COLERIDGE, VOL. I (OF 2)***


E-text prepared by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive (https://archive.org)



Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
      file which includes the original illustrations.
      See 44553-h.htm or 44553-h.zip:
      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44553/44553-h/44553-h.htm)
      or
      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44553/44553-h.zip)


      Images of the original pages are available through
      Internet Archive. See
      https://archive.org/details/lettersofsamuelt01coleuoft


      Project Gutenberg has the other volume of this work.
      Volume II: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44554


Transcriber's note:

      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

      The original text contains letters with diacritical marks
      that are not represented in this text-file version.

      The original text includes Greek characters that have been
      replaced with transliterations in this text-file version.





LETTERS OF SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE


[Illustration]


LETTERS OF SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Edited by

ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE

In Two Volumes

VOL. I







London
William Heinemann
1895
[All rights reserved.]

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.
Printed by H. O. Houghton and Company.




INTRODUCTION


Hitherto no attempt has been made to publish a collection of Coleridge's
Letters. A few specimens were published in his lifetime, both in his own
works and in magazines, and, shortly after his death in 1834, a large
number appeared in print. Allsop's "Letters, Conversations, and
Recollections of S. T. Coleridge," which was issued in 1836, contains
forty-five letters or parts of letters; Cottle in his "Early
Recollections" (1837) prints, for the most part incorrectly, and in
piecemeal, some sixty in all, and Gillman, in his "Life of Coleridge"
(1838), contributes, among others, some letters addressed to himself, and
one, of the greatest interest, to Charles Lamb. In 1847, a series of early
letters to Thomas Poole appeared for the first time in the Biographical
Supplement to the "Biographia Literaria," and in 1848, when Cottle
reprinted his "Early Recollections," under the title of "Reminiscences of
Coleridge and Southey," he included sixteen letters to Thomas and Josiah
Wedgwood. In Southey's posthumous "Life of Dr. Bell," five letters of
Coleridge lie imbedded, and in "Southey's Life and Correspondence"
(1849-50), four of his letters find an appropriate place. An interesting
series was published in 1858 in the "Fragmentary Remains of Sir H. Davy,"
edited by his brother, Dr. Davy; and in the "Diary of H. C. Robinson,"
published in 1869, a few letters from Coleridge are interspersed. In 1870,
the late Mr. W. Mark W. Call printed in the "Westminster Review" eleven
letters from Coleridge to Dr. Brabant of Devizes, dated 1815 and 1816;
and a series of early letters to Godwin, 1800-1811 (some of which had
appeared in "Macmillan's Magazine" in 1864), was included by Mr. Kegan
Paul in his "William Godwin" (1876). In 1874, a correspondence between
Coleridge (1816-1818) and his publishers, Gale & Curtis, was contributed
to "Lippincott's Magazine," and in 1878, a few letters to Matilda Betham
were published in "Fraser's Magazine." During the last six years the vast
store which still remained unpublished has been drawn upon for various
memoirs and biographies. The following works containing new letters are
given in order of publication: Herr Brandl's "Samuel T. Coleridge and the
English Romantic School," 1887; "Memorials of Coleorton," edited by
Professor Knight, 1887; "Thomas Poole and his Friends," by Mrs. H.
Sandford, 1888; "Life of Wordsworth," by Professor Knight, 1889; "Memoirs
of John Murray," by Samuel Smiles, LL. D., 1891; "De Quincey Memorials,"
by Alex. Japp, LL. D., 1891; "Life of Washington Allston," 1893.

