BIB_ID
415578
Accession number
MA 1848.66
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
London, England, 1804 February 1.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 22.4 x 18.4 cm
Notes
Coleridge gives the place of writing as: "16, Ab. St. Westminster." This letter may have been sent with the unfinished letter to Southey that Coleridge had written the previous day (MA 1848.65).
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.
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.
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
Saying that an author (who Griggs identifies as William Godwin) has been "inflicting a Tragedy upon me / & I have been all the morning in Durance & Endurance," and this letter is being written quickly while the author has stepped out for an hour; mentioning that he had begun a letter to Southey yesterday when "G. Bedford [Grosvenor Bedford] came & stayed out my ante-prandial Time"; describing ups and downs in his health, including stomach problems, sweats and "4 or 5 of the most violent Bowel-seizures I have ever had"; mentioning that he had dined with Godwin and Archibald Hamilton Rowan; promising to sit down soon and "give you a Gossip-Journal of what I have done & whom seen"; saying that he received a "cheering Letter" from Sara, sending his love and asking her to send him an inventory of the clothes he has with him; mentioning that he will be dining that day "at the beastly hour of 1/2 past 6 at General Hastings' to meet a man piping hot from France, an escaped Prisoner"; writing "Here comes my Author," signing his name and then re-starting the letter with "He has gone to the necessary"; sending news of Thomas Poole, John Rickman, Charles Lamb ("Lamb has left off drinking, & is unwell & low-spirited") and Miss Wakefield; saying that he heard that someone was discussing himself and Southey at one of Longman's "Saturday meetings" and that Longman ("contrary to his custom") could not contain himself and burst out praising Southey; quoting Longman: "You may depend on it from me, Sir! who must know the two men / there is no comparison as to Genius / Let it be one sheet to two Volumes Mr Southey brings it or sends it to the very hour whereas Mr Coleridge &c &c --".
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