BIB_ID
415608
Accession number
MA 1848.72
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
Portsmouth, England, 1804 April 7.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 19.5 x 16.5 cm
Notes
Coleridge does not list a place of writing, but the letter has a "Portsmouth" postmark. 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: "R. Southey, Esqre / 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: "R. Southey, Esqre / 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
Writing that he came on shore that morning with the captain, because it was calm and the sailors thought there was a west wind blowing, but the wind has turned favorable and the ship will probably set sail tomorrow; saying that he has been anxious about George Fricker and asking Southey to give him a grammar book and a few lessons on punctuation; saying that he has interested the bookseller Mottley in George's case and Mottley has written a letter inquiring about a clerkship for him in the Sick & Wounded office in Portsmouth; discussing the specifics of the job; saying that if this one doesn't work out, he will continue to look for positions for him, "& perhaps I may get him a better place abroad than at home"; mentioning that John Rickman has written him a very kind letter that moved him greatly; asking Southey never to tell Rickman that he had discussed with him a past misunderstanding involving Rickman, Thomas Poole and Thomas Wedgwood; saying that he also received a letter from Poole and accusing him of hypocrisy: "Good God! to believe & to profess that I have been so & so to him, & yet to have behaved as he has done -- denied me once a Loan of 50£ when I was on a Sickbed -- I never dreamt of asking him. Wordsworth did it without my knowledge"; saying that Poole also asked him why he hadn't approached his brothers for the loan, "and 3 years long did I give my mind to this man"; exclaiming "Southey! I write of myself, but I am exceedingly anxious with your anxiety. -- Write instantly, franked or unfranked" and giving the address.
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