BIB_ID
415222
Accession number
MA 1848.29
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
London, England, 1799 December 19.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 22.6 x 18.2 cm
Notes
Coleridge gives only "Thursday Evening" for the date of writing. The date has been taken from the postmark (which is partly obscured) and inferred from the contents of the letter. See the published edition of the correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
No place of writing has been given, but based on references in the letter, it was clearly written in London.
This collection, MA 1848, is comprised of 92 letters from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Robert Southey, written between 1794 and 1819. See the collection-level record for more information (MA 1848.1-92).
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 as MA 1848-1857.
Address panel with seal and postmarks: "Mr Southey / Kingsdown Parade / Single."
No place of writing has been given, but based on references in the letter, it was clearly written in London.
This collection, MA 1848, is comprised of 92 letters from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Robert Southey, written between 1794 and 1819. See the collection-level record for more information (MA 1848.1-92).
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 as MA 1848-1857.
Address panel with seal and postmarks: "Mr Southey / Kingsdown Parade / Single."
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
Asking anxiously after Southey's health and saying that he has easy work for them to undertake which would earn them £150 each before the beginning of April; saying that he would suggest Southey come to London, except for the fact that Humphry Davy is in Bristol and could be a comfort personally and as "a medical man"; discussing in detail the idea of George Fricker (Sara and Edith's brother) entering a bank and agreeing to put up part of the money for his security; commenting on clerks; giving his opinion on England's commercial prospects and how political developments might affect them; asking what Charles Danvers thinks and praising him for his kindness to George, "but to whom is he not kind, that body-blood-bone-muscle-nerve-heart & head-good Man!"; saying he trusts Danvers's opinions on all matters except verse; quoting William Godwin and commenting "Godwin is no great Thing in Intellect; but in heart & manner he is all the better for having been the Husband of Mary Wolstonecroft"; asking why George Dyer didn't send a particular poem to Southey for the Annual Anthology and writing dismissively of Dyer's account of Southey published in Public Characters of 1799-1800; reiterating his ideas about the arrangement of the anthology; reporting on his progress with various poems (including "Christabel") and other projects: "I shall probably not publish my letters -- & if I do, I shall most certainly not publish any verses in them"; saying that their collaboration "Devil's Thoughts" has been "most enthusiastically admired"; discussing whether he would like his name listed in the anthology and whether previous publication of some poems would prevent them from being included; writing about his plans: "As to my future Residence I can say nothing -- only this, that to be near you would be a strong motive with me, for my Wife's sake as well as myself"; sending love to Edith and reporting that Sara and Hartley arrived safely and are with him at "No / 21, Buckingham Street, Strand"; adding in a postscript that Mary Hays is working on her Female Biography, or Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women and has just reached Joan of Arc: "She begs you to tell her what books to consult."
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