Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey

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* * * * *

REMINISCENCES OF SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE AND ROBERT SOUTHEY

by JOSEPH COTTLE

* * * * *

INTRODUCTION.

It is with a solemnized feeling that I enter on these Reminiscences.
Except one, I have survived all the associates of my earlier days. The
young, with a long life in perspective, (if any life can be called long,
in so brief an existence) are unable to realize the impressions of a man,
nearer eighty than seventy, when the shadows of evening are gathering
around, and, in a retrospective glance, the whole field of past vision
appears, in all its complexities, like the indistinct tumults of a dream.
The acute reasoner--the fiery politician--the eager polemic--the emulous
aspirant after fame; and many such have I known, where are they? and how
mournful, if any one of them should be found, at last, to have directed
his solicitudes, alone, to material objects;--should have neglected to
cultivate his own little plot of earth, more valuable than mines! and
have sown no seeds for eternity. It is not a light motive which could
have prompted me, when this world of "Eye and Ear" is fast receding,
while grander scenes are opening, and so near! to call up almost
long-forgotten associations, and to dwell on the stirring, by-gone
occurrences that tend, in some measure, to interfere with that calm which
is most desirable, and best accords with the feelings of one who holds
life by such slender ties. Yet through the goodness of the Almighty,
being at the present moment exempt from many of the common infirmities of
age, I am willing, as a last act, to make some sacrifice to obtain the
good which I hope this recurrence to the past is calculated to produce.

With respect to Mr. Coleridge, it would be easy and pleasant to sail with
the stream; to admire his eloquence; to extol his genius; and to forget
his failings; but where is the utility, arising out of this homage paid
to naked talent? If the attention of posterity rested here, where were
the lessons of wisdom to be learnt from his example? His path through the
world was marked by strong outlines, and instruction is to be derived
from every feature of his mind, and every portion of his eventful and
chequered life. In all the aspects of his character, he was probably the
most singular man that has appeared in this country during the preceding
century, and the leading incidents of whose life ought to stand fairly on
record. The facts which I have stated are undeniable, the most important
being substantiated by his own letters; but higher objects were intended
by this narrative than merely to elucidate a character, (however
remarkable), in all its vicissitudes and eccentricities. Rising above
idle curiosity, or the desire of furnishing aliment for the
sentimental;--excitement the object, and the moral tendency disregarded,
these pages take a wider range, and are designed for the good of many,
where if there be much to pain the reader, he should moderate his
regrets, by looking through the intermediate to the end.

There is scarcely an individual, whose life, if justly delineated, would
not present much whence others might derive instruction. If this be
applicable to the multitude, how much more essentially true is it, in
reference to the ethereal spirits, endowed by the Supreme with a lavish
portion of intellectual strength, as well as with proportionate
capacities for doing good? How serious therefore is the obligation to
fidelity, when the portraiture of a man is to be presented, like Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, in whom such diversified and contrary qualities
alternately predominated! Yet all the advantages to be derived from him,
and similar instructors of mankind, must result from a faithful
exhibition of the broad features of their earthly conduct and character,
so that they might stand out as landmarks, and pharos-towers, to guide,
or warn, or encourage, all succeeding voyagers on the Ocean of Life.

In preparing the following work, I should gladly have withheld that one
letter of Mr. Coleridge to Mr. Wade, had not the obligation to make it
public been imperative. But concealment would have been injustice to the
living, and treachery to the dead. This letter is the solemnizing voice
of conscience. Can any reflecting mind, deliberately desire the
suppression of this document, in which Mr. Coleridge, for the good of
others, generously forgets its bearing on himself, and makes a full and
voluntary confession of the sins he had committed against "himself, his
friends, his children, and his God?" In the agony of remorse, at the
retrospection, he thus required that this his confession should hereafter
be given to the public. "AFTER MY DEATH, I EARNESTLY ENTREAT, THAT A FULL
AND UNQUALIFIED NARRATIVE OF MY WRETCHEDNESS, AND ITS GUILTY CAUSE, MAY
BE MADE PUBLIC, THAT AT LEAST SOME LITTLE GOOD MAY BE EFFECTED BY THE
DIREFUL EXAMPLE." This is the most redeeming letter Samuel Taylor
Coleridge ever penned. A callous heart could not have written it. A
Christian, awaking from his temporary lethargy, might. While it
powerfully propitiates the reader, it almost converts condemnation into
compassion.

