Biographia Epistolaris, Volume 2 being The Biographical Supplement of Coleridge's Biographia Literaria

140. Humphry Davy. -- Dec. 1808 40 141. " 14 Dec. 1808 41 142. " 30 Jany. 1809 45 143. ---- 1 June, 1809 48 144. Southey. 20 Oct. 1809 52 145. R. L. 26 Oct. 1809 57 146. "Cantab...

154. Cottle. 5-14 April, 1814 118 155. " -- -- 1814 119 156. " -- -- 1814 120 157. " -- -- 1814 121 158. " 26 April, 1814 126 159. " 26 April, 1814 129 160. " Apl. 1814 130 161....

171. " 20 Sept. 1818 160 172. " 26 Nov. 1818 160 173. " 2 Dec. 1818 163 174. Mr. Britton. 28 Feby. 1819 166 175. " Feby.-Mch. 1819 168 176. Allsop. 30 Sept. 1819 169 177. " 13 D...

181. " 31 July, 1820 190 182. " 8 August, 1820 192 183. " 11 October, 1820 198 184. " 20 October, 1820 201 185. " 25 October, 1820 202 186. " 27 Nov. 1820 203 187. " January, 18...

189. " 4 May, 1821 219 190. " 23 June, 1821 226 191. " --- 1821 227 192. " 15 Sept. 1821 227 193. " 24 Sept. 1821 229 194. Mr. Blackwood. -- Oct. 1821 232 195. Allsop. 20 Oct. 1...

204. " 29 June, 1822 259 205. " 8 Octr. 1822 261 206. Gillman. 28 Octr.1822 265 207. Allsop. 26 Dec. 1822 266 208. " 10 Dec. 1823 269 209. " 24 Dec. 1823 270 210. Mrs. Allsop. -...

Men who habitually enjoy robust health have, too generally, the trick, and a very cruel one it is, of imagining that they discover the secret of all their acquaintances' ill hea...

[Coleridge reached England on 17th August 1806 (_Letters_, 499), and made for London, intending to write articles once more for Daniel Stuart. He does not seem, however, to have...

On my return to Bristol, whenever that may be, I will certainly give you the right hand of old fellowship; but, alas! you will find me the wretched wreck of what you knew me, ro...

* * * The declaration that the Deity is "the sole Operant" (Religious Musings) is indeed far too bold; may easily be misconstrued into Spinozism; and, therefore, though it is su...

To pursue our last conversation. Christians expect no outward or sensible miracles from prayer. Its effects, and its fruitions are spiritual, and accompanied says that _true Div...

I am sorry that you should have felt any delicacy in disclosing to me your religious feelings, as rendering it inconsistent with your tranquillity of mind to spend the Sunday ev...

* * * The common end of all narrative, nay, of all poems is, to convert a series into a whole, to make those events, which, in real or imagined history, move on in a straight li...

[Cottle tells us that in the spring of 1807 a lady of his acquaintance introduced to him a Mr. De Quincey. On the 26th July, Cottle wrote to Poole (_T. Poole and his Friends_, i...

Independent of letter-writing, and a dinner engagement with C. Danvers, I was the whole of yesterday till evening, in a most wretched restlessness of body and limbs, having impr...

[In August 1807 we find Humphry Davy writing to Poole that he had been corresponding with Coleridge urging him to undertake a course of Lectures at the Royal Institution, London...

* * * Yet how very few are there whom I esteem, and (pardon me from this seeming deviation from the language of friendship) admire equally with yourself. It is indeed, and has l...

A concurrence of intelligence from my friends in the North, has not only made it difficult for me to force my mind away from dreaming about them, but has employed me in running...

[During the Spring of 1808, Coleridge, while delivering his lectures, had some correspondence with Matilda Betham between March and July. Matilda Betham was a portrait painter,...

I have barely time to scribble a few lines, so as not to miss the post, for here as every where, there are charitable people, who, taking for granted that you have no business o...

* * * My health and spirits are improved beyond my boldest hopes. A very painful effort of moral courage has been remunerated by tranquillity--by ease from the sting of self-dis...

