the sun setting. My God ! what a scene ! Right before 
 me is a great Cai)ip of single mountains — each in shape resembles 
 a Giant's Tent ! And to the left but closer to it far than the 
 Bassenthwait Water to my right, is the lake of Keswick, with its , * 
 islands, white sails, and glassy lights of evening — crowned with , ..^^ 
 
 1 T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 8, 9. \y'l^i 
 
 - To Wedgwood in Cottle's Jie/n. p. 436, etc., and to Godwin in TF/V/ww jj »iier 
 Godwin, ii. 6-8. 
 
iSoo H/S DELIGHT IN THE NE W HOME 1 1 5 
 
 green meadows. But the three remaining sides are encircled with 
 the most fantastic mountains that ever earthquakes made in sport, — 
 as if Nature had laughed herself into the convulsion in which they 
 were made. Close behind me, at the foot of Skiddaw, flows the 
 Greta. I hear its murmuring distinctly ; then it curves round 
 almost in a semi-circle, and is now catching the purple lights of the 
 scattered clouds above it directly before me. ... I have been 
 grievously indisposed — now, I am enjoying the godlikeness of the 
 place in which I am settled, with the voluptuous and joy-trembling 
 nerves of convalescence. . . . Sara Coleridge is well. . . . Hartley 
 is all health and extacy. He is a spirit dancing on an aspen leaf, 
 unwearied in joy — from morning to night, indefatigably joyous.' ^ 
 
 He was simply enchanted with everything. ' I 
 question if there be a room in England which com- 
 mands a view of mountains, and lakes, and woods, and 
 vales, superior to that in which I am now sitting. I 
 ,ay this because it is destined for your study, if you 
 ome.' So he tempted the unlovely Godwin.- To 
 Poole he wrote, after three weeks' experience : 
 
 In gardens, etc., we are uncommonly well-off, and our landlord,^ 
 ho resides next door in this two-fold house, is already much 
 •ttached to us. He is a quiet, sensible man, with as large a library 
 IS yours, and perhaps larger, well stored with Encyclopedias, 
 ictionaries, and Histories, etc.,** all modern. The gentry of the 
 country, titled and untitled, have all called, or are about to call on 
 ne, and I shall have free access to the magnificent library of Sir 
 ilfrid Lawson, a weak but good-natured man. I wish you could 
 :ome here in October, after your harvesting, and stand godfather at the 
 :hristening of my child. ° We are well, and the Wordsworths are well. 
 The two volumes of the Lyrical Ballads will appear in aboup a fortnight. 
 
 1 Unprinted letter in British Museum. (Add. MSS. 27, 457, ff., 33, 34.) 
 
 2 IVilliavi Godwin, ii. 8. 
 
 3 Jackson, a retired carrier. He was the master of Wordsworth's Waggoner, 
 Benjamin,' and admirable in all relations of life. 
 
 * To Godwin, he describes Jackson's books as ' almost all the usual trash of 
 ohnson's, Gibbon's, Robertson's, etc' 
 
 * Derwent — born September 14th, 1800, three weeks after the letter was 
 rritten. Coleridge had also asked Godwin (of all men in the world !) to be 
 odfather, meeting with a refusal. See a curious passage on Coleridge's then 
 ery unsettled views respecting Baptism, in a letter to Godwin (^F. Godwiti, 
 
 9). Derwent, when a little baby, was supposed to be dying, 'so,' writes Cole- 
 idge to Davy, ' the good people would have it baptized.' This was doubtless a 
 rivate rite. In November 1803 all three children were publicly baptized — but 
 nly, again, ' to please the good people,' not the father. 
 
ii6 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1800 \ 
 
 But they did not appear for about six months, and 
 in the interval there was much coming and going 
 between Dove Cottage and Greta Hall, as may be 
 seen even in the few extracts from Miss Wordsworth's J 
 * Grasmere Journals,' printed in Prof, Knight's Life 
 of Wordsworth. The interchange of visits was so 
 frequent that the friends seem to have thought little 
 more of the twelve miles which lay between Grasmere 
 and Keswick, than they had of the three between 
 Stowey and Alfoxden. Having left Dove Cottage 
 on the 24th July, Coleridge was back again on the 
 31st, bringing with him the second volume of Southey's 
 Annual Anthology} The party spent two days 
 walking, rowing on the lake, and reading one another's 
 poems ' in the breeze and the shade,' and, on the 2nd 
 August, the two poets walked back to Greta Hall, 
 Wordsworth returning home on the 6th. Two days 
 after, Wordsworth and his sister went over on a 
 week's visit. As it has been said that Colerido-e never 
 went to church, one may oppose to that scandalous j 
 report Miss Wordsworth's entry for Sunday, August 
 loth : 'Very hot. The C.'s went to church. We 
 sailed upon Derwent in the evening.' Three Sundays 
 later. Miss Wordsworth records : 'At 11 o'clock 
 Coleridge came when I was walking in the still, clearfts"' 
 moonshine in the garden. He came over Helvellyn. 
 . . . We sate and chatted till half-past three . 
 Coleridge reading a part of Christabel' On the 4th 
 October ' Coleridge came in while we were at dinner, 
 very wet. We talked till twelve o'clock. He had 
 sate up all the night before writing essays for thej* 
 newspaper. . . . Extremely delighted with second^if;" 
 part of Christabel. 5th October. — Coleridge read! 
 
 1 See footnote 2 at p. 106 supra. jjj-tie. 
 
 f 
 
i8oo DOVE COTTAGE AND GRETA HALL 117 
 
 Ckristabel a second time ; we had increasing pleasure. 
 . . . 6th October. — After tea read The Pedlar 
 \^Excursioii\. Determined not to print Ckristabel with 
 the L\^yrical\ B\_allads\} 7th October. — Coleridge 
 went off at 1 1 o'clock.' Ten days later Miss Words- 
 worth records that ' Coleridge had done nothing for 
 L.B.\- but on October 22nd he was back at Dove 
 Cottage again reciting Ckristabel. ' We were very- 
 merry. . . . William read Riitk, etc' Stoddart was 
 with them, and went to Greta Hall with Coleridge. It 
 may have been then that Stoddart received the copy 
 oi Ck^Hs tab el wh.\ch. he read to Scott.^ In November 
 and December the Wordsworths and Coleridge con- 
 tinued to go and come, but no extracts from the 
 Journals are printed between December 9, 1800 and 
 October 10, 1801. The volumes of Lyrical Ballads 
 
 1 The MS. (or part of it) had been sent to the printers, but on the 15th 
 September, Wordsworth countermanded the printing of Ckristabel, ' for the 
 present.' On the 20th he sent to the printer the Preface, which comprised the 
 'ollowing paragraph : — 
 
 ' For the sake of variety, and from a consciousness of my own weakness, I 
 lave again requested the assistance of a friend who contributed largely to the 
 irst vohmie, and who has now furnished me with the \long and beautiful — these 
 ivords erased] Poem of Ckristabel, without which I should not yet have 
 rentured to present a second volume to the public' 
 
 Three weeks passed without any fresh ' copy ' being forwarded to the printers, 
 ind on the loth of October, they are told to cancel the above paragraph 
 ind substitute another, which is to tell the reader that the ' Friend ' who supplied 
 The Ancient IMaj-iner, etc. , ' has also furnished me with a few of those poems in 
 he second volume which are classed under the title of " Poems on the Naming 
 )f Places." If any sheets of CJiiistabel have been printed, they are to be 
 ancelled ; other poems will be forwarded, and henceforth the printers may 
 lepend on a constant supply of "copy."' What poems of Coleridge's were 
 neant for substitutes does not appear ; we know only that nothing new of his 
 .ppeared in the first, and nothing at all in the second volume of any of the 
 ditions of the Lyrical Ballads. 
 
 For these new facts I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. T. Norton Longman, 
 Tandson and successor of the publisher of the Lyrical Ballads. Mr. Longman 
 lossesses the MSS. and proof-sheets of these, and of other volumes of Words- 
 rorth's Poems. Coleridge wrote most of the instructions to the printer of the 
 dition 1800, but signed them all with Wordsworth's name, and much of the 
 ranscription of poems is in the hand of Dorothy Wordsworth. In some cases 
 11 three hands appear in the same document. 
 
 2 Lockhart's Life, 1837, ii. 23. >K 
 
 11 
 
1 
 
 ii8 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1800 \ 
 
 < 
 ^ 4 
 
 which bear the date, ' 1800,' on the title-page were j 
 pubHshed in January 1801. p 
 
 On November i, 1800, Coleridge tells Wedgwood 
 how his labours on Ch7'-istabel had been interrupted ^ — 
 
 In the meantime (he adds) I had got myself entangled in 
 the old sorites of the old sophist — procrastination. I had suffered 
 my necessary businesses to accumulate so terribly that I neglected to 
 write to any one, till the pain I suffered from not writing made me 
 waste as many hours in dreaming about it as would have sufficed 
 for the letter-writing of half a life. 
 
 He goes on in this extremely interesting letter to 
 declare that although his situation at Keswick is de- 
 lightful, he feels the loss of Poole's society, and of, 
 opportunities of meeting with the Wedgwoods. Yet I 
 when he revises the step he has taken, he cannot seei 
 
 how it could have been avoided. | 
 
 ! 
 You will in three weeks see the letters on The Rise atid Condition \ 
 of the German Boors. I found it convenient to make up a volume j 
 out of my journey, etc., in North Germany, and the letters (yourj 
 name of course erased) are in the printer's hands. I was so 
 weary of transcribing and composing, that when I found those morej 
 carefully written than the rest, I even sent them off as they were 
 
 :| 
 
 The volume never reached ' the printer's hands 
 Certain asterisks which follow probably represent a 
 demand for money, for twelve days later Coleridge 
 thanks his correspondent for his ' kind letter with the f 
 ;^2o,' adding that he believes he has 'anticipated on 
 the next year to the amount of ^30 or ^40, probably]j 
 more.' He still complains of trouble in his eyes 
 I am much afraid that apart from spasmodic effort? 
 to complete Cliristabel, Coleridge had been simpl) 
 idling — so far, at least, as a poet and philosophe.i 
 whose eye and mind are in a state of activity can b( 
 said to idle. But he was also a bread-winner, anc 
 
 ^ Cottle's Rent. p. 439. 
 
 1 
 
1 800 BUSY IDLEXESS 1 1 9 
 
 well as it may be for such to ' gather in summer ' it 
 is unwise to 'sleep in harvest.' The volume about 
 'German Boors,' though not a myth, might as well 
 have been one, for he ' suspended ' it for months, and 
 then tried to get Longmans to accept in its place a 
 metaphysical work, which they probably suspected 
 would come to no better result. Another book, on 
 which he had received an advance from Sir Richard 
 Phillipps, was also abandoned, and the money refunded. 
 The newspaper articles of which he told the Words- 
 worths in October were, save the introductory paper, 
 Poole's.^ After these Stuart received nothino^ for a 
 whole year, except some satirical verses on his brother- 
 in-law. Mackintosh,- who was Colerido-e's rival in the 
 good graces of the Wedgwoods — a production there- 
 fore which, brilliant as it was, he might more judiciously 
 have retained for private consumption, or, at most, 
 private circulation. His letters for the earlier part 
 of the winter are full of ' work for the booksellers ' in 
 arrear, yet he seems to make no effort to rescue it 
 " from that always crowded limbo of his. But he talks 
 of 'undertaking ' a huge geographical school-book of 
 ' 12 or 1400 pages' (!) if Godwin does not decide on 
 doing it himself.^ Eight days later he tells Thelwall 
 that he * amuses ' himself by studying the most 
 ancient forms of the Northern Languages, his 
 ' serious ' occupation being a metaphysical investiga- 
 tion of the laws by which our feelings form affinities 
 with each other, w^ith ideas, and with words. As to 
 
 1 Essays on his own Times, pp. 413 and 1020, 1021. 
 
 ^ The Two rottfid Spaces on the Totnbstone. Stuart, in 1838, believed that 
 he had detected the purpose of the verses, and refused to publish them — a piece 
 of forgetfulness which tends to invalidate to some extent all that he put forward 
 solely on the authority of his recollections, in the controversy respecting Cole- 
 ridge's services to the Morning Post and Cozirier {Gent. Mag. INIay 1838, p. 486). 
 
 3 IVilliam Godwin, ii. 14 (Letter of Dec. 9, iSoo). 
 
I20 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE iSoi 
 
 Poetry, he has abandoned it, 'being convinced that 
 he never had the essentials of a poet's genius,' 
 
 Before the end of the year he seems to have had 
 an illness of some severity — rheumatic fever, followed 
 by other troubles. The illness was intermittent, but 
 before the end of January he reports himself as quite 
 well again. He was, however, in serious pecuniary 
 straits — owing money to Wordsworth and Lamb and 
 Poole, and behind with his annual allowance of £2Q 
 to his mother-in-law, while a considerable part of his 
 annuity for 1801 had been drawn in advance. Poole 
 came to the rescue as regards one or two of the most 
 pressing obligations. How the others were met, if met 
 at all, there is no record. Coleridge proposes to 
 publish his tragedy 'as a poem,' and also Christabel. 
 The j/^60 he ' hoped ' to get for these cannot have been 
 received, for they did not go to the printers. ' A drama 
 and a sort of farce,' 'works written purposely vile' for 
 the theatre, are supposed to be available ' if aught good 
 come of them ' ; but Coleridge must have known he 
 was romancing, for he adds — ' that is a dream.' The 
 only bright spot in the letters of this time is that wife 
 and children are well — Derwent 'a fine, fat fellow,' and 
 Hartley 'an universal darling,' 'a fairy elf.' 
 
 As soon as Coleridge recovered, he gave himself 
 up entirely to metaphysics, ' thinking with intense 
 energy ' — the outcome being a series of letters ad- 
 dressed to the Wedgwoods, attacking Locke, Des- 
 cartes, and Hobbes, but mainly Locke, whom he de- 
 clares to be a mere plagiarist.^ The intensity of the 
 study is not relaxed until the middle of March, when 
 he takes ' a week's respite, that he may make Christabel 
 ready for the press ... in order to get rid of his 
 
 ^ T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 31. 
 
i8oi DEPRESSION AND INDECISION 121 
 
 engagements to Longman.' One of the engagements, 
 'the German book,' he has put aside owing to meta- 
 physical preoccupations, although he confesses that 
 'poverty is staring him in the face.' The distress 
 throughout the country — the Birmingham poor-rate, 
 Wedgwood tells Poole, is fifty shillings in the pound — 
 shocks Coleridge. His distaste for 'booksellers' work ' 
 grows in intensity ; he thinks he will go to America ; 
 then, he will not, until he is starved out of his native 
 land. Such is the burthen of his letters for months. Yet 
 all the time his bread and butter were secured to him 
 in the annuity ; he had books to write for which the 
 publishers were waiting, and Stuart would gladly have 
 paid for the copious remarks on the ' condition of 
 England question ' which he spent much of his time 
 inditing in the form of letters to his unpaying corre- 
 spondents ! With the best will in the world to extend 
 nothing but sympathy towards a dear friend and a 
 man of o-enius beatinof his wing^s as^ainst the realities 
 of life, even Poole found it difficult to be quite patient 
 with Coleridge's perplexities. 
 
 With Coleridge's schemes at this period it is im- 
 possible to keep pace. To Thelwall he says he has 
 for ever renounced poetry for metaphysics ; to Poole 
 and Davy he announces the resumption of Christ abe I ; 
 to Davy ^ he further intimates a determination to take 
 up Immediately the serious study of chemistry, aided 
 by a laboratory to be set up by Wordsworth's friend 
 Calvert ; all this, in addition to the devotion of four 
 or five months to what his heart ' binnis to do,' 
 an essay ' Concerning Poetry, and the nature of the 
 Pleasures derived from it ' — a work which * would 
 supersede all the books of metaphysics, and all the 
 
 ^ Letter of Feb. 3, iSoi, in Fragmentary Remains, p. 86. 
 
 / ^ OPTHE ^ \ 
 
 mriVERSITY) 
 
^22 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERLDGE iSoi 
 
 books of morals too.' He is 'proud of himself on 
 
 account of the results, which will some day be visible, 
 
 of his vigorous thinking during his illness. 
 
 On the 1 8th April, at the end of a very long letter 
 
 to Poole on the ' oppressed state of the Country,' 
 
 Coleridge speaks of his own complex troubles. For 
 
 ten days he has kept his bed. His complaint he can 
 
 scarce describe. 
 
 It is a species of irregular gout ... it flies about me in 
 unsightly swellings of my knees, and dismal affections of my stomach 
 and head. What I suffer in mere pain is almost incredible, but 
 that is a trifle compared with the gloom of my circumstances. . . . 
 If the fine weather continues, I shall revive, and look around me, 
 and before the Fall of the year make up my mind to the important 
 question — ' Is it better to die, or to quit my native Country, and live 
 amongst strangers!' Another winter in England would do for me. 
 Besides, I am rendered useless and wretched — not that my bodily 
 pain afilicts me — God forbid ! Were I a single man and independ- 
 ent, I should be ashamed to think myself wretched, merely because 
 I suffered pain. ... It is not my bodily pain, but the gloom and 
 distresses of those around me for whom I ought to be labouring and 
 cannot. -"^ 
 
 Poole replied - sympathetically, but almost ignored 
 the account of the bodily pain. On the 17th May 
 Coleridge responded by another long letter recounting 
 his sufferings during the previous months. He does 
 not regret the metaphysical studies, which he fears 
 broke him down again after his January fever. 
 
 In the course of these studies I tried a multitude of little 
 experiments on my own sensations and on my senses, and some of 
 these (too often repeated) I have reason to believe did injury to my 
 nervous system. However this be, I relapsed, and a devil of a 
 relapse it has been. . . . The attacks on my stomach and the 
 nephritic pains in my back, which almost alternated with the stomach 
 fits — they were terrible ! The disgust, the loathing, that followed 
 these fits, and no doubt in part, too, the use of the brandy and 
 laudanum which they rendered necessary ! 
 
 ^ Partly printed in T. Poole ajid his Frieiids, ii. 43, 44. 
 2 May 7, iSoi. lb. ii. 44-47. 
 
i8oi BROKEN HEALTH 123 
 
 On Monday, May 4th, he recovered all at once, and 
 went over to Wordsworth, improving every day until 
 the 1 2th, when a walk of six miles brought on a sleep- 
 less night and a swollen knee. He is now at home, he 
 says, and recovering, and proposes (D. V.) to spend the 
 next winter at St. Michael's, one of the Azores.^ 
 
 I think there can be no doubt that this letter gives 
 the true account of the beginning of what Coleridge, 
 in after-years, was accustomed to call his ' slavery ' to 
 opium. It fully confirms his reiterated contention that 
 it was begun as a relief from pain, and not in a search 
 after unholy pleasure. * My sole sensuality was 7to^ 
 to be in pain.' - That there was in Coleridge a notable 
 disposition to resort to opium, not only for relief from 
 pain, but also from mental depression, we have already 
 seen. It is therefore not at all surprising that he 
 should have resorted to it under the double pressure 
 of mental and bodily distress in the winter of 1 800-1. 
 In 1804, 1 8 14, 1820, and in 1826, Coleridge made 
 various statements regarding the immediate cause 
 of his beginning to take opium. They all agree, 
 almost literally, in stating that the relief was sought 
 from rheumatic affections and knee-swellings which 
 had kept him almost bed-ridden for six months. The 
 'six' months is an immaterial exaggeration, but it is 
 clearly to the illness and the sudden temporary cure 
 described to Poole, that Coleridge was referring.^ 
 
 ^ Parts of these letters are printed in 71 Foo/e and his Friends, ii. p. 48. 
 
 2 'Note from Pocket-Book [Malta] December 23, 1804,' quoted in Gillman's 
 Life, p. 246. See also Coleridge's statement of 'April, 1826,' ?A p. 247 ; Letter 
 to Cottle, April 26, 1814, in Rem. p. 366 ; and letter to AUsop, July 31, 1820, 
 in Letters, etc., i. 41. 
 
 3 Coleridge's dates were not generally well assorted in his memory, but this 
 one may probably be taken as substantially accurate. The passage has much 
 significance as to the duration of the opium-eating as well as to the date of its 
 beginning : ' I now write to say that if God . . . hath worked almost a miracle 
 of grace in and for me by a sudden emancipation from a thirty-three years' 
 
124 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE iSoi 
 
 The account given to Cottle (1814) speaks of a 
 * medical journal ' which recommended ' laudanum,' 
 internally and externally, for swelled knees. ' It acted 
 like a charm, like a miracle ! I recovered the use of 
 my limbs, of my appetite, of my spirits, and this con- 
 tinued for near a fortnight. At length the unusual 
 stimulus subsided, the complaint returned — the sup- 
 posed remedy was recurred to — but I need not go 
 through the dreary history.' In the Gillman memo- 
 randum (1826) the account is the same, except that 
 for the plain ' laudanum ' a mythical ' Kendal Black 
 Drop ' ^ is introduced as working all the woe, with 
 a suggestion that he did not know it to be a prepara- 
 tion of opium. To Allsop (1820) Coleridge makes no 
 mention of any medical journal, but blames ' unhappy 
 quackery ' and ' that most pernicious form of ignorance, 
 medical half- knowledge,' — whether his own or some 
 one else's is not clear, — for his being * seduced into the 
 use of narcotics.' In all these accounts — w^hich are 
 essentially true accounts, in spite of the alloys pardon- 
 ably introduced for apologetic purposes — much is made 
 of the ' ignorance ' which ' seduced ' him into the use 
 of the opiate, and of the openness with which the use 
 was proclaimed to all and sundry. Here, I fear, 
 Coleridge's memory served him badly, for long before 
 1799 he well knew the good and the bad effects of 
 opiates ; while, so far as I can learn, his correspond- 
 ence of this period, full as it is of his sufferings, con- 
 tains no allusions to opiates, excepting only the passing 
 
 [1832 — 33 = 1799] fearful slavery, if God's goodness should come home, and so 
 far perfect my convalescence as that I should be capable of resuming my literary 
 labours [etc.].' S. T. C. to Rev. H. F. Gary, ' Highgate, April 22, 1S32,' in 
 Memoir of H. F. C. 1847, "• I94- 
 
 ^ Locally named ' Black Drops ' were common enough then, and before and 
 after ; but all except the most uneducated users must have known them to be 
 preparations of opium. 
 
 ■\i 
 
i8oi OPIUM 
 
 127 
 
 mention in that one letter to Poole. I doubt if any 
 of Coleridge's friends knew, until his return from Malta, 
 of his habitual and excessive addiction to opium. 
 De Quincey says he made confession to him in 1807, 
 and the statement seems, though only on the surface, 
 to be confirmed by the Gillman memorandum of ' April 
 1826,' but Cottle declares that he heard of opium first 
 in 1 814. I do not think there is any more to be said 
 of Coleridge's 'slavery.' All that De Quincey has 
 written on the subject may wisely be disregarded ; and 
 this applies generally to his numerous stories about 
 Coleridge, So many of them are demonstrably in- 
 accurate, that the credit of all is vitiated. I do not 
 for a moment mean to suggest that De Quincey con- 
 sciously misrepresented anything, but long before he 
 began to write about Coleridge his own indulgence in 
 opium-eating had deprived him of the power of dis- 
 tinguishing between facts and fancies. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 GRETA HALL 
 A.D. 180I-1804 
 
 We have seen that about the middle of May Coleridge 
 thought of seeking a renewal of health in the Azores. 
 Health improved, and the idea was abandoned. The 
 end of June brought a relapse, and the idea was 
 resumed. Of course there was a money difficulty. 
 On July I he asked Poole's advice, and proposed to 
 raise money by getting an advance from a publisher. 
 About the same time, Wordsworth, who was in much 
 anxiety about Coleridge, also wrote to Poole ^ putting 
 the case ; he disapproved strongly of Coleridge's plan 
 of raising funds, and suggested that Poole might be 
 disposed to advance ^50, and if more should be 
 needed, to procure it from other friends in the west. 
 On July 21 Poole replies, to both letters, in one 
 addressed to Coleridge, full of sympathy, but regretting 
 that the multiplicity of claims on him at the time dis- 
 able him from advancing more than ^20, and suggest- 
 ing that certain other friends might make up the rest. 
 Coleridge was deeply hurt. He allowed six weeks to 
 pass before replying ; and though his letter is not free 
 
 1 See the whole of this interesting correspondence, with valuable editorial 
 elucidations, in T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 56-65. 
 
i8oi JOURNEYING IN SEARCH OF HEALTH 127 
 
 from bitterness, it concludes with assurances of affec- 
 tion, and some details as to his ill-health and the 
 impossibility of ' staying in this climate.' He has 
 asked John Pinney if he may go and stay for a while 
 on his estate in Nevis (West Indies). ' My spirits are 
 good, I am generally cheerful, and when I am not, it 
 is because I have exchanged it for a deeper and more 
 pleasurable tranquillity ' — a periphrasis, one fears, for 
 opium-dreams. A fortnight after this Coleridge tells 
 Godwin ^ he has had to give up going abroad for want 
 of money, and if a last effort to reach Mr. John King's 
 estate in St. Lucia fail, ' he may perhaps go up to 
 London and maintain himself as before, by writing for 
 the Morning Post' Poole was ' painfully affected ' by 
 Coleridge's letter of September 7, though it had been 
 followed quickly by one of affectionate sympathy on 
 the occasion of his mother's death. Coleridge replied 
 by an epistle in which honey and gall are mingled in 
 almost equal proportions. Poole, whose temper was 
 as warm as his heart, thought both letters ' outrageous,' 
 but friendship stood the strain, and he lent Coleridge 
 £2^ to enable him to pay a visit to London and 
 Stowey. Coleridge promised not to stay at Stowey 
 less than two months ; the remainder of the time till 
 March he would pass with the Wedgwoods and other 
 friends in the west country. 
 
 The plan, one need hardly say, was not fully 
 accomplished. Coleridge arrived in London on the 
 15th November.- He tells Davy ^ he means to stay a 
 fortnight there, and Godwin that he ' planned a walk 
 into Somersetshire,' but he remained in London until 
 Christmas, first with Southey and then at a lodging in 
 
 ^ Letter of September 22, 1801. William Godwin, ii. 81. 
 
 2 William Godwin, ii. 83. ^ F>'<ig- Rem, p. 92. 
 
128 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE iSoi 
 
 Covent Garden.^ On December 14 he wrote to 
 Poole ^ : ' I am writing for the Morning Post, and am 
 reading in the old libraries, for my curious meta- 
 physical work, but I hate London.' He left for 
 Stowey on Christmas Day,^ returning to Howell's 
 about January 21st.* Thomas Wedgwood had been 
 his fellow-guest at Poole's during the visit. Poole 
 went to London with Coleridge, and both attended 
 Davy's popular lectures^ at the Royal Institution, 
 Coleridge saying that his object was ' to increase his 
 stock of metaphors.' '^ On February 6, 1802, Southey 
 informs W. Taylor ^ that T. Wedgwood and Mackin- 
 tosh are hatching a great metaphysical work, to which 
 Coleridge has promised as preface, ' a history of meta- 
 physical opinion,' for which he is reading Duns 
 Scotus and Thomas Aquinas. But during all this 
 time Coleridge was writing ' heart-rending ' accounts of 
 his health to the Wordsworths.^and on 19th March, ' on 
 a very rainy morning,' he appeared at Dove Cottage." 
 * His eyes,' says Dorothy, ' were a little swollen with the 
 wind. I was much affected by the sight of him, he 
 
 1 ' I took a first floor for him in King Street, Covent Garden, at my tailor's, 
 Howell's, whose wife was a cheerful good housewife, of middle-age, who I knew 
 would nurse Coleridge as kindly as if he were her son. . . . My practice was to 
 call on him in the middle of the day, talk over the news, and project a leading 
 paragraph for the next morning. In conversation he made a brilliant display 
 . . . but I soon found he could not write daily on the occurrences of the day ' 
 (D. Stuart in Gent. Mag. May 1838, p. 487). He does not say here that Cole- 
 ridge gave him hardly any contributions, but in Essays on his own Times there is 
 nothing between December 3, 1801, and September 21, 1802. 
 
 2 See also T. Poole and his Triends, ii. 73. 
 
 3 Unprinted letter to Poole of Christmas Eve ; also undated and misplaced 
 letter to Stuart in Letters of Lake Poets, p. 7. 
 
 ** lb. p. 24, and Knight's Life of Wordsworth, i. 288. 
 
 ^ T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 102. 
 
 6 Vzx\%'% Life of Sir LI. D.\. 138. 
 
 "^ Mem. of IV. T. i. 398. A week after this Coleridge informs Poole that his 
 ' health has been on the mend ever since Poole left town, Jior has he had occasion 
 for opiates of any kind' {T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 77). 
 
 * See Miss Wordsworth's Journals in Knight's Life of Wordsworth , i. 288 
 et seq. 
 
 " lb. i. 302. 
 
II 
 
 1 8o2 ' DEJECTION : AN ODE ' 1 29 
 
 seemed half-stupified.' Next day the party 'had a 
 little talk of going abroad.' ' William read The Pedlar. 
 Talked about various things — christening the children, 
 etc. etc' When Coleridge had gone, his hosts 'talked 
 about ' him, as they paced the orchard walk. 
 
 We may be sure that when, on the 19th March, 
 Coleridge walked over to Dove Cottage, he had not 
 been long at Greta Hall. He was in sad case of 
 body and mind, and sought Dove Cottage as naturally 
 as the thirsty hart seeks the water-brooks. What he 
 thought of himself and of Wordsworth at this time we 
 may read in ' Dejection : an Ode, written on April 4, 
 1802.'^ But let the ode be read in its original 
 form," before the frosts of alienation had withered 
 some of its tenderest shoots. For it was addressed to 
 Wordsworth, and, before printing, addressed to him 
 by name. No sadder cry from the depths was ever 
 uttered, even by Coleridge, none more sincere, none 
 more musical. Health was gone, and with it both the 
 natural joy' which had been his in rich abundance, 
 and that rarer kind which, as he tells us, dwells only 
 with the pure ; nor was this all, for he discovered that 
 he had lost control of his most precious endowment, 
 
 1 Poet. Works, 1893, p. 159, and 'Note 162,' p. 626. 
 • 2 As printed in Morning Post, Oct. 4, 1802 — Wordsworth's wedding da)'. 
 See Poetical Works, 1893, Appendix G. p. 522. See Lamb's Latin letter to 
 Coleridge, Oct. 9, 1802 {Letters, i. 185, 331-333). April 4 was probably the 
 day on which the poem was completed. The Wordsworths were at Greta Hall 
 on the 4th and 5th, and doubtless it was read to them. At the close of the 
 original version Wordsworth was thus addressed : — 
 
 O William, friend of my devoutest choice, 
 O rais'd from anxious dread and busy care, 
 By the inimenseness of the good and fair 
 Which thou see'st everywhere, 
 Joy lifts thy spirit, joy attunes thy voice, 
 To thee do all things live from pole to pole, 
 Their life the eddying of thy living soul ! 
 O simple spirit, guided from above, 
 O lofty Poet, full of life and love. 
 Brother and friend of my devoutest choice, 
 Thus may'st thou ever, evermore rejoice I 
 
 K 
 
I30 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERLDGE 1802 
 
 his 'shaping spirit of imagination.' He felt that 
 poetically he was dead, and that if not dead spiritu- 
 ally, he had lost his spiritual identity. 
 
 There was a time when, though my path was rough, 
 
 This joy within me dalhed with distress, 
 And all misfortunes were but as the stuff 
 
 Whence Fancy made me dreams of happiness : 
 For hope grew round me, like the twining vine, 
 And fruits, and foliage, not my own, seemed mine. 
 But now afflictions bow me down to earth : 
 Nor care I that they rob me of my mirth ; 
 
 But oh ! each visitation 
 Suspends what nature gave me at my birth. 
 
 My shaping spirit of Imagination. 
 For not to think of what I needs must feel, 
 
 But to be still and patient, all I can ; 
 And haply by abstruse research to steal 
 
 From my own nature all the natural man — 
 
 This was my sole resource, my only plan : 
 Till that which suits a part infects the whole. 
 And now is almost grown the habit of my soul. 
 
 I make no more quotations, for the ode is a whole, 
 and must be read as a whole. But it is incomplete as| 
 a statement of Coleridge's condition and circumstances. 
 The symptoms of the disease are described with great 
 and deeply-affecting fulness, but the causes are only 
 vaguely hinted at. In addressing Wordsworth, there 
 may have been no need for more. Besides the bodily 
 ailments, there were at least two causes^ — fatal indul 
 gence in opium, and growing estrangement between hisj 
 wife and himself. If the excessive indulgence in opiumi 
 was unknown to the Wordsworths, it may have beenj 
 suspected, and Coleridge may have known that it was 
 suspected. The domestic trouble must have been 
 known to them. In these earlier days the discord 
 was not constant ; there were intervals of peace,'^ but 
 even then Coleridge had accustomed himself to seek 
 
 1 ' I am at present in better health than I have been, though by no means 
 strong and well — and at home all is Peace and Love ' (original underlined). 
 S. T. C. to Estlin, 26th July 1802, \n Estlin Letters, p. 82. 
 
iSo2 OPIUM AND DOMESTIC DISCORD 131 
 
 happiness, or, at least, relief from cares, elsewhere than 
 in the house which should have been his home. By 
 the end of this year the estrangement had made con- 
 siderable progress, and Greta Hall knew — 
 
 those habitual ills 
 That wear out life, when two unequal minds 
 Meet in one house, and two discordant wills. 
 
 If there be any mystery here, I shall not attempt 
 to fathom it ; but I doubt if there be any. The mar- 
 riage had not been made in Heaven ; it had been 
 brought about by the meddlesomeness of third parties 
 — we have seen Southey's statement as to his own 
 share — whose interference it is easier, perhaps, to 
 understand than to justify. Attachment between Cole- 
 ridge and his wife there had been, and the links had 
 proved strong enough to bear some strain : if there 
 had been love, its roots had found no sustenance, 
 and when it withered away, root and branch, there 
 remained no bond of community of mind and tastes 
 — nothing but the unsheathed material fetters which 
 galled, and which, when the galling became intolerable, 
 were laid aside. There is nothing in this simple theory 
 inconsistent with the view that Colerido-e was a difficult 
 man to manage, and that his wife was unequal to the 
 task. It is doubtless a correct view, but it does not go 
 deep enough. Coleridge's many faults as a husband 
 have been made patent enough, perhaps more than 
 enough ; of Mrs. Coleridge's as a wife, I have heard 
 of none save that sometimes she was 'fretful.' Had 
 she not fretted, and often, it would have been a miracle, 
 for she had provocation in abundance ; but ' fretting ' 
 s a habit which often brings about consequences 
 :hat seem disproportionate, and which is apt rather 
 ;o increase than to abate the provocation. 
 
 I 
 
132 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1802 
 
 Although evidence of Coleridge's undue indulgence 
 in opium, and of some of its consequences, comes earlier: 
 than that of conjugal estrangement, I am inclined to 
 believe that both began about the same time. Of each 
 the predisposing cause had long been latent, but| 
 whether the quickening of the one brought the other 
 to life, and if so, which was cause, and which effect, it 
 would now be idle to inquire. What may be con- 
 sidered as certain is, that each acted and reacted to 
 the aggravation of both./ I have thought it best to 
 deal somewhat fully with these painful matters at their 
 first appearance, seeing that as they coloured Cole- 
 ridge's subsequent life so must their existence be 
 assumed (for I shall mention them as seldom as 
 possible) in what remains of this narrative. The 
 winter of 1 801 -1802 was a turning-point in Cole- 
 ridge's life. 
 
 After his home-coming about the middle of March,j 
 Coleridge spent much of his time at Dove Cottage,^ and 
 when he was not there intercourse by correspondence 
 was incessant. On the night of April 29th Wordsworth 
 could not sleep after reading a letter from his friend. 
 On May 4th Coleridge looked well and parted from 
 his friends 'cheerfully' — evidently an exception which 
 proves the rule. On the 9th Wordsworth began his 
 verses 'about C. and himself,' ^ on the nth he finished 
 
 1 Knight's Life, i. 302 et seq. 
 
 2 Stanzas w7-itten in my pocket copy of T/iotnson^s Castle of Indolence, in which 
 Coleridge is thus described : — 
 
 A noticeable Man with large gray eyes, 
 And a pale face that seem'd undoubtedly 
 As if a blooming face it ought to be ; 
 Heavy his low-hung lip did oft appear, 
 Depressed by weight of musing Phantasy ; 
 Profound his forehead was, though not severe ; 
 Yet some did think that he had little business here : 
 
 Sweet heaven forbid 1 his was a lawful right ; 
 Noisy he was, and gamesome as a boy ; . 
 
 i 
 
i8o2 IMPROVED HEALTH AND SPIRITS 133 
 
 them, but they were not sent to Coleridge until June 7. 
 On May 15th 'a melancholy letter from Coleridge' 
 took kind Dorothy over to Greta Hall, but four days 
 later he was able to walk half-way back with her. 
 On the 22 nd he met the Words worths at a favourite 
 trysting-place, and they ' had some interesting, melan- 
 choly talk ' about his private affairs. When the 
 Wordsworths left Dove Cottage for Gallow Hill on 
 their way to the Continent, they spent the first two 
 nights at Greta Hall, and when they left (July 11) 
 Coleridore walked with them six or seven miles. ' He 
 was not well,' writes Dorothy in her 'Journal,' ' and we 
 had a melancholy parting after having sate together in 
 silence by the roadside.' The friends were not to meet 
 again until the middle of October, Wordsworth's 
 marriage taking place in the meantime. 
 
 Reverting to the beginning of May, we find Cole- 
 ridge answering a friendly letter from Poole. ^ It is 
 only a month since the Dejection ode, but he is in 
 better health and spirits, promising that by the end of 
 
 His limbs would toss about him with delight 
 Like branches when strong winds the trees annoy. 
 
 He would entice that other Man to hear 
 His music, and to view his imagery : 
 And, sooth, these two did love each other dear, 
 As far as love in such a place could be ; 
 There did they dwell — from earthly labour free, 
 As happy spirits as were ever seen. 
 
 _. I think with Canon Ainger [Maciiiinan's Magazine, ]\\ne. 1887, p. 87) that 
 i/Vordsworth may possibly have had Coleridge rather than himself in view when, 
 n the same week, he added these lines to The Leech Gatherer : — 
 
 My whole life I have lived in pleasant thought, 
 
 As if life's business were a summer mood ; 
 
 As if all needful things w'ould come unsought 
 
 To genial faith, still rich in genial good ; 
 
 But how can He expect that others should 
 
 Build for him, sow for him, and at his call 
 
 Love him, who for himself will take no heed at all ? 
 
 ^ T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 79- 
 
134 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1802 
 
 the year he will have disburthened himself of all meta- ( 
 physics, and that the next year will be devoted i 
 to a long poem! His small poems are about to be 
 published as a second volume [which did not appear], 
 but he will not write many more of that order. He 
 has had an offer from a bookseller to travel on the 
 Continent, for book-making purposes, but, on account 
 of his ignorance of French, has declined, in spite of 
 many temptations to acceptance — 'household infelicity,' 
 for one. He sees by the papers that a portrait of him 
 is in the Exhibition, and supposes it must be [John] J 
 Hazlitt's.^ ' Mine,' he says, 'is not a picturesque face. 
 Southey's was made for a picture.' Then there fol- ! 
 lows an intimation that on the 4th April last he had i 
 written to Poole a letter in verse, but thinking it ' dull I 
 and doleful,' had not sent it. He meant, no doubt, a ; 
 transcript of the ode Dejection. Soon after this, Poole i 
 went on his travels in France and Switzerland, and i 
 he did not return until December. From a letter of i 
 Southey ^ we gather that in August Coleridge was full \ 
 of projects, and in September-November he sent a \ 
 few miscellaneous contributions to the Morning Post. 
 August was cheered by an unexpected visit from \ 
 Charles and Mary Lamb — unexpected, because time, as ; 
 
 1 ' Hazlitt's does look as if you were on your trial, and certainly had stolen 
 the horse ; but then you did it cleverly, — it had been a deep, well-laid scheme, 
 and it was no fault of yours that you had been detected.' Southey to S. T. C. 
 {Life and Corr. ii. 291.) 
 
 ^ R. S. to S. T. C, August 4, 1802 : — 'As to your essays, etc. etc., you 
 spawn plans like a herring ; I only wish as many of the seed were to vivify in 
 proportion. . . . Your Essays on Contemporaries I am not much afraid of the 
 imprudence of, because I have no expectation that they will ever be written ; but 
 if you were to write, the scheme projected on the old poets would be a better 
 scheme' {Life and Corr. of R. S. ii. 190). 
 
 3 Including the comparison between Imperial Rome and France ; ' Once a 
 Jacobin, always a Jacobin ' ; the letters to Fox ; the account of The Beauty of 
 Buttermere, whose story fills so large a space in De Quincey's article on Cole- 
 ridge {Works, 1863, ii. 81); and the Ode to the Rain (p. 168). The last 
 recorded contribution to the M,P. is dated November 5, 1802. See Essays on 
 his own Times. 
 
H 
 
 
 1802 STILL UNSETTLED 135 
 
 Lamb tells Manning,^ did not admit of notice, ' Cole- 
 ridge received us with all hospitality in the world, and 
 gave up his time to show us all the wonders of his 
 country. . . . Here we stayed three full weeks, in which 
 time I visited Wordsworth's cottage, where we stayed 
 a day or two with the Clarksons . . . and saw Lloyd. 
 The Words worths were gone to Calais.' The greater 
 part of the months of November and December were 
 spent in a tour in South Wales ^ with Thomas and Miss 
 Sarah Wedgwood, the tour being followed by visits 
 at country-houses of the Wedgwoods and their con- 
 nections. Coleridge seems to have made himself very 
 popular, and the tour was a great success, but Tom 
 Wedgwood was a dangerous companion, for he was an 
 amateur in narcotics, and just then in hot pursuit of 
 Bang^ — 'the Nepenthe of the Ancients,' as Cole- 
 ridge, who helped to procure a supply, delighted to 
 remember. 
 
 On December 24 Coleridge and Wedgwood called 
 at Dove Cottage on their way to Greta Hall, when 
 Coleridge learnt from the Wordsworths that a daughter 
 had been born to him on the previous morning.'^ The 
 Grasmere Journals, unfortunately, have been printed 
 only as far as January 11, on which day Coleridge is 
 reported as 'poorly, in bad spirits.' He was still 
 anxious to go abroad ; so was Tom Wedgwood, and 
 in Coleridge's company ; but though Coleridge was 
 unwilling, he did not like to refuse outright, and until 
 February professed to be at Wedgwood's call." 
 
 ^ Letter of September 24, 1802 {Letters, i. 181). The Picture, or The 
 Lovet^s Resolution, was written during Lamb's stay, and published soon after in 
 the JMorning Post. 
 
 2 A Group of Englishmen, pp. 159-166 ; also p. 208. 
 
 ^ lb. p. 215 ; Paris's Life of Davy, i. 173 ; and Cottle's Reminiscences, pp. 
 459 and 464. 
 
 * Miss Wordsworth's Journals (Knight's Life of IV. W. i. 359). 
 
 ^ Letters of January 9 and 14, 1803, in Cottle's Ron. pp. 450, 454. 
 
136 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 1803 
 
 On January 9th he describes graphically a foolish 
 adventure in a storm in Kirkstone Pass, which resulted 
 in his 'feeling- unwell all over.' He 'took no laudanum 
 or opium,' but ether (Scylla and Charybdis), and 
 recovered at once. Only temporarily, however, for on 
 the I4th^ a relapse is described, from which he had 
 recovered (again an exception which proves the rule) 
 * without any craving after exhilarants and narcotics.' 
 But eleven days later, existence at Greta Hall having 
 again become intolerable, Coleridge is once more at 
 Cote House,^ ready, professedly, to go anywhere with 
 Tom Wedgwood.^ But Wedgwood was in low spirits, 
 and undecided, and by February 4 Coleridge was with 
 Tom Poole. On the way, he had spent a few days at 
 Bristol with Southey,^who found him 'a poor fellow, who 
 suffers terribly from this climate.' At Stowey, Cole- 
 ridge's health improved, but not, he thinks, sufficiently to 
 permit of his travelling with Wedgwood.^ If Coleridge 
 
 1 One of Coleridge's finest letters : ' I never find myself alone, within the 
 embracement of rocks and hills, a traveller up an alpine road, but my spirit 
 careers, drives, and eddies, like a leaf in autumn ; a wild activity of thoughts, 
 imaginations, feelings, and impulses of motion rises up from within me ; a sort of 
 bottom-wind, that blows to no point of the compass, comes from I know not 
 whence, but agitates the whole of me ; my whole being is filled with waves that 
 roll and stumble, one this way, and one that way, like things that have no 
 common master. I think that my soul must have pre-existed in the body of a 
 chamois-chaser. The simple image of the old object has been obliterated, but 
 the feelings, the instinctive habits, and incipient actions, are in me, and the old 
 scenery awakens them. The further I ascend from animated nature, from 
 men, and cattle, and the common birds of the woods and fields, the greater be- 
 comes in me the intensity of the feeling of life. Life seems to me then an 
 universal spirit, that neither has nor can have an opposite ! " God is every- 
 where," I have exclaimed, "and works everywhere, and where is there room 
 for death ? " . . . I do not think it possible that any bodily pains could eat out 
 the love of joy, that is so substantially part of me, towards hills, and rocks, and 
 steep waters ; and I have had some trial ' (Cottle's A'^w. p. 454). This shows 
 an immense recovery from the Dejection of nine months before. 
 
 2 Unprinted letter to T. Poole, Feb. 2, 1803. 
 ^ Cottle's Rem. pp. 458-461. 
 
 * Life and Con: of R. S. ii. 201. In a letter of February 6, 1803, he 
 writes to W. Taylor : ' I am grieved that you never met Coleridge : all other 
 men whom I have ever known are mere children to him, and yet he is palsied by 
 a total want of moral strength' (A/em of IV. T. i. 455). 
 
 ^ Cottle's Rem. p. 459. 
 
i8o3 REPRINT OF ' POEMS' 137 
 
 travelled, it must be alone, and this being the case, Wedg- 
 wood had to cross the Channel with a hired companion. 
 Coleridge's mythical ' History of Metaphysics' is still 
 dangled before his friends' eyes. ' I confine myself to 
 facts in every part of the w^ork, excepting that which 
 treats of Mr. Hume: him I have assuredly besprinkled 
 copiously from the fountains of Bitterness and Con- 
 tempt.' ^ After a visit to Gunville (Josiah Wedgwood's 
 Dorsetshire place), Coleridge returned to Keswick, 
 via London. Davy gives a sad account of him.- 
 ' During his stay in town I saw him seldomer than 
 usual ; . . . generally in the midst of large companies, 
 where he is the image of power and activity. His elo- 
 quence is unimpaired; perhaps it is softer and stronger. 
 His will is probably less than ever commensurate with 
 his ability. Brilliant images of greatness float upon 
 his mind like the images of the morning clouds upon 
 the waters . . , agitated by every breeze, and modified 
 by every sunbeam. He talked, in the course of one 
 hour, of beginning three works, and he recited the 
 poem of Christabel, unfinished, as I had before heard it.' 
 During: this visit it was arranored that Lamb should 
 see a reprint of Coleridge's poems (1796 and 1797) 
 through the press, and the volume was published in 
 the summer.^ At the beginning of June, Coleridge 
 informs Godwin ^ that his health is ' certainly better 
 than at any former period of the disease,' and asks 
 him to find a publisher for a work of six hundred 
 
 1 Letter to Purkis, Stowey, February 17, 1S03, in Paris's Life of Davy, 
 
 i- 173- 
 
 2 Letter to Poole, May i, 1803, ib. i. 176. 
 
 ' 3 Poems, by S. T. Coleridge. [Motto from Statius as in 1796.] Third 
 Edition. London : Printed by N. Biggs, Crane Court, Fleet Street, for T. N. 
 Longman and O. Rees, Paternoster-Row. 1803. 
 
 Duodecimo, pp. xi. ; 202. See Lamb's letter to Coleridge, March 20, 1803 
 [^Letters, i. 199). 
 
 * Letter to Godwin, June 4, 1803, in IVilliain Godwin, ii. 92. 
 
 f ^ OF THE '^ >" 
 
 (universitt) 
 
138 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 1803 
 
 pages octavo, the half of which can be ready for the 
 printer at a fortnight's notice. ' I entitle it " Organum 
 vere Organum, or an Instrument of Practical Reason- 
 ing in the Business of Real Life " ; to which will be 
 prefixed (i) a familiar introduction to the common 
 system of Logic, namely, that of Aristotle and the 
 Schools ; (2) . . .' and so on for a full page of close 
 print. When this work is fairly off his hands — more 
 and more metaphysics to follow ; not a word of the 
 poetry, with the promise of which he pleased Poole. 
 (Meantime, as a little relaxation, if Godwin will find 
 a publisher for Hazlitt's abridgment of Search's — 
 Tucker's — ' Light of Nature pursued,' Coleridge will 
 write a preface and see the sheets through the press.) 
 I suppose Godwin knew as well as Coleridge that this 
 newer Organum had not and never would pass beyond 
 the stage of synopsis, and acted accordingly. 
 
 At Greta Hall, Coleridge remained with his ' mind 
 strangely shut up ' ^ until Sunday the 14th August, 
 when in company with William and Dorothy Words- 
 worth he set out on a Scotch tour.^ Incidentally we 
 learn that an Irish jaunting-car, drawn by a jibbing old 
 screw, carried the party (when the road happened to 
 be level or not very steep on either grade), and that 
 poor Coleridge did not enjoy the bumping so much as 
 his robuster companions enjoyed the scenery. In a 
 fortnight, on the day after the meeting with that 
 'sweet Highland girl, ripening in perfect innocence,' 
 by the Inversnaid ferry-house, Coleridge parted from 
 his friends, professing to be very unwell, and unable to 
 
 1 Letter to T. W^edgwood, September 16, 1803, in Cottle's Rem. p. 466 : 
 ' For five months past my mind has been strangely shut up.' 
 
 ^ See Recollections of a Tour made in Scotland, A.D. 1803, by Dorothy 
 Wordsworth. Edited by J. C. Shairp. 1874. A charming book. Coleridge's 
 partial account is printed in Memorials of Coleorton, 1887, i. 6-8 ; and Words- 
 worth's lb. i. 35. 
 
i8o3 A LONG WALK IN SCOTLAND 139 
 
 face the wet in an open carnage. He sent on his 
 trunk to Edinburgh, and said he would follow it^ — 
 and this he did though somewhat circuitously, for he 
 travelled via Argyllshire, Perthshire, and Aberdeenshire. 
 On arriving at Tyndrum,- a week after the parting, the 
 Wordsworths were astonished to learn that Coleridge, 
 ' who we had supposed was gone to Edinburgh, had 
 dined at this very house ... on his road to Fort- 
 William ... on the day after we parted from him ' — 
 but the kindly Dorothy has no word of reproach for her 
 errant friend. I suppose Coleridge had found the close 
 companionship incompatible with that free indulgence 
 in narcotics which had become to him a necessity of 
 pleasurable or even tolerable existence. In his soli- 
 tude, as he told Beaumont and Poole, he walked to 
 Glencoe, on to Cullen (between Fochabers and Banff), 
 back to Inverness, and thence over the moorland, by 
 Tummel Bridge to Perth, — doing ' 263 miles in eight 
 days, in the hope of forcing the disease into the ex- 
 tremities, — and so strong am I, that I would undertake 
 at this present time to walk 50 miles a day for a week 
 together. In short, while I am in possession of my 
 will and my reason, I can keep the fiend at arm's- 
 length ; but with the night my horrors commence. 
 During the whole of my journey, three nights out of 
 four, I have fallen asleep struggling and resolving to 
 lie awake, and awaking have blest the scream which 
 delivered me from the reluctant sleep.' ^ At Perth, 
 
 1 Tour, p. 117. 2 73. p. 184. 
 
 3 Mem. of Coleorton, i. 7. Coleridge goes on to tell Beaumont that nine 
 years ago he had ' a three months' visitation of this kind ' — a statement in the 
 highest degree improbable, and entirely uncorroborated. A fortnight later (Oct. 
 3) he recites his Scotch night-horrors to Poole (but without the reminiscence 
 of nine years before), and adds a poetical version, which afterwards formed lines 
 18-32 of The Pains of Sleep. De Quincey relates similar experiences in a can- 
 celled passage of his Confessions, which is printed only in the notes to Dr. Gar- 
 nett's edition of that work [Parchment Library ed. 1885, p. 263). Coleridge 
 
\ V 
 
 140 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1803- 
 
 Coleridge received a summons to greet the Southeys 
 who had arrived at Greta Hall on the visit which 
 ended only with their lives. Taking coach via Edin- 
 burgh, he reached home on the 15th September. A 
 week later he informs Beaumont that he is doing 
 translations from his (Beaumont's) drawings, and will go 
 on and make a volume of them. None of these ' trans- 
 lations ' have been traced. On October i he writes of 
 the continuance of the night-horrors, and fears that a 
 change of climate will prove to be his only medicine. 
 He sends, too, a copy of the Chaniottni poem.^ 
 
 At this time kind Beaumont, having ' a most 
 ardent desire to bring Wordsworth and Coleridge 
 together, purchased a small property at Applethwaite, 
 a mile or two west of Greta Hall, . . . and presented 
 it to Wordsworth, whom, as yet, he had not seen'; ^ but 
 
 had returns of these ' visitations ' long after he was supposed to have abandoned 
 the abuse of opium. See, for instance, a letter of July 31, 1820, and another of 
 March 4, 1822, in AUsop's Letters, etc. (pp. 42 and 169, respectively). The 
 Visionary Hope, which was probably written after The Pains of Sleep, bewails 
 the 'obscure pangs' which 'made curses of his dreams.' 
 
 1 Hy»i!i before Sunrise, in the Vale of Chamonni. The text differs from that 
 finally adopted (see Poet. Works, 1893, Appendix F., p. 521, for the version 
 sent to Beaumont). Neither to Beaumont, nor to the public, did Coleridge ever 
 acknowledge his considerable obligations to Frederica Brun's poem of the same 
 name, which she addressed to Klopstock. On the contrary, the remarks with 
 which he prefaced the poem when it was printed in the Morning Post (Sep. 
 II, 1802) are calculated to convince the reader that it had been written at 
 Chamouni, or with the impressions of the scenery fresh in his mind's eye. The 
 plagiarism (there is unfortunately no other word for it) was pointed out by De 
 Quincey in Taifs Magazine for 1834, where he honestly grants that Coleridge 
 had 'created the dry bones of the German outline into the fulness of life.' The 
 expression ' dry bones,' however, is hardly fair to Frederica Brun, the text of 
 whose poem is reprinted in the note to the Hymn in Coleridge's Poet. Works, 
 1893, p. 629, taken from the first edhion of Table Talk (1835) where an 
 apology is attempted for Coleridge's action. 
 
 2 Mem. of Coleorton, i. xii. See also Wordsworth's sonnet At Applethwaite — 
 
 Beaumont, it was thy wish that I should rear 
 
 A seemly cottage in this sunny dell ; 
 
 On favoured ground, thy gift, where I might dwell 
 
 In neighbourhood with one to me most dear, 
 
 That undivided we from year to year 
 
 Might work in our high calling — a bright hope 
 
 To which our fancies, mingling, gave free scope 
 
 Till checked by some necessities severe. 
 
iSo4 PREPARATIONS FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN 141 
 
 the * severe necessities ' which soon drove Coleridge 
 from the neighbourhood prevented further action.^ At 
 the end of November- Southey describes Coleridge 
 as ' quacking himself for complaints that would tease 
 anybody into quackery.' Coleridge himself had made 
 up his mind to go to Malta ' immediately.' 
 
 A fortnight later he 'is going to Devonshire,' 
 — anywhere, apparently, away from Greta Hall. 
 Climate had, no doubt, something to do with this 
 voluntary exile ; probably domestic infelicity had even 
 more. Poole was at this time temporarily established 
 at a lodging in Abingdon Street, Westminster, and on 
 the 20th December, Coleridge started for London that 
 he might consult him. But on the way he went to 
 Dove Cottage, where he fell ill. By the middle 
 of January he had been, by the tender care of Mrs. 
 and Miss Wordsworth, nursed into sufficient wellness 
 to permit of his journey being continued, and after 
 resting a week at Liverpool he arrived at Poole's 
 lodging about the 23rd. He did not, however, remain 
 long at Abingdon Street; before the i8th February, 
 he had taken up his quarters with Tobin ^ in Barnard's 
 Inn, and there he remained until he sailed for Malta. 
 In February, he paid a short visit to the Beaumonts 
 at Dunmow, their place in Essex. He saw much of 
 Davy (then the spoilt child of society), of Sotheby, 
 of Godwin, of John Rickman* — Lamb's 'pleasant 
 hand ' — and, above all, of Lamb himself. And he 
 
 ^ 'The "severe necessities" that prevented this arose from Coleridge's 
 domestic situation ' (' Fenwick-note ' to the sonnet). 
 
 2 R. S. to Miss Barker, November 27, 1803, in Letters of R. S. i. 253, 
 where it is misdated ' 1804.' 
 
 ^ Whether John, the solicitor and dramatist, or his 'dear brother Jim,' so 
 unceremoniously dismissed from ' We are seven,' I know not ; but, I believe, the 
 former. See Wordsworth's /l/(?wfz>j- i. 109. 
 
 * Secretary to Speaker Abbott, and a famous statistician. He planned and con- 
 ducted the first regular Census of Great Britain, on the lines now universally adopted. 
 
142 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1804 
 
 was not idle, for, though Mrs. H. N. Coleridge has 
 failed to trace any contributions of that period, during 
 part of his stay he was at the Courier office from nine 
 till four.^ He saw Mackintosh, who was about to go 
 to Bombay, and who offered to take Coleridge with 
 him and provide him with a place. Judging from a 
 letter to Poole (Jan. 26, 1804), Coleridge treated the 
 offer with amused scorn. He met George Burnett — 
 ci-devant Pantisocrat, and the only one who had taken 
 the craze seriously enough to be greatly affected by 
 its abandonment. Poor Burnett had become almost 
 a waif, and Coleridge tells Rickman with the prettiest 
 air of sympathetic innocence, that George's eyes look 
 like those of ' an opium-chewer,' though he hopes to 
 Heaven he may be mistaken. 
 
 There were schemes, too, for publishing great 
 works. One of them was to be entitled ' Consolations 
 and Comforts from the exercise and right application 
 of the Reason, the Imagination, and the Moral Feel- 
 ings, addressed especially to those in Sickness, Adversity, 
 or Distress of Mind, from Speculative Gloom, etc, ' ^ 
 
 ^ So he tells Rickman in a letter of Feb. 25. All the references to Rickman 
 here, and some of the facts, are taken from unpublished correspondence which has 
 been kindly entrusted to me by his representatives. In one letter Coleridge seems 
 to allude to writings in the Courier: 'As soon as my Volunteer Essays and 
 whatever of a VindicicE Addingtoniana: I can effect by simple attack on the 
 antagonists of the Ministers are published, they shall be sent to you without fail.' 
 
 ^ I take this from an unpublished letter to Poole, but there is a shorter title 
 and a fuller account of the ' book ' in a letter to Beaumont. In the latter Cole- 
 ridge gives a prospectus of another great work to follow, and states, that while 
 at present he is giving only a quarter of his time to poetry, one half shall be 
 devoted to it as soon as ' Consolations ' is off his hands [Mem. of Coleo7-ton, i. 
 44-48). The title of the projected work recalls one of the subjects to be treated 
 in the Friend (see the prospectus of that work, 1809). In the unrevised version 
 of the prospectus the phrase, ' speculative gloom,' occurs. It was abandoned at 
 Francis Jeffrey's instance, and here Coleridge apologises to Poole in these words : 
 ' I put that last phrase, though barbarous, for your information. I have 
 puzzled for hours together and could never hit off a phrase to express that idea, 
 that is at once neat and terse, and yet good English.' (See Illitstraicd Loudon 
 News, June 10, 1893. Art. 'Unpublished Letters of S. T. Coleridge.' 
 Athenaiim for Sep. 19, 1893. Art. 'Coleridge on Quaker Principles.') 
 
i8o4 SAILS FOR MALTA 143 
 
 — materials for which, as he believed, had occupied 
 his mind for months past. But with all these pro- 
 jects and other distractions, Coleridge was steadily- 
 looking out for a ship to carry him to Malta. Malta, 
 however, was then looked on merely as the most 
 convenient stepping-stone for Sicily, Catania being 
 the desired haven. Rickman's aid was sought, and 
 it was he who, some time before March 5, found him 
 a vessel, the ' Speedwell,' to sail with a convoy at 
 some uncertain but not distant date. Almost the last 
 thing Coleridge did before leaving England was to 
 sit for his portrait to Northcote, of which Southey 
 wrote to the victim, that it 'looks like a grinning idiot ; 
 and the worst is, that it is just like enough to pass for 
 a good likeness, with those who only know your 
 features imperfectly.' On the 27th March he went to 
 Portsmouth, but it was the 9th April ere the winds 
 permitted the ' Speedwell ' and her companions to set 
 sail. Of passengers she carried, besides Coleridge and 
 his fortunes, two, whom he describes respectively as a 
 liverless half-pay lieutenant, and * an unconscionably 
 fat woman who would have wanted elbow-room on 
 Salisbury Plain.' From the Meiiiorials of Coleorton 
 (i. 41-43), we learn that the ways and means for carry- 
 ing out this expedition were provided by a loan of 
 ^100 from Wordsworth, and a gift of the same amount 
 from Sir George Beaumont. Mrs. Coleridge was left 
 free of debt, and with liberty to draw the full amount 
 of the Wedgwood annuity of ^i 50. Out of the annuity 
 had to come ^20 for Mrs. Fricker, and taxes amount- 
 ing to about ^15. 
 
 I 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 MALTA AND ITALY 
 A.D. 1 804-1 806 
 
 Gibraltar was reached in ten days, and Coleridge j 
 greatly enjoyed the short stay on shore. On April ; 
 25th, the convoy set sail again, but so baffling were i 
 the winds, that it was the i8th May when the ' Speed- | 
 well ' reached Valetta harbour. The passage from 1 
 England had been to Coleridge a time of much j 
 activity of mind, but also of much home-sick brooding, i 
 while the want of exercise had told unfavourably on | 
 his health.'^ His first letter was to his wife, and was 
 dated from ' Dr. Stoddart's,^ July 5, 1804,'^ no earlier 
 opportunity of despatching letters having occurred. 
 There was a pleased flutter in the kindly coterie over ! 
 
 1 Many details of the passage, and of his impression of Gibraltar, are given 
 to Stuart in a letter of April 21, 1804, printed in Letters from the Lake Poets, 
 
 PP- 33-41- 
 
 2 Stoddart was then not, as is commonly stated, Chief Justice of Malta, but 
 King's Advocate (Attorney-General), and he enjoyed besides good private prac- 
 tice in the Vice-Admiralty Court. He became Chief Justice, but many years 
 later. His sister Sarah became the first wife of William Hazlitt. 
 
