Biographia Epistolaris, Volume 2: being The Biographical Supplement of Coleridge's Biographia LiterariaColeridge, Samuel Taylor
General
Biographia Epistolaris, Volume 2: being The Biographical Supplement of Coleridge's Biographia Literaria
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834 -- Correspondence
The two _Lay Sermons_ were published, the one in 1816, the other in
1817. The first is entitled _The Statesman's Manual_, or _The Bible the
best Guide to Political skill and foresight_: a Lay Sermon addressed to
the higher classes of society, with an Appendix, containing comments and
essays connected with the study of the inspired writings:--the second _A
Lay Sermon_, addressed to the Higher and Middle Classes, on the existing
distresses and discontents. Mr. Gillman says he "had the intention of
addressing a third to the lower classes."
The _Biographia Literaria_ was published in 1817, but parts of the first
volume must have been composed some years earlier.[72] The _Edinburgh
Review_ in its August number of that year was as favourable to the book
_as could be expected_."[73]
FOOTNOTES:
[46] [The above chapter is by Sara Coleridge.]
[47] [_Love_, not till second edition of _Lyrical Ballads_, 1800.]
[48] [Should be 1798. See _Letters_, p. 245.]
[49] [Letter CXCV is our 152. Letters CLXXXIII-CXCIV precede it in
chronological order: Letter CXCVI follows.]
[50] See his Sonnet to Sheridan.--S.C.
[51] [See Letter 136.]
[52] [The original _Osorio_ is republished in Dykes Campbell's
edition of the _Poems_, p. 479.]
[53] [Should be 1822-1832.]
[54] [Issued in 1834.]
[55] [Many of the dates of the Poems are now ascertained to be
different from those in the text of Sara Coleridge.]
[56] [Should be 1797.]
[57] [1800.]
[58] [1797.]
[59] [1806.]
[60] [1802.]
[61] [1799.]
[62] [1797.]
[63] [Should be 1797-1798.]
[64] [1800.]
[65] [1822-1832.]
[66] [1799.]
[67] [1803.]
[68] [1829.]
[69] [1828.]
[70] [Issued in 1848.]
[71] [1795.]
[72] [1815.]
[73] The remarks in that article upon my Father's remarks on _poetic
diction_ I have vainly tried to understand:--"a paste of rich
and honeyed words, like the candied coat of the auricula, a
glittering tissue of quaint conceits and sparkling metaphors,
crusting over the rough stalk of homely thoughts; &c. such is
the style of Pope and Gray; such very often is that of
Shakespeare and Milton; and, notwithstanding Mr. Coleridge's
decision to the contrary, of Spenser's _Faëry Queen_."
_Homely_ thoughts clothed in a glittering tissue of poetic
diction are but pseudo-poetry; and the powder on the auricula
would be nothing, if the coat itself were not of velvet. Mr.
C.'s decision respecting the _Faëry Queen_ is equally
misrepresented, for he maintains that Spenser's language _is_
distinct from that of prose, such language being required by
his thoughts and in harmony with them. To say that he decided
"the contrary," as if he had denied poetic diction to Spenser,
is not like the auricula's coat, _candid_.--S. C.
CHAPTER XX
COTTLE'S DARK CHAPTER
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