The above written copies[17] will explain this second application to you. I understood from Mr. Bernard (afterwards Sir Thomas), as well as from yourself, that Mr. Savage had ag...

I was deeply affected by the passage in your letter respecting Dr. Beddoes. It was indeed the echo of my own experience. The intelligence of his departure from among us, came up...

It is not unknown to you, that I have employed almost the whole of my Life in acquiring, or endeavouring to acquire, useful Knowledge by Study, Reflection, Observation, and by c...

What really makes me despond is the daily confirmation I receive of my original apprehension, that the plan and execution of _The Friend_ is so utterly unsuitable to the public...

When I first undertook the present Publication for the sake and with the _avowed_ object of referring Men in all things to PRINCIPLES or fundamental Truths, I was well aware of...

I thank the "_Friend's friend and a Cantab_" for his inspiriting Letter, and assure him, that it was not without its intended effect, of giving me encouragement. That this was n...

[During the remainder of 1810, after the cessation of _The Friend_, Coleridge did nothing of importance except write letters to his acquaintances about new projects which grew u...

Mr. Grattan did me the honour of calling on me, and leaving his card, on Sunday afternoon, unfortunately a few minutes after I had gone out--and I am so unwell, that I fear I sh...

My chief motive in undertaking _The First Mariner_ is merely to weave a few tendrils around your destined walking-stick, which, like those of the woodbine (that, serpent-like cl...

The room I lecture in is very comfortable, and of a grave academic appearance; the company highly respectable, though (unluckily) rather scanty; but the entrance, which is under...

Here[28] I may best introduce the remarks which have been made, and details which have been given, respecting Mr. Coleridge's services to _The Morning Post_ and _The Courier_, s...

"Freshness of effect belongs to a newspaper and distinguishes it from a literary book: the former being the Zenith and the latter the Nadir, with a number of intermediate degree...

Since you left me, I have been reflecting a great deal on the subject of the Catholic question, and somewhat on _The Courier_ in general. With all my weight of _faults_, (and no...

[Coleridge married Sarah Fricker, as we have already seen, on 5th October, 1795. The first period of Coleridge's married life had been a happy one. Although there is reason to b...

The first volume of _Juvenile Poems_ was published in the Spring of 1796. It contains three sonnets by Charles Lamb, and a poetical Epistle which he called "Sara's," but of whic...

"The receipt of your heart-engendered lines was sweeter than an unexpected strain of sweetest music;--or in humbler phrase, it was the only pleasurable sensation which the _succ...

[Coleridge had now become a recognized public lecturer on Poetry, and it was his last resource to keep out of political writing, which he saw was a rather barren business on whi...

* * * Since my arrival at the Greyhound, Bath, I have been confined to my bed-room, almost to my bed. Pray for my recovery, and request Mr. Roberts's[74] prayers, for my infirm,...

An erysipelatous complaint, of an alarming nature, has rendered me barely able to attend and go through with my lectures, the receipts of which, have almost paid the expenses of...

* * * Mr. ----[77] I find is raising the city against me, as far as he and his friends can, for having stated a mere matter of fact; viz. that Milton had represented Satan as a...

I have been engaged three days past, to dine with the sheriff, at Merchant's Hall to-morrow. As they will not wield knife and fork till near six, I cannot of course attend the m...

On my return home yesterday, I continued unwell, so as to be obliged to lie down for the greater part of the evening, and my indisposition keeping me awake during the whole nigh...

You have poured oil in the raw and festering wound of an old friend's conscience, Cottle! but it is _oil of vitriol_! I but barely glanced at the middle of the first page of you...

O dear friend! I have too much to be forgiven, to feel any difficulty in forgiving the cruellest enemy that ever trampled on me: and you I have only to _thank_! You have no conc...

I have resolved to place myself in any situation, in which I can remain for a month or two, as a child, wholly in the power of others. But, alas! I have no money! Will you invit...

I am uneasy to know how my friend, J. Cottle, goes on. The walk I took last Monday to enquire, in person, proved too much for my strength, and shortly after my return, I was in...

