It was early in the following month that Wordsworth recited to Coleridge the great autobiographical poem which we know as The Prelude. It had been slowly built up during Coleridge's long absence, and was addressed to him. How deeply the poem impressed Coleridge may be gathered from the touching and beautiful response made while the sound of his friend's voice was still vibrating. picture which he draws of himself is too sacred for comment—the companionportrait of his friend is drawn in lines even more strongly contrasting than those which had been used in Dejection.

The

On January 27, 1807, Miss Wordsworth reports Coleridge as pretty well, though ailing at some time every day; and still given to the use of strong stimulants, though less so than before. On February 17 he is still at Coleorton, but it must have been soon after this that Coleridge 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.1 Some time in May, Coleridge and Hartley joined Mrs. Coleridge and the two younger children at Bristol (where Mrs. Coleridge 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 2 to stay with Mr. George Coleridge, but the visit had to be abandoned, owing, it was said, to illness in the house. The true reason was, that when the Rev. George Coleridge was made aware of the proposed separation of S. T. Coleridge 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. Coleridge 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 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 seems to have been cheerful enough while he basked in the sunshine of old associations and old friendships, but when his constant friend urged him to exert himself in preparing for the proposed lectures at the Royal Institution, poor Coleridge could only respond with a sigh

Let Eagle bid the Tortoise sunwards soar,

As vainly Strength speaks to a broken Mind ! 3

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 4 which contains the statement already quoted as to his having returned from Italy 'ill, penniless, and 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-promised 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 injudiciously detained by Stoddart' at
Malta. If J. Wedgwood only knew Coleridge's grief for his brother's loss, and his
C 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 have
arisen from qualities both blameable and pitiable, but yet the very opposite of
Neglect or Insensibility.' He flatly denies having abused Mackintosh 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
and manner goes by a work 1 which he has not read.' If this be true, it is
'somewhat hard, for [Scott] had, long before the composition of his own poem,
publicly repeated Christabel. Besides' (he goes on), 'I have finished a Greek and
English 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.'2
It was in the following month that De Quincey appeared on the scene. On the
26th of July, Cottle wrote a letter of introduction 3 for that 'Gentleman of Oxford,
a scholar and man of genius' (so he described De Quincey) to Poole, which was
a request that he might be introduced to Coleridge. The Opium-eater's story is

* In Cottle's Early Recoll. (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. 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 the 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 'I 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.

+ 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. 106).

It began to appear in Tait's Magazine for Sep. 1834, two months after Coleridge's death; and has been reprinted (with some alterations) in De Quincey's collected Works (1863, ii. 38-122). The whole article literally bristles with blunders of every description. Even the portions which relate the author's own experience and observation require a large allowance for refraction.

1 He is referring to Scott, and The Lay of the Last Minstrel. See 'Note 116,' pp. 603, 605. 2 T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 185.

8 lb. ii. 190.

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 thus described Coleridge, whom he found 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 inch and a half taller) his person was broad and full, and tended even to corpulence; his complexion 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 Coleridge had settled that De Quincey should join Mr. Chubb's dinner-party on that evening, he began to talk in a continuous strain of eloquent dissertation,' which might never have been arrested, had not (after about three hours) Mrs. Coleridge entered the room. De Quincey was 'frigidly' introduced, and she retired. 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 the 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 misrepresented what he said. At ten, dinner had probably begun at five or six,-De Quincey left 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 divine calm of the summer night rode back to Bristol. He states that in the course of their conversation Coleridge told him of the overclouding of his life' by the abuse of opium, and warned him against forming the habit, with so 'peculiar an emphasis of horror' as to impress upon the young man's mind a feeling that he never hoped to liberate himself from the bondage.' As to this alleged confession, I feel almost persuaded that De Quincey'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 Coleridge should have divulged a jealously-guarded secret to a perfect stranger. It struck the generous 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 Quincey's delicate way of telling the story of his own impulsive generosity. Cottle's account1 is familiar. De Quincey 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 Coleridge trusted to be able to restore in two years, and as removing the pecuniary pressures which alone stood in the way of the completion of works, which, if completed, would make him easy. In one year he hopes to ask the name of his benefactor, that he may show him good fruits of the tranquillity of mind which his

1 Rem. pp. 341-344. The narrative is, as usual, full of inaccuracies-as is shown by a comparison with the correspondence printed in De Quincey'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 difficulties 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.'

