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.

[The Preface' is composed of the two prefixed to the volume of 1797-with these omissions, both being from the Preface to the Second Edition' :-The first two sentences (I return to 'not faults of carelessness'); and the last paragraph ('There were inserted,' etc., to the end). Of course, the Advertisement' to the 'Supplement' of 1797 was not reprinted in 1803.]

In this volume were collected the poems (of Coleridge, only) which had been printed

in the volumes of 1796 and 1797-without any addition, but with the following omissions:

To the Rev. W. J. H. (1796).
Sonnet to Kosciusko (1796).
Written after a Walk (1796).

From a Young Lady ['The Silver Thimble'] (1796).

On the Christening of a Friend's Child (1797).

Introductory Sonnet to Lloyd's 'Poems on

the Death of Priscilla Farmer' (1797).

The half-title prefixed to the 'Sonnets' in 1797 was omitted. Charles Lamb saw this volume through the press, Coleridge being at the time resident at Greta Hall, Keswick. (See Ainger's Letters of C. Lamb, i. 199.)

By

THIS Tragedy1 was written in the summer and autumn of the year 1797; at Nether Stowey, in the county of Somerset. whose recommendation, and of the manner in which both the Play and the Author were treated by the Recommender, let me be permitted to relate that I knew of its having been received only by a third person; that I could procure neither answer 2 nor 1 That is, Osorio, of which Remorse is a reSee full text of Osorio in APPENDIX D.' 2 As regards the answer at least, Coleridge's memory failed him. He received it after a delay of but six weeks. It was to the effect that the tragedy was rejected on account of the obscurity of the three last acts. As regards the MS. see 'Note 230.'

cast.

the manuscript; and that but for an accident I should have had no copy of the Work itself. That such treatment would damp a young man's exertions may be easily conceived: there was no need of after-misrepresentation and calumny, as an additional sedative.

2

[As an amusing anecdote, and in the wish to prepare future Authors, as young as I then was and as ignorant of the world, of the treatment they may meet with, I will add, that the Person who by a twice conveyed recommendation (in the year 1797) had urged me to write a Tragedy: who on my own objection that I was utterly ignorant of all Stage-tactics had promised that he would himself make the necessary alterations, if the Piece should be at all representable; who together with the copy of the Play (hastened by his means so as to prevent the full developement of the characters) received a letter from the Author to this purport, that conscious of his inexperience, he had cherished no expectations, and should therefore feel no disappointment from the rejection of the Play; but that if beyond his hopes Mr. -found in it any capability of being adapted to the Stage, it was delivered to him as if it had been his own Manuscript, to add, omit, or alter, as he saw occasion; and that (if it were rejected) the Author would deem himself amply remunerated by the addition to his Experience, which he should receive, if Mr.

would point out to him the nature of its unfitness for public Representation' ;that this very Person returned me no answer, and, spite of repeated applications, retained my Manuscript when I was not conscious of any other Copy being in existence (my duplicate having been destroyed by an accident); that he suffered this Manuscript to wander about the Town from his house, so that but ten days ago I saw the song in the third Act printed and set to music, without my name, by Mr. Carnaby,

1 The long passage here placed within square brackets [ ] appeared in the first edition only.

2 Richard Brinsley Sheridan. See Sonnet to Sheridan, p. 42.

3 I need not say to Authors, that as to the essentials of a Poem, little can be superinduced without dissonance, after the first warmth of conception and composition. [Note by S. T. C.]

in the year 1802; likewise that the same person asserted (as I have been assured) that the Play was rejected, because I would not submit to the alteration of one ludicrous line; and finally in the year 1806 amused and delighted (as who was ever in his company, if may trust the universal report, without being amused and delighted?) a large company at the house of a highly respectable Member of Parliament, with the ridicule of the Tragedy, as a fair specimen of the whole of which he adduced a line:

'Drip! drip drip! there's nothing here but dripping.

In the original copy of the Play, in the first Scene of the fourth Act, Isidore had commenced his Soliloquy in the Cavern with the words:

'Drip! drip! a ceaseless sound of water-drops,'1

as far as I can at present recollect: for on the possible ludicrous association being pointed out to me, I instantly and thankfully struck out the line. And as to my obstinate tenacity, not only my old acquaintance, but (I dare boldly aver) both the Managers of Drury Lane Theatre, and every Actor and Actress, whom I have recently met in the Green Room, will repel the accusation: perhaps not without surprise.]

stances; but I turn gladly and with sincere I thought it right to record these circumgratitude to the converse. In the close of last year I was advised to present the Tragedy once more to the Theatre. Accordingly having altered the names, I ventured to address a letter to Mr. Whitbread, requesting information as to whom I was to present my Tragedy. My Letter was instantly and most kindly answered, and I have now nothing to tell but a Tale of Thanks. I should scarce know where to begin, if the

1 Coleridge's memory is again at fault here: for the fourth act of the play in its original shape opened with the following lines:

'Drip! drip drip! drip!-in such a place as this It has nothing else to do but drip! drip! drip! I wish it had not dripp'd upon my torch.'-ED. 2 This circumstance.' Second edition.-Ed

goodness of the Manager, Mr. ARNOLD, had not called for my first acknowledgements. Not merely as an acting Play, but as a dramatic Poem, the REMORSE has been importantly and manifoldly benefited by his suggestions. I can with severest truth say, that every hint he gave me was the ground of some improvement. In the next place it is my duty to mention Mr. RAYMOND, the Stage Manager. Had the 'REMORSE' been his own Play-nay, that is saying too little-had I been his brother, or his dearest friend, he could not have felt or exerted himself more zealously.

