BIB_ID
415675
Accession number
MA 1852.32
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
Bristol, England, 1814 June 11.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (3 pages, with address) ; 23.3 x 19.6 cm
Notes
This collection, MA 1852, is comprised of 40 autograph letters signed from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Mr. and Mrs. John James Morgan, written from November 1807 through October 1826. Coleridge lived with the Morgans from 1810-1816.
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 postmark to "J. J. Morgan, Esq're / Mrs. Smith's / Ashley / Box / Bath."
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 postmark to "J. J. Morgan, Esq're / Mrs. Smith's / Ashley / Box / Bath."
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
Concerning the delay in his visit to them and his evenings of drinking with friends in Bristol; saying he is suffering from an "erysipelatous inflammation on and round my right ancles, and toward night, when the leg has been for many hours down, a puffiness in the instep" which he believes was caused "..by staying out till past eleven at George Kiddle's with Hood & T. Castle : which was more their fault than mine...;" relating details of several nights of drinking and dining; saying he is recovering and offering his humorous opinion on the derivation of the word erysipelas saying "The etymology of the word erysipelas is clearly this; the first man in England afflicted with it was called Harry - a great Toper. Every time the Doctor visited him, he said to Him - "Harry! sip the less - which being constantly repeated by the man's friends became the name of the Disease, & by quick pronunciation got corrupted into Erysipelas. Indeed, if I recollect right, this Harry was a Staffordshire man, where they use & omit the H by the rule of Contraries. - Those who are fond of far-fetched Etymologies may go to the Greeks for one. - Poor Kiddle too is confined with his old complaint, erysipelas in the Face;" telling him that Allston called on him and Wallis "...after repeated Intreaties, to which he payed no attention, has gone off with the Friend : & where or how to procure a Copy with the reprinted Numbers I know not. What makes it more provoking is, that to a certainty Wallis will never read five pages of the Book. He is either a bad man or a mad man; but I believe, the last positively, & the former only negatively. I am as much disposed, as you, to think with at least comparative respect of the New Englanders; but I cannot explain or altogether get over, the almost uniform Experience of all who have had any concerns with any Americans;" adding that he hopes to come to them if the swelling in his leg is reduced; referring to a "coolness between me & Porter - I will tell you the Particulars when we meet - but all common friends highly approve both of my feelings & conduct;" adding, in a postscript, that during his convalescence he has been working on his Spanish and is reading Cervantes; telling him that "Lady Beaumont's Sister (Mrs. Fermor) left Bristol for Bath yesterday - Poor afflicted Dowager! she clings obstinately to the Faith, that the whole Source of her Sufferings is in her Head & Heart, tho' it is evident that [the] mischief lies a foot or two below the one, & 8 or 9 Inches below the other -. For tho' 'alimentary Canal' & the 'lower digestive and eliminative organs' are handsome-looking synonimes for Guts, yet they cannot stand for competition with Desertion from Heaven, want of genial Grace, the mind, Sir! O the mind -
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