Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Brunswick, to George Bellas Greenough, 1799 July 6 : autograph manuscript signed.

BIB_ID
211810
Accession number
MA 2235
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
Brunswick, Germany, 1799 July 6.
Credit line
Gift of C. Waller Barrett, 1962.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 31.7 x 20.5 cm
Notes
Docketed.
Address panel to "Den Herrn Greenough / Göttingen."
Greenough was an English geologist.
The automaton viewed by Coleridge was Jacques de Vaucanson's Canard Digerateur. Beireis owned several of de Vancanson's automata.
Provenance
Gift of C. Waller Barrett, 1962.
Summary
Describing his seven-hour walk with John Chester from Göttingen to Helmstadt and his visit in Helmstadt with Paul Jakob Bruns and Gottfried Beireis; saying Bruns welcomed him "... with great kindness, took me in his arms to the Library, where we rummaged old Manuscripts, & looked at some Libri Rarissimi for about an Hour - (N.B. the Library resembles strikingly the Libraries of some of the little Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge.) After this he took me to his House, spoke to me of a little Translation which Lowth had made in his Presence of an Ode of Ramler's - talked of England, & Oxford, where he had resided some years & I found that he had been intimate with many of my Father's Friends;" relating his visit with [Gottfried Christoph] Beireis; saying "Beireis! - A short man, drest in black, with a very expressive Forehead - & small eyes - He went strait to work - asked no questions - offered no Civilities...began instantly - 'You wish to see my Things - what do you wish to see - To see all, or half, or quarter is impossible, in one or in two Days...So I chose his Pictures - O Lord! it was a Treat! - His Eloquence, which is natural & unaffected, really surprized me - in the space of half an hour I counted on my fingers at least half a million Sterling that he had given as purchase money - The earliest attempts of all the great masters, & their last Performances - Cranach, & Holbein, Michael Angelo, Raphael, Correggio, &c &c &c - & behind each a Distich, of Beireis's own Composition - I wondered at all with broad eyes, hands uplifted!! like two notes of Admiration & such a stupid Face of Praise, that Beireis fell in raptures - Extacied as I was with each & all, yet I never forgot to turn to the Back of each Pictures, & read aloud with admiring Emphasis the Latin Distich - still trying the Experiment, whether I could not rise above Beireis's Self-Praises - in vain! My most extravagant Compliments were as German Mustard to Cayenne Pepper!;" relating his viewing of the automaton "Eating Duck of Brass, which quacked like rusty Hinges - tho' Beireis asked me seriously, if I could distinguish it from a real Duck's Quack! I shut my eyes - lifted up both my hands - listened - & cried - Herr Jesus!!!! On our return from these Machineries into his parlour then - yes - then he shook my hand friendlily - & out of his Pocket he pulled the Diamond - apparently, a semi transparent Pebble almost as large as my Fist;" interrupting his narrative to tell him that his luggage, which was due to him on July 1st had not arrived and that he had only one clean shirt; saying "Last night I sprinkled my shirt with [water], hung it up at the window, & slept naked - for my one clean Shirt I must keep till I get to Hamburg. - Heaven! I stink like an old poultice! I should mislead any Pack of Foxhounds in Great Britain - Put a Trail of Rusty Bacon at a Furlong Distance, & me at a mile, and they would follow me - I should hear a cry of Stop Thief close at my ears with a safe Conscience - but if I caught only the Echo of a Tally Ho! I should climb up into a Tree! - You know me too well, to suspect Hyperbole - I stink damnably - & that's the Truth!"