BIB_ID
415111
Accession number
MA 1849.30
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
London, England, 1806 October 2.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 24.6 x 19.9 cm
Notes
This collection, MA 1849, is comprised of forty-six autograph letters signed from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to his wife, Sara Coleridge, written between 1802 and 1824.
This letter is from the Joanna Langlais Collection, a large collection of letters written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to various recipients. The collection has been divided into subsets, based primarily on Coleridge's addressees, and these sub-collections have been cataloged individually as MA 1848- MA 1857.
Address panel with postmarks to "Mrs. Coleridge / Keswick / Cumberland."
The date of the letter from the footnote to the published letter cited below. Place of writing inferred from contents of the letter.
This letter is from the Joanna Langlais Collection, a large collection of letters written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to various recipients. The collection has been divided into subsets, based primarily on Coleridge's addressees, and these sub-collections have been cataloged individually as MA 1848- MA 1857.
Address panel with postmarks to "Mrs. Coleridge / Keswick / Cumberland."
The date of the letter from the footnote to the published letter cited below. Place of writing inferred from contents of the letter.
Provenance
Purchased from Joanna Langlais in 1957 as a gift of the Fellows with the special assistance of Mrs. W. Murray Crane, Mr. Homer D. Crotty, Mr. and Mrs. Donald F. Hyde, Mr. Robert H. Taylor and Mrs. Landon K. Thorne. Formerly in the possession of Ernest Hartley Coleridge and Thomas Burdett Money-Coutts, Baron Latymer.
Summary
Describing, in detail, the loss of his books and the gifts he brought from Malta through his association with an American named Captain Derkheim with whom he sailed from Leghorn; relating in detail how he thought the Captain was helping him get his books and valuables from the ship and the Captain's promise to deliver everything to him; saying that as a way of expressing appreciation to the Captain for his assistance he gave him the Roman Pearls he brought back which he meant to bring to her and the "Attar of White Roses" which he planned to give to Lady Beaumont; saying "It irks me to tell you the sequel - instead of calling on me, every day - he only dined with me once - I was always fagging after him in vain, & have written no less than four letters of almost passionate entreaty, for my books as I could not give my lectures without them / I received two strange evasive answers - the last acknowledging but excusing his neglect by the fact, that he had been courting a Lady & was married - but all things he would settle with me, face to face - I waited three or four days, anxiously expecting to see him / at length, over borne with anxiety & suspense I went after him on Tuesday - & lo! he had sailed on the Sunday Morning, without leaving a Line for me, or speaking a word concerning my property to his Wife or Wife's relations...The anxiety, fatigue, walking in wet shoes to Tower Hill & back, & above all the shocking Struggle between Indignation & Gratitude proved too much for me / and I was obliged to keep my bed till yester evening - & am still quite a bewildered man. The loss is very serious to me in many respects - and I can only explain it by supposing, that he had given away the Attar of Roses to his mistress, & was ashamed to see me afterwards, I have only one chance, that of searching the Custom House for my Books - but I am wholly unable to do it myself, & can find no friend to do it for me / Likewise, more than half my Cloathes are at Parndon, so that I have not now even a clean Shirt - What can I do, my Love? - Be assured, nothing you can suffer, is one 4th of what I suffer in consequence of this delay."
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