No considerate friend, it might be thought, would have desired the
suppression of this letter, but rather its most extended circulation; and
that, among other cogent reasons, from the immense moral lesson, enforced
by it, in perpetuity, on all consumers of opium; in which they will
behold, as well as in some of the other letters, the "tremendous
consequences," (to use Mr. Coleridge's own expressions) of such
practices, exemplified in his own person; and to which terrible effects,
he himself so often, and so impressively refers. It was doubtless a deep
conviction of the beneficial tendencies involved in the publication, that
prompted Mr. C. to direct publicity to be given to this remarkable
letter, after his decease.

The incidents connected with the lives of Mr. Coleridge and Mr. Southey,
are so intimately blended, from relationship, association, and kindred
pursuits, that the biography of one, to a considerable extent, involves
that of the other. The following narrative, however, professes to be
annals of, rather than a circumstantial account of these two remarkable
men.

Some persons may be predisposed to misconstrue the motive for giving
publicity to the following letter, but others, it is hoped, will admit
that the sole object has been, not to draw the reader's attention to the
writer, but to confer _credit on Southey_. Many are the individuals who
would have assisted, to a greater extent than myself, two young men of
decided genius, like Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey, who
required, at the commencement of their literary career, encouragement,
and a little assistance. Few however, would have exhibited the
magnanimity which Southey displayed, in seasons of improved
circumstances, by referring to slender acts of kindness, long past, and
scarcely remembered but by himself. Few are the men, who, after having
surmounted their difficulties by honourable exertion, would have referred
to past seasons of perplexity, and have desired--that occurrences "might
be seen hereafter," which little minds would sedulously have concealed,
as discredit, rather than as conferring conspicuous honour.

Ten years after the incidents had occurred to which the following letter
refers, in writing to Mr. Southey, among other subjects, I casually
expressed a regret, that when I quitted the business of a bookseller, I
had not returned him the copy-rights of his "Joan of Arc;" of his two
volumes of Poems; and of his letters from Spain and Portugal. The
following was his reply.

"Wednesday evening, Greta Hall, April 28, 1808.

My dear Cottle,

... What you say of my copy-rights affects me very much. Dear Cottle,
set your heart at rest on that subject. It ought to be at rest. They
were yours; fairly bought, and fairly sold. You bought them on the
chance of their success, what no London bookseller would have done;
and had they not been bought, they could not have been published at
all. Nay, if you had not published 'Joan of Arc,' the poem never
would have existed, nor should I, in all probability, ever have
obtained that reputation which is the capital on which I subsist, nor
that power which enables me to support it.

But this is not all. Do you suppose, Cottle, that I have forgotten
those true and most essential acts of friendship which you showed me
when I stood most in need of them? Your house was my house when I had
no other. The very money with which I bought my wedding ring, and
paid my marriage fees, was supplied by you. It was with your sisters
that I left my Edith, during my six months' absence; and for the six
months after my return, it was from you that I received, week by
week, the little on which we lived, till I was enabled to live by
other means. It is not the settling of our cash account that can
cancel obligations like these. You are in the habit of preserving
your letters, and if you were not, _I would entreat you to preserve
this, that it might be seen hereafter_. Sure I am, that there never
was a more generous, nor a kinder heart than yours, and you will
believe me when I add, that there does not live that man upon earth,
whom I remember with more gratitude, and more affection. My heart
throbs, and my eyes burn with these recollections. Good night my dear
old friend and benefactor.

Robert Southey."

Gratitude is a plant indigenous to Heaven. Specimens are rarely found on
Earth. This is one.

Mr. Southey, on previous occasions had advised me to write my
"Recollections of Persons and Things," and it having been understood that
I was about to prepare a memoir of Mr. Coleridge, (1836) Mr. S. renewed
his solicitation, as will appear by the following extracts.

"Keswick, April 14, 1836.

My dear Cottle,

There is I hope, time enough for you to make a very interesting book
of your own 'Recollections,' a book which will be of no little value
to the history of our native city, and the literature of our times.
Your prose has a natural ease which no study could acquire. I am very
confident you could make as delightful a book on this subject as
Isaac Walton has in his way. If you are drawing up your
'Recollections of Coleridge,' you are most welcome to insert anything
of mine which you may think proper. To be employed in such a work,
with the principles and frame of mind wherewith you would engage in
it, is to be instructing and admonishing your fellow-creatures; it is
employing your talents, and keeping up that habitual preparation for
the enduring inheritance in which the greater part of your life has
been spent. Men like us, who write in sincerity, and with the desire
of teaching others so to think, and to feel, as may be best for
themselves and the community, are labouring as much in their vocation
as if they were composing sermons, or delivering them from the
pulpit....

