34. Darkness before, and danger's voice behind. From the passage on Milton in The Prelude, iii. 285.

PAGE 24 1. 2. men before whom he strode so far, &c. The same figure is used by Coleridge of Wordsworth and his contemporaries (Crabb Robinson, Diary, &c., 1869, iii. 486).

Milton: Second sonnet to Cyriac Skinner. The correct reading is

I argue not

Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot

Of heart or hope: but still bear up and steer
Right onward.

PAGE 26 F. N. In the course of one of my Lectures. In the remains of Coleridge's lectures there is much said of Pope, but this particular criticism is not to be found. But in a letter to

Mrs. Clarkson (Diary, &c., Jan. 1812) on the subject of Coleridge's lectures, H. E. Robinson speaks of 'an attack on Pope's "Homer", qualified by insincere eulogy'.

As when the moon, &c. Pope's rendering of Iliad, Bk. VIII, 11. 555 ff. This passage in his translation is quoted by Wordsworth (Essay Supplementary to the Preface, 1815) as illustrating 'to what a low state knowledge of the most obvious and important phenomena had sunk' in Pope's day (O. W., p. 986).

an...article on Chalmers's British Poets. This article, which was written by Southey, appeared in the Quarterly for July 1814. But it contains nothing corresponding to Coleridge's description.

I had long before detected. Cf. A. P. p. 5 (? 1797): 'The Bard once intoxicated me: but now I read it without pleasure.' Hazlitt (My First Acquaintance with Poets) records that Coleridge in 1798 spoke with contempt of Gray. And Wordsworth in the same year (Preface to Lyrical Ballads, O. W., p. 948) writes of Gray as 'more than any other man curiously elaborate in the structure of his poetical diction'. Coleridge's opinion did not change. See T. T., Oct. 23, 1833, and p. 340 (edition of 1858).

Especially in this age, &c. From The Friend (1809-10), No. 10. See The Friend (1818), vol. ii, Essay I.

PAGE 28 1. 10. they become the fit instruments. The argument is here a little obscure. Coleridge is speaking of unsuccessful authors who revenge themselves by turning critics.

PAGE 29 1. 1. synodical individuals. In a footnote to No. 7 of The Friend (1809-10), where he is attacking the evil of anonymous criticism, Coleridge speaks of 'each man expressing himself, to use the words of Andrew Marvell, as a 'synodical individuum. I do not know where the phrase originally occurs. In like manner Southey complains (Life and Correspondence of R. S.

1849, vol. iii, p. 124) of Jeffrey's 'taking it for granted that the critic is, by virtue of his office, superior to every person he chooses to summon before him'. And long before the appearance of the Biog. Lit., Southey had urged Coleridge to 'lift up his voice' against Jeffrey (ib. p. 135).

3. the Paras of Hindustan.

Should be written 'Parias'.

PAGE 30 1. 14. it is not less an essential mark of true genius. Cf. Biog. Lit. ii. 14: 'A second promise of genius is the choice of subjects very remote,' &c. Cp. Goethe (Conversations with Eckermann, 29 Jan. 1826): 'As long as he (the poet) merely expresses his small stock of subjective emotions, he is not yet worthy the name (of poet) but as soon as he succeeds in assimilating and expressing the world outside him, he is a poet.' Was not Coleridge himself wanting in this second promise of genius'? See also T. T., July 23, 1827, on 'genius and selfishness".

:

F. N. Dryden's famous line. Absalom and Achitophel, i. 163 :

Great wits are sure to madness near allied,

And thin partitions do their bounds divide.

PAGE 32 1. 25. I have laid too many eggs, &c. Coleridge was fond of this figure. Cf. Letter to Sir G. Beaumont, Dec. 17, 1808; and to T. Poole, Oct. 14, 1803. (Memorials of Coleorton, i. 63.)

33. Sic vos, non vobis. The well-known line in the poem popularly attributed to Virgil.

PAGE 33 1. 3. Fletcher's lines. See The Faithful Shepherdess, Act i, Sc. 2, 1. 134. For thro' read thoro'. See Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, ed. Theobald, Seward & Simpson, 1750, iii. 113; Spenser's Shepheard's Calendar, July, 11. 21-4; Homer's Iliad, xxii. 30.