 3 The letter is printed in full in the Illustrated London News for June 10, 
 1893. It begins ' My dear Sara,' and ends, 'while I live your comforts will be 
 always thought of by me as my first duties. Again and again may God bless 
 you and our dear children, and S. T. Coleridge.' He reports that he had 
 
 \ been miserably ill on the passage, and that though, since his arrival, free from 
 ' such sharp illnesses as in England,' he has suffered from ' dreadful languor, 
 weight on my breath,' etc. Since the very hot weather had set in he had been 
 feeling better. 
 
i8o4 SIR ALEXANDER BALL 145 
 
 the news of 'the forlorn wanderer,' as Mary Lamb 
 styled Coleridge in thanking her constant corre- 
 spondent, Sarah Stoddart, for the tidings, and for the 
 kindness extended to him. But he did not for long 
 remain the guest of Stoddart, mention of whom be- 
 came so rare in the poet's letters to Lamb, that Mary 
 felt suspicious, and asked, ' Did your brother and Col. 
 argue long arguements, till between the two great 
 arguers there grew a little coolness ? ' Before the 
 6th July he had become the honoured guest, and in 
 some measure the private secretary, of the Governor 
 (his official title was ' Civil Commissioner '), Vice- 
 Admiral Sir Alexander John Ball, who had been one 
 .of Nelson's captains, and to whom Coleridge had 
 [carried letters of recommendation. ' Sir A. Ball is, 
 'indeed, in every respect as kind and attentive to me 
 las possible,' he writes, and, so far, he is quite satisfied 
 bf the wisdom of leaving England and its 'inward 
 jdistractions.' This was written on July 6th ^ to 
 {Stuart, to whom he sends ' some Sibylline Leaves 
 iwhich he wrote for Sir A, B., who has sent them 
 home to the ministry.' 'They will give you,' he 
 idds, 'my ideas on the importance of the island,' and 
 3tuart may publish them, ' only not in the same words.' 
 H[e considers himself ' a sort of diplomatic under- 
 trapper hidden under the Governor's robes,' so that 
 )Luart must be discreet. Early in August, the demon 
 'f restlessness drove him to Sicily, with the intention 
 f returning to Malta in the late autumn. He accord- 
 igly left Malta under convoy of Major Adye (who 
 ^as carrying despatches to Gibraltar),- for Syracuse, 
 
 1 Letters from the Lake Poets, P- 4i- A letter to the same effect was written 
 Sir G. Beaumont on Aug. i (see j\Iem. of Coleorton, i. 70). In neither is 
 oddart mentioned. 
 " Major Adye also undertook to forward a series of letters which Coleridge 
 
 L 
 
 hi 
 
146 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1804- 
 
 where he remained till the beginning of November.^ 
 
 Sir Alexander Ball proposed to make some use of 
 
 Coleridge in Sicily. On the 24th August he wrote 
 
 thus to the English representative at Syracuse, Mr. 
 
 Leckie : — 
 
 You have admirably described the leading features of my friend 
 Coleridge, whose company will be a delightful feast to your mind. 
 We must prevail on him to draw up a political paper on the revenue 
 and resources of Sicily, with the few advantages which His Sicilian 
 Majesty derives from it, and the danger he is in of having it seized 
 from him by the French. We should then propose to his Majesty 
 to transfer his right of that island to Great Britain upon condition 
 that she shall pay him annually the amount of the present revenue.^ i 
 
 In a letter to Stuart, dated 'Syracuse, Oct, 22,- 
 1804,' Coleridge writes: 'I leave the publication of 
 THE PACQUET which is Waiting for convoy at Malta for 
 you, to your own opinion. If the information appear j 
 new or valuable to you, and the letters themselves j 
 entertaining, etc., publish them ; only do not sell the ' 
 copyright of more than the right of two editions to 
 the booksellers.' What this ' pacquet' may have been, 
 I do not know. It probably never reached Stuart, j 
 Coleridge adds that he has drawn on Stuart for ^50 
 to the order of Stoddart. By the 22nd November 
 Coleridge was back in Malta, occupying a ' garret in 
 the Treasury,' and acting as Private Secretary to Sir 
 Alex. Ball. In a despatch^ of Jan. 2, 1805, to the 
 Secretary of State, the Governor, in referring to a 
 
 says he had written to Beaumont, but these were destroyed at Gibraltar amongj 
 Adye's papers on his death by the plague, four days after his arrival (Letter to 
 Stuart in Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 47). 
 
 1 Coleridge frequently alluded to his 'ascents of Etna,' but it is improbable,' 
 that he went much higher than the village of Nicolosi, mentioned in a note tO: 
 Table Talk, July 25, 183 1. _ ' 
 
 ^ The whole letter ('Naples, 24th August, 1S04') which is unprinted, is^ 
 very curious. Ball proposes for Sicily just what in our own time has been done 
 with Cyprus. 
 
 •* The extract from the official copy of the despatch in the archives at Malta 
 was kindly procured for me by a friend there. 
 
i8o5 ACTING PUBLIC SECRETARY AT MALTA 147 
 
 commission issued by him to Captain Leake, R.A,, 
 to proceed to the Black Sea to buy oxen, etc., says 
 that he takes with him ' a Mr. Coleridge ' — an intima- 
 tion which shows that there was good foundation for 
 certain rumours which reached Coleridge's friends, 
 probably through Stoddart's letters.^ But a better 
 appointment prevented the ci-devant 'Watchman' 
 from aiding the prosecution of Pitt's wicked wars in 
 the character of Assistant-Commissary. On the i8th 
 January, Mr. Alex. Macaulay, the Public Secretary, 
 died somewhat suddenly, and Coleridge received 
 the acting appointment, pending the absence of Mr. 
 E. T. Chapman, for whom the office was destined. 
 The full salary attached to it was ^1200, and in 
 accordance with custom Coleridge was promised, the 
 I [half, £(iOO a year. It is vastly amusing to think of 
 •|him 'having the honour to be the obedient humble 
 rlservant ' of the 'infamous Castlereagh,' who at this 
 time happened to be the Secretary of State for War 
 land Colonies, But few traces of Coleridge's official 
 ife remain at Malta, for some years ago the records 
 Df the Chief Secretary's office previous to 1851 were 
 burnt. A collection of State papers, however, which 
 svas printed not long ago, contains a good many docu- 
 nents signed or countersigned by ' S. T. Coleridge, 
 ?*ub. Sec. to H.M. Civ. Commissr.' ; and the mere 
 outine work must have been very considerable, for 
 here lies before me a highly unimportant document 
 —'Affidavit of the Paymaster of the Maltese Artil- 
 
 ^ ' Coleridge is confidential secretary to Sir A. Ball, and has been taking 
 le pains to set the country right as to Neapolitan politics, in the hope of 
 
 iving Sicily from the French. He is going with Capt. into Greece, and 
 
 p the Black Sea to purchase corn for the Government. Odd, but pleasant 
 lough, if he would but learn to be contented in that state of life into which it 
 as pleased God to call him — a maxim which I have long thought the best in the 
 atechism' (Southey to Rickman, Feb. 16, 1805, \n Life and Con: ii. 315). 
 ee also A Group of Englishmen, p. 305. 
 
148 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1805- 
 
 lery,' sworn before, and signed by Coleridge as Public 
 Secretary, on March 13, 1805.^ 
 
 In a letter to Stuart (May i, 1805) he complains 
 of overwork, and ' wishes to Heaven he had never 
 accepted his office as Public Secretary, or the former 
 one of Private Secretary, as, even in a pecuniary point 
 of view, he might have gained twice as much and im- 
 proved his reputation.' He adds : ' I have the title I 
 and the palace of the Public Secretary, but not half I 
 the salary, though I had promise of the whole. But ; 
 the promises of one in office are what every one knows i 
 them to be, and Sir A. B. behaves to me with real i 
 personal fondness, and with almost fatherly attention.' j 
 In this letter, as in one of April 2 7th,^ Coleridge be- 1 
 wails the irregularity of the opportunities of communi- 1 
 cation. He gets few letters, and his own go to thejj 
 fishes. It is, he believes, a judgment on him fori 
 former * indolence and procrastination ' that now when j 
 all his gratification is in writing letters to England, he 
 has seldom a chance of despatching them. On April 
 27th it is his * intention to return home overland by 
 Naples, Ancona, and Trieste, etc., on or about the 2nd 
 of next month.' On May Day his 'heart is almost Jmsk 
 broken ' that he cannot go by this convoy ; Chapman 
 has not arrived to relieve him, and he may not come 
 till July. He begs Stuart to ' write to Mrs. Coleridge 
 and say that his constitution is, he hopes, improved by 
 the abode here, but that accidents, partly by an excess 
 of official labour and anxiety, partly from distress of 
 mind at his not hearing from his friends, and knoW' 
 ledge that they could not have heard from him, etc 
 
 ^ He seems also to have acted as a magistrate. See the amusing story in the 
 additional ' Omniana ' in Lit. Remains, 1836, i. 335. 
 2 Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 46. 
 
 ft 31 
 'ill 
 
 ii-\ 
 
i8o6 LEAVES MALTA FOR NAPLES AND ROME 149 
 
 etc. etc., have produced an alteration in him for the 
 worse,' and that he hopes to get away, homewards, by 
 the end of May. In February the Wordsworths lost 
 their sailor brother, John, to whom Coleridge was 
 much attached, and when the news reached Malta, 
 Coleridge was so much affected that, as he wrote to 
 his w^ife, he ' kept his bed for a fortnight.' The fear 
 of similar consequences prompted Mrs. Coleridge to 
 refrain from informing him of the death of his friend, 
 Thomas Wedgwood, which took place in July 1805.^ 
 In the same letter Mrs. Coleridge says that she has 
 received one from her husband of July 21, informing 
 her that he cannot leave until Mr. Chapman arrives ; 
 ' he is unhappy in the extreme, not having received 
 above three or four letters from home during his 
 residence in the island. I myself have only had four 
 from him.'- 
 
 Mr. Chapman arrived on Sep. 6, and Coleridge 
 quitted Malta on the 21st. He left for Rome in com- 
 pany with a gentleman, unnamed, who paid all expenses, 
 meaning to stay only a fortnight, and then return 
 for the luinter to Naples, where Coleridge had left 
 most of his clothes and all his letters of credit, manu- 
 scripts, etc. He had not been ten days in Rome when 
 'the French torrent rolled down on Naples,' and re- 
 turn thither, or receipt of anything thence, was equally 
 impossible.^ This shows that Coleridge must have 
 
 1 Mrs. S. T. C. to J. Wedgwood, Oct. 13, 1805, in A Group of E7iglishjnen, 
 p. 303, an admirably expressed letter. 
 
 2 In his notes to ' Unpublished Letters ' in the Ilhistrafed London News, Mr. 
 E. H. Coleridge says that only fourteen letters written from Malta have come 
 under his notice. Opportunities of writing were doubtless few, but during his 
 stay in the island, Coleridge ' made copious entries in his journals and diaries, 
 and of these only a few fragments have been published.' A specimen of great 
 interest follows (I.L.N. June 10, 1893). 
 
 ^ Letter to Stuart, '[London] Aug. 18, 1806.' Its narrative stops abruptly 
 at the point above {^Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 56). 
 
 II 
 
I50 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1806 
 
 lingered long at Naples. We know that he was there i 
 at the end of October when the news of Trafalgar \ 
 reached the city ; Gillman quotes ^ an entry from his ! i 
 diary there, dated Dec. 15th; the French entered i 
 Naples early in February 1806, so that Coleridge can- i 
 not have arrived at Rome much before the end of ; 
 January. He remained until the i8th of May — the 1 
 second anniversary of his arrival at Malta. ; ' 
 
 Of his doings in Rome we know little or nothing. : i 
 Soon after reaching England he wrote thus to Stuart : j v. 
 'If I recover a steady though imperfect health, I I , 
 perhaps should have no reason to regret my long < 
 absence; not even my perilous detention in Italy ; for i 
 by my regular attention to the best of the good things i 
 in Rome, and associating almost wholly with the artists i 
 of acknowledged highest reputation, I acquired more ■ 
 insight into the Fine Arts in three months than I could 
 have done in England in twenty years.' ^ He made 
 many new acquaintances — among others Baron W. 
 von Humboldt^ (then Prussian Minister at the Papal 
 Court) and Ludwig Tieck* — and one friend, Washing- 
 ton Allston,^ the American painter. Of his leaving 
 Rome and Italy, of the reasons which led to it, and of;: 
 
 1 Life, p. 179. 
 
 2 Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 60. Gillman i^Life, p. 179) makes a state- ! 
 ment much to the same effect. See also an interesting letter on his Italian art- 
 studies which Coleridge addressed to Samuel Rogers in 18 15 [Rogers and his 
 Contemporaries, by P. W. Clayden, 1889, i. 191). 
 
 3 In The Triend (1S18, etc., Sect. II. Essay xi. ) Coleridge says he then read to 
 him Wordsworth's Ode on the Intimation of Immortality. This poem was not com- 
 pleted until 1806 ; but some incomplete draft of it may have been sent to him at 
 Malta. He had with him a MS. copy of the earlier portion of the Prelude. See Jk 
 also an allusion to Humboldt in Table Talk, Aug. 28, 1833. 
 
 * He renewed acquaintance with Tieck in London in 18 17. See p. 230 
 infra. 
 
 ® He began a portrait of Coleridge at Rome, but, though well advanced, it ,j? 
 was not finished when Coleridge left. It is now in the possession of AUston's * li 
 niece, Miss R. Charlotte Dana, of Boston, U.S.A. The same painter's portrait 
 of Coleridge, now in the National Portrait Gallery, was taken at Bristol in 1814. 
 See the recently published life of Allston, by Flagg, p. 105. 
 
i8o6 • LEAVES ROME FOR ENGLAND 151 
 
 the manner of it, Coleridge is reported to have given 
 several accounts which are not altocfether consistent.^ 
 The only points common to them all are that he was 
 Ij warned to get away from Rome and Italy as quickly 
 as possible, because Napoleon had ordered his arrest 
 for having, years before, written certain articles in the 
 Morning Post ; and that he instantly fled to an Italian 
 port, whence he found passage to England. The de- 
 tails attributed to him, besides being inconsistent, are 
 mostly trivial, and probably owe much of both qualities 
 to their reporters. It is not improbable that Napoleon 
 ordered the arrest of the English in Italy ; possible, 
 even, that he marked Coleridge down individually ; 
 and the poet may have been warned, and his escape 
 assisted, by influential acquaintances ; but we know 
 nothing of the circumstances from Coleridge directly. 
 He certainly did not go direct to Leghorn and sail 
 directly, or go to Leghorn and skulk about incognito 
 until he secured a passage — as is variously alleged. 
 He probably went direct to Leghorn,^ and, after 
 arranging for a passage in an American vessel, left 
 again ; but at all events he wrote a letter^ to Washing- 
 ton Allston (then at Rome) on June 19 from some 
 town unnamed, where he had then been for more 
 than a fortnijjht : — 
 
 1 Gillman, Life, pp. 179-181 ; Cottle's Rem. pp. 310-313 ; and (through 
 John Sterling) in Caroline Fox's Journals. I cannot learn that any Englishmen 
 were then arrested at Rome, or that there was any general exodus of our country- 
 men. 
 
 2 ' Coleridge has been daily expected since the 1st of May last year. The 
 last accounts were dated in the May of this — he was then at Leghorn, about to 
 embark for England' (Unprinted portion of letter of Southey to Cottle, Aug. 
 II, 1806, in Life and Con: iii. 51). See also Southey's letter to Danvers 
 {Letters of R. S. i. 377). 
 
 ^ This letter was partly and incorrectly printed in Scribnei^'s Mag. for Jan. 
 1892. The publishers most kindly sent me a corrected and completed transcript, 
 from which I quote. With other letters of Coleridge, it appears in Mr. Flagg's 
 Life of Allston. Mr. Russell was an artist, an Exeter man, and Coleridge's fellow- 
 passenger from Italy to England. 
 
152 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1806 
 
 I have been dangerously ill for the last fortnight ; . . . about 
 ten days ago when rising from my bed I had a manifest stroke of 
 palsy along my right side and right arm. My head felt like another 
 man's head, so dead was it. . . . Enough of it — continual vexations 
 and preyings upon the spirit. I gave life to my children, and they 
 have repeatedly given it to me, for, by the Maker of all things, but 
 for them I would try my chance. But they pluck out the wing- 
 feathers from the mind. I have not recovered the sense of my side 
 or my hand, but have recovered the use. I am harassed by local 
 and partial fevers. This day at noon we set off for Leghorn : all 
 passage through the Italian states and Germany is little other than 
 impossible for an Englishman, and Heaven knows whether Leghorn 
 may not be blockaded. However, we go thither, and shall go to 
 England in an American ship. ... On my arrival at Pisa ... I 
 will write a letter to you, for this I do not consider as a letter. 
 Nothing can surpass Mr. Russell's kindness and tenderheartedness 
 to me. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 RETURN TO ENGLAND LECTURES THE FRIEND 
 
 A.D. 1 806-1810 
 
 When Coleridge's ship arrived at the quarantine 
 ground off Portsmouth on the nth August, he was ill, 
 and possibly for that reason wrote to no one. Mr. 
 Russell, however, wrote to his own friends at Exeter, 
 who wrote to the Coleridges at Ottery, who wrote to 
 Mrs. Coleridge — the news reaching her on the 15th. 
 Coleridge arrived in London on the 17th, and on the 
 following day, having taken up his quarters with 
 Lamb, wrote to Stuart and to Wordsworth. In both 
 letters^ he described himself as much better since he 
 landed, but in neither did he say anything about going 
 home. He did not write to Wedgwood for ten 
 months, and when he did, he described himself as 
 having arrived from Italy ' ill, penniless, and worse 
 than homeless.' Almost his first words to Stuart were, 
 ' I am literally afraid, even to cowardice, to ask for 
 any person, or of any person.' Spite of the friendliest 
 and most unquestioning welcome from all most dear to 
 him, it was the saddest of home-comings, for the very 
 
 1 Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 54; Mem. of Cohorton, i. 157. These 
 books are the main authorities for this period. — ~~ 
 
 'university 
 
154 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1806 j^ 
 
 sympathy held out with both hands induced only a 
 bitter, hopeless feeling of remorse — a 
 
 Sense of past youth, and manhood come in vain ; 
 And genius given, and knowledge won in vain ; — • 
 
 of broken promises, — promises to friends and promises 
 to himself; and above all, sense of a will paralysed — 
 dead perhaps, killed by his own hand. 
 
 Wordsworth, whose family had outgrown Dove 
 Cottage, was then looking for a house close to Kes- 
 wick, that he might be near Coleridge, should Cole- ': \ 
 ridge decide on living at Greta Hall. He would do \\ 
 nothing until that was settled, but no answer came to \ 
 his repeated inquiries by letter. Coleridge seems j i 
 soon to have left L amb's chambers for a room at the i \ 
 Coii-7'ier office (348 Strand), and to have settled down ; \ 
 as assistant to Stuart and to his editor, Street. He i| 
 had been sent for by Lord Howick (Foreign Secretary), 1 1 
 but had been repulsed by the hall porter, and doubted |1 
 whether the letter on the state of affairs in the Medi- 1 1 
 terranean which he had left had ever reached his i| 
 Lordship. A few days after Fox's death (Sep. 13) 
 he promised Stuart a ' full and severe critique ' of that 
 statesman's latest views. About the same time, 
 through Davy or William Smith, M.P. for Norwich, :i 
 or both, he undertook to deliver a series of lectures on 
 * Taste ' at the Royal Institution. On Sep. 16 — just 
 a month after his landing — he wrote his first letter 
 to his wife, to say that he might be expected at 
 Greta Hall on the 29th. Before this, Wordsworth 
 had informed Sir George Beaumont that Coleridge i! 
 
 dare not go home, he recoils so much from the thought of !( 
 domesticating with Mrs. Coleridge, with whom, though on many 
 accounts he much respects her, he is so miserable that he dare not 
 encounter it. What a deplorable thing ! I have written to him to V 
 
i8o6 'ILL, PENNILESS, AND WORSE THAN HOMELESS' 155 
 
 say that if lie does not come down immediately I must insist upon 
 seeing him somewhere. If he appoints London I shall go. I 
 believe if anything good is to be done for him it must be done 
 by me.^ 
 
 It was Wordsworth's letter, doubtless, which drew 
 Coleridge to the North. Dorothy's letter to Lady- 
 Beaumont,^ written on receipt of the announcement of 
 Coleridge's home-coming, goes copiously and minutely 
 into the reasons for the estrangement between the 
 poet and his wife. Miss Wordsworth still had hopes 
 of an improvement. 
 
 We have long known (she writes) how unfit Coleridge and his 
 wife were for each other ; but we had hoped that his ill-health, and 
 the present need his children have of his care and fatherly instruc- 
 tions, and the reflections of his own mind during this long absence, 
 would have so wrought upon him that he might have returned home 
 with comfort, ready to partake of the blessings of friendship, which 
 he surely has in an abundant degree, and to devote himself to his 
 studies and his children. . . . Poor soul ! he had a struggle of 
 many years, striving to bring Mrs. C. to a change of temper, and 
 something like communion with him in his enjoyments. He is 
 now, I trust, effectually convinced that he has no power of this sort. 
 . . . But suppose him once reconciled to that one great want, an 
 utter want of sympathy, I believe he may live in peace and quiet. 
 Mrs, C. has many excellent properties, as you observe ; she is unre- 
 mitting in her attentions as a nurse to her children, and, indeed, I 
 believe she would have made an excellent wife to many persons. 
 Coleridge is as little fitted for her as she for him, and I am truly 
 sorry for her. 
 
 Of Coleridge during the next three months, the 
 only glimpses we have are in the correspondence of 
 distracted friends who cannot draw a word of reply to 
 the letters they address to him. Josiah Wedgwood is 
 the most persistent inquirer — he craves for the long- 
 promised material for the Life of his brother Thomas, 
 then being prepared by Sir James Mackintosh.^ On 
 
 1 Knight's Z?/J?, ii. 74. 2 jy^-w. of Cdeorton, i. 162. 
 
 2 Sir James Mackintosh was more diplomatic than Coleridge, for he proved 
 as faithless to his trust and his promises, without sharing the just displeasure of 
 the Wedgwood family. 
 
156 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERLDGE iSo6- 
 
 Nov. loth, Wordsworth (who had taken his family to 
 Coleorton farm-house) wrote : ' Alas ! we have had no 
 tidings of Coleridge — a certain proof that he continues 
 to be very unhappy.' The truth of the presentiment 
 was soon confirmed. Before the loth December, 
 the Wordsworths had received four letters from 
 Coleridge, in all of which he ' spoke 
 
 with the same steadiness of his resolution to separate from 
 Mrs. C, and she has fully agreed to it, and consented that he 
 should take Hartley and Derwent and superintend their education, 
 she being allowed to have them at the holidays. I say she has 
 agreed to the separation, but in a letter which we have received to- 
 night he tells us she breaks out into outrageous passions, and urges 
 continually that one argument (in fact the only one which has the 
 least effect upon her mind), that this person and that person, and 
 everybody will talk.' ^ 
 
 Wordsworth at once wrote and begged Coleridge to 
 come to Coleorton and bring the two boys with him, 
 and on December 2 1 Coleridge arrived, bringing, 
 however, only Hartley." On Christmas Day, Miss 
 Wordsworth described him to Lady Beaumont as 
 tolerably well and cheerful, and ' already begun with 
 his books.' He seemed 'more like his old self,' and 
 * contented in his mind, having settled things at home 
 to his satisfaction.' 
 
 It was early in the following month that Words- 
 worth recited to Coleridge the great autobiographical 
 poem which we know as The Prelude. He had 
 
 ^ Miss Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont in Mem. of Coleorton, i. 182. 
 'Dec. 10, 1806,' is the post-mark. The date printed at the head of the letter, 
 ' Nov. 16,' is an impossible one. 
 
 ^ Two days previous Miss Wordsworth wrote thus to Lady Beaumont : ' He 
 [Coleridge] writes calmly and in better spirits. Mrs. C. had been outrageous ; 
 but for the last two or three days she had become more quiet, and appeared to be 
 tolerably reconciled to his arrangements. I had a letter from her last week — a 
 strange letter ! She wrote just as if all things were going on as usual, and we 
 knew nothing of the intentions of Coleridge. She gives but a very gloomy 
 account of Coleridge's health, but this in her old way, without the least feeling or 
 sense of his sufferings.' Mem. of Coleorton, i. 187. 
 
i8o7 LINES ON HEARING ' THE PRELUDE' RECITED 157 
 
 carried with him to Malta a transcript of the first five 
 ' Books,' but the poem had been slowly built up and 
 completed during his long absence, and was addressed 
 to himself. How deeply the recital impressed him 
 may be gathered from the touching and beautiful 
 response ^ made while the sound of his friend's voice 
 was still vibrating. The picture which Coleridge 
 draws of himself is too sacred for comment — the 
 companion-portrait of his friend is drawn in lines even 
 more strongly contrasting than those which had been 
 used in Dejection. 
 
 1 To a Gentleman [William Wordsworth], composed on the night of his recita- 
 tion of a Poem on the gfoxvth of an Individual I\Iind. 
 
 I quote from the original version chiefly for the sake of including the seven- 
 teen lines beginning ' Dear shall it be to every human heart,' which were first 
 ]M-inted in the Mem. of Coleorton, i. 215. The original version is given entire 
 in Poet. IVorks, 1893, Appendix H, p. 525. 
 
 O Friend ! O Teacher ! God's great gift to me ! 
 Into my heart have I received that lay 
 More than historic, that prophetic lay 
 Wherein (high theme by thee first sung aright) 
 Of the foundations and the building up 
 Of thy own Spirit thou hast loved to tell 
 What may be told, by words revealable : 
 
 Thy work 
 Makes audible a linked song of Truth — 
 Of Truth profound a sweet continuous song. 
 Not learnt, but native, her own natural notes ! 
 Dear shall it be to every human heart. 
 To me how more than dearest ! me, on whom 
 Comfort from thee, and utterance of thy love. 
 Came with such heights and depths of harmony, 
 Such sense of wings uplifting, that its might 
 Scatter'd and quell'd me, till my thoughts became 
 A bodily tumult ; and thy faithful hopes, 
 Thy hopes of me, dear Friend, by me unfelt ! 
 Were troublous to me, almost as a voice, 
 Familiar once, and more than musical ; 
 As a dear woman's voice to one cast forth, 
 A wanderer with a worn-out heart forlorn, 
 Mid strangers pining with untended wounds. 
 
 O Friend, too well thou know'st, of what sad years 
 The long suppression had benumb'd my soul, 
 That, even as life returns upon the drown'd, 
 The unusual joy awoke a throng of pains — 
 Keen pangs of Love, awakening, as a babe 
 Turbulent, with an outcry in the heart 1 
 And fears self-will'd, that shunn'd the eye of Hope ; 
 And Hope that scarce would know itself from Fear ; 
 
158 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1807 
 
 On January 27, 1807, Miss Wordsworth reports 
 Coleridge as pretty well, ' though ailing at some 
 time in every day. He does not take such strong 
 stimulants as he did, but I fear he will never 
 be able to leave them off entirely.' On February 
 17 he is still at Coleorton, but it must have been 
 soon after this that he took Hartley up to London 
 on a visit to Basil Montagu. It was probably while 
 then in town that he made preliminary arrangements 
 through Davy for the delivery of the course of lectures 
 which had been spoken of in 1806, for in August we 
 find Davy endeavouring to get a definite answer on 
 the subject.^ Some time in May, Coleridge and 
 Hartley joined Mrs. Coleridge and the two younger 
 children at Bristol (where they had been since the 
 end of March), and on the 6th June the whole 
 family became the guests of Poole at Stowey. The 
 visit was planned for but a fortnight, after which 
 the Coleridges were to have gone to Ottery ^ to stay 
 with his brother George, but the visit had to be aban- 
 
 Sense of past youth, and manhood come in vain, 
 And genius given, and l^nowledge won in vain ; 
 And all, which I had cull'd in wood-wallcs wild, 
 And all which patient toil had rear'd, and all 
 Commune with thee had open'd out — but flowers 
 Strew' d on my corse, and borne upon my bier, 
 In the same coffin, for the self-same grave ! 
 
 But the ' Orphic song ' brought to the listener something more wholesome than 
 despairing remorse^it brought, for the moment at least, hope, and something 
 else v^fhich could not be defined. ' Thought was it ? ' he asks himself, ' or 
 aspiration ? or resolve ? ' — 
 
 The tumult rose and ceas'd : for peace is nigh 
 Where Wisdom's voice has found a list'ning heart. 
 Amid the howl of more than wintry storms, 
 The halcyon hears the voice of vernal hours 
 Already on the wing ! 
 
 1 Frag. Rem. p. 98. 
 
 2 ' In less than a week I go down to Ottery, with my children and their 
 mother, from a sense of duty as it affects myself, and from a promise made to 
 Mrs. Coleridge as far as it affects her, and indeed as a debt of respect to her, for 
 her many praiseworthy qualities.' {Unpublished Letter of S. T. C.) 
 
1 8o7 RE VISITS STOWEY 159 
 
 doned, owing, it was said, to illness in the house. 
 The true reason was, that when George Coleridge was 
 made aware of the proposed separation of S. T. Cole- 
 ridge from his wife, he refused to receive them into 
 his house. This proved a lasting rupture with Ottery. 
 The Coleridges remained on with Poole — Mrs. Cole- 
 ridge and the children until the end of July, when 
 they returned to Bristol ; Coleridge himself until the 
 end of September. There is much of the doings of 
 this period in Mrs. Sandford's book. It appears to 
 have been on the whole a happy time for all parties, 
 and it would seem as if, probably through Poole's good 
 offices, some kind of reconciliation, or at least some 
 resolution to ' try again,' had been patched up between 
 I Coleridge and his wife, for when Mrs. Coleridge left 
 Stowey for Bristol it had been arranged that she 
 should there be joined by her husband, and that the 
 family party should return intact to Greta Hall. 
 Coleridge appears to have been cheerful enough while 
 he basked in the sunshine of old associations and old 
 |i friendships, but when his host and constant friend 
 ' urged him to exert himself in preparing for the pro- 
 , , posed lectures at the Royal Institution, poor Cole- 
 ridge could only respond with a sigh — 
 
 Let Eagle bid the Tortoise sunwards soar, 
 As vainly Strength speaks to a broken Mind ! ^ 
 
 Poole succeeded, however, in overcoming Coleridge's 
 reluctance to resume communication with Josiah 
 Wedgwood. While on a visit from Poole's to his old 
 neighbour, Mr. Brice of Aisholt, Coleridge wrote the 
 letter ^ which contains the statement already quoted as~ 
 to his having returned from Italy 'ill, penniless, and 
 
 ^ T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 195. 
 
 2 To Josiah Wedgwood, June 27, 1S07, in A Grottp of Englishmen, pp. 
 324-328. 
 
i6o 
 
 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 1807 
 
 worse than homeless.' It is a sad letter, differing 
 however but little from many which Coleridge was 
 called on to write — a medley of confessions, promises, 
 projects, and pleas self-justificatory. The long-pro- 
 mised contributions to the estimate of Thomas Wedg- 
 wood's philosophical views, and the more recently 
 demanded contribution to the memoir (supposed to be 
 preparing by Sir James Mackintosh), were both among 
 the 'effects which have been most unkindly or injudi- 
 ciously detained by Stoddart' at Malta. If Josiah 
 Wedgwood only knew Coleridge's grief for the loss of 
 his friend Thomas, and his ' own bad state of health 
 and worse state of mind,' he would pity rather than 
 wonder at the 'day after day procrastinating.' 'The 
 faultiest parts of my conduct (he urged) have arisen 
 from qualities both blameable and pitiable, but yet 
 the very opposite of Neglect or Insensibility.' He 
 flatly denies an accusation of having abused Mack- 
 intosh to his (M.'s) relations. ' I am at present,' 
 he adds, ' on the eve of sending two volumes of 
 poems to the press, ^ the work of past years.' 
 Christabel, the most greatly admired, has been, he 
 is told, ' anticipated as far as all originality of style 
 
 1 In Cottle's Early Recoil, (ii. 130, but not in his Rem.) is printed an extract 
 from a letter written by Coleridge to Wade at this time. Its exact date cannot 
 now be ascertained, for of the original only a fragment remains, but it must 
 belong to the early days of September 1807. Some unprinted passages indicate 
 that Coleridge's poems were being transcribed for the press by Mrs. Coleridge at 
 Bristol, that he was under contract with Messrs. Longman for a book (possibly 
 these poems), and that he had received the offer of a regular engagement on some 
 provincial newspaper, and had declined it, under the belief that its acceptance 
 would displease the Wedgwoods. In the same letter he describes himself as 
 under unfulfilled obligations to Wade : ' penniless, resourceless, in heavy debt, 
 his health and spirits absolutely broken down, and with scarce a friend in the 
 world ' — an obvious exaggeration, seeing that in Wordsworth and Poole alone he 
 had a host, and that he had been reconciled to Wedgwood. Cottle, as usual, 
 darkens knowledge by garbling the extract he gives. Coleridge did not write ' / 
 have too much reason ' to fear the loss of the annuity ; but that at a previous 
 time, when another grief was weighing on him, he had had reason to fear for the 
 continuance of the annuity. 
 
I So; THOMAS DE QUINCE Y i6i 
 
 and manner goes by a work ^ which he has not 
 read.' If this be true, it is ' somewhat hard, for 
 [Scott] had, long before the composition of his own 
 poem, pubHcly repeated Ckristabel. Besides ' (he goes 
 on), ' I have finished a Greek and EngHsh grammar 
 on a perfectly new plan, and have done more than 
 half of a small but sufficiently complete Greek and 
 English Lexicon, so that I can put both to press 
 whenever I can make just terms with any bookseller.' "- 
 Nothing is said about lectures. Of this apologia, 
 Wedgwood wrote to Poole : ' His letter removed all 
 those feelings of anger which occasionally, but not 
 permanently, existed in my mind towards him.'^ 
 
 It was in the following month that De Quincey 
 appeared on the scene. On the 26th of July, Cottle 
 wrote a letter of introduction^ for that 'Gentleman of 
 Oxford, a scholar and man of genius ' (so he described 
 De Quincey) to Poole, which contained a request that 
 he might be introduced to Coleridge. The Opium- 
 eater's story ■'' is too well known to require more than 
 brief mention here. When he arrived at Stowey, 
 Coleridge was at Bridgwater, and thither the neophyte 
 pursued him. He found Coleridge standing in reverie, 
 under his host's gateway : ' In height he might seem 
 to be about five feet eight (he was in reality about an 
 
 ^ He is referring to Scott, and The Lay of the Last Minstrel. 
 
 2 One of these statements had some foundation, for it was from a Greek 
 grammar of his own making that Coleridge taught his little boys. The projects 
 — they were never more — are mentioned again, a year and a half later, in a letter 
 to Davy : ' As soon as I have a little leisure I shall send my Greek accidence and 
 vocabulary of terminations to the press with my Greek-English Lexicon, which 
 will be followed by a Greek Philosophical grammar' {Frag. Rem. p. io6). 
 
 3 T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 185. 
 * lb. ii. 190. 
 
 ® It began to appear in Taifs Magazine for Sep. 1834, two months after 
 Coleridge's death ; and has been reprinted (with many alterations) in De 
 Quincey's collected Woris (1863, ii. 38-122). The whole article bristles 
 with blunders of every description. Even the portions which relate the author's 
 own e.xperience and observation require a large allowance for refraction. 
 
 1 M 
 
1 62 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1807 l^ 
 
 I" 
 
 inch and a half taller) ... his person was broad and \ 
 full, and tended even to corpulence ; his complexion ] i 
 was fair, though not what painters technically call fair, 
 because it was associated with black hair ; his eyes 
 were large and soft in their expression ; and it was 
 from the peculiar appearance of haze or dreaminess 
 which mixed with their light, that I recognised my 
 object.' 
 
 As soon as it had been arranged that De Ouincey I 
 should join a dinner-party which Coleridge's host, Mr. 
 Chubb, was to entertain on that evening, Coleridge 
 began to talk ' in a continuous strain of eloquent dis- 
 sertation,' which, after about three hours, was arrested 
 by the entrance of Mrs. Coleridge. ' She was in 
 person full and rather below the common height ; 
 whilst her face showed, to my eye, some prettiness 
 of rather a common order.' When De Quincey had 
 been ' frigidly ' introduced, Mrs. Coleridge retired; 
 and no doubt the dissertation was resumed. But 
 with all this copious talk, De Quincey declares that 
 ' never had he beheld so profound an expression of 
 cheerless despondency ' as that which sat on thei 
 talker's countenance. At the large dinner-party in 
 the evening, Coleridge seemed to talk with an 
 effort, and to give no heed when his hearers mis- 
 represented what he said. At ten, — dinner had 
 probably begun at five or six, — De Quincey lefti 
 the party, and ' feeling that he could not easily go 
 to sleep after the excitement of the day, and fresh 
 from the sad spectacle of powers so majestic already; 
 besieged by decay,' he mounted his horse, and through* 
 the diyine calm of the summer night rode back toi 
 Bristol. He states that in the course of their con-- 
 versation ' Coleridge told him of the over- clouding. 
 
I So; DE QUINCE V'S GIFT 163 
 
 of his life ' by the abuse of opium, and warned him 
 against forming the habit, with so ' pecuHar an 
 emphasis of horror ' as to impress upon the young 
 man's mind * a feeHng that he never hoped to Hberate 
 himself from the bondage.' As to this alleged con- 
 fession, I feel almost persuaded that De Ouincey's 
 memory deceived him, and that he learned the secret 
 and received the warning at some later period. Such 
 a lapse in groping back through a past of seven-and- 
 twenty years, is much more probable than that Cole- 
 ridge should have divulged to a perfect stranger a 
 hitherto jealously-guarded secret. It struck the gene- 
 rous young man that Coleridge might be hampered 
 in many ways by pecuniary difficulties. Immediately 
 after his return to Bristol, he learned that such was 
 the case, ' and in consequence ' (he says) ' of what I 
 heard, I contrived that a particular service should be 
 rendered to Mr, Coleridge, a week after, through the 
 hands of Mr. Cottle.' 
 
 Such is De Ouincey's delicate way of telling the 
 story of his own impulsive generosity. Cottle's 
 account ^ is familiar. De Ouincey proposed to give 
 Coleridge five hundred pounds, but Cottle prudently 
 induced the young man to make the sum three 
 hundred. The gift was professedly accepted as an 
 unconditional loan, which (as he told Cottle) Cole- 
 ridge trusted to be able to restore in two years, 
 
 ^ Rem. pp. 341-344. The narrative is, as usual, full of inaccuracies — as 
 is shown by a comparison with the correspondence printed in De Qiiincey's 
 Memorials (2 vols. 1891), but the latter gives no new complexion to the conduct 
 of the parties. Both De Quincey and Cottle write as if the transaction had been 
 carried through at once, but the correspondence explains how it came to drag on 
 from July till November. This was not De Quincey's fault, for he found diffi- 
 culties in raising the whole of the money at once. Cottle prints Coleridge's 
 receipt: 'November 12, 1807 — Received from Mr. Joseph Cottle the sum of 
 Three hundred pounds, presented to me, through him, by an unknown friend. 
 S. T. Coleridge, Bristol.' 
 
i64 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1807 
 
 and as removing the pecuniary pressures which I , 
 
 alone stood in the way of the completion of works, < 
 
 which, if completed, would make him easy. Inj i 
 
 one year he hopes to ask the name of his bene- \ 
 
 factor, that he may show him good fruits of the \ 
 
 ' tranquillity of mind which his kindness ' has rendered 1 
 
 possible.^ I do not doubt the perfect sincerity with \ 
 
 which this letter was written, but in view of the | 
 
 events which followed, it can only be read with a; I 
 
 pang. Of the use to which De Quincey's gift was ' 
 
 put by Coleridge, nothing, I believe, is known. One i 
 
 hopes that part went to repay Wordsworth's loan \ 
 
 of ^100 made in 1804 ; but, at all events, soon i 
 
 afterwards, it was all gone. ' Heaven knows, of the ' 
 
 ^300 received through you,' wrote Coleridge to Cottle \ 
 in 1815, 'what went to myself!' 
 
 Coleridge left Stowey for Bristol about the 12th 1 
 September. On the nth he had written a long letter; 
 to Davy : in reply to an urgent message regarding the* 
 proposed lectures. He is better, and his ' will acquir-i 
 ing some degree of strength and power of reaction.' 
 
 I have received such manifest benefit from horse exercise, and! 
 gradual abandonment of fermented, and total abstinence from 
 spirituous, liquors, and by being alone with Poole, and the renewal 
 of old times, by wandering about my dear old walks of Quantock 
 and Alfoxden, that I have seriously set about composition with a 
 view to ascertain whether I can conscientiously undertake what li 
 so very much wish, a series of Lectures at the Royal Institution. 
 
 He has, however, changed his mind as to the subject, 
 If he lectures, it will not be on 'Taste,' but on 'the 
 Principles of Poetry,' and he will ' not give a single' 
 lecture till he has in fair writing at least one-half of the 
 whole course, for as to trusting anything to immediate 
 
 1 S. T. C. to Cottle (n.d.), Rem. p. 342. 2 py^g. Rem. ^. 99. 
 
i8o7 NO LONGER A UNITARIAN 165 
 
 effort, he shrinks from it as from guilt, and guilt in him 
 it would be.' He concludes by asking Davy to await 
 his final decision, at the end of the month. During 
 the months (September-November) which Coleridge 
 spent in Bristol, he seems to have given himself up 
 very much to talk about religion, surprising his friends 
 there with the change which had taken place in his 
 beliefs. A long and deeply interesting letter ^ printed 
 by Cottle shows that he was no longer a Unitarian — 
 he probably never had been one, in the strictest sense 
 — but a fully-developed Trinitarian. In a letter ^ to 
 
 i Poole from 'Keswick, Dec. 28, 1807,' ^Irs. Coleridge 
 says that when her husband joined her at Bristol, ' in 
 
 I such excellent health and improved looks, she thought 
 of days " lang syne," and hoped and prayed it might 
 continue.' 
 
 I Alas ! (she adds), in three or four days it was all over. He 
 said he must go to town immediafe/y, about the Lectures, yet he 
 
 [Stayed three weeks without another word about removing, and I 
 durst not speak lest it should disarrange him. Mr. De Quincey, 
 who was a frequent visitor to C. in College Street, proposed 
 accompanying me and the children into Cumberland, as he much 
 wished to pay Wordsworth and Southey a visit. . . . Towards the 
 end of October, accordingly, I packed up everything, C.'s things 
 (as I thought, for London) and our own, and left Bristol.^ . . . 
 
 1 Rem. pp. 314-325. I have not seen the original, but it was, no doubt, 
 carefully revised by Cottle before printing. The reports of conversations on 
 these topics are more completely given in Cottle's Early Recoil, ii. 99-124. 
 These are, even more than the letter, open to the suspicion of severe editing. 
 Southey wrote thus to W. Taylor, July 11, 1808 : ' Had Middleton been now at 
 Norwich, it is possible that you might have seen Coleridge there, for M. called 
 upon him in London. It has been his humour for [some] time past to think, or 
 rather to call, the Trinity a philosophical and most important Truth, and he is 
 very much delighted with Middleton's work on the subject. Dr. Sayers would 
 not find him now the warm Hartleyan that he has been ; Hartley was ousted by 
 Berkeley, Berkeley by Spinoza, and Spinoza by Plato ; when last I saw him 
 Jacob Behmen had some chance of coming in. The truth is that he plays with 
 systems, and any nonsense will serve him for a text from which he can deduce 
 something new and surprising' [Mem. of IV. T. i. 215). 
 
 ^ Partly printed in T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 202-204. 
 
 ^ For De Quincey's account of the journey, see Works (1S63, ii. 128) ; Art. 
 'William Wordsworth.' 
 
i66 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1807 
 
 I left him (as I thought) ready to jump into the mail for London! 
 Lo ! three weeks after I received a letter from him from White Horse 
 Stairs, Piccadilly ; he was just arrived in town, had been ill, owing 
 to sitting in wet cloaths, had passed three weeks at the house of z 
 Mr. Morgan, and had been nursed by his wife and her sister in the 
 kindest manner. C. found Davy very ill. The Lectures on that ac 
 count were postponed. Stuart had insisted on his being at the Courier 
 ofifice during his stay in town. . . . Wordsworth obtained a few line;, 
 from him ten days ago. Davy was better, and the Lectures were tc 
 commence in a fortnight. Since then we have heard nothing. Dr 
 Stoddart is arrived from Malta. He has brought with him C.'s papers, 
 C. wrote to him to expostulate with him for having detained them sc^ 
 long. He received an abusive answer, saying he would deliver up 
 the papers to a person properly documented, with ;£^o for expenses, 
 etc. C. has since found that he [Stoddart] is writing a book him-, 
 self. . . . Southey is enraged at his [Stoddart's] conduct, and fore- 
 told this about the book, and gave it as a reason why C.'s documents! 
 were not forthcoming. . . . He [Coleridge] has published a poem 
 in the Courier lately — The Wanderer's Farewell} 
 
 This very interesting letter of Tvlrs. Coleridgej 
 gives a succinct account of her husband up to the end of. 
 1807. It will be observed that it contains no mentionj 
 of De Quincey's bounty. He, of course, would say' 
 nothing to Mrs. Coleridge, and Coleridge himself had 
 evidently been equally reticent. His detention at 
 Bristol, we may assume, was not unconnected with! 
 the delay in receiving the three hundred pounds] 
 which was paid on November 12, at least a fortnight} 
 after JMrs. Coleridge's departure. 
 
 Coleridge returned to his old quarters at the top oij 
 
 1 ' To Two Sisters : A Wanderer's Farewell ' printed in the Couriei', Dec. 
 10, 1807. The signature was Siesti, but this disguise of Esteesi proved too thin] 
 for Mrs. Coleridge's jealous eyes. 'The wanderer' was Coleridge, and the 
 ' two sisters ' were Mrs. J. J. Morgan, and Miss Brent, and Mrs. Coleridge was 
 highly displeased. Coleridge wrote : — 
 
 Even thus did you call up before mine eyes 
 Two dear, dear Sisters, prized all price above ; 
 
 and Mrs. Coleridge well knew that these were not herself and Mrs. Southey.; 
 The poem in its integrity was first reprinted mPoef. and Dram. Works, 1877-80.1 
 It will be found also in Pod. Works, 1893, p. 179. A few lines adapted from 
 it were published in ed. 1834 (and after) with the heading, 'On taking leave ol 
 , 1817 ' (the date a misprint for ' 1807 '). 
 

 i8o8 LECTURES AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION 167 
 
 the Courier building in the Strand. ' He sits up in 
 a two pair of stairs room at the Courier office and 
 receives visitors,' writes Lamb to Manning (Feb. 28) ; 
 and De Quincey, in his Lake Poets, gives a dismal 
 account of Coleridge's situation at this period : — 
 
 I called upon him daily, and pitied his forlorn condition. There 
 was no bell in the room, which for many months answered the 
 double purpose of bed-room and sitting-room. Consequently I 
 often saw him picturesquely enveloped in night-caps surmounted by 
 handkerchiefs indorsed upon handkerchiefs, shouting . . . down 
 three or four flights of stairs, to a certain ' Mrs. Brainbridge,' his 
 sole attendant, whose dwelling was in the subterranean regions of 
 the house [the Courier office]. 
 
 His sole duty being to prepare his lectures, he gave 
 
 i much time to the assistance of Stuart and Street in 
 
 the conduct of their newspaper. Of this, the first ^ 
 
 course of lectures delivered by Coleridge, but a scanty 
 
 and fragmentary record remains.^ Lamb writes to 
 
 ; Manning on February 26, 180S : 'Coleridge has 
 
 ! delivered two lectures at the R.L ; two more were 
 
 ; attended,^ but he did not come. It is thought he 
 
 I has gone sick upon them. He ain't well, that's certain. 
 
 i Wordsworth * is coming: to see him.' This sounds a 
 
 i little unfeeling, as coming from Lamb ; but it was 
 
 I mainly a letter from Mary Lamb,^ which was bringing 
 
 j ^ It was really the first, notwithstanding statements by Coleridge and his 
 
 editors to the contrary. 
 I 2 'f he following is a list of all the lectures of this course, of which there is 
 
 j any general or particular record, printed and unprinted : I. Jan. 12, 1808 ; II. 
 i Feb. 5 ; III. and IV. before April 3. At least three more were given before 
 ( May 15, and several more in the course of the succeeding five or six weeks. 
 ' Notes of four were made by H. Crabb Robinson — see his Diary, etc., 1872, i. 
 I 140 ; and Mrs. H. N. Coleridge's Notes and Lectures on Shakespeare [by S. T. 
 j C] 1849. These are not included in Lectures and Notes on Shakspere and othei- 
 \ English Poets, by S. T. C, now first collected by T. Ashe (Bell, 1883), a useful, 
 1 and in many respects an excellent compilation. 
 
 ^ To the confusion of the sense, this word has hitherto been printed ' in- 
 tended.' I quote from the original letter. 
 
 * On this, see Mem. of Coleorto7i, ii. 35. 
 
 ^ Coleridge had been ill and better again in December 1807 {Mem. of Cole- 
 07-ton, ii. 41). On Feb. 18, 1808, he reports to Beaumont that he has been 'very 
 
168 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1808, 
 
 Wordsworth to town. I gather that Lamb suspected 
 opium to be largely responsible for his friend's ill- 
 ness, and that Wordsworth's moral influence would be 
 more powerful than his own. Wordsworth came, and 
 Southey followed ; and during their stay in town 
 Coleridge recovered, and before Wordsworth left on 
 the 3rd April he had heard two lectures, which (he 
 says) ' seemed to give great satisfaction,' although 
 Coleridge * was not in spirits, and suffered much during 
 the week both in body and mind.' ^ About this time 
 Coleridge reviewed his friend Clarkson's ' History of the 
 Abolition of the Slave-trade ' in the EdinbtLrgh. He had 
 begged Jeffrey to be merciful to an imperfect book for 
 the sake of the almost perfect character of the author ; 
 on which Jeffrey asked Coleridge to be himself the 
 critic. Coleridge afterwards complained of gross muti- 
 lation of his MS. and of inversion of some of his- 
 sentiments, especially as regards Pitt, whose sincerity 
 in the matter of Abolition, he had asserted.^ He 
 
 ill ' for many weeks, with only two 'day-long intervals.' He has been able to 
 do nothing except to write ' a moral and political defence of the Copenhagen 
 business,' which requires only a concluding paragraph. This no doubt was for 
 the Courier (see H. C. Robinson's Diary, etc., 1872, i. 138). 'I shall disgust 
 many friends,' he adds, but I do it from wl^ conscience. What other motive have 
 I ? ' (71/. of C. ii. 47). There is not a word about lectures. 
 
 1 Ulei/i. of Coleortoji, ii. 48. 
 
 2 Allsop's Letters, etc., p. 185. The article was printed in the Edinburgh 
 Review for July 1808. In a letter to Jeffrey (printed in the Illustrated London 
 Neius for June 10, 1893), dated 'Grasmere, Dec. 8, 1808,' Coleridge expresses his 
 thanks for the insertion of the article as an act of personal kindness and attention to 
 the request of one a stranger except by name, and says that the ' pecuniary re- 
 muneration' he had received was a surprise to him. He mildly points out that the 
 alterations the article had undergone have not been very skilfully made ; and com- 
 plains of the inversion of the remarks on Pitt's favourable attitude towards Abolition. 
 Coleridge declares that ' such is his detestation of that pernicious minister, such 
 his contempt of the cowardice and fatuity of his measures, and his Horror at the 
 yet unended Train of tlieir direful consequences, that if obedience to Truth could 
 ever be painful to him, this would have been.' He acted well in praising Pitt, 
 but was pleased that Jeffrey 'acted equally well in altering' the passage 'accord- 
 ing to his convictions.' The only explanation of Coleridge's far-stretched com- 
 plaisance is that he was at the time endeavouring to enlist Jeffrey's aid in getting 
 subscribers for The Friend, and meekly accepted two out of three emendations 
 in the phrasing of the Prospectus, which Jeffrey had suggested. 
 
1 808 FRA NCIS JEFFRE Y 1 69 
 
 proposed to republish his review, corrected and aug- 
 mented, but he did not, and it has never been re- 
 printed.^ In May, Coleridge writes- of himself as 
 correcting and revising Wordsworth's White Doc of 
 Rylstone, then ready for the press. He is hampered 
 by ' the heat and bustle of these disgusting lectures,' 
 the next of which will be his first on ' Modern Poetry,' 
 to be followed, later on, by one on Wordsworth's 
 ' System and Compositions.' The lectures came to an 
 end late in June.^ De Ouincey's statements'* respect- 
 ing Coleridge's condition during the period of the 
 lectures, and of his frequent failure to appear at 
 Albemarle Street, have much appearance of ex- 
 aggeration. They are in no way corroborated by 
 Crabb Robinson, and the two failures reported by 
 Lamb were probably all that took place. 
 
 When the lectures were over, Coleridge went to 
 Bury St. Edmunds on a visit to the Clarksons. Mrs. 
 ' Clarkson was one of his most devoted and sympa- 
 thetic friends, and one whose high qualities of mind 
 j and heart were greatly appreciated by him. It was 
 i no doubt owing to her good influence that he at this 
 time relinquished laudanum, or at least the abuse of it. 
 The abuse was no longer a secret from his intimates, 
 for soon after this visit he wrote thus to Stuart : — 
 
 I am hard at work, and feel a pleasure in it which I have not 
 known for years ; a consequence and reward of my courage in at 
 
 1 Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 180; AUsop's Letters, etc., p. 185 ; Frag. 
 Rem. p. 102. 
 
 2 Knight's Life of ]V. IV. ii. 100. 
 
 2 Whether he dehvered the full contract number of sixteen, I know not, but 
 it seems probable he did, for he received the full fee of a hundred pounds — ;i{^40 
 advanced in October 1808 and ^60 in March 1809. In April 180S he had ap- 
 plied for the ;i^6o, and been refused. This lack of confidence was much resented 
 by him, and he immediately borrowed ;i^ioo from Stuart, part of which was 
 required to pay the premium on his life-policy (Gent. Mag. June 1838, p. 581 ; 
 Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 135). 
 
 * Works (1863), ii. 99. ^^ ^ .,^ — -.^ 
 
 X '^ OF THE "^ X 
 
 (xjniversitt) 
 
I70 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE iSo8 
 
 length overcoming the fear of dying suddenly in my sleep, which, 
 Heaven knows, alone seduced me into the fatal habit, etc. ... If 
 I entirely recover I shall deem it a sacred duty to publish my cure, 
 tho' without my name, for the practice of taking opium is dreadfully 
 spread.^ 
 
 This was written from ' Allan Bank,' Wordsworth's 
 recently -entered and very uncomfortable house at 
 Grasmere. ' Coleridge has arrived at last ' (wrote 
 Southey to his brother Tom, September 9, 1808), 
 ' about half as bisf as the house. He came with 
 Wordsworth on Monday, and returned with him on 
 Wednesday. His present scheme is to put the boys 
 to school at Ambleside and reside at Grasmere him- 
 self.'^ At Stowey, a year before, some such arrange- 
 ment had been discussed as a contingency, but up to 
 June 1808 nothing further had been said regarding it 
 to Mrs. Coleridge. She was anxious, ' on the children's 
 account,' that Greta Hall might be decided on, andr 
 the landlord, Jackson, was ^seconrjing her efforts by 
 building some additional accommodation, fearing that, 
 owing to the presence of the Southey family, Cole- 
 ridge found too little privacy. On December 4, 
 Miss Wordsworth writes from Allan Bank to Mrs. 
 Marshall : ' At the time of the great storm, Mrs. 
 Coleridge and her little girP were here, and Mr. Cole- 
 ridge is with us constantly. . . . Mr. Coleridge and 
 his wife are separated, and I hope they will both be 
 the happier for it. They are upon friendly terms, and 
 occasionally see each other. In fact, Mrs. Coleridge 
 was more than a week at Grasmere [Allan Bank] 
 under the same roof with him. Coleridge intends to 
 
 1 Letters from the Lake Poets, p. i8i, where the passage appears to be given 
 incompletely. 
 
 2 Life and Corr. iii. i6. 
 
 ^ See Sara Coleridge's recollections of this visit, printed in her Memoirs 
 {1873)5 i- 17-20. The two boys had been placed at school at Ambleside. 
 
i8o8 PROSPECTUS OF ' THE FRIEND' 171 
 
 spend the winter with us. On the [other] side of this 
 paper you will find the Prospectus of a work which he 
 is going to undertake ; and I have little doubt but 
 that it will be well executed if his health does not fail 
 him ; but on that score (though he is well at present) 
 I have many fears. '^ 
 
 The ' prospectus ' was, of course, that of The 
 Friend. Coleridge and his associates of this period 
 must have used up a ream or two of it in their corre- 
 spondence — one fly-leaf of the foolscap sheet having 
 been left blank expressly for this advertising purpose. 
 Early in December Coleridge wrote of his project to 
 Davy - : ' My health and spirits are improved beyond 
 my boldest hopes. A very painful effort of moral 
 courage has been remunerated by tranquillity — by ease 
 from the sting of self-disapprobation. I have done 
 more for the last ten weeks than I had done for three 
 years before. ... I would willingly inform you of my 
 chance of success in obtaining a sufficient number of 
 subscribers, so as to justify me prudentially in com- 
 mencing the work, but I do not possess grounds even 
 for a sane conjecture. It will depend in a great 
 measure on the zeal of my friends.' To Stuart and to 
 Poole he wrote in the same strain, and to them he 
 added an intimation that he had consulted a physician. 
 To Poole he says he is now feeling ' the blessedness 
 of walking altogether in the light,' which, taken in 
 conjunction with the letter to Davy, we may interpret 
 as meaning that opium-eating had been suspended for 
 a time." 
 
 1 Knight's Life, ii. 120. 
 
 2 Frag. Rem. p. 10 1. 
 
 2 In all these letters of December, Coleridge writes of The Friend as of some- 
 thing of which they had been previously aware. Can it have been to some such 
 project that Coleridge alluded in a mutilated passage of his letter to Wordsworth 
 of May 180S ? He has been writing of Wordsworth's pecuniary anxieties, and 
 
172 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1808- 
 
 The * prospectus ' mentioned by Miss Wordsworth 
 was sent out without consultation with any one/ and 
 the first number was annouhced for * the first Saturday 
 in January 1809,' 'in case of a sufficient number of 
 subscribers being obtained,' 
 
 Of course The Friend ddd not appear on January 
 7. On January 18, Southey told Rickman : 'Mean- 
 time a hundred difficulties open upoti him [Coleridge] 
 in the way of publication, and doubtless some material 
 changes must be made in the plan. . . . \_Tke Friend'] 
 is expected to start in March.' At first The Friend 
 was to be printed and published in London ; next, in 
 Kendal ; but in February Coleridge arranged with ' a 
 clever young man,' Mr. John Brown, to print and pub- 
 lish for him in Penrith. Then it was discovered that this 
 clever young man had not type enough, and Coleridge 
 had to buy ^38 worth. On the 23rd March, Words- 
 worth, who had become very anxious, thus wrote to 
 Poole ^: *I give it to you as my deliberate opinion, 
 founded upon proofs which have been strengthening for 
 years, that he neither will nor can execute anything of 
 important benefit to himself, his family, or mankind ' ; 
 all is ' frustrated by a derangement in his intellectual 
 and moral constitution. In fact, he has no voluntary 
 power of mind whatsoever, nor is he capable of acting 
 under any constraint of duty or moral obligation.' 
 The Friend may appear, ' but it cannot go on for any 
 
 goes on : ' Indeed, before my fall ... I had indulged the hope that, by division 
 of labour, you would have no occasion to think about . . . \sic in Life\ as, with 
 very warm and zealous patronage, I was fast ripening a plan which secures from 
 ;^I2 to £10 a week (the prospectus, indeed, going to the press as soon as Mr. 
 Sotheby and Sir G. Beaumont had read it).' Knight's Life, ii. 102. 
 
 1 Letters ofR. S. ii. 120. See an interesting letter from Coleridge to Thomas 
 Wilkinson (Wordsworth's friend of the 'Spade') Dec. 31, 1799, on the pro- 
 spectus of The Friend in the Friend's Quarterly Examiner for July 1893 — -^"^t. 
 * S. T. Coleridge on Quaker Principles'; and Athcna:2iin for Sept. 16, 1893 — 
 Art. ' Coleridge on Quaker Principles.' 
 
 2 Knight's Life of VV. W. ii. 124. 
 
iSo9 LAUNCHING 'THE FRIEND' 173 
 
 length of time. I am j-?/r^ it cannot. C, I understand, 
 has been three weeks at Penrith,' and will answer no 
 letters. And then he calls on Poole to come to the 
 rescue — in summer, for it is of no use to attempt to 
 stop Coleridge nozv. A week later (March 30) 
 Wordsworth wrote again to Poole — Coleridge, he says, 
 has not been at Grasmere for a month. He is now at 
 Keswick, ' having had a great deal of trouble about 
 arranging the publication of The Friend. ... I can- 
 not say that Coleridge has been managing himself 
 well' Probably he had heard from Southey that 
 opium was again in the ascendant. Poole, Stuart, 
 Montagu, and Clarkson were advancing money for the 
 stamped paper.^ It was sent, unfortunately, by the 
 wrong route and did not arrive till May 8. At last, but 
 not until June ist, The Friend ^&. I, appeared. ^ 'The 
 mode of payment by subscribers will be announced in 
 a future number,' promised Coleridge, and in No. II. 
 this promise was fulfilled — characteristically, by a vague 
 proposal that payment should be made ' at the close of 
 each twentieth week.' The third number will be de- 
 ferred for a fortnight (instead of a week) to allow lists of 
 subscribers to come in, and arrangements to be made 
 for mode of payment. Nothing more was said about 
 the matter until after the issue of the twentieth number, 
 at the end of the year. 
 
 Having seen No. II. despatched on June 8, Cole- 
 
 1 The stamp on each number was 3^(3., but there were discounts which re- 
 duced the cost to little more than 3d. 
 
 2 ' The Friend ; a Literary, Moral, and Political Weekly Paper, excluding 
 Personal and Party Politics and Events of the Day. Conducted by S. T. Cole- 
 ridge of Grasmere, Westmoreland. Each number will contain a stamped sheet 
 of large Octavo, like the present ; and will be delivered free of expence, by the 
 Post, throughout the Kingdom, to Subscribers. The Price each Number One 
 Shilling. . . . Penrith : Printed and Published by J. Brown.' The continuity 
 of issue was frequently broken — thus there were eight blank weeks between 11. 
 and III. ; three between III. and IV. ; one between XL and XII ; one between 
 XX. and XXI. : and one between XXVI. and XXVII. and last. 
 
