7 1802 GRETA HALL He to Coleridge, full of sympathy, but regretting that the multiplicity of claims on him is a periphrasis for opium dreams?) A fortnight after this Coleridge tells Godwin 1 he has had to give up going abroad for want of money, and if a last effort to get to Poole was 'painfully 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.' 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 replies by one in which honey and gall are mingled in almost equal proportions. Poole thought both letters outrageous,' but the friendship stood the strain, and Poole The plan, lent Coleridge £25 to enable him to pay a visit to London and Stowey. Coleridge promises not to stay there less than two months; the remainder of the time till March he will pass with the Wedgwoods and other friends in the west country. one need hardly say, was not fully accomplished. He arrived in London on the 15th November. He tells Davy 3 he means to stay a fortnight there, and Godwin that he On December 14 'planned a walk into Somersetshire,' but he remained in London until Christmas, first with Southey and then at a lodging in Covent Galen.* Thomas he wrote to Poole 4: 'I am writing for the Morning Post, and am reading in the Poole went to old libraries, for my curious metaphysical work, but I hate London.' He left for Stowey on Christmas Day," returning to Howell's about January 21st.6 Wedgwood had been his fellow-guest at Poole's during the visit. 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 Mackintosh are hatching a great metaphysical work, to which Coleridge has promised as preface 'a history of metaphysical opinion,' for which he is reading Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas. But during all this time Coleridge was writing 'heart-rending' I took a first floor for him in King Street, not write daily on the occurrences of the day' 1 Letter of September 22, 1801. Godwin, ii. 81. 2 William Godwin, ii. 83. 3 Frag. Rem. p. 92. 8 William 4 See also T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 73. 5 Unprinted letter to Poole of Christmas Eve; also undated and misplaced letter to Stuart in Letters of Lake Poets, p. 7. 6 lb. p. 24, and Knight's Life of Wordsworth, i. 288. 7 T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 102. 8 Paris's Life of Sir H. D. i. 138. 9 Mem. of W. T. i. 398. A week after this Coleridge informs Poole that his 'health has been on the mend ever since Poole left town, nor has he had occasion for opiates of any kind' (T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 77). counts of his health to the Wordsworths,1 and on 19th March, 'on a very rainy morng,' he appeared at Dove Cottage.2 His eyes were a little swollen with the wind. I as much affected by the sight of him, he seemed half-stupified.' Next day the party ad a little talk of going abroad.' 'William read The Pedlar. Talked about rious things-christening the children, etc. etc.' When Coleridge had gone, his sts 'talked about' him, as they paced the orchard walk. We may be sure that when, on the 19th March, Coleridge walked over to Dove ttage, he had not been long at Greta Hall. He was in sad case of body and mind, d sought Dove Cottage as naturally as the thirsty hart seeks the water-brooks. hat he thought of himself and of Wordsworth at this time we may read in ‘Dejection: Ode, written on April 4, 1802.'3 But let the ode be read in its original form, efore the frosts of alienation had withered some of its tenderest shoots. For it was Iressed to Wordsworth, and, before printing, addressed to him by name. No sadder སྙ was In from the depths was ever uttered, even by Coleridge, none more sincere, none re musical. Health was gone, and with it both the 'natural joy' which had been in rich abundance, and that rarer kind which, as he tells us, dwells only with the re; nor was this all, for he discovered that he had lost control of his most precious lowment, his shaping spirit of imagination'—and that his 'sole resource e endeavour to forget, in metaphysical speculations, that it had ever been his. He that poetically he was dead, and that if not dead spiritually, he had lost his ritual identity. I make no quotations, for the ode is a whole, and must be read a whole. But it is incomplete. The symptoms of the disease are stated with at and deeply-affecting fulness, but the causes are only vaguely hinted at. Iressing Wordsworth, there may have been no need for more. Besides the bodily nents, there were at least two causes-fatal indulgence in opium, and growing rangement between his wife and himself. If the opium-eating was unknown to the ›rdsworths, it may have been suspected, and Coleridge may have known that it was pected. The domestic trouble must have been known to them. In these earlier "s the discord was not constant,† there were intervals of peace, but even then Coleye had accustomed himself to seek happiness, or, at least, relief from cares, elseWere than in the house which should have been his home. By the end of this year estrangement had made considerable 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 do not nk there is any mystery at all. The marriage had not been made in Heaven, but Bristol, and by the meddlesomeness of Southey, a man superlatively admirable, self-sufficient and sometimes obtuse. Attachment there had been, strong enough bear a good deal of strain; but if there had been love, its roots had found no tenance, and when it withered away, root and branch, there was nothing left, no id of community of mind and tastes-nothing but the unsheathed material fetters 'APPENDIX G,' p. 522. April 4 was prob lined). S. T. C. to Estlin, 26th July 1802, in Estlin Letters, p. 82. 1 See Miss Wordsworth's Journals in Knight's Life of W. W. i. 288 et seq. 2 lb. i. 302. 3 Page 159. See also 'Note 162,' p. 626. which galled, and which, when the galling became intolerable, were laid aside. There is nothing in this simple theory inconsistent with the view that Coleridge 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' is one of the habits which bring about consequences that seem disproportionate, and which are apt rather to propagate than to abate the provocation. 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 considered 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 Coleridge'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 1801-1802 was the turning-point in Coleridge's life. After his home-coming about the middle of March, Coleridge spent much of his time at Dove Cottage, and when he was not there, correspondence was frequent. 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 11th he finished 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 halfway back with her. On the 22nd he met the Wordsworths at a favourite trystingplace and they had some interesting, melancholy talk' about his private affairs. Two days before that they had warning not to come to Keswick. 