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in Pennsylvania, there to establish a "Pantisoc racy," or community in which all the members were to be on a perfect equality; all were to work with their hands; their wives-for all were to be married-to perform the domestic duties, and the men were to cultivate literature in their leisure hours," with neither king nor lord nor priest to mar their felicity." To raise the necessary funds for the enterprise Coleridge and Southey each delivered a course of lectures, and in conjunction wrote a drama, The Fall of Robespierre, of which Southey composed two-thirds.

They went together to Bristol, the native place of Southey. Here Joseph Cottle, a thriving bookseller, himself the author of some indifferent poems, was so charmed with the conversation and verses of Coleridge that he offered to publish what had been written, and as many more as he should write, at a certain sum per line. Some disputes sprang up among the Pantisocrats, and the scheme was abandoned, much to the chagrin of Coleridge. At Bristol were three sisters-Sara Fricker, the eldest of these, was married to Coleridge in October, 1795; a few months later Edith became the wife of Southey; another sister was already married to Lovell, who died not long after. Coleridge took up his residence in a pretty cottage at Stowey, at the foot of the Quantock Hills, where he remained two years. Here was written not a little of the best of the poetry of Coleridge: The Ode on the Departing Year; Fears in Solitude; France-an Ode; The Ancient Mariner; the first part of Christabel, and the tragedy of Remorse. At

this time Coleridge was a Unitarian in religion, and was accustomed to preach for congregations of that faith. One Sabbath morning William Hazlitt walked ten miles to hear Coleridge, whose preaching is thus described by him:

THE PREACHING OF COleridge.

"When I got there, the organ was playing the 100th Psalm, and when it was done, Mr. Coleridge rose and gave out his text: 'He departed again into a mountain Himself alone.' As he gave out this text, his voice rose like a stream of rich distilled perfumes, and when he came to the last two words, which he pronounced deep, loud, and distinct, it seemed to me, who was then young, as if the sounds had echoed from the bottom of the human heart, and as if that prayer might have floated in solemn silence through the universe. The idea of St. John came into my mind-of 'one crying in the wilderness, who had his loins girt about, and whose food was locusts and wild honey.' The preacher then launched into his subject like an eagle dallying with the wind. The sermon was upon Peace and War -upon Church and State-not their alliance, but their separation; on the spirit of the World and the spirit of Christianity, not as the same, but as opposed to one another. He talked of those who had inscribed the Cross of Christ upon banners dripping with human gore! He made a poetical and pastoral excursion; and to show the fatal effects of war, drew a striking contrast between the simple shepherd-boy driving his team afield, or sitting under the hawthorn, piping to his flock, as though he should never be old, and the same poor country lad, crimped, kidnapped, brought into town, made drunk at an alehouse, turned into a wretched drummer-boy, with his hair sticking on end with powder and pomatum, a long queue at his back, and tricked out in the finery of the profession of blood.-Such were the notes our once-loved poet sung;' and for myself, I could not have been more delighted if I had heard the music of the spheres."-Hazlitt's Essays.

At this period Coleridge became acquainted with Wordsworth, and a friendship sprang up between them which was never broken, though interrupted for a time. A few years later Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge were living for a while near each other in the Lake region, and, though differing greatly in all personal and literary characteristics, were popularly grouped together as "The Lake Poets," under which designation they were made the butts of the critical reviewers of the day. In the meanwhile, in 1798, Coleridge went to Germany, the requisite funds being furnished by his warm admirers, Josiah and Thomas Wedgewood, the great Staffordshire potters. Coleridge resided in Germany for more than a year, plunged into the ocean of German metaphysics, acquired at least a reading knowledge of the language, and made his great translation of Schiller's dramas, The Piccolomini and The Death of Wallenstein. He returned to England, and for a time made his home with Southey, who was by this time settled at Keswick. From this period is to be dated the entire change in his political and religious views. From a "Radical " he became a "Conservative;" from a "Dissenter" a High Churchman.”

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Shortly after his return from Germany Coleridge became connected as an editorial writer with the Morning Post newspaper. But his contributions, upon current topics, though able, were never to be confidently looked for. In 1804 he went to Malta as Assistant Secretary to the Governor, Sir Alexander Ball. He retained this position only

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