174 
 
 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 ridge returned from Penrith to Grasmere and wrote to 
 Stuart^ : * I printed 620 of No. I. and 650 of No. II., 
 and so many more are called for that I shall be forced 
 to reprint both as soon as I hear from Clarkson [re- 
 garding fresh stocks of paper].^ The proof-sheet of 
 No. III. goes back to-day, and with it the "copy" of 
 No. IV., so that henceforth we shall be secure of 
 regularity.' Alas! No. III. appeared on August 10 — 
 seven weeks late ; and No. IV. on September 7 — 
 again three weeks late. And no wonder. The con- 
 ditions were impossible. There was Coleridge him- 
 self ; there were the imperfect arrangements for 
 supplies of paper ; and, as if these hindrances were 
 not enough, there were the relative situations of 
 Grasmere and Penrith. The mere distance, 28 miles, 
 was nothing ; but there was no direct post, and Kirk- 
 stone Pass lay, a veritable lion, in the path. The 
 defective postal system was only ameliorated by the 
 passage of chance chaises either way, but once when 
 the printing-house rats had devoured a page-long 
 motto from Hooker, and two fresh transcripts were 
 entrusted by Coleridge to two drivers, both failed of 
 delivery to the printer; and No. VIII. was, in conse- 
 quence, issued a week after due date. Then the 
 subscription-list plan proved a bad one, as Coleridge 
 publicly confessed in after years.^ In January 18 10 
 he made the same confession in a letter to Lady 
 Beaumont ^ — many subscribers withdrew their names, 
 
 1 Letteis from the Lake Poets, p. i66. 'June 13.' 
 
 2 A collation of a set of stamped, with the set of unstamped, numbers issued 
 with a title-page in 181 2, shows that the first twelve numbers in the volume were 
 revised 7-ep7-ints done in 1809. 
 
 3 Biog. Lit. 18 1 7, i. 162. The real facts of the story there given about ' the 
 gentleman who procured nearly a hundred names ' will be found in Mem. of 
 Coleorton, ii. 99. A comparison of the two versions_jwill repay the curious 
 student. "N 
 
 * Mem. of Coleorton, ii. 96-108. .' 
 
1 8 10 'THE FRIEND' IN DIFFICULTIES 175 
 
 and many of those who did not, withheld the money. 
 Nearly all complained that the contents were too dull, 
 and an attempt was made to enliven the pages by 
 printing ' Satyrane's Letters.' These, with contribu- 
 tions in prose and verse from Wordsworth, practically 
 filled up the numbers from November 23 to January 
 25 {1810), when the 'Sketches and Fragments of the 
 Life and Character of the late Sir Alexander Ball ' ^ 
 began — a series, too long indeed, but destined never 
 to be completed. 
 
 While The Friend was being abandoned to 
 Satyrane and Wordsworth, Coleridge was contri- 
 buting a series of letters to the Cotwier ^ ' On the 
 Spaniards,' with the view of exciting British sympathy 
 in the struggles of that nation against Napoleon. His 
 own feelings were thoroughly roused — ' for this ' (he 
 wrote) ' is not a quarrel of Governments, but the war 
 of a people against the armies of a remorseless invader, 
 usurper, and tyrant.' 'Coleridge's spirits have been 
 irregular of late,' wrote Miss Wordsworth to Lady 
 Beaumont at the beginning of March 1810.^ * He 
 was damped after the twentieth number by the slow 
 arrival of payments,^ and half persuaded himself that 
 he ought not to go on. We laboured hard against 
 such a resolve, and he seems determined to fight on- 
 wards.' And she proceeds to describe how, from the 
 commencement, T/ie Friend had been produced by fits 
 
 ^ It is commonly stated, on what authority I know not, that Coleridge and 
 Ball had got on ver}' badly, and that the laudation in The Friend v,'3.s insincere. All 
 the evidence derivable from Coleridge's correspondence and diaries of the period 
 points in the opposite direction. I suspect that Stoddart spread reports about 
 Coleridge which were coloured by his resentment of real or imaginary injuries. 
 
 2 No. I. appeared on December 7, 1809, and No. VIII. and last on January 
 20, 1 810. Reprinted in Essays on his oimi Times, pp. 593-676. 
 
 ^ Alein. of Coleorton, ii. 109- 1 15. 
 
 * ' Of the small number who have paid in their subscriptions, two-thirds, 
 nearly, have discontinued the work.' S. T. C. to Lady Beaumont, Januaiy 21 
 1810 [Mem. of Coleorton, ii. 97). 
 
176 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1810 
 
 and starts — sometimes a number in two days, some- 
 times not a line composed for ' weeks and weeks ' ; 
 the papers being generally dictated to Miss Sarah 
 Hutchinson, and never retranscribed/ In the same 
 letter Miss Wordsworth announces that Miss Hutchin- 
 son's prolonged visit was to come to an end in a 
 fortnight. ' Coleridge most of all will miss her, as she 
 has transcribed almost every paper of The Friend for 
 the press.' So much did Coleridge miss his devoted 
 secretary, that The Friend came to an end with her 
 visit to Allan Bank — flickering out with * No. XXVH., 
 Thursday March 15, 18 10' — the last printed words, 
 '(To be concluded in our next number),' referring to 
 the articles about Ball. 
 
 So perished, one cannot say untimely, a work which 
 Hazlitt not inaptly described as ' an enormous title-page 
 ... an endless preface to an imaginary work.' But 
 it was, like all that came from Coleridge, an integral 
 part of himself, and therefore a heap of ore rich in 
 finest metal. The Friend of Highgate and 1818, 
 which he himself described as a ' rifachnento ' 
 of the original, was practically a new work. The 
 original would bear reprinting, for it is now unknown 
 except to the curious book-collector. 
 
 During the long period of Coleridge's domestica- 
 tion with the Wordsworths a good deal of friendly 
 intercourse was kept up between Allan Bank and 
 Greta Hall ; and the Coleridge boys, who were at 
 school at Ambleside, spent most of their weekly 
 holidays with the Wordsworths, The following b' 
 passage from a letter ^ of Mrs. Coleridge to Miss 
 Betham is pleasant reading, not only for the tone in 
 
 1 The MSS. with some correspondence therewith connected are preserved 
 in the Forster Collection at South Kensington. 
 
 ^ Unprinted. 'Greta Hall, December 19, 1809.' 
 
I S I o DEA TH OF ' THE FRIEND ' 177 
 
 which her husband and the Wordsworths are men- 
 tioned, but as showing that Coleridge and Lloyd no 
 longer shunned each other. ' Brathay ' was Lloyd's 
 home. ' jNIy dear friend, I know it will give you 
 [pleasure] to hear that I was very comfortable during 
 my visits in Westmoreland. C[oleridge] came often to 
 Brathay, before I went to Grasmere, and kindly ac- 
 ceded to my wish of taking my little daughter home 
 again with me after she had passed a fortnight with 
 him at Allan Bank. His first intention was to keep 
 her with him until Christmas, and then to bring her 
 home with her brothers. ... C, is to spend the last 
 week of the boys' holidays here, and take them back 
 with him [to Ambleside]. ... I hope you will soon 
 come again to see us, and I will introduce you to C, 
 and/^^ to his invaluable friends.' 
 
 Coleridge's movements after the cessation of The 
 Friend in the middle of March are not easy to trace. 
 On the 15th April he wrote to Lady Beaumont 
 from Ambleside, excusing himself for inattention to 
 a letter which had arrived at Grasmere when his de- 
 pression of spirits ' amounted to little less than absolute 
 despondency.' He had only that day found courage 
 to open the letter, which contained an ' enclosure.' 
 He must not accuse himself of idleness, for he has 
 been 'willing to exert energy, only not in anything 
 which the duty of the day demanded.' The next 
 glimpse is in a letter from Mrs. Coleridge to Poole, 
 dated October 3.^ The poor wife knows not ' what to 
 think or what to do.' Coleridge has been at Greta 
 Hall for four or five months ' in an almost uniform 
 kind disposition towards us all.' His spirits have been 
 
 ^ T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 241. The date is printed ' August 3,' but the 
 
 month must have been October. 
 
 *\ 
 N 
 
 II 
 
178 
 
 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 i8i 
 
 better than for years, and he has been reading Italian 
 to both the Saras — only, he has been doing nothing; 
 else. ' The last number of The Friend lies on hisl 
 desk, the sight of which fills my heart with grief and 
 my eyes with tears,' and the writer never ceases to 
 pray that ' Mr, Poole were here.' 
 
 ri 
 
l! 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 LONDON 
 A.D. 1810-1813 
 
 In October, Basil Montagu, with his wife and her 
 little daughter (Anne Benson Skepper, afterwards 
 Mrs. B. W. Proctor), called at Greta Hall on his way 
 south from a tour in Scotland. There was a vacant 
 place in the chaise, and this Coleridge took, the party- 
 arriving at Montagu's residence (55 Frith Street, 
 Soho), on the 26th October. Coleridge was to have 
 been a guest there for an indefinite period, but within 
 a few days the visit came to an abrupt and painful end. 
 When the chaise halted at Allan Bank, and Words- 
 worth learnt that Coleridge was to become an inmate 
 of the Montagu household, he expressed to Montagu, 
 in confidence, a fear that some of Coleridge's ways 
 would prove inconvenient in a well-ordered town 
 establishment. This he did with the kindest motives, 
 and no doubt in the kindest terms, thinking that pre- 
 vention was better than cure — if Coleridge and Mon- 
 tague became housemates they would quarrel, which 
 would be a misfortune for both, especially for Coleridge. 
 Three days after arrival in London, Montagu informed 
 Coleridge that he had been commissioned by Words- 
 worth to say to him that certain of his (Coleridge's) 
 
 ^^ OF THE 
 
i8o SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE i8ioi| 
 
 habits had made him an intolerable guest at Allan Bank,! 
 and that he (Wordsworth) had ' no hope for him.' Un-; 
 fortunately Coleridge believed this monstrous story, and, ' 
 soon after, he left Montagu's roof, taking refuge with 
 the Morgans, then living at Hammersmith. He was 
 heart-broken that Wordsworth could have said such 
 things of him, — much more, that he should have com- 
 missioned Montagu to repeat them. But for a long 
 time he said nothing. The breach between the two 
 poets remained open until May 1812, when a recon-; 
 ciliation was effected by the good offices of Crabb 
 
 Robinson. It turned out, of course, that Wordsworth^ 
 
 I 
 had neither used the wounding (even coarse) language^ 
 
 attributed to him with regard to Coleridge's personalj ; 
 habits, nor said anything in the spirit attributed to him ;: 
 nor had he commissioned Montagu to repeat to Cole-i . 
 ridge anything whatever — very much the contrary 
 He confessed to having said (or implied) to Montagu 
 that he had ' little or no hope ' of Coleridge, and ex- 
 pressed deep regret that he had said anything at all to 
 so indiscreet a man as Montagu,^ Letters declared to! 
 be ' mutually satisfactory ' were exchanged by the two 
 poets, and the troubled air was stilled ; but each was 
 conscious that it was also darkened, and that in theiri 
 friendship there could never be ' glad confident; 
 morning again.' 
 
 To return to the winter of 18 10. It was on the 
 3rd November that Coleridge began his visit to thei 
 Morgans at No. 7 Portland Place, Hammersmith — a 
 
 ^ Southey's deliverance was as follows, in an unprinted letter of April 25,! 
 1 81 2, to Miss Betham : ' My own opinion is . . . that Montagu has acted with 
 a degree of folly which would be absolutely incredible in any other person ; that 
 W. is no otherwise blameable than as having said anything to such a man which' 
 he would have felt any dislike to seeing in the Morning Post ; that I do not' 
 wonder at C.'s resentment.' The story of the quarrel between Coleridge andl 
 Montagu as told by De Quincey {TVo?-/;s, 1863, ii. 120) is no better founded thani 
 the accompanying statement that the quarrel was never made up. 
 
 "i 
 
 i 
 
iSio A DIFFERENCE WITH WORDSWORTH i8i 
 
 visit which, with few and short interruptions, lasted 
 until 1816, when the still longer one to the Gillmans 
 began. Wordsworth and Montagu had broken down 
 — and even, to some extent, Poole ; but without a 
 moment's delay, there presented itself to the perplexed 
 traveller another of those ' perpetual relays ' (to use 
 De Ouincey's words) ' which were laid along Cole- 
 ridge's path in life.' As at Bristol in 1S07, the family 
 which now gave him shelter consisted of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Morgan and Miss Charlotte Brent, the sister of Mrs. 
 Morgan. For some months Coleridge seems to have 
 done nothing but go about among his friends and talk to 
 them divinely. Henry Crabb Robinson first met him 
 at Lamb's on the 14th November, and for some time 
 thenceforward became his Boswell, writing down in 
 his diary ^ summaries of Coleridge's discourse. Lamb 
 describes his old friend at this time in a fashion not 
 altogether reassuring : ' Coleridge has powdered his 
 head, and looks like Bacchus, Bacchus ever sleek and 
 young. He is going to turn sober, but his clock has 
 not struck yet ; meantime he pours down goblet after 
 goblet. . . .' - On November 28 he tells Hazlitt that 
 Coleridge is writing or going to write in the Courier 
 against Cobbett, and is in favour of paper-money; 
 but so far as can be traced his connection with the 
 Courier did not begin until April. In February, 
 Mrs. Coleridge informed Miss Betham^ that since his 
 departure from Greta Hall, Coleridge 'had not once 
 
 ^ Diary, Retniniscences and Correspondence of H. C. Robinson. Selected 
 and edited by Thomas Sadler, Ph.D. 3 vols. 1870. My references are to the 
 'third edition, with corrections and additions,' in two volumes, 1872. 
 
 2 Letter to Miss Wordsworth dated '[August 18 10],' but it must have been 
 written in November or December. Letters, i. 262. 
 
 ^ Letter printed in Eraser's Magazine, July 1878, p. 75. ^ P.S. — This very 
 day Coleridge left us four months ago ; he had been here five months in better 
 health, spirits, and humour than I had seen him for any great length of time for 
 years before. I fear he has been different since he left us' (Feb. 16, 181 1). 
 
i82 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1811 
 
 addressed any of his northern friends,' and that she 
 had only just heard, and by chance, of her husband 
 being domiciled with the Morgans, and that he had 
 been applying for advice from Dr. Abernethy. * I 
 wish C. would write ! ' exclaims the sorely-tried wife, 
 * both Southey and myself have written often to him ' 
 — letters which, as we know, the recipient had felt 
 himself incapable of opening. 
 
 In March, Coleridge wrote what he calls an 
 unnecessarily long letter to Robinson — 'long enough | 
 for half a dozen letters,' ' when to have written to half ! 
 a dozen claimants is a moral (would it were a physical) \ 
 necessity. The moral obligation is to me so very j 
 strong a stimulant, that in nine cases out of ten it acts ' 
 as a narcotic. The blow that should rouse, stuns \ 
 me.' ^ This was merely his own way of putting \ 
 Hazlitt's saying that Coleridge was capable of doing \ 
 anything which did not present itself as a duty. In 
 this letter Coleridge says that he has been extremely 
 unwell. George Burnett's death — in the hospital of 
 Marylebone workhouse — has upset Mary Lamb, and 
 her illness ' has almost overset me.' Robinson, how- 
 ever, attributed Mary Lamb's illness to the excessive 
 stimulation produced by too much of Coleridge's 
 company. In April he proposed to Stuart^ to become 
 a sort of assistant to Street, the editor of the Courier. 
 
 If it were desirable I could be at the office every morning by 
 half-past nine, to read over all the morning papers, etc., and point 
 out whatever seemed valuable to Mr. Street ; that I might 
 occasionally write the leading paragraph when he might wish to go 
 into the City or to the public offices ; and, besides this, I would 
 carry on a series of articles, a column and a half or two columns 
 each, independent of small paragraphs, poems, etc., as would fill 
 whatever room there was in the Courier, when there was room. 
 
 1 Diaries, i. 189. 2 Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 191. 
 
I S 1 1 WITH THE MORGANS — ' THE CO URIER ' 1 83 
 
 He humbly urges that he would make ' no pretence 
 to any control or intermeddlement,' and begs to be 
 allowed 'a month's trial.' Stuart referred him to 
 Street, and on May 5 Coleridge informed Stuart that 
 from Street he had had ' a warm assent.' ' As to weekly 
 salary he said nothing, and I said nothing, except that 
 he would talk with you.' Coleridge would therefore 
 begin next morning at half-past eight. He would 
 come up by the stage which passed Portland Place at 
 7.20. He adds that he has 'written to Keswick to 
 calm Mrs. Coleridge's disquietudes concerning the 
 annuity' — by which he means the premium of /^2y 
 a year on his life-policy for ^1000, taken out in 1803. 
 ]\Ioney for this he had just borrowed from Stuart. 
 He also proposes to ' finish off the next number of 
 T/ie Friend, which will contain a full detail of the plan 
 of a monthly work including The Friend' — a work 
 which had been suggested to him by Baldwin, the 
 publisher. Nothing came of the 'monthly work,' but 
 Coleridge began at once in the Courier, doing a good 
 deal of work both as a sub-editor and as a contributor ^ 
 during the ensuing five months. His connection with 
 the paper nearly broke down in July. An article he 
 had written on the Duke of York was printed on the 
 1 2th, but the Government having heard of it, procured 
 its suppression at the sacrifice of about 2000 copies 
 which had been struck off.- This mightily offended 
 Coleridge, whose suspicions that the Coiwier was not 
 altogether independent were now confirmed, and he 
 moved Crabb Robinson to endeavour to Sfet him an 
 engagement on the Times. Robinson's endeavours 
 
 ^ The contributions of 181 1 reprinted in Essays 011 his ozun Times begin 
 with April 19 and end with SeptemlDer 27, filling pp. 733-938. Mr. Traill con- 
 siders them as in all respects much inferior to the early work in the Morniiig Post. 
 
 ^ Diaries of H. C. R. i. 177, and Essays on his own Times, pp. 850, 1027. 
 
i84 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1811- 
 
 failed, however, and Coleridge went on with the | 
 Courier until the end of September. 
 
 About this time he seems to have thought of 
 resuming his old role of lecturer ; and before the end 
 of October he issued a prospectus of a course of fifteen 
 lectures to be given in the rooms of the ' London 
 Philosophical Society, Scots Corporation Hall, Crane 
 Court, Fleet Street (entrance from Fetter Lane).' 
 The lectures were to be ' on Shakespeare and Milton 
 in illustration of the Principles of Poetry, and their 
 application as grounds of Criticism to the most popular 
 works of later English Poets, those of the living 
 included.' The prices of the tickets were two guineas 
 for the single and three for the double. The first 
 lecture was delivered on the day appointed, i8th 
 November, and the others followed in due succession, 
 on Mondays and Thursdays, until January 27, 181 2 — 
 seventeen in all. Coleridge did not write out his 
 lectures, but delivered them extemporaneously, de- 
 claring that even the notes he held in his hand 
 hampered him.^ Two unfortunate consequences re- 
 sulted — the lecturer was frequently desultory and 
 digressive, and the lectures have come down to us 
 only in fragmentary reports. The fragments, how- 
 ever, which have been recovered from contemporary 
 newspapers, from Crabb Robinson's diaries, and from 
 J. P. Collier's note-books,'' suffice to show that Cole- 
 
 1 The Morgans complained that Coleridge would not look into his Shake- 
 speare, which they were continually putting in his way ; and that, as if spell- 
 bound, he would make no preparation for his lectures except by occasional 
 reference to an old MS. commonplace book. 
 
 2 Lectures and Notes on Shakspere and other English Poets. By S. T. 
 Coleridge. Now first collected by T. Ashe. London 1883. — Much unnecessaiy 
 doubt was cast on the authenticity of Collier's shorthand notes when he printed 
 them in 1856 {Seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Alilton, etc.), by critics who 
 forgot that Collier was quite incapable of inventing what he put forward as 
 Coleridge's. More extended reports of the first eight lectures, by a Mr. Tomalin, 
 have recently been discovered and may yet be published. 
 
iSi2 LECTURES ON SHAKESPEARE, ETC. 185 
 
 ridge's audiences probably heard the finest literary 
 criticism which has ever been given in English. 
 Writing after the fourth lecture, Robinson says that 
 Coleridge has had 'about 150 hearers on an average.' 
 From Byron's correspondence ^ we learn that Rogers 
 attended on several occasions, on one of which he 
 heard Campbell attacked by name, and himself 
 'indirectly.' 'We are going in a party' (wrote 
 Byron) ' to hear the new Art of Poetry by the 
 reformed schismatic'; and again on December 15 he 
 writes : ' To-morrow I dine with Rosters and am to 
 hear Coleridge, who is a sort of rage at present.' On 
 January 20, Robinson saw Byron and Rogers among 
 the audience. On that day week the course 'ended' (says 
 Robinson) ' with (fclat. The room was crowded, and the 
 lecture had several passages more than brilliant.* 
 
 Immediately after this Coleridge set off for Greta 
 Hall, picking up on the way and carrying home with 
 him his two boys from their school at Ambleside. 
 During the weeks he remained with Mrs. Coleridge, 
 she received many letters and messages from Miss 
 Wordsworth becjs^inor her to urofe Coleridcye to write 
 to her, and on no account to leave the Lake country 
 without seeing them. It was all in vain. But 'the 
 Grasmere business,' wrote Coleridge to Morgan 
 (March 27, 181 2), 'has kept me in a fever of 
 agitation. Wordsworth has refused to apologise, and 
 has thus made his choice between me and Basil 
 Montagu. I have been in such a fever about the 
 Wordsworths, my reason deciding one way, my heart 
 pulling me the contrary ; scarcely daring to set off 
 without seeing them. Brown, the printer of The 
 Friend, who had ^20 or ^30 of mine and £-^^6 worth 
 
 1 Moore's Life, one- vol. ed. pp. 147, 148. 
 
i86 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 1812 
 
 of types, about 14 days ago ran off and absconded.' \ 
 It was probably a hope of saving something out of the 
 wreck of Brown's estate that caused Coleridge to take 
 Penrith on his way back to London, but it hardly 
 excuses him for staying there a whole month without 
 communicating with his wife or any of his friends, 
 who had begun to feel great anxiety long before he 
 reappeared in town towards the end of April. An 
 unpublished letter of Mrs. Coleridge describes her 
 husband as * cheerful ' during his stay at Greta Hall. 
 He talked of settling with her and the children in 
 London, after a year — a proposal which Mrs. Cole- 
 ridge listened to gravely, suggesting that until the 
 children's education was completed, it was better she 
 and they should remain in the country ; after which 
 she would willingly follow his amended fortunes. So 
 this scheme was settled, and Coleridge promised that 
 he would write regularly, and that never, never again 
 would he leave his wife's, or the boys', or Southey's 
 letters unopened. It was probably during this visit — 
 the last he ever paid to the Lake country — that Cole- 
 ridge contributed his quota — meagre in quantity, but 
 in quality far out-weighing the other — to Omniana^ 
 which was published in the following October — 
 'Coleridge,' wrote Southey in November, 'kept the 
 press waiting fifteen months for an unfinished article, 
 so that at last I ordered the sheet in which it was 
 begun to be cancelled, in despair.' ^ 
 
 On his arrival in London, Coleridge returned to 
 the Morgans, who were now living at 71 Berners Street, 
 
 1 Letter printed in the Catalogue of Mr. Locker-Lampson's collection at 
 Rowfant, p. 200. The month is there misprinted as ' May.' 
 
 2 '■Ovi'^XK^^, ox Hora; oiiosiores.'' 2 vols. 1S12. An interesting selection 
 from the commonplace books of Coleridge and Southey. 
 
 ^ November 5, 18 12. Letters of R, S. ii. 299. 
 
iSi2 RECONCILIATION WITH WORDSWORTH 187 
 
 Oxford Street, and immediately issued a prospectus 
 for a series of lectures ' on the Drama of the Greek, 
 French, English, and Spanish stage, chiefly with refer- 
 ence to the works of Shakespeare.' They were to be 
 delivered at Willis's Rooms, ' on the Tuesdays and 
 i' Fridays in May and June, at 3 o'clock precisely,' 
 beginning on May 12th. 'An account is opened at 
 Messrs. Ransom, Morland, & Co., Bankers, Pall Mall, 
 in the names of Sir G. Beaumont, Bart., Sir T. 
 ;i Barnard, Bart., and W. Sotheby, Esqre., where sub- 
 1| scriptions will be received and tickets issued.' Cole- 
 ridge made his first appearance on the new platform 
 just a week behind time ; a delay attributable prob- 
 ably to the negotiations then being carried on by 
 Robinson for the reconciliation with Wordsworth.^ 
 These negotiations began on May 3, and ended happily, 
 as already described, on the iith. Of this course, the 
 only record with which I am acquainted is contained 
 in Robinson's diary.- Wordsworth attended one of the 
 lectures. At what proved to be the last, on June 5, 
 Coleridge announced a further course to take place in 
 the winter, for which the money would be taken at 
 the doors — a change in business arrangements which 
 : • seems to show that the array of fine names and a 
 ' ! Pall Mall banking-house had not proved a success. 
 
 ' ^ See p. 180 supra. 
 
 - Diaries, i. 200-203. On May 3, Robinson, who was one of the few 
 I } Englishmen who then knew anything about the German Philosophers, records 
 1 1 that Coleridge told him in conversation that from Fichte and Schelling ' he had 
 not gained any one great idea. To Kant his obligations are infinite, not so 
 much from what Kant has taught him in the form of doctrine, as from the 
 discipline gained in studying the great German philosopher. Coleridge is indig- 
 nant at the low estimation in which the post-Kantianers affect to hold their 
 master.' Again, on May 29, Coleridge said that 'he adheres to Kant, notwith- 
 standing all Schelling has written, and maintained that from the latter he has 
 gained no new ideas. All Schelling has said, Coleridge [asserts that he] has 
 thought [for] himself or found in Jacob Boehme.' One wonders whether 
 Robinson has reported accurately ? 
 
i88 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 1812 
 
 On August 7 he expressed to Stuart^ a wish to 
 rejoin the Courier, but only as an occasional con- 
 tributor, proposing to send in within the next fort- 
 night some twenty articles on current Church and 
 State politics. His finances have been thrown behind- 
 hand by the rewriting of his play, and by composing the 
 second volume of The Friend, but he hopes before 
 another eight days have passed to submit the tragedy 
 to the theatre-people, and if they will not have it, to 
 accept Gale & Curtis's offer to publish it. He has 
 also been consultinof a new doctor. 
 
 Some time before the beginning of October Cole- 
 ridge's ' rewritten play,' with its new title of Remorse, 
 had been, through the influence of Lord Byron, 
 accepted by the Drury Lane Committee,^ whose new 
 theatre was about to be opened. In October there 
 was issued a ' Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on 
 the Belles Lettres, to be delivered by S. T. Coleridge, 
 Esqre., at the Surrey Institution.' Lecture I. was to 
 be on the rieht use of words; II. and III. on the 
 Evolution of the Fine Arts ; IV. on Poetry in general; 
 V. on Greek Mythology ; VI. on the connection 
 between the diffusion of Christianity and the formation 
 of modern languages ; VII. on Shakespeare ; VIII. a 
 philosophical analysis of Romeo and Juliet and of 
 Hamlet ; IX. on Macbeth and Othello ; X. on Shake- 
 speare ; and XI. and XII. on Paradise Lost. I have 
 summarised the somewhat lengthy syllabus from the 
 unique copy preserved by Crabb Robinson. It has no 
 dates, price of tickets, or the like ; but I have elsewhere 
 found that the lectures were given on consecutive 
 
 1 Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 213. 
 
 2 ' Do you see or hear anything of Coleridge ? Lamb writes to Lloyd that 
 C.'s play has been accepted. Heaven grant it success' (Wordsworth to Stuart, 
 Letters frotn the Lake Poets, p. 359). 
 
i8i2 LECTURES ON THE BELLES LETTRES 189 
 
 Tuesday evenings ; and that Robinson attended the 
 first on Nov. 3. He says it was a repetition of former 
 lectures, and dull. As the two men walked away 
 from the lecture-room together, they talked of Spinoza, 
 and Coleridge projected a series of lectures on Educa- 
 tion, * each to be delivered in a state in which it may 
 be sent to the press.' ^ Robinson seems to have 
 attended seven of the lectures. Of the earlier of those 
 heard by him, he gives a poor account, but the twelfth 
 he describes as a very eloquent and popular discourse 
 on the general character of Shakespeare (the subject 
 announced was 'Milton'), and of the concluding lec- 
 ture (Jan. 26) he says that Coleridge was 'received 
 with three rounds of applause on entering the room, 
 and very loudly applauded at the close. ... He this 
 evening, as well as on three or four preceding nights, 
 redeemed the reputation he lost at the commence- 
 ment of the course.' So far as I am aware, Robinson's 
 jottings form the only record of these lectures. 
 
 On Dec. 6, Robinson found Coleridge at Morgan's, 
 in good spirits, and determined to devote himself to 
 the Drama — chiefly to Melodrama and Comic Opera. 
 On the following day he wrote to Robinson requesting 
 the loan of Goethe's Theory of Colours, and repeating 
 his determination respecting the drama — expecting 
 to profit by Goethe's happy mode of introducing 
 incidental songs.^ He mentions another little project, 
 *one steady effort to understand music' 
 
 On December 22, Coleridge informs Stuart^ that 
 his play is in rehearsal, and that he finds the repeated 
 alterations rather a tedious business. The managers 
 are more sanguine than he is, and with one exception 
 
 ^ Diaries, etc. i. 209. - Diaries, i. 222. 
 
 2 Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 217. 
 
igo SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 1813 
 
 the performers are pleased and gratified with their 
 parts. On the 23rd January 18 13, Remorse was first 
 produced at Drury Lane. All the accounts which 
 have come down to us describe the performance as, on 
 the whole, a great success.^ The best evidence, how- 
 ever, is the fact that it ran for twenty nights, and that 
 Coleridge received for his share ^400 — the contract 
 being that he was to get ^100 each for the 3rd, 6th, 
 9th, and 20th night. For the pamphlet^ of the play 
 he received from the publisher two-thirds of the 
 profits, and as it ran into a third edition, the author's 
 share may have been something considerable. In a 
 long letter to Southey,^ written while Remorse was 
 still on the boards, Coleridge speaks of the praise 
 it had extorted from a hostile press — notably the 
 Examiner, Leigh Hunt's paper, to which Hazlitt was 
 a regular contributor. These critics, he says, as a 
 matter of course temper their praise of the play by 
 general accusations of ' sentimentalities, puerilities, 
 whinings, and meannesses, both of style and thought ' 
 
 1 H. C. Robinson's Diaries, etc. , i. 212; Autobiographical RecoUectio7is of 
 C. R. Leslie, R.A., by T. Taylor, i860, ii. 32-34. Newspaper notices col- 
 lected in OSORIO : a Tragedy. London: Pearson, 1873; Retniniscences (\%2(i) 
 of Michael Kelly, who composed the very successful incidental music. 
 
 2 Remorse, a Tragedy in five Acts. By S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Remorse is as the heart, in which it grows : 
 If that be gentle, it drops balmy dews 
 Of true repentance ; but if proud and gloomy. 
 It is a poison-tree, that pierced to the inmost 
 Weeps only tears of poison ! 
 
 Act I. Scene i. 
 
 London : Printed for W. Pople, 67 Chancery Lane. 18 13. Price Three 
 Shillings. Octavo, pp. xii. ; 72. 
 
 The ' Second Edition ' differs materially from the first. The ' Third 
 Edition' is a mere reprint of the 'Second,' and copies sold slowly. (Lamb's 
 Letters, i. 274.) Charles Lamb supplied the ' Prologue' — it was an adaptation, 
 not very skilfully executed, of his ' Rejected Address ' for the opening of Drury 
 Lane — and Coleridge supplied the ' Epilogue.' See Notes to Remorse in Poet. 
 Works, 1893. 
 
 ^ 'Tuesday, Feb. 8. 1813, 71 Berners Street.' Printed in the Illustrated 
 London News for June 24, 1893 — a letter of great and varied interest. 
 
 , 
 
i8i3 ' REMORSE ' A T DRUR V LANE 191 
 
 in his former writings, but ' without one single quota- 
 tion or reference in proof or exemplification.' As far 
 as his own judgment goes, 
 
 the two best qualities of the tragedy are, first, the simplicity and 
 unity of the plot, in respect of that which of all the unities is 
 the only one founded on good sense — the presence of a one all- 
 pervading, all-combining Principle. . . . The second good quality is 
 I think the variety of metres according as the speeches are merely 
 transitive, or narrative, or passionate, or (as in the Incantation), 
 deliberate and formal poetry. It is true they are all, or almost all, 
 Iambic blank verse, but under that form there are five or six per- 
 fectly distinct metres. As to the outcry that the Remorse is not 
 pathetic (meaning such pathos as convulses in Isabella^ or The 
 Gamester), the answer is easy. True ! the poet never meant that it 
 should be. It is as pathetic as the Hamlet or the Julius Ccesar. . . . 
 As to my thefts from IVal/etistein, they came on compulsion from 
 the necessity of haste, and do not lie on my conscience, being 
 partly thefts from myself, and because I gave Schiller twenty for one 
 I have taken. . . , The house was crowded again last night, and the 
 Manager told me that they had lost jQzoo by suspending it on the 
 Saturday night that Jack Bannister came out. 
 
 Coleridge says nothing of the less admirable 
 qualities he must have detected in the tragedy, and 
 which are the more prominent to the student of to-day. 
 His partiality for the only offspring of his pen which 
 earned pudding as well as praise, is not surprising, but 
 there was another reason not so apparent. In 1820, 
 Coleridge told Allsop that Remorse was still a great 
 favourite of his, ' the more so as certain pet abstract 
 notions of mine are therein expounded.'^ Whatever 
 we may think of Remorse as play or poem, we must 
 rejoice that it hit the taste of playgoers of the period, 
 and that its good fortune served to cheer the poet. 
 
 When Poole heard of his old friend's success, 
 he was prompted to send him congratulations, and 
 these, says Mrs. Sandford, 'drew forth an instant 
 response penetrated with all the old tenderness.' In 
 
 1 Letters, etc. p. 51. 
 
192 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1812 
 
 the same letter to Poole there followed ' an out- 
 pouring of grief and difficulties, with some allusion at 
 the end to the withdrawal of the Wedgwood pen- 
 sion, and to the " year - long difference " between 
 Wordsworth and himself, compared with the suffer- 
 ings of which, he writes, "all former afflictions of i 
 my life were less than flea-bites." They were | 
 reconciled, indeed, "but — aye there remains the \ 
 immedicable But." ' ^ [ 
 
 The reference in this letter is one of the earliest I | 
 have found as to the withdrawal by Josiah Wedgwood 
 of his half of the pension of ;^i50 granted in 1798. 
 As already explained,^ the total pension was granted 
 to Coleridge for life, and absolutely free from conditions 
 except ' the wreck of the Wedgwoods' fortune.' Josiah 
 Wedgwood's present action is unaccountable save on 
 the assumption that he had entirely forgotten the 
 terms of his letter of Jan. 10, 1798. But this assump- 
 tion is hardly tenable, for as a man of the strictest 
 business habits, he must have kept an accurately filed 
 copy of so important a letter. Even had this been 
 lost, or mislaid, Josiah Wedgwood cannot have been 
 unaware that his brother's half-share had been at the 
 time secured legally to Coleridge for life, and this fact ■ 
 was of itself proof, prima facie, that the whole had been 
 granted on the same terms. Very reluctantly, for 
 Josiah Wedgwood had otherwise shown himself to be ' * 
 just and generous, I am driven to the conclusion that ' 
 the withdrawal was a high-handed proceeding, and ' 
 that Coleridge, though he must have been aware of ' 
 
 1 T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 244. 
 
 2 See p. 83 sup7-a. The withdrawal must have taken place at the end of 
 1812. Miss Meteyard's unsupported statement {Group of Englishnien, p. 378) 
 that it took place in 181 1, has hitherto been accepted. Her justification of 
 Wedgwood was written in ignorance of the unconditional terms on which the 
 pension had been granted. 
 
 ini 
 
iSi2 A NEW DIFFERENCE WITH WORDSWORTH 193 
 
 this, made no complaint/ owing to a painful conscious- 
 ness that the benefaction had not been used for the 
 high purposes which had led both to the granting and 
 to the acceptance of it. Practically, Mrs. Coleridge 
 .was the sufferer by the withdrawal of the half, for the 
 ■ whole had been for many years at her disposal. 
 [Neither did she, disheartened though she was by the 
 loss of income, at a time when sorely tried by the 
 increasing expenses, actual and prospective, of the 
 children, bring any accusation against Wedgwood. 
 
 On the I St December 181 2 a shadow was cast on 
 Wordsworth's household by the death of his little son, 
 Thomas. It seemed to them as if their sun had gone 
 down, and Coleridge was deeply moved. As soon as 
 the sad news reached him he wrote to Wordsworth 
 I long letter overflowing with affectionate sympathy ^ : 
 
 O that it were within my power to be with you myself instead of 
 iiy letter. The Lectures I could give up ; but the rehearsal of my 
 'lay commences this week, and upon this depends my best hopes of 
 eaving town after Christmas, and living among you as long as I 
 ive. . . . AVhat comfort ought I not to afford, who have given you . 
 much pain ? . . . I am distant from you some hundred miles, 
 )ut glad I am that I am no longer distant in spirit, and have faith, 
 hat as it has happened but once, so it never can happen again. 
 
 3f this letter, in which Coleridge humbled himself 
 n presence of the sorrow which had darkened his 
 riend's home, Prof. Knight (who does not print the 
 2tter in full) says : ' I fancy there were phrases and 
 tatements in it which the Wordsworths did not like, 
 nd that no immediate reply was sent to Coleridge.* 
 Vhatever may have been done, or left undone by the 
 
 1 ' I feel my mind rather lightened,' he wrote on the subject to Stuart, 'and 
 n glad that I can now enjoy the sensation of sincere gratitude towards him [J. 
 'edgwood] for the past, and most unfeigned esteem and affection, without the 
 eight that every year seemed to accumulate upon it ' (Letter to Stuart in 
 'Iters from the Lake Poets, p. 218). 
 
 2 Knight's Life of W. VV. ii. 181. 
 
 6 
 

 194 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1813 S 
 
 Wordsworths, it is certain that Coleridge felt himself | ; 
 
 deeply wounded, for when he was free to go north he I j 
 
 did not go. On March 10, Mrs. Clarkson wrote to | j 
 
 Robinson ^ : — | j; 
 
 C, as I told you, wrote to them [the Wordsworths] several times 1 1 
 after the death of little Tom, and said that he would . . . certainly ; ij 
 go were it [the play] successful. William and Dorothy have both t j 
 written to him to say that nothing would do W. so much good as \ t 
 his company and conversation. He has taken no notice whatever j 
 of these letters ; . . • and they have heard by a letter from Mr. \ 
 Morgan to Southey or Mrs. C, that C. is going out of town to the ; 
 seaside ! ! ! Imagine them in the depths of sorrow, receiving this 
 cutting intelligence. . . . The account of the state of the family at 
 Grasmere would make your heart ache — supposing myself to have 
 been deeply injured, would one wish for a more noble triumph than 
 to fly to the succour of the friend who had inflicted the wound ? 
 
 It was at the request, expressed or implied, of the 
 Wordsworths that Mrs. Clarkson was endeavouring toj 
 soften Coleridge's heart. She saw him at Morgan's, 
 but he seems to have been obdurate. Mary Lamb 
 took Coleridge's side, and 'after all,' acknowledged 
 Mrs. Clarkson on March 29th, ' I do incline to think 
 with M. L[amb] ^ that there is something amongst 
 
 1 Knight's Life of W. W. ii. 182-184. 
 
 2 It will be remembered that Coleridge was in Malta when John Wordsworth 
 was drowned at sea. Mary Lamb, in her letter of condolence to Dorothy 
 Wordsworth, sent some lines expressing the feeling which now possessed Mrs. 
 Clarkson : — 
 
 Why is he wandering on the sea ? 
 
 Coleridge should now with Wordsworth be. 
 
 By slow degrees he'd steal away | 
 
 Their woe and gently bring a ray 
 
 (So happily he'd time relief) 
 
 Of comfort from their very grief. 
 
 He'd tell them that their brother dead, 
 
 When years have passed o'er their head, 
 
 Will be remembered with such holy, 
 
 True, and perfect melancholy, 
 
 That ever their lost brother John 
 
 Will be their hearts' companion. 
 
 His voice they'll always hear, 
 
 His face they'll always see ; 
 
 There's nought in life so sweet 
 
 As such a memory. 
 
 But Mary Lamb, who was one of the wisest and shrewdest as well as one OW^I 
 
 It 
 
i8i3 WORDSWORTH SEEKS RECONCILEMENT 195 
 
 them which makes it perhaps better that they should 
 not meet just now. I am, however, quite sure that 
 ... it rests with him [Coleridge] entirely to recover 
 all that he has lost in their hearts.' I have no doubt 
 Mrs. Clarkson correctly interpreted the Wordsworths' 
 feelings, and that it would have been better for both 
 parties had Coleridge forgiven and forgotten the 
 offence, whatever it may have been, when the Words- 
 worths had in their turn humbled themselves to him — 
 but the documents which might enable us to judge 
 quite confidently are not before us. A bond, such as 
 had existed between Coleridge and Wordsworth, once 
 broken may be mended, but it cannot be welded. It 
 was broken by Wordsworth in an unguarded moment ; 
 50on after it had been mended, Wordsworth, under 
 stress of sorrow, seems to have been driven to break 
 t afresh ; and one must regret that when he became 
 lonscious of what he had done, his appeals proved 
 -inavailing. But our regret must be even greater on 
 Coleridge's account than on Wordsworth's, for, in the 
 :onduct of life, it was Wordsworth who was strong — 
 strong in himself and powerful to give strength.' 
 3ne feels, too, that with Coleridge it could not have 
 )een hardness of heart which held him in London 
 vhen he was needed at Grasmere ; but rather 
 )aralysis of will. Whatever the cause, the effects 
 vere disastrous. Coleridge had learned by more than 
 me cruel experience that in natures like his own, the 
 )reath of whose life is sympathy, ' to be wroth with 
 ;ne we love, doth work like madness in the brain.' 
 between himself and every member of the Grasmere 
 
 le best of women, recognised that 'circumstances alter cases.' Her own 
 -lations with all the parties had undergone no change, except in as far as time 
 ad deepened and strengthened them, and she was probably better acquainted 
 lan Mrs. Clarkson with Coleridge's reasons for the attitude he had taken up. 
 
196 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1813 p 
 
 household there had grown up a union of true hearts, i 
 exalted and strengthened in Wordsworth's case by ^. 
 the sympathy of equal minds ; and if the ' year-long 
 difference,' closed but a few months before, had so 
 deeply affected Coleridge, with what feelings of despair 
 must he have contemplated this fresh rupture ! It 
 lasted until the spring of 1815 : ^ is it surprising that in 
 the interval, Coleridge, deprived of the friendships 
 which were his chief solace and support, sank into 
 lower depths than he had ever touched before ? But 
 for this new difference with the Wordsworths, Cole- 
 ridge's impulse to return to the Lake country as a 
 resident might have been reinforced and the current 
 of his life turned into a smoother channel. 
 
 He seems to have remained in London, doing 
 nothing, until October. Southey came up to town 
 in September and saw him several times. On thci 
 4th October he took Coleridge to Madame de Stael's 
 drawing-room, ' and left him there in the full spring- 
 tide of his discourse.'^ (It was that clever lady's first 
 experience of his greatness in monologue.) Southey 
 adds that Coleridge's ' time of departure seems still 
 uncertain,' and that ' Mrs. C. will not be sorry to hear 
 that he is selling his German books.' This evidently 
 last desperate effort to raise money is also mentioned 
 to Stuart of Sep. 27. In the same letter he asks 
 Stuart to look at that day's Morning Chronicle for 
 what ' he should have called a masterly essay on the 
 
 1 Even then, intercourse was only temporarily renewed in a somewhat con- 
 strained correspondence respecting the publication of Coleridge's lines on hearing 
 the Prelude ; and on the respective merits of the Prelude and the Excursion — 
 Coleridge holding the former to be the better poem. (See Knight's Life of 
 Wordsworth, ii. 255-260, for Coleridge's very interesting letter; and Man. of 
 Coleorton, ii. 175.) In 18 16 came the Biographia Liieraria, and Wordsworth's 
 displeasure with the criticism of his poems it contained. Friendly relations were 
 not fully re-established until the end of 181 7. I 
 
 - Letters of K. S. ii. 332. J 
 
i8i3 LEAVES LONDON FOR BRISTOL 197 
 
 cause of the downfall of the Comic Drama, if he were 
 not perplexed by the distinct recollection of having 
 convei^sed the greater part of it at Lamb's.' Coleridge 
 does not say that Hazlitt was present when the article 
 was 'conversed,' but he implies it, for Stuart must 
 have known that Hazlitt was then contributing 
 dramatic articles to the Chronicle. 
 
 Coleridge had not written to his wife since March, 
 but when Southey was in town, proposed to go to 
 Greta Hall with him. Then came the invitation or 
 proposal — from which side, I know not — to lecture 
 at Bristol ; but Coleridge assured Southey that as 
 soon as the course was finished he would set out 
 direct for Keswick. But Keswick never saw Cole- 
 ridge again. The separation arranged between hus- 
 band and wife had drifted into informality, but it 
 proved none the less permanent. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 BRISTOL AND CALNE 
 A.D. 1813-1816 
 
 Some time in October Coleridge left London for 
 Bristol by coach. It was on the morning of the day- 
 preceding that which had been announced for his 
 first lecture at the Great Room of the 'White Lion.' 
 He 'talked incessantly for thirty miles out of London, 
 . . . and afterwards with little intermission till the 
 coach reached Marlborough, when he discovered ' that 
 among his fellow-passengers was the sister of a par- 
 ticular friend. She was on her way to North Wales. 
 At Bath Coleridge took a chaise, and gallantly escorted 
 the lady to her destination, arriving at Bristol two or 
 three days behind time.^ He came as the guest of 
 his faithful old friend Josiah Wade, and a fresh day 
 was appointed for the opening lecture. It was Oct. 
 28, and after some difficulty the person of the lecturer 
 was secured and deposited on the platform 'just one 
 hour' (says Cottle) 'after all the company had 
 impatiently awaited him.' After that evening 'no 
 other important delay arose, and the lectures gave 
 great satisfaction.' The course of six was completed 
 
 1 Cottle's Rem. p. 353. 
 
] i8i3 LECTURES DELIVERED AT BRISTOL 199 
 
 j on Nov. 16/ the last being extra and gratuitous, 'on 
 account of the diffuseness he unavoidably fell into in 
 his introductory discourse.' On Nov. 17 he appears to 
 have delivered a seventh lecture on Education, but 
 of this no report has been found. The same fate, 
 unfortunately, has attended a second and similarly 
 successful course^ of six lectures — two on Shake- 
 speare and four on Milton — announced on Dec. 30, 
 1813.^ This was followed by a third of four lectures 
 on Milton, delivered between April 5 and 14, 1814,^ 
 which Cottle^ says 'were but indifferently attended.' 
 He adds that Coleridge announced four lectures on 
 Homer, hoping to ' attract the many,' but that * only 
 a few of his old and staunch friends attended.' All 
 these Bristol lectures, Cottle tells us, were ' of a con- 
 versational character,' such as those with which he 
 delighted his friends in private. 'The attention of 
 his hearers [of the lectures] never flagged, and his 
 large dark eyes, and his countenance, in an excited 
 state, glowing with intellect, predisposed his audience 
 in his favour.' 
 
 I have thought it best to keep together the records 
 of the various courses of Bristol lectures, but the narra- 
 tive must needs go back to October 181 3. C. R. 
 Leslie, the painter, then a promising Academy student 
 of twenty, was at Bristol on a short visit to his com- 
 patriots, the AUstons, and heard three of the first 
 course of lectures. They gave him, he wrote at the 
 time, ' a much more distinct and satisfactory view of 
 the nature and ends of poetry, and of painting, than 
 
 1 The lectures, which were on Shakespeare and Milton, were briefly reported 
 in the Bristol papers, and from them transcribed by the pious efforts of Mr. 
 George, the well-known Bristol bookseller. These reports are printed in Mr. 
 Ashe's Lectures, etc., previously mentioned. 
 
 2 Cottle's Rem. p. 354. ^ Ashe, p. 456. 
 * lb. p. 457. 5 Rem. p. 354. 
 
200 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1813- 
 
 I ever had before.'^ It will be seen that Coleridge 
 did not fulfil his promise to return to Keswick at the 
 close of his lecture engagement. He did not even 
 write to Keswick — at all events up to Feb. 18 14. 
 His family had not then seen him for two years, and 
 it was nearly one since they had received a letter 
 from him. 
 
 In December 181 3 I find him sending back to 
 Robinson two borrowed volumes of Spinoza's works, 
 and anxious to procure some of the writings of Jean 
 Paul Richter, Fichte, and Schelling. He has just 
 returned to Bristol from a visit to the Morgans, who 
 had followed him to the west country, and were now 
 living in reduced circumstances, and as regards both 
 ladies of the family, with impaired health, near Bath. 
 For the spring and summer of 18 14, Cottle is almost 
 the only authority,- and unreliable as he is, the best 
 has to be made of him. At some uncertain time 
 previous to April, Coleridge borrowed of him ten 
 pounds to pay off ' a dirty fellow ' who had threatened 
 arrest. 
 
 About the same time every one, save Cottle him- 
 self, had noticed in Coleridge's ' look and deportment ' 
 * something unusual and strange ' ; and, soon after, 
 while both men were calling on Hannah More, Cottle 
 observed that Coleridge's hand shook so that he 
 spilled wine from a glass he was raising to his lips. 
 On mentioning this to a friend next day, it was 
 explained to him. 'That,' said the friend, 'arises 
 from the immoderate quantity of opium he takes.' 
 
 1 Leslie had accompanied the Allstons from London to Bristol. Mr. 
 AUston fell ill on the way, at vSalt Hill, and Coleridge was sent for from town. 
 Leslie says {RIcm. i. 35): 'At Salt Hill and on some other occasions, I 
 witnessed his [Coleridge's] performance of the duties of a friendship in a manner 
 which few men of his constitutional indolence could have roused themselves to 
 equal.' ^ Rem. pp. 352-386. 
 
1 8 14 OPIUM AGAIN IN THE ASCENDANT 201 
 
 It is remarkable (adds Cottle) that this was the first time the 
 melancholy fact of Mr. Coleridge's excessive indulgence in opium 
 had come to my knowledge. It astonished and afflicted me. Now, 
 the cause of his ailments became manifest. On this subject Mr. C. 
 may have been communicative to others, but to me he was silent. 
 I now saw it was mistaken kindness to give him money, as I had 
 learned that he indulged in his potations according to the extent of 
 his means, so that to be temperate, it was expedient that he should 
 be poor. 
 
 Cottle's phrase, 'giving him money,' refers to a 
 movement he had kindly set afoot for Coleridge's 
 benefit. He had aimed at getting together an 
 annuity of a hundred and fifty pounds, 'that Cole- 
 ridge might pursue his literary objects without pecuni- 
 ary distractions.' The scheme appears to have been 
 checked by opposition from Southey, who justly 
 pointed out that Coleridge's 'distractions' were not 
 primarily ' pecuniary,' but narcotic. 
 
 After receiving this counsel from Southey, Cottle 
 sent to the unhappy Coleridge a lengthy communica- 
 tion, the tone and purport of which are sufficiently 
 indicated by its opening sentence ^ : ' I am conscious 
 of being influenced by the purest motives in address- 
 ing you the following letter.' Next day Coleridge 
 replied : ' You have poured oil into the raw and 
 festering wound of an old friend's conscience, Cottle ! 
 but it is oil of vitriol ! I but barely glanced at the 
 middle of the first page of your letter, and have seen 
 no more of it — not from resentment, God forbid ! but 
 from the state of my bodily and mental sufferings, 
 that scarcely permitted human fortitude to let in a 
 new visitor of affliction. The object of my present 
 reply is to state the case just as it is.' — First, he goes 
 
 ^ The date given is ' April 25th, 1814.' Early Recoil, ii. 150 ; and Rem. p. 
 361. Cottle evidently could not refrain from garbling his own letter, as he 
 garbled the rest of the correspondence, for the text is not identical in the two 
 books. 
 
202 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1S14 
 
 on to say, the consciousness of his guilt towards his 
 Maker has been his greatest anguish these ten years ; 
 secondly, he has never concealed the cause of his 
 direful infirmity — and has warned two young men, 
 inclined to laudanum, of the consequences, as ex- 
 hibited in his own case ; thirdly, he can say that he 
 was ignorantly seduced into the habit, by bodily pain, 
 and not by desire of pleasurable sensations. His 
 ' case is a species of madness, only that it is a 
 derangement, an utter impotence of the volition, and 
 not of the intellectual faculties. You bid me rouse 
 myself; go bid a man paralytic in both arms, to rub 
 them briskly together, and that will cure him. "Alas ! " 
 he would reply, " that I cannot move my arms, is my 
 complaint and my misery ! " ' Had he ' but ;^200 — half 
 to send to Mrs. Coleridge, and half to place himself in 
 a private madhouse where he could procure nothing but 
 what a physician thought proper . . . for two or three 
 months, there might be hope.' He would 'willingly 
 place himself under Dr. Fox, in his establishment.' 
 
 On the same day Cottle replied, counselling him 
 to pray, and asking pardon if his ' former letter ' 
 appeared unkind ; to which Coleridge instantly re- 
 sponded, assuring Cottle that he * thanked ' him, that 
 he did endeavour to pray, but that Cottle had no con- 
 ception of the dreadful hell of his mind and conscience 
 and body. Soon after, probably on the day following, 
 Coleridge wrote to Cottle a letter in which he en- 
 larged, very calmly, on the reasonable expectations a 
 Christian may entertain on the subject of sincere prayer, 
 quoting and recommending Archbishop Leighton, and 
 going on to express his resolve to put himself under Dr. 
 Fox if money enough can be procured. Will Cottle 
 see W. Hood and Le Breton and Wade as to this ? 
 
 A 
 
i8i4 GOOD RESOLUTIONS 203 
 
 Does he know Fox ? — ending : * I have not yet read 
 your former letter, for I have to prepare my lecture. 
 Oh! with how blank a spirit! — S. T. Coleridge.'^ 
 Unfortunately Cottle did not comply with Coleridge's 
 request, or if he did, nothing resulted. Coleridge's 
 plan of putting himself under restraint was the wisest 
 which could have been adopted under the circum- 
 stances. Cottle wrote to Southey, and sent him a 
 copy of his correspondence with Coleridge. Southey 
 was shocked, but not surprised. He knew, as did 'all 
 with whom Coleridge has lived,' that after every 
 possible allowance is made for ' morbid bodily causes ' 
 the habit of opium-eating is ' for infinitely the greater 
 part' motived by 'inclination and indulgence.' 
 
 The Morgans, with great difficulty and perseverance, did break 
 him off the habit, at a time when his ordinary consumption of 
 laudanum was from two quarts a week to a pint a day ! He 
 suffered dreadfully during the first abstinence, so much so as to say 
 it was better to die than to endure his present sufferings. Mrs. 
 Morgan resolutely replied, it was indeed better that he should die 
 than that he should continue to live on as he had been living. It 
 angered him at the time, but the effort was persevered in. . . . 
 This, too, I ought to say, that all the medical men to whom Cole- 
 ridge has made his confession have uniformly ascribed the evil, not 
 to bodily ailment, but to indulgence. 
 
 Regular work is the one cure, and Southey sees 
 
 nothing so advisable for Coleridge as a return to that 
 
 and to Greta Hall, after a refreshing visit to Poole, 
 
 and a few lectures at Birmingham and Liverpool, to 
 
 put him in funds. 
 
 But whether he can do this or not (continues Southey), here it 
 is that he ought to be. He knows in what manner he will be re- 
 ceived ; by his children with joy ; by his wife, not with tears, if she 
 can controul them — certainly not with reproaches ; by me only with 
 encouragement. He has sources of direct emolument open to him 
 
 ^ Contrast this, taken from the original document, with Cottle, Rem. p. 371. 
 The 'former letter' was evidently Cottle's first, of April 25. Coleridge probably 
 never summoned courage enough to read it through. -.^ . ■ — ..^ 
 
 /^ "^ OF THE > 
 
204 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1S14 
 
 in the Couj-ier and in the Eclectic Review. — These for his imme- 
 diate wants, and for everything else, his pen is more rapid than mine, 
 and would be paid as well. If you agree with me, you had better 
 write to Poole, that he may press him to make a visit, which I know 
 he has promised. His great object should be to get out a play and 
 appropriate the whole produce to supporting Hartley at college. 
 Three months' pleasurable exertion would effect this. Of some such 
 fit of industry I by no means despair ; of anything more than fits, I 
 am afraid I do. But this of course I shall never say to him. 
 From me he shall never hear anything but cheerful encouragement 
 and the language of hope. ... I have communicated none of your 
 letters to Mrs. Coleridge — her spirits and health are beginning to 
 sink under it.^ 
 
 It is in justice to Southey that I quote so fully 
 from a letter which is not only wise and kind, but 
 which must have been written in a spirit of no ordinary 
 self-sacrifice. That its counsels came from him did 
 not, I fear, recommend them to Coleridge ; the cup, 
 however, might perhaps have been tolerated, had its 
 contents been inviting. But how uninviting must the 
 draught have seemed ! It was proposed to him to 
 return to companionship and a mode of life which had 
 been abandoned after trial, and to return under condi- 
 tions and circumstances which in Coleridge's eyes 
 must have seemed vastly less favourable. To present 
 himself at Greta Hall in his wrecked condition would 
 be a confession of failure altogether too abject — a con- 
 fession not in mere words (which came easily enough 
 to this publican) but in deed, and having to be made 
 
 1 Rem. pp. 373-375. This letter Cottle has treated with an unusual amount 
 of respect, meddling more with the style than the sense. 
 
 In a letter dated a week or two before (April 17) Southey had said much the 
 same, adding that he could obtain employment for Coleridge on the Quarterly. 
 Should Cottle proceed in his intention to raise an annuity, the amount would not 
 suffice to pay for Coleridge's laudanum, and could but induce more strenuous 
 idleness. At all events, says Southey, ' my name must not be mentioned. His 
 wife and daughter are living with me, and here he may employ himself without 
 any disquietude about immediate subsistence.' Cottle has treated this letter more 
 recklessly than almost any other. Southey is made to say : ' My name must not 
 be mentioned. / subscribe enough. Here he may employ himself,' etc. The 
 words italicised (they are italicised also by Cottle) form only one of the more 
 scandalous of his alterations. 
 
iSi4 GOOD ADVICE FROM SOUTHEY 205 
 
 to his wife and to Southey ! Then there were the 
 Wordsworths. Dorothy's heart, and perhaps Mrs. 
 Wordsworth's also, was accustomed to beat inde- 
 pendently of her brother's when Coleridge was con- 
 cerned — the friendship of these 'beloved women' might 
 be counted on to almost any extent, but whatever 
 relations might be established with the family as a 
 whole, they could not possibly be the old ones ; 
 Wordsworth's house could never again be all that it 
 had been, an ever- open shelter and a fountain of 
 unquestioning sympathy. — These, I doubt not, were 
 the considerations which weighed with Coleridge, if 
 he gave Southey's proposals any serious thought. 
 It is far more probable, I fear, that .he listened to 
 them only with impatience, knowing well that his 
 enfeebled will was unequal to the adoption of any plan, 
 or even to the exertion of taking the initial step. 
 
 And so he seems to have drifted on at Bristol 
 until the autumn, doing nothing save pretending to 
 give up opium under the care of Dr. Daniel and 
 ' a respectable old decayed tradesman,' who was 
 hired to go about with the poet when he took his 
 walks abroad. Coleridge had other amusements 
 besides the daily one of circumventing his simple 
 guardian — he wrote mottoes for Proclamation- Day 
 transparencies, painted by Allston ; he sat to 
 Allston for the almost superhumanly respectable- 
 looking portrait painted for Mr. Josiah Wade^; he 
 corrected (for a fee of ten pounds) and laughed at 
 Cottle's new epic, ' Messiah ' ; he laughed, too, at 
 several prolix letters addressed to him by Cottle, 
 ascribing all his (Coleridge's) ills, not to opium, but to 
 
 1 Now in the National Portrait Gallery. It has been engraved by Sam. 
 Cousens. 
 
2o6 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1814 
 
 Satanic possession. These delights were tempered 
 only by the intense boredom produced by the presence 
 of hypochondriacal Mrs. Fermor, Lady Beaumont's 
 sister, who had come to Bristol expressly for the 
 benefit of his society.^ 
 
 But in spite of the seeming gaiety exhibited in 
 the unprinted letter of which the foregoing passage 
 is a summary, Coleridge was conscience-stricken and 
 bowed down. It was probably on quitting kind 
 Wade's roof for that of the equally kind Morgan, that 
 he wrote the saddest of all the letters of his which 
 have come down to us,- one of the saddest, perhaps, 
 which any man ever penned : — 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 For I am unworthy to call any good man friend — 
 much less you, whose hospitality and love I have abused ; accept, 
 however, my intreaties for your forgiveness, and for your prayers. 
 
 Conceive a poor miserable wretch, who for many years has been 
 attempting to beat off pain, by a constant recurrence to the vice that 
 reproduces it. Conceive a spirit in hell employed in tracing out for 
 others the road to that heaven from which his crimes exclude him. 
 In short, conceive whatever is most wretched, helpless, and hope- 
 less, and you will form as tolerable a notion of my state, as it is pos- 
 sible for a good man to have. 
 
 I used to think the text in St. James that ' he who offended in 
 one point, offends in all,' very harsh ; but I now feel the awful, the 
 tremendous truth of it. In the one crime of opium, what crime 
 have I not made myself guilty of ! — Ingratitude to my Maker ! and 
 to my benefactors — injustice ! and unnatural cruelty to my poor 
 children ! — self-contempt for my repeated promise — breach, nay, too 
 often, actual falsehood ! 
 
 After my death, I earnestly entreat, that a full and unqualified narra- 
 tion of my wretchedness and of its guilty cause, may be made public, 
 that at least some little good may be effected by the direful example. 
 
 May God Almighty bless you, and have mercy on your still 
 affectionate, and in his heart, grateful — S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 ^ See Coleridge's polite statement of Mrs. P'ermor's case in a letter to her 
 sister (Mem. of Coleo7-toii, ii. 171-174). 
 
 2 To JosiahWade. ' Bristol, June 26th, 1814' (Cottle's Rem. p. 394). I 
 have not seen the original document. 
 
1 8 14 REJOINS THE MORGANS 207 
 
 Before the middle of September, Coleridge was 
 able to inform his friends that his Bristol physician 
 being persuaded that nothing remained ' but to super- 
 induce ^^j^zVzW health on a system from which disease 
 and its removable causes had been driven out,' had 
 recommended country air. He has therefore rejoined 
 the Morgans in a cottage at Ashley, half a mile from 
 Box, on the Bath road. His day he represents as 
 being laid out in the most methodical manner — he 
 ' breakfasts before nine, works till one, walks and reads 
 till three,' etc. etc. His morning hours are devoted to 
 a great work now printing at Bristol, at the risk of 
 two friends. 
 