God bless you, my dear old friend. Always yours most affectionately,

Robert Southey."

On another occasion Mr. S. thus wrote.

"My dear Cottle,

I both wish and advise you to draw up your '_Reminiscences_', I
advise you for your own sake, as a valuable memorial, and wish it for
my own, that that part of my life might be faithfully reported by the
person who knows it best...." "You have enough to tell which is
harmless, as well as interesting, and not harmless only, but
instructive, and that ought to be told, _and which only you can
tell._"

It may be proper to notice that the title here adopted, of
"REMINISCENCES" is to be understood as a general, rather than as a
strictly applicable phrase, since the present miscellaneous work is
founded on letters, and various memoranda, that for the most part, have
lain in a dormant state for many years, and which were preserved as
mementos of past scenes, personally interesting, but without, in the
first instance, the least reference to ultimate publication.

I cannot withhold a final remark, with which my own mind is greatly
affected; from revolving on a most unexpected, as it is a singular
fact,--that these brief memorials of Mr. Coleridge, and Mr. Southey,
should be written by the _same individual_ who, more than _half a
century_ before, contributed his humble efforts to assist, and encourage
them, in their first entrance on a literary life. The whole of the events
thus recorded, appear through the dim vista of memory, already with the
scenes before the flood! while all the busy, the aspiring, and the
intellectual spirits here noticed, and once so well known, have been
hurried off our mortal stage!--Robert Lovell!--George Burnet!--Charles
Lloyd!--George Catcott!--Dr. Beddoes!--Charles Danvers!--Amos
Cottle!--William Gilbert!--John Morgan!--Ann Yearsley!--Sir H.
Davy!--Hannah More!--Robert Hall!--Samuel Taylor Coleridge!--Charles
Lamb!--Thomas Poole!--Josiah Wade!--Robert Southey!--and John
Foster!--confirming, with fresh emphasis,

"What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!"

Bristol, April 20, 1847.

J. C.

* * * * *

CONTENTS.

Pantisocracy and Robert Lovell

Mr. Southey and Mr. Burnet arrive in Bristol

Mr. Coleridge arrives in Bristol

Fears for the Pantisocritans dissipated

A London bookseller offers Mr. Coleridge six guineas for the
copyright of his Poems

Mr. Coleridge and Mr. Southey each sells his 1st volume of Poems, for
thirty guineas

Mr. Southey sells his Joan of Arc for fifty guineas

Mr. Coleridge begins his lectures in Bristol

Specimen of Mr. C.'s lecture

Liberty's letter to Famine

Mr. C.'s political lectures, &c.

Death of Robert Lovell

Mr. Southey's course of historical lectures

Mr. Coleridge disappoints his audience

Excursion to Tintern Abbey

Dissension between Mr. Coleridge and Mr. Southey

Incidents connected with Mr. Coleridge's volume of Poems

Mr. Coleridge married to Miss Sarah Fricker

Household articles required

Notices of Wm. Gilbert, Ann Yearsley, H. More, and Robert Hall

Mr. Coleridge removes, first to Bristol and then to Stowey

--- --------- again to Bristol

--- --------- woeful letter

Mr. Coleridge's Poems now published

--- --------- projects his "Watchman"

--- --------- seven letters, while on his journey to collect
subscribers to the "Watchman"

--- --------- inaugural sermon at Bath

Mr. Lloyd domesticates with Mr. Coleridge

Mr. Coleridge's melancholy letter

Mr. Coleridge's views of Epic Poetry

Quarrel between Mr. Coleridge and Mr. Southey. Reconciled

Mr. Coleridge's letter to Miss Cruikshanks

--- -------- diagram of the second bottle

--- -------- Theological letter

Mr. Coleridge prepares for a second edition of his Poems

Mr. Coleridge's letter to George Catcott

--- -------- on hexameters, &c.