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) Coleridge walked with them six or seven miles. He was not well, and we had a melancholy parting after having * Stanzas written in my pocket copy of Thomson's Castle of Indolence, in which Coleridge is described as 'a noticeable man with large grey eyes.' 'Composed in the orchard, Town-end, Grasmere, Coleridge living with us much at the time,' is the 'Fenwick-note.' But these were not the only verses regarding Coleridge which Wordsworth wrote at this time. On the 3rd May he began, and on the 7th completed, The Leechgatherer; or, Resolution and Independence. It is impossible to doubt that Stanza VI. refers not to the poet himself, but to Coleridge, who had lived as if life's business were a summer mood.' 'But how can he expect that others should build for him, sow for him, and at his call love him, C who for himself will take no heed at all.' See, on this point, Canon Ainger in Macmillan's Magazine, June 1887, p. 86. Possibly Mrs. Coleridge may have hinted some passing disinclination to another visit. But I seize the opportunity of remarking that De Quincey's story (Works, 1863, ii. 63) about a young lady (evidently Miss Wordsworth) of whom, shortly after her marriage, Mrs. Coleridge was furiously jealous, has, I believe, little or no foundation. So far as I am aware, friendly rela tions between Mrs. Coleridge and Miss Words. worth were never seriously interrupted. 1 Knight's Life, i. 302 et seq. e sate together in silence by the roadside.' The friends were not to meet again until the middle of October, Wordsworth's marriage 1 taking place in the meantime. Reverting to the beginning of May, we find Coleridge 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 the year he will have disburthened himself of all metaphysics, and that the next year will be devoted to a long poem ! His small poems are about to be published as a second volume,3 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 has declined on account of his ignorance of French, and that, 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 Hazlitt's. Mine is not a picturesque face. Southey's was made for a picture.' The sheet is filled up with a transcript of Wordsworth's latest compositions -The Butterfly and The Sparrow's Nest—and an intimation that on the 4th April last he had written to Poole a letter in verse, but thinking it 'dull and doleful,' had not sent it. He meant, no doubt, a transcript of the ode Dejection. Soon after this, Poole went on his travels in France and Switzerland, and did not return until December. From a letter of 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 Lamb tells Manning, did not admit of notice. Coleridge 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 Wordsworths 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 connections. Coleridge seems to have made himself very popular, and the tour was a great success, but T. Wedgwood was a dangerous companion, for he was an amateur in narcotics, and just then in hot pursuit of Bang 7-the Nepenthe of the Ancients,' as Coleridge, 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 * 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 essay 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 Correspondence of R. S. ii. 190). 1 October 4, 1802. Dejection: an Ode was printed in the Morning Post on that day, a sad enough Epithalamium. See Lamb's letter to Coleridge, October 9, 1802, (Ainger's ed. i. 185), and 'Note 162,' p. 626. 2 T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 79. 3 Nothing came of this. 4 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 Coleridge (l'orks, 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. 5 Letter of September 24, 1802 (Ainger's ed. i. 181). See also 'Note 163,' p. 628, post. 6 A Group of Englishmen, pp. 159-166; also p. 208. 7 lb. p. 215; Paris's Life of Davy, i. 173; and Cottle's Reminiscences, pp. 459 and 464. 1 been born to him that morning. The Grasmere Journals, unfortunately, are 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 with Coleridge; but the latter was unwilling, though he did not like to refuse outright, and until February he professed to be at Wedgwood's call.2 5 3 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 14th 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 at Cote House, ready, professedly, to go anywhere with Tom Wedgwood 4-Arcades ambo. But the other Arcadian was in low spirits, and undecided, and by February 4 Coleridge was with Poole, after having spent a few days at Bristol with Southey, who found Coleridge'a poor fellow, who suffers terribly from this climate.' At Stowey, Coleridge's health improved, but not, he thinks, sufficiently to permit of his accompanying Wedgwood in his travels, 6 He must go south alone, and accordingly, in March, his friend crossed the Channel with a hired companion. Coleridge's mythical History of Metaphysics' is still dangled before his friend's eyes. 'I confine myself to facts in every part of the work, excepting that which treats of Mr. Hume: him I have assuredly besprinkled copiously from the fountains of Bitterness and Contempt. '7 After a visit to Gunville (Josiah Wedgwood's country house), Coleridge returned to Keswick, vid London. Davy gives a sad account of him.8 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 eloquence 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. 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 arranged that Lamb should see a reprint of Coleridge's poems (1796 and 1797) through the press, and the volume was published in the * One of Coleridge's finest letters: 'I never find myself alone, within the embracement of rocks and hills, 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 within me. . . . The further I ascend from animated nature... the greater in me becomes 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 everywhere, and where is there room for death?' and he asserts that he does not think 'it possible that any bodily pain could eat out the love of joy, that is so substantially part of me, towards hills, and rocks, and steep waters; and he has had some trial.' This is an immense recovery from the Dejection of nine months before (Cottle's Rem. p. 454). 1 Miss Wordsworth's Journals (Knight's Life of W. W. i. 359). 2 Letters of January 9 and 14, 1803, in Cottle's Rem. pp. 450, 454. 3 Unprinted letter to T. Poole, Feb. 2, 1803. 4 Cottle's Rem. pp. 458-461. 5 Life and Corr. 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' (Mem. of W. T. i. 455). 6 Cottle's Rem. p. 459. 7 Letter to Purkis, Stowey, February 17, 1803, in Paris's Life of Davy, i. 173. 8 Letter to Poole, May 1, 1803, ib. i. 176. |