Biographia Epistolaris, vol 1 | Page 2

have produced as faithful a picture

of the Poet-Philosopher Coleridge as can be got anywhere, for
Coleridge always paints his own character in his letters. Those desirous
of a fuller picture may peruse, along with this work, the letters
published in the Collection of 1895, the place of which in the narrative
is indicated in footnotes.
[Footnote: What has been added is enclosed in square brackets.]
The letters are drawn from the following sources:
"Biographical Supplement", 1847 ............................................ 33
Cottle's "Reminiscences", 1847 ............................................. 78 The
original "Friend", 1809 ................................................. 5 "The
Watchman", 1796 ........................................................ 1 Gillman's "Life
of Coleridge", 1838 ......................................... 7 Allsop's "Letters,
Conversations, etc., of S. T. C"., 1836 (1864) .......... 45 "Essays on his
Own Times", 1850 ............................................. 1 "Life and
Correspondence of R. Southey", 1850 ............................... 7 Editorials
of Poems, etc .................................................... 8 "Literary Remains of
S. T. C., 1836, etc" ................................... 3 "Blackwood's Magazine",
October, 1821 ....................................... 1 "Fragmentary Remains of
Humphry Davy", 1858 ................................ 15 "Macmillan's
Magazine", 1864 (Letters to W. Godwin) ......................... 9 Southey's
"Life of Andrew Bell", 3 vols., 1844 .............................. 2 "Charles
Lamb and the Lloyds", by E. V. Lucas ............................... 3 "Anima
Poetae", by E. H. Coleridge, 1895 .................................... 1
The letters of Coleridge have slowly come to light. Coleridge was
always fond of letter-writing, and at several periods of his career he
was more active in letter-writing than at others. He commenced the
publication of his letters himself. The epistolary form was as dear to
him in prose as the ballad or odic form in verse. From his earliest
publications we can see he loved to launch a poem with "A letter to the
Editor," or to the recipient, as preface. The "Mathematical Problem",
one of his juvenile facetiae in rhyme, was thus heralded with a letter
addressed to his brother George explaining the import of the doggerel.
His first printed poem, "To Fortune" (Dykes Campbell's Edition of the
"Poems", p. 27), was also prefaced by a short letter to the editor of the
"Morning Chronicle". Among Coleridge's letters are several of this sort,
and each affords a glimpse into his character. Those with the "Raven"
and "Talleyrand to Lord Grenville" are characteristic specimens of his

drollery and irony.
Coleridge's greatest triumphs in letter-writing were gained in the field
of politics. His two letters to Fox, his letters on the Spaniards, and those
to Judge Fletcher, are his highest specimens of epistolary eloquence,
and constitute him the rival of Rousseau as an advocate of some great
truth in a letter addressed to a public personage. In clearness of thought
and virile precision of language they surpass the most of anything that
Coleridge has written. They never wander from the point at issue; the
evolution of their ideas is perfect, their idiom the purest mother-English
written since the refined vocabulary of Hooker, Jeremy Taylor, and
Harrington was coined.
Besides the political letters, Coleridge published during his lifetime
four important letters of great length written during his sojourn in
Germany. Three of these appeared in the "Friend" of 1809, and indeed
were the finest part of that periodical; and one was first made public in
the "Amulet" of 1829. Six letters published in "Blackwood's Magazine"
of 1820-21, and a few others of less importance, brought up the number
of letters published by Coleridge to 46. The following is a list of them:
7th Nov. 1793, "To Fortune," Ed. "Morning Chronicle" ................ 1
22nd Sept. 1794, Dedication to "Robespierre," to H. Martin ........... 1
1st April 1796, Letter to "Caius Gracchus," "The Watchman" ........... 1
26th Dec. 1796, Dedication to the "Ode to the Departing Year," to T.
Poole ........... 1 1798, Ed. "Monthly Magazine, re Monody on
Chatterton"................. 1 1799, Ed. "Morning Post," with the
"Raven" ........................... 1 21 Dec. 1799, Ed. "Morning Post," with
"Love" ........................ 1 10th Jan. 1800, Ed. "Morning Post,
Talleyrand to Lord Grenville" ..... 1 18th Nov. 1800, "Monthly
Review," on "Wallenstein" ................... 1 1834, To George Coleridge,
with "Mathematical Problem" ............... 1 Political Letters to the
"Morning Post" and "Courier" ................ 21 1809, Letters of Satyrane,
etc., in the "Friend" ..................... 8 1820-21, Letters to "Blackwood's
Magazine" ........................... 6 1829, "The Amulet," "Over the
Brocken" .............................. 1 -- 46
The "Literary Remains," published in 1836, added ..................... 4
Allsop, in his "Letters, Conversations, etc.", gave to the world ..... 46
Cottle followed in 1837, with his "Early Recollections", in which .... 84
letters or fragments of letters made their appearance

Gillman in 1838 published 11 letters or fragments, 4 of which had
already appeared in the works of Allsop and Cottle and in the "Friend",
leaving a contribution of ................................. 7
The "Gentleman's Magazine" followed in 1838 with letters to Daniel
Stuart ........................................17
Cottle, in 1847, re-cast his "Early Recollections", and called his work
"Reminiscences of Coleridge and