As the Piece is now acting, it may be thought presumptuous in me to speak of the Actors: yet how can I abstain, feeling, as I do, Mrs. GLOVER'S1 powerful assistance, and knowing the circumstances 2 under which she consented to act Alhadra? A time will come, when without painfully oppressing her feelings, I may speak of this more fully. To Miss SMITH I have an equal, though different acknowledgement to make, namely, for her acceptance of a character not fully developed, and quite inadequate to her extraordinary powers. She enlivened and supported many passages, which (though not perhaps wholly uninteresting in the closet) would but for her have hung heavy on the ears of a Theatrical Audience. And in speaking the Epilogue, a composition which (I fear) my hurry will hardly excuse, and which, as unworthy of her name, is here omitted, she made a sacrifice, which only her established character with all judges of Tragic action, could have rendered compatible with her duty to herself. To Mr. DE CAMP'S judgement and full conception of Isidore; to Mr. POPE'S accurate representation of the partial, yet honourable Father; to Mr. ELLISTON'S energy in the character of ALVAR, and who in more than one instance

1 The caste was as follows:-Marquis Valdez, Mr. Pope; Don Alvar, Mr. Elliston; Don Ordonio, Mr. Rae; Monviedro, Mr. Powell; Zulimez, Mr. Crooke; Isidore, Mr. De Camp; Naomi, Mr. Wallack; Donna Teresa, Miss Smith; Alhadra, Mrs. Glover.-ED.

2 Mrs. Glover had just lost her eldest child, and two of her younger children were dangerously ill.-ED.

gave it beauties and striking points, which not only delighted but surprized me; and to Mr. RAE, to whose zeal, and unwearied study of his part I am not less indebted as a Man, than to his impassioned realization of ORDONIO, as an Author ;- -to these, and to all concerned with the bringing out of the Play, I can address but one wordTHANKS!-but that word is uttered sincerely! and to persons constantly before the eye of the Public, a public acknowledgement becomes appropriate, and a duty.

I defer all answers to the different criticisms on the Piece to an Essay, which I am about to publish immediately, on Dramatic Poetry, relatively to the present State of the Metropolitan Theatres."

From the necessity of hastening the Publication I was obliged to send the Manuscript intended for the Stage: which is the sole cause of the number of directions printed in Italics.

approve,

The air-blest castle, round whose whole-
some crest,
The martlet, guest of summer, chose her
nest-

The forest walks of Arden's fair domain,
Where Jaques fed his solitary vein-
No pencil's aid as yet had dared supply,
Seen only by the intellectual eye.

Those scenic helps, denied to Shakspeare's page,

Our Author owes to a more liberal age.

here;

that bind 'em.

out of print, and it having been determined, that this and my other Poems in that collection (the NIGHTINGALE, LOVE, and the ANCIENT MARINER) should be omitted in any future edition, I have been advised to reprint it, as a Note to the second Scene of Act the Fourth.

[Here followed The Foster-Mother's Tale, which will be found in this volume at p. 83; and also, of course, in its due place in OSORIO, in 'APPENDIX D.']

Note to the words You are a painter,' Scene ii. Act ii.

The following lines,' etc.

[This will be found, as in a more convenient place, printed in this volume as a footnote to the passage in Act ii. Scene ii. p. 375.]

The Third Edition' of REMORSE appeared in the same year as the first and second-1813. Except for the statement on the title-page it seems to differ in no respect from the second edition.

When Coleridge reprinted REMORSE among his collected poems in 1828 and

or miss),

By no loud plaudits saved, damn'd by no factious hiss.

REMORSE. A Tragedy, in five acts. By S. T. Coleridge. [Motto as in First Edition.] SECOND EDITION. London Printed for W. Pople, 67 Chancery Lane. 1813. Price Three Shillings.

Octavo, pp. x.; 78.

[Although this second edition' would appear to have been issued immediately after the first, it presents many variations. As noted above, a large portion of the Preface' was omitted; the text was considerably altered; and the following additions made.]

APPENDIX

THE following Scene, as unfit for the Stage, was taken from the Tragedy, in the year 1797, and published in the Lyrical

the Appendix.' Sir G. Beaumont died in February 1827.

IX

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. 1816.
Octavo, pp. vii.; 64.

CHRISTABEL, etc. By S. T. Coleridge,
Esq. Second Edition. LONDON:
Printed for John Murray, Albemarle
Street, by William Bulmer and Co.,
Cleveland Row, St. James's. 1816.
[This second edition' differs from the
first, only in respect of the title-page, of
which the above is a verbatim copy.
The
'Prefaces' to Christabel and Kubla Khan
are printed with the texts.-ED.]