ycar Coleridge was distracted with grief, 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 dictated the delay that he uttered 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, Finds some resemblance to her own concerns In the straws of chance, and things inanimate! '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 grasped and handled'; and he goes on to transcribe 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 prompted 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 only child.1 Dear lamb, 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.' 2 In the same letter Coleridge informs Poole that the Wordsworths had passed through.3 They were melancholy and hipp'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. . . . Finally, I told him plainly that you had been the man in whom first, and in whom alone, I had felt an anchor.' But Wordsworth reiterated that a library was a necessity.4 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 Göttingen for 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 with the worst German accent imaginable,' and occasionally appealing to his pocket dictionary for a word. Carlyon and Greenough accompanied Coleridge and Chester as far as Brunswick, paying a second, and again unsuccessful, visit to the Brocken Spectre, and spending a day over the Lessing relics at Wolfenbüttel on the way. 1 Page 131. 3 This visit must have taken place about 4 Up to July the Wordsworths were willing to go to the Stowey neighbourhood if Poole could find them a place. See Knight's Life, i. 194. 5 CARLYON, i. 161 et seq. In 1828 Coleridge met Schlegel at Godesberg. His German was so little intelligible that Schlegel had to beg him to speak English. Mem. of C. M. Young, 1871, p. 121. 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 tentatively, accusing Coleridge of evil-speaking. Coleridge denies that he ever accused Southey of anything but enmity to himselfan enmity founded on delusion, and appealed to Poole. Poole backed 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 being satisfied, brought his wife to Stowey,1 and they remained for two or three weeks. It was during this visit that the two poets concocted The 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, Before the end of August the brothers-in-law and their wives set out from Stoweythe 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 were 'received with all love and attention,' and Southey, who was detained a few days at Ottery, gives a lively account of the family party. 'We were all a good deal amused by the old lady [Coleridge'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 cried out, "Ah, if your poor father had been alive, he'd soon have convinced you!"' The visit was prolonged until near the end of September, and Coleridge tells Poole that he enjoyed himself. Finding that his brothers' opinions, tastes, and feelings differed fundamentally from his own, he held his peace, and amiably pledged 'Church and King' when the toast was going round, relieving his feelings occasionally in the company of some friends at Exeter, whose views more nearly coincided with his own-amongst them being Hucks, the travelling companion of 1794. On the 30th September he writes to Southey of a rheumatic attack, which reminds him of his rheumatic fever at school, and a fortnight later, of much pain and sleeplessness, with sickness, through indigestion of food taken by compulsion-symptoms not, one fears, without their suggestiveness. Southey was at this time collecting 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 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,4 he arrived at Sockburn, where the Wordsworths were residing with the Hutchinsons.5 Fortunately the cause of alarm had passed away, and almost immediately the three men started on a tour 1 Letters of R. S. i. 78. 2 See page 147, post; and 'Note 149,' p. 621 3 Letters of R. S. i. 81-83. 4 Rem. p. 259. Wordsworth and Coleridge each wrote some account of the tour. See Knight's Life of Wordsworth, i. 198-200. 5 The parents of Mary and Sarah Hutchinson. The former became, in 1802, the wife of Wordsworth, and the latter one of Coleridge's most attached friends. He then met both sisters for the first time. of the Lake Country. Cottle having been dropped at Greta Bridge, his place was taken by Wordsworth's sailor brother, John, and the tourists penetrated into Gilsland, seeing Irthing Flood, and Knorren Moor, and Tryermaine, and other places whose names give local colour to the second part of Christabel. Both poets were most strongly attracted by Grasmere, and with Wordsworth it became merely a question of whether he should build a house by the lake, or take one which was then available. He adopted the latter alternative, and, with his sister, entered Dove Cottage, which all the world now goes to see, on the 21st December following. Coleridge did not return to Stowey. While in the north he seems to have received a definite proposal to live in London, and write political articles in the Morning Post. Stuart seems in return to have promised to defray all his expenses. To London accordingly he went directly by coach from Sockburn, arriving on November 27. He immediately took lodgings, which at the time he described to Poole as 'quiet and healthful,' at 21 Buckingham Street, Strand;1 and before the 9th December Mrs. Coleridge and Hartley had joined him. He tells Southey that their Devil's Thoughts has been a great success, and that though he fears he has not now poetical enthusiasm enough to finish 'Christabel' for the Anthology, he will be ready in time with his other verses. As to permanent residence, beyond 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 he says nothing (in any of the letters which have been printed) of the engagement he had then taken to translate Schiller's Wallenstein for Longmans (see Note 229,' p. 646); but in one dated Christmas Eve, he says that he 'gives his mornings to the booksellers'-the translation