 The title is ' Christianity, the one true Philosophy ; or. Five 
 Treatises on the Logos, or Communicative Intelligence, natural, 
 human, and divine,' to which is prefixed a prefatory essay on the 
 laws and limits of toleration and liberality, illustrated by fragments 
 of AuTO-biography. 
 
 A syllabus, in the author's best style, of the Five 
 Treatises, follows, and a statement that * the purpose 
 of the whole is a philosophical defence of the Articles 
 of the Church, so far as they respect doctrine, as points 
 of faith.' ^ The work is to be ' comprised in two portly 
 octavos.' This I believe to be the first mention of 
 'the magnum opus,' of which much will be heard here- 
 after. 
 
 The evenings (proceeds the admirably methodical Coleridge) 
 I have employed in composing a series of Essays on the Principles 
 of General Criticism concerning the Fine Arts, especially those of 
 Statuary and Painting, and of these four in title, but six or more in 
 
 ^ Coleridge's orthodoxy seems now to have been complete. In one of his 
 Bristol lectures of April 18 14, he said that Milton's Satan was a 'sceptical 
 Socinian.' The phrase cost him the friendship of Dr. Estlin, and probably that 
 of other Unitarian friends, in spite of a humble but highly argumentative apology. 
 To Cottle he quoted Paradise Regained, iv. 1. 196 et seq., and 1. 500 et seq. See 
 also, Estlin Letters, pp. 11 2- 117. 
 
2o8 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 1814 
 
 size, have been published in Felix Farlefs Bristol Journal'^ — a 
 strange place for such a publication, but my motive was originally 
 to serve poor Allston, who is now exhibiting his pictures in Bristol. 
 
 He concludes by assuring Stuart that the essays are 
 the best things he has ever written, and asks if, revised 
 and extended to sixteen or twenty, they would suit 
 the Cou^Her. He would supply two a week and one 
 political essay.- The offer of political contributions 
 was accepted, for six * Letters to Judge Fletcher con- 
 cerning his " Charge to the Grand Jury of the County 
 of Wexford at the Summer Assizes in 1814"'^ were 
 printed in the Cottrier between September 20 and 
 December 10.^ 
 
 The great folks of the neighbourhood soon found 
 out that a notable man had taken up his residence 
 among them. His first discoverers seem to have been 
 the Methuen^ family of Corsham House; the next, 
 Moore's Marquis of Lansdowne. His qiiondain ' idol,' 
 Bowles, was not far off, at Bremhill, and the two poets 
 foregathered. About the middle of October, Cole- 
 ridge was driven to apply to Stuart for a small 
 advance, the reason assigned being that ' the book- 
 seller has treated me in a strange way about a transla- 
 tion of Goethe's Faust. But it is not worth mentioning, 
 except that I employed some weeks unprofitably.'*^ 
 
 ^ The essays have been reprinted in Cottle's Early Recollections (Appendix), 
 1837; and again in Miscellanies^ Aesthetic and Literary, by S. T. Coleridge; 
 edited by T. Ashe, 1885. 
 
 '^ Letters from the Lake Poets, pp. 221-233. Letter dated from ']\Ir. Smith's, 
 Ashley, Box, near Bath. 12 Sep. 18 14.' 
 
 ^ The 'Charge' was published as a pamphlet in 18 14. London : Sherwood. 
 Pp. ii. ; 48. 
 
 ** Reprinted in Essays on his oivn Times, pp. 677-733. The letters were 
 signed ' Irish Protestant ' ! 
 
 '•' Some interesting reminiscences of Coleridge at this period were contributed 
 to the Christian Obsej'ver for 1845, by the Rev. T. A. Methuen, Rector of All 
 Cannings, Wilts. They are signed ' TLLctls.' 
 
 ^ John Murray (the second) was ' the bookseller,' Coleridge was offered 
 ;^ioo for a translation and analysis oi Faust, to be completed in two or three 
 months. lie accepted, although he says he thinks the terms ' humiliatingly low.' 
 
i8i4 GOES TO CALNE 209 
 
 On November 23, Coleridge informs Stuart that 
 on * Monday after next he expects, as far as so per- 
 plexed a being dare expect anything, to remove to 
 Calne, Wilts, at a Mr. Page's, surgeon.' He proposes 
 further contributions to the Courier, and asks Stuart 
 to see a publisher as to a collection of his scattered 
 political essays, similar to one which had been 
 announced as forthcoming, in the first number of The 
 Friejid, five years before. The Morgans accompanied 
 him to Calne. 
 
 All this time Coleridge's wife and the other in- 
 mates of Greta Hall heard nothing from him. On 
 October 1 7, Southey wrote to Cottle : — 
 
 Can you tell us anything of Coleridge ? A few lines of intro- 
 duction to a son of Mr. Biddulph of St. James's [Bristol] are all 
 that we have received from him since I saw him last September 
 twelvemonth in town. The children being thus entirely left to 
 chance, I have applied to his brothers at Ottery concerning them, 
 and am in hopes, through these means and the aid of other friends, 
 of sending Hartley to college. Lady Beaumont has promised ;^3o 
 annually for this purpose, Poole ^10. I wrote to Coleridge three 
 or four months ago, telling him that unless he took some steps 
 towards providing for this object I must make the application, and 
 required his answer within a given term of three weeks. He re- 
 ceived the letter, and in his note by Mr. Biddulph promised to 
 answer, but he has never taken any further notice of it. I have 
 acted with the advice of Wordsworth. The brothers, as I expected, 
 promise their concurrence, and I daily expect a letter stating to 
 what amount they will contribute. What is to become of Cole- 
 ridge himself! He may continue to find men who will give him 
 board and lodging for the sake of his conversation, but who will pay 
 his other expenses ? I cannot but apprehend some shameful and 
 dreadful end to this deplorable course.^ 
 
 It came to nothing. See Memoirs of John Murray (1S91), i. 297 et seq. ; also 
 Atheiutum, April 18, 1 89 1, and Table Talk for February 16, 1833. Coleridge's 
 disrelish for Goethe gave Crabb Robinson great concern. 
 
 ^ This letter, the original of which is now in the Fonthill Collection, is incor- 
 rectly and incompletely printed in Life and Corr. of R. S. iv. 81 ; and still more 
 incorrectly and incompletely in Cottle's Rem. p. 386. Cottle has interpolated 
 passages from a letter written by Southey on 2nd March 1815, Per contra, let 
 it be known that Cottle, unsolicited, joined in the subscription for sending Hartley 
 to Oxford. 
 
2IO SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1814. 
 
 On December 12, Southey informs Cottle that he 
 knows nothing of Coleridge save that he is writing in 
 the Courier under the name of ' An Irish Protestant,' 
 and that it is settled that Hartley goes to Oxford in 
 the spring.^ There seems to be something cruel, and 
 therefore unlike Coleridge, in the persistent silence 
 maintained towards his family and the friends who 
 were exerting themselves to promote the interests of 
 his darling Hartley. When at Ashley, he delighted 
 to speak to his landlady about his children, and told 
 her that his eldest son was going to college.' 
 
 Early in March, after a long silence, Coleridge 
 renewed communication with Cottle in a mournful 
 letter,^ His health is no worse than when he left 
 Bristol, but it fluctuates ; he is unhappy, and ' poor 
 indeed.' He has collected his scattered poems, and 
 wishes to publish them, but he must begin the volume 
 with a series of Odes on the sentences of the Lord's 
 Prayer, a series ' which has never been seen by any ' 
 — a statement equally true to-day. A desire even 
 more urgent, is to finish his ' greater work on " Chris- 
 tianity, considered as Philosophy, and as the only 
 Philosophy." ' It is nearly finished (!) but his poverty 
 compels him constantly to turn aside to ' some mean 
 subject for the newspapers ' — distressing interruptions 
 which deprive him of the power of executing either 
 task. After his recent experience "in Bristol he would 
 rather die than appeal to * a club of subscribers to his 
 poverty ' — will Cottle lend him thirty or forty pounds, 
 on the security of his MSS. ? His conscience is not 
 easy, but he can truly say that his embarrassments are 
 
 1 Letters of R. S. ii. 386. 
 
 2 Wordsworth to Poole, March 13, 1815. Knight's Life of W. W. ii. 247. 
 
 3 Cahie, March 17, 181 5. Ran. p. 386. 
 
1 8 1 5 ' IMP A TIE NT DIS TRESSES ' 211 
 
 not caused by selfish indulgence. He is £2^ in 
 arrear, his expenses being £2 : los. per week. If 
 Cottle think he ought to live on less, he should re- 
 member that this would be to cut himself off from ' all 
 social affections and from all conversation with persons 
 of the same education.' ' Heaven knows ! ' he ex- 
 claims, ' of the ;!^300 received through you, what went 
 to myself.' To this Cottle replied with 'a friendly 
 letter,' declining the loan, but enclosing £^, having 
 convinced himself that the larger sum was needed, not 
 for board, but for opium. His letter was crossed by a 
 second from Coleridge, who said his ' distresses are 
 impatient rather than himself.' The Morgans would 
 gladly do all for him, but this is out of their power. 
 So he has written to William Hood asking him to see 
 four or five friends — the scorned ' club of subscribers 
 to his poverty ' of a few days before, doubtless — who 
 might make up the sum he requires among them, if 
 Cottle will not. If relief come from neither hand — 
 even ^20 would keep the wolf at bay for a week — 
 he must instantly dispose of all his MSS. to the first 
 bookseller who will give anything, and then try to live 
 by taking pupils, if not at Calne, then at Bristol. To 
 this second letter Cotde replied as to the first, and with 
 a second ^^5. He also urged him to come to Bristol 
 and consult the friends there ; but from Coleridge 
 came no reply. Cottle had received his last letter 
 from that pen. The Bristol friends came to the 
 rescue. In some old accounts I find that in April, 
 Hood (in association with others) lent Coleridge ^45, 
 ' besides advancing ^27:5:6 for the payment of the 
 premium on his life-policy. These friends accepted 
 the security of Coleridge's MSS. for their loans. 
 
 While this distressful correspondence was going on, 
 
2^2 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1815 
 
 Coleridge was busying himself energetically with the 
 local agitation against the Government Bill for exclud- 
 ing foreign corn until the average price of wheat should 
 reach eighty shillings per quarter. He drew up the 
 Calne petition to the Prince Regent, and, in support of 
 it, ' mounted on the butcher's table, made a butcherly 
 sort of speech of an hour long to a very ragged but 
 not butcherly audience ' in the market-place. ' Loud 
 were the huzzas, and if it depended on the inhabitants 
 at large, I believe they would send me up to Parlia- 
 ment.' So he wrote to Dr. Brabant, the eminent 
 physician of Devizes, and excused himself from 
 attending a meeting to be held in that town, in support 
 of the Government measure. Meantime, he asks Dr. 
 Brabant to buy him ' a quarter of a pound of the best 
 plain rappee at Anstey's,' and (but in a separate 
 paper) ' an ounce of maccabau ' ; and further, to recom- 
 mend to him a good table-beer, unlike the Calne brew, 
 which alternates between syrup and vinegar.^ 
 
 In June, a travelling theatrical company came to 
 Calne and acted Remorse, — not for the first time in the 
 town, for it seems to have been given there in 18 13. 
 When the company moved on to Devizes, the gratified 
 Coleridge gave the manager, Mr. Falkner, a flaming 
 testimonial to Dr. Brabant. On July 29 he wrote 
 to the same friend : — 
 
 The necessity of extending what I first intended as a preface ^ 
 
 1 ' Unpublished Letters written by S. T. Coleridge,' communicated by Dr. 
 Brabant's son-in-law, the late Mr. W. M. Call, to the Westminster Review for 
 April and July 1870. 
 
 2 In the imprinted correspondence of this period I see indications which lead 
 me to believe that the only prose contemplated at first was to take the form of a 
 preface to the poems ; and that this preface grew into a literary autobiography. 
 In July we see that a preface to the autobiography had been begun and ' ex- 
 tended.' This was the second stage. A little later this 'preface' had assumed 
 proportions so formidable that it was decided to incorporate it in the work. 
 When the MS. was sent to the printers, two volumes were intended — Vol. I. to 
 
i8i5 AT WORK ON THE ' BIOGRAPHIA' 213 
 
 to an ' Autobiographia Literaria, Sketches of my Literar}^ Life and 
 Opinions,' as far as poetry and poetical criticisms are concerned, has 
 confined me to my study from eleven to four and from six to ten 
 since I last left you. I have just finished it, having only the cor- 
 rection of the MS. to go through. I have given a full account 
 {raisomie) of the controversy concerning Wordsworth's Poems and 
 Theory, in which my name has been so constantly included. I 
 have no doubt that Wordsworth will be displeased, but I have done 
 my duty to myself and to the public, in, as I believe, completely 
 subverting the theory, and in proving that the poet himself has never 
 acted on it except in particular stanzas, which are the blots of his 
 composition. 
 
 He then goes on to tell his correspondent that he 
 has elaborated a ' disquisition on the powers of asso- 
 ciation . . . and on the generic difference between 
 the faculties of Fancy and Imagination,' not entirely 
 for insertion, but for Dr. Brabant's perusal. Then he 
 apologises for ' running on as usual ' past the object of 
 his letter, which is to beg Mrs. Brabant to get him a 
 pair of black silk stockings, costing 'from 17s. to 20s.,' 
 to enable him to dine respectably with the Marquis 
 and Marchioness of Lansdowne ; and further, to pro- 
 cure for him another ' quarter of a pound of plain 
 rappee, with half an ounce of maccabau, intermixed.' 
 
 On August 10 the first instalment of the 'copy' 
 of the Biographia Litera^na and a second of that of 
 the poems were sent to the printer — or rather to 
 Hood, to whom the MSS. had been secured. They 
 were sent with a letter from Morgan, who says that 
 if Coleridge goes on even half as well as he has during 
 the previous six weeks, wonders will have been accom- 
 plished by Christmas. The good Morgan was now 
 
 contain the Biographia, Vol. II. the Poems {^Sibylline Leaves). While the two 
 were being printed concurrently, the Biographia outgrew the capacity of a single 
 volume, and the Poems (the 'signature' of which is 'Vol. II.') are called in the 
 accounts ' Vol. III.' When the whole of Volumes I. and III. and half of Vol. II. 
 had been printed, the author quarrelled with the printers. Ultimately Vol. II. 
 was completed by another printer, and the 'work' issued in 1817, in two 
 separate parts — the Biographia (2 vols.) and the ' Sibylline Leaves' (i vol.) 
 
214 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1815 
 
 acting the part which had been taken by Miss Sarah 
 Hutchinson in the days of The Friend, — keeping 
 Coleridge at his task, and writing to his dictation. 
 Indeed, both The Friend and the Biographia repre- 
 sent Coleridge's talk, and (to adopt Carlyle's phrase) 
 these friends were the passive buckets into which he 
 pumped — most other listeners having been mere 
 sieves. Before the end of August, Hood passed on 
 the ' copy ' to Gutch,^ Morgan having given his under- 
 taking that regular supplies should be forthcoming. 
 The printers, however, at the end of 18 16, had put in 
 type only about one-third of the Sibylline Leaves^ and 
 of the Biographia nothing at all. 
 
 At the end of the Easter term Hartley (who had 
 been taken up to Oxford by the Wordsworths) came 
 to Calne on a visit to his father — a visit which was 
 prolonged until the end of the long vacation, and which 
 was greatly enjoyed both by father and son. Hartley 
 cheered his mother with accounts of his father's good 
 health and industry, of the successful performance of 
 Remorse by the travelling company, and of a Bible 
 Society meeting, at which his father made an elo- 
 quent speech of three-quarters of an hour. When 
 Hartley returned to Oxford, his father sped him on 
 his way with a ten pound note.^ 
 
 In October Coleridge tells Stuart^ that he has been 
 
 ^ John Mathew Gutch, an old schoolfellow of Coleridge and Lamb, and a 
 correspondent of the latter. He was then proprietor of Felix Farley'' s Journal 
 at Bristol. The actual printing of Coleridge's work was done by John Evans 
 & Co., but to Gutch's order. 
 
 2 Southey had expressed to Lamb his fears for the effect which this visit might 
 have on Hartley, to which Lamb replied (Aug. 9, 1815, Letters i. 293) : 'Your 
 fear for Hartley's intellectuals is just and rational. Could not the Chancellor be 
 petitioned to remove him ? His Lordship took Mr. Betty from under the paternal 
 wing. I think at least he should go through a course of matter-of-fact with some 
 sober man, after the mysteries. Could he not spend a week at Poole's before he 
 goes back to Oxford ? ' 
 
 ^ Oct. 7, 181 5. Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 242. 
 
i8i5 A SPELL OF HARD WORK 215 
 
 busy writing for the stage — re-writing Shakespeare's 
 Richard II., and also Beaumont and Fletcher's 
 Pilgrim and Beggars Dusk. He has 'unwisely 
 
 mentioned this to and some others connected 
 
 with the two theatres,' and, possibly by mere coin- 
 cidence, these three plays are announced as about 
 to be produced — by others! It cannot be helped, 
 but his work on the last -mentioned is so nearly 
 finished,^ that he begs Stuart to see the Drury Lane 
 people about it. He has sent to the Bristol printers 
 the MSS. of the Biogi-aphia Litera7na and Sibylline 
 Leaves. For the last four months he has never 
 worked less than six hours each day, and cannot do 
 more if he is to have any time for reading and 
 reflection. He is now at work on a tragedy and a 
 dramatic entertainment, giving half his time to these, 
 and the other half to the inagmim opus, the title of 
 which is to be ' Logosophia ; or, On the Logos, human 
 and divine, in six Treatises " — and then there follows, 
 in the letter, another of Coleridge's inimitably compre- 
 hensive syllabuses and the customary statement that 
 the work is to occupy ' two large octavo volumes, six 
 hundred pages each.' He only wishes to work hard, 
 but what can he do, he exclaims, ' if he is to starve 
 while he is working!' He fears that, unless something 
 can be done, he must sink ; for as to politics, he can 
 write only on principles, and where, he asks the pro- 
 prietor of the Courier, is the newspaper which will 
 admit such writings ? ' I have tried (he says) * to 
 negotiate with the booksellers for a translation of the 
 works of Cervantes {^Doii Quixote excluded) and 
 of Boccaccio, and Mr. Rogers [the once despised 
 Rogers !] promised to use his influence, but all in 
 
 ^ So far as I am aware, no trace of any of these re-writings has been found. 
 
2i6 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1815- 
 
 vain.'^ The letter concludes with the gratifying news 
 that his health is better than he has known it for 
 the last twelve years. About this time Stuart was 
 again asked to make arrangements for the publication 
 of Coleridge's political essays, and the volume would 
 probably have been published had he not decided to 
 'complete' the book by freshly- composed additions. 
 Awaiting these, the negotiations apparently died out. 
 
 On March 31, 18 15, we find Lord Byron- replying 
 to a letter he had received from Coleridge, requesting 
 (apparently) an introduction to a publisher. Byron 
 says it will give him great pleasure to comply with the 
 request, and adds : ' If I may be permitted, I would 
 suggest that there never was such an opening for 
 tragedy. ... I should think that the reception of 
 \Remorse\ was sufficient to encourage the highest hopes 
 of author and audience.' On Oct. 28th,^ Byron wrote to 
 Moore : ' You have also written to Perry, who intimates 
 hopes of an opera from you. Coleridge has promised 
 a tragedy. Now if you keep Perry's word and Cole- 
 ridge keeps his own, Drury Lane will be set up.' 
 
 Eighteen hundred and sixteen opens with a letter 
 in which Coleridge informs Dr. Brabant that he 
 'goes on pretty well,' and is 'decently industrious.' 
 He has finished three acts of a play in verse, but it is 
 not ' the tragedy he promised to Drury Lane.'- ' Lord 
 Byron has behaved v^ry politely, but never answered 
 the most important part of my letter.' The omission, 
 whatever it may have been, seems to have acted as 
 a discouragement to work on the tragedy. For some 
 time after this dates fail us. It was in April of this 
 
 ^ A letter respecting this business — S. T. C. to Rogers, ' Calne, I\Iay 26, 
 I S 1 5 ' — is i^rinted in Rogers and his Contemporaries, by P. W. Clayden, i S89, i. 1 9 1 . 
 ^ Moore's Life of Byron, one-vol. ed. p. 278. 
 3 lb. p. 286. 
 
iSi6 UNCERTAINTY AS TO RESIDENCE 217 
 
 year that Coleridge left Calne for London and High- 
 gate, but previous to this, opium seems to have 
 regained the upper hand. He had received pro- 
 fessional advice from Dr. Brabant, and informs him 
 that ' his plan ' has succeeded, and that he confines 
 himself to ' the smallest dose of poison that will suffice 
 to keep him tranquil and capable of literary labour.' 
 But for thorough emancipation from ' the most pitiable 
 slavery, the fetters of which do indeed eat into the 
 soul,' he feels that he must needs have six months of 
 absolute repose. He is full of 'disquieting uncer- 
 tainty' as to the place of his residence. If he has 
 to part from Morgan it will be 'a sore heart- wasting,' 
 for no man could have ' a more faithful, zealous, and 
 disinterested friend.' And then the letter goes on 
 with a tragical account of an absurd little comedy 
 which had been amusing the neighbourhood. Cole- 
 ridge was reported to have been ' imprudent enough, 
 and, in the second place, indelicate enough, to send 
 out a gentleman's servant in his own house to a 
 public-house for a bottle of brandy!' It is all 
 nonsense, he explains. He had been grossly mis- 
 understood. ' I turn ' (he adds) ' from what is always 
 wearisome to me, and on these subjects disgusting, 
 namely, writing concerning my worser self,' to a 
 scientific excursus on two books he has been reading 
 — Gale and Spurzheim's Physiognomical System and 
 Bailey's Morbid Anatomy. The former work he thinks 
 beneath criticism ; the latter inspires him with a wish 
 to examine the original authorities for some of the 
 theories put forward. ' I should like, if I had time, to 
 examine Morgagni and Lieutaud for myself.'^ 
 
 Towards the close of March, Coleridge went up 
 
 1 Westminster Reviczu, ]\\\y 1870, pp. 10, 11. 
 
2i8 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1816 
 
 to London carrying with hiin the MS. of Zapolya, 
 which no doubt was the play, not for Drury Lane, 
 of which by the middle of January he had finished 
 three acts. The tragedy promised for Drury Lane 
 was never written. 
 
 Coleridge has been here about a fortnight (wrote Lamb to Words- 
 worth on April 9th). His health is tolerable at present, though beset 
 with temptations. In the first place, the Covent Garden manager has 
 declined accepting his tragedy, though (having read it) I see no reason 
 upon earth why it might not have run a very fair chance, though it 
 certainly wants a prominent part for a Miss O'Neil or a Mr. Kean. 
 However, he is going to-day to write to Lord Byron to get it to 
 Drury. Should you see Mrs. C, who has just written to C. a letter 
 which I have given him, it will be as well to say nothing about 
 its fate till some answer is shaped from Drury. . . . Nature, who 
 conducts every creature by instinct to its best end, has skilfully 
 directed C. to take up his abode at a Chemist's Laboratory in [43] 
 Norfolk Street [Strand]. She might as well have sent a Helluo 
 Libroru7n for cure to the Vatican. God keep him inviolate among 
 the traps and pitfalls. He has done pretty well as yet. . . . \P.S?\ 
 A longer letter when C. is gone back into the country. ... I am 
 scarce quiet enough while he stays.^ 
 
 A few weeks later (April 26) Lamb writes again to 
 Wordsworth : — 
 
 Coleridge is printing Christabel, by Lord Byron's recommendation 
 to Murray, with what he calls a vision, Kjibla Khan . . . [and] has 
 sent his tragedy to D[rury] L[ane] T[heatre]. It cannot be acted 
 this season ; and by their manner of receiving, I hope he will be 
 able to alter it to make them accept it for the next. He is at present 
 under the medical care of a Mr. Gillman (Killman ?), a Highgate 
 apothecary, where he plays at leaving off laud — m. I think his 
 essentials not touched ; he is very bad ; but then he wonderfully 
 picks up another day, and his face, when he repeats his verses, hath 
 its ancient glory ; an archangel a little damaged. Will Miss 
 H[utchinson] pardon our not replying at length to her kind letter? 
 We are not quiet enough ; Morgan is with us every day, going 
 betwixt Highgate and the Temple. Coleridge is absent but four 
 miles, and the neighbourhood of such a man is as exciting as the 
 presence of fifty ordinary persons. 'Tis enough to be within the 
 whiff and wind of his genius for us not to possess our souls in quiet. 
 
 1 Letiers, i. 303. 
 
iSi6 QUITS CALNE FOR HIGHGATE 219 
 
 On April 9 — the date of Lamb's first letter — 
 Coleridee consulted Dr. Adams, then an eminent 
 physician living in Hatton Garden. Judging by 
 Dr. Adams's letter to Mr. Gillman, Coleridge appears 
 to have stated his case with little or no reserve. For 
 years he has been taking large quantities of opium ; 
 recently he has been trying in vain to break off the 
 habit ; he fears his friends have not been firm enough, 
 and now he seeks a physician who will be not only 
 firm but severe in his reeinien. ' As he is desirous ot 
 retirement, and a garden,' writes Dr. Adams, ' I could 
 think of no one so readily as yourself.' Mr. Gillman 
 'had no intention of receiving an inmate,' but on 
 April 1 1 he called at Hatton Garden, when it was 
 arranged that Dr. Adams should drive Coleridge out 
 to Highgate on the following day. Coleridge, how- 
 ever, came alone — he came and talked and conquered, 
 for before the visit was over it was settled that he 
 should begin residence on the next day. ' I looked 
 with impatience,' writes Gillman, ' for the morrow. . . . 
 I felt indeed almost spellbound, without the desire 
 of release.' The morrow (Saturday) did not bring 
 Coleridge, of course, but it brought from him a pro- 
 posal to arrive on Monday, and on the evening 
 appointed he came, 'bringing in his hand the proof- 
 sheets of CJiristabel.' 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 HIGHGATE 
 A.D. 1816-1819 
 
 Coleridge's arrival at Highgate marked a turning- 
 point in his life, the importance of which is only to be 
 measured by the fact that it proved to be the last. He 
 was then in his forty-fourth year, but he looked, and 
 probably felt, much older. His health was broken, and 
 he was still under the slavery of opium, but his en- 
 feebled will had once more roused itself into an effort 
 towards freedom. His outward circumstances had not 
 recently undergone any material change, but it was in 
 their nature that they should grow more and more 
 intolerable. He was poor, and weighed down by 
 pecuniary debts and by other unfulfilled obligations ; 
 he was alienated from his brothers, and from some 
 friends, such as the Wordsworths, and Poole, and the 
 Bristol group, who had been to him more than his 
 brothers ; he had a wife and three children, but the 
 house which sheltered them had long ceased to be a 
 home to himself. From his ninth year he had been 
 a wanderer and a sojourner, finding ' no city to dwell 
 in,' and now, when he was at his wits' end, tossed in a 
 sea of troubles, the waves suddenly stilled, and he felt 
 that he had reached his desired haven. His first 
 
iSi6 PUBLICATION OF ' CHRISTABEL; ETC. 221 
 
 sight of the Gillmans seems to have convinced him of 
 this, and his prescience was justified, for during the 
 eighteen years of Hfe that remained to him, their house 
 was his home. 
 
 He began his residence at the Grove simply as a 
 temporary patient, but before three months had passed 
 he was inspired to write thus to a recent acquaintance 
 who had done him a kindness : — 
 
 If I omitted this due acknowledgment, I should think myself 
 less deserving of the fortunate state of convalescence, and tranquil 
 yet active impulses, which, under Providence, I owe to the unrelaxed 
 attention, the professional skill, and above all to the continued firm- 
 ness and affectionateness of the medical friend whose housemate I 
 have been for the last three months, and shall, I /rust, contimee to be 
 indefinitely} 
 
 I am not aware of the terms on which he continued 
 to Hve under Gilhnan's roof, but there are indications 
 in Coleridge's later correspondence that he never 
 ceased to contribute to the household expenses. 
 However that may have been, it is certain that the 
 relations throughout were entirely honourable to both 
 parties. 
 
 Christabel, with its attendant Kztbla Khan and The 
 Pains of Sleep, was published in the early days of 
 June." For the copyright of Christabel, Murray seems 
 to have paid seventy guineas, w^ith the understanding 
 that if it were subsequently completed the copyright 
 should revert to the poet.^ Murray also paid ^20 for 
 
 1 Letter to John Gale, 'Monday, Stli July, 1816. J. Gillman's, Esq., 
 Highgate.' Lippincotf s Mag. June 1S74, p. 69S. 
 
 2 Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision; The Pains of Sleep. By S. T. 
 Coleridge, Esq. London : Printed for John Murray, Albemarle Street, by 
 William Bulmer and Co., Cleveland Row, St. James's. 18 16. Octavo, 
 pp. vii. ; 64. 
 
 The ' second edition ' differs from the first, only in respect of the title-page. 
 
 3 The Agreements are not very clearly presented in the Murray Memoirs (i. 303, 
 etc.) Other particulars were given by Coleridge in 1825, in a letter written to 
 his nephew, John Taylor (afterwards ^Ir. Justice) Coleridge, printed in Brandl, 
 pp. 351-354. It is a letter of recollections, but they are manifestly drawn from 
 
222 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1816 
 
 the use of Kzibla Khan, Coleridge reserving the 
 copyright. Although the pamphlet met with a 
 large sale and immediately went into a second 
 edition, its reception by the critics was disappointing. 
 The Edinburgh Review, by the hand of Hazlitt (as 
 Coleridge asserted), made bitter fun of it through nine 
 pages, the article winding up with the declaration 
 that ' the thing now before us is utterly destitute of 
 value. It exhibits from beginning to end not a ray of 
 genius.' No wonder that Coleridge, disgusted and 
 disheartened, thus relieved his feelings in the closing 
 chapter of the Biographia Literaria : — 
 
 During the many years which intervened between the composi- 
 tion and the pubHcation of the Christabel, it became almost as well 
 known among literary men as if it had been on common sale ; the 
 same references were made to it, and the same liberties taken 
 with it, e^en to the very names of the imaginary persons in the 
 poem. pFrom almost all of our most celebrated poets, and from 
 some witlTwhom I had no personal acquaintance, I either received 
 or heard of expressions of admiration that (I can truly say) appeared 
 to myself utterly disproportionate to a work, that pretended to be 
 nothing more than a common Faery TaleTj Many, who had allowed 
 no merit to my other poems, whether prmted or manuscript, and 
 who have frankly told me as much, uniformly made an exception in 
 favour of the Christabel and the poem entitled Love. . . . This before 
 the publication. And since then, with very few exceptions, I have 
 heard nothing but abuse, and this too in a spirit of bitterness. ... In 
 the Edifibiirgh Review, it was assailed with a malignity and a spirit 
 of personal hatred that ought to have injured only the work in which 
 such a tirade was suffered to appear : and this review was generally 
 attributed (whether rightly or no I know not) to a man, who both in 
 my presence and in my absence has repeatedly pronounced it the 
 finest poem of its kind in the language. 
 
 As soon as Coleridge had settled down at High- 
 gate, Morgan busied himself in supplying the Bristol 
 printers with ' copy ' for the Sibylline Leaves, which 
 
 a defective memory. The most important statements in this letter are incon- 
 sistent with facts recorded at the time of tlieir occurrence, and especially with 
 Coleridge's own letters of the period, printed in Lippincott'' s Jllagazine for June 
 1874. 
 
i8i6 'ZAPOLYA' 223 
 
 Coleridge meant to preface with an essay of forty 
 pages 'On the Imaginative in Poetry' — a project 
 unfortunately never realised. It was at the same 
 time arranged that the Biographia should appear in 
 two volumes. At the beginning of May, Morgan was 
 also nefyotiatins: with Lord Essex and Mr. DouQ^las 
 Kinnaird (representing the Drury Lane Theatre 
 Committee) with regard to Zapolya. The * Second 
 Part' was decided upon for performance during the 
 next season, provided certain alterations were made 
 and some songs added. Coleridge agreed, but instead 
 of setting about the alterations at once, he gave way 
 to a fit of despondency, and went to bed for three 
 weeks. Nothing more was heard of Zapolya as a 
 stage-play,^ but Murray agreed to publish it complete 
 as a poem, and made an advance of £z^o on the MS. 
 Something interfered, however, and it was not pub- 
 lished until the following year, and then by Fenner. 
 
 Notwithstanding his strange failure to carry out the 
 agreement to adapt Zapolya to the stage, and his fitful 
 preoccupation with the completion of the two works 
 already so long in the hands of the Bristol printers, 
 Coleridge was full of new projects during the summer 
 of 1816. To Murray- he suggested the establishment 
 of a Review of old books, British and foreign, on the 
 plan realised four years after, and by other hands, in 
 the Retrospective Review (i 820-1826). Nothing came 
 
 1 In its place, Maturin's Bertram was accepted for Drury Lane. It was 
 played in August, and was attacked in the Courier^ the pen being either wielded 
 or guided by Coleridge. Another attack on the play, which was quite unworthy 
 of such heavy metal, was written, and used to fill up the second volume oi Biog. 
 Lit. In the Edinburgh review of the Biog. Lit. it is stated that the article is 
 reprinted from the Courier. I have not been able to verify this statement. 
 Maturin was desirous of replying to Coleridge, but was dissuaded by Scott 
 (Lockhart's Life (1837), iv. 132). 
 
 2 Memoirs of John Murray, i. 304, S. T. C. to J. M. ' Highgate, July 4, 1816.' 
 A scheme for a retrospective review was suggested by Southey in 1809, and dis- 
 cussed with Scott and Ballantyne. See Southey 's Life and Corr. iii. 236, 240. 
 
224 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1816 
 
 of this proposal, but another was made and accepted. 
 Murray promised two hundred guineas for * a small 
 volume of Specimens of Rabbinical Wisdom,' ^ but it 
 was abandoned on the ground that all his time was 
 due to the completion of the BiograpJiia Literaria. 
 In August, Coleridge proposed to Boosey & Co., 
 the foreign booksellers of Broad Street, to begin a 
 kind of periodical to appear monthly or fortnightly.^ 
 It was to be in the form of 'a letter to his literary 
 friends in London and elsewhere concerning the real 
 state and value of the German Literature from Gellert 
 and Klopstock to the present year.' He adds that he 
 has been invited by Mr. J. Hookham Frere — a new 
 and important acquaintance, made probably through 
 Mr. Murray — to contribute an article on Goethe's 
 Dichhtng und VVakrheit to the Qttarterly, but he feels 
 great reluctance to write in any review. Before he 
 can undertake anything, however, he must take a 
 holiday at the seaside to recover from the effects of 
 overwork and anxieties. Both are described in great 
 detail in a letter to Dr. Brabant, written from ' Muddi- 
 ford, Christchurch, Hampshire, 21st September 1816.'^ 
 Coleridge had undertaken, at the solicitation of his 
 new publishers, Gale & Fenner, to write *a small 
 tract on the present distresses, in the form of a lay 
 sermon,' and it was advertised. He wrote and wrote 
 until the MS. grew into a volume, and then he had to 
 cut it down, and then it was abandoned in an unfinished 
 
 1 Lippincott^s Mag. June 1874, p. 704. S. T. C. to Rest Fenner, Sept. 22, 
 1816, and letter to Murray cited in preceding footnote. For sundry 'Specimens 
 of Rabbinical Wisdom, selected from the Mishna,' see No. XI. (and some copies 
 of No. XII.) of the original issue of The Friend. 
 
 - Unprinted letter of 31st August 181 6, in the Fonthill Collection. It con- 
 tains a detailed prospectus of the projected periodical in the usual comprehensive 
 style. Nothing more was heard of it. 
 
 3 Wfc'5/;/////j-/t';- A't'Z'. July 1870, p. 17. 
 
iSi6 AT MUDDIFORD 225 
 
 State/ This was the overwork. One anxiety was 
 caused by a calumnious report connected (I suspect) 
 with the ruin which about this period overtook the 
 Morgans' fortunes ; the other by the illness of Miss 
 Eliza Fricker, his favourite sister-in-law. Absolute 
 seclusion seemed to him to be the only remedy, and 
 he went down to Muddiford, meaning, as soon as he 
 was strong enough and rich enough, to get a horse and 
 travel about on its back. 
 
 Muddiford afforded Colerido^e the most deliohtful 
 of solitudes, that a deux, for he found there Scott's 
 friend, William Stewart Rose, living in his queer 
 little retreat called 'Gundimore.' In some verses he 
 named after the cottage, and printed privately at 
 Brighton in 1837, Rose recalled how 
 
 On these ribbed sands was Coleridge pleased to pace. 
 While ebbing seas have hummed a rolling base 
 To his rapt talk. 
 
 To Rose's well-known servant and friend David Hinves 
 (who to some extent was the prototype of Scott's Davie 
 Gellatley) Coleridge presented a copy of Ckristabel, 
 *as a small token of regard,' and promised copies of 
 the rest of his works. ^ The inscription is dated 'nth 
 
 1 The final outcome was the tract entitled T/ie Statesmaii's Manual. Gale & 
 Fenner, 1816, pp. 1-65 ; and an Appendix, i.-xlvii.— generally known as 'the 
 first Lay Ser/non.^ It was first advertised as ' A Lay Sermon on the Distresses of 
 the Countiy, addressed to the Middle and Higher Orders,' and in the Examiner 
 (Sep. 8, 1 816) Hazlitt wrote a cruel article, pretending to be a review of the 
 unpublished pamphlet. He said one could tell what anything by Coleridge 
 would be as well before as after publication. Again, when the pamphlet 
 appeared as The Statesman's Manual; or the Bible the best Guide to Political 
 Skill and Foresight : A Lay Sermon [etc.], Hazlitt reviewed it scofiingly in the 
 Exa?niner (Dec. 29, 181 6). This he followed up by a letter to the editor (Jan. 
 12, 1817) contrasting the Lay Sermon with that which he heard Coleridge preach 
 in January 1 79S. The account of the latter was embodied in the article con- 
 tributed five years later to The Liberal, ' My first Acquaintance with Poets ' (see 
 p. 81 supra). Coleridge believed Hazlitt to be the Edinburgh reviewer of 
 The Statesman's Manual (Dec. 1816); and the ascription, as in the case of 
 Ckristabel, is probably, though not certainly, correct. 
 
 2 Journal of Sir W. Scott, 1890, ii. 186. See also Lockhart's ZZ/'c' (1837), 
 ii. 119. 
 
 Q 
 
226 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1816- 
 
 November 18 16,' and the book was probably a parting 
 gift. At all events, Coleridge was back at Gillman's 
 before December 5, on which day he wrote, with a 
 copy of the Statesman s Manual, to Dr. Brabant.^ The 
 sea-air, he says, has done him good. He works from 
 nine till four, and from seven till twelve — sometimes 
 later, and expects that ' next week ' will appear ' the 
 two other Lay Sermons — to the middle and labouring 
 classes.' ' My Biographical Sketches, so long printed ' 
 (he adds), ' will then be published, and I proceed to 
 republish The Friend, but as a complete Rifacimento.' 
 He is very angry with Hazlitt. 'The man who has 
 so grossly calumniated me in the Examiner and in 
 the Edinburgh Review is a William Hazlitt — one who 
 owes more to me than to his owq parents. . . . All 
 good I had done him of every kind, and never ceased 
 to do so. The only wrong I have done him has been 
 to decline his acquaintance. . . . How I feel, you 
 may see at page xxi. of the appendix to my sermon,' 
 and the curious reader will do well to refer to the 
 passage, which is too long, and perhaps too strong in 
 expression, for quotation here. 
 
 Robinson saw Coleridge on December 21, 1816,^ 
 and found him looking ill. But Gillman was able to 
 give the visitor a good account of his patient's sub- 
 mission to discipline. He drinks only three glasses 
 of wine daily, no spirits, and no opium beyond what 
 is prescribed. ' Coleridge ' (adds Robinson) ' has been 
 able to work a great deal of late and with success. , . . 
 These exertions have been too great, Mr. Gillman 
 says. Coleridge talked easily and well, with less of his 
 usual declamation.' 
 
 During his stay at Muddiford, Coleridge was 
 
 1 West. Rev. July 1870, p. 21. 2 Diaries, etc., i. 2S6. 
 
I S 1 7 THE ' ENC YCL OPyEDIA ME TROPOLITANA ' 227 
 
 carrying on an acrimonious correspondence with his 
 Bristol friends, especially with Gutch, in connection 
 with the printing of the Sibylline Leaves and the 
 BiograpJiia. It resulted in the transference of the 
 printed sheets ^ to Gale & Fenner, on repayment of 
 the cost of the printing and paper. The bulk of the 
 advances made on the security of the MSS. by 
 Coleridge's friends was forgiven him, but so conten- 
 tious were the negotiations that the transfer was 
 accomplished only in May 181 7. By that time Cole- 
 ridge had quarrelled with his new publishers over 
 entanglements with Gutch, Murray, and Longman 
 which it would serve no good purpose to unravel.^ 
 The relations between Coleridge on the one hand, and 
 Fenner and the printer, Curtis, on the other fluctuated. 
 From time to time they were strained almost to 
 breaking-point, and when a peace was proclaimed, it 
 was no better than an armed truce. Durinof one of 
 these truces the scheme of the Encyclopcrdia Metro- 
 politana was drawn out for behoof of Curtis and 
 Fenner. A kind of committee meeting took place 
 on April 7, 181 7, and was opened by Coleridge read- 
 ing his own sketch of the prospectus and plan for this 
 'History of Human Knowledge' — a supremely con- 
 genial task which had been entrusted to him. 
 
 Coleridge also undertook to furnish large contribu- 
 tions at fixed dates, and to give * one entire day in 
 each fortnight' to the general superintendence of the 
 work, in consideration of receiving ^500 a year. 
 When, however, he demanded an advance in pro- 
 missory aotes to the amount of ^300, on the security 
 of BiograpJiia Literaria, Sibylline Leaves, and the new 
 
 1 The whole of the S. L., and the B. L. up to vol. ii. p. 128. 
 
 2 '$>&& Lippincotfs Mag. for June 1870 — Art. ' Some unpublished Letters of 
 S. T. Coleridge ' ; and Metnoirs of John Mia-ray, i. 305-307. 
 
228 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1817 
 
 edition of The Friend, the arrangements broke down, 
 and he contributed only the ' Preliminary Treatise on 
 Method' which formed the 'General Introduction' to 
 the Encyclopcedia, and which has been often reprinted.^ 
 In the middle of this wibroglio the second Lay Sermon 
 was published, and later on (about March) the Bio- 
 graphia Literaria? The latter was a miscellany, and 
 as such could never have been * completed ' in any 
 proper sense of the word. But the second volume 
 had been printed up to p. 128, and it was necessary to 
 provide as much matter as would bring up its bulk to 
 something like that of the first. This was managed 
 by adding fifty-four pages to the critique on Words- 
 worth, and by inserting ' Satyrane's Letters ' (which 
 already had served a similar purpose for The Friend) ; 
 a critique of Maturin's tragedy of Be^^h^am, and a 
 rambling but very interesting autobiographic and 
 apologetic concluding chapter. The book was savagely 
 reviewed by Hazlitt in the Edinburgh for August 
 181 7, and to the article Jeffrey added a footnote nearly 
 five pages long, signed with his initials, defending him- 
 self from certain charges ^ which Coleridge had made 
 against the Review and its editor. The controversy, 
 as conducted on both sides, is too personal, and too 
 trivial, to be worth reviving. In Octoh&r, Blackwood s 
 Magazine contained an article on the Biographia and 
 its author. It was quite as savage, but by no means 
 
 1 In the ' Cabinet Edition ' of the E. M. 
 
 ■^ ' Blessed are ye that so'm beside all waters ! ' A Lay Sermon, addressed to 
 the Higher and Middle Classes, on the existing Distresses and Discontents. By 
 S. T. Coleridge, Esq. [Motto, with translation, from Heraclitus.] London : 
 Printed for Gale & Fenner [etc.], 1817. 8vo. pp. i.-xxxi.; 1-134. 
 
 Biographia Literaria ; Or Biographical Sketches of my Literary Life 
 and Opinions. By S. T. Coleridge, Esq. 2 vols. London : Rest Fenner, 23 
 Paternoster Row. 181 7. 8vo. Vol. I., pp. 1-296. Vol. II., pp. 1-309. 
 
 3 Bio^. Lit. ed. 18 17, i. 52 n. The passage was omitted from the second 
 edition (1847), but the quarrel is commented on at some length in the editorial 
 ' Introduction.' 
 
1 S 1 7 THE SECOND ' LA V SERMON ' 229 
 
 as witty as those from HazHtt's pen, but it stung 
 Coleridge as the others had not, for it renewed the 
 old Anti-Jacobin charge^ of abandoning his wife and 
 children. He consulted Crabb Robinson- as to the 
 practicability of bringing an action for libel, but no 
 proceedings were taken. In his letter to Robinson, 
 Coleridge says : — 
 
 I can prove by positive evidence, by the written bargains made 
 with my booksellers, etc., that I have refused every offer, however 
 convenient to myself, that did not leave two-thirds of the property 
 sacred to Mrs. Coleridge,^ and that I have given up all I had in the 
 world to her^ — have continued to pay yearly £^2>'^^ to assure her 
 what, if I live to the year 1820, will be nearly ^2000 ; that beyond 
 my absolute necessities ... I have held myself accountable to her 
 for every shilling ; that Hartley is with me, with all his expenses 
 paid during his vacation ; and that I have been for the last six 
 months, and now am, labouring hard to procure the means of 
 having Derwent with me. ... I work like a slave from morn to night, 
 and receive as the reward less than a mechanic's wages, imposition, 
 and ingratitude.^ 
 
 He had also renewed his connection with the 
 CouiHer — indeed, his industry at this period, though 
 not always applied to the business most urgently re- 
 quired, appears to have been prodigious. In March 
 he supplied the Courier with a review of his second 
 Lay Sermon which had been 'written by a friend'''; 
 in the same month he came to the rescue of Southey 
 
 ^ The charge appeared in a note by the editor of The Beauties of the Anti- 
 Jacobin (London : 1799, p. 306) to The New Morality. It was replied to by 
 Coleridge in The Friend, No. I. (1809), and again in the Biog. Lit. (181 7, i. 71), 
 (1847, i. 65). See Athenaiun for May 31, 1S90; Art. 'Coleridge and "The 
 Anti-Jacobin." ' 
 
 '^ The letter is printed only in Brandl's Life of Coleridge (pp. 354-357), but 
 very inaccurately. 
 
 3 I do not understand this. 
 
 * Referring doubtless to the Wedgwood annuity. 
 . ^ The exact amount was ;^27, 5s. 6d. When Coleridge died in 1834, 
 upwards of ^{^2500 was paid on the policy. 
 
 ^ Referring to the new edition of The Friend (3 vols. 1S18), and to its 
 printer and publisher, Curtis and Fenner. 
 
 '' Letters from the Lake Foels, p. 270. 
 
230 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1817 
 
 with two letters ^ vindicating his old friend from the 
 aspersions cast upon him in consequence of the 
 piratical publication of the absurd Wat Tyler, which 
 the future Laureate had written (but not printed) in 
 1 794 ; and on March 26 he informed John Murray ^ that 
 ' the article in Tuesday's Courier was by him ; and 
 two other articles on Apostacy and Renegadism^ 
 which will appear next week.' These are not included 
 in the Essays on his own Times, and it is not improb- 
 able that other contributions have been overlooked, 
 for in a letter to Stuart of this period Coleridge begs 
 that his articles ' until Street's return ' may be re- 
 munerated at the rate of two guineas per column, and 
 proposes a succession of papers for three or four 
 months. I cannot find in Southey's letters any 
 expression of gratitude for Coleridge's warm and 
 chivalrous defence of him against the attacks of the 
 enemy on the subject of Wat Tyler, and the charges 
 of ' apostacy ' arising out of it. Of course Hazlitt took 
 the fullest advantage of the opportunity, and his tirades 
 directed against Coleridge, Southey, and Wordsworth, 
 contributed to Leigh Hunt's Examiner, may still be 
 read in the volume entitled Political Essays published 
 by Hone in 18 19. 
 
 In June 181 7, Ludwig Tieck was in London, and 
 Coleridge renewed an acquaintance begun at Rome 
 eleven years before. The first occasion on which 
 they met was at the house of Joseph Henry Green, 
 then a rising young surgeon, who was as deeply 
 interested in philosophy as in his own profession. 
 
 1 Essays on his oiun Times, pp. 939-950. Two other vindicatory letters 
 were written for, but not printed in, the Westminster Review. They are given 
 
 n the Essays, pp. 950-962. 
 
 2 Memoirs of John Murray, i. 306. 
 
 3 See also Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 280. 
 
 A. 
 
iSi7 JOSEPH HENRY GREEN 231 
 
 Green had long been desirous of taking the waters 
 of German philosophy at the fountain-head, and Tieck 
 recommended a course with Professor Solder of 
 Berlin, a scheme no doubt heartily encouraged by 
 Coleridge. It was immediately carried out, and on 
 Green's return from Berlin, the intimacy with Cole- 
 ridge began, 1 an intimacy which proved the chief 
 stimulus and the chief comfort of the last seventeen 
 years of Coleridge's life. 
 
 In August, Southey came up to town. He saw 
 Stuart, who complained of Coleridge's statements 
 about him and his newspapers in the Biographia ;'^ 
 and he also saw Coleridge. 
 
 I shall go to Highgate to-morrow (wrote Southey to his wife ^). 
 I gather from his [Coleridge's] note which I received this morning 
 that he looks towards Keswick as if he meant to live there. At 
 present this cannot be for want of room — the Rickmans being 01: r 
 guests — if he meant to live with his family it must be upon a 
 separate establishment. I shall neither speak harshly nor unkindly, 
 but at my time of life, with my occupations [the thing is impossible]. 
 This is a hateful visit and I wish it were over. He will begin as he 
 did when last I saw him, about Animal Magnetism ^ or some 
 equally congruous subject, and go on from Dan to Beersheba in his 
 endless loquacity. 
 
 And Southey, evidently quite soured by this time, 
 goes on to say that Coleridge, if he gets an advance 
 from the publishers of the Encyclopcsdia, will pay it 
 
 1 Green's biographer, Sir John Simon, does not feel quite certain as to the 
 date of the beginning of the intimacy, but his suggestion of 181 7 is confirmed by 
 an unprinted letter which I have seen. 
 
 2 ' When the book appeared I was extremely angry, and went to him at Mr. 
 Gillman's, where I too warmly reproached him ' (Stuart in Gent. Mag. June 
 1838, p. 578). The controversy has been already treated at sufficient length — 
 see p. 107 supra. 
 
 3 Streatham, August 13, 181 7 — an unprinted letter. 
 
 * Coleridge was at the time deeply interested in this subject. In June he 
 proposed to write a popular book on it, a proposal vvhich he renewed (to Curtis) 
 eighteen months later, when his old teacher, JBlumenbach, had recanted his dis- 
 belief in Animal Magnetism. He offered to contribute an historical treatise to 
 the Encyc. Metrop. The letter, which is extremely interesting, is printed in 
 Lippincotf s Mag. for June 1874. 
 
232 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1817- 
 
 away, and then abandon the whole thing. It is highly- 
 improbable that Coleridge had any intention of settling 
 at Keswick again ; but he may have said something 
 vague either about a visit, or a settlement, with 
 the view of sounding the disposition of the master 
 of Greta Hall. 
 
 September was passed at Littlehampton, and there 
 Coleridge made acquaintance with two men with whom 
 he was afterwards on very friendly terms. One was a 
 man of fortune with an uncommon taste for philoso- 
 phical speculation, Charles Augustus Tulk,^ afterwards 
 M.P. for Sudbury, and a devoted friend of Flaxman. 
 The other was ' Dante ' Cary, to whom Coleridge in- 
 troduced himself^ while both were walking by the 
 shore. He then first heard of Cary's translation of 
 Dante, which up to that time had received little atten- 
 tion from the public. Coleridge was greatly pleased 
 with it, and promised to recommend it in the lectures 
 which he contemplated delivering in the following 
 winter. He did not fail of performance, and the con- 
 sequences for Cary's book were the immediate sale of 
 a thousand copies, a new edition, and the position of 
 "n English classic.^ 
 
 Zapolya, which had been promised to Fenner for 
 August, was delivered somewhat late, but in time for- 
 publication as ' A Christmas Tale,' and two thousand 
 copies were sold. The essay on Method, which was 
 
 1 Coleridge supplied Tulk with an account of his system in a series of twenty- 
 two long letters, which, bound together in a volume, were sold at Sotheby's 
 auction rooms, June 13, 1882. The lot has since been broken up, but could 
 probably be gathered together again, and might be found to be worth printing as 
 a connected whole. 
 
 2 Memoirs of the Rev. H. F. Cary, 1S48, ii. 18. Athenaiiin for Jan. 7, 
 1888 — Art. ' Coleridge on Cary's Dante.' 
 
 3 Such is the story as told by Cary's son and biographer (ii. 28). Another, 
 unsupported, however, by any reference to authorities, appears in Rogers and his 
 Contemporaries, ii. 171. 
 
i8i8 'ON METHOD'— 'THE FRIEND' RECAST 233 
 
 promised for October, was delivered late in December. 
 It was printed in January, and Coleridge received for 
 it sixty guineas. To his friends, he complained 
 bitterly of the way in which the essay had been treated 
 by the editors of the Encyclopcsdia — ' bedeviled, inter- 
 polated, and topsy-turvied ' ^ — and he asked permission 
 to reprint it in The Friend, then at press. The per- 
 mission was granted on condition that it was acknow- 
 ledged, with the rider, that the essay as written had 
 not been 'approved by the committee.' This condition 
 Coleridge could not accept, but in February 18 18, 
 being hard pressed for matter with which to fill 
 up the third volume of T/ie Friend, he seems 
 to have taken the enemy in flank, by inserting 
 the substance of the essay without mention of its 
 source.^ The Friend was completed sadly behind 
 time, for it had been put to press more than a year 
 before, on the author's assurance that only the 
 customary ' three weeks ' were required to put the 
 whole in order. On January 5th, 1818, Coleridge 
 wrote to Morgan ^ : — 
 
 From 10 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon, with one hour 
 only for exercise, I shall fag from to-morrow at the third volume of 
 The Friend. I hope to send off the whole by the ist of February. 
 [It was incomplete on Feb. 18.] As I cannot starve, and yet 
 cannot with ease to my own feelings engage in any work that would 
 interfere with my day's work till the MS. of the third volume of 
 
 1 The expression occurs in a letter to J. P. Collier, the original of which is 
 now in the MSB. Department of the British Museum. It was printed in Notes 
 and Queries, 1st Ser. x. 22. 
 
 2 ' Coleridge seems to have valued highly certain essays in The Friend in 
 which he professed to have reconciled Plato with Bacon' (Prof. Hort in Cam- 
 briage Essays for 1856 (p. 334), Art. ' Coleridge '). To this passage is appended 
 the following footnote: 'In iii. 108-216, but especially essays viii. and ix. pp. 
 157-175 [of The Friend, ed. 1844]. The same matter in nearly the same words 
 occurs in his treatise on Method prefixed to the Encycl. Metropolitana.'' 
 
 3 Letter in Brit. Museum, MSS. Addit. 25612. Printed incompletely and 
 inaccurately in Brandl, p. 357 ^^^SE LJBR^^^r^. 
 
 universityJ 
 
^ 
 
 234 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1818 
 
 The Friend is out of my hands, I have been able to hit on [no] 
 mode of reconciling the difficulties but by attempting a course of 
 lectures, of which I very much wish to talk with you.' ^ 
 
 At the close of 181 7, Wordsworth came up to 
 London, and although he had been displeased ^ with 
 Coleridge's magnificent criticism in the Biographia, 
 the two old friends had much intercourse, and before 
 returning to his fastnesses, Wordsworth wrote a most 
 kindly letter to J. P. Collier^ begging him to do what 
 he could to further the success of Coleridge's projected 
 course of lectures. To Collier, Lamb also wrote on 
 the same subject,^ describing Coleridge as ' in bad 
 health and worse mind,' and needing encouragement. 
 The recurrence to lecturing as a means of livelihood, 
 which, as we have seen, had been planned as far back 
 as September, took more definite shape in December, 
 and the letter to Morgan shows that by the be- 
 ginning of the new year it had become a matter of 
 prime necessity. It was then, probably, that the 
 prospectus ^ was issued. How unwillingly and with 
 how keen a sense of humiliation, may be gathered 
 from his letter to Mudford, then assistant editor of 
 the Courier. 
 
 Woe is me ! that at 46 I am under the necessity of appearing 
 as a lecturer, and obliged to regard every hour given to the perma- 
 nent, whether as poet or philosopher, an hour stolen from others as 
 well as from my own maintenance.^ 
 
 1 Coleridge goes on to threaten his enemies (his publishers and their printers), 
 with a ' vigorous and harmonious' satire, to be called ' Puff and Slander,' but it 
 probably remained unwritten. 
 
 2 ' I recollect hearing Hazlitt say that W. would not forgive a single censure,- 
 mingled with however a great mass of eulogy.' H. C. Robinson, loq. (Dec. 4, 
 1S17) ; quoted in Knight's Life of W. IF. ii. 288. 
 
 2 Seven Lectm-es on Shakespeare and Milton [iSii]. Preface, p. Iv. 
 ■* December 10, 18 17. Letters, ii. 8. 
 
 ^ Printed in Gillman's Life ; in Lit. Rem. vol. i. ; in Ashe's collection, and 
 elsewhere. 
 
 " Canterbury Magazine for September 1834, p. 125. 
 
i8i8 LECTURES ON SHAKESPEARE, ETC. 235 
 
 The prospectus promised fourteen lectures on Shake- 
 speare and on Poetical Literature, native and foreign. 
 From Crabb Robinson's Diaries we learn that the 
 first was delivered, at a hall in Flower-de-Luce Court, 
 Fetter Lane, on its appointed day, Jan. 27, 18 18, 
 and that, up to the tenth, due dates (Tuesdays and 
 Fridays) had been observed. After the tenth Robin- 
 son went on circuit, not to return until March 26, 
 by which date the course must have been finished. 
 
 Hazlitt was lecturing on Poetry at the same time, 
 sometimes on the same evenings, at the Surrey 
 Institution, a competition which cannot have con- 
 tributed to the success of either course. On the evi- 
 dence of Allsop — that Coleridge's lectures were ' con- 
 stantly thronged by the most attentive and intelligent 
 auditory I have ever seen ' — it has been believed that 
 the course was very successful pecuniarily, but neither 
 Robinson's nor Coleridge's own account fully bears this 
 out. The audiences fluctuated, and, even more, the 
 quality of the lectures.^ Robinson was far from being 
 satisfied with most of Coleridge's appearances, feeling 
 that as a rule he was repeating himself — which is not 
 very surprising seeing that he had lectured on the 
 same subjects so often before, and that if there had 
 been any preparation at all, it must have taken place 
 amid the distractions of finishing The Friend? 
 
 Coleridge forgot to send a ticket for these lectures 
 
 o o 
 
 1 The record is scanty. A few preparatory notes, mostly marginalia, on a 
 copy of Warburton's Shakespeare, with a few jottings taken down by friends, 
 were piously collected in Lit. Rem. (i. 61-241) under the heading 'Course of 
 
 -Lectures, 1818.' A slight addition was made by the publication in Noies and 
 Queries (1870, series iv. vol. v. 335, 336) of some memoranda made by a Mr. 
 H. H. Carwardine ; and I have reprinted from Leigh Hunt's Tatler some notes 
 of the ninth and fourteenth Xecim&s {Athenaitm, March 1889). 
 
 2 I suppose the new edition of The Friend had been published before June, 
 but have failed to discover the exact date. ' The Friend : A Series of Essays, 
 in Three Volumes (etc.) By S. T. Coleridge. A new edition. London : 
 Printed for Rest Fenner, Paternoster Row, 1818.' 
 
236 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1818 
 
 to Lamb, but there was no cessation of intercourse, 
 and when Lamb brought out his collected ' Works ' in 
 June 181 8, the volumes were dedicated to Coleridge 
 in a letter conceived in terms both reverent and 
 affectionate. After a passage recalling the smoky 
 suppers at the ' Salutation and Cat,' nearly a quarter 
 of a century before, Lamb proceeds : — 
 
 The world has given you many a shrewd nip and gird since 
 that time, but either my eyes are grown dimmer, or my old friend is 
 still the same who stood before me three-and-twenty years ago — his 
 hair a Httle confessing the hand of time, but still shrouding the same 
 capacious brain, — his heart not altered, scarcely where it ' alteration 
 finds.' 
 
 The old feeling had suffered no change, but oppor- 
 tunities of free companionship were wanting. In 
 October, Lamb told Southey^ that he does not now 
 see Coleridge as often as he could wish. ' He never 
 comes to me, and though his host and hostess are 
 very friendly, it puts me out of my way to see one 
 person at another person's house. It was the same 
 when he resided at Morgan's.' 
 
 A new friendship was about to begin, and to 
 brighten Coleridge's life. An enthusiastic young man 
 named Thomas Allsop had introduced himself after 
 the first lecture at Flower-de-Luce Court. By Sep- 
 tember, he was sending Coleridge presents of game, 
 which were repaid by an invitation to ' The Grove,' 
 and before the end of the year Coleridge addressed 
 to him the first of a long series of friendly letters, 
 the publication^ of which a year or two after Cole- 
 ridge's death gave offence to the poet's family. These 
 
 ^ October 26, 18 18. Letters, ii. 16. 
 
 2 Letters, Conversations, and Recollections of S. T. Coleridge {2 \o\s. Moxon, 
 1836). My references are to the third edition, with a Preface by the 'Editor,' 
 ' Thomas Allsop, late of Nutfield, in the County of Surrey, and formerly of the 
 Stock Exchange, and Roj-al Exchange Buildings.' Farrah, 1864. There is a 
 notice of Allsop in the Dictiojiary of National Biography. 
 
i8i8 THOMAS ALLSOP 237 
 
 letters give almost its sole value to Allsop's book, 
 and make it our main authority for the details of 
 Coleridge's life from 1820 to 1S26. Allsop's admira- 
 tion for the poet and philosopher was unbounded, 
 and his affection was expressed not only in words 
 but in unceasing acts of practical kindness. The 
 affection was abundantly repaid in kind by Cole- 
 ridge, who almost from the first treated Allsop as a 
 son and as a confidential friend from whom he had 
 no secrets. To Allsop alone in those days Coleridge 
 felt that he could pour out his mind unreservedly, and 
 the third of the printed letters gives expression in 
 a striking passage to his wounded feelings towards 
 Wordsworth — feelings he would hardly have cared to 
 betray to Lamb. The letter is dated Dec. 2, 181 8; 
 and Wordsworth is clearly intended though not named. 
 He declares that he has never admitted 'faults in a 
 work of genius to those who denied or were incapable 
 of feeling and understanding the beazities' 
 
 If (he continues), in one instance, in my literary life, I have 
 appeared to deviate from this rule first, it was not till the fame of 
 the writer (which I had been for fourteen years successively toiling 
 like a second Ali to build up ^) had been established ; and, secondly 
 and chiefly, with the purpose, and, I may safely add, with the effect, 
 of rescuing the necessary task from malignant defamers, and in 
 order to set forth the excellencies, and the trifling proportion which 
 the defects bore to the excellencies. But this, my dear sir, is a 
 mistake to which affectionate natures are too liable, though I do 
 not remember to have ever seen it noticed — the mistaking those 
 who are desirous and well pleased to be loved by you, for those who 
 love you. 
 
