BIB_ID
415818
Accession number
MA 1848.85
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
Place not identified, circa 1809 December 24.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 24 x 19.4 cm
Notes
The letter is undated. Based on references in it to the publication schedule of The Friend, Griggs suggests that it was most likely written on or around December 24, 1809. 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: "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: "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
Concerning the Maltese Regiment and the Corsican Rangers; saying that, in the essays he is currently writing for The Friend about Sir Alexander Ball, he will refer to Ball's actions regarding the former as "an exemplification among many others of his foresight"; describing the contents of upcoming issues of The Friend, including Wordsworth's letter to Mathetes; mentioning General Villettes; giving his opinion of the problems facing the Maltese Regiment and sympathizing with the soldiers; describing the combining of regiments and the substitution of British for Maltese officers; concluding "This is the whole -- but do not either expose yourself or me to judicial enquiries. It is one thing to know a thing, & another to be able to prove it in a Law-court -- This remark applies to the damnable Treatment of the Prisoners of War at Malta"; assuring Southey of the truth of the story of Maria Schöning (which appeared in issue 13 of The Friend) and saying that he based his account on the work of the historian Jonas Ludwig von Hess, who personally investigated the matter in Nuremburg; responding to a remark by Southey on the voice in a particular passage and saying that he had intended that particular effect ("the whole passage was inserted, and intruded, after the rest was written [...] in order to unrealize it even at the risk of disnaturalizing it"); mentioning that Lady Beaumont had pleased him by saying of it "never was the golden tint of the Poet more judiciously employed &c"; adding that he had "not only thought the Voice part & Philomel out of place, but in bad taste per se"; concluding "May God bless you all!"
Catalog link
Department