doubtless-and the time after dinner to Stuart, who pays all expenses, whatever they are '— the earnings of the morning going towards replacing the anticipated annuity-money spent in Germany. Before this time he had renewed his intercourse with Godwin. On New Year's Eve he wrote to Poole,3-'I work from I-rise to I-set (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 1 a good many political leading paragraphs' (as 'leaders' were then called) appeared; in February they dwindled, and on the 14th Coleridge 5 informed Poole that he has given up the Morning Post, adding that the editor is 'importunate against it.' He did not give it up all at once, for on the 17th he reported Pitt's speech from scanty notes made in the House. He tells Wedgwood 6 he has been three times to the House-one of them being 'yesterday,' when he made that famous report. He went on Monday at 7.15 A. M., remained till 3 A. M. on Tuesday, and afterwards wrote and corrected at the office till 8,-'a good 24 hours of unpleasant activity.' He was very proud of 1 The lodging at Howell's in King Street, Covent Garden, mentioned by Stuart (Gent. Mag. May 1838), was occupied not then, but in 1802. 2 He must have been as good as his word, for the volume contained :-Lewti, The Mad 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 Duchess of Devonshire, Fire, Famine, and Slaughter, The Raven, To an To this Stuart that feat in reporting'-in Johnson's manner. To Poole he wrote at the time,1 '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 2 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 until after I had left the Morning Post.' This is a fair specimen of the little controversy which in 1838 arose between Coleridge's biographers and Stuart regarding the poet's connection with the Morning Post and the Courier. In the Gentleman's Magazine for May 1838, Stuart printed his version of it, 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 much resented by Stuart, who called at Highgate and warmly expressed 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 Morning Post from an inconsiderable number to 7000 per day in the course of one year.' replied with figures showing that the statement had no foundation. Only three of Coleridge's contributions, he says, made any sensation-a paragraph on Lord Grenville's state-paper, the 'Character of Pitt' (March 19, 1800), and The Devil's Thoughts. A companion 'Character of Buonaparte' was promised over and over again, but was never written. Stuart 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 his remuneration, one sees clearly from Coleridge's letters that in his own opinion he had been over-paid. At the same time it cannot be doubted that although Coleridge exaggerated his services, the general reputation of the Morning Post and Courier must have been heightened by his contributions. Mr. Traill, whose opinion on such a matter is entitled to the greatest respect, considers that so far from Coleridge's newspaper articles being tainted with the defects which might have been looked for-over-rhetorical diction, too much refinement 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.'3 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 £2000 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 go on writing for Stuart until he is clear-clear, that must have been, of advances both from Stuart and the Wedgwoods. Coleridge's statement has 1 Essays on his own Times, p. 1009. 2 Gent. Mag. May 1838, p. 488. 3 All that Mr. Traill has to say on this subject is valuable. 'English Men of Letters' series.Coleridge, 1884, pp. 79-86. 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 share this view. On the contrary, had Stuart ever offered a partnership, he would have remembered the circumstance; he knew that regular work for any length of time it was not in Coleridge's nature to give. Besides, Stuart's offer would have been communicated to Wordsworth, and 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, that I urged him to put in his claim to be admitted a proprietor, but this he declined, having a great disinclination to any tie of the kind' (Introd. to Biog. Lit. 1847). I have little doubt that the offer' was a mere affair of 'ifs' dropped by Stuart in conversation with Coleridge, when urging him to contribute more than he was doing.1 In journalism, as in other matters, it was with Coleridge indolence capable of energies'; and so uniform was Stuart's experience of his friend, that it is incredible that he should have ever seriously proposed to take him as a partner. Except in that unfortunate passage in the Biographia, Coleridge always acknowledged Stuart's generosity-a generosity which was continued down to the latest months of the poet's life. We left Coleridge at Buckingham Street, in the 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 London, going probably to her mother's house at Bristol; Coleridge himself going to the Lambs', who were then living at Pentonville. The reconciliation between these old friends had taken place some time before this. The first evidence we have of this is in a letter from Lamb, dated in all editions Jan. 2, 1800,' but which must have been written about the 23rd-27th. 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, the more cause I see to love him and believe him a very good man, and all those foolish impressions fly off like morning slumbers. He is engaged in translation, which I hope will keep him this month to come.' Coleridge graphically describes his situation and prospects at this time in a letter to Stuart : 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 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 a few 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 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 stipend. That harasses me. I know that hitherto I have received from you 1 There is a mass of printed matter 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 notes in Essays on his own Times. |