Gladness be with you, for your convalescence, and equally so, at the hope, which has sustained and tranquillized you through your imminent peril. Far otherwise is, and hath been...

For I am unworthy to call any good man friend--much less you, whose hospitality and love I have abused; accept, however, my intreaties for your forgiveness, and for your prayers.

[John James Morgan, the joint friend of Coleridge and Southey in their Pantisocratic days, was the son of a Bristol merchant, and as early as 1795 was acquainted with Coleridge...

You will wish to know something of myself. In health, I am not worse than when at Bristol I was best; yet fluctuating, yet unhappy! in circumstances "poor indeed!" I have collec...

I have been waiting with the greatest uneasiness for a letter from you. My distresses are impatient rather than myself: inasmuch as for the last five weeks, I know myself to be...

[It was in the Spring of 1816 that Coleridge took refuge from himself and the world and came to the Gillmans of Highgate, and became the great lay preacher of his time. Before t...

The first half hour I was with you convinced me that I should owe my reception into your family exclusively to motives not less flattering to me than honourable to yourself. I t...

In a copy of verses, entitled _A Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni_, I describe myself under the influence of strong devotional feelings, gazing on the mountain, till...

Accept my thanks for your kind remembrance of me, and for the proof of it in the present of your tribute of friendship, I have read it with uninterrupted interest, and with sati...

If you had seen Lord Byron, you could scarcely disbelieve him--so beautiful a countenance I scarcely ever saw--his teeth so many stationary smiles--his eyes the open portals of...

[Coleridge's lectures and his conversations at the Gillmans brought him many new friends. Among others was Thomas Allsop, a young London merchant, whose acquaintance dates from...

Your friendly letter was first delivered to me at the lecture-room door on yesterday evening, ten minutes before the lecture, and my spirits were so sadly depressed by the circu...

Those who have hitherto chosen to take notice of me, as known to them only by my public character, have for the greater part taken out, not, indeed, a poetical, but a critical,...

I take the liberty of addressing a Prospectus to you. Should it be in your power to recommend either Course among your friends, you will (I need not add) oblige your sincere, &c.

I cannot express how kind I felt your letter. Would to Heaven I had had many with feelings like yours, "accustomed to express themselves warmly and (as far as the word is applic...

First permit me to remove a very natural, indeed almost inevitable, mistake, relative to my lectures; namely, that I _have_ them, or that the lectures of one place or season are...

My next Friday's lecture will, if I do not grossly flatter-blind myself, be interesting, and the points of view not only original, but new to the audience. I make this distincti...

Returned from Ramsgate, I hasten to assure you that, next to seeing you, I have pleasure in hearing from you: and wish the former in preference, not merely from the greater mutu...

Accept my affectionate thanks; and, in mine, conceive those of my housemates included. Would to heaven I had more than barren thanks to offer you. If you, or rather your residen...

You must have thought it strange that I had taken no notice of so kind a letter from you; but the truth is, I received the little packet supposing it to contain the Cobbett only...

May I venture to obtrude on you what I cannot intrust to a messenger, much less to the post. Sackville-street is not I hope more than fifteen or twenty minutes' walk from your h...

[Coleridge and Sir Walter Scott met at least three times during their lives, once in 1807,[107] once in 1820, and again in 1828. Sir Walter was cognizant of the genius of Coleri...

It is not the least advantage of friendship, that by communicating our thoughts to another, we render them distinct to ourselves, and reduce the subjects of our sorrow and anxie...

Before I opened your letter, or rather before I gave it to my best sister, and, under God, best comforter, to open, a very heavy affliction came upon me with all the aggravation...

Neither indolence nor procrastination have had any place among the causes of my silence, least of all either yourself, or the subject of your letter, or the purpose of answering...

You will think it childish in me, and more savouring of a jealous boarding-school miss than a friend and a philosopher, when I confess that the "with great respect, your obliged...