 ^ ' Air. Wordsworth, for whose fame I had felt and fought with an ardour 
 that amounted to self-obhvion, and to which I owe mainly the rancour of the 
 Edinburgh clan, and (far more injurious to me) the coldness, neglect, and equi- 
 vocal compliments of the Quarterly Review, has affirmed in print that a German 
 critic first taught us to think correctly concerning Shakespeare ' (S. T. C. to 
 Mudford, 1818 ; Ca«/cTi^;/;j J/a^. Sep. 1834, p. 126). If Coleridge here referred 
 to the passage in the ' Essay, supplementaiy to the Preface ' to Wordsworth's 
 Poems, 181 5 (i. 352), his deduction seems to be unwarranted. 
 
238 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1818- 
 
 He doubts if the open abuse of himself in the 
 Edinburgh is worse than the cold compliments and 
 warm ' regrets ' of the Quarterly, but his own single 
 regret is the old one, that pressing need of bread and 
 cheese diverts him from ' the completion of the great 
 work, the form and materials of which it has been the 
 employment of the best and most genial hours of 
 the last twenty years to mature and collect.' If only 
 he could have a tolerably numerous audience to his 
 first, or first and second lectures on the History of 
 Philosophy, he should entertain a strong hope of 
 success, for the course will be more entertaining than 
 any he has yet delivered. 
 
 On Nov. 26, Coleridge had sent to Allsop a 
 prospectus of two sets of lectures to be delivered at 
 the ' Crown and Anchor ' tavern, in the Strand, — one 
 of fourteen on the History of Philosophy, the other on 
 six select plays of Shakespeare — Tempest, Richard II. 
 (and other dramatic Histories), Hanilet, Macbeth, 
 Othello, and Lear. The two sets were to be delivered 
 concurrently — the former on Mondays, the latter on 
 Thursdays — intermitting the Christmas week — be- 
 ginning with Monday, Dec. 7.^ The commencement, 
 however, was postponed for a week, the first philo- 
 sophical lecture taking place on Dec. 14, and the first on 
 Shakespeare three days later. Besides the prospectus, 
 there was issued 'An Historical and Chronological 
 Guide to this [Philosophical] Course, price Sixpence,' 
 
 ^ Allsop prints the body of the prospectus of the Philosophical Course (p. 
 240) ; but makes no mention of the other. Mr. E. H. Coleridge has kindly 
 permitted me to see his unique complete copy of the original. There are other 
 references (pp. 85, 187, 205) to these lectures in Allsop's book, but they have 
 been overlooked by all Coleridge's editors and biographers, who uniformly write 
 of the Flower-de-Luce Court Series (Jan. -March 181S) as the last. No 
 adequate record of either course is known to exist — the few fragments I have 
 been able to discover in the journals of the day will be found gathered together 
 in i)\z AthencEum for Dec. 26, 1891, and Jan. 2, 1892 — Art. 'Some Lectures 
 delivered by Coleridge in the winter of 18 18- 19.' 
 
i8i9 LAST COURSES OF LECTURES 239 
 
 and it is no doubt a portion of this lost pamphlet 
 which Allsop has printed at page 187. A ticket was 
 presented to Lamb, who writes on Dec. 24^ : 
 
 Thank you kindly for your ticket, though the mournful prognostic 
 which accompanies it certainly renders its permanent pretensions 
 less marketable ; but I trust to hear many a course yet. . . . We 
 are sorry it never lies in your way to come to us, but, dear Mahomet, 
 we will come to you. Will it be convenient to all the good people at 
 Highgate if we take a stage up, not next Sunday, but the following, 
 viz. 3rd January 18 19. Shall we be too late to catch a skirt ^ of 
 the old out-goer ? How the years crumble from under us ! 
 
 If all the lectures promised in the prospectus were 
 given, the delivery must have been carried into the 
 beginning of April, for there was a break of a week, 
 on account of indisposition. From Coleridge's letter 
 to Mudford {Canterbiiry Magazine), we learn that the 
 lectures attracted but scanty audiences. 
 
 When I tell you that yester-evening's receipts were somewhat 
 better than many of the preceding ; and that these did not equal 
 one-half of the costs of the room, and of the stage and hackney 
 coach (the advertisements in the Times and Morfihig Chronicle, 
 and the printer's prospectus-bill, not included), you will find no 
 difficulty in understanding the warmth with which I express my 
 sense of your kindness. . . . The Romeo and Juliet^ pleased even 
 beyond my anticipation : but alas ! scanty are my audiences ! But 
 poverty and I have been such old cronies, that I ought not to be 
 angry with her for sticking close to my skirts. 
 
 About the same time Coleridge wrote, also to 
 
 Mudford :— 
 
 Ah ! dear Sir ! that week's break was indeed unfortunate ; but, 
 I imagine, that my ill-health and despondency that barely enable me 
 to give the lectures themselves respectably, but utterly unfit me for 
 
 ^ Letters, ii. 16. 
 
 - When lo ! far onwards waving on the wind 
 I saw the skirts of the Departing Year ! 
 
 — Original editions of the Ode, 11. 7, 8. 
 
 ^ Romeo and Juliet was not among the six plays announced, but in a letter 
 to Britton (Feb. 28, 18 19), a portion of which is printed in the Lit. Rem. ii. 2, 
 Coleridge mentions a lecture on R. and J. at the ' Crown and Anchor.' 
 
240 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1819 
 
 all awkward [outward ?] exertion and canvassing, that these joined 
 with my solitariness, and unconnection with parties of any kind, 
 literary, religious, or political, are the main causes of my failure. 
 
 In another letter he exclaims: 'Alas! dear sir, 
 these lectures are my only resource. I have worked 
 hard, very hard, for the last years of my life, but from 
 Literature I cannot gain even bread! It is impossible 
 to doubt the perfect sincerity with which Coleridge 
 so touchingly made his moan ; and it is not surprising 
 that he never again attempted to lecture at his own 
 charges. That the vein, however, was not entirely 
 worked out, appears by the letter to Britton already 
 mentioned (p. 239, note '3'). From that letter we 
 gather that Coleridge had been asked to re-deliver, at 
 the Russell Institution, the course of lectures given at 
 the Surrey Institution. He replies that he possesses 
 no MS. or record, even in his memory, of these 
 or any other lectures he has delivered. ' I should 
 greatly prefer ' (he writes) * your committee making 
 their own choice of the subjects from English, 
 Italian, or German Literature ; and even of the Fine 
 Arts, as far as the philosophy of the same is alone 
 concerned.' He goes on to say that he feels himself, 
 from experience, so utterly unfit to discuss pecuniary 
 matters, that if the committee will mention the sum it 
 would be disposed to give, he will consult a friend and 
 instantly decide. Whether anything came of these 
 negotiations, I am not aware. Robinson makes no 
 mention of hearing lectures at the Russell Institution, 
 but this affords no presumption against the delivery, 
 for he makes no mention of either of the ' Crown and 
 Anchor ' series. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 HIGIIGATE — {continued) 
 
 A.D. I 819-1825 
 
 In March 18 19, Coleridge had an interview with Mr. 
 Blackwood, who had called at the Grove to solicit 
 contributions to his iHagazine. Surely Coleridge's 
 poverty and not his will consented even to receive the 
 owner of a periodical which, only eighteen months 
 before, had so grossly outraged him. To Mudford, 
 Coleridge wrote ^ : * I have had an interview with Mr. 
 Blackwood, and it seems not impossible that we may 
 form some connection, on condition that the Magazine 
 is to be conducted henceforward, — first, pure from 
 private slander and public malignity ; second, on 
 principles the direct opposite to those which have 
 been hitherto supported by the Edinbtirgk Review, 
 moral, political, and religious.' Perhaps Coleridge 
 waited a little to see whether his conditions would 
 be fulfilled, for, with the exception of the famous 
 sonnet ' Fancy in nnbibtis,' nothing of his appeared in 
 Blackwood until seventeen months had passed away.^ 
 
 1 Canterbury Magazine iox '^zxMi^xy I S3 5, p. 31. 
 
 - With reference to this connection, from which Coleridge evidently shrank, 
 Lamb wrote to S. T. C. (January 10, 1S20; Letters, ii. 31) : 'Why you should 
 refuse twenty guineas per sheet for Blackwood's or any other magazine, passes 
 my poor comprehension, — But, as Strap says, "you know best.'" Besides the 
 sonnet another exception may perhaps be mentioned, though it was an involun- 
 
 R 
 
242 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 1819- 
 
 And yet in this spring of 1819 he must have been 
 
 in desperate need of money, for he had been unable 
 
 to make any remittance to his wife out of the net 
 
 proceeds of his lectures, and the fund for sending 
 
 Derwent to college was still incomplete. Next, in 
 
 the summer time, came the bankruptcy of Rest 
 
 Fenner. 
 
 All the profits from the sale of my writings (writes Coleridge to 
 Allsop) which I should have had, and which, in spite of the 
 accumulated disadvantages under which the works were published, 
 would have been considerable, ' I have lost ; and not only so, but 
 have been obliged, at a sum larger than all the profits of my lectures, 
 to purchase myself my own books and the half copyrights. ... I 
 have withdrawn them from sale.' ^ 
 
 It was in April of this year that Coleridge met 
 Keats in a Highgate lane, and is said to have * felt 
 death in the touch of his hand.' When, thirteen years 
 later, he related the incident to his nephew [Table 
 Talk, Aug. 14, 1832) he had forgotten that the inter- 
 view had lasted more than ' a minute or so ' ; but 
 Keats's own account, only recently given to the 
 world, ^ was contemporary : — 
 
 Last Sunday I took a walk towards Highgate, and in the lane 
 that winds by the side of Lord Mansfield's park, I met Mr. Green, 
 our demonstrator at Guy's, in conversation with Coleridge. I 
 
 tary contribution. In August or September 1820, Coleridge wrote a rather effusive 
 private letter to John Gibson Lockhart, who printed it (or a portion of it) in 
 Blackwood for September 1820 — calling it a ' Letter to Peter Morris, M.D.' — the 
 pseudonym under which Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk was published. This 
 abuse of his confidence was resented by Coleridge. 
 
 1 Letters, etc., pp. 8, 9. 'I lost ^iioo clear, and was forced to borrow 
 ^150 in order to buy up my own books and half copyrights, a shock which has 
 embarrassed me in debt (thank God, to one person only) even to this amount 
 [? moment].' S. T. C. 8th May 1825 (Brandl, p. 353). I have already 
 expressed my estimate of this letter (p. 221 supra). The loss of such a sum as 
 ;^iioo must have been purely imaginary. The failure was no doubt both a 
 pecuniary loss and a discouragement, but these were assuaged to some extent 
 by a gift of money, accepted as a loan, from Allsop, who, however, makes no 
 mention of this in his book. 
 
 " Keats's Works, ed. by H. Buxton Forman. Supp. vol. 1890, p. 147 ; and 
 Letters off. K., ed. by S. Colvin, 1891, p. 244. 
 
iS20 MEETING WITH KEATS 243 
 
 joined them after inquiring by a look whether it would be agree- 
 able. I walked with him, at his alderman-after-dinner pace, for near 
 two miles, I suppose. In those two miles he broached a thousand 
 things. Let me see if I can give you a list — nightingales — poetry 
 — on poetical sensation — metaphysics — different genera and species 
 of dreams — nightmare — a dream accompanied with a sense of 
 touch — single and double touch — a dream related — first and second 
 consciousness — the difference explained between will and volition — 
 so say metaphysicians from a want of smoking the second conscious- 
 ness — monsters — the Kraken — mermaids — Southey believes in them 
 — Southey's belief too much diluted — a ghost story — Good morning 
 — I heard his voice as he came towards me — I heard it as he moved 
 away — I had heard it all the interval — if it may be called so. He 
 was civil enough to ask me to call on him at Highgate. 
 
 One cannot but resfret that Keats failed to take 
 advantage of Coleridge's invitation. He was never at 
 any time in greater need of direction, and the elder poet 
 had much to teach the younger. Coleridge, in his turn, 
 would have been cheered and revived in the society 
 of a youth in whom and in whose rich achievement he 
 would have discerned a promise almost infinite ; while 
 Keats might have found escape from associates whom 
 he had outgrown, and from influences which even 
 then were proving disastrous. Is it worth noting that 
 this same April was the month of one of Keats's most 
 perfect poems — La Belle Davie sans viei'ci — in which 
 one seems to hear an echo of the voice which had dis- 
 coursed to him of unearthly things but a few days 
 before durins: that walk on the skirts of Caen wood ? 
 
 In spring of 1820 Coleridge was gladdened by a 
 visit from his sons. Hartley and Derwent. ' Would to 
 Heaven' (he wrote to Allsop, April loth) 'their dear 
 sister were with us — the cup of paternal joy would be 
 full to the brim ' ; and he cites ' the rapture ' with which 
 both brothers speak of Sara, who had had time to 
 Qfrow almost into womanhood since her father had last 
 seen her in the spring of 1813. Coleridge was just 
 
244 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 1820 
 
 then in urgent need of something to cheer him. The 
 friendship with Wordsworth, once his most valued 
 treasure, lay bruised if not broken behind an ever- 
 thickening veil of misunderstandings ; lecturing seemed 
 to be no longer a resource ; he was depressed by the 
 failure of his publisher ; and there were other circum- 
 stances which combined with these to cause him to 
 feel that he had been hopelessly distanced in the race 
 by some men whom he felt were no more than his 
 equals, and by others whom he knew to be his in- 
 feriors. This pervading sense of dissatisfaction comes 
 out strongly in a letter written to Allsop about this 
 time. Coleridge had been invited by a flattering note 
 from his neighbour, Charles Mathews, to meet Scott, 
 and he seems to have forced himself to accept the 
 encounter only by fear that refusal would cause him 
 to appear childish in the eyes of men of the world 
 such as Frere and Stewart Rose. The affair of 
 Clnnstabel still rankled, but one may suppose also that 
 Coleridge's conscience was pricked when he remem- 
 bered the rough treatment he had dealt out to Sir 
 Walter's protege, Maturin, the author of Bertrai7i. 
 
 I seem to feel (wrote Coleridge) that I ought to feel more desire 
 to see an extraordinary man than I really do feel, and I do not wish 
 to appear to two or three persons (as the Mr. Freres, William Rose, 
 etc.) as if I cherished any dislike to Scott respecting the Christabel, 
 and generally to appear out of the common and natural mode of 
 thinking and acting. All this, I own, is sad weakness, but I am 
 weary of dyspathy} 
 
 Before Coleridgfe had had time to recover from his 
 fit of depression, one of the keenest sorrows of his life 
 came to deepen it. In 1819, Hartley had gained a 
 
 1 April 10, 1820. Letters f etc., p. 23. Unfortunately no record of this 
 meeting has come down to us. It is not mentioned by Lockhart. A very in- 
 teresting criticism of Scott (as an author) was written in a letter to Allsop on 
 April 8 [?] 1820 {Letters, etc., pp. 24-29). 
 
i820 ' A VER V HE A VY AFFLICTION ' 245 
 
 Fellowship at Oriel. ' At the close of his proba- 
 tionary year he was judged to have forfeited his Oriel 
 Fellowship, on the ground, mainly, of intemperance. 
 Great efforts were made to reverse the decision. He 
 wrote letters to many of the Fellows. His father 
 went to Oxford to see and expostulate with the Pro- 
 vost. It was in vain. . . . The sentence might be 
 considered severe, it could not be said to be unjust' 
 So writes Hartley's brother ^ of this painful business. 
 To Allsop, Coleridge wrote of it, July 31, 1820 : ' Be- 
 fore I opened your letter ... a heavy, a very heavy 
 affliction came upon me with all the aggravations of 
 surprise, sudden as a peal of thunder from a cloud- 
 less sky.' The father's conscience smote him. * This' 
 (he says of Hartley) ' was the sin of his nature, and 
 this has been fostered by the culpable indulgence, at 
 least non-interference, on my part,' ^ and then he asks 
 Allsop to pray for him that he ' may not pass such 
 another night as the last.' The grief appears to have 
 tempted Coleridge into a resort to an extra consumption 
 of laudanum, with the consequence that the horrors 
 described in The Pains of Sleep were revived. In 
 August poor Hartley was settled in London under the 
 fostering care of the Basil Montagus — some reconcilia- 
 tion with whom must have been effected — and set 
 agoing by his father on some literary tasks. In 
 October, Coleridge, accompanied by Allsop, went 
 to Oxford, and had an interview with the Provost of 
 Oriel — Copleston, afterwards Bishop of Llandaff — on 
 Hardey's behalf. The ' compensation ' of ^300 subse- 
 quently paid to Hartley may have been an effect of 
 
 1 Memoir prefixed to Poems by H. C. 1851, i. Ixxiv. 
 
 2 Letters, etc., p. 40. See Table Talk for Jan. 2, 1833 : 'Can anything be 
 more dreadful than the thought that an innocent child has inherited from you a 
 disease or a weakness, the penalty in yourself of sin, or want of caution.' 
 
246 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 1820- 
 
 the interview. ' Of this journey to Oxford ' (says 
 Allsop) ' I have a very painful recollection ; perhaps 
 the most painful recollection (one excepted) connected 
 with the memory of Coleridge.' 
 
 The shock produced by Hartley's misadventure 
 would seem to have roused Coleridge. In one of the 
 most interesting letters ^ he ever wrote, he attempts to 
 comfort Allsop, who was dissatisfied with his circum- 
 stances, by assuring him that he is needed as a hope 
 and promise and impulse ' in my present efforts to realise 
 my past labours.' In the same letter he writes : — 
 
 I at least am as well as I ever am, and my regular employment, 
 in which Mr. [J. H.] Green is weekly my amanuensis, the work on 
 the books of the Old and New Testaments. . . . Would to Heaven, 
 I were with you [in the country] ! In a few days you should see that 
 the spirit of the mountaineer is not yet utterly extinct in me. 
 
 A few days after his return from Oxford, Coleridge 
 was still hankering after the publication of a pamphlet 
 on the affairs of Queen Caroline,^ from which he had 
 been twice over dissuaded by Gillman. A month 
 later he has been more than usually unwell, and dis- 
 heartened by finding Hartley -in process of developing 
 some of his own morbid weaknesses — procrastination, 
 shrinking from the performance of duties which are 
 surrounded by painful associations — stimulant motives 
 acting on both as narcotics, ' in exact proportion to 
 their strength.' For himself, he is anxious to get for- 
 ward with his Logic and with his Assertion of Religion. 
 In an immensely long letter of January 1821,^ begun 
 with assurances that if Allsop were a son by nature he 
 could not hold him dearer, Coleridge states that his 
 purpose is to ' open himself out ' to his correspondent 
 
 1 August 8, 1820. Letters, etc., pp. 54-60. 
 
 2 Quarter of a century before, Coleridge had shed tears over the Princess, in 
 the verses, On a late connubial rupture in High Life. 
 
 3 Letters, etc., pp. 77-87. 
 
1 82 1 A NEW CRISIS 247 
 
 ' in detail.' Health of body is lacking, but had he the 
 tranquillity which ease of heart alone could give, health 
 enough might be regained for the accomplishment of 
 his 'noblest undertaking,' the magmwi opus, which, 
 when completed, will revolutionise ' all that has been 
 called Philosophy or Metaphysics in England and 
 France since the era of the commencing predominance 
 of the mechanical system at the restoration of the 
 second Charles.' But this cannot be pursued to any 
 advantage without a settled income. He has nothing 
 actually ready for the booksellers, but he has four 
 works ^ so near completion that he has ' literally 
 nothing more to do than to transcribe' The transcrip- 
 tion, however, can only be done by his own hand, for 
 the material exists in ' scraps and Sibylline leaves, in- 
 cluding margins of books and blank pages.' Then, he 
 owes money ' to those who will not exact it, yet who 
 need its payment ' ; and, besides, he is far behindhand 
 in the settlement of his accounts for board and lodging. 
 These pressing needs compel him to ' abrogate the 
 name of philosopher and poet, and scribble as fast 
 as he can . . . for Blackwood's Alagazine,' or (as he 
 has been employed for the last days) ' in writing 
 MS. Sermons for lazy clergymen, who stipulate that 
 the composition must not be more than respectable, 
 for fear they should be desired to publish the 
 visitation Sermon.' 'This' (he adds) 'I have not yet 
 had the courage to do. My soul sickens and my 
 
 ^ (l) Characteristics of Shakespeare's Dramatic JVorks, together with a 
 Critique on Shakespeare's dramatic contemporaries ; three volumes of 500 pages 
 each. (2) Philosophical Analysis of the genius and zaorhs of Dante, Spenser, etc. ; 
 one large volume. (3) The History of Philosophy ; two \o\\xmcs. [i^) Letters on 
 the Old and New Testament, and on the Fathers, with advice on Preaching, etc., 
 addressed to a candidate for Holy Orders. I have compressed the titles. 
 Numbers i, 2, and 3 evidently refer to notes made for the lectures he had 
 delivered. Some part of No. 4 is extant in IMS. ' 
 
248 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1821 
 
 heart sinks. . . . Of my poetic works, I would fain 
 finish the Christabel. Alas ! for the proud time 
 when I planned, when I had present to my mind, the 
 materials as well as the scheme of the Hymns entitled 
 Spirit, Sun, Earth, Air, Water, Fire, and Man, and the 
 Epic poem on — what still appears to me the one only 
 fit subject remaining for an Epic poem — Jerusalem be- 
 sieged and destroyed by Titus.' ^ Out of the dead-lock 
 he can discern but one way-^it is not a new one — that 
 a few friends * who think respectfully and hope highly 
 of his powers and attainments ' should subscribe for 
 three or four years an annuity of about ^200. Two- 
 thirds of his time would be tranquilly devoted to the 
 bringing out of the four minor works, one after the 
 other ; the remainder to the completion of the Great 
 Work ' and my Christabel, and what else the happier 
 hour might inspire.' Towards this scheme Mr. Green 
 has offered ^30 to £Ap yearly ; another young 
 friend and pupil, ^50 ; and he thinks he can rely on 
 ^10 to ^20 from another. Will Allsop advise him? 
 he asks, and decide if without ' moral degradation ' 
 the statement now made, but in a compressed form, 
 might be circulated among the right sort of people ? 
 
 Allsop tells us nothing more, and we may assume 
 that nothing came of the scheme, but in March, Cole- 
 ridge informs his friend ^ that he has called on Murray 
 with a proposal that ' he should take him and his con- 
 cerns, past and future, for print and reprint, under his 
 umbrageous foliage.' ' He promises . . .' but here 
 the scrap of a letter ends — ' ccEtera desunt,' adds 
 Allsop. Whatever publisher and author may have 
 promised to each other, no business resulted, and 
 
 1 See, on this 'only fit subject,' Table Talk, April 28, 1832, and September 
 4, 1833. ^ Letters, etc., p. 95. 
 
249 
 
 1 82 1 'BLACKWOOnS MAGAZINE' 
 
 Coleridge had nothing to offer to the trade for yet 
 three years. 
 
 In July he writes to Poole, whom he had met 
 shortly before in London, that his health is not pain- 
 fully worse, and that he is making steady progress 
 with the inagmnn opus, and asks for copies of the 
 letters about his childhood ^ and about the ' Brocken ' — 
 probably intending to work them up into papers for 
 Blackwood. If such was the intention, it was not 
 carried out. At last, in September, he managed to 
 scrape together something for Blackwood — trifles 
 which appeared in the magazine for the following 
 month," together with what professes to be a private 
 letter to the proprietor.^ 
 
 A sojourn of nearly two months at Ramsgate,'* in 
 company with the Gillmans, greatly improved the 
 philosopher's health and spirits, and he was almost 
 persuaded by Dr. Anster ^ to undertake the delivery 
 of a course of lectures in Dublin.** 
 
 1 Some of which are printed in the supplement to the Biographia Literaria, 
 ed. 1847, and quoted from in the first chapter of this book. The 'Brocken' 
 letter was printed in the Amulet for 1829. See p. 98 supra. 
 
 - ' Selections from Mr. Coleridge's Literary Correspondence with Friends and 
 Men of Letters.' 
 
 3 I have a copy of the real letter, which is very unlike the print. Coleridge 
 promised ' within ten days ' several papers, which, in their turn, would be 
 followed by ' the substance of his Lectures on Shakespeare,' etc. He further 
 promised to devote the next six weeks undividedly to the magazine, and requests 
 an advance of ^50 to enable him to go to the seaside. This advance no doubt 
 was made, for a week later he tells Allsop (p. 130) that his circumstances are 
 easier, and that he is about to sail for Ramsgate. Of the articles promised none 
 appeared in Blackwood except Maxilian, a fantastic piece of mental autobio- 
 graphy, printed in the number for Jan. 1822, and this no doubt fully liquidated 
 the balance of the advance of ^50. 
 
 ■* The Cowden Clarkes introduced themselves to him on the East Cliff as 
 friends of Lamb, and straightway he discoursed to them on the spot for an hour 
 and a half. They knew Coleridge must be in the town, for a friend ' had heard 
 an elderly gentleman in the public library, who looked like a Dissenting minister, 
 talk as she never heard man talk' {Recoil, of IVrifers, 1878, pp. 30-32). 
 
 ^ Regius Professor of Civil Law at Trinity College, Dublin, and translator of 
 Fatist. I have a copy of his Poems (1819), the first few leaves of which were 
 cut open and annotated by Coleridge. 
 
 ^ AUsop's Letters, etc., pp. 149-161. ..,— -SI^T;!: — ~ 
 
 f OF THE ' V 
 
 (UlTlVERsiTr) 
 
 "iy- 
 
250 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERLDGE 1822 
 
 But with the new year (1822) came a new idea — 
 the extension of his philosophical class/ For more 
 than four years Green had been * pumped into ' for the 
 whole of one day in each week. A Mr. Stutfield, 
 with a Mr. Watson, had recently begun to come on 
 Thursdays, and Coleridge thought he could as easily 
 dictate to five or six amanuenses as to a pair, — if so 
 many were procurable. In February an advertise- 
 ment was inserted in the Courier, but Stuart — who 
 had forgiven or forgotten the wounds received in the 
 house of his friend — thought it hardly precise enough, 
 and in a long letter which explained the scheme,^ Cole- 
 ridge consulted him as to something more effective. 
 
 There have been three or four young men (under five-and- 
 twenty) who, within the last five years, have beUeved themselves, 
 and have been thought by their acquaintance, to have derived 
 benefit from their frequent opportunities of conversing, reading, and 
 occasionally corresponding with me ; the benefit consisting, not 
 merely, nor even principally, in the information received, but in the 
 improvement and accelerated growth of their faculties ; and in the 
 formation, or at least in the grounding, strengthening and integra- 
 tion, as it were, of their whole character. Under this persuasion, at 
 least, a young man . . . has importuned me to suffer him to be 
 with me . . . some one day in each week from noon to four or five 
 o'clock ; but as what he could afford would leave it doubtful whether 
 it would compensate for the expenditure of my time and the inter- 
 ruption of my literary pursuits (in plain English, whether I could 
 not get more by employing the time in writing for the Magazine, or 
 the booksellers) it was suggested . . . that I might form a class of five 
 or six men who are educating themselves for the Pulpit, the Bar, the 
 Senate, or any of those walks of life, in which the possession and the 
 display of intellect are of especial importance. 
 
 The ' course ' was to occupy two years, and the class- 
 room might be either at Highgate or in Green's 
 drawing-room in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Either then 
 or soon after, some such classes were formed, but I 
 
 ^ Allsop's Letters, etc., p. 166. 
 
 2 Letters from the Lake Poets, pp. 281-286. 'Posted March 15, 1822.' 
 
1 822 THE ACADEMY AT HIGHGATE 251 
 
 doubt if any numbered so many as five or six pupils, 
 or lasted for two years. To Eraser s Magazine for 
 1835, one of these disciples contributed specimens of 
 what he and his fellows took down from Coleridge's 
 lips ; and he informs us that, although no fees were 
 stipulated, the disciples ' gave the teacher such recom- 
 pense of reward as they were able to render.' ^ 
 
 In a letter to Allsop of Dec. 26, 1822,- Coleridge 
 announces that the work on Logic, — in its three main 
 divisions, Canon, Criterion, and Organ, — is all but 
 completed. He has no doubt that, by the end of 
 January, the book will be 'ready for the press.' By 
 the time this work is 'printed off,' he will be ready 
 with another volume of Logical Exercises, and 
 all this ' without interrupting the greater work on 
 Religion, of which the first half . . . was completed 
 on Sunday last.' Perhaps I have printed too many 
 such passages from Coleridge's letters, but I have 
 suppressed an immeasurably greater number — and 
 may plead that the life of a visionary cannot be told 
 without the inclusion of a good many examples of the 
 visions which most persistently haunted him.^ 
 
 ^ January 1S35, p. 50. A second article appeared in the following 
 November. 
 
 2 Letters, etc., p. 204. See also Prefatory Memoir of Green in Spiritual 
 Philosophy, i. xxxviii. 
 
 3 In 1892, Mr. C. A. Ward of Chingford Hatch acquired 'two volumes, 
 quarto, of MSS. bound, entitled respectively, "The History of Logic," and 
 "The Elements of Logic"' {Athemtwn, July i, 1893 — Art. "Coleridge's 
 'Logic'"). Mr. Ward has kindly informed me that these MSS. came to him 
 indirectly from the auction sale at which the library of Coleridge's literary executor, 
 the late Mr. Joseph Henry Green, was dispersed. Mr. Ward assumes, apparently 
 with good reason, that the MSS. are of Coleridge's composition, though not in his 
 handwriting, and that they represent the dictated work on Logic mentioned in 
 his letter to Allsop quoted in the text. It may also be assumed that it was of 
 these MSS. that Air. Green wrote as follows in Azotes and Queries for June lo, 
 1854 : — ' Of the three parts mentioned [in Coleridge's letter of Dec. 26, 1822] as 
 the components of the work [on Logic], the " Criterion" and " Organ " do not to 
 my knowledge exist ; and with regard to the other parts of the manuscript, 
 including the " Canon," I believe that I have exercised a sound discretion in not 
 publishing them in their present form and unfinished state.' This formed part of 
 
252 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1822- 
 
 In the Christmas week of 1822, Mrs. Coleridge 
 and her daughter Sara arrived at the Grove on a visit 
 which was prolonged until the end of the following 
 February, after which the ladies went on to stay with 
 their relatives at Ottery St. Mary. It is pleasant to 
 read in a contemporary letter of Mrs. Coleridge that 
 'our visits to Highgate and Ottery have been produc- 
 tive of the greatest satisfaction to all parties.' 'All 
 parties ' included Henry Nelson Coleridge, who seems 
 at once to have fallen in love with his cousin, whose 
 delicate beauty and grace charmed all beholders. 
 * Yes,' wrote Lamb to Barton, * I have seen Miss 
 Coleridge, and wish I had just such a — daughter. 
 God love her ! . . . Heaven send her uncle [Southey] 
 do not breed her up a Quarterly Reviewer ! ' ^ The 
 cousin's love was returned, and the girl's mother 
 smiled on the attachment, but there could yet be no 
 formal engagement. The cousins themselves, how- 
 ever, considered the matter as settled, and never 
 wavered throughout the seven years which had to 
 pass before marriage was practicable — the long 
 delay being mainly caused by the delicate health of 
 both. 
 
 Coleridge, though he seems to have hesitated a 
 
 Mr. Green's answer to a ' query ' as to Coleridge's unpublished MSS. which had 
 been made by the late Mr. Mansfield Ingleby. See also a paper ' On the 
 unpublished MSS. of S. T. Coleridge,' read by C. M. Ingleby, LL.D., before 
 the Royal Society of Literature, June 12, 1867 {Trans. 2nd Ser. ix. parti.) 
 
 ^ Feb. 17, 1823. On March 11 he writes again to Barton: 'The She- 
 Coleridges have taken flight, to my regret. With Sara's own-made acquisitions, 
 her unaffectedness and no-pretensions are beautiful. You might pass an age 
 with her without suspecting that she knew anything but her mother tongue. . . . 
 Poor C, I wish he had a home to receive his daughter in ; but he is but a 
 stranger or a visitor in this world.' On the 5th March, Lamb describes a dinner- 
 party at which he had been present the evening before. ' I dined in Parnassus, 
 with Wordsworth, Coleridge, Rogers, and Tom Moore. . . . Coleridge was in 
 his finest vein of talk — had all the talk ; and let 'em talk as evilly as they do of 
 the envy of poets, I am sure not one there but was content to be nothing but a 
 listener.' (Moore's account of the dinner will be found in h\s Journals, iv. 51. 
 It is quoted in Lamb's Letters, ii. 320.) 
 
i823 IN SOCIETY 253 
 
 good deal before sanctioning the engagement,^ took 
 very kindly to his nephew as a friend and companion. 
 The first record of Table Talk between uncle and 
 nephew is headed ' Dec. 29, 1822,' a date which coin- 
 cides almost exactly with the arrival of the aunt and 
 cousin. 'It was,' writes H. N. C, 'the very first 
 evening I spent with him after my boyhood.' The 
 renewed intercourse was destined to be cemented by 
 mutual affection, and this led to the happy reconcilia- 
 tion of Coleridge with the other members of his 
 family. On May Day of this year he dined with his 
 nephew John Taylor Coleridge, the brother of Henry 
 Nelson ; and, a little later, we read of his meeting, 
 at the same house, their father. Colonel James. Various 
 records of this and succeeding years show that 
 Coleridge went pretty frequently into society, charm- 
 ing alike with his divine talk the dignified guests of 
 Beaumont and Sotheby, the professional and philo- 
 sophic friends of Green, and the equally refined but 
 more general company brought together by Mr. and 
 Mrs, Aders. The famous Highgate ' Thursday even- 
 ing ' was probably not a regular institution much, if at 
 all, before 1824, but two or three years earlier the 
 silver tongue had begun to attract an increasing stream 
 of willing listeners, other than the professed disciples. 
 Edward Irving was a sedulous and eminently recep- 
 tive visitor as early as 1822. 
 
 In a letter of July, Southey mentions that Cole- 
 ridge talked of publishing a work on Logic, of 
 collecting his poems, and of adapting Wallenstein for 
 
 1 ' If the matter were quite open, I should incline to disapprove the inter- 
 marriage of first cousins ; but the Church has decided otherwise on the authority 
 of Augustine, and that seems enough on such a point ' {Table Talk, June 10, 1824). 
 Subsequently, confidence in these authorities was shaken, for on July 29, 1826, 
 he requests Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Stuart to favour him with their opinion on the 
 point {Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 299). 
 
254 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1823- 
 
 the stage — ' Kean having taken a fancy to exhibit 
 himself in it ' ^ — but none of these projects came to 
 anything, save the second, and that som.e five years 
 later. The autumn of 1823 is remarkable for a 
 revival of Coleridge's long dormant poetical faculty. 
 The first draft of the exquisite Youth and Age is 
 dated 'Sep. 10, 1823,' and seems to have been in- 
 spired by a day-dream of happy Quantock times.^ 
 Unfortunately, the faculty seems to have gone to sleep 
 again almost immediately, and all the hours which 
 could be spared from talk, and Green, and the inag- 
 ntmi opus were given to Leighton, of whom Coleridge 
 had said to Cottle, in 1807, that if there could be an 
 ' intermediate space between inspired and uninspired 
 writings ' that space would be occupied by those of the 
 Scottish Archbishop.^ What had been at first in- 
 tended as selections of ' Beauties ' ^ grew into that 
 which became the most popular of all Coleridge's prose 
 works — Aids to Reflection. In January 1824 Lamb 
 reports that the book is a ' good part printed but sticks 
 for a little more copy! It 'stuck,' alas! for more than 
 a year — why, it is impossible to conjecture, unless his 
 interest in Leighton palled, for in the interval Cole- 
 ridge must have written ^ the bulk of a volume or two 
 
 ^ Life and Corr., v. 142. 
 
 2 The first draft of Yoittli and Age is printed only in Poetical Works, ed. 1893, 
 p. 640. 
 
 3 ' There is in him something that must be felt, even as the Scriptures must 
 be felt.' J\em. p. 314. 
 
 * ' With a few notes and a biographical preface. . . . Hence the term, 
 Editor, subscribed to the Notes.' See Preface to Aids to Reflection, 1825, p. iii. 
 
 * Although not published till 1 840, Coleridge's Co7ifessions of an Enquiring 
 Spirit was probably composed in the latter half of 1824. 'Letter I.' begins 
 thus : ' I employed the compelled and most unwelcome leisure of severe indis- 
 position in reading The Confessions of a Fair Saint in Mr. Carlyle's recent trans- 
 lation of the Wilhehn Meister. . . . This, acting in conjunction with the 
 concluding sentences of your letter . . . gave the immediate occasion to the 
 following confessions,' etc. Carlyle presented Coleridge with a copy of the 
 newly-published Wilhehn Meister in June 1824. 
 
1 824 EDWARD IRVING 255 
 
 of similar marginalia on the books he read in the 
 deh'ghtful new room prepared for him by his kind hosts 
 — the one pictured in the frontispiece to the second 
 volume of Table Talk. The cage had been gilded, 
 but the bird seems to have felt the pressure of the 
 wires, for towards the end of March 1824, Coleridge 
 took French leave, and established himself at Allsop's 
 house in London. The Gillmans probably had no 
 difficulty in discovering the whereabouts of the truant, 
 and in ten days they happily recovered him, never to 
 lose him any more/ Two months later we find him 
 attending a 'dance and rout at Mr. Green's in 
 Lincoln's Inn Fields.' * Even in the dancing-room, 
 notw^ithstanding the noise of the music, he was able to 
 declaim very amusingly on his favourite topics ' to the 
 ever-willing Robinson, who had joined the giddy 
 throng and who ' stayed till three.' A week later the 
 same diarist records: [Thursday] June loth, 'Dined 
 at Lamb's, and then walked with him to Highgate, 
 self-invited. There we found a large party. Mr. 
 Coleridge talked his best."' 
 
 In the previous month Irving had preached a 
 Missionary Society sermon, which, when published in 
 the winter, bore a dedication to Coleridge that greatly 
 took the fancy of Lamb. ' I have got acquainted with 
 Mr. Irving, the Scotch preacher' (he writes to Leigh 
 Hunt). ' He is a humble disciple at the foot of 
 Gamaliel S. T. C. Judge how his own sectarists must 
 
 1 See letter of April 8, 1824, and Allsop's remarks thereon {Letters, etc., 
 p. 213). The cause of the temporary rupture is unknown to me, but there is 
 some reason for supposing it to have been connected with the discovery that 
 Coleridge was not strictly confining his consumption of laudanum to the quantities 
 prescribed and supplied by Mr. Gillman. 
 
 2 The subject was the internal evidence for Christianity. It pleased Henry 
 Taylor {atat. 24) to play devil's advocate on behalf of Mahometanism, which 
 impelled Lamb, when the departing guests were hunting for their hats, to ask 
 him : ' Are you looking for your turban, sir ? ' 
 
256 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1825 
 
 Stare when I tell you he has dedicated a book to 
 S. T. C, acknowledging to have learnt more of the 
 nature of faith, Christianity, and Christian Church from 
 him, than from all the men he ever conversed with ! ' ^ 
 ' This ' (wrote Lamb to Barton) ' from him, — the great 
 dandled and petted sectarian — to a religious character 
 so equivocal in the world's eye as that of S. T. C, so 
 foreign to the Kirk's estimate — can this man be a 
 quack ? ' -■ 
 
 In May or June, 1825, Aids to Reflectio^i"-' struggled 
 into the light, but with a printed list of ' Corrections and 
 Amendments ' as long as that which graced the Sibyl- 
 line Leaves, while the presentation copies had as many 
 more added in manuscript. To Julius Hare it 
 appeared to crown its author as ' the true sovereign of 
 modern English thought'; while some younger men, 
 as yet unknown to the author — Maurice and Sterling 
 among others — felt that to this book they ' owed even 
 their own selves.'^ 
 
 Theologians differing as widely as the Bishop 
 (Howley) of London, and Blanco White joined in 
 approving, but the reviewers were almost silent, and 
 the sale was slow/ The author's natural disappoint- 
 
 ^ Letters, ii. 121, 127. Lamb repeated this in a letter to Wordsworth, 
 April 6, 1825 (Jb. ii. 129). 
 
 2 Aids to Reflection in the formation of a manly character, on the several 
 grounds of Prudence, Morality, and Religion : illustrated by select passages from 
 our elder Divines, especially from Archbishop Leighton. By S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 This makes that whatsoever here befalls, 
 
 You in the region of yourself remain, 
 
 Neighb'ring on Heaven : and that no foreign land. 
 
 Daniel. 
 
 London : Printed for Taylor & Hessey, 93 Fleet Street ; and 13 Waterloo Place, 
 Pall Mall. 1825. 8vo, pp. xvi. ; 404. Frequently reprinted. 
 
 ^ Prefatory Memoir of John Sterling in Essays and Tales, by J. S. , 2 vols. 
 1848, i. xiv. 
 
 * S. T. C. to Stuart {Letters from, the Lake Poets, p. 287). He adds that 
 the comment on Aph. vi. p. 147 'contains the aim and object of the whole 
 book ' ; and draws particular attention to the notes at pp. 204-207 and 218 ; to 
 the last 12 lines of p. 252 ; and to the 'Conclusion, p. 377.' 
 
i825 BECOMES A 'ROYAL ASSOCIATE' 257 
 
 ment was somewhat solaced by his nomination to 
 one of the ten Royal Associateships of the newly- 
 chartered ' Royal Society of Literature,' each of which 
 carried an annuity of a hundred guineas from the 
 King's Privy Purse. This appointment was probably 
 obtained through the exertions of Basil Montagu, 
 aided by the powerful influence of John Hookham 
 Frere, who for some years past had been one of 
 Coleridge's kindest and most highly-valued friends. 
 It would seem that each Associate had to eo 
 through the formality of delivering an essay 
 before the Society, and accordingly Coleridge, on 
 May 18, 1825, read a paper on the Proniethetis of 
 ^schylus, which has been printed in his Litei'ary 
 Remains. It was stated to be 'preparatory to a 
 series of disquisitions,' which, however, did not 
 follow. 
 
 About this time appeared Hazlitt's Spirit of the 
 Age, wjth a flamboyant sketch of Coleridge for one of 
 its most notable chapters. The high lights, as usual, 
 are very high, and the shadows very black, but the 
 middle tints, also as usual, are laid on with an unsteady 
 hand — in this particular instance, perhaps, owing to 
 some remorseful desire to be simply just and fair. 
 The presence of an attempt in this direction is as 
 apparent as its want of success, for though the essay 
 bristles with barbed home-truths, they are not, as 
 usual, poisoned. Coleridge is charged, of course, with 
 political apostacy, but only to the extent of having 
 ' turned on the pivot of a subtle casuistry to the 
 unclean side ' ; he has not declined to the utter 
 profligacy of becoming a poet-laureate or a stamp- 
 distributer — only into 'torpid uneasy repose, tantal- 
 ised by useless resources, haunted by vain imaginings, 
 
 s 
 
■ ^ 
 
 258 
 
 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 1825 
 
 his lips idly moving, but his heart for ever still,' Cole- 
 ridge took it all very complacently, expressing his own 
 view of his past and present in the good-humoured 
 doggerel which he called A Trifle and the editors of 
 his poems, A Character. 
 
 Ill 
 
 13 Wi 
 
 resc 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 LAST YEARS AT HIGHGATE 
 A.D. 1825-1834 
 
 The receipt of the annuity from the Privy Purse 
 doubtless eased Coleridge's mind, and the minds of 
 those about him, and I think that from this time he 
 must have given up the struggle which, hitherto, and 
 with varying energy and varying success, he had 
 endeavoured in some fashion to keep up with the 
 outer world. After the publication of Aids to Refiec- 
 tioJi, he seems to have assumed, and to have been per- 
 mitted to keep for the rest of his life, the unique 
 position which Carlyle so picturesquely describes : 
 * Coleridofe sat on the brow of Hin^heate Hill in those 
 years, looking down on London and its smoke-tumult, 
 like a sage escaped from the inanity of life's battle, 
 attracting towards him the thoughts of innumerable 
 brave souls engaged there,' ^ Carlyle was himself one 
 of the first of the brave souls who were attracted to the 
 pool — led thither in June 1824 by his friend Irving ; 
 but unlike that friend, he came away sorrowing, having 
 found no healing in its waters. The well-known, full- 
 length portrait of Coleridge, elaborated with all the 
 resources of an art in which Carlyle was supreme, in 
 
 ^ Life of Ste}-lijig, chap. viii. 
 
26o SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1825 
 
 the Life of John Sterling, though placed there in a 
 
 setting of 1828-30, was painted exclusively from 
 
 studies made between June 1824 and March 1825. 
 
 Here is the first rough sketch : — 
 
 I have seen many curiosities ; not the least of them I reckon 
 Coleridge, the Kantian metaphysician and quondam Lake poet. I 
 will teU you all about our interview when we meet. Figure a fat, 
 flabby, incurvated personage, at once short, rotund, and relaxed, 
 with a watery mouth, a snuffy nose, a pair of strange brown, timid, 
 yet earnest-looking eyes, a high tapering brow, and a great bush of 
 grey hair ; and you have some faint idea of Coleridge. He is a 
 kind, good soul, full of religion and affection, and poetry and animal 
 magnetism. His cardinal sin is that he wants will. He has no 
 resolution. He shrinks from pain or labour in any of its shapes. 
 His very attitude bespeaks this. He never straightens his knee- 
 joints. He stoops with his fat, ill-shapen shoulders, and in walking 
 he deos not tread, but shovel [shuffle?] and slide. My father 
 would call it ' skluiffing.' He is also always busied to keep, by 
 strong and frequent inhalations, the water of his mouth from over- 
 flowing, and his eyes have a look of anxious impotence. He 
 ivould do all with his heart, but he knows he dares not. The con- 
 versation of the man is much as I anticipated — a forest of thoughts, 
 some true, many false, more part dubious, all of them ingenious 
 in some degree, often in a high degree. But there is no method in 
 his talk ; he wanders like a man sailing among many currents, 
 whithersoever his lazy mind directs him ; and what is more 
 unpleasant, he preaches, or rather soliloquises. He cannot speak, 
 he can only tal-k (so he names it). Hence I found him unprofit- 
 able, even tedious, but we parted very good friends, and promising 
 to go back, and see him some evening — a promise which I fully 
 intend to keep. I sent him a copy of Meiste?- about which we had 
 some friendly talk. I reckon him a man of great and useless 
 genius, a strange, not at all a great man.^ 
 
 Further intercourse led Carlyle to describe Cole- 
 ridge as ' sunk inextricably in putrescent indolence ' ; 
 
 1 T. C. to his brother John, June 24, 1824 (Fioude's T. Carlyle, 1795-1835, 
 i. 222). In the Reminiscences (i. 231) Carlyle says: 'Early in 1825 was my 
 last sight of " Coleridge." Another great Scotchman, also a friend of Irving, 
 Dr. Chalmers, a man assuredly deficient neither in sympathy nor imagination, 
 heard Coleridge talk for three hours without getting more than occasional 
 glimpses of "what he would be at" ' (Hanna's Life, iii. 160). Chalmers's little 
 daughter (afterwards Mrs. Hanna) accompanied him, and used to relate how 
 she had sate literally entranced by the mellifluous flow of the discourse of which 
 she did not understand a word. When its music ceased, the child's overwrought 
 feelings found relief in tears. 
 
1 826 A PORTRAIT BY THOMAS CARLYLE 261 
 
 and, enamoured of the pretty metaphor, he repeats 
 and expands it in a letter of January 22, 1825 : 'Cole- 
 ridge is a mass of richest spices putrefied into a dung- 
 hill. I never hear him tawlk without feeling ready to 
 worship him, and toss him in a blanket.'^ 
 
 Intercourse with Lamb was kept up intermittently. 
 In March 1826, one finds him preparing for a Thurs- 
 day evening 'that he may not appear unclassic,' but a 
 private undraped Wednesday, such as we read of 
 two months later, was probably more to his taste. In 
 the summer of this year Coleridge paid a visit to the 
 Lambs' cottage at Islington, meeting Thomas Hood 
 and praising his now forgotten Hogarth-like etching, 
 The Progress of Cant and some little drawings the 
 silent young man had brought with him. An anony- 
 mous member of the party relates that when the 
 evening was far spent Coleridge walked back alone to 
 Hio^hofate — a distance of three or four miles — and 
 describes the affectionate leave-taking of the friends 
 * as if they had been boys,' and how Coleridge gave 
 Mary a parting kiss." In March, Coleridge had 
 thoughts of varying his employments by writing a 
 pantomime, possibly to be founded on Decker's Old 
 Forhtnatus, as Lamb, who was consulted, offered to 
 lend one of that dramatist's plays, if Coleridge 'thought 
 he could filch something out of it.'^ 
 
 1 Froude, i. 292. One should try to enjoy all this full-flavoured language 
 without taking it too seriously. Even in 1824-25 Carlyle confesses that the 'sad 
 hag, Dyspepsia, had got him bitted and bridled, and was ever striving to make 
 his waking living day a thing of ghastly nightmares {Rem. i. 241). He called 
 the then literary world of London 'this rascal rout, this dirty rabble, destitute . . . 
 even of common honesty ' (Froude, i. 264). How much he knew of it may be 
 gauged, possibly, by the statement that ' the gin-shops and pawnbrokers bewail 
 Hazlitt's absence' — Hazlitt, who drank only tea ! Besides, one must not forget 
 that Carlyle was, by nature and practice, Coleridge's rival in monologue, and ill- 
 suited for the part of ' passive bucket ' assigned to him at Highgate. 
 
 2 Monthly Repositoiy for 1835, pp. 162-169. 
 
 3 C, L. to S. T. C. March 22, 1826 {Letters, ii. 144). 
 
262 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1826- 
 
 About this time, Coleridge informed Stuart ^ that 
 his mind during the past two years, and particularly 
 during the last, had been undergoing a change as 
 regards personal religion. He finds himself thinking 
 and reasoning on all religious subjects with a more 
 cheerful sense of freedom, because he is secure of 
 his faith in a personal God, a resurrection and a 
 Redeemer, and further, and practically for the first 
 time, 'confident in the efficacy of prayer.'^ This 
 spring saw the publication of Henry Nelson Cole- 
 ridge's delightfully vivacious Six Months in the West 
 Indies, a record of his travels in search of health 
 during the winter of 1825-26. Some of its vivacities 
 displeased the author's uncle and prospective father- 
 in-law, as we gather from a letter of Lamb : ' Your 
 finding out my style in your nephew's pleasant book is 
 surprising to me. I want eyes to descry it. You are 
 a little too hard on his morality, though I confess he 
 has more of Sterne about him than of Sternhold. But 
 he saddens into excellent sense before the conclusion.' ^ 
 The nephew does not seem to have been taken into 
 favour again until the beginning of 1827, when his 
 sweetheart arrived on a second and longer visit to her 
 father. 
 
 An attempt was then being made to procure some 
 sinecure place for Coleridge. Frere had obtained 
 from the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, a promise, 
 
 1 April 19, 1826 {Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 294). 
 
 2 See Table Talk, June i, 1830, note; also Cottle's Rem. pp. 370, 382; 
 
 3 C. L. to S. T. C. March 22, 1826 {Letters, ii. 144). I fear that Coleridge 
 was making things hard for the lovers. Uncle and nephew appear to have held 
 no Table Talk between June 10, 1824, and February 24, 1827. Of this long 
 period H. N. C.'s voyage only accounts for December 1824 to September 1825; 
 and it was in July 1826 that Coleridge had the renewed doubts as to the pro- 
 priety of marriage between first cousins (see p. 253 supra, footnote i). There is 
 another great gap in the Table Talk — August 30, 1827, to April 13, 1S30. The 
 marriage took place at Keswick in September 1829. 
 
iS28 POETICAL WORKS COLLECTED 263 
 
 apparently, of the Paymastership of the Gentleman 
 Pensioners — vacant by the death of William Gifford ! — 
 but the negotiations, unfortunately, dragged on until 
 the autumn, when the death of Canning, who had 
 accepted the legacy of his predecessor's promise, put an 
 end to Coleridge's hopes. ^ On February 24 he informs 
 Stuart that * Mr. Gillman, with Mr. Jameson, has 
 undertaken to superintend an edition of all his poems, 
 to be brought out by Pickering : that is to say, I have 
 given all the poems, as far as this edition is concerned, 
 to Mr. Gillman.' " This was the edition in three 
 volumes (it had been advertised to appear in four) 
 which was published in 1828.^ Three hundred copies 
 only were printed, and before October all had been 
 sold, and another edition was prepared — to appear, 
 after much revision, in 1829.'* 
 
 The earliest glimpse one gets of the poet in 1828 
 is in Scoii's J otn'jial ior April 22 : — 
 
 Lockhart and I dined with Sotheby, where we met a large dining 
 party, the orator of which was that extraordinary man Coleridge. 
 After eating a hearty dinner, during which he spoke not a word, he 
 began a most learned harangue on the Samothracian Mysteries, which 
 he considered as affording the germs of all tales about fairies past, 
 present, and to come. He then diverged to Homer, whose Iliad 
 
 1 Letters froi>i the Lake Poets, pp. 301-307, February and October 1827. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 306. Jameson was a friend of Hartley, and the husband of Mrs. 
 Jameson, the well-known writer on Art. 
 
 3 The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge, including the Dramas of 
 Wallenstein^ Remorse, and Zapolya. In three Volumes. London : William 
 Pickering. MDCCCXXVIII. 
 
 Octavo, Vol. I. pp. X., 253; II. 370; III. 428. 
 
 * Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 319 — The Poetical Works of S. T. 
 Coleridge, including the Dramas of Wallenstein, Remorse, and Zapolya. 
 In three Volumes. [The publisher's device of Aldine anchor and dolphin.] 
 London : William Pickering. MDCCCXXIX. 
 
 Octavo, Vol. I. pp. X., 353 ; II. 394; III. 428. 
 
 The last edition on which Coleridge was able to bestow personal care and 
 attention. That of 1834 was arranged mainly, if not entirely, at the discretion 
 of H. N. Coleridge. The editions of 1828 and 1829 differ materially. See 
 Poet. Works, 1893, Appendix K, pp. 552-555. 
 
264 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1828 
 
 he considered a collection of poems by different authors, at different 
 times during a century.^ There was, he said, the individuality of an 
 age, but not of a country. Morritt, a zealous worshipper of the old 
 bard, was incensed at a system which would turn him into a poly- 
 theist, gave battle with keenness, and was joined by Sotheby, our host. 
 Mr. Coleridge behaved with the utmost complaisance and temper, 
 but relaxed not from his exertions. ' Zounds, I was never so 
 bethumped with words.' Morritt's impatience must have cost him 
 an extra sixpence worth of snuff. ^ 
 
 In June and July, Coleridge, accompanied by 
 Wordsworth and his daughter Dora, spent six pleasant 
 weeks on the Rhine. Fortunately, two not incon- 
 siderable records of portions of the tour have been 
 preserved by outside observers. T. Colley Grattan, 
 then resident in Brussels, acted as the helpful and 
 intelligent guide of the party to Waterloo and other 
 places in the neighbourhood, and in his Beaten Paths^ 
 he gives a pleasant account of the time. When the 
 tourists moved up to Godesberg to stay with the 
 Aderses at their villa, they found a fellow-guest in the 
 much-reminiscent Julian Young, then a giddy but 
 observant youth just escaped from Oxford. In his 
 
 ' Coleridge was a Wolfian (without having read Wolf), and the creed is 
 vigorously expressed in Table Talk for May 12, 1830, and July 9, 1832. Cole- 
 ridge professed to have received his first hint from Vice's Scienza Niiova. 
 
 ^ The Journal of Sir Waller Scott, from the original at Abbotsford, 1890, ii. 
 164. (The passage in an abbreviated form is in Lockhart's Life (1837), vii. 
 126). 
 
 Mr. Douglas quotes in a footnote a passage from Lockhart's Theodore Hook 
 (1853, PP- 23-4) in which an account is given of a dinner-party of a highly 
 bacchanalian description, at which Lockhart met Coleridge, probably about this 
 period. A more detailed account will be found in Jerdan's Ajitobiography (1853, 
 iv. 233-4). The party was given by F. M. Reynolds in a summer cottage at 
 Highgate. Theodore Hook entertained the company with a string of impromptu 
 verses on Coleridge, who greatly enjoyed the feat. Coleridge seems to have taken an 
 active part in all the revels of the evening. 'In walking home' (writes Lockhart) 
 
 ' with Mr. Coleridge, he entertained and me with a most excellent lecture on 
 
 the distinction between talent and genius, and declared that Hook was as true a 
 genius as Dante — that was his example.' What appears to be Coleridge's 
 letter to Reynolds, accepting his invitation to this party, is printed in the 
 AthencBiun for Jan. 17, 1835, but neither this letter nor either of the chronicles is 
 dated. The party took place, probably, in the autumn of 1828 or 1829. 
 
 3 Beaten Paths, and those ivho trod them, by Thomas Colley Grattan, 2 vols. 
 1865, ii. 107-145. 
 
1 828 A RHINE TOUR WITH WORDSWORTH 265 
 
 Journal^ Young gives a lively account of his inter- 
 course with the poets. Their fame, he tells us, ' soon 
 attracted to Mrs. Aders's house all the " illuminati " of 
 Bonn — Niebuhr, Becker, Augustus Schlegel, and many 
 others,' and copious talk ensued — in German. Little of 
 it, however, could have been for edification, for Words- 
 worth had probably forgotten most of his slender Goslar 
 attainment, while Coleridge's pronunciation of German 
 was so unintelligible that Schlegel, the only one of the 
 ' illuminati ' who understood English, had to beg him 
 to use his native tongue. When the two poets were 
 together, Wordsworth ' as a rule allowed Coleridge to 
 have all the talk to himself,' and Young ' never saw 
 any manifestations of small jealousy ' between the 
 friends — being good enough to add an expression of 
 his pleased surprise, ' considering the vanity possessed 
 by each.' Both diarists describe Coleridge's general 
 appearance as suggesting ' a dissenting minister.' 
 Grattan was glad to find him unlike his ' engraved 
 portrait ' — (he evidently means Northcote's scowling 
 counterfeit) — face extremely handsome, mouth parti- 
 cularly pleasing, grey eyes 'full of intelligent softness,' 
 cheeks unfurrowed and lit with a healthy bloom, figure 
 'full and lazy, but not actually stout,' black coat with 
 shorts and silk stockings. Young's portrait is, in 
 essentials, not inconsistent, but in some details is 
 (naturally perhaps) less flattering — build uncouth, hair 
 lonof and neo^lected, ' stockinofs of lavender- coloured 
 worsted,' white starchless neck -cloth tied in a limp 
 bow, shabby suit of dusky black. 
 
 It was on his way home that Coleridge sniffed the 
 two-and-seventy stenches of Cologne — at their worst, 
 
 1 A Memoir of Charles Mayize Voting, Tragedian, with Extracts from his 
 Son's Journal. By Julian Charles Young. 2nd ed. 1871, pp. 1 15-123. 
 
 (^ 
 
 ^ OF THE ^ 
 
 XTITIVERSITY; 
 
266 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1828 
 
 probably, In a hot July — but he thoroughly enjoyed 
 his tour, and reported himself to Stuart as improved 
 by it in health, spirits, and mental activity. This was 
 written in October, when he took another pleasant 
 outing in a week's visit to the Lambs at Enfield Chase, 
 Here he describes himself as ' living temperately and 
 taking a good deal of exercise,' but, unfortunately, the 
 visit wound itself up in a twelve-mile walk in tight 
 shoes. Poets enjoy no immumty from the penalities 
 of su^h follies, and the consequent confinement to the 
 sofa brought on ' an indescribable depression of spirits ' 
 and ' a succession of disturbed nights '■ — nights which 
 prompted him to quote illustratively from The Pains 
 of Sleep. A smart attack of erysipelas followed, which 
 he 'strongly suspected to be, in his constitution, a 
 substitute for the gout, to which his father was sub- 
 ject ' — an unguarded and consequently a significant 
 remark, showing how he had forgotten that a quarter 
 of a century before he had attributed a good many 
 things to the gout in his own system. He is going 
 to recruit by spending the month of November at 
 Ramsgate, when he will ' do nothing but write verses 
 and finish the correction of the last part of his work 
 071 the Poiver and Use of Words' ^ 
 
 Whether either of these duties occupied his sea- 
 side leisure, or whether the ' work ' ever existed, I am 
 unaware. This and the previous year (1827) saw the 
 production of a few verses not unworthy of a place in 
 his 'Tribuna,' or 'Salon carre ' — The Two Founts, 
 Duty stirviving Self Love, The Improvisatore, Work 
 withoiU Hope, and The Garden of Boccaccio. The 
 beautiful lines. Love, Hope, and Patience in Education, 
 belong to the following year. 
 
 ^ Letters from the Lake Poets, pp. 324-32S. 
 

 1 828 ' WORK WITHOUT HOPE' 267 
 
 These later poems lack in great measure the jewel 
 tints which glow in the Ancient Mariner and Chris- ) 
 tabel, and exhibit little of the sweep of brush which 
 distinguishes the early odes ; but, although now * a 
 common greyness silvers everything,' the old magic 
 still mingles with the colours on the palette. Cole- 
 ridge's attitude as he now looked over the wide land- 
 scape where all nature seemed at work, himself, held 
 in the bondage of a spell of his own creating, "■ the sole 
 unbusy thing," recalls Browning's picture of Andrea del 
 Sarto watching the lights of Fiesole die out one by 
 one, like his own hopes and ambitions. Coleridge 
 also remembered days when he could leave the ground 
 and ' put on the glory, Rafael's daily wear ' — now he, 
 himself a very Rafael, asks only to 'sit the grey 
 remainder of his evening out,' and * muse perfectly 
 how he could paint — were he but back in France.' 
 
 All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair — 
 
 The bees are stirring — birds are on the wing — 
 
 And Winter slumbering in the open air, 
 
 Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring ! 
 
 And I the while, the sole unbusy thing, 
 
 Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing. 
 
 Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow, 
 Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow 
 Bloom, O ye amaranths ! bloom for whom ye may, 
 For me ye bloom not ! Glide, rich streams, away ! 
 With lips unbrightened, wreathless brow, I stroll : 
 And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul ? 
 Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, 
 And Hope without an object cannot live.^ 
 
 1 ' Work without Hope. Lines composed 21st February 1827.' The poem 
 seems to have been composed in 1825, but as Coleridge added the date in the 
 Poet. Works of 1828, his feelings were probably unchanged. In March 18, 1826, 
 he wrote thus to Lady Beaumont : ' Though I am at present sadly below even 
 my par of heaUh, or rather unhealth, and am the more depressed thereby from 
 the consciousness that in this yearly resurrection of Nature from her winter sleep, 
 amid young leaves and blossoms and twittering nest-building birds, the sun so 
 gladsome, the breezes with such healing on their wings, all good and lovely 
 things are beneath me, above me, and everywhere around me, and all from God, 
 
268 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1S28 
 
 In the winter of 1827-28 the Highgate 'Thurs- 
 days ' began to be attended by a clever and enthusi- 
 astic young man, who, Hke Coleridge himself, had 
 left Cambridge without taking a degree. Their 
 reasons were probably the same, though the 
 divergencies between tests and beliefs were, in John 
 Sterling's case, much narrower than they had been in 
 that of Coleridge. Like his college tutor, Julius Hare, 
 and his chief undergraduate friend, F. D. Maurice,^ 
 Sterling had been steeped in the philosophy of the 
 Biograpkia, The Friend, and Aids to Reflection, and 
 until Coleridge's death he was one of the most assiduous 
 of the Highgate disciples. Unfortunately, he took 
 notes of none but his first conversation with the 
 master, whose manner and address struck him as 
 ' formally courteous,' and in keeping with his rather 
 'old-fashioned" appearance. 'He always speaks in 
 the tone and in the gesture of common conversation, 
 and laughs a good deal, but gently. ... He speaks 
 perhaps rather slowly, but never stops, and seldom 
 even hesitates.' On this first occasion Sterling 
 was * in his company about three hours ; and of 
 that time he spoke during two and three-quarters.' ^ 
 In 1834 Sterling entered the Church and worked 
 as Hare's curate for six months. ' This clerical aber- 
 ration,' writes Carlyle (p. 138), 'we have ascribed to 
 Coleridge ; and do clearly think that had there been 
 
 while my incapability of enjoying, or, at best, languor in receiving them, is directly 
 or indirectly from myself, from past procrastination, and cowardly impatience of 
 pain' {Coleojion Letters, ii. 246). See Poetical Works, ed. 1893, p. 643. 
 
 1 It is commonly assumed that Maurice, who, perhaps, did more than any 
 other man to spread the influence of Coleridge's teaching, went much to High- 
 gate, but I am assured that he never even saw Coleridge. 
 
 2 Essays and Tales by John Sterling . . . with a Memoir of his Life, by J. 
 C. Hare, M.A. (2 vols. 1848), i. xxiv. The memoir is not encumbered by over- 
 precision, either in the matter of dates, or otherwise. In common with its 
 subject, its final cause seems to have been The Life of John Sterling, by T. 
 Carlyle. London, 185 1. 
 
1 829 JOHN STERLING 269 
 
 no Coleridge, neither had this been — nor had EngHsh 
 Puseyism, or some other strange portents been.' 
 Carlyle, it may be noted, did not make Sterling's 
 acquaintance until the beginning of 1835. His 
 speculation may be true enough as respects Sterling. 
 As to the wider issues, it is probably a good deal 
 too sweeping. Coleridge's teaching helped, if not to 
 originate, at least to develop both the High Church 
 and Broad Church revivals. The movements have 
 since coalesced to a great extent, but students find 
 no difficulty in tracing historically the influence which 
 Coleridge exerted — an influence not the less powerful, 
 perhaps, because it was strictly indirect. 
 
 Early in 1829, Carlyle, who was himself a prophet 
 yet without honour, published in the Foreign Review 
 an essay on Novalis which opened with a kindly, almost 
 an enthusiastic appreciation of Coleridge. It must 
 have cheered the heart of the elder philosopher, the 
 sheets of whose Friend and Biographia Literaria lay 
 mouldering in Mr. Gillman's cellar. 
 
 They are but a slight business (wrote Carlyle) compared with ' 
 Novalis's Schriften . . . yet Coleridge's works were triumphantly 
 condemned by the whole reviewing world, as clearly unintelligible, 
 and among readers they have still but an unseen circulation ; like 
 living brooks, hidden for the present under mountains of froth 
 and theatrical snow-paper, and which only at a distant day, when 
 these mountains shall have decomposed themselves into gas and 
 earthly residuum, may roll forth in their true limpid shape to 
 gladden the general eye with what beauty and everlasting freshness 
 does reside in them. It is admitted too on all hands, that 
 Mr. Coleridge is a man of 'genius,' that is, a man having more 
 intellectual insight than other men ; and strangely enough, it is 
 taken for granted, at the same time, that he has less intellectual 
 insight than any other. For why else are his doctrines to be thrown 
 out of doors without examination as false and worthless, simply be- 
 cause they are obscure ? 
 
 In the autumn of 1827, Coleridge wrote some 
 
1-0 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1829- 
 
 fatherly verses to the bride of his son Derwent/ Two 
 years later a similar occasion arose, but if any poetical 
 tribute was paid, it has not come down to us. On 
 September 3, 1829, his daughter Sara was married to 
 her cousin Henry Nelson Coleridge, but the ceremony 
 took place at Crosthwaite church, near Greta Hall, 
 and although the young people settled at Hampstead, 
 the record of Table Talk, suspended on Aug. 30, 
 1827, was not resumed until April 30, 1830. From 
 that date, however, it continues, almost without break, 
 until the end of Coleridge's life. He seems to have 
 had a long illness in the summer of 1829, for Lamb in 
 answering a letter of that period says : * How you 
 frighted me! Never write again "Coleridge is dead" 
 at the end of a line, and tamely come in with "to his 
 friends " at the beginning of another. Love Is quicker, 
 and fear from love, than the transition ocular from line 
 to line.'^ On October 26, Lamb writes to Gillman^ 
 of his grief at hearing of Coleridge's ' indifferent 
 health — and he not to know it ! ' 'A little school- 
 divinity,' he thinks, * well applied, may be healing. 
 I send him honest Tom of Aquin . , . rescued 
 t'other day from a stall in Barbican.' In November, 
 Mary Lamb is driven over to Highgate to fetch back 
 ''Him of Aquimini,' and to borrow 'the golden works 
 of the dear fine silly old angel,' Fuller, which the 
 Lambs returned a month later, with a promise to 
 spend the first fine day at the Grove, trusting to the 
 Gate- House for beds. In the May following. Lamb 
 reports of Coleridge ^ that he has had some severe 
 attack, not paralytic ; ' but if I had not heard of it,' he 
 
 1 To Mary Pridhaiii, Poet. Works, ed. 1893, p. 203. 
 
 ^ To Allsop (Lamb's Letters, ii. 226). 
 
 ^ lb. ii. 232. 
 
 * May 10, 1S30 (//;. ii. 254). 
 
iSjo ' CONSTITUTION OF CHURCH AND STATE' i-ji 
 
 adds, ' I should not have found it out. He looks and 
 especially speaks strong,' 
 
 It was doubtless of this illness that in a letter of 
 July Coleridge writes that it had 'brought him to the 
 brink of the grave.' The letter was addressed to 
 Thomas Poole, and accompanied a presentation copy 
 of the writer's Constitution of CJmrcli and Stated in 
 the course of which is drawn a fascinating picture of 
 his old friend, the presentee. In the preface to this 
 pamphlet, the last of his works printed during his life- 
 time, Coleridge explains at considerable length that, 
 while he is not unfriendly to Catholic Emancipation, 
 he has scruples regarding the means proposed for its 
 attainment. He says the work is 'transcribed for the 
 greater part from a paper drawn up by him some years 
 ago at the request of J. Hookham Frere,' and which 
 paper, had it been finished before he [Frere] left 
 England, it was his intention to have laid before the 
 late Lord Liverpool.' He ' begs he may not be 
 suspected of predilection for any particular sect or 
 party ; for wherever he looks, in religion or politics, 
 he seems to see a world of power and talent wasted 
 on the support of half-truths.' His convictions on 
 this subject, though revised from year to year, have 
 been steadfast, and the pain of differing from men he 
 has loved and revered, is ' aggravated by the reflection 
 that in receding from the Burkes, Cannings, and 
 Lansdownes, he did not move a step nearer to the 
 feelings and opinions of their antagonists.' The 
 pamphlet, however, procured for Coleridge the name 
 
 1 On the Cons/if lit ion of the Chiirch and State, accordi7ig to the idea of each ; 
 •with and toward a right judgment on the late Catholic Bill. By S. T. Coleridge, 
 Esq., R.A. , R. S.L. London : Hurst, Chance, & Co. 1830, pp. viii. ; 227. A 
 'second edition,' with alterations and additions, soon followed — pp. viii. ; 241. 
 The sketch of Poole is at p. 102 of the first, and p. 115 of the second edition. 
 
272 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 183,0- 
 
 of High -churchman and Tory, and it is this work 
 which has often been credited with giving the first 
 impulse to the influences which, a few years later, 
 brought about the ' Oxford Movement.' 
 
 On June 26, 1830, died George IV., and with him 
 died the pensions of the Royal Associates. Apparently 
 they did not find this out until the following year. In 
 the Engliskmans Magazine for June 1831, attention 
 was directed to the fact that ' intimation had been 
 given to Mr. Coleridge and his brother Associates 
 that they must expect their allowances " very shortly " 
 to cease ' — the allowances having been a personal 
 bounty of the late King. On June 3, 1831, Gillman 
 wrote a letter to the Times, ' in consequence of a para- 
 graph which appeared in the Times of this day.' He 
 states that on the sudden suppression of the honorarium, 
 representations on Coleridge's behalf were made to 
 Lord Brougham, with the result that the Treasury 
 (Lord Grey) offered a private grant of ^200, which 
 Coleridge ' had felt it his duty most respectfully to 
 decline.' Stuart, however, wrote to King William's 
 son, the Earl of Munster, pointing out the hardship 
 entailed on Coleridge, whom he describes as old and 
 infirm, and without other means of subsistence. He 
 begs the Earl to lay the matter before his royal father. 
 To this a prompt reply came, excusing the King on 
 account of his ' very reduced income,' but promising 
 that the matter shall be submitted to His Majesty. To 
 these letters, which are printed in Letters from the 
 Lake Poets (pp. 319-322), the following note is ap- 
 pended : ' The annuity . . . was not renewed, but a 
 sum of ^300 was ultimately handed over to Coleridge 
 by the Treasury.' Even apart from this bounty, 
 Coleridge was not a sufferer by the withdrawal of 
 
1832 CONTINUED ILL-HEALTH 273 
 
 the King's pension, for Frere made it up to him 
 annually/ 
 
 The record of Coleridge's life after 1830 is summed 
 up in a sentence written by him within a fortnight of 
 his death : * For the last three or four years I have, 
 with few and brief intervals, been confined to a sick- 
 room.' ^ In January 1831, Wordsworth saw his old 
 friend several times and had lonof conversations with 
 him, being grieved to observe that * his constitution 
 seems much broken up.' *I have heard ' (he adds) 
 * that he has been worse since I saw him. His mind 
 has lost none of its vigour.'^ In April 1832, Lamb 
 writes to remove some mistaken sick-man's fancy : — 
 
 Not an unkind thought has passed in my brain concerning you ; 
 but I have been wofully neglectful of you ; so that if I do not hear 
 from you before then, I will set out on Wednesday morning to take 
 you by the hand. I would do it this moment, but an unexpected 
 visit might flurry you. I shall take silence for acquiescence, and 
 come. I am glad you could write so long a letter. ... If you ever 
 [he adds in a P.S?^ thought an offence, much more wrote it, against 
 me, it must have been in the times of Noah, and the great waters 
 have swept it away. Mary's most kind love. . . . Here she is crying 
 for mere love over your letter. I wring out less, but not sincerer 
 showers."* 
 
 In the same week Crabb Robinson ' saw Coleridge 
 in bed. He looked beautifully — his eye remarkably 
 brilliant — and he talked as eloquently as ever. His 
 declamation was against the [Reform] Bill,' which, he 
 considered, was being passed merely from fear of re- 
 sisting popular opinion.^ At the end of September, 
 Robinson took Landor out to see him. They found 
 him 'horribly bent and looking seventy years of age,' 
 and disposed to talk principally of the loss of his 
 
 1 Sir Walter Scoii's Journal, 1890, ii. 449. 
 
 2 Letter to Adam S. Kinnaird, July 13, 1834 (last page oi Table Talk). 
 ^ Jan. 24, 1 83 1, Knight's Life, iii. 189. 
 
 * Enfield, April 14, 1832 {Letters, ii. 278). 
 ^ Diaries, etc., ii. 128. 
 
 T 
 
274 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERLDGE 1S32- 
 
 pension. ' Landor spoke in his dashing way, which 
 Coleridge could understand.' ^ 
 
 A few weeks before this he had been able to go 
 over to Hampstead to attend the christening of his 
 grandchild Edith, the daughter of the second Sara. 
 In conveying this news to Poole, the elder Mrs. Cole- 
 ridge added that her husband ' talked a great deal of 
 you, as he always does when he speaks of his early 
 days.' ^ And it was of those early days that Words- 
 worth too was thinking when, during this summer, he 
 wrote to Rowan Hamilton^ : ' He [S. T. C] and my 
 beloved sister are the two beings to whom my intellect 
 is most indebted, and they are now proceeding as it 
 ^er& pari passzt, along the path of sickness — I will not 
 say towards the grave, but I trust towards a blessed 
 immortality.' 
 
 Coleridge's health must have improved considerably 
 in the summer of 1833, for in June he visited Cam- 
 bridge on the occasion of the third meeting of the 
 British Association. 
 
 My emotions (he said), at revisiting the University were at first 
 overwhelming. I could not speak for an hour ; yet my feelings 
 were, upon the whole, pleasurable, and I have not passed, of late 
 years at least, three days of such great enjoyment and healthful ex- 
 citement of mind and body. The bed on which I slept — and slept 
 soundly too — was, as near as I can describe it, a couple of sacks full 
 of potatoes tied together. Truly I lay down at night a man, and 
 arose in the morning a bruise. 
 
 'The two persons' (says H. N. Coleridge) 'of whom 
 he spoke with the greatest interest were Mr. Faraday 
 and Mr. Thirlwall.'^ Of this visit, Mrs. Clarkson 
 
 1 Diaries, etc., ii. 132. 
 
 2 T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 280. 
 
 3 June 25, 1832, Knight's Life, iii. 213. 
 
 * Table Talk. Note to June 29, 1833. In Conversations at Cambridge 
 (1836) Coleridge's old schoolfellow C. V. Le Grice professes to give specimens 
 of his table-talk on one of these June evenings at Thirlwall's rooms in Trinity — 
 in which college the old poet seems to have been put up. 
 
i833 A VISIT TO CAMBRIDGE 275 
 
 heard through Rydal Mount that Coleridge, 'though 
 not able to rise till the afternoon, had a crowded 
 levSe at his bedside.' ^ It was in July of this year 
 that he declared he could write as good verses as 
 ever ' if perfectly free from vexations, and in the ad 
 libitum hearing of good music ' ; and that his reason 
 for not finishing Christabel was not the want of a plan, 
 but the seemingly inevitable failure of continuations.^ 
 
 It must have been about this time that Harriet 
 Martineau paid that visit to Coleridge, of which she 
 has given a characteristic account. 
 
 He looked very old with his rounded shoulders, and drooping 
 head, and excessively thin limbs. His eyes were as wonderful as 
 they were ever represented to be — light grey, extremely prominent, 
 and actually glittering. . . . He told me that he read my [Political 
 Economy] tales as they came out, and . . . avowed that there were 
 some points in which we differed. . . . For instance, said he, ' You 
 appear to consider that society is an aggregate of individuals.' I 
 replied, I certainly did, whereupon he went off . . . on a long 
 flight in survey of society from his own balloon in his own current. 
 He came down again to some considerations of individuals, and at 
 length to some special biographical topics, ending with criticisms on 
 old biographers, whose venerable works he brought down from the 
 shelf. ... I am glad to have seen his weird face, and heard his 
 dreamy voice; and my notion of possession, prophecy, — of involuntary 
 speech from involuntary brain action has been clearer since.^ 
 
 What Coleridge thought of 'modern Political Economy' 
 is stated in very plain language in Table Talk 
 for March 17, 1833, ^^^ June 23, 1834. It is a 
 * solemn humbug ' ; without theorems, presenting only 
 problems ; ' the direct tendency of every rule of which 
 is to denationalise, to make the love of our country a 
 foolish superstition.' 
 
 On Aug. 5, Emerson, then a young man of 
 thirty, on his first pilgrimage to Europe, called on 
 
 1 H. C. R.'s Diaries, etc., ii. 143. 2 fable Talk, July 6, 1833. 
 
 2 Autobiography, i. 396-9. 
 
276 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1833- 
 
 Coleridge.^ He saw ' a short, thick old man, with 
 bright blue \_sic\ eyes, and fine clear complexion,' who 
 ' took snuff freely, which presently soiled his cravat 
 and neat black suit ' — the Coleridge whom Maclise 
 in that same year drew for the Eraser Gallery.^ The 
 visit was a failure, for an unhappy mention of Dr. 
 Channing caused the champion of orthodoxy to ' burst 
 into a declamation on the folly and ignorance of 
 Unitarianism, — its high unreasonableness,' — a declama 
 tion which gained fresh impetus from Emerson's inter- 
 jected avowal that he himself ' had been born and bred 
 a Unitarian.' When at the end of an hour the visitor 
 rose to go, Coleridge changed the note from negative 
 to positive, reciting the lately-composed lines on his 
 Baptismal Birthday ; and Emerson when he left, felt 
 that nothing had been satisfied but his curiosity. 
 
 Coleridge had then barely another year to live, and 
 though it was one of ever-increasing bodily pain and 
 weakness, all witnesses testify that the spirit remained 
 strong and willing to the very end. In the winter he 
 took leave of himself in the well-known Epitaph,^ but 
 his eyes were yet to be gladdened by another spring 
 and summer. Within two months of the end, Poole 
 found his old friend with ' a mind as strong as ever, 
 seemingly impatient to take leave of its encumbrance.' ^ 
 
 1 English Traits, chap. i. {Works, 1883, iv. 6-10). 
 
 2 Frasei's Mag. viii. 632. Reprinted in A Gallery of Illitsirious Literary 
 Characters, ed. by W. Bates, 1873. 
 
 2 Stop, Christian passer-by ! — Stop, child of God, 
 / And read with gentle breast. Beneath this sod 
 
 ' A poet lies, or that which once seem'd he. — 
 
 O, lift one thought in prayer for S. T. C. ; 
 That he who many a year with toil of breath 
 Found death in life, may here find life in death 
 Mercy for praise — to be forgiven for fame 
 He ask'd, and hop'd, through Christ. 
 Do thou the same 1 
 i)tk November 1S33. 
 
 * T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 294. 
 
i834 DEATH 277 
 
 A month later another visitor, unnamed, observed that 
 Coleridge's ' countenance was pervaded by a most re- 
 markable serenity,' which, as the conversation showed, 
 was a true reflection of his mind. In this atmosphere 
 of peace, he assured his visitor, all things were seen 
 by him ' reconciled and harmonised.'^ On July 20th, 
 dangerous symptoms appeared, and for several days 
 his sufferings were great, but they abated during the 
 final thirty-six hours. The only account of the closing 
 scenes which has come down to us is contained in a letter 
 written by his daughter Sara, Mrs. H. N. Coleridge : — 
 
 Henry saw him for the last time on Sunday [July 20], and con- 
 veyed his blessing to my mother and myself; but we made no 
 attempt to see him, and my brothers were not sent for, because the 
 medical men apprehended that the agitation of such interviews 
 would be more than he ought to encounter. Not many hours be- 
 fore his death, he was raised in his bed and wrote a precious faintly- 
 scrawled scrap, which we shall ever preserve, recommending his 
 faithful nurse, Harriet, to the care of his family. Mr. Green, who 
 had been so long the partner of his literary labours, was with him at 
 the last, and to him on the last evening of his life, he repeated a 
 certain part of his religious philosophy, which he was especially 
 anxious to have accurately recorded. He articulated with the 
 utmost difficulty, but his mind was clear and powerful, and so 
 continued till he fell into a state of coma, which lasted till he 
 ceased to breathe, about six o'clock in the morning [Friday, July 
 25]. ... A few out of his many deeply attached and revering 
 friends attended his remains to the grave, together with my husband 
 and [his brother, the poet's nephew] Edward, and that body which 
 did him such ' grievous wrong ' was laid in its final resting-place in 
 Highgate churchyard.'^ 
 
 None of Coleridge's oldest friends stood by the 
 grave. Poole was far in the west, Wordsworth and 
 Southey as far in the north, and Morgan was dead. 
 
 1 Knight's Life of Wordsworth, iii. 236. 
 
 2 Mem. of Saj-a [Mrs. H. N.] Coleridge, i. 109, iii. The funeral took place 
 on August 2. In the same letter Mrs. Coleridge mentions that her father's body 
 ' was opened, according to her own earnest request. The causes of his death were 
 sufficiently manifest in the state of the vital parts ; but that internal pain from 
 which he suffered more or less during his whole life was not to be explained, or 
 only by that which medical men call nervous sympathy.' 
 
278 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1834 
 
 Lamb was near, but his feelings would not permit him 
 to join the sorrowing company. During the few 
 months of life which remained to him, he never 
 recovered from his sense of loss. ' Coleridge is dead,' 
 was the abiding thought in his mind and on his lips. 
 ' His great and dear spirit haunts me,' he wrote, five 
 weeks before his own death — ' never saw I his like- 
 ness, nor probably the world can see again. I seem 
 to love the house he died in more passionately than 
 when he lived. What was his mansion is consecrated 
 to me a chapel.'^ When Wordsworth read the news 
 his voice faltered and then broke, but he seems to 
 have said little except of his friend's genius, calling 
 him ' the most zvonderful man that he had ever known. ^ 
 What Southey said has not been recorded. What he 
 wrote ^ is better forgotten. Doubtless he had the 
 rights which his wrongs gave him, but he remem- 
 bered both at an inappropriate moment. He had 
 been, so to speak, a father to the fatherless and a 
 husband to the widow, and it detracts nothing from 
 the credit due to him, that in many ways, perhaps even 
 in a pecuniary sense, he had been repaid to an ex- 
 tent larger than is generally supposed. But surely, 
 just then, a sense of his inestimable indebtedness 
 to his dead comrade of forty years, for friendship, for 
 inspiration, and for intellectual stimulus, should have 
 been uppermost in his mind. 
 
 In his will Coleridge well described the Gillmans 
 as his ' dear friends, his more than friends, the 
 guardians df his health, happiness, and interests ' 
 during the latter sixteen years of his life, and no one 
 
 1 New Monthly Magazine, Feb. 1835. 
 ^ Knight's Life, iii. 235. , 
 
 ^ Letter to Mrs. Hughes in Letters, etc., iv. 381. See also Thomas Moore's 
 Memoirs (vii. 69-73) quoted, in Knight's Life of Wordsworth, iii. 248. 
 
1 834 POSTHUMOUS WORKS 279 
 
 who loves Coleridge, and all that he was and is to the 
 world, can but share in his feelings of gratitude. The 
 will, which is full of such acknowledgments, is, in other 
 respects, thus summarised by the poet's daughter^ : — 
 
 What little he had to bequeath (a policy of assurance worth 
 about ^2560) is my mother's for life, of course, and will come to 
 her children equally after her time. Mr. Green has the sole power 
 over my father's literary remains, and the philosophical part he will 
 himself prepare for publication ; some theological treatises ^ he has 
 placed in the hands of Mr. Julius Hare of Cambridge and his curate, 
 Mr. Sterling (both men of great ability). Henry will arrange 
 literary and critical pieces, notes on the margins of books, or any 
 miscellaneous productions of that kind that may be met with among 
 his MSS., and probably some letters will appear if they can be 
 collected. 
 
 How worthily Coleridge's nephew fulfilled his duty, 
 so long as fading health permitted, and with what 
 ability and filial piety the task which fell from his 
 hands was taken up and carried on, first by the poet's 
 daughter, and next by her brother Derwent, is well 
 known to a grateful world. The tasks handed over by 
 Green were possible tasks. That which was impos- 
 sible he chivalrously kept for himself — the completion 
 of the magnum optis. 
 
 About a year after Coleridge's death, an accession 
 of fortune enabled Green to renounce the private 
 practice of his profession, and in his country retire- 
 ment he devoted the remaining twenty-eight years of 
 his life to an attempt to realise his master's dream. ^ It 
 
 1 3Iem. of S. Coleridge, i. iii. Most of the will (dated Sep. 17, 1829) is 
 given in the Gent. Mag. for December 1834. It is printed in full, with the 
 codicil of July 2, 1830, in Coleridge's Poems. London: J. T. Cox, 1836, 
 pp. liii. -Ix. 
 
 2 What became of the ' theological treatises ' — what they were, or whether they 
 ever reached the hands of Hare and Sterling, I know not. One may have been 
 Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, edited by H. N. Coleridge (1840); and 
 another, certain commentaries on the Gospels and Epistles, which still remain 
 in MS. 
 
 3 Spiritual Philosophy, founded on the teaching of the late S. T. Coleridge, 
 by the late J. H. Green, F.R.S., D.C.L., edited with a Memoir of the Author's 
 Life, by John Simon, F.R.S., 2 vols. 1865. 
 
28o SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 was in vain. There was no inagmmi opus — ' the exist- 
 ence of any such work was mere matter of moon- 
 shine,' says Green's biographer and editor. 
 
 Coleridge had not left any available written materials for setting 
 comprehensively before the public in his own language, and in an 
 argued form, the philosophical system with which he wished his name 
 to be identified. Instead of it there were fragments — for the most 
 part mutually inadaptable fragments, and beginnings, and studies of 
 special subjects, and numberless notes on the margins and fly leaves 
 of books. True, that in unambiguous terms he had sounded the 
 key-note of his philosophy. And there was the tradition of his oral 
 teachings. And many of the written fragments were in the highest 
 degree interesting and suggestive, such as those which were succes- 
 sively published, under Mr. Green's authority, in the four volumes 
 of Literary Remains, and in the so-entitled Confessions ofati Inquiring 
 Spirit. 
 
 In his Hunterian Orations of 1840 and 1847, Green 
 probably accompHshed more in the setting forth of 
 Coleridge's philosophical views than in the Spiritual 
 Philosophy. But of these high matters I have no 
 right to speak, and even were it otherwise, this would 
 not be the place. Neither have I felt called on to dis- 
 cuss Coleridge's position as a poet. That has been 
 settled, and is unlikely to be disturbed. My sole aim 
 has been to supply a fairly complete and accurate 
 narrative of the events of his life. 
 
I WOULD fain leave the foregoing narrative to work 
 its own impression on the mind of the reader. If its 
 somewhat fuller and more orderly presentment of what 
 I believe to be the truth, be not found to tend, on the 
 whole, to raise Coleridge in the eyes of men, I shall, 
 I confess, feel both surprised and disappointed. It is 
 neither by glossing over his failings, nor by fixing an 
 exclusive eye on them, that a true estimate of any 
 man is to be arrived at. A better way is to collect as 
 many facts as we can, set them in the light of the 
 circumstances in which they were born, sort them fairly 
 into the opposing scales, and weigh them in an atmo- 
 sphere as free as possible from cant and prejudice. 
 To my own mind it seems that Coleridge's failings are 
 too obvious to require either all the insistence or all 
 the moralising which have been lavished on them ; 
 and that his fall is less wonderful than his recovery. 
 His will was congenitally weak, and his habits weak- 
 ened it still farther ; but his conscience, which was 
 never allowed to sleep, tortured him ; and, after many 
 days, its workings stimulated the paralysed will, and 
 he was saved. 
 
 A brief dawn of unsurpassed promise and achieve- 
 ment ; ' a trouble ' as of ' clouds and weeping rain ' ; 
 then, a long summer evening's work done by 'the setting 
 sun's pathetic light' — such was Coleridge's day, the 
 after-glow of which is still in the sky. I am surejthat 
 
 ^ OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OP 
 
 CA.LiPOSM'.A- 
 
282 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 the temple, with all the rubble which blended with its 
 marble, must have been a grander whole than any we 
 are able to reconstruct for ourselves from the stones 
 which lie about the field. The living Coleridge was 
 ever his own apology — men and women who neither 
 shared nor ignored his shortcomings, not only loved 
 him, but honoured and followed him. This power of 
 attraction, which might almost be called universal, so 
 diverse were the minds and natures attracted, is itself 
 conclusive proof of very rare qualities. We may read 
 and re-read his life, but we cannot know him as the 
 Lambs, or the Words worths, or Poole, or Hookham 
 Frere, or the Gillmans, or Green knew him. Hatred 
 as well as love may be blind, but friendship has eyes, 
 and their testimony may wisely be used in correcting 
 our own impressions. 
 
 Mrs. Coleridge survived her husband for eleven 
 years. In 1845 she passed away, at the house of her 
 daughter, which had been her home since 1830. The 
 three children who had grown up all outlived both 
 parents. Hartley, the eldest born, was a poet and a 
 man of letters. Not a few of his sonnets have taken 
 a place in permanent literature, and as a critic and 
 essayist he is remarkable for lucidity of style, and 
 balance of thought and judgment. He was a gentle, 
 simple, humble-minded man, but his life was marred 
 and broken by intemperance. He lies, in death as 
 in life, close to the heart of Wordsworth, and his 
 name still lingers in affectionate remembrance by 
 those * lakes and sandy shores ' beside which he was, 
 as his father had prophesied, to ' wander like a breeze.' 
 The career of Derwent, both as to the conduct of life 
 and its rewards, was in marked contrast to his brother's. 
 His bent was to be a student, but he was forced into 
 
CONCLUSION 283 
 
 action, partly by circumstance, partly by an honourable 
 ambition. During a long and useful life, more than 
 twenty years of which were spent as Principal of St. 
 Mark's College, Chelsea, he did signal service to the 
 cause of national education. He cannot be said to 
 have left his mark on literature, but his chief work. 
 The Scriptural Character of the English Church, won 
 the admiration of F. D. Maurice for ' its calm scholar- 
 like tone and careful English style.' He was appointed 
 a Prebendary of St. Paul's in 1846, and Rector of 
 Hanwell in 1863. The leisure of his later years was 
 devoted to linguistic and philological studies, in which 
 his attainments were remarkable. At rare intervals, 
 to the inner circle of his friends, he would talk by the 
 hour, and though in these ' conversational mono- 
 logues ' he resembled rather than approached his 
 father, he delivered himself with a luminous wisdom 
 all his own. He edited the works of his father, of 
 his brother, and of his friends, Winthrop Mackworth 
 Praed and John Moultrie. Of his sister Sara, it has 
 been said that ' her father looked down into her eyes, 
 and left in them the light of his own.' Her beauty 
 and erace were as remarkable as her talents, her 
 learning, and her accomplishments ; but her chief 
 characteristic was ' the radiant spirituality of her 
 intellectual and imaginative being.' This, with other 
 rare qualities of mind and spirit, is indicated in 
 Wordsworth's affectionate appreciation in The Triad, 
 and conspicuous in her fairy-tale Phantasmion, and in 
 the letters which compose the bulk of her Memoirs. 
 
? 
 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 The Original Prospectus of 'The Watchman 
 (See Chapter III. /. 5 1 ) 
 
 That All may know the Truth ; 
 
 And that the Truth may make us Free ! ! 
 
 On Friday, the ^th Day of February 
 1796 
 
 WILL BE PUBLISHED 
 
 No. I. 
 
 (price four pence) 
 
 OF A 
 MISCELLANY, TO BE PUBLISHED EVERY EIGHTH DAY, 
 
 under the name OF 
 'THE WATCHMAN.' 
 
 By S. T. COLERIDGE, 
 
 author of 
 addresses to the people. 
 
 A PLOT DISCOVERED, CtC, etC. 
 
 The Publishers in the different 
 
 Towns and Cities will be 
 
 specified in future Advertisements. 
 
SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 PROSPECTUS 
 
 In an enslaved State the Rulers form and supply the 
 opinions of the people. 
 
 This is the mark by which Despotism is distinguished : for it is 
 the power by which Despotism is begun and continued. 
 
 ' The abuses, that are rooted in all the old Govertimetits of 
 
 Europe, give such manbers of men such a direct interest in supporting, 
 cherishing, a?id defending abuses, that no wonder advocates for tyranny 
 of every species are found i?i every country and almost in every 
 company. What a mass of People ifi every part of Englajid are 
 some way or other interested in the pj-esenf representation of the 
 people, in tythes, charters, corporations, monopolies, and taxation I 
 and not merely in the things themselves, but in all the abuses 
 attending them ; and how many are there who derive their profit or 
 their consideration in life, not merely from such institutions, but from 
 the evils they engender ! ' 
 
 Arthur Young's Travels. 
 
 Among the most powerful advocates and auxiliaries of abuses we 
 must class (with a few honorable exceptions) the weekly Provincial 
 Newspapers, the Editors of which receive the Treasury Prints gratis, 
 and in some instances with particular paragraphs marked out for 
 
 their insertion. These Papers form the chief, and sometimes the 
 
 only, reading of that large and important body of men, who living 
 out of towns and cities have no opportunity of hearing calumnies 
 exposed and false statements detected. Thus are Administra- 
 tions enabled to steal away their Rights and Liberties, either so 
 gradually as to undermine their Freedom without alarming them : 
 or if it be necessary to carry any great point suddenly, to overthrow 
 their Freedom by alarming them against themselves. 
 
 A People are free in proportion as they form their own 
 opinions. In the strictest sense of the word Knowledge is Power. 
 
APPENDIX 287 
 
 Without previous illumination a change in the forms of Government 
 will be of no avail. These are but the shadows, the virtue and 
 rationality of the People at large are the substance, of Freedom : and 
 where Corruption and Ignorance are prevalent, the best forms of 
 Government are but the ' Shadows of a Shade ! ' We actually 
 transfer the Sovereignty to the People, when we make them sus- 
 ceptible of it. In the present perilous state of our Constitution the 
 Friends of Freedom, of Reason, and of Human Nature, must 
 feel it their duty by every mean in their power to supply or circulate 
 political information. We ask not their patronage : It will be ob- 
 tained in proportion as we shall be found to deserve it. Our 
 
 Miscellany will be comprised in two sheets, or thirty-two pages, 
 closely printed, the size and type the same as of this Prospectus. 
 The contents will be 
 
 I. An History of the domestic and foreign Occurrences of the 
 
 preceding days. 
 
 « 
 
 II. The Speeches in both Houses of Parliament : and during the 
 Recess, select Parliamentary Speeches, from the commence- 
 ment of the reign of Charles the First to the present sera, 
 with Notes historical and biographical. 
 
 III. Original Essays and Poetry, chiefly or altogether political. 
 
 It's chief objects are to co-operate (i) with the Whig Club in 
 procuring a repeal of Lord Grenville's and Mr. Pitt's bills, now 
 passed into laws, and (2) with the Patriotic Societies for obtain- 
 ing a Right of Suffrage general and frequent. 
 
 In the cities of London, Bristol, , , and , 
 
 it will appear as regularly as a Newspaper, over which it will have 
 these advantages : — 
 
 I. There being no advertisements, a greater quantity of original 
 matter must be given. 
 
 II. From its form, it may be bound up at the end of the year, 
 and become an Annual Register. 
 
 III. This last circumstance may induce Men of Letters to prefer 
 this Miscellany to more perishable publications, as the vehicle 
 of their effusions. 
 
SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 It remains to say, that whatever powers or acquirements the 
 Editor possesses, he will dedicate entirely to this work ; and (which 
 is of more importance to the Public) he has received promises of 
 occasional assistance from literary men of eminence and established 
 reputation. With such encouragement he offers himself to the 
 Public as a faithful 
 
 WATCHMAN, 
 
 to proclaim the State of the Political Atmosphere, and preserve 
 Freedom and her Friends from the attacks of Robbers and 
 Assassins ! ! 
 
 
 ' 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abernethy, Dr., consulted by Cole- 
 ridge in i8i I, 182 
 
 Academe at Ilighgate established, 250 
 
 Adams, Dr., of Hatton Garden, con- 
 sulted by Coleridge in 1816 ; recom- 
 mends him as patient to Mr. Gill- 
 man, 219 
 
 Addington, Rt. Hon. Mr., 142 ;;. 
 
 Aders, Mr. and Mrs., 253 ; entertain 
 Coleridge and Wordsworth at Godes- 
 berg in 182S, 264 
 
 Ad Lyram, 30 
 
 Adscombe, near Stowey, 55 
 
 Adye, Major, 145 and note 
 
 Aids to Ktjicctioii, begun as a selection 
 of the ' Beauties ' of Archbp. Leigh- 
 ton, 254; published, 1825 ; its re- 
 ception ; Julius C. Hare on ; 256 
 and notes ; 268 
 
 Aim of the present Memoir, 2S0 
 
 Ainger, The Rev. Canon, vi., 132 n. 
 
 Akenside, 59 
 
 Alfoxden, a country-house near Stowey, 
 rented by Wordsworth in 1797, 72 
 and note [thence to p. 92, passim'] ; 
 Wordsworth's enforced quittance of, 
 74, 86 
 
 Allan Bank, Wordsworth's second 
 house at Grasmere, 170, 176, 179 
 
 Allen, Robert, friend of Coleridge and 
 Lamb at Christ's Hospital, and of 
 Southey at Balliol, 20 ; 29 
 
 Allsop, Thomas, 90, 112 n., 191; 235; 
 introduces himself to Coleridge in 
 1818, the beginning of a long and 
 close friendship, 236 ; 237 ; 243 ; 
 Coleridge's esteem for, 246 ; 248 ; 
 255 ; 270 
 
 Allston, Washington, the American 
 painter, 1 50 ; meets Coleridge at 
 Rome in 1806, and paints his por- 
 
 trait, 1 50 and ;?o/t? ; letter to, 151, 
 152 ; Life of, by Mr. Flagg, quoted, 
 1 50 «., 151 Ji.; intercourse with Cole- 
 ridge at Bristol in 181 3- 14, 199, 
 200 and note, 205, 208 ; paints 
 Coleridge's portrait for J. Wade, 
 in 1 8 14, 150 n., 205 
 
 Ambleside, Hartley and Derwent Cole- 
 ridge put to school at, in 1S08, 
 170; 176, 177 ; 185 
 
 America, Pantisocrats decide to settle 
 in, 31, 33, 35, 36, 44: Coleridge 
 proposes to emigrate to, in 1801, 
 121 
 
 Anatomy, Bailey's Morbid, 217 
 
 Ancient iMariner, The, "ji ; begun 
 Nov. 1797, 79 and wo/'t'.f ; completed 
 March, 1798, 80 ; 86 ; 88 «. ; 91 ; 
 published, 93 ; its reception by the 
 critics, 93 ; 267 
 
 Andrea del Sarto, in Browning's poem, 
 so entitled, 267 
 
 'Angel' Inn, Butcher Hall Street, 
 London, 43 
 
 Animal Magnetism, Coleridge much 
 interested in, in 1 817, 231 and note 
 
 Annual Anthology, The, for 1800, Cole- 
 ridge's contributions to, 104, 106 n. 
 
 Annuities enjoyed by Coleridge : one 
 collected by Poole in 1796 and 
 1797, 52 and Jiote, 66 and 7iote ; 
 one granted by Thomas and Josiah 
 Wedgwood, for life, in 1798, 83, 
 84; J.'s half withdrawn in 18 12, 
 192 ; Coleridge's feeling on the occa- 
 sion, 193 and note; Mrs. Coleridge 
 is the chief sufferer, 193, 229 ; one 
 received in 1825 as Royal Associate 
 of R. Soc. of Lit. from Privy Purse 
 of George IV., 257, 259 ; ceases on 
 death of George IV. in 1830 ; com- 
 
290 
 
 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 pensation granted by Treasury, and 
 annuity made up to Coleridge by 
 J. H. Frere, 272, 273 ; [one pro- 
 jected by Cottle in 1814, 201 ; one 
 suggested by Coleridge himself in 
 1S20, 248] 
 
 Anster, Dr., translator of Faust, 
 almost persuades Coleridge to lecture 
 at Dublin, 249 
 
 Anti -Jacobin, revival of its charges 
 against Coleridge, in Blachvootfs 
 Magazine, in 1817 ; he contemplates 
 action for libel, 229 and iiote 
 
 Applcthiuaite, At, Wordsworth's son- 
 net so entitled, 140 n. {see also 
 under ' Sir George Beaumont ') 
 
 Aquinas, St. Thomas, 128; 270 
 
 Archangel, 'An, a little damaged' — 
 Coleridge so described by Lamb, 
 49, 218 
 
 Aristocrats, 73 
 
 Articles of the Church, projected philo- 
 sophical defence of, 207 
 
 Ashe, Mr. Thomas, collects reports of 
 Coleridge's Lectures, 184 «.; 199 «. 
 
 Ashley, near Box, Coleridge lives with 
 the Morgans at, in 1S14, 207 ; 210 
 
 Aspheterism, 35, 44 
 
 Ass, Lines to a Young, 37 
 
 Assertion of Religion, projected work 
 to be so entitled, 246 
 
 Association (MS.), Disquisition on, 213 
 
 Astronomy, Coleridge's Greek poem 
 on, translated by Southey, 23 71. 
 
 Athenivnm, The, weekly journal, quoted, 
 142 n., 172 ;;., 209 n., 229 n., 
 232 n., 235 n., 238 n., 25 1 n., 264 
 
 Autobiography, projected by Coleridge 
 (realised in Biog. Lit.), 207 
 
 Autopsy on Coleridge, Lidications 
 shown by, 277 ;/. 
 
 Autumnal Evening, Lines on an, 26 
 
 Azores, Proposal to winter (180 1-2) in, 
 123, 126 
 
 Bacon, 73 
 
 'Ez.iXefs Morbid Anatomy, studied, 217 
 Bala Hill, On, 132 
 Baldwin, Mr., publisher, 183 
 Ball, Sir Alex. John, Governor [H.]\L 
 Civil Commissioner] of Malta, 145- 
 148 ; Coleridge acts as his Private 
 Secretary, 146; Acting Public Secre- 
 taiy to, 147 ; his essays on, in The 
 Friend, 175, 1 76; his relations 
 with, always excellent, 175 n. 
 
 Bang, ' the Nepenthe of the Ancients, 
 
 135 
 
 Bannister, Jack, the actor, 191 
 
 Baptismal Birthday, My, 276 
 
 Baptism of Coleridge's children, 115; 
 129 
 
 Barbauld, Mrs., 64 n., 74 
 
 Barnard, Bart., Sir Thomas, 187 
 
 Barton, Bernard, 252 and note, 256 
 
 Beaten Paths, by T. Colley Grattan, 
 264 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher's Pilgrim, and 
 Beggar's Bush, re-written for the 
 stage by Coleridge, 215 
 
 Beaumont, Bart., Sir George, his de- 
 sire to enable Coleridge and Words- 
 worth to be permanent neighbours, 
 140 n. {see also under ' Apple- 
 thwaite. At,' 140), 141 ; gift of 
 ^^Tioo to Coleridge towards travel- 
 ling expenses to Malta, 143 ; 154; 
 1S7; 253 
 
 Beaumont, Lady (wife of preceding), 
 156, 177 ; contributes toward Hart- 
 ley Coleridge's Oxford expenses, 
 209 ; 267 n. 
 
 Becker, Herr, 265 
 
 Beddoes, Dr., of Bristol, 53, 80; his 
 Pneumatic Institution, 113 n. 
 
 Bedford, Grosvenor C. ( Southey 's 
 friend), 30, 43 
 
 Belles Lettres, Coleridge's Lectures on, 
 in 1813, 188, 189 
 
 Berkeley, Bishop, 45, 89, 165 n. 
 
 Berners Street, Oxford Street, London, 
 Coleridge resides with the Morgans 
 at, in 1812-13, 186, 187 
 
 Bertram (Maturin's play) substituted 
 for Coleridge's Zapolya at Drury 
 Lane, 1816 ; Coleridge's critique 
 on, in Biog. Lit., 223 n., 228; 244 
 
 Betham, Miss Matilda, 176, iSo n., 
 181 
 
 Bethell, Bishop, of Bangor, 23 ;;. 
 
 Betty Foy [ The Idiot Boy, by Words- 
 worth] recited by Coleridge, 87 ; 93 
 
 Biddulph, Mr., of Bristol, 209 
 
 Bible Society meeting at Calne in 18 14, 
 Coleridge makes speech at, 214 
 
 Biographia Literaria, 17, 78 «., 196, 
 207 ; its genesis and growth in com- 
 position, 212 and 7iote, 213-215, 
 223, 226 ; incomplete printed sheets 
 transferred from Bristol to Gale & 
 Fenner, 227 ; how completed, 228 ; 
 published //'. ; reviewed by Hazlitt 
 
INDEX 
 
 291 
 
 in the Edin. Rev., 228; certain 
 statements in B.L. disputed by 
 JeftVey in Editi. Rev., 228 ; re- 
 view in Blackwood's Mag. much 
 resented by Coleridge, 228, 229; 
 D. Stuart offended by certain state- 
 ments in B.L., 230 and 7iote ; 234 ; 
 268, 269 
 
 Biography, Did. of National, quoted, 
 21 ; 236 
 
 'Black Drop, Kendal,' 124; locally 
 named ' Black Drops,' 124 ;;. 
 
 Black Sea, Coleridge appointed by 
 Government of Alalta to go as 
 Assistant Commissaiy to (appoint- 
 ment cancelled), 146, 147 
 
 Blackwood s A/ag'azine, Coleridge con- 
 templates libel action against, for 
 statements in review of Biog. Lit., 
 229 ; the proprietor solicits contri- 
 butions from Coleridge, 241 ; Cole- 
 ridge promises conditionally, but 
 shrinks from the connection, 241 
 and note ; contributes sonnet, 241 ; 
 and articles, 249 and note. 
 
 Blank Verse, by C. Lamb and C. 
 Lloyd, quoted, 90 11. 
 
 Blue coat, Coleridge preaches in a, 5 1 
 
 Blumenbach, Prof., Coleridge attends 
 his lectures at Gottingen, 97 ; he 
 gives Coleridge farewell supper, 102; 
 reverses his judgment regarding 
 Animal ISLagnetism, 231 
 
 Boccaccio, The Garden of, 266 
 
 Boehme, Jacob, Coleridge's indebted- 
 ness to, 165 «., 187 n. 
 
 Boers, Rise and Condition of the 
 German, projected work on, 1 1 8 
 
 Bombay, Mackintosh offers to take 
 Coleridge with him to, 142 
 
 Bonn, the illiiininati of, met by Cole- 
 ridge at Godesberg in 1828, 265 
 
 Boosey and Co., foreign booksellers of 
 Broad Street, Coleridge proposes to 
 them a new periodical, 224 and note 
 
 Borderers, The (Wordsworth's tragedy 
 so entitled), admired by Coleridge in 
 1798, 67 
 
 Bowdon, Anne, second wife of Rev. 
 John Coleridge, and mother of S. T. 
 Coleridge. See under ' Coleridge, 
 Mrs. John (Ann Bowdon)' 
 
 Bowdon, John, maternal uncle of S. T. 
 Coleridge, 8; 11 
 
 Bowles, Rev. W, Lisle, Coleridge at- 
 tracted by his 'Sonnets' in 1794, 
 
 16 ; their influence on his latent 
 poetical faculty, 17 ; called by Cole- 
 ridge ' the god of my idolatry ' up 
 to end of 1796 (at least), 18, 59; 
 his sonnet To the River Itchin, 18 
 n. ; Coleridge makes his personal 
 acquaintance in 1797 in a visit to 
 Shaftesbury, taking with him the in- 
 complete MS. of Osorio, 77 ; Cole- 
 ridge's intercourse with, at Brem- 
 hill in 1814-15, 208 
 
 Boyer, Rev. James, Headmaster of 
 Christ's Hospital, his severe but 
 judicious treatment of Coleridge, 
 II-13; Coleridge's contributions to 
 his 'Albums' for select school- 
 exercises, 16 and note 
 
 Brabant, Dr., of Devizes, Coleridge's 
 intercourse and correspondence with 
 in 1815-16, 211-217; his profes- 
 sional advice given to Coleridge, 
 217; correspondence printed in JVest- 
 viinster Review, 1 870, 212 
 
 Brandl's Life of Colei-idge quoted, 29, 
 41, 229 n., 242 ;/. 
 
 Brathay, Lloyd's house at the Lakes, 
 177 
 
 Bremhill, Coleridge visits Bowles at, 
 78 n., 208 
 
 Brent, Miss Charlotte, sister of Mrs J. 
 J. Morgan [see under ' Morgan, 
 Mr. and Mrs. J. J., and Miss C. 
 Brent ') 
 
 Brice, Mr., of Aisholt, Coleridge visits 
 in 1807, 159 
 
 Bridgwater, Coleridge at, 66, 161 
 
 Bristol group of friends of Coleridge 
 (J. Cottle, W. Hood, Le Breton, 
 Rev. J. P. Estlin, J. Wade, J. M. 
 Gutch), 199, 202, 210, 211, 220 
 
 Bristol, Coleridge visits Southey at, in 
 
 1794) 31 j begins residence there in 
 
 1795) 43; leaves it on marriage for 
 Clevedon, 50 ; returns and resides 
 until end of 1796, 51 ; resides there 
 in 1 81 3- 14, as guest of J. Wade, 
 197 ; delivers several courses of 
 lectures there 18 13- 14, ig8, 199 ; 
 leaves in 18 14 for Ashley and Calne, 
 207 
 
 British Association, Coleridge visits 
 Cambridge on occasion of 1833 
 meeting of the, 274 
 
 Britton, John, 239 n., 240 
 
 Broad Church revival influenced by 
 Coleridge's teaching, 269 
 
292 
 
 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 Brocken, Coleridge's tours to the, in 
 
 1799) 98, 102 ; 249 
 Brook, The, a projected poem, 79 and 
 
 note 
 ' Brother Coly,' Coleridge so called by 
 
 Evans family, 1 5 
 Brown, John, printer and publisher of 
 The F)-ieiid [iSoq-io), 172; becomes 
 bankrupt in 1S12, to Coleridge's 
 loss, 1S5 
 Browne Gold Medal for Greek Sapphic 
 ode on Slave Trade, gained by 
 Coleridge, in 1792, 22 
 Browning's (Robert) Andrea del Sarfo, 
 
 267 
 Brun, Frederica, German poetess, her 
 address to Mont Blanc, plagiarised 
 by Coleridge, 140 ;/. 
 Buckingham Street, Strand, Coleridge 
 and wife lodge there in 1 799-1800, 
 106 
 Buller, Sir Francis (Judge), obtains 
 presentation to Christ's Hospital for 
 Coleridge, 8 
 Buonaparte,' ' A Character of, by 
 Coleridge, 108 [see also under 
 ' Napoleon Buonaparte ') 
 Burke, Edmund, 271 
 Burnett, George, a Pantisocrat, 31, 32 ; 
 41 ; 50; an ' opium-chewer,' 142 ; 
 dies in a workhouse hospital in 181 1, 
 182 
 Burns, Robert, 17, 58, 93 
 Butler, Bishop Samuel, of Lichfield, 23 
 
 and note 
 Byron, Lord, attends Coleridge's 
 lectures in 181 1 -12, 185 ; influences 
 the acceptation of Remorse for Drury 
 Lane Theatre, 188; asks Coleridge 
 to write a play for Drury Lane 
 Theatre in 181 5 ; receives a promise, 
 but nothing results, 216 ; recommends 
 Murray to publish Christahel, 218. 
 [While this index was being com- 
 piled (Nov. 1893), Familiar Letters 
 of Sir Walter Scott appeared. In a 
 letter dated Nov. 14, 1824 (ii. 221) 
 Scott writes : ' Byron might have 
 remembered, by the way, that it was 
 I who first introduced his Lordship 
 to the fragment [Christabcl] with a 
 view to interest him in Coleridge's 
 fate, and in the play \^Rc!norse'\ he 
 was then bringing forward.'] 
 
 Caen Wood, 243 
 
 Cain, The Wanderings ^85 and note 
 Call, The late Mr. W. M., 212 «. 
 Calne, 9 ; Coleridge removes with the 
 Morgans from Ashley to, Nov. 18 14, 
 209 ; resides there until 18 16, when 
 he leaves for London and Highgate, 
 217 
 Calvert, Mr., 121 
 
 Cambridge, Coleridge goes up to Jesus 
 College, with Christ's Hospital 
 Exhibition in 1 791, 21 ; his life 
 there, 21-42; leaves without a 
 degree, 41, 42 ; thinks of returning 
 after his marriage ('but free from 
 University control') in 1795, 47 n.; 
 never revisits, except in 1S33, 274 ; 
 his emotion on that occasion, 274 
 Cambridge Intelligencer, newspaper 
 edited by Benjamin Flower, Ode to 
 the Depa7-ting Year written for, in 
 1796, 63 
 Campbell, Thomas, attacked by Cole- 
 ridge in lecture, 1811-12, 185 
 Canning, Rt. Hon. George, 107, 263, 
 
 271 
 Cant, The P7-og7-ess of, etching by 
 
 Thomas Hood, so entitled, 261 
 Canterbury Alagazine, 234 n., 2yj n., 
 
 239, 241 n. 
 Carlyle, Dr. John, brother of Thomas, 
 
 260 ;/. 
 Carlyle, Thomas, S3 n., 214; picture 
 of Coleridge at Highgate, in Life of 
 J. Sterling, 259 ; the rough sketches 
 from life, made in 1S24-25, quoted, 
 260, 261; appreciation of Coleridge 
 in Essay on Novalis, quoted, 269 
 Carlyon, IVLD., Clement, 41 ; fellow- 
 student with Coleridge at Gottingen, 
 98 ; his account of Coleridge there 
 in Early Years, etc., g^-102, passi/n 
 Caroline, Queen of George IV., pro- 
 jected pamphlet on, 246 and note 
 Carwardine, Mr. H. H., his reports of 
 lectures, 181 8, in Azotes and Queries, 
 235 ;/. 
 Gary, Rev. H. F. (translator of 
 Dante), 123 «. ; makes acquaintance 
 with Coleridge in 1817, 232 ; its 
 great advantage to Gary, 232 and note 
 Casimir, Coleridge's translation of his 
 
 Ad Lyrani, 30 
 Castlereagh, Lord, 147 
 Catania, Coleridge desires to go to, 
 143 ; probably ascended Etna from, 
 in 1804, 146 n. 
 
INDEX 
 
 293 
 
 Catholic Emancipation, Coleridge's 
 views on, in 1830, 271 
 
 Cato's Letters, 13 
 
 Catullus, quoted by Coleridge, 78 n. 
 
 Cervantes : Proposed translation of 
 works {Don Quixote excepted), 215 
 
 Chalmers, D.D., Rev. Thos., visits 
 Coleridge, 260 n. 
 
 Chapman, E. T. , Public Secretary- 
 designate of Malta, 147-149 
 
 Character A, an autobiographical skit, 
 258 
 
 Chattcrtoii, Coleridge's Monody on, 
 
 iS, 45 
 
 Chemistry, 58 ; Coleridge proposes 
 serious study of, experimentally, 121 
 
 Cliester, John, 87 ; accompanies Cole- 
 ridge to Germany, 91 ;/., 92, 94, 95 
 
 Christabcl, 71 ; Part I. begun 1797, 
 80 ; traces of lines in Dorothy 
 Wordsworth's Alfoxden Journals, 
 So, 89 ; promised to be completed 
 for Atiti. Anthology, 104 - 106 ; 
 Part II. composed in 1800, 116, 
 117; efforts to complete, for Lyrical 
 Ballads, second edition, 1 1 7 and 
 note ; recited to Scott by John Stod- 
 dart, 1 17 [' Some stanzas of it ... in 
 my cottage at Lasswade,' says Scott 
 in letter printed in Familiar Letters, 
 2 vols. 1894; ii. 221]; 'getting 
 ready for the press' in 1801, 120, 
 121, 137 ; imitated by Scott in Lay 
 of iMst Minstrel, 160, 16 1, 244 
 [^Familiar Letters of Scott, ii. '2.i\\; 
 published by Murray under Byron's 
 recommendation, 218, 221 {see also 
 under ' Byron, Lord ') ; its reception 
 1 )y the critics ; Coleridge accuses Haz- 
 litt of writing the attack in the Edin. 
 Rev. ; his feelings regarding the re- 
 ception, 222; 244; he would fain 
 finish (1820), 247; 267; reason for 
 not finishing (1833), 275 
 
 Christian Observer, The, Reminiscences 
 of Coleridge in 18 14, in, 208 11. 
 
 Christian Reformer, The, quoted, 84 
 
 Christianity the one true Philosophy, 
 title of a projected work (the ' mag- 
 num opus,'' q.v. ), 207, 210 
 
 Christ's Hospital, Coleridge at, 1782- 
 91, 8-20; enters, 8; Lamb's ac- 
 count of the ' poor friendless boy,' 
 9 ; the account has a touch of artistic 
 exaggeration 10, 11; friendships 
 made there, 11, 19, 20; Boyer's 
 
 care and discipline, 12 ; becomes 
 ' Grecian ' and gains exhibition at 
 Jesus College, Cambridge, 12, 21 ; 
 waywardness at school, 12, 13 ; 
 'the inspired charity boy," 13, 14; 
 'the era of love and poetiy,' 15; 
 rumoured attachment to his 'nurse's' 
 daughter — Genevieve, 14 ; the 
 Evans family to whom he was 
 'Brother Coly,' 15; falls in love 
 with Mary Evans, ib. ; poetical 
 faculty awakened by Bowles's ' Son- 
 nets,' 16-18; his Duke Domuni, 
 on leaving school, 1791, 20; 28; 
 29 ; 42 ; Lamb's Essays on C.H., 8 
 
 Chubb, Mr., of Bridgwater, Cole- 
 ridge's host, in 1807, 162 
 
 Church-going, Coleridge not addicted 
 to, 116 
 
 Clark, Mr. and Mrs. C. Cowden, 
 249 n 
 
 Clarkson, Thomas, 135 ; Coleridge 
 reviews his History of the Slave 
 Trade in Edin. Rev. (1808), 168 
 and note ; 173 
 
 Clarkson, Mrs. Thomas (wife of the 
 preceding), 135, 169 ; endeavours 
 to mediate between Coleridge and 
 Wordsworth in 18 13, 194 and note, 
 
 195 
 
 Classes formed by Coleridge at Highgate 
 in 1822, 250 
 
 Clevedon, the honeymoon cottage at, 
 entered, 51 ; given up, 52 
 
 Closing scenes of Coleridge's life de- 
 scribed by his daughter, 277 
 
 Cobbett, Coleridge opposes, in 18 10, 
 181 
 
 Coldridge = Coleridge, 32; place name, 
 48 
 
 Coleorton Farm - house, Coleridge's 
 visit to the Wordsworths at, in 
 1806-7, 156 et seq. 
 
 Coleridge, Ann ('Nancy') (sister), 2; 
 her death, 19 
 
 Coleridge, Berkeley (second son and 
 child), birth 89 ; 92 ; illness, 96 ; 
 death in infancy, 99 
 
 Coleridge, Bishop, of Barbadoes 
 (nephew), 2 
 
 Coleridge's, S. T., Brothers : offer to 
 aid him in the adoption of a pro- 
 fession in 1794; their displeasure 
 with his rejection of offer, with his 
 marriage, etc. etc., 1 794-6, 54; re- 
 conciliation in 1 796, 54; 104; lasting 
 
294 
 
 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 rupture with, in 1807, 159; assist 
 in sending Hartley to Oxford in 1814, 
 209 ; Mrs. S. T. Coleridge and her 
 daughter visit, in 1822, 252 ; final 
 reconciliation with S. T. Coleridge 
 in 1823, 253 
 Coleridge, David Hartley (son — com- 
 monly called ' Hartley '), 10 ; birth, 
 56; 75; 92; 120; 156; 158; put to 
 school at Ambleside, 170; 177; 185; 
 mainly by Southey's efforts is sent 
 to Oxford in 1815, 209, 210; 
 229 ; enters at Oxford, 214 ; 
 spends first vacation with his 
 father at Calne, ib. ; visits his 
 father at Highgate in 1820, 243 ; 
 forfeits fellowship at Oriel, but 
 receives compensation ; settles in 
 London, the guest of Montagu, 245 ; 
 develops his father's morbid weak- 
 nesses, 246 ; career, 282 
 Coleridge, Derwent (third son and 
 child), birth in 1800, 115 ;/.; 120; 
 156; put to school at Ambleside, 
 170; 177 ; 185 ; 229; visits his father 
 at Highgate in 1820, 243 ; his 
 marriage in 1827 ; Coleridge's 
 verses to his bride, 270 ; edits his 
 father's marginalia, etc., 279 ; 
 edits the poems of his father, of 
 Praed, and of J. Moultrie, 283 ; his 
 career, 282, 283 
 Coleridge, Rev. Edward (brother), 2 
 Coleridge, Edward (nephew), 277 
 Coleridge, Ernest Hartley, (grandson), 
 
 vi., 10 »., 68 n., 88 n. 
 Coleridge, Francis S. (brother), 2, 4 
 Coleridge, Rev. George (brother), 2 ; 
 Coleridge's 'earliest friend,' 7; his 
 kindness, 1 1 ; master at Hackney 
 academy, 1785-94 ; returns per- 
 manently to Ottery in 1794, 11 ; 
 29; 54; Coleridge's /'i?i7wj- of 1797 
 dedicated to, 69 ; Coleridge's letter 
 to him in 1798, 88; refuses to 
 receive S. T. Coleridge and wife in 
 1807, for reasons, 159 
 Coleridge, Henry Nelson (nephew 
 and son-in-law), 2 ; engaged to the 
 poet's daughter Sara, 252 ; his 
 Six Alonths in the West Indies 
 (1826), 262; marriage in 1829, 
 270; edits Coleridge's /"i^f/. Works, 
 ed. 1834, 263 n.; 277; edits the 
 literary and critical MSS., etc. etc., 
 279 
 
 Coleridge, Colonel James (brother), 2, 
 29. 253 
 
 Coleridge, Rev. John (father), i ; 
 schoolmaster at South Molton, ib. ; 
 appointed Vicar of Ottery, and 
 Master of Grammar School there 
 in 1760, 2 ; his two marriages, and 
 his children, ib. ; descendants now 
 living, ib. ; Coleridge's description of 
 his father, 2, 3 ; books written by, 
 3 ; his private boarding-school, 3 ;/. ; 
 sudden death in 178 1, 7 ; subject to 
 gout, 266 
 
 Coleridge, Mrs. John (Mary Lendon, 
 first wife of the preceding), her 
 death in 1751, i 
 
 Coleridge, Mrs. John (Anne Bowdon, 
 second wife of the Rev. John Cole- 
 ridge, and mother of the poet), i ; 
 her character, 3; 10; 29; 54; 
 sketched by Sou they in 1799, 104 
 
 Coleridge, John Duke, Lord — Lord 
 Chief -Justice of England — (great- 
 nephew), 2 
 
 Coleridge, Sir John Taylor (nephew), 
 2, 253 
 
 Coleridge, Luke Herman (brother), 2, 
 12; his death in 1791, 19; Cole- 
 ridge's verses on his death, ib. 
 