--- -------- Foster-mother's tale (extract)

--- -------- ludicrous interview with a country woman

--- -------- Poem relating to Burns

--- -------- character of Mr. Wordsworth

Herbert Croft and Chatterton (Note)

Coleridge's character of Thelwall

Letters from Charles Lamb

Mr. Coleridge's lines to Joseph Cottle

Sara's lines to the same

Three Sonnets, by Nehemiah Higginbotham

Coleridge, Lloyd, and Lamb, quarrel

Lamb's sarcastic Theses to Mr. Coleridge

Coleridge goes to Shrewsbury on probation

Mr. Coleridge receives an annuity of L150 from the Messrs. Thomas and
Josiah Wedgewood

Letters from Mr. Wordsworth,--Lyrical Ballads

Mr. Wordsworth caballed against

Disasters attending a dinner with Mr. Wordsworth

Mr. Coleridge and Mr. Wordsworth depart for Germany

Mr. Coleridge's character of Mr. Southey

Mr. Southey marries Miss Edith Fricker

Three letters of Mr. Southey, from Falmouth and Portugal

Sundry letters from Mr. Southey to Joseph Cottle

George Dyer, and a ludicrous incident

Mr. Southey's rhyming letter from Lisbon

Mr. Churchey, and incidents concerning him

Mr. Southey in danger from an enraged author

Mr. Southey and Wat Tyler

Mr. Foster explains how Wat Tyler came to be published

J. Morgan's ruined circumstances. Mr. S.'s proposal for a
subscription

List of Mr. Southey's contributions to the Quarterly

Discovery of first edition of Pilgrim's Progress

Mr. Coleridge's letter on travelling in Germany

Slow sale at first of Mr. Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads

Mr. Humphrey Davy arrives in Bristol

Dr. Beddoe and the Pneumatic Institution

Mr. Davy's dangerous experiments with the gases

Mr. Coleridge's and Mr. Davy's anecdotes

Mr. Coleridge relates his military adventures

Mr. Coleridge's Epigrams from the German

Character of Coleridge, by Professor Wilson, Mr. Sergeant Talfourd,
Dr. Dibdin, Mr. Justice Coleridge, Rev. Archdeacon Hare, Quarterly
Review, Rev. C. V. Le Grice

Mr. Coleridge's letter to Mr. Cottle on his return from Malta, 1807

Rev. J. Foster's letter concerning Coleridge

Mr. Coleridge's singular escape from Italy

--- ----------- letter on the Trinity

--- ----------- views of Unitarianism

--- ----------- character of Sir H. Davy

Sir H. Davy's rebuke of an Infidel

Mr. Coleridge's character of Holcroft, the Atheist

Rev. J. Foster's letter respecting his Essay on Doddridge

Mr. Coleridge's letter to Mr. G. Fricker

Mr. De Quincey presents Mr. Coleridge with L300

Mr. Coleridge's letter on Narrative Poems

Reasons why Mr. Coleridge's opium habits should not be concealed

Mr. Coleridge ill in Bath

Mr. Coleridge engages to Lecture in Bristol, 1814. Disappoints his
Audience, by an excursion into North Wales

Mr. Coleridge's lines for a transparency at the capture of Buonaparte

Mr. Coleridge's approval of Infant Schools

Mr. Cottle's letter of remonstrance respecting opium

Mr. Coleridge's distressing letters in reply

Mr. Coleridge wishes to be placed in an Asylum

Mr. Southey's letters respecting Mr. Coleridge

Mr. Coleridge's contrivance to cheat the doctor

Mr. Coleridge leaves Bristol for Calne

Letters of Mr. Southey respecting Mr. Coleridge

Letter of Mr. Coleridge from Calne

Mr. Coleridge's letter, requiring the truth to be told of his opium
habits, after his death

Mr. Coleridge's letter to his god-son, Kinnaird

Letters from Mr. Southey concerning Mr. Allsop, and the scheme of
Pantisocracy, and Mr. Coleridge

Letters from Mr. Southey concerning "Early Recollections"

Letter from Mr. Southey: his Western journey

Letter from Mr. Southey. Melancholy foreboding

Mr. Southey's mental malady

Letter from Mr. Foster, relating to Mr. Southey

Mr. Cottle's letter to Mr. Foster, respecting Mr. Southey

Sixteen letters from Mr. Coleridge to Thomas and Josiah Wedgewood,
Esqs.

List of works promised by Mr. Coleridge, but not written

Mr. Coleridge sound in health, in 1800

--- --------- his health undermined by opium soon after

Dr. Carlyon, relating to Mr. Coleridge (Note)

Extracts from Mr. Poole's letters, respecting Mr. Coleridge

Dr. Adam's letter to Mr. Gillman, respecting Mr. Coleridge

Mr. Coleridge domesticates with Mr. Gillman

Letter of Mr. Foster, respecting Mr. Coleridge

Prayer of Mr. Coleridge, 1831

Mr. Coleridge's Epitaph on himself

Mr. Coleridge's monument

APPENDIX.