Doubtless nothing can be more delightful to me, independent of Mrs. Gillman's kind but unnecessary anxieties, than to go to Oxford with you. Nay, though it will be but a flight...

It will please you, though I scarcely know whether the pleasure is worth the carriage, to know that my own feelings and convictions were, from the very commencement of this unha...

I have been more than usually unwell, with great depression of spirits, loss of appetite, frequent sickness, and a harassing pain in my left knee; and at the same time anxious t...

The only impression left by you on my mind is an increased desire to see you again, and at shorter intervals. Were you my son by nature, I could not hold you dearer, or more ear...

[Among the men who met Coleridge, and recorded their impressions of his talk, Henry Crabb Robinson occupies a prominent place. He was one of the leading genius tasters of the ti...

[Charles Lamb, Coleridge's associate of the "Cat and Salutation" days, remained a close friend to the last, and he plays an important part in the Highgate period. Among Lamb's l...

God bless you, and all who are dear and near to you! but as to your pens, they seem to have been plucked from the _devil's_ pinions, and slit and shaped by the blunt edge of the...

Mr. and Mrs. Gillman's kind love, and we beg that the good lady's late remembering that (as often the very fullness and vividness of the purpose and intention to do a thing impo...

Be assured that nothing bearing a nearer resemblance to offence, whether felt or perceived, than a syllogism bears to the colour of the man in the moon's whiskers, ever crossed...

We are quite sure that you would not allow yourself to fancy any rightful ground, cause, or occasion for not coming here, but the wish, the duty, or the propriety of going elsew...

I cannot rest until I have answered your last letter. I have contemplated your character, affectionately indeed, but through a clear medium. No film of passion, no glittering mi...

I will begin with the beginning of your (to me most affecting) letter. Not exactly _obligation_, my entirely beloved and relied-on friend! The soiling hand of the world has dyed...

Here have I been sitting, this whole long-lagging, _muzzy_, mizly morning, struggling without success against the insuperable disgust I feel to the task of explaining the abrupt...

Not a day has passed since we left Highgate in which I have not been tracing you in spirit up and down the Glens and Dells of Derbyshire, while my feet only have been in commune...

First, let me utter the fervent, God be praised! for the glad tidings respecting your dear Mother, which would have given an abounding interest to a far less interesting letter....

At length, my dear friend! we are safe and (I hope) sound at Highgate. We would fain have returned, as we went, by the Steam-vessel, but for two reasons; one that there was none...

Ab Hydromania, Hydrophobia: from Water-lust comes Water-dread. But this is a violent metaphor, and disagreeable to boot. Suppose then, by some caprice or colic of nature, an Aqu...

My main reason for wishing that Mrs. Gillman should have made her call on Mrs. Allsop, or that Mrs. Allsop would waive the ceremony, and taking the willingness for the act, and...

but last night I had not only a calmer night, without roaming in my dreams through any of Swedenborg's Hells _modéré_; but arose this morning lighter and with a sense of _relief_.

Mr. Watson is but now returned. I was about to set off to your house and take turns with Mrs. Allsop in watching you. It is a comfort to hear from Watson that he thinks you look...

There was neither self nor unself in the flash or jet of pleasurable ----- | T P | --- --- sensation with which I saw the old | PALL MALL | tea-canister top | 3 | ----------- su...

[The Gillmans necessarily come much into notice in Coleridge's later letters. The following to Allsop have some references to his kind hosts, besides other friends and acquainta...

On my arrival at Highgate after our last parting, I ought to have written, if it were only that I had fully resolved to do so, and when I feel that I have not done what I ought,...

As fervent a prayer, as glow-trembling a joy, thanksgiving that seeks to steady itself by prayer, and prayer that dissolves itself into thanks and gladness, as ever eddied in or...

In the course of my past life I count four griping and grasping sorrows, each of which seemed to have my very heart in its hands, compressing or wringing. The first, when the Vi...

Words I know are not wanted between you and me. But there are occasions so awful, there may be instances and manifestations of friendship so affecting, and drawing up with them...

I might with strict truth assign the not only day after day, but hour after hour employment, if not through the whole period of my waking time, yet through the whole of my writi...