kindness' has rendered 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 pang.
Of the use to which De Quincey's gift was put by Coleridge, nothing,
I believe, is known. One hopes that part went to repay Wordsworth's loan of £100
made in 1804; and there must have been plenty of debts to absorb the remainder—
debts for laudanum among others; but, at all events, soon afterwards it was all gone, for
in April 1808, when borrowing £100 from Stuart, in a great hurry, Coleridge uses words
which imply that Stuart has been paying his expenses as well as giving him a lodging.2
Coleridge left Stowey for Bristol about the 12th September. On the 11th he
had written a long letter to Davy 3 in reply to an urgent message regarding the pro-
posed lectures. He is better, and his will acquiring 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 com-
position with a view to ascertain whether I can conscientiously undertake what I 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
effect, 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 was
one, out-and-out-but a fully-developed Trinitarian. In a letter to Poole from
'Keswick, Dec. 28, 1807,' Mrs. Coleridge says that when her husband joined her at
Bristol, 'in such excellent health and improved looks, she thought of days "lang
syne," and hoped and prayed it might continue.' 'Alas!' (she adds), 'in three or
four days it was all over. He said he must go to town immediately, 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.
Towards the end of October, accordingly, I packed up every-
thing, C.'s things (as I thought, for London) and our own, and left Bristol.R Lo!

1 S. T. C. to Cottle (n.d.), Rem. p. 342.

2 Letters from the Lake Poets, p. 74.

8 Frag. Rem. p. 99.

4 Rem. pp. 314-325.
I have not seen the
original, but it was, no doubt, carefully revised
by Cottle before printing. The reports of con-
versations on these topics are more completely
given in Cottle's Early Recoll. ii. 99-124. These
are, even more than the letter, open to the sus-
picion 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 W. T. i. 215).

5 T. Poole and his Friends, ii. 202-204.

6 For De Quincey's account of the journey, see Works (1863, ii. 128); art. 'William Wordsworth.'

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 clothes, had passed three weeks at the house of a 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 account were postponed. Stewart [sic] had insisted on his being at the Courier office during his stay in town. Wordsworth obtained a few lines from him ten days ago. Davy was better, and the Lectures were to 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 so long [receiving an abusive reply, and a demand for £50 expenses]. He [S. T.C.] has published in the Courier lately "The Wanderer's Farewell."'1

This very interesting letter of Mrs. Coleridge gives a succinct account of her husband up to the end of 1807. It will be observed that it contains no mention of De Quincey's bounty. He, of course, would say nothing to Mrs. Coleridge, and Coleridge himself had evidently been equally reticent. His detention, 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 Mrs. Coleridge's departure.

Coleridge resumed his old quarters at the top of the Courier building in the Strand.2 His sole duty being to prepare his lectures, no doubt he gave to them such time as he could spare from assisting Stuart and Street in the conduct of their newspaper. Of this, the first 3 course of lectures delivered by Coleridge, but a scanty and fragmentary record remains. 4 Lamb writes to Manning on February 26, 1808:

'Coleridge has delivered two lectures at the R.I.; two more were attended, but he did not come. It is thought he has gone sick upon them. He ain't well, that's certain. Wordsworth 6 is coming to see him.' This sounds a little unfeeling, as coming from Lamb; but it was Coleridge's own letters, etc., confirmed by one from Mary Lamb, which were bringing Wordsworth to town. I gather that Lamb suspected that opium was largely responsible for his friend's illness, 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

1 See page 179, and 'Note 185,' p. 636.

2 See De Quincey's amusing account of Coleridge's situation in Works (1863, ii. 98).

3 It was really the first, notwithstanding statements by Coleridge and his editors to the contrary.

4 The following is a list of all the lectures of which there is any general or particular record, printed and unprinted: I. Jan. 12, 1808; II. 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. 140; and Mrs. H. N. Coleridge's Notes and Lectures on Shakespeare [by S. T. C.], 1849. These are not included in Lectures and Notes on Shakspere and other English Poets, by S. C. T., now first collected by T. Ashe (Bell, 1883), a useful, and in

many respects an excellent compilation.

To the confusion of the sense, this word has hitherto been printed 'intended.' I quote from the original letter.

6 On this, see Mem. of Coleorton, ii. 35.

7 Coleridge had been ill and better again in December 1807 (Mem. of Coleorton, ii. 41). On Feb. 18, 1808, he reports to Beaumont that he has been very 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 my conscience. What other motive have I?' (M. of C. ii. 47). There is not a word of lectures.