CHAPTER III

In this and the following chapter Coleridge's apparent object is to account for 'the fiction of the new school of poetry', in which Wordsworth, Southey, and himself were supposed to be united, as common upholders of certain poetical theories and methods. Before the end of the fourth chapter, however, he has digressed to another and an engrossing subject—the distinction of fancy and imagination—which gives rise to the discussion on the nature of association in chapters v, vi, vii, and viii.

PAGE 34 1. 1. To anonymous critics in reviews, &c. The majority of the criticisms to which Coleridge here refers (if they were indeed so numerous as he asserts) must have occurred in ephemeral and insignificant publications, which have now been

lost sight of; for the allusions to him in the more important periodicals (such as the Edinburgh Review, the Quarterly, the British Critic, the Analytical Review) during these 'seventeen years' are neither frequent, nor (with one or two exceptions) of a specially abusive nature. But we may take the attack in the Beauties of the Anti-Jacobin, alluded to at the end of the chapter, as an illustration of the lengths to which critics in those days would go. See also a reference by Sara Coleridge (Biog. Lit. 1847, i. clxv) to an article in the Penny Cyclopaedia, which denied Coleridge any merits as a poet.

9. Elegant Extracts. A volume of Elegant Extracts in Poetry, selected for the improvement of Young Persons, was published in 1816. Šimilar selections, in prose and poetry, had been in vogue for many years.

Anas. A collection of the memorable sayings or table-talk of any one (New Eng. Dict. s. v.).

PAGE 35 1. 5. Averrhoe's catalogue. Averroes (1126-96) the Moslem philosopher, an ardent Aristotelian. A great part of his writings (of which the most important are the commentaries on Aristotle) were translated into very indifferent Latin, and of the commentaries upwards of a hundred editions were published between 1480 and 1580. The Catalogue of Anti-Mnemonics' I have not been able to trace.

18. for at least 17 years, &c. That is, from 1798, the year of the publication of the Lyrical Ballads, to 1815. Coleridge's association in the Lyrical Ballads was not suspected by its earliest critics. Since that date he had published only The Friend (1809-10) and Remorse (1812), both of which had been reviewed in not unfavourable terms (Eclectic Review, 1811; Quarterly, 1814). The worst charge which his reviewers brought against him was that of neglecting acknowledged powers.

PAGE 36 1. 6. I had excited, &c. The 'gentleman' spoken of in the footnote is Jeffrey, the editor of the Edinburgh Review. Jeffrey defended himself in a long note appended to the review of the Biog. Lit. (Edin. Rev., Aug. 1817). He shows that the second of Coleridge's charges that relating to his criticism of English prose style-is entirely without foundation. Yet Coleridge repeated the charge many years afterwards to Allsop (Letters, &c., of S. T. Coleridge, ed. by T. Allsop, 1839, vol. ii, p. 113). The allusion to the School of whimsical and hypochondriacal poets', &c., I have not been able to trace in Jeffrey's reviews, and probably Coleridge's memory is here too at fault; but Jeffrey was conscious of having used language at least equally as strong as this (e. g. in his article on Burns, Edin. Rev., Jan. 1809). Sara Coleridge (Biog. Lit. 1847, i. cxlii) declares that her father entertained Jeffrey at Stowey, and (she believes) at Keswick, with 'frank hospitality'. See Biog. Lit. ii. 211, and note. Jeffrey paid

his visit to the Lakes in 1810. In the footnote alluded to he makes light of the hospitality then shown him.

PAGE 38 1. 10. My different essays on subjects of national interest. Coleridge contributed to the Morning Post in the winter of 1799-1800, and the autumns of 1801 and 1802. For the Courier he did not, according to Stuart, write till the autumn of 1809; there is however evidence of earlier contributions (see Gentleman's Magazine, May, 1838; Life, pp. 142, 145, 168). His principal contribution was the series of letters On the Spaniards sent from Grasmere in 1810. In 1811 he worked on the staff both as sub-editor and contributor, but broke off his connexion in that year and did not renew it until 1817. His contributions to these newspapers were collected and published by Sara Coleridge in 1850, under the title Essays on his own times, being a second series of The Friend. (See Biog. Lit. i. 141 ff.; Life, passim.)