I shall be alone on Sunday, and shall be happy to spend it with you. Ever since the disappearance of a most unsightly eruption on my Face I have been, with but short intermissio...

I forgot to ask you, and so did Mr. and Mrs. G. ... whether you could dine with us on Christmas-day--or on New Year's-day--or on both! If you can, need I say that I shall be glad.

Indeed, indeed you have sadly misunderstood my last hurried note. So over and over again has Mr. Allsop been assured that every invitation to him included you, so often has he b...

There are three rolls of paper, Mr. Wordsworth's translation of the first, second, and third books, two in letter-paper, one in a little writing-book, in the drawer under the si...

I am myself at my ordinary average of Health, and beat off the blue Devils with the Ghosts of defunct hopes, chasing the Jack-o'-lanterns of foolish expectation as well as I can...

I direct this to your _house_, or _firm_ should I say? because I should not think myself justified in exciting in Mrs. Allsop an alarm, for which I have no more grounds than my...

[The letters to Allsop gradually lessen in number as we draw away from the year 1822. This is not necessarily because there was less communication between the two friends, but m...

Having disburdened myself of the main loads of outward obligation at least that pressed upon me, my Essay for the R. S. L.,[139] and my _Aids to Reflection_, with other matters...

I am sure you did not mean that the interest I feel in this undertaking was one which I was likely to _throw_ off, or one which there was any chance of my not retaining; but I w...

On the Histories of Universities generally, the most interesting Features in the History of the most celebrated Universities in Great Britain, Germany, France, etc. Reduction of...

The person to whom I alluded in my last is a Mr. T...,[140] who, within the last two or three years, has held a situation in the Colonial Office, but _what_, I do not know. From...

[While at Highgate, Coleridge contributed some short pieces of poetry, which may be regarded as his Autumn Leaves, to the Annals got up by Alaric Alexander Watts and F. M. Reyno...

is in the Hymn too much of the _idiosyncratic_ for true poetry, a piece of self-criticism that can be alleged against a great number of his poems, beautiful of their kind yet sa...

[Coleridge and Wordsworth, who, as we have seen, had had a serious estrangement in 1810, but gradually drew together again with the softening of the years, went on tour to the R...

My dear godchild,--I offer up the same fervent prayer for you now, as I did kneeling before the altar, when you were baptized into Christ, and solemnly received as a living memb...

After Mr. Coleridge's death in July 1834,[147] four volumes of his _Literary Remains_ were published by his late Editor. Vols. I and II appeared in 1836, Vol. III in 1838, Vol....

" 16 " 184 97 " 17 " 164 84 " 18 " 165 85 " 19 " 166 85 " 20 " 169 87 " 21 " 172 90 " 22 " 171 88 " 23 " 140 67 " 24 " 137 65 " 25 " 141 68 " 30 " 144 70 " 31 " 145 70 " 32 " 15...

" 59 " 246 140 " 60 " 230 131 " 61 " 250 142 " 62 " 274 149 " 63 " 252 144 " 64 " 254 148 " 65 " 253 144 " 66 " 234 133 " 67 " 255 149 " 68 " 251 143 " 69 " 288 159 " 70 " 305 1...

" 124 -- 467 " 125 -- 471 " 128 -- 472 " 131 Vol. ii, p. 75 305 " 132 Vol. i, p. 204 112 " 133 Vol. ii, p. 83 314 " 134 116 337 " 135 131 345 " 136 126 341 " 139 133 346 " 153 -...

Parr, and in Letter 123, in which he alters his own name for that of Biggs, his partner. His changes consist mostly of omissions. Letters 99, 114, 117, 122, which are given in f...

him about Cottle's own poem _Alfred_ (see Ainger's _Letters of Lamb_, i, 138). The omission of such a passage was only to be expected; Cottle was not going to act as his own han...

Ellipses are used (pp. 258, 262-263, 290), seemingly to elide a name. They have been reproduced as found there. There is also the phrase "when I... took me by surprise" which ma...