BIB_ID
415599
Accession number
MA 1848.70
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
London, England, 1804 March 20.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (3 pages, with address) ; 19.4 x 15.8 cm
Notes
No place of writing is given, but based on its contents, the letter was clearly written in London. See the published edition of the correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
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 postmarks: "Mr Southey / Greta Hall / Keswick."
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 postmarks: "Mr Southey / Greta Hall / Keswick."
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
Thanking him for his letters; saying that he has been very ill with a "Diarrhoea of incessant fury for 10 hours"; saying that he was loath to take opiates, but finally decided that it was the only thing that could help him, "so I sent for some Laudanum, & took it drop by drop as it were -- & by this extreme caution succeeded at length," though he is still quite weak; adding "Your presence at Keswick is beyond all Compare my greatest Comfort"; describing encounters with various individuals; saying that, luckily, a friend had invited him to spend the night at his house and in the morning he made his way ("conveyed by my own crawling Limbs") to Sir George Beaumont's, "where I have been ever since, tended most affectionately"; adding that he expects to leave London for Portsmouth on Friday morning; promising to write to Sara and Hartley soon; exclaiming "O dear dear Southey! old days crowd in upon me -- I love & honor you from my Soul. -- You will go on as you have gone / -- Love & Blessing to all of you!"; adding that letters for him should be addressed to the post office in Portsmouth.
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