12. my courses of lectures on the principles of criticism, &c. Coleridge delivered courses of lectures in 1808 (London), 1811-12 (London), 1812 (two courses, London), 1813-14 (two or more, Bristol), and 1818-19 (two courses, London). In several of the courses Shakespeare or Milton, or Shakespeare and Milton, was announced as the subject: probably there were none (except those on the History of Philosophy in 1818) which did not include criticism of these poets.

14. constitute my whole publicity. It is strange that Coleridge omits all mention of the Conciones ad Populum (1795), The Watchman (1795) and The Friend (1809-10).

24. I changed my plan, &c. This statement does not seem to be confirmed by the facts.

In the courses both of 1808 and 181112, Coleridge's criticisms included living authors, whereas in neither of the courses of 1812 did he even propose (according to the prospectus) to deal with modern poetry (cp. Knight's Life of W. Wordsworth, ii. 100; Byron, Life and Letters, ed. T. Moore, 1832, ii. 95, 98).

32. Harrington, apparently James Harrington (1611-77), political theorist, and author of The Commonwealth of the Oceana (1656), a book long famous and noticed by Hume in his essays as the only valuable model of a commonwealth' extant (ref. Biog. Lit. 1847). Cp. A. P. Oct. 5, 1804 (p. 79): 'The really good praises of the unworthy are felt by a good man and man of genius, as detractions from the worthy, and robberies--so the flashy moderns seem to rob the ancients of the honours due to them, and Bacon and Harrington are not read because Hume and Condillac are.

PAGE 39 1. 19. I was in habits of intimacy, &c. Cp. A. P. 1810 (p. 221) (on the Edin. Review): In vain should I tell my critics that... on seeing my own name in their abuse, I regard it only as a symbol of Wordsworth and Southey, and that I am well aware that from utter disregard and oblivion of anything and all things

which they know of me by experience, my name is only mentioned because they have heard that I was Wordsworth's and Southey's friend.'

27. his earlier publications. The Poems published with Mr. Lovell were issued in 1795, Joan of Arc in 1796, and the 'two volumes under his own name' in 1797.

PAGE 40 1. 10. the admirable dialogue de Causis Corruptae Eloquentiae'. The dialogue known as De Oratoribus, and originally ascribed to Tacitus, was in the sixteenth century identified by Lipsius with Quintilian's lost dialogue De Causis Corruptae Eloquentiae. This view of its authorship was maintained during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but from the beginning of the nineteenth there has been a reaction in favour of Tacitus. See Peterson's edition (Oxford, 1893), Introduction. This dialogue is referred to in Satyrane's Letters (Biog. Lit. ii. 149).

II. Strada's Prolusions. Famianus Strada (1572-1649), Jesuit preacher and historian, best known for his work on the war between Spain and the Netherlands (pub. 1632-47). His Prolusiones et Paradeigmata Eloquentiae (1617) are essays on literary style, illustrated from the writers of antiquity, the historians in particular. An imitation of Claudian which occurs in one of the essays under the title of The Muses' Duel, has been translated into English by Crashaw, Hinton, and by a 'third hand' (in 1671).

6

16. agreed far more with Warton than with Johnson. The critical writings of both Joseph and Thomas Warton show a reaction in favour of the Elizabethan as opposed to the classical' taste. See (e. g.) J. Warton's Essay on Pope, and T. Warton's History of English Poetry, which was a powerful instrument in re-awakening interest in earlier English literature. Dr. Johnson condemned the imitations of Milton and Spenser in T. Warton's poetry, as

Phrase that time hath flung away,
Uncouth words in disarray

Tucked in antique ruff and bonnet,
Ode and elegy and sonnet.

18. of the same mind with Sir Philip Sidney. Cp. Sidney's Defense of Poesie, 'I never heard the old song of Percie and Douglas that I found not my heart moved as with a trumpet, and yet it was but sung by some blind crowder with no rougher voice than rude style' (ref. Biog. Lit. 1847)..

21. his works, published since then. Southey's Thalaba was published in 1801; Madoc, in 1805; The Curse of Kehama in 1810; and Roderick in 1814. The chief accusation brought against his poetry in the Edin. Review was that of 'childish affectation'. Thus Madoc is termed an 'affectation of infantine simplicity'. Further, Southey's faults are often created by partiality for the peculiar manner of that new school of poetry, of which he is a faithful disciple'. (The italics are my own.) See Edin. Review,