Character of John Henderson

Controversy of Rowley and Chatterton

The Weary Pilgrim, a Poem

* * * * *

REMINISCENCES.

* * * * *

Ten years ago I published "Recollections of S. T. Coleridge." This work I
have revised, and embodied in the present "Reminiscences of S. T.
Coleridge, and Robert Southey." My views and motives have been explained
in the Introduction.

If some Readers should consider that there are occasional documents
introduced into the following work, too unimportant and derogatory to
legitimate biography, I would observe, that it was designed that nothing
should be admitted which was not characteristic of the individual; and
that which illustrates _character_ in a man of genius, cannot well be
esteemed trifling and deserving of rejection.--In preparing those
Reminiscences, some effort has been required. I have endeavoured to
forget the intervening space of forty or fifty years, and, as far as it
was practicable, to enter on the scenes and circumstances described with
all the feelings coincident with that distant period. My primary design
has been to elucidate the incidents referring to the early lives of the
late Mr. Coleridge and Mr. Southey: yet I purposed, in addition, to
introduce brief notices of some other remarkable characters, known in
Bristol at this time.

To account for my introduction to all the persons subsequently noticed,
it is necessary to apprise the Reader that I was a bookseller in Bristol
from the year 1791 to 1798; from the age of 21 to 28: and having imbibed
from my tutor and friend, the late John Henderson, (one of the most
extraordinary of men) some little taste for literature, I found myself,
during that period, generally surrounded by men of cultivated minds.[1]
With these preliminary remarks I shall commence the narrative.

At the close of the year 1794, a clever young man, of the Society of
Friends, of the name of Robert Lovell, who had married a Miss Fricker,
informed me that a few friends of his from Oxford and Cambridge, with
himself, were about to sail to America, and, on the banks of the
Susquehannah, to form a Social Colony, in which there was to be a
community of property, and where all that was selfish was to be
proscribed. None, he said, were to be admitted into their number, but
tried and incorruptible characters; and he felt quite assured that he and
his friends would be able to realize a state of society free from the
evils and turmoils that then agitated the world, and to present an
example of the eminence to which men might arrive under the unrestrained
influence of sound principles. He now paid me the compliment of saying
that he would be happy to include _me_ in this select assemblage who,
under a state which he called PANTISOCRACY, were, he hoped, to regenerate
the whole complexion of society; and that, not by establishing formal
laws, but by excluding all the little deteriorating passions; injustice,
"wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking," and thereby setting an
example of "Human Perfectibility."

Young as I was, I suspected there was an old and intractable leaven in
human nature that would effectually frustrate these airy schemes of
happiness, which had been projected in every age, and always with the
same result. At first the disclosure so confounded my understanding, that
I almost fancied myself transported to some new state of things, while
images of patriarchal and pristine felicity stood thick around, decked in
the rain-bow's colours. A moment's reflection, however, dissolved the
unsubstantial vision, when I asked him a few plain questions.

"How do you go?" said I. My young and ardent friend instantly replied,
"We freight a ship, carrying out with us ploughs, and other implements of
husbandry." The thought occurred to me, that it might be more economical
to purchase such articles in America; but not too much to discourage the
enthusiastic aspirant after happiness, I forebore all reference to the
accumulation of difficulties to be surmounted, and merely inquired who
were to compose his company? He said that only four had as yet absolutely
engaged in the enterprise; Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from Cambridge; (in
whom I understood the plan to have originated;) Robert Southey and George
Burnet, from Oxford, and himself. "Well," I replied, "when do you set
sail?" He answered, "Very shortly. I soon expect my friends from the
Universities, when all the preliminaries will be adjusted, and we shall
joyfully cross the blue waves of the Atlantic." "But," said I "to freight
a ship, and sail out in the high style of gentlemen agriculturists, will
require funds. How do you manage this?" "We all contribute what we can,"
said he, "and I shall introduce all my dear friends to you, immediately
on their arrival in Bristol."

Robert Lovell (though inexperienced, and constitutionally sanguine) was a
good specimen of the open frankness which characterizes the well-informed
members of the Society of Friends; and he excited in me an additional
interest, from a warmth of feeling, and an extent of reading, above even
the ordinary standard of the estimable class to which he belonged. He now
read me some of the MS. poems of his two unknown friends, which at once
established their genius in my estimation.[2]

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