 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. — 
 
 C/ia/>. 1. — ChildJiocd — Christ's 
 Hospital. — 1772 - 1791. — Parent- 
 age, I ; brothers and sisters and 
 their descendants, 2, 153, 252; 
 childhood described in letters to 
 Poole, 4-8 ; in his poems, 7 ; death 
 of his father, ib. ; enters Christ's 
 Hospital, 8 ; Lamb's accounts of 
 -- him a school-boy, 9, 13 ; his own 
 reminiscences, 9, 10 ; letters home, 
 10, II ; capacity for making friends, - 
 1 1 ; waywardness, 12 ; studies medi- 
 cine, metaphysics, the Neo-Platon- 
 ists, and 'sports infidel,' 12, 13; 
 becomes 'Grecian,' 12; neglects 
 games, 14 ; illnesses at school, ib. ; 
 in love with his ' Nurse's ' daugh- 
 ter (? Genevieve), ib. ; relations with 
 Evans family, 11, 15 ; falls in love 
 with Mary Evans, 15 ; latent poetical 
 faculty quickened by Bowles's son- 
 nets, 16, 17; imitates Bowles, 18 
 and note ; feelings on leaving school, 
 19, 20 
 
 Chap. n. — Cambridge. — 1791- 
 1794. — Appointed to Exhibition at 
 
INDEX 
 
 295 
 
 Jesus Coll., Cambridge, 21 ; visits 
 Ottery, 22 ; enters at Jesus, Oct. 
 1 79 1, 21 ; gains Browne Gold Medal 
 for Greek ode, 1792, 22 ; tries un- 
 successfully for Craven Scholarship, 
 23 ; undergraduate distractions and "" 
 dissipations, 24, 25 ; becomes Radi- - 
 cal and Unitarian, 25 ; meets with 
 Wordsworth's T'oems" and Words- 
 worth's brother Christopher, ib. ; 
 joins Literary Society and ' spouts 
 Bowles,' 25, 26 ; leaves Cam- 
 bridge and enlists in 15th Lt. 
 Dragoons, 27 ; discharged, and 
 returns to Cambridge, 29 ; makes 
 Southcy's acquaintance, 30 ; Sou- 
 they's first impressions, ib. ; pro- 
 jects Imitations of the Modern 
 latin Poets, ib. ; Pantisocracy 
 hatched, 31 ; a tour in Wales, 
 during which encounters Mary 
 Evans, 34 ; visits Southey at 
 Bristol, 31, 35 ; becomes engaged 
 to Sarah Fricker, 31 ; visits Poole, 
 who describes him, 32 ; writes The 
 Fall of Robespierre in conjunction 
 with Southey, 35 ; returns to Cam- 
 bridge, vii% London, ib. ; publishes 
 Robespierre, 35, 36; exclusive pre-oc- 
 cupation with Pantisocracy, 36, 37, 
 41 ; prophetic liM^on himself, 37 ; 
 a last appeal to<^H|^ Evans, 37- 
 39 ; her reply aifl^Jts effects, 40, 
 41 ; leaves Cambridge without a 
 degree, 41, 42 ; stays with Lamb 
 in London, until taken to Bristol 
 by Southey, 42 ; relations with 
 Sarah Fricker and Pantisocracy re- 
 newed, 43 ; lives and works with 
 Southey, 43, 44 ; lectures, 43 ; en- 
 gages with Cottle for a volume of 
 Poems, 44 ; lectures published, 44 
 M. ; quarrel with Southey and final 
 abandonment of Pantisocracy, 45, 
 46 ; addiction to Bp.'^Beil^eiey,"-^. 
 ■Hartley, and Bowles, 45 ; a portrait 
 drawn by Miss C. Poole, 47 ; 
 another by T. Poole, 48 
 
 Chap. IIL — Marriage — ' The 
 Watchman.^ — 1795-6. — Marriage, 
 50 ; honeymoon at Clevedon, and 
 return to Bristol, 51 ; Poems kept 
 waiting for Religious Musings, ib. ; 
 The Watchman projected, ib. ; the 
 Watchman tour, 51, 52 ; Watchman 
 appears, runs for ten numbers, and 
 
 dies, 52; Poole collects a 'testi- 
 monial,' ib. ; Poems published, 53 ; 
 their reception, ib. ; abortive at-' 
 tempts to make a living, — as sub- 
 editor of Mortiing Chronicle, ib. ; 
 as tutor at Darley Abbey, 54, 55 ; 
 as schoolmaster at Derby, 55 ; visit 
 of reconciliation to Ottery, 54 ; birth 
 of a son (Hartley), 56 ; Charles 
 Lloyd ' domesticates ' as disciple, 
 ib. ; continued poverty and un- 
 settled prospects, 57 ; fervent desire 
 to settle at Stowey, ib. ; a full-length ' 
 portrait from his own pen, 58 ; re- 
 conciliation with Southey, 59 ; re- 
 course to laudanum for neuralgia, 
 ib. ; anxieties, and impatience to get 
 house at Stowey, 60 ; extraordinary 
 letter to Poole, 61 
 
 Chap. IV. — Nether Stowey — 
 ''Lyrical Ballads. ' — 1 797-8. — Begins 
 residence at Stowey, ' Literature a 
 secondaiy object,' 62 ; scheme of 
 living, 63 ; Ode on the Departing 
 Year, ib. ; Visions of the Maid of 
 Arc projected {Destiny of Nations), 
 submitted to Lamb and Wordsworth, 
 64 ; first meetings with Wordsworth, 
 
 64 n. ; invited by Sheridan to write 
 a play for Drury Lane, begins Osorio, 
 
 65 ; preaches in Unitarian Chapels, 
 
 66 ; busy and hopeful life at Stowey, 
 ib. ; a subscription needful, 66, 67 ; 
 visits Wordsworths at Racedown, 66, 
 
 67 ; high estimate of Wordsworth, 
 67 ; Dorothy Wordsworth describes 
 Coleridge, 68 ; Wordsworths visit 
 Coleridge, ib. ; second edition of 
 Poems (1797) with Lamb's and 
 Lloyd's, published, 69 ; its dedica- 
 tion to his brother George, 69-71 ; 
 its ' Preface,' 69 n. ; Lamb yisits 
 Coleridge, 71 ; Wordsworths settle 
 at Alfoxden, 72 ; ' Citizen ' Thel- 
 wall comes on a visit, which causes 
 the poets to be watched by a Govern- 
 ment spy, 73 ; R. Reynell describes 
 the Stowey household, 74, 75 ; daily 
 intercourse with the Wordsworths, 
 75 ; happy mutual influences, 76 ; 
 Lloyd no longer an inmate, 77 ; 
 great depression, ib. ; visits Bowles 
 with incomplete Osorio, ib. ; Osorio 
 completed and rejected, 78 ; many 
 projects, 79 ; composition of The 
 Ancient Mariner, 80 ; of Christabel 
 
296 
 
 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 (Part I.), ib. ; traces of it in D. 
 Wordsworth's journals, ib. ; Thomas 
 and Josiah Wedgwood, ib. ; a pre- 
 sent from them declined, ib. ; be- 
 comes candidate for Unitarian pas- 
 torate at Shrewsbury ; retires on 
 acceptance of life - annuity from 
 Wedgwoods, 81-83; Hazlitt's 
 account of intercourse with Cole- 
 ridge in Shropshire, 81 -S3 ; engages 
 to write in l\Ioniii2g Post, 84 ; con- 
 tributions to, 85 ; Ode to France, 
 Frost at JMidiiight, Fears in Solitude, 
 etc., written, ib. ; plans a prolonged 
 visit to Germany with the W^ords- 
 worths, 86 ; Hazlitt visits Stowey, 
 86-88 ; letter to his brother George, 
 88 ; entirely given over to Poetry 
 and Philosophy, ib. ; rupture with 
 Lloyd, 88-91 ; who alienates Lamb, 
 89-91 ; Ktibia Khan composed, 88 
 and note; birth of second child 
 (Berkeley), 89 ; visit to Germany 
 decided on, 92 ; separate publication 
 oi Fears in Solitude, etc. (4to. 1798), 
 ib. ; Lyrical Ballads published, 93 ; 
 their reception, ib. ; sails with 
 Wordsworth for Germany, ib. 
 
 Cliap. V. — Germany. — 1799- 
 1800. — Meets Klopstock at Ham- 
 burg, 94 ; separates from W'ords- 
 worths and settles with Chester at 
 Ratzeburg, ib. ; removes to Gottin- 
 gen, 97 ; life and studies there, ib. ; 
 tours to the Hartz, 97, 102 ; home- 
 sick, 96, 98 ; hears of the infant 
 Berkeley's death, 98 ; visited by 
 Wordsworths, with whom plans for 
 future are discussed, 95, loi ; leaves 
 Germany, 102 
 
 Chap. VL — London — Greta Hall. 
 — ^1799-1801. — Reaches Stowey, 
 103 ; visit from Mr. and Mrs. 
 Southey, ib. ; composition of The 
 Devil's Thoughts, ib. • long visit 
 to Ottery with Mrs. Coleridge, 104; 
 the family circle there described, ib. ; 
 indisposition, ib. ; visits W'ords- 
 worths at Sockburn, meeting sisters 
 Mary (afterwai'ds Mrs. Wordsworth) 
 and Sarah Hutchinson, for first time, 
 105 ; tour in Lake and Gilsland 
 districts with Wordsworth, ib, ; 
 settles in London, with Mrs. Cole- 
 ridge, to write in Morning Post, 
 105, 106 ; translates Schiller's IVal- \ 
 
 lenstein, 107 ; work as a journalist, 
 107-II0; lives with Lamb, lio-iii; 
 with Wordsworth at Dove Cottage, 
 112; IVallenstein published, his 
 opinion of his work, 112 and note ; 
 returns to Stowey, 112; intimacy 
 with Godwin, 112 n.; begins resi- 
 dence at Greta Hall, Keswick, 113 ; 
 Poole jealous of his increasing attach- 
 ment to Wordsworth, 1 14; birth of 
 third child (Derwent), 1 15 n.; inter- 
 course with Wordsworth again almost 
 daily, 116 et seq.; helps in prepara- 
 tion of second edition of Lyrical 
 Ballads, 117 and note ; Christabcl 
 to be finished for L.B., Part H. 
 composed, 116, 117 and note ; pro- 
 jected work on Germany, 118; 
 procrastination, busy idleness, and 
 financial straits, 118- 120; illness 
 and depression, yet ' thinking with 
 great energy,' 120, 121 ; 'irregular 
 gout,' determines to go abroad, 123; 
 beginning of opium 'slavery,' 123- 
 125 
 
 CJiap. Nil. — Greta Hall. — \%o\- 
 1S04. — Money for going abroad 
 unobtainable, 126, 127 ; visits 
 London and Stowey, writing in 
 Morning Post, etc., 127, 128; returns 
 to Greta Hall in bad condition, mind 
 and body, 128, 129 ; describes his 
 case in Dejection: an Ode, 129; 
 original version to be preferred bio- 
 graphically, ib. ; fatal indulgence 
 in opium, domestic discord, 130-132; 
 AVordsworth's verses on Coleridge, 
 132 and note ; many projects, 134 ; 
 portrait by John Hazlitt, ib. ; visited 
 loy C. and M. Lamb, 134, 135 ; 
 touring with T. and Miss Wedg- 
 wood, 135 ; birth of fourth child 
 (Sara) ib. ; uncertain health and 
 more touring, 136, 137 ; third ed. 
 of Poems (1803) 137 ; projected 
 metaphysical works, 138; Scotch 
 tour begun with Wordsworth and 
 ended alone, 138-140; night-horrors 
 ('The Pains of Sleep'), 139 and 
 note, 140 ; Hymn . . . in the Vale 
 of Chamouni, 140 and note; deter- 
 mines to go to Sicily, 141 -143 ; in 
 London, busy, awaiting ship, 142, 
 143 ; ways and means for travelling, 
 143 ; sails for Malta, ib. 
 
 CJiap. VHL — Malta and Italy. — 
 
INDEX 
 
 297 
 
 1804- 1806. — Arrives at Valetta, 
 May 18, 1S04, 144; first letter to 
 his wife, 144 and note; Stoddart's 
 guest, 143 ; then Sir A. J. Ball's 
 (the Governor), 144 ; Private Sec- 
 retary to Ball, 144, 145 ; visits 
 Sicily, where employed officially, 
 145 ; transmits political news to 
 Stuart, ib. ; appointed Assistant 
 Commissary on mission to Black 
 Sea, but relinquishes this, on being 
 appointed Acting Puljlic Secretary, 
 147 ; infrequency and uncertainty of " 
 communication with England, 14S ; 
 desires to return home, but detained 
 by public business, 1 48, 149 ; death 
 of T. Wedgwood, 149 ; leaves 
 Malta for Rome via Naples, lingers 
 at Naples, ib. ; at Rome, 150, 
 151 ; sails from Leghorn, 151, 152 
 Chap. 1^.— Return to England — 
 Lectures — 77/^; Friend. — 1 806- 1 8 1 o. 
 — Arrives in England, ' ill, penni- 
 less, and worse than homeless,' 
 153 ; D. Wordsworth's account of 
 Coleridge's domestic troubles, 155 ; 
 at Greta Hall for three months, 156; 
 separation arranged with Mrs. Cole- 
 ridge, //'. ; visits Wordsworth at 
 Coleorton Farm, ib. ; hears The 
 Prelude read, 156 ; responds in a 
 poem addressed to Wordsworth, 157 
 and note ; in London, 158 ; rejoins 
 wife and children at Bristol, ib. ; they 
 all visit Poole, //'. ; lasting rupture 
 with brothers, 158, 159 ; reconcilia- 
 tion with Mrs. Coleridge, 159 ; 
 melancholy apologetic letter to J. 
 Wedgwood, 159-161 ; literary 
 projects, 160 ; described by De 
 Quincey, 161, 162 ; De Quincey's 
 anonymous gift, 163, 164, 166, 21 1; 
 no longer a Unitarian, 165 ; lingers 
 in Bristol with Morgans, 166 and 
 note; lectures at Royal Institution 
 on 'The Principles of Poetry,' 166, 
 1 68, 169 ; interrupted by illness, 
 167 ; reviews Clarkson's History of 
 the Slave Trade, in Edinburgh 
 Reviezv, 168 ; visits Clarksons, 169 ; 
 abuse of opium suspended, 169- 
 171 ; arranges to spend winter with 
 Wordsvvorths, 170, 171 ; issues 
 Prospectus of The Friend, 17 1 ; 
 Wordsworth's forebodings, 172, 173; 
 Friend, No. I., issued after many 
 
 difficulties, 173; irregular appearance, 
 174 ; Wordsworth contributes, 175 ; 
 Sarah Hutchinson helps, i lb;Friena 
 dies at No. XXVH., ib.; intercourse 
 with Mrs. Coleridge, 176, 177 ; with 
 C. Lloyd, 177 ; returns to Greta 
 Hall, June-Oct. 1810, 177, 178 
 
 Chap. X. — London. — 1810-1803. 
 — Goes to London with ^Montagu, 179; 
 quarrel with Montagu and Words- 
 worth (unhealed till 181 2), 180; 
 begins residence with Morgans, iSo, 
 iSi ; begins acquaintance with H. 
 Crabb Robinson, 181 ; never writes 
 home, 181, 182 ; contributes to 
 Courier.^ 1 83, 184 ; lectures on 
 Shakespeare in Crane Court (1812), 
 184, 185 ; visits Greta Hall, but 
 refuses to see the Wordsworths, his 
 last visit to Lake Country, 185, 1S6; 
 contributes to Oinniana, 1S6 ; returns 
 to London and the Morgans, ib. ; 
 lectures on the Drama at Willis's 
 Rooms (1812), 187 ; reconciled' 
 with Wordsworth, ib. ; discusses 
 German Philosophy with Crabb 
 Robinson, 187 ;;. ; recasts Osorio, 
 under title of Remorse, for Drury 
 Lane, 188 ; lectures on Belles 
 Lettres at Surrey Institution (1813), 
 188, 189 ; Remorse acted for 20 
 nights, 190 ; brings him in ;i{i"400 
 and profits on published play, 190 
 and note, 191 ; congratulations from 
 Poole, 191 ; J. Wedgwood with- 
 draws his half of annuity, 192 and 
 note, 193 and note; fresh rupture 
 with Wordsworth, 193-196 ; Mrs. 
 Clarkson mediates unsuccessfully, 
 194, 195 ; Mary Lamb's views of 
 the difference, 194 and note ; meets 
 Mme. de Stael, 196; financial straits, 
 ib. ; promises (never fulfilled) to 
 Southey to return to Greta Hall, 197 
 
 Chap. XI. — Bristol and Calne. — 
 181 3-1 81 6. — Goes to Bristol and 
 delivers several courses of lectures, 
 198, 199 ; ceases to correspond with 
 Greta Hall, 200 ; opium again in 
 the ascendant, 200, 201 ; Cottle 
 relinquishes a scheme for an annuity, 
 consults Southey, and remonstrates 
 with Coleridge, 201 ; Coleridge's 
 remorseful reply, ib. ; desires to be 
 placed under restraint, 202; Southey, 
 through Cottle, advises return to Greta 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ^niversitt) 
 
298 
 
 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 Hall, 203, 204 ; Coleridge drifts on 
 at Bristol till Sep. 1814; his letter of 
 confession to J. Wade, 206 ; rejoins 
 Morgans at Ashley, 207 ; begins 
 composition of the Magmun opus, 
 207 ; offers essays on the Fine Arts 
 and political articles to Courier, the 
 latter accepted, 208 ; intercourse 
 with Methuen family and Lord Lans- 
 downe, ib. ; abortive arrangements 
 to translate Faust, 208 and nole ; 
 removes with Morgans to Calne, 
 209 ; projects collection of Political 
 Essays, 209, 216 ; unsuccessful 
 appeals to Cottle for advances on 
 MSS., 210, 211; other Bristol 
 friends make advances on Biog. Lit. 
 and Sibylline Leaves, 21 1 ; active 
 interest in current politics, 212 ; 
 friendship and correspondence with 
 Dr. Brabant, 212-217; Remorse 
 played at Calne, 212 ; genesis and 
 composition oi Biog. Lit., 212, 213; 
 collects poems for Sib. Leaves, 196 
 ;/. , 213; Hartley spends first Oxford 
 vacation with his father (18 15), 214; 
 re-writes Elizabethan plays for the 
 stage, 215 ; period of great activity, 
 ib. ; health better ' than for 1 2 
 years,' 216 ; Byron asks for play for 
 Drury Lane — promised, but never 
 composed, ib. ; composes Zapolya, 
 217 ; opium again in the ascendant, 
 ib. ; endeavours to free himself 
 from 'this most pitiable slavery,' 
 ib. ; leaves Calne for London, 
 March 181 6, 217, 218; Lamb's 
 report of his condition, 21S; confides 
 his case to Dr. Adams, 219; arranges 
 to live with Mr. Gillman at Highgate, 
 April 18 16, 219 
 
 Chap. XH. — Llighgate. — 1 8 1 6- 
 1819. — Relations with Gillmans, 
 221, 255, 278 ; publication of 
 C/iristabel, 221 and note, 222; its 
 reception by Edin. Rev., 222 ; sup- 
 plies ' copy ' for Sib. Leaves and Biog. 
 Lit., 222, 223 ; Zapolya, Part H., 
 accepted conditionally for Drury 
 Lane ; conditions accepted, but un- 
 fulfilled, 223 ; many projects, 223, 
 224 ; makes acquaintance with J- 
 Hookham Frere, 224 ; ' overwork 
 and anxieties,' ib. ; visits Muddi- 
 ford, meeting W. Stewart Rose and 
 David Hinves, 225 ; The Statesman's 
 
 Manual (first ' Lay Sermon ' ) pub- 
 lished and attacked fiercely by Hazlitt, 
 225 n., 226 ; abstemious and work- 
 ing hard, 226 ; differences with 
 printers and publishers, 227 ; draws 
 up scheme for Encyclopadia I\letro- 
 politana, ib. ; failure of negotia- 
 tions for its superintendence, 227, 
 228 ; writes the introduction, ' On 
 Method,' 228 {see also 233 and 
 note) ; publication of second '"Lay 
 Sermon' and Biog. Lit., 228 and 
 note ; Biog. Lit. attacked in Edin. 
 Rev. by Hazlitt and Jeffrey, 228 ; 
 and in Blackwood, which revives 
 Anti -Jacobin libels, 229 ; apologia 
 pro vitd sua, and contemplated libel 
 action, 229 ; very industrious, de-"^ 
 fends Southey in Courier, re ' Wat 
 Tyler,' 229, 230 ; renewed attacks 
 by Hazlitt, 230 ; forms acquaintance 
 with Joseph Henry Green, ib. ; 
 visit from Southey, 231 ; interested 
 in Animal Magnetism, 231 and 
 note ; Stuart remonstrates regarding 
 statements in Biog. Lit., 231 (the 
 controversy is dealt with at p. 107); 
 visits Littlehampton, making ac- 
 quaintance with C. A. Tulk and 
 ' Dante ' Gary, 232 ; publication of 
 Zapolya vc^Aoi Method, 223; renewal 
 of friendly intercourse with Words- 
 worth, 234 ; lectures on Shakespeare, 
 etc., in Fetter Lane (Jan. -March, 
 1818), 235 ; Lamb dedicates his 
 'Works' (1818) to, 236; makes 
 acquaintance with Thomas Allsop, 
 ib. ; wounded feelings towards 
 Wordsworth, 237 and note ; lectures, 
 concurrently, on Philosopy and on 
 select plays of Shakespeare, at 
 'Crown and Anchor' (Nov. 1818- 
 April 1S19), 238, 239; 'these 
 lectures my only resource . . . from 
 literature I cannot gain even bread,' 
 240 ; negotiations for lectures at 
 Russell Institution, uncertain whether 
 delivered, 240 
 
 67/(?/. XHL — HighgateQ.or\\\w\}i&A. 
 — 1S19-1825. — Agrees, condition- 
 ally, to contribute to Blackxvood, but 
 delays, though very impecunious, 
 241 and note, 242 ; loss and dis- 
 couragement by bankruptcy of his 
 publisher. Rest Fenner, 242 and 
 note ; a gift from Allsop, 242 n. ; 
 
INDEX 
 
 299 
 
 meeting with Keats, and Keats's 
 account of it, 242, 243 ; Hartley 
 and Derwent visit their father, 243 ; 
 depressing sense of faihire, and 
 ' dyspathy,' 244 ; meets Scott at 
 Chas. Mathevv's house, ib. ; con- 
 science-stricken grief at Hartley's 
 forfeiture of Oriel Fellowship, 244- 
 246 ; recourse to opium, 245 ; 
 Green his amanuensis, 246 ; hindered 
 by poverty from pursuing serious 
 tasks, proposals for substantial 
 relief, apparently unsuccessful, 247, 
 248; behind with board-and-lodging 
 accounts, 247 ; works ' nearly ready 
 for press,' 247 and note ; scribbling 
 for bread, 247 ; unfruitful negotia- 
 tion with Murray, 248 ; contribu- 
 tions to Blackii'ood, 247, 249 and 
 note ; at Ramsgate, 249 and note ; 
 endeavours to establish classes at 
 Highgate, imperfectly successful, 
 250, 251 ; progress with work on 
 logic, 251 and note ; Mrs. Coleridge 
 and Sara pay two months' visit, 252 ; 
 Sara engaged to her cousin Henry 
 Nelson Coleridge, ib. ; beginnings 
 of Table Talk ; final reconciliation 
 with brothers, 253 ; goes into Society, 
 ib. ; disciples and others attracted 
 to Highgate, ib. ; Edward Irving 
 one of the first disciples, 253, 255 ; 
 revival of poetical faculty. Youth 
 and Age, 254 ; revival of interest in 
 Archbp. Leighton, resulting in com- 
 position of Aids to Reflection, ib. ; 
 momentary rupture with Gillmans, 
 
 255 and note ; the 'Highgate Thurs- 
 days,' 253, 255 ; Irving dedicates a 
 book to, 256 ; publication and re- 
 ception of Aids, 256 and note ; 
 Julius Hare's estimate of Aids, 
 
 256 ; made Royal Associate of the 
 Royal Soc. of Literature, with an- 
 nuity of ;i^io5 from Privy Purse, 
 
 257 ; sketch of Coleridge in Haz- 
 litt's Spii-it of the Age, ib. ; his 
 response in^ Character, 258 ; takes 
 the world more easily — ' a sage 
 escaped from the inanity of life's 
 battle,' 259 
 
 Chap. XIV. — Last Years at High- 
 gate.— 1^2'^- 1%-^^. — Carlyle intro- 
 duced by Irving, makes rough 
 sketches for his portrait of Coleridge 
 in Life of J. Sterling, 260, 261 ; 
 
 intercourse with Lamb, 261 ; a 
 change as regards personal religion, 
 
 262 ; displeased with passages in 
 H. N. Coleridge's Six Months in 
 the lYest Indies, ib. ; wide gaps in 
 the Table Talk, ib. ; visited by 
 Sara, when Table Talk resumed, in 
 1827, ib. ; unsuccessful efforts to 
 obtain sinecure for Coleridge, 262, 
 
 263 ; Poetical Jl'orhs collected (for 
 benefit of Gillman) (ed. 1S28), 263 ; 
 much-revised edition in 1S29, ib. ; 
 at a dinner-party, described by Scott, 
 263, 264 ; Rhine - tour with W. 
 and Dora Wordsworth, 264-266 ; 
 sketched by T. Colley Grattan and 
 Julian Young, 264, 265 ; a week 
 with the Lambs, at Enfield, 266 ; 
 slight illness, depression and recourse 
 to opium, ib. ; recruits at Ramsgate, 
 //'. ; projects work on Poivcr and itse 
 of Words, ib. ; fresh revival of poeti- 
 cal faculty, character of later poems, 
 266, 267 and note ; describes him- 
 self {c. 1825-8) in Work ivithont 
 Hope, 267 and note, 269 ; High 
 and Broad Church movements in- 
 fluenced, 268, 269 ; Carlyle on 
 Coleridge in essay on Novalis, 269 ; 
 Sara's marriage to Henry Nelson 
 Coleridge, Sep. 1829, 270; long 
 illnesses in 1829 and 1830,270,271 ; 
 publication of Constitution of Church 
 and State, its genesis, argument 
 and influence, contains affectionate 
 appreciation of Poole, 271, 272; 
 loss of Royal Assoc, annuity by 
 death of George IV. ; compensated 
 by Treasury grant, and bounty of 
 J. H. Frere, 272, 273 ; frequent 
 confinement to sick-room after 1830, 
 273 ; visited by Wordsworth, Lamb, 
 Robinson, Landor, etc., ib. ; re- 
 vived strength ; visit to Cambridge 
 in 1S33 ; feelings at seeing Cam- 
 bridge again, 274 ; Harriet Mar- 
 tineau describes an interviewin 1833, 
 275 ; Emerson describes an inter- 
 view in 1833, 275, 276 ; increasing 
 bodily weakness, but mind strong 
 and spirit serene (1834), 276, 277 ; 
 Poole's last visit, 276 ; closing 
 scenes described by his daughter, 
 ib. ; passes away July 25, 1834 ; 
 buried in Highgate Churchyard, 
 Aug. 2, 276 and n. ; provisions of 
 
lOO 
 
 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 Will, 278, 279 ; disposal of literary 
 remains, 279 ; Green (sole literary 
 executor) attempts unsuccessfully to 
 complete the viagimni opus for want 
 of material, 279, 280; \\\s Spiritual 
 Philosophy, founded on the teaching 
 of S. T. Colei-idge, and ' Hunterian 
 Orations,' 279, 280; aim of the 
 present Memoir, a narrative of the 
 events of Coleridge's life, 280 
 — — Conclusion. — Coleridge's fall less 
 wonderful than his recovery ; his 
 conscience always awake ; living, 
 ever his own apology ; his extraordi- 
 nary power of attraction for diverse 
 minds and natures ; his friendships, 
 281, 282 ; survived by wife and 
 children, 282, 283 
 Coleridge, Mrs. Samuel Taylor (Sarah 
 Fricker, afterwards called ' Sara '), 
 engagement to Coleridge, 31, 36 ; 
 engagement overlooked by him for a 
 time, 42 ; revived, 43 ; marriage, 
 50 ; 74 ; 75 ; remains at Stowey 
 while Coleridge visits Germany, 92 ; 
 her report on the reception of Lyri- 
 cal Ballads, 93 ; grief on death of 
 infant Berkeley, loo ; loi ; 104; 
 106; no; III; estrangement from 
 her husband, 130-132 {see also 
 under ' Domestic infelicity ') ; provi- 
 sionfor,on Coleridge's going to Malta, 
 
 143 ; his first letter thence to her, 
 
 144 and n. ; in 1805 receives news 
 of Coleridge through Stuart, 148 ; 
 her account of the RIalta correspond- 
 ence, 149 ; hears indirectly of Cole- 
 ridge's return to England, 153 ; he 
 delays returning to Greta Hall for 
 six weeks, 154; Wordsworth 'de- 
 plores' this, ib. ; Dorothy Words- 
 worth's account of the situation, and 
 of the proposed separation, 155, 
 156 and note ; takes the two younger 
 children to Bristol, 158 ; rejoined 
 there by Coleridge and Hartley, ib. ; 
 Coleridge's intention to visit Ottery 
 with his wife, frustrated, 158 and 
 note, 159; all visit Poole, when 
 some kind of reconciliation takes 
 place, and arrangement to return 
 together to Greta Hall, 159; tran- 
 scribes Coleridge's poems for press, 
 160 n. ; seen by De Quincey at 
 Bridgwater, 162 ; her account of her- 
 self and her husband at Bristol in 
 
 1807, 165, 166 ; escorted by De 
 Quincey to Greta Hall, 165 ; anxious 
 that Coleridge should rejoin her 
 there, but he arranges to live with 
 Wordsworth, 170 ; friendly inter- 
 course, however, maintained, 170, 
 176, 177 ; rejoined by Coleridge 
 May-Oct. 1810, 177, 178 ; cessation 
 of direct communication, 181, 182 ; 
 her ' disquietude ' respecting insur- 
 ance premiums calmed by Cole- 
 ridge in 181 1, 183; revisited by 
 him — for the last time — in spring of 
 1812, when receives proposals for 
 living together after a year, 1S6 ; 
 principal sufferer by withdrawal of 
 half the Wedgwood annuity, 193 ; 
 Coleridge's promise (unfulfilled) to 
 return to Greta Hall in 1813, 196 ; 
 separation, though now informal, 
 proves to be permanent, 197 ; 
 Southey promises Coleridge a wel- 
 come without reproaches from Mrs. 
 Coleridge, 203 ; health and spirits 
 reported by Southey (1814) to be 
 sinking under her troubles, 204; 218: 
 220 ; Coleridge's defence of his 
 pecuniary relations with his wife, 
 229 ; his doubtful intention of re- 
 turning to Greta Hall in 1817, 231, 
 232; with her daughter visits Cole- 
 ridge at Highgate in 1822, 252; 
 they go on to visit relations at 
 Ottery, ib. ; intercourse with Cole- 
 ridge at Hampstead after 1S30, 274 ; 
 not present at her husband's death, 
 277; his provision for her by will, 
 279 ; resides with her daughter from 
 1830 until her death in 1845, 282 
 Coleridge, Sara (daughter — afterwards 
 Mrs. H. N. Coleridge), her birth in 
 1S02; 135; 170; 177; 178; 243; 
 with her mother visits her father at 
 Highgate in 1S22, when she be- 
 comes engaged to her cousin, Henry 
 Nelson C. ; Lamb's admiring ac- 
 counts of her ; mother and daughter 
 go on to visit relations at Ottery, 
 252 and note ; visits her father in 
 1827, 262 ; marriage to H. N. C. 
 in 1829, 270; 274; her account of 
 her father's last illness, death, 
 funeral, and will, 277 ; edits her 
 father's works, 279 ; writes Phan- 
 tasmion ; her character ; her Me- 
 i/ioirs, by her daughter, 283 
 
INDEX 
 
 .301 
 
 College, Sonnet On quitting School for, 
 
 20 
 Collier, John Payne, his reports of 
 
 Lectures, 1811-12, 184 and note 
 Cologne, its two-and-seventy stenches 
 
 snifted by Coleridge in 1S28, 265 
 Comberbacke, Silas Tomkyn, the name 
 
 under which Coleridge enlisted, 28 
 Commentaries on Gospels and Epistles, 
 
 a work incomplete and still in ^IS., 
 
 279 n. 
 Concert -room, Lines composed in a, 
 
 quoted, 7 
 Condones ad Populttm, Lecture- 
 pamphlets of 1795, 44 n. 
 Confessions of an Enquiring Spirit, 
 
 posthumous work, 254 «., 279 n., 
 
 280 
 Confessions of a Fair Saint, in Car- 
 
 lyle's translation of JVilhelm Meister, 
 
 Connubial Rupture in High Life, On a, 
 246 n. 
 
 Consolations and Comforts . . . ad- 
 dressed to those in Sickness ... a 
 projected work, 1804, 142 and note 
 
 Constitution of Church and State, On 
 the, publication of, 271 ; genesis, 
 argument, and tendency of the pam- 
 phlet, 270, 271 ; procured for Cole- 
 ridge the names of High-churchman 
 and Tory, 272 
 
 Conversation, Coleridge ' impassioned ' 
 in, 58, 264 
 
 Copleston, Dr., Provost of Oriel Coll., 
 Oxford, 245 
 
 Corn, Government Bill for excluding 
 Foreign {181 5), actively opposed by 
 Coleridge, 212 
 
 Cosens, the late Mr. F. W., his collec- 
 tion of MSS., now dispersed, con- 
 tained many letters of Coleridge, 
 quoted in this book, 58, 59 n., 67 
 «., etc. 
 
 Cote House, near Bristol, residence of 
 John Wedgwood, 80, 84, 136 
 
 Cottage, Coleridge's, at Nether Stowey, 
 a scheme (1S93) for purchasing it as 
 memorial, 92 n. 
 
 Cottle, Joseph, of Bristol (author of 
 reminiscences of Coleridge, see Nos. 
 7 and 8 of ' Printed Authorities 
 Chiefly Cited'), vii., 31 ; introduced 
 to Coleridge, 1795, and buys a 
 volume of poems from him ; helps 
 the Pantisocrats, 44, 45 ; decides 
 
 Coleridge to marry by an ofier for 
 unlimited verses at a fixed price, 
 46, 47 and note ; bargains for 
 second edition of Poems, 1797, 64 ; 
 his connection with and account 
 of quarrels between Coleridge, 
 Lamb, and Lloyd, 89-91 ; pur- 
 chases Lyrical Ballads of 179S, 91 ; 
 publishes the same, 93 ; accom- 
 panies Coleridge on a visit to Words- 
 worth at Sockburn, 105; 125; 160 
 n. ; is medium of De Quincey's gift 
 to Coleridge, 163 and note, 164; 
 receives a religious letter from Cole- 
 ridge, 165 ; account of Coleridge at 
 Bristol in 1813-14, 198-207 ; lends 
 money to him, 200 ; tries to raise 
 annuity for him, 201 ; dissuaded 
 therefrom by Southey, ih. ; remon- 
 strates with Coleridge on his in- 
 dulgence in opium, 201-203 > his 
 epic Messiah revised by Coleridge, 
 205 ; ascribes Coleridge's ills to 
 Satanic possession, ih. ; contributes 
 towards Hartley's expenses at Ox- 
 ford, 209 n. ; renewed correspond- 
 ence in 1815, 210, 211; their 
 correspondence then ceases, 211 ; 
 seriously garbles many of the docu- 
 ments printed in his books, e.g. 
 64 ;/., 160 n ., 204 ;/., 209 ;/. 
 
 Courier, The, London daily newspaper, 
 which belonged to Daniel Stuart, 
 Coleridge contributes to, 107; 142 
 and note; 166; 167; 175; 181 ; 1S2- 
 184; 208, 229; 230; Coleridge 
 lodges at the office of, in 1806, 
 155 ; and again in 1808, 167 ; his 
 relations with, disturbed in 181 1, 
 I S3 ; many of his contributions to, 
 collected in Essays on his own Times, 
 107 «., 183 n., etc. ; inferior to earlier 
 journalistic work, 183 ;/. ; 184; 188; 
 204; 250 
 
 Cousins, Coleridge's fluctuating views 
 on the marriage of first, 253 ;/., 
 262 n 
 
 Covent Garden Theatre, Osorio refused 
 by (?), 78 ; refuses a tragedy in 
 1816, 218 
 
 Cowper, W. , 17 ; Coleridge admires 
 the ' divine chit-chat ' of, 59 ; 93 
 
 Craven Scholarship, Coleridge a candi- 
 date for, in 1792, 23 
 
 Crompton, Dr., of Derby, 55 
 
 Crompton, Dr., of Liverpool, 113 
 
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERLDGE 
 
 Crosthwaite Church, Sara married to 
 
 H. N. Coleridge at, in 1S29, 270 
 ' Crown and Anchor ' Tavern in the 
 
 Strand, Coleridge lectures there -in 
 
 1818-19, 238-240 
 Currie, Dr., biographer of Burns, 113 
 Curtis, Samuel, printer and partner of 
 
 Fenner, publisher of Biog. Lit., 
 
 etc., 227 
 
 Daniel, Dr., of Bristol, 205, 207 
 
 Dante's Divina Commedia, Cary's 
 translation of, its fortune made by 
 Coleridge, 232 and note ' 
 
 Dante, Spenser, etc., work on, pro- 
 jected by Coleridge, 247 n. 
 
 Dante, Coleridge pronounces Theodore 
 Hook as truly a man of genius as, 
 264 n. 
 
 Davy, Sir Humphry, Coleridge makes 
 his acquaintance in 1799; ana 
 forms a very high estimate of his 
 abilities, 1 13 n.; 121; attends 
 Davy's lectures at Roy. Instit. in 
 1 80 1, 128 ; his description of Cole- 
 ridge in 1803, 137 ; intercourse in 
 1804, 141 ; induces Coleridge to 
 lecture at Roy. Instit. in 1808, 154, 
 164-167 ; letter to, from Coleridge 
 respecting The Friend, 171 
 
 Death and bereavement, their ' unsub- 
 stantiating' effect, 100, 10 1 
 
 Death of Coleridge, 277 
 
 Decker's Old Fortiniatns, 261 
 
 Dedication of Poems, ed. 1797, to Rev. 
 George Coleridge ; characteristics of 
 the lines, 69-71 
 
 Dejection : an Ode, addressed to 
 Wordsworth, quoted, 61 ; a picture 
 of Coleridge's condition in 1802, 
 129, etc. ; original version to be 
 preferred biographically ; the same 
 quoted, 129 and fiote ; compared 
 with Lines to Wordsworth on 
 ' Prelude,' 157 
 
 Della-Cruscanism, 58 
 
 Democrats, 73 
 
 Departing Year, Ode to the, published 
 first in Cambridge hitelligencer; next, 
 revised and expanded, in quarto 
 pamphlet, 63 ; included in I'oems, 
 ed. 1797, 67 ; quoted by Lamb, 
 239 n. 
 
 De Quincey, Thomas, his statements 
 about Coleridge unreliable, 125 ; on 
 his experience of ' night horrors ' 
 
 resulting from Opium, 139 n. ; on 
 Coleridge's plagiarism in Chamouni 
 Hymn, 140 n. ; seeks Coleridge's 
 acquaintance in 1807 ; describes 
 him, 161, 162 ; presents him, 
 anonymously, with ;^300, 163, 164, 
 211; escorts Mrs. Coleridge from 
 Bristol to Greta Hall, 165 ; describes 
 Coleridge in London in 1808, 167; 
 169 ; 180 n., 181 
 
 Derby, Coleridge prepares to set up a 
 school at, in 1796, 55 ; 57 
 
 Descartes' opinions attacked by Cole- 
 ridge, 120 
 
 Destiny of Nations, The, 69 
 
 DeviPs Thoughts, The, composed 
 jointly by Coleridge and Southey, 
 104 ; its success when printed in 
 J\Iorning Post, 106; 108 
 
 Devonshire Loads, 22 
 
 Dilke's (Sir Charles) Papers of a Critic, 
 quoted, 43 n. 
 
 Discovery, On a, made too late, 38 
 
 Dissenting minister, Coleridge de- 
 scribed as looking like a, 249 n., 
 265 
 
 Domestic infelicity, 130, 131, 134, 
 136, 141, 153, 154-156, 158 n., 
 166, 204, 205, 220 
 
 Douglas, Mr. David, Editor of Scott's 
 Joiwnal, 264 n. 
 
 Dove Cottage, Grasmere, Wordsworth 
 and his sister begin residence at, 
 I799> 105 ; 92 n. 
 
 Dragoons, Fifteenth Reg. of Light, 
 Coleridge enlists in, 28 ; discharge 
 effected, 29 
 
 Drama, Lectures on the (181 2), 187 
 
 Drama, The Downfall of the Comic, 
 an essay by Hazlitt, 196, 197 
 
 Dreams, On, 243 
 
 Drury Lane Theatre, Coleridge writes 
 Osorio (or, 65 (etc., j-t'c under '■ Osorio'' 
 and ' Remorse ') ; Byron invites him 
 to write a play for (1815), 216; 
 215; 218; Zapolya, Part IL, ac- 
 cepted for, conditionally ; conditions 
 not being fulfilled, is abandoned, 223 
 
 Dublin, Proposals for lectures at 
 (1821), 249 
 
 Dungeon, The, 93 
 
 Duns Scotus studied, 128 
 
 Ditty stu'viving Self-Love, 266, 267 n. 
 
 Dyce Collection at S. K. Museum, 18 
 
 Dyer, George, 35 
 
 Dyspathy, 244 
 
INDEX 
 
 2fi^ 
 
 Eclectic Review, 204 
 
 Edinburgh Revietv, Coleridge reviews 
 Clarkson's History of the Slave Trade 
 in, 168 and note; Christahel, etc., 
 attacked (?by Hazlitt) in, 222, 223 
 n. ; Statesman's Alaniial attacked 
 (?by Hazlitt) in, 225 ;/. ; Coleridge 
 complains, in Appendix to States- 
 man's Manual, of the attacks in the 
 Edin. Rev. and the Examiner, 226 ; 
 Biographia attacked in, by Hazlitt 
 and Jeftrey, 228; 237 n. ; Coleridge 
 prefers open abuse of the, to his treat- 
 ment by the Quarterly, 238 ; consents 
 to write in Blackivood if conducted 
 on principles the direct opposite of 
 those of the, 241 
 
 Edmund Oliver, a novel by C. Lloyd, 
 
 , 91 
 
 Education, Lectures on, at Bristol, in 
 1815, 199; lines entitled Love, 
 Hope, and Patience in Education, 
 266 
 
 Eichhorn, Prof, of Gottingen, 97 and 
 jiote 
 
 Elhingerode, Lines written at, 98 
 
 Emerson, R. W. , interview with Cole- 
 ridge in 1833, 275, 276 
 
 Eminent Characters, Sonnets on (1794), 
 42 
 
 Encyclopudia i\Letropolitaua, its scheme 
 drawn up by Coleridge, 227 ; failure 
 of arrangements for his superintend- 
 ence of, 227, 228 ; he contributes 
 the Preliminary Essay ' On Method ' 
 to, 228 ; disputes regarding this, 
 232 and note 
 
 Engagement of Coleridge to Sarah 
 Fricker, 31, 35 ; its suspension, 42 ; 
 its renewal, 43 ; of his daughter 
 Sara to H. N. Coleridge, Coleridge's 
 hesitation to sanction it, 252, 253 
 and note 
 
 EnglisliDian' s Magazine, The, article 
 on withdrawal of the Royal Asso- 
 ciates' (of R. Soc. of Lit.) pensions, 
 272 
 
 Eolian Harp, The, 50 
 
 Epics projected by Coleridge : On the 
 Origin of Evil, 64 ; on Man, Nature, 
 and Society ( The Brook), 79 and 
 note ; on Jerusalem besieged and 
 destroyed by Titus, 248 and note ; 
 preparations necessary for an epic, 78 
 
 Epitaph on himself, Coleridge's {Stop, 
 Christian passer-by !), 276 
 
 Essays on his oian Times (Coleridge's 
 journalistic writings collected by his 
 daughter), 107 n., 230 
 
 Estlin, Rev. J. P., Unitarian minister 
 and schoolmaster of Bristol, a corre- 
 spondent, and a kind friend of Cole- 
 ridge, 53 and note, 54, 66 ; 230 ; 
 resents Coleridge's description of 
 Milton's Satan as a ' sceptical 
 Socinian,' 207 «. 
 
 Etna, Mount, Ascents of, by Coleridge 
 (1S04), 146 ;/. 
 
 Evans [Mary] Family, 1 1 ; Coleridge's 
 account of his early relations with, 
 15 ; correspondence with (1792-3), 
 15,23,24. 
 
 Evans, Mary, Coleridge falls in love 
 with, 15; 26; Lewti addressed to, 
 30 ; declares his passion for, to 
 Southey (1794), 31 ; encounter with, 
 at Wrexham, 34 ; his last appeal to, 
 her reply, and his response, 37-41 
 
 Evans, Mrs., of Darley Abbey, near 
 Derby, engages Coleridge as tutor 
 to her children, 54 ; engagement 
 breaks down, 55 
 
 Examiner, The (Leigh Hunt's weekly 
 newspaper), Hazlitt's attacks on 
 Coleridge in, 225 n., 226, 230; 
 critique in, on Retnorse, 190 
 
 Exeter, A Literary Society at, which 
 esteems Wordsworth's poetry in 
 1793, 26; Coleridge frequents a 
 sympathetic circle at, in 1799, 104 
 
 Exhibition at Jesus Coll., Cambridge, 
 gained by Coleridge, 21 
 
 Falkner, Mr., theatrical manager who 
 performed Remorse at Calne and 
 Devizes, 212 
 
 Fall of Robespierre, 77/^, how composed, 
 35 ; published, 36 
 
 Fancy and Lnagination (MS.), Dis- 
 quisition on generic difference be- 
 tween the faculties of, 213 
 
 Faraday, Prof., Coleridge meets, at 
 Cambridge, in 1833, 274 
 
 Farmer, Coleridge's ambition to become 
 a, 58, 63 
 
 Favell, Robert, a Christ's Hospital 
 friend of Coleridge, 20 
 
 Fears in Solitude, composed, 85 ; pub- 
 lished, 92 and note 
 
 Felix Farley'' s (Bristol) Journal, Cole- 
 ridge publishes Essays on Fine Arts 
 in (1814), 208 and note 
 
304 
 
 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 Fenner, Rest, publisher of Biog. Lit., 
 The (recast) Friend, etc., partner of 
 Mr. Gale and of Samuel Curtis 
 [qq.v.), buys sheets of incomplete 
 Biographia and Sib. Leaves, 227 ; 
 Coleridge's disputes with, 227, 233 
 and n.; 234;/.; liankruptcy, which 
 causes loss and discouragement to 
 Coleridge, 242 and note 
 
 Fermor, Mrs. (sister to Lady Beau- 
 mont), 206 and note 
 
 Fichte, Coleridge on, 1S7 ;/. ; borrows 
 his works, 200 
 
 Fine Arts, Lectures on, at Bristol in 
 1813, 199; Essays on, printed in 
 Bristol newspaper, 207 ; offers ex- 
 pansion of these to Courier, 208 ; 
 Coleridge offers to lecture on the 
 Philosophy of (1 819), 240 
 
 Flagg's, Mr., Life of W. Allston, 
 quoted, 150 «., 15 1 n. 
 
 Fletcher, Judge, Letters on his charge 
 to Wexford Grand Jury, contributed 
 by Coleridge to Coiwier in 18 14, 
 208 and note 
 
 Flower, Benj., Editor of Cambridge 
 Intelligencer, 63 
 
 Foreign Review, Carlyle's appreciation 
 of Coleridge in Essay on Novalis in, 
 269 
 
 Forman, Mr. H. Buxton, 51 ;/. 
 
 Forster Collection at S. K. Museum, 
 176 n. 
 
 Fortune, To — On buying a Ticket in the 
 Irish Lottery (1793), 26, 27 
 
 Foster- Mothe)'s Tale, The, 93 
 
 Fozmts, The Two, 266 
 
 Fox's (C. J.) Letter to the Westminster 
 Electors, 25 
 
 Fox's (Dr.), establishment for the In- 
 sane ; Coleridge wishes to enter 
 (1814), 203, 204 
 
 France, Ode to, printed in Morning Tost 
 (1798), 85 ; published, 92 and note 
 
 Fraser's Magazine, Specimens of Cole- 
 ridge's prelections printed in, 251 ; 
 portrait by Maclise in, 276 
 
 French Revolution, Coleridge's early 
 and later views on, 85 and note 
 
 Frend, William (Fellow of Jesus, Cam- 
 bridge), Coleridge his disciple in 
 politics and religion, in under- 
 graduate days, 25 
 
 Frere, the Right Hon. John Hook- 
 ham, Coleridge's first acquaintance 
 with, 224 ; influence on Coleridge, 
 
 244 ; aids in procuring pension 
 for Coleridge from Privy Purse, 
 257 ; endeavours to procure sinecure 
 post for Coleridge, 262, 263; 271; 
 allows Coleridge an annuity from 
 1830, 273 ; 282 
 
 Fricker, Mrs. (mother of Mrs. S. T. 
 Coleridge), 67 ; allowed an annuity 
 of ^20 by Coleridge, 143 
 
 Fricker, Miss Edith (sister to Mrs. 
 S. T. Coleridge), afterwards Mrs. 
 Southey, 31 
 
 Fricker, Miss Eliza (sister to Mrs. S. 
 T. Coleridge), 225 
 
 Fricker, Miss Mary (sister to Mrs. S. 
 T. Coleridge), afterwards Mrs. 
 Robert Lovell, 43 
 
 Fricker, Miss Sarah (afterwards 
 ' Sara '). See under ' Coleridge, 
 Mrs. S. T." 
 
 F}-iend [Smerdon] Lines on a, zvho 
 died of a Fi-enzy Fever, 37 
 
 To a, with unfinished poem, 
 
 quoted, 19 
 
 Friend, The (the original, published in 
 numbers, 1809-10), Prospectus, 168 
 n., 171 and«., 172 ; difficulties and 
 delays, 172, 173 ; No. I. published, 
 173 and note ; struggles, 174, 175 ; 
 expires with No. XXVH., 176; 
 papers dictated to Miss Sarah Hut- 
 chinson, 176 and note, 214; pro- 
 jected continuation in 181 1, 183, 
 188 ; overplus copies published in 
 a volume in 18 1 2, 174 «. 
 
 Ff-iend, The (the recast, in 3 vols. 
 8vo. 18 1 8), determination to re- 
 publish the original, ' but as a com- 
 plete /i'//ac/wt';?^,' 226; 228; 233; 
 234; published, 235 n.; 268; 269 
 
 Frost at l\lidnight, quoted, 9 ; com- 
 posed, 85 ; published, 92 n 
 
 Fuller, Thomas, his works, 270 
 
 Funeral, Coleridge's, 277 and note 
 
 Gale, Curtis, and Fenner {see also 
 under ' Fenner, Rest,' and ' Curtis, 
 S.'), Remorse to be offered to, for 
 publication, if refused by Drury 
 Lane, 188 ; publishers and printers 
 of Coleridge's works, 1816-18, 227 
 
 Gale and Spurzheim's Physiognomical 
 System, 'beneath criticism,' 217 
 
 Gamester, The (play), 191 
 
 Garnett, Dr. Richard, of the British 
 Museum, his notes to Confessions 
 
INDEX 
 
 305 
 
 of an English Opiiiin-Eater, quoted, 
 139 n. 
 
 Gamett, Mr., of Bristol, a friend of 
 Coleridge in 1796-7, 66 n. 
 
 Genevieve, addressed to Ch. Hospital 
 'Nurse's' daughter (* 14 
 
 Genius and Talent, Distinction be- 
 tween, Coleridge discourses on, 
 264 n. 
 
 Gentleman Pensioners, Paymastership 
 of, a sinecure post sought for Cole- 
 ridge (1827), 262, 263 
 
 Gentleman [Wordsworth] To a, com- 
 posed on the night of his recitation 
 of 'The Prelude,' 157; original 
 version quoted, 157 ;/. 
 
 Gentleman'' s Magazine, 107, 169 ;;. 
 
 George IV., his pensions to ten Royal 
 Associates of the Royal Society of 
 Literature (of whom Coleridge one) 
 257 ; pensions withdrawn on His 
 Majesty's death, 272 
 
 George, Mr. William, of Bristol, 199 
 
 German, Coleridge studies, at Ratze- 
 burg, 95-97 
 
 German Literature, Coleridge proposes 
 to edit a periodical on (18 16), 224 ; 
 to lecture on (1S19), 240 
 
 German Philosophers, Coleridge on his 
 indebtedness to, 187 ;/. 
 
 Germany, proposed sojourn in, with the 
 Wordsworths, 86 ; project carried 
 out in part, 94-102 ; projected work 
 on, 118, 119, 121 
 
 Gibraltar, Coleridge at, eti route to 
 Malta, 144 
 
 Gillman, Mr. James, surgeon at High- 
 gate, 108, 150; Coleridge recom- 
 mended to, as a patient, 219; accepts 
 him joyfully, ib. ; Coleridge's early 
 testimony to his benevolence and 
 sl'ill, 221 ; satisfied with Coleridge's 
 submission to discipline, 226 ; 246 ; 
 builds a new studyfor Coleridge, 255 ; 
 a momentaiy rupture with Coleridge, 
 255 and 7iote ; receives benefit of 
 1828 edition of Coleridge's Foef. 
 IVorks, 263; 269; 270; his letter 
 to The Times on the withdrawal of 
 R. Associates' pension, 272 ; Cole- 
 ridge's tribute to Mr. and Mrs. Gill- 
 man in his will, 278 ; 282 
 
 Gilsland place-names in Christabel, 
 lOS 
 
 Godesberg (on the Rhine), Coleridge 
 and Wordsworth visit Mr. and Mrs. 
 
 Aders at, and meet the illiiminati 
 of Bonn (1828), 264, 265 
 
 Godwin, ]\Iaiy (afterwards Mrs. Shel- 
 ley), 113 
 
 Godwin, William, Coleridge's projected 
 'Answer' to, 77; 91; renewed 
 intercourse with Coleridge in 1799, 
 106 ; intimate correspondence with 
 Coleridge, 1800, 112 zxiAnote; 137, 
 138; 141 
 
 Goethe, 189 ; Coleridge's disrelish for, 
 208 n. ; abortive proposal for transla- 
 tion of Faust, 208 and note ; asked 
 to review his Dichtiing und Wahrheit 
 in the Quarterly, 224 ; Carlyle's 
 translation of IVilhelin Meister, 254 
 ;;., 260 
 
 Goslar, Wordsworth winters at, in 
 
 1798-9, 95 
 
 Gottingen, Coleridge at, in 1799, 95, 
 97 ; leaves for England, loi 
 
 Gout, Coleridge believed he suffered 
 from irregular, in 1801, 122, 123; 
 a remark made in 1828 implies 
 that his system was free from, 266 
 
 Grasmere, Coleridge and Wordsworth 
 attracted by, in 1799, 105 ; [see also 
 under ' Dove Cottage ' and ' Allan 
 ' Bank ') 
 
 Grattan, T. Colley, his account of 
 Coleridge in 1828, 264 
 
 'Grecians,' The, of Ch. Hosp., of whom 
 Coleridge was one, 12 
 
 Greek Lexicon, Philosophical Grammar,, 
 and Accidence, etc., projected 
 works, 161 and ;;. 
 
 Green, Joseph Henry, first acquaint- 
 ance with Coleridge (1S17), 230 ; 
 close intimacy with Coleridge as 
 amanuensis and disciple, 231, 242, 
 246, 248, 253 ; on Coleridge's 
 'Logic' MSS. 251 n. ; present at 
 Coleridge's death, 277 ; sole literary 
 executor, distributes various tasks, 
 reserving for himself completion of 
 magnum opus, finds this impossible, 
 279, 280 ; his posthumous work. 
 Spiritual Fhilosophy, founded on the 
 teaching of the late S. T. Coleridge, 
 279 «., 280 ; his Hunterian Ora- 
 tions, 280 ; 282 
 Greenough, Mr., a fellow-student with 
 
 Coleridge at Gottingen, 102 
 Grenville, A , State - paper of Lord, 
 
 criticised by Coleridge, 108 
 Greta Hall, near Keswick, Coleridge's- 
 
 X 
 
3o6 
 
 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 first impression of, 112; begins re- 
 sidence, 113; descril^es, 112-115; 
 resides there from July 1800 until 
 end of 1803 — frequent references, 
 1 1 3- 14 1 ; Southeys begin their joint- 
 residence at, Sep. 1803, 140; 154, 
 155; 159' 165; 170; 176; 177; 179; 
 181 ; Coleridge's last visit to, 185, 
 186 ; promises to return to (1812-13) 
 unfulfilled, 193, 197; 203. (Mrs. 
 Coleridge continued to live at Greta 
 Hill until 1829.) 
 
 Groscollian motto, The (to Poems of 
 1797), 68 11. ; allusion to, 89. 
 
 Gunville, Josiah Wedgwood's Dorset- 
 shire house, 137 
 
 Gutch, John Mathew, undertakes print- 
 ing of Biog. Lit. and Sib. Leaves, 
 214 n. ; quarrels with Coleridge 
 over the business, the printed sheets 
 being transferred to Gale and Fan- 
 ner, 227 
 
 Hackney, Geo. Coleridge master in a 
 school at, 1 1 
 
 Hamburg, Coleridge at, in 1798, 94 
 
 Hamilton, Sir W. Rowan, 274 
 
 Ilainkf, 191; Lecture on, 238 
 
 Hammersmith, Coleridge resides with 
 Morgans at, 180, 182, 
 
 Hampstead, Mr. and Mrs. H. N. 
 Coleridge first settle at, 270 
 
 Hancock's portrait of Coleridge, vii. 
 
 Hanwell, Derwent Coleridge becomes 
 Rector of, 283 
 
 Happiness, 22 
 
 Hare, Julius Charles, on Aids to Re- 
 flection, 256 ; on Coleridge, his 
 works, and influence, 268 ; his 
 Meiiioh' of J. Sterling, 268 n. ; 
 279 
 
 Hartley: David, Coleridge's early parti- 
 ality for his system, 45, 56, 57, 
 165 n. 
 
 Hartz Mountains, Coleridge visits, 
 twice, 98, 102; describes tour in 
 letter to his wife, 98 
 
 Hazlitt, John, miniature painter 
 (brother to William H.) ; his portrait 
 of Coleridge, 134 and note 
 
 Hazlitt, William, the Essayist, 78 n.; 
 his account of Coleridge at Shrews- 
 bury in 1798, 81-83 ; his description 
 of Coleridge, 82 ; visits Coleridge at 
 Stowey, 86-88 ; his abridgement of 
 TncV^x's Light of Nat icre, 138; 144 
 
 n.; 181; 190; Coleridge accuses 
 him of plagiarism, 197; believed by 
 Coleridge to be author of attack on 
 Christabel, etc., in Edin. Rev., 222 ; 
 also of that on Statesman's JManual, 
 225 n., 226" Coleridge's attack on, 
 in S. Manual, 226 ; attacks Bio;^. 
 Lit. in Edin. Rev., 228 ; tirades 
 re Southey's Wat Tyler in Exanii- 
 7ier, 230 ; lectures at Surrey Institu- 
 tion concurrently with Coleridge's at 
 Fetter Lane (1818), 235 ; his sketch 
 of Coleridge in The Spirit of the Age, 
 257 ; Carlyle on, 261 n. 
 
 Heai't, To my own, 38 
 
 Heath, Charles, Coleridge's letter to 
 him on Pantisocracy, 38 n. 
 
 Higginbottom Sonnets, 89 
 
 High-churchman and Tory, The names 
 of, procured for Coleridge by his 
 Constitution of Church and State, 
 272 
 
 High Church revival influenced by 
 Coleridge's teachings, 269 
 
 Highgate, Coleridge begins residence 
 at ' The Grove ' (Mr. Gillman's), 
 Apr. 181 6, 219 ; a turning-point in 
 his life, 220 ; his circumstances at 
 the time, and his relations with the 
 world and with the Gillmans, 220, 
 221 ; (frequent references thence to 
 the end) ; the Highgate ' Thursday 
 Evenings,' begun c. 1824, 253, 255, 
 261 
 
 Hinves, David, servant and friend of 
 William Stewart Rose, and prototype 
 of 'Davie Gellatley,' Coleridge's re- 
 gard for, 225 
 
 Historical Plays of Shakespeare, Lec- 
 tures on, 238 
 
 History of Logic, incomplete MS., so 
 entitled, 251 n. 
 
 History of Philosophy, Lectures on 
 (1818-19)238-40; 'Guide' to the 
 course, 238 ; Prospectus of, 238 ;/. ; 
 fragmentary reports of, 238 n. 
 
 Hobbes's system attacked by Coleridge, 
 120 
 
 Homer, Lectures on, at Bristol in 18 14, 
 199; Coleridge's views on author- 
 ship of, 263, 264 and note 
 
 Homesick, 98 
 
 Homesickness, Coleridge's, when in 
 Germany, 96, 99 n., loi ; in Malta, 
 144 
 
 Hood, Thomas, meets Coleridge in 
 
INDEX 
 
 307 
 
 1826, 261 ; his etching, The Pro- 
 gress of Cant, 261 
 
 Hood, \Vm., of Bristol, 202 ; with 
 others, advances money to Coleridge 
 on his MSS., 211, 214 
 
 Hook, Theodore, meets Coleridge and 
 improvises verses on him ; Coleridge 
 pronounces him a man of true genius, 
 
 264 71. 
 
 Howell of Covent Garden, Coleridge 
 lodges with, in 1802, 128 
 
 Hovvick, Lord, Foreign Secretary in 
 1806, 154 
 
 Howley, Bishop, of London, commends 
 Aids to Reflection, 256 
 
 Hucks, J., of Catherine Hall, Cam- 
 bridge, Coleridge's companion in 
 Welsh tour of 1794, 29; ]:)ublishes 
 account of the tour, 32 ;/. ; Coleridge 
 meets him at Exeter in 1799, 104 
 
 Humboldt, Baron W., Coleridge meets, 
 at Rome, 150 and note 
 
 Hume, David, Coleridge's opinion of, 
 112, 137 
 
 Hunt, Leigh, allows Hazlitt to abuse 
 Coleridge in his Examiner, 190; 
 
 255 
 
 HiDiterian Orations, on Coleridge's 
 philosophy, by J. H. Green, 280 
 
 Hutchinson, Mary (afterwards Mrs. 
 WiUiam Wordsworth), 105 ;/. See 
 also under 'Wordsworth, Mrs. Wm.' 
 