Notwithstanding these heavy draughts, more than half of the letters which
have come under my notice remain unpublished. Of more than forty which
Coleridge wrote to his wife, only one has been published. Of ninety
letters to Southey which are extant, barely a tenth have seen the light.
Of nineteen addressed to W. Sotheby, poet and patron of poets, fourteen to
Lamb's friend John Rickman, and four to Coleridge's old college friend,
Archdeacon Wrangham, none have been published. Of more than forty letters
addressed to the Morgan family, which belong for the most part to the
least known period of Coleridge's life,--the years which intervened
between his residence in Grasmere and his final settlement at
Highgate,--only two or three, preserved in the MSS. Department of the
British Museum, have been published. Of numerous letters written in later
life to his friend and amanuensis, Joseph Henry Green; to Charles
Augustus Tulk, M. P. for Sudbury; to his friends and hosts, the Gillmans;
to Cary, the translator of Dante, only a few have found their way into
print. Of more than forty to his brother, the Rev. George Coleridge, which
were accidentally discovered in 1876, only five have been printed. Of some
fourscore letters addressed to his nephews, William Hart Coleridge, John
Taylor Coleridge, Henry Nelson Coleridge, Edward Coleridge, and to his son
Derwent, all but two, or at most three, remain in manuscript. Of the
youthful letters to the Evans family, one letter has recently appeared in
the "Illustrated London News," and of the many addressed to John Thelwall,
but one was printed in the same series.

The letters to Poole, of which more than a hundred have been preserved,
those addressed to his Bristol friend, Josiah Wade, and the letters to
Wordsworth, which, though few in number, are of great length, have been
largely used for biographical purposes, but much, of the highest interest,
remains unpublished. Of smaller groups of letters, published and
unpublished, I make no detailed mention, but in the latter category are
two to Charles Lamb, one to John Sterling, five to George Cattermole, one
to John Kenyon, and many others to more obscure correspondents. Some
important letters to Lord Jeffrey, to John Murray, to De Quincey, to Hugh
James Rose, and to J. H. B. Williams, have, in the last few years, been
placed in my hands for transcription.

A series of letters written between the years 1796 and 1814 to the Rev.
John Prior Estlin, minister of the Unitarian Chapel at Lewin's Mead,
Bristol, was printed some years ago for the Philobiblon Society, with an
introduction by Mr. Henry A. Bright. One other series of letters has also
been printed for private circulation. In 1889, the late Miss Stuart placed
in my hands transcriptions of eighty-seven letters addressed by Coleridge
to her father, Daniel Stuart, editor of "The Morning Post" and "Courier,"
and these, together with letters from Wordsworth and Southey, were printed
in a single volume bearing the title, "Letters from the Lake Poets." Miss
Stuart contributed a short account of her father's life, and also a
reminiscence of Coleridge, headed "A Farewell."

Coleridge's biographers, both of the past and present generations, have
met with a generous response to their appeal for letters to be placed in
their hands for reference and for publication, but it is probable that
many are in existence which have been withheld, sometimes no doubt
intentionally, but more often from inadvertence. From his boyhood the poet
was a voluminous if an irregular correspondent, and many letters which he
is known to have addressed to his earliest friends--to Middleton, to
Robert Allen, to Valentine and Sam Le Grice, to Charles Lloyd, to his
Stowey neighbour, John Cruikshank, to Dr. Beddoes, and others--may yet be
forthcoming. It is certain that he corresponded with Mrs. Clarkson, but if
any letters have been preserved they have not come under my notice. It is
strange, too, that among the letters of the Highgate period, which were
sent to Henry Nelson Coleridge for transcription, none to John Hookham
Frere, to Blanco White, or to Edward Irving appear to have been
forthcoming.

The foregoing summary of published and unpublished letters, though
necessarily imperfect, will enable the reader to form some idea of the
mass of material from which the present selection has been made. A
complete edition of Coleridge's Letters must await the "coming of the
milder day," a renewed long-suffering on the part of his old enemy, the
"literary public." In the meanwhile, a selection from some of the more
important is here offered in the belief that many, if not all, will find a
place in permanent literature. The letters are arranged in chronological
order, and are intended rather to illustrate the story of the writer's
life than to embody his critical opinions, or to record the development of
his philosophical and theological speculations. But letters of a purely
literary character have not been excluded, and in selecting or rejecting a
letter, the sole criterion has been, Is it interesting? is it readable?

In letter-writing perfection of style is its own recommendation, and long
after the substance of a letter has lost its savour, the form retains its
original or, it may be, an added charm. Or if the author be the founder of
a sect or a school, his writings, in whatever form, are received by the
initiated with unquestioning and insatiable delight. But Coleridge's
letters lack style. The fastidious critic who touched and retouched his
exquisite lyrics, and always for the better, was at no pains to polish his
letters. He writes