 Hutchinson, Miss Sarah (sister of 
 preceding), 105 n.; Coleridge dictated 
 71ie Friend to, 176 and note, 214; 
 218 
 
 Hutchinson, Thomas (brother of pre- 
 ceding), 105 
 
 Hymn before Sunrise in the Tale of 
 Chamonni, its genesis, 140 n.; De 
 Quincey on, 140 71. 
 
 Hymns on the Elements, projected, 
 248 
 
 Idiot Boy, The, recited to Hazlitt by 
 
 Coleridge, 87 ; 93 
 Idolatry ' : ' God [or ' Bard '] of my, 
 
 Bowles so described by Coleridge, 
 
 59, n 
 
 Illustrated london A^ews: 'Unpublished 
 Letters of S. T. Coleridge. Edited 
 by E. PL Coleridge,' printed in 
 1S93, 10 «. (frequently quoted from) 
 
 Imagination and Fancy (MS.), Disquisi- 
 tion on generic difference between 
 the faculties of, 213 
 
 Iinitationsfro/n the Modern Latin Poets, 
 Coleridge projects a volume of, 30 
 and note, 47 n. 
 
 Imlay, Fanny (daughter of Mary Woll- 
 stonecroft) 113 
 
 Iinnwrtality, Wordsworth's Ode on the 
 Intimations of, 150 w. 
 
 Improvisatore, The, 266 
 
 ' Indolence capable of energies,' Cole- 
 ridge's characteristic, 58, no 
 
 Infidelity. Coleridge 'sported infidel' 
 at school, 13 
 
 Ingleby, Dr. C. Mansfield, on Cole- 
 ridge's unpublished MSS., 252 11. 
 
 Inside the Coach, 22 
 
 Insurance of Coleridge's life for ;i^iooo 
 in 1803, 169, 183, 21 1, 229 ; Policy 
 produces at death ;^256o, 279 
 
 Irish Protestant,' ' An, a pseudonym 
 of Coleridge, in 18 14, 208 n., 210 
 
 Irving, Edward, a disciple of Cole- 
 ridge from 1822, 253 ; dedicates a 
 published sermon to him, 255 ; 
 introduces Carlyle to him, 259 ; 
 260 11. 
 
 Isabella (play), 191 
 
 Italian Literature, Coleridge offers to 
 lecture on, in 18 19, 240 
 
 Itcliin, To the Kiver, sonnet by 
 Bowles, quoted, 18 n. 
 
 Jackson, Mr., owner of Greta Hall, 
 and friend of Coleridge and Southey, 
 115 and note ; 1 70 
 
 Jameson, Mr. (husband of Mrs. Anna 
 J.), superintends collective edition of 
 Coleridge's Poet. JVorhs, 1828, 263 
 
 Jeffrey, Lord, garbles Coleridge's article 
 on Clarkson's History of Slave Trade 
 in Edinburgh Review, 168 and 7iote; 
 disputes certain statements respecting 
 himself in Biog. Lit., 228 
 
 Jerdan, Wm. (of the Literary Gazette), 
 describes jovial dinner-party at which 
 Coleridge was present, 264 n. 
 
 Jerusalem besieged and destroyed by 
 Titus, An epic on, projected by Cole- 
 ridge, 248 and jiote 
 
 Jesus College, Cambridge, Coleridge 
 appointed to an Exhibition at, in 
 1791, 21 ; leaves, in 1794, 41 
 
 Joan of Arc (Southey's poem), Cole- 
 ridge's contributed lines to, which 
 were recast into a series of fragments 
 finally called The Destiny of Nations, 
 64, 69 
 
3o8 
 
 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 Johnson (Cowper's and Coleridge's pub- 
 lisher), 92 
 
 Journalism, Coleridge proposes to work 
 at, in 1795. 43 
 
 Journalistic writings, their quality, 108, 
 109 and note ; some collected in 
 Assays on his own Times, 107 n. 
 See also under Courier, Alorning 
 Chronicle, and RIorning Post. 
 
 Julius Cicsar (Shakespeare's play of), 
 191 
 
 Kant and the post-Kantianers, Cole- 
 ridge on, 187 n. 
 
 Kean (Edmund), proposes to perform 
 Walleustein, i^i\ 
 
 Keate, Dr., of Eton, 23 n. 
 
 Keats, John, his account of a walk with 
 Coleridge in 18 19, 242, 243 
 
 'Kendal Black Drop,' 124 and iiote 
 
 icing's Amis, Hoss, Lines at the, 32 n. 
 
 Kinnaird, Adam S., Coleridge's death- 
 bed letter to, 273 and note 
 
 Kinnaird, Hon. Douglas, 223 
 
 Kirkstone Pass, 136, 174 
 
 Kisses, 25 n. 
 
 Klopstock (author of Jllessiah), Cole- 
 ridge and Wordsworth visit, at 
 Hamburg, 1798, 94; Frederica 
 Brun's poem, plagiarised by Cole- 
 ridge, addressed to, 140 n. 
 
 Knight, Prof W. , 193 (frequent 
 references to his Life of lVo7-dswort h) 
 
 Kiibla Khan, 49, "^j %q ; composed 
 in 1798, 88 and note; published 
 with Christabel in 1816, 218, 221 ; 
 Lamb's description of Coleridge's 
 recital of, 49, 218 
 
 La Belle Dame sans merci (Keats's 
 poem), 243 
 
 Lake Country, tour made by Coleridge 
 and Wordsworth, in 1799, 105 ; 
 Coleridge's last visit to (18 12) 186 
 
 Lamb, Charles, on Coleridge at Christ's 
 Hospital, 8, 9, 1 1 ; 1 3 ; 1 9 ; 20 ; 35 ; 
 joined by Coleridge in winter of 1794, 
 42; description of Coleridge in 1816, 
 compared with Poole's in 1795, 49 j 
 opinion of Poenis, 1796, 55 ; on 
 the farming scheme (i797)) 63 ; 
 poems printed with Coleridge's and 
 Lloyd's in 1797, 68 n.; visit to 
 Stowey, 71, 89 and note; quarrels 
 with Coleridge in 1798, 89, 90 and 
 note, 91; 95; Coleridge resides with. 
 
 in 1800, no. III; 120; Latin 
 letter on Dejection, 129 «. ; with 
 his sister, visits (ireta Hall, 134, 
 135; edits Coleridge's Poems, 3rd 
 ed. 1803, 137, 141 ; receives Cole- 
 ridge on return from Malta, 153, 
 154; on Coleridge's lectures and 
 health in 1808, 167, 168 ; on Cole- 
 ridge in 1 8 10, 181 ; writes pro- 
 logue to Remorse, 1 90 it. ; account 
 of Coleridge in April 1816, the ex- 
 citement of his presence and neigh- 
 bourhood, 218 ; 234 ; dedicates his 
 Works (2 vols. 1 818) to Coleridge, 
 236 ; regrets restriction of intercourse 
 with Coleridge, 236, 237 ; on Lec- 
 tures of 1818-19, etc., 239; 254; 
 at a ' Highgate Thursday,' 255 ; on 
 Ed. Irving's dedication of book to 
 Coleridge, 255) 256 ; intercourse in 
 1826, 261 ; opinion of H. N. Cole- 
 ridge's West Indian book, 262 ; 
 a week's visit from Coleridge at 
 Enfield, 1828, 266; intercourse in 
 1829-30, 270, 271 ; in 1832, 273; 
 on Coleridge's death, 278 ; 282 
 
 Lamb, Mary, 71 n., 145, 167, 182; 
 on second difference between Cole- 
 ridge and Wordsworth ; on death 
 of John Wordsworth, 194 and note ; 
 261 ; 273 
 
 Landor, W. Savage, visits Coleridge 
 in 1832, 273, 274 
 
 Lansdowne, Marquis of. Intercourse of 
 Coleridge with, in 18 14- 15, 208, 
 213 ; 271 
 
 Last illness and death of Coleridge, 
 277 
 
 Laudanum used for alleviation of neur- 
 algia by Coleridge in 1796, 59 (all 
 other references under ' Opium ') 
 
 Lay Sermons : first, 224, 225 and note ; 
 second, 228 and note ; a third pro- 
 jected, 226 
 
 Leake, KA., Captain, 147 
 
 Lear, Lecture on, 238 
 
 Le Breton, Mr., of Bristol, 202 
 
 Leckie, Mr., at Syracuse, curious letter 
 to, from Sir A. Ball, on Coleridge 
 and other matters, 146 
 
 Lecture, A Moral and Political (1795), 
 44 n. 
 
 Lectures : ' On Taste,' projected in 
 1806, 154, 159, 164; 'On Principles 
 of Poetry'at Royal Institution(i8o8), 
 167-169; on Shakespeare and Milton, 
 
INDEX 
 
 309 
 
 etc., 1811-12, 184 and note, 185; on 
 the Drama, 18 12, 187; on Belles Let- 
 tres, 1813, 188, 189; several courses 
 at Bristol, 1813-14, 198, 199 ; on 
 Fine Arts, at Bristol, 181 3, 199; 
 on Shakespeare, etc., Jan. -March 
 1818, 234, 235 and note; on His- 
 tory of Philosophy, and on six 
 selected plays of Shakespeare, de- 
 livered concurrently, 181 8- 19, 238 
 and note, 239, 240 ; subjects pro- 
 posed by Coleridge for lectures, 240; 
 collection of reports of, by T. Ashe 
 in 1883, 184 n. 
 
 Leech Gatherer, The, 132 ;/. 
 
 Le Grice, The brothers, 20 ; C. 
 Valentine, 25, 274 n. 
 
 Leghorn, Coleridge sails from, to Eng- 
 land in 1806, 151, 152 
 
 Leighton, Arclibishop, Coleridge on, 
 202, 254 
 
 Lendon, Mary (first wife of Coleridge's 
 father), i ; her death in 1751, 2 
 
 Leslie, R.A., C. R., meets Coleridge 
 at Bristol in 18 13, and hears him 
 lecture, 199, 200 and 7iote 
 
 Lessing, Coleridge projects a life of, 
 97, 102 
 
 Letters, Coleridge's ' inability ' to open 
 or reply to, 28, 177, 182, 186; on 
 his childhood, 4 ; these largely 
 quoted, 4-7 ; 247 
 
 Lczvti, first addressed to Mary Evans, 
 original draft quoted, 30 
 
 Liberal, The (Byron and Hunt's peri- 
 odical), 81 n., 225 n. 
 
 Lieutaud's anatomical works, 217 
 
 LJme-tree Bower my Prison, This, 71 
 
 Linton, in Devonshire, 85, 87 
 
 Lippincotfs ]\Lagazine, Letters of Cole- 
 ridge printed in, 222 n., 224 n., 
 227 «. , 231 ;/. 
 
 LAterary Remains, Coleridge's, edited 
 by H. N. Coleridge, 257, 280 
 
 Literature, English, German, or Italian, 
 Coleridge offers to lecture on, in 
 1S19, 240 
 
 Littlehampton, Coleridge visits, in 
 1 81 7, and makes acquaintances 
 there, 232 
 
 Liverpool, Lord, 262, 271 
 
 Liverpool worthies, A group of (1S07), 
 
 "3 
 Lloyd, Charles, domesticates with 
 Coleridge, 1796, 56; their early 
 relations, 57 ; afflicted with epilepsy. 
 
 60 ; 63 ; his poems printed with 
 Coleridge's in 1797, 65, 68 «. ; 
 goes with Coleridge to Stowey, 66 ; 
 invited to subscribe to Coleridge's 
 annuity in 1797, 66; 67 ; no longer 
 regularly with Coleridge in June 
 I797i n ; rupture with Coleridge 
 in 1798, 88-91 ; 90 ;;. ; his habit 
 of mischief-making, 90 ; his novel 
 Edmund Oliver, 91 ; 103 ; on speak- 
 ing terms with Coleridge in 1802, 
 135 ; intercourse in 18 10, 177 
 
 Locke, Coleridge on (1801), 120 
 
 Locker-Lampson, Mr. F., Catalogue 
 of his Rovvfant Library, quoted, 
 186 n. 
 
 Lockhart, John Gibson, 242 n., 
 244, n. ; 263, 264 ;/. 
 
 Logic, Projected work on, 13S ; 246 ; 
 'nearly' (but never) completed, 251 
 and note^ 253 ; J. H. Green on the 
 MS., 251 n. 
 
 Logical Exercises, a projected work, 
 251 and note 
 
 Logos, Projected work on the (the 
 magnnm opus, q.v. ), 207 
 
 Logosophia, second of the various titles 
 chosen for the magnum opus (q.v.), 
 
 215 
 
 London Hospital, Visits wards of, with 
 his brother Luke [c. 17 88), 13 
 
 Longman and Co., 106, 119, 160 «., 
 227 
 
 Longman, Mr. Thomas Norton (the 
 second), 117 11. 
 
 Lord's Prayer, Odes on the, projected, 
 210 
 
 Losh, James, 86 
 
 Lottery, Irish (1793), Coleridge prob- 
 ably bought ticket in, 26, 27 
 
 Love, the difference between loving 
 and desiring to be loved, 237 
 
 Love, Hope, and Patience in Educa- 
 tion, 267 
 
 Lovell, Robert (husband of Mary 
 Fricker), 35, 43 
 
 Lyrical Ballads, 86, 91 ; publication 
 (1798) and receiDtion, 93 ; Southey 
 on, ib. ; the second edition (1800), 
 Coleridge's concern with, 117, 118 
 
 Macaulay, Alexander, Public Sec- 
 retary at Malta, his death, 147 
 
 ULacbeth, Lecture on, 238 
 
 Mackintosh, Sir James, 85 ; Cole- 
 ridge's satirical verses on, 119 and 
 
SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 note; 128; 142; proposed Life of 
 T.Wedgwood, 155, 160 
 
 Maclise's drawing of Coleridge in 
 Frascr's Magazine, 276 
 
 I\Iac?nillan''s Magazine, quoted, 133 7i. 
 
 Magmiiit. opits,'' ' Tlie, first mentioned 
 under title of ' Cliristianity, the one 
 true Philosophy,' 207, 210; to be 
 called Logosopliia, 215 ; will revo- 
 lutionise Philosophy and Meta- 
 physics ; 'complete except for trans- 
 cription ' (1820), 247 ; described as 
 ' greater work on Religion,' first 
 half completed (1822), 251 ; Green's 
 unsuccessful effort to complete, after 
 Coleridge's death, 279, 280 ; results 
 of Green's efforts in his Hiinterian 
 Orations, and in posthumous work, 
 Spiritttal Philosophy, 2"]^ and note, 
 280 
 
 Malta, Coleridge's desire to go tc, 
 141, 143 ; sails for, 143 ; arrives 
 at, 144 ; public appointments at, 
 145-148 n. ; leaves, 151, 152 
 
 Manuscripts : on Logic, extant, 25 i n. ; 
 those left at death, bequeathed to, 
 J. H. Green, 279 
 
 Marginalia, Coleridge's habit of writing 
 on books, 254, 255, 280 
 
 Marshall, Mrs., correspondent of Miss 
 Wordsworth, 170 
 
 Martin, Rev. H., Coleridge's letter to, 
 on Welsh tour of 1794, 32 «., 34; 
 Fall of Robespierre dedicated to, 32 
 
 Martineau, Harriet, her interview with 
 Coleridge in 1833, 275 
 
 Mathews, Charles, invites Coleridge to 
 meet Scott, 244 
 
 Maturin, Rev. Mr., his Bertram, ac- 
 cepted for Drury Lane in default of 
 Coleridge's Zapolya ; Coleridge's 
 attack on Bej-trani in Biog. Lit. 
 (and in Courier?), 223 ;;. ; 244 
 
 Maurice, Rev. F. D., his feeling of 
 indebtedness to Aids to Reflection, 
 256 ; strongly influenced by Cole- 
 ridge (whom he never met) whose 
 teaching he did much to spread, 
 268 and note ; 283 
 
 Maxilian, a fantastic piece of auto- 
 biography contributed to Blaclrcvood, 
 249 ;/. 
 
 May, John, 104 
 
 Messiah, Cottle's epic so entitled, re- 
 vised by Coleridge, 205 
 
 Metaphysical studies, 119-121 (etc.) 
 
 Metaphysics,' ' History of (mythical), 
 128, 137 
 
 Meteyard, Miss, mistakes in her Group 
 of Englishmen, 91 n., 192 ;/. 
 
 Method, On, Preliminary Treatise, in 
 Encyclopcedia Meti-opolitana, pub- 
 lished, 232, 233 ; repeated, sub- 
 stantially, in The Friend (of 1818), 
 233 and note 
 
 Methuen family, of Corsham House, 
 Wilts, Intercourse of Coleridge with, 
 in 1 8 14- 1 5, 208 and note 
 
 Methuen, Rev. T. A., his reminis- 
 cences of Coleridge, 18 14- 15, 208 n. 
 
 Michael, Archangel, Perugino's, 49 
 
 Middleton, H. V. (afterwards Bishop 
 of Calcutta), his kindness to Cole- 
 ridge at Ch. Hosp., II, 16 ; and at 
 Cambridge, 19, 22 ; leaves Cam- 
 bridge, 24 ; 165 n. 
 
 IMilton, style characterised, 59 ; Lec- 
 tures on Shakespeare and, London, 
 1811-12, 184; at Bristol, 1813-14, 
 199 ; his Satan described by Cole- 
 ridge as a ' sceptical Socinian,' 207 
 ;/. 
 
 Mitford, Miss Mary R., 29 
 
 Monkhouse's (kinsman of W'ordsworth) 
 dinner-party, described by Lamb 
 and Moore, 1823, 252;/. 
 
 Montagu, Basil, 158, 173 ; Coleridge's 
 quarrel with, in 1810, 180, 185 ; 
 reconciled before 1820, 245 ; inter- 
 ests himself in Coleridge, 257 
 
 Monthly Magazine, 53, 63, 79, So 
 
 Jllonthly Review, 25 
 
 Moore's {Thomsis) jMeinoiis, 252, 278 n. 
 
 More, Hannah, 35, 200 
 
 Morgagni's anatomical works, 217 
 
 Morgan family (J. J. M., his wife and 
 sister-in-law. Miss Charlotte Brent) 
 nurse Coleridge in 1807, 166 and 
 note ; he begins a prolonged resi- 
 dence with, in iSio, 180, 181 ; 185 ; 
 186 ; efforts to cure Coleridge of 
 his opium habit, 203 ; he rejoins, 
 after short interval in 181 3- 14, at 
 Ashley, 207 ; 209 ; 211 ; his tributes 
 to, 2i7;2i8;277; fortunes ruined 
 in 1816, 225 ; 233 
 
 Morning Chronicle, Coleridge's first 
 contribution to, 1793, 26 and note, 
 27 ; ' Sonnets on Eminent Charac- 
 ters,' printed in, in 1794, 43 ; pro- 
 posed as sub-editor, 53 ; 196, 197 ;239 
 
 I\Iorning Post, Coleridge engages to 
 
INDEX 
 
 3ir 
 
 write in, in 179S, 84 ; contributes 
 poems to, 85 and note ; engages to 
 contribute from Germany, 92, 93 ; 
 fails to do so, 96 ; writes political 
 articles in, in 1799- 1800, 105 ; his 
 worlc in, its qualities, and after- 
 controversy regarding it, 105 -1 10; 
 later contributions to, 128, 134 and 
 note, 151 
 
 Morris, M.D.,' Peter, 'Letter to [i.e. to 
 J. G. Lockhart), its unauthorised 
 publication resented by Coleridge, 
 242 n. 
 
 Morrison, Mr. Alfred, his great MSS. 
 collection at Fonthill, 15, etc. 
 
 Morritt, Mr. (Scott's friend), discusses 
 Homer with Coleridge, 264 
 
 Moseley, Coleridge preaches at, in 
 1796, 55 _ 
 
 J.Iotto, one in JVatchinan which gave 
 offence, 52 ; the ' Groscollian ' 
 (that to Poems, 1797), 68 n. ; Cole- 
 ridge's remark on, 68 ;/. 
 
 ]\Ioultrie, Rev. John, his poems edited 
 by Derwent Coleridge, 283 
 
 Mountain influences, Coleridge on, 
 136 n. 
 
 Muddiford, Hants, Visit to, 224 ; in- 
 tercourse there with W. Stewart 
 Rose and D. Hinves, 225 
 
 Mudford, Mr., assistant -editor of 
 Coiiriei; letters to, 239, 240 
 
 Munster, Earl of, 272 
 
 Murray, John (II.), negotiates un- 
 successfully with Coleridge for trans- 
 lation of Faust, 208 and note ; 
 publishes Christabel (etc. ) by recom- 
 mendation of Byron (to whom 
 it was recommended by Scott), 221 
 and notes ; agrees to publish Zapolya, 
 arrangements break down, 223 ; 
 other negotiations which failed, 223, 
 224, 227, 248 
 
 Music, The hearing of good, inspired 
 Coleridge, 275 
 
 Naples, Coleridge at, in 1805-6, 149, 
 
 150 
 
 Napoleon Buonaparte, A "Character" 
 of, promised for the JSI. Post, but 
 never written, 108 ; is rumoured to 
 have ordered Coleridge's arrest at 
 Rome, in 1806, 151 
 
 Neo-Platonists, The, Coleridge's early 
 and later passion for, 13, 58, 59 
 
 Nesbitt, Miss F., 25 n. 
 
 Nether Stowey, Coleridge's first visit 
 to Poole at, 31, 32 and note ; 47 ; 53 ; 
 57 ; anxious to live at, 59-61 ; enters 
 the cottage at, 62 ; residence at, 
 1797-8, Chap. IV. passim, tablet 
 affixed to cottage which it is pro- 
 posed to purchase as memorial, 62 
 n, ; occupations and feelings at, 65, 
 66 ; \o\ n. ; return from Germany 
 to, 102; 105; 112; failure to find 
 suitable house at, 1800, 112, 113; 
 after-visits to, 127, 158, 159, 164 
 
 Niebuhr, Meeting with, in 1828, 265 
 
 Night-horrors of the opium-eater, 139 
 and note, 140, 245 
 
 Nightingale : The, A Conversation 
 Poem, 85, 93, loi and note 
 
 Nile, Battle of the, 96 
 
 Ninathoma, The Complaint 0/, 1^ n., 
 24 ;/. 
 
 Norfolk Street, Strand, Coleridge 
 lodges at, in 18 16, 218 
 
 Northcote's portrait of Coleridge, 143, 
 265 
 
 Northern Languages, Coleridge studies 
 the, 119 
 
 Novalis, Carlyle's Essay on, quoted, 
 269 
 
 Oberon; Projected translation of 
 Wieland's, 79 ; Sotheby's transla- 
 tion, 112 n. 
 Ogle, Captain, of 1 5th Lt. Dragoons, 29 
 Old Familiar Faces, The (Lamb's 
 
 verses), 90 71. 
 Old Fo}-tiinatits, Decker's, 261 
 Omniana, the joint-work by Coleridge 
 and Southey, so entitled, 181 2, 186 
 and note 
 Opium {see also under ' Laudanum '), 
 88 and note ; beginning of the 
 'slavery' to (1801), 122-125; 123 
 n., 128 n., 130, 132, 136, 139 and 
 note, 141, 142, 168 ; suspended for 
 a time 1 69-1 71 ; increased con- 
 sumption at Bristol, 1 813-14, 200- 
 206 ; efforts of the Morgans to effect 
 a cure, 203 ; Coleridge's letters of 
 remorseful confession (1814), 201, 
 202, 206 ; Cottle and Southey on 
 Coleridge's indulgence in, 201-203, 
 204 n. ; regains upper hand in 
 18 16, when Coleridge determines 
 to free himself from ' this most 
 pitiable slavery,' 217 ; with this 
 view consults Dr. Adams, and 
 
SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 becomes patient of Mr. Gillman, 
 219-221 ; amenable to discipline, 
 Dec. 1816, 226; recourse to, 
 under special troubles, 245, 255 n., 
 266 ; the spell it cast, 267 and note 
 
 Organiim verc Orgaiiimi, a projected 
 work, 138 
 
 Oriel, Hartley forfeits fellowship of, 
 
 245 
 
 Origin of Evil, the subject of a pro- 
 jected epic, 64 
 
 Orthodoxy complete in 1S14, 207 and 
 note 
 
 Osorio (see also under Remorse^ begun 
 at Sheridan's request, 65 ; admired 
 by Wordsworth, 67 ; 71 ; submitted 
 to Bowles, 77 ; completed, sent to 
 Drury Lane, and rejected, 78 ; 
 Cottle's offer to publish, declined, 
 ib. ; offered to Covent Garden (?), 
 ib. ; quoted by Coleridge, 100; to 
 be 'published as a poem,' 120; 
 rewritten and played under title of 
 Remorse, 18S, 190 
 
 Othello, Lecture on, 238 
 
 Otter, Sonnet to the River, 7 ; com- 
 pared with Bowles's sonnet To the 
 River Itchin, 18 and note 
 
 Ottery St. Mary, Devon (usually called 
 ' Ottery '), Coleridge's birthplace, 
 I ; leaves it for Christ's Hospital, 
 8 ; holiday visits to, 22, 25 n. ; a 
 visit of reconciliation to, in 1796, 
 54; proposed visit in 1798, 88; 
 Coleridge and wife visit (1799), 
 104; a proposed visit in 1807, 
 frustrated, 158, 1 59 
 
 Overwork and anxieties in 1S16, 224 
 
 Oxford, Coleridge visits, in 1794, and 
 makes Southey's acquaintance, 29, 
 30 ; his teachings influence the 
 'Oxford Movement,' 272 
 
 Page, Mr., surgeon at Calne, 209 
 Pains of Sleep, The, 99 «., 139, 266 
 Pantisocracy, origin of the scheme, 
 31 ; described by Poole, 33 ; list of 
 Pantisocrats, 35 ; occupied Cole- 
 ridge's whole attention during last 
 term at Cambridge, 37 ; then 
 forgotten for a while, 42 ; renewed 
 enthusiasm, 43 ; financial difficulties, 
 ib. ; 45 ; scheme dies out on dis- 
 affection of Southey, 46 ; 54 
 Pantomime, Coleridge thinks of com- 
 posing a, 261 
 
 Paper-money, Coleridge in favour of, 
 in 18 10, 181 
 
 Paradise Regained, on certain passages 
 in, 207 
 
 Parry, two brothers, fellow-students at 
 Gottingen with Coleridge, 97 
 
 ' Passive buckets ' pumped into by 
 Coleridge, 214, 268 n. 
 
 Pearce, Dr., Master of Jesus Coll., 
 Camb., his unsuccessful reasonings 
 with Coleridge, 41 
 
 Penrith, The Friend (1S09-10), printed 
 and published at, 172; 185, 186 
 
 Pension, Coleridge receives, as Royal 
 Associate of the R. Soc. of Litera- 
 ture (1825-1830), 257; its with- 
 drawal, 272 ; his vexation thereat, 
 273, 274 {see also under 'An- 
 nuities ') 
 
 Perry, James, proprietor of the 
 Mo7-ning Chronicle, 53, 54, 216 
 
 Perugino's Archangel Michael ('The 
 Virgin adoring the Infant Christ ') 
 in National Gallery, 49 
 
 Peter Bell, read by Wordsworth to 
 Hazlitt in 1798, 87 
 
 Phantasniion, a Fairy tale by Sara 
 Coleridge, 283 
 
 Phillipps, Sir Richard, 1 19 
 
 Pliilosophy, The History of, projected 
 work on, 247 n. 
 
 Philosophy, Lectures on the Hist, of, 
 1818-19, 238-240 
 
 Pickering, Wm., publishes collective 
 edition of Coleridge's Poet. Works, 
 1828, 1829, and 1834, 263 and 
 notes 
 
 Picture, The, or the Lover's Resolution, 
 
 Pinney, family of, Bristol, 64 ;/., 127 
 
 IIi(TTts (pseudonym of Rev. T. A. ]\Ieth- 
 uen of All Cannings, Wilts), remin- 
 iscences of Coleridge, 1814-15, 208 
 
 Pitt, Coleridge lectures against his 
 policy, 1795-96, 45 ; a speech by, 
 reported by him in 1S08, 107 ; 
 writes a famous ' Character of Pitt,' 
 in AI. Post in 1800, 108; narrowly 
 escapes aiding Pitt's wars in 1805 as 
 Assist. Commissary, 147; his 'de- 
 testation ' of Pitt's policy, 168 71. ; 
 his praise of Pitt's attitude on 
 Anti-Slavery question suppressed by 
 Jeffrey, 168 and note 
 
 Pixies, Songs of the, ' The Pixies' Par- 
 lour,' near Ottery, 25 ;/. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Plot discovered. The (otherwise called, 
 A Protest against certain Bills), 
 Lecture-pamphlet of 1795, 44 "• 
 
 Poems on various Siihjects published in 
 1796, audits reception, 53 > a second 
 edition arranged for (1797) on cer- 
 tain terms, 64, 65 ; published, 68 ; 
 Preface to, quoted ; remarks therein 
 on first edition, 69 n. ; third edition 
 published in 1803, 137 and note 
 
 Poems containing reminiscences of 
 childhood, 7 ;/. ; of school days, 9, 
 70 
 
 Poems of later life, Character of, 266 
 
 Poetical faculty revives in 1823, 254 ; 
 again c. 1 827-9, 266 ; feels it stir- 
 ring in 1833, 275 
 
 Poetical Works collected and edited 
 by himself, proposed in 1823, 253 ; 
 accomplished in 1828 and 1829, 263 
 and notes; in 1834, edited mainly 
 by H. N. Coleridge, 263 n. 
 
 Poetical Works, edition of 1893, quoted 
 as containing poems therein first 
 printed or collected, 15 ;/., 16 n., 
 23 n., 26 n., 37 n., 45 n., 129 n., 
 140 n., 157 «., 254 «. , 268 n. 
 
 Poetry ' abandoned ' by Coleridge, 
 iSoi, 120 
 
 Poetry as a pot-boiler, 47 and 7iote 
 
 Poetry, Concerning, a projected work, 
 intended to ' supersede all books of 
 metaphysics and morals,' 121 
 
 Poetry,' ' On the Principles of, Lectures, 
 1808, 167-169 
 
 Political Economy ('modern') discussed 
 with PL Martineau, 275 
 
 Political Essays, Proposes to collect 
 his, in 1809, and again in 1 8 14, 
 209, 216 
 
 Political Essays of Hazlitt, 230 
 
 Poole, Wiss Charlotte, sketches, in 
 
 I795> 47 
 Poole, Thomas, 31 ; described, 32 ti. ; 
 Coleridge's letters to, on his child- 
 hood, 4-8, 249 ; describes Coleridge, 
 Southeyand Pantisocracy(i794), 32- 
 34 ; lines addressed to Coleridge in 
 1795' 47) 48 5 collects for testimonial 
 to Coleridge in 1796, 52; procures 
 cottage at Stowey for Coleridge, 62 ; 
 his usefulness to Coleridge, 66 ; his 
 early estimate of Wordsworth, 67 ; 
 his troubles on behalf of Wordsworth, 
 73, 74 ; introduces Coleridge to the 
 Wedgwoods, 80; letters to Coleridge 
 
 in Germany, 95, 96, 100; Cole- 
 ridge feels Poole to be his 'anchor,' 
 loi ; reconciles Coleridge with 
 Southey, 1799, 103 ; Coleridge's 
 regrets at losing Poole's society on 
 going to Greta Hall, 113, 114, 
 118; jealous of Coleridge's growing 
 attachment to Wordsworth, 114; 
 120 ; consulted by Coleridge on his 
 complex troubles in 1801, 122, 126, 
 127 ; letter from Coleridge to, 134 ; 
 visited by Coleridge, 136 ; visited 
 again, in London lodgings (1804), 
 141 ; receives Coleridge and family on 
 long visit in 1807, at Stowey, 158, 
 159; acts as peacemaker, 159; 
 letter of Mrs. Coleridge to, 165 ; 
 Wordsworth appeals to, on behalf of 
 Coleridge, 173; helps The Friend 
 financially, ib. ; letter to, from Mrs. 
 Coleridge, 177, 178; 179; renewed 
 correspondence with Coleridge in 
 1813, 191, 192; 203,204; contributes 
 towards Hartley's expenses at Ox- 
 ford, 209; 214 n.; 220; correspond- 
 ence with Coleridge in 1820, 249 ; 
 again, in 1830 ; sketched in Consti- 
 tution of Church and State, 271 ; 
 Coleridge speaks much of Poole in 
 last years, 274 ; last visit to Cole- 
 ridge in April 1834, 276; 277; 
 282 
 
 Portraits of Coleridge : John Hazlitt's 
 (1802), 135; Northcote's (1804), 
 143, 265 ; Allston's (1806), 150 ;/. ; 
 Allston's (1814), 150 ;/., 205 ; Van- 
 dyke's (1795 — Frontispiece to this 
 volume) and Hancock's mentioned 
 in the Preface, vii. 
 
 Post-Kantianers, The, 187 ;/. 
 
 Poverty compels Coleridge to trivial 
 occupations, 210, 247 
 
 Praed, Winthrop ]\I., Derwent Cole- 
 ridge edits his poems, 283 
 
 Prayer, Coleridge on, 202, 262 
 
 Preface to Second Edition of Poems 
 (1797) quoted, 69 n. 
 
 Prelude, The, quoted, 9, 86 ; addressed 
 to Coleridge, who took portion of 
 MS. with him to Malta, 150 n., 
 157; his poem in response to Words- 
 worth's recital of, 157 ; original 
 version quoted, 157 n. 
 
 Pridham, Mary, married to Derwent 
 Coleridge in 1827 ; Coleridge's 
 verses to her, 270 
 
314 
 
 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 Printers and Publishers, Quarrels with, 
 
 227, 228 
 Procrastination, Coleridge confesses to 
 
 a habit of, 118, 160, 177, 182, 26S 
 Proctor, Mrs. B. \V. (wife of 'Barry 
 
 Cornwall'), 179 
 Prometheus of ^schylus, Paper on, 
 
 read before R. Soc. of Literature, 
 
 257 
 Protest against certain Bills, A {see 
 
 under "■ Plot discovered. The''), 44 n. 
 Publishers and printers, Quarrels with, 
 
 227, 228 
 Puff and Slander, a projected satire, 
 
 234 ;/. 
 Pupils advertised for, in 1822 ; course 
 
 of instruction proposed, 250 
 Purkis, Samuel, tanner, and scientific 
 
 writer on tanning, 54, 114 
 Puseyism, its advent attributed by 
 
 Carlyle to Coleridge's teaching, 269 
 
 Quaker Principles, Coleridge on, 
 
 142 n., 172 n. 
 Quantock Hills, The, 32 n., 68 ; 
 
 Wordsworth on, 86 
 QuaiTels with Printers and Publishers, 
 
 213 n., 227, 228 
 Quarterly Review, relations with, 204, 
 
 224, 237 n., 238 
 
 Rabbinical Wisdom, Specimens of, 
 projected work, for Murray, of which 
 samples appear in The Friend {iSog- 
 10), 224 and note 
 
 Racedown(ahousein Dorset), Coleridge 
 visits the Wordsworths at, in 1797, 
 66-68 
 
 Ramsgate, Visit to, in 1821, 249 and 
 note, 266 
 
 Rathbone, Mr., of Liverpool, 113 
 
 Ratzeburg, settles at, and studies Ger- 
 man, 94-97 
 
 Recollections of a Tour made in Scotland 
 in 1803, by Dorothy Wordsworth, 
 quoted, 138, 139 
 
 Reflections on leaving a Place of Retire- 
 ment (Clevedon), 51 
 
 Reform Bill of 1832, Coleridge on, 
 
 273 
 Religion, Letter on, to Cottle, 165 ; 
 
 Southey on Coleridge's, 165 «.; 
 
 Coleridge's mind undergoes a change 
 
 in regard to (1826), 262 
 Religious Musings, 45, 51, 53, 69 and 
 
 note 
 
 Remorse {Osorio, q.v., rewritten) 
 accepted by Drury Lane, 188; in 
 rehearsal, 189 ; performed, 190 ; 
 published, 190 and ttote ; criticised 
 at the time, by the author and 
 others, 190, 191 ; author's later 
 opinion, 191 ; prologue by Lamb, 
 190 n.; performed at Calne in 18 14 
 (and earlier), 211, 214, 216 
 
 Resolution and Indepoulence, Words- 
 worth's allusion to Coleridge (?) in, 
 132 n. 
 
 Retrospective Revie'u', The, 223 
 
 Reviewing, Coleridge works at {c. 
 1795-97), 43> 57, 63 ; his dislike to 
 (1816), 224 
 
 Revolution, the French, Views on, 85 
 and note 
 
 Reynell, Richard, his account of the 
 Stowey household in 1797, 74 
 
 Reynolds, F. Mansel, entertains Cole- 
 ridge to meet Theo. Hook, J. G. 
 Lockhart, etc., 264 n. 
 
 Rhine Tour with W. and Dora Words- 
 worth, in 1828, 264 
 
 Richard II., Lecture on, 238 
 
 Richter, Jean Paul, 200 
 
 Rickman, John, 141, 142 n., 143, 
 172 
 
 Robbers, The (Schiller's), 67 
 
 Robinson, Henry Crabb, reports Cole- 
 ridge's lectures in 1808, 169; first 
 meets him, 181 ; reports his lectures,' 
 184, 185, 187-189 ; reconciles Cole- 
 ridge and Wordsworth in 1812, 
 180, 187 ; converses with Coleridge 
 on German Philosophers, 187 n., 
 189 ; lends him German books, 189, 
 200 ; lends him Spinoza's works, 
 200 ; 208 n.', 226 ; consulted profes- 
 sionally by Coleridge, 229 ; 235, 240, 
 
 255, 273 
 
 Rogers, Sam., 185, 215, 216 n. 
 
 Rome, At, in 1806 ; acquaintances 
 made and occupations there, 150 
 and note, 151 ; manner and method 
 of quitting, uncertain, 150, 151 
 
 Romeo and Juliet, Lecture on, 239 
 
 Roscoe, Wm., 113 
 
 Rose, The, 25 n. 
 
 Rose, Wm. Stewart, intercourse with 
 Coleridge, 1816, 225, 244 
 
 Rousseau, J. J., 73 
 
 Rowe, Rev. Mr., Unitarian minister at 
 Shrewsbury, 81 
 
 Royal Associate of R. Soc. of Litera- 
 
INDEX 
 
 315 
 
 ture, Coleridge becomes, in 1S25, 
 257; 272 
 
 Royal Institution, Lectures at, in 1S08, 
 (preliminaries, 154, 158, 159, 164, 
 165, 166), 167 and note, 168, 169 
 and note ; Coleridge attends Davy's 
 lectures at, 128 
 
 Royal Society of Literature, connection 
 with, 257, 272 
 
 Rumford, Count, 55 and nofe 
 
 Russell, Mr., an Exeter artist, travels 
 from Italy to England with Coleridge 
 in 1806, 151 n., 152, 153 
 
 Russell Institution, Lectures at, pro- 
 posed, 240 and note 
 
 Rustat Scholarship (Jesus Coll.,Camb.), 
 held by Coleridge, 21 
 
 St. Lucia (W.L), Coleridge proposes 
 to go to, 127 
 
 St. Mark's College, Chelsea, 283 
 
 'Salutation and Cat,' frequented by 
 Coleridge and Lamb (1794), 42, 
 236 
 
 Samothracian Mysteries, Coleridge dis- 
 courses on, 263 
 
 Sandford, Mrs. Henry, author of Thos. 
 Poole and his Friends, 32, 47, 52 n., 
 114, 191 
 
 Satyrane's Letters, Coleridge's letters 
 from Germany, printed in The 
 Friend, 175 ; reprinted in the 
 Bi agraphia, 228 
 
 Schelling, 187 n., 200 
 
 Schiller, his Robbers, 67 ; Coleridge's 
 translation of the IValknstein, 106, 
 110-112, 191 
 
 Schlegel, Aug., 265 
 
 School at Derby, projected, 55 
 
 School friends, 11, 19 
 
 Scotland, Tour in, begun with Dorothy 
 and W. Wordsworth, 138, 139; 
 continued alone, 139, 140 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, hears Christabel 
 recited by Stoddart in 1800, 117; 
 imitates metre in Lay of Last Min- 
 strel, to the annoyance of Coleridge, 
 161, 244; 223 «.; meets Coleridge 
 in 1820, 244 ; an estimate of him, 
 as author, 244 ft. {see also under 
 ' Christabel') 
 
 Scriptural Character of the English 
 Church, by Derwent Coleridge, 283 
 
 Separation of Coleridge and his wife, 
 proposed terms, 155, 156; its effect 
 on Ottery relations, 158, 159; in 
 
 1 81 3 had become informal, but 
 
 proved permanent, 197 
 Sermons, preached in Unitarian chapels, 
 
 55 «., 66 ; composed ' for lazy clergy- 
 men,' 247 
 Shakespeare, Lectures on, 1808, 167- 
 
 169; 1811-12, 184; 1813-14, 199; 
 
 1818, 234 ; 1818-19, 238-240 ; 
 
 Richard JI. re-written for the stage, 
 
 215 
 
 Shakespeare, a copy of Warburton's ed. 
 annotated by Coleridge, 235 n. ; 
 Wordsworth on German criticism of, 
 237 «. 
 
 Shakespeare'' s Dramatic IVorks^ Char- 
 acteristics of, projected book, 247 n. 
 
 Sharpe, Lancelot, his ed. of Chatter- 
 ton's Poems, 45 
 
 Sheridan invites a play for Drury Lane 
 (1797), 65; 78 and note {see 
 under ' Osorio ') 
 
 Shrewsbury, Coleridge preaches as 
 candidate for Unitarian pastorate at, 
 in 1798, 81 ; resigns candidature, 
 84 {see under ' Hazlitt, William') 
 
 Sibylline Leaves, 69, 215, 222, 227, 
 256 
 
 Sicily, Visit to, in 1804, 145, 146 ;/.; 
 Ball's projected disposal of the 
 island, 146 
 
 Sick-room, Coleridge rarely leaves his, 
 after 1830, 273 
 
 Sidney Sussex College, Camb., Cole- 
 ridge's father at, i 
 
 Simon, Sir John, editor, with memoir, 
 of J. H. Green's Spiritual Philosophy, 
 279 n., 280 
 
 Sinecure post sought for Coleridge, 
 in 1827, 262, 263 
 
 Sister, Poems on death of his (Ann), 
 
 19 
 
 Sisters {To Two): A Wanderer's 
 
 Farewell (Mrs. Morgan and Miss 
 
 Brent), 166 n. 
 Six Months in the West Indies, by 
 
 H. N. Coleridge, 262 
 Skepper, Anne Benson (afterwards Mrs 
 
 B. W. Procter), 179 
 Slave-trade, Coleridge's prize poem on, 
 
 23 ; his review of Clarkson's book 
 
 on, 168 and ;/. 
 Smerdon, Rev. Mr., Vicar of Ottery, 
 
 7 ; Coleridge's lines on death of 
 
 the Vicar's son, 37 
 Snuff, Coleridge's favourite mixture, 
 
 212, 213 
 
3i6 
 
 SAMUEL TA YLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 Social Life at the English Universities, 
 by Rev. Christ. AVordsworth, quoted, 
 25, 26 
 
 Society, Coleridge in, 253 
 
 Sotheby, Mr. (translator of Oberon), 
 141, 187, 253, 263, 264 
 
 South Molton, Devon, birthplace of 
 Coleridge's father, who was after- 
 wards schoolmaster there, I 
 
 Southey, Mrs. Robert (Edith Fricker, 
 sister of Mrs. S. T. Coleridge), 31 
 
 Southey, Robert, first meeting with 
 Coleridge, 30 ; his account of the 
 beginning of Pantisocracy and of the 
 events which followed, 31 ; de- 
 scribed by Poole, 33 ; brings Cole- 
 ridge back to Bristol in Jan. 1795, 
 
 43 ; they live and work together, 43, 
 
 44 ; abandons Pantisocracy and con- 
 sequent quarrel with Coleridge, 45, 
 46 ; 48 ; reconciled to Coleridge 
 (1797)) 59; 90; 93; re-reconciled in 
 1799; visits Stowey, when the two 
 poets compose The DeviPs Thoughts, 
 103 ; 127, 128 ; his share in bring- 
 ing about Coleridge's marriage, 131; 
 134 and notes ; opinion of Coleridge 
 in 1803, 136 and note ; goes on a 
 visit to Greta Hall in 1803, and re- 
 mains for life, 140 ; on Coleridge's 
 ailments, 141 ; 147 ; on his religious 
 and philosophical vagaries, 165 ;/. ; 
 1 66 ; 1 68 ; on The Friend, 173; Cole- 
 ridge leaves his letters unopened in 
 iSio-ii, 182, 186; seems to favour 
 Coleridge's purpose of returning to 
 Greta Hall in 1813, 196, 197 ; cor- 
 responds with Cottle respecting Cole- 
 ridge in 18 14, 201-204 > opposes 
 scheme for annuity for Coleridge, 
 201, 204 11. ; recommends Cole- 
 ridge's return to Greta Hall, and 
 assures him of welcome from all 
 there, 203, 204 ; on Coleridge's 
 indulgence in opium, 203 ; Cottle 
 misrepresents Southey's letters, 204 
 71. ; appeals to Coleridge regarding 
 the sending of Hartley to College in 
 1S14 ; getting no reply, co-operates 
 with Wordsworth in arranging the 
 business, 209 ; his view of Cole- 
 ridge's conduct, ib. ; 223 ; defended 
 by Coleridge in the Courier, re ' Wat 
 Tyler,' 229, 230 ; meeting with 
 Coleridge in 1817, 231, 232; 243; 
 252, 253, 257 ; on Coleridge, on 
 
 hearing of his death, 278 and note ; 
 their mutual indebtedness, 278 
 
 'Speculative gloom,' 142 n. 
 
 Spell-bound (c. 1825-S), 267 and note 
 
 Spinoza's works, 165 71. ; 189 ; bor- 
 rowed from Robinson, 200 
 
 Spirit of the Age, by Hazlitt ; sketch 
 of Coleridge in, 257 
 
 Spiritual Philosophy, foiuided on the 
 teaching of S. T. Coleridge, by the 
 late J. H. Green, 279 w., 280 
 
 Spring in a Village, Lines to a beauti- 
 ful, T n. 
 
 Spurzheim's Physiognomical System, 
 ' beneath criticism,' 217 
 
 Spy, Coleridge and Wordsworth (in 
 Somersetshire) watched by a Govern- 
 ment, 73 ^nd note 
 
 Stael, Madame de, Coleridge meets, in 
 1813, 196 
 
 Stanhope, Sonnet to Lord [Poems, 
 1796), 65 
 
 Stanzas by Wordsworth on Coleridge, 
 132 and 7iote 
 
 Statesman's Alanual, The (first Lay 
 Sermon), 224, 225 3i\\dnote ; attacked 
 by Hazlitt, 225 7i., 226 
 
 Stephen, Mr. Leslie, vi., 21 
 
 Sterling, John, 256 ; Carlyle's Life of 
 259, 260 ; Hare's iMemoir of, 268 
 and note; 269 ; his description of 
 Coleridge's manner and discourse, 
 268 ; 279 
 
 Stoddart (Sir) John, 1 17; Coleridge's 
 host for a time at Malta, 144, 145, 
 147; 1 60; detains Coleridge's MSS., 
 166 
 
 Stoddart, Miss Sarah (sister of pre- 
 ceding, afterwards Mrs. Hazlitt), 
 
 145 
 Stowey [see under ' Nether Stowey ') 
 Street, Mr., editor of Courier, 154, 
 
 167, 182, 183 (etc.) 
 Stuart, Daniel, proprietor and editor 
 of Moj-ning Post and Coui'ier, 84 ; 
 on Coleridge's connection with his 
 newspapers, 107-110; relations in 
 1800, III ; 145, 146, 148, 153, 
 154, 167, 169 and 7!ote ; 171; 
 assists The Friend financially, 
 173; engages Coleridge for the 
 Courier, 183, 193 ;/., 215, 216; 
 offended with statement in Biog. 
 Lit., 231 and note ; 250, 253 «. ; 
 appeals to William IV. on behalf of 
 Coleridge, 272 
 
INDEX 
 
 317 
 
 Study, a new, built for Coleridge at 
 Highgate in 1824, 255 
 
 Stutfield, Mr., amanuensis and dis- 
 ciple of Coleridge, 250 
 
 Susquehannah, Banks of the, proposed 
 for Pantisocrat settlement, 36 
 
 Sympathy, Coleridge's craving for per- 
 sonal, 99 ;/., 195, 196 
 
 Synesius, Coleridge, while at school, 
 translates the hymns of, 13 n. 
 
 Syracuse, Coleridge at, in 1804, 145 
 
 'Table Talk' : 85 ;;., 108, 242; its 
 beginnings in 1S22, 253; sometimes 
 suspended for long periods, 270 
 (etc.) 
 
 TaiCs Edinbitrgli Magazine, 140, 1 6 1 ;/. 
 
 Talent and Genius, Distinction be- 
 tween, Coleridge on, 264 ;/. 
 
 Talking,' Coleridge's 'inordinate love 
 of, throughout life, Southey on, 
 43 n. 
 
 Taste, Lectures on, projected in 1806, 
 154, 156, 164 
 
 Tatler (Leigh Hunt's paper), 235 n. 
 
 Taunton, Coleridge preaches at, 66 
 
 Taylor (Sir) Henry, as Devil's Advo- 
 cate for Mahometanism, 255 '^• 
 
 Taylor, Thomas, translator, 13 «., 58 
 
 Taylor, William, of Norwich (author), 
 128, 165 u. 
 
 Tempest, Lecture on The, 238 
 
 Testaments, a projected work on the 
 Old and New, 246, 247 ;/. 
 
 Thelwall, John [soi-disant ' Citizen '), 
 18; letters to, 58, 59; visits Stowey, 
 and causes trouble to Coleridge and 
 friends, 73 ; later relations with 
 Coleridge, 74 ; visited by Coleridge 
 and Wordsworth in Wales, 92 
 
 Thelwall, Mrs. (Stella, first wife of 
 preceding), 18, 73 
 
 Theological MSS. left by Coleridge, 
 279 and note 
 
 Theses qttcvdam Theologies propounded 
 (sarcastically) by Lamb to Coleridge 
 (1798), 90 
 
 Thirl wall (Bishop), Coleridge meets m 
 1833, 274 
 
 Thursday Evenings,' ' Highgate (Cole- 
 ridge's receptions), 253, 255 
 
 Tieck, Ludwig, Coleridge meets, at 
 
 Rome, 150; and in London, 230 
 Times, The (newspaper), 183, 239, 272 
 
 Tobin, John and James, 141 and 
 note 
 
 Tomalin, Mr., his MS. report of 
 
 Lectures, 1811-12, 184 «. 
 Tory and High Churchman, The 
 
 names of, procured for Coleridge 
 
 by his Constitution of Church and 
 
 State (1830), 272 
 Traill, Mr. H. D., on Coleridge's 
 
 journalistic writings, 108, 109, 
 
 183 n. 
 Triad, The, Wordsworth's picture of 
 
 Sara Coleridge in, 283 
 Trinitarian, Coleridge a, in 1807, 
 
 165 
 
 True Briton, The (newspaper), 107 
 
 Tuckett, G. L., 28, 29 ;/. 
 
 Tulk, Charles Augustus, friend and 
 disciple of Coleridge, 232 and note 
 
 Turgidness of Coleridge's early poetry, 
 charged and confessed, 53, 69 n. 
 
 Two round Spaces on a Tombstone 
 (satirical verses on Sir J. Mackin- 
 tosh), 1 19 and note 
 
 Undergraduate life, Manner of 
 Coleridge's, 24 and note, 25, 37 
 
 Unitarian, Coleridge becomes a, at 
 Cambridge, 25 ; preaches in, chapels, 
 55, 66; candidate for chapel at 
 Shrewsbury, 1798, 81, 84; no 
 longer, in 1807, 165 and note; 
 views of the belief in 1833, 276 
 
 Valley of Stones, at Linton in Devon, 
 85 n. 
 
 Vandyke, Peter, his portrait of Cole- 
 ridge {see Frontispiece) ; vii. 
 
 Vice's Scienza Nil ova, 264 n. 
 
 Visions of the Maid of Arc, fragment 
 of poem to be submitted to Words- 
 worth and Lamb (1797), 64 ; never 
 completed, but published as The 
 Destiny of Nations, 69 
 
 Voltaire, Coleridge reads his Phil. 
 Diet, at Christ's Hospital, 13 
 
 Volunteer Essays ( ? = Essays on Volun- 
 teer Forces) in Courier in 1804, 
 142 ;;. 
 
 Von Axen, P. and O., Hamburg 
 Agents of the Wedgwoods, 91 ;/. 
 
 Wade, Josiah, of Bristol, 160 ;/., 
 202, 198, 205 ; Coleridge's re- 
 morseful letter of confession to, 
 regarding opium, 206 ; Allston 
 
Ii8 
 
 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 paints portrait of Coleridge for, 
 1814, 205 
 Walking powers, Coleridge's, 74, 87, 
 
 139 
 
 Wallenstein (Schiller's) (excepting The 
 Camp) translated by Coleridge in 
 1799-1800, 106, no; published 
 112 and note; Carlyle, Scott, and 
 the translator on the translation, 
 112 n.; borrowings from, in Remorse, 
 191 ; proposed adaptation for the 
 stage by request of Kean, 253, 254 
 
 Wanderer'' s Farexvell, A, 166 
 
 Ward, Mr. C. A., possesses MSS. of 
 Coleridge, 251 n. 
 
 Watchman, The, vii., 51, 52 ; original 
 prospectus of, see Appendix, 285-8 
 
 Watson, Mr, Seth, an amanuensis and 
 disciple of Coleridge, 250 (he edited 
 some MSS. of Coleridge under the 
 title of Theory of Life, 184S) 
 
 Wat Tyler, Southey's, 230 
 
 Weaknesses, Morbid, confessed by 
 Coleridge ; inherited by Hartley, 
 246, 267 n., 281 
 
 Wedgwood brothers: The, Thomas and 
 Josiah, their interest in Coleridge, 
 81 ; offer him ^100 which is de- 
 clined, ib. ; offer annuity for life 
 which is accepted, 82-84 ; Josiah's 
 half withdrawn in 1812, 192 and 
 note, 193 ; their relations with 
 Wordsworth, 91 n.; 127 
 
 Wedgwood, John, of Cote House, 
 near Bristol, 80 
 
 Wedgwood, Josiah {see also under 
 Wedgwood brothers,' 'The), 80, 
 81, 83, 137, 153, 155 ; Coleridge's 
 penitent letter to, in 1S07, 159, 
 160; reconciled with Coleridge, 
 161 ; withdraws his half of the 
 annuity, 192 and note, 193 
 
 Wedgwood, Miss Sarah, 135 
 
 Wedgwood, Thomas {see also under 
 Wedgwood brothers,' ' The), 80, 
 83, 128 ; tour with Coleridge in 
 1802, 135; 136, 137; death in 
 1805, 149 ; Life to be written by 
 Sir James Mackintosh, 155 and 
 note, 160; estimate of philosophical 
 views of, to be contributed by Cole- 
 ridge, 160 
 
 West Indies, Proposes to winter in 
 the, 127 
 
 White, Blanco, approved of Aids to 
 Reflection, 256 
 
 IVhite Doe of Rylstone, revised for 
 press by Coleridge, 169 
 
 Wieland's Obcroii, projected transla- 
 tion of, 79 ; 112 71. 
 
 Wilhelm Meister, Carlyle's translation 
 of, 254 ;/., 260 
 
 Wilkinson, Thomas (Wordsworth's 
 friend of the ' Spade '), 172 n. 
 
 Will, Summary of Coleridge's, 278, 
 
 279 
 
 William IV. discontinues pensions to 
 Royal Associates of R. Soc. of Lit., 
 272 
 
 Willis's Rooms, Lectures at, in 1S12, 
 
 187 
 Wish, A, 15 ;/. 
 
 Wordsworth, Christopher (afterwards 
 Master of Trinity College, Cam- 
 bridge), 25, 26 
 
 Wordsworth, Dora (daughter of the 
 poet), 264 
 
 Wordsworth, Dorothy (sister of the 
 poet), her description of Coleridge, 
 in 1797, 68 ; her Alfoxden Journals 
 1797-8) 75j 76 ; influence on her 
 brother and on Coleridge, 76 ; her 
 Grasmere Journals (1800, etc.), 117; 
 her Recollections of a Tour in Scotland, 
 138; 138, 139; 141; on Coleridge's 
 domestic troubles, 155, 156; 170; 
 on The Friend, 171, 175 ; desirous 
 of reconcilement with Coleridge in 
 1812, 185; again, in 1813, 194; 
 Mary Lamb's lines to, on death of 
 John W., 194 M. ; her constant 
 affection for Coleridge, 205 ; her 
 brother's tribute to her, 274 
 
 Wordsworth, Captain John (brother of 
 the poet), 105 ; death in 1805, 149 ; 
 Mary Lamb's lines on his death, 
 194 n. 
 
 Wordsworth, Mrs. (Mary Hutchinson, 
 wife of the poet), 105 ; marriage, 
 133; 141, 205 
 
 Wordsworth, William, Coleridge ap- 
 preciates his first published poems 
 in 1793, 25, 26; describes Cole- 
 ridge's school days in Prelude, 10 ; 
 influenced by Bowles's sonnets, 17 ; 
 first meeting and early intercourse 
 between Coleridge and, 64 n., 66- 
 68 ; admires Osorio ; Coleridge ■sA- 
 rnxves The Borderers, 67; Coleridge's 
 and Poole's estimates of, ib ; visits 
 Stowey in 1797, and rents Alfox- 
 den, 72 ; daily intercourse with 
 
INDEX 
 
 319 
 
 Coleridge, 75 ; mutual influence, 
 76 ; reminiscences in The Prelude, 
 86; Hazlitt on, at Alfoxden, 1798, 
 87 ; goes to Germany with Coleridge, 
 94; 95; loi s.x\d note ; discusses the 
 future with Coleridge at Gottingen, 
 loi ; Coleridge's estimate of Words- 
 worth in 1799, il>. ; tour with 
 Coleridge in 1799 ; settles at Dove 
 Cottage, 105 ; on Coleridge as 
 journalist, no; 112, II3; Poole 
 jealous of Coleridge's growing attach- 
 ment to (iSoo), 114; on Coleridge 
 going to Greta Hall, close inter- 
 course renewed, 116 et sec].; Cole- 
 ridge assists in preparation of Second 
 Edition oi Lyrical Ballads, 116, 1 17 
 riXiAnote; 123; 120; anxieties about 
 Coleridge, 126, 128, 129; Ode, 
 Dejection, addressed to, 129 and note; 
 lines respecting Coleridge, 132 and 
 note ; picture of, in Dejection, 129, 
 and in Lines on hearing Prelude, 
 157; marriage, 133; 135; tour in 
 Scotland with Coleridge, 138, 139 ; 
 sonnet to Beaumont, At Appledore, 
 140 and note ; loan to Coleridge, for 
 expenses of going to Malta, 143 ; 
 correspondence with Coleridge on 
 return from Malta, 153-156 ; views 
 of Coleridge's domestic troubles, 
 154, 155; Coleridge visits him at 
 Coleorton farm-house, hears The 
 Prelude read, and responds, 156, 157 
 and note ; visits Coleridge in Lon- 
 don in 1808, 167 ; Coleridge lec- 
 tures on the poetry of, and revises the 
 White Doe, 169; Coleridge resides 
 with, 1808-10, 170 et seq.; 'de- 
 liberate opinion ' that Coleridge's 
 moral constitution is deranged, 172; 
 is ' sure ' The Friend ' cannot ' go 
 on, 172, 173 ; contributes to 
 Friend, 175 ; a serious difference 
 with Coleridge in 1810, 179, 180 
 and note } anxious for reconcilement 
 
 in 1812, 185 ; Coleridge's feelings 
 while breach open, 192 ; recon- 
 ciled, 180, 187 ; a fresh and lasting 
 rupture in 1812-13, 193-196; com- 
 munication in 181 5, 196 «. ; offended 
 at criticism in Biog. Lit., 196 n., 
 234; friendly relations re-estab- 
 lished in 1817, 234; helps to send 
 Hartley to Oxford in 1814, 209; 
 takes him up to College, 18 15, 214 ; 
 220 ; intercourse with Coleridge in 
 1 81 8, 234 ; Coleridge complains of 
 unrequited love and devotion ( 1 8 1 8), 
 237 and Jiote, 238; 243; 257 ; tour 
 on the Rhine with Coleridge in 1828, 
 264, 265 ; intercourse in last years of 
 Coleridge's life, 273, 274 ; acknow- 
 ledges his intellectual indebted- 
 ness to Coleridge, 274 ; 277 ; his 
 emotion on hearing of Coleridge's 
 death, 278, 282 
 
 Wolf (Homeric critic), 264 n. 
 
 Words, On the Power and Use of, pro- 
 jected work, 266 
 
 Work tuithotit Hope, 266, 267 
 
 Wrexham, Coleridge at, in 1794, 34, 
 40 
 
 Written after a zvalk before Supper, 
 65 
 
 York, Duke of. Article on, by Cole- 
 ridge in Courier, suppressed, 183 
 
 Young, Arthur, 73 
 
 Young, Julian, meets Coleridge and 
 W'ordsworth on the Rhine, in 1828 ; 
 his description in 'Journal,' 264, 
 265 
 
 Young Man of Fortune, Lines to, 63 
 
 Zapolya, written at Calne, 181 5, 218 ; 
 Part H. accepted for Drury Lane, 
 on conditions which Coleridge did 
 not fulfil, 223 ; never acted ; Murray 
 agrees to publish, //'. ; not published 
 till Christmas, 181 7, and then by 
 Fenner ; its success, 232 
 
 THE END 
 
 Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh. 
 
^ A 
 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 j^^TURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 This book IS Qu ^^ ^^.^^^ renewed. 
 
 Renewed bcSks are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 LI 
 ( 
 
 LD 21A-45to-9,'67 
 (Hf;067slO)476B 
 
 
 u 
 
GENERAL LfBRARY - Q.C. BERKELEY 
 
 BDomMmoi 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
;t=' ' t «•;'.«. 
 
 
 ::;!.:-vV1. 
 
 
 
 UIt«-:;=^.*-iT-'^ 
 
 ;;l:i;|t?*^t 
 
 -t:: -Ui*i«. ..-iiii ..,-.«. 
 
 
 
 ♦ t JU.