Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, Vol. 2 (of 2)Howitt, William
General
Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Howitt, William
Literary landmarks -- Great Britain; Poets, English -- Homes and haunts
bargain!"--"My price," replied Coleridge, "for _the horse_, sir,
if I sell him, is _one hundred_ guineas; as to the _rider_,
never having been in parliament, and never intending to go, _his_
price is not yet fixed." The baronet sat down more suddenly than he
had risen--the ladies began to titter--while Coleridge quietly now
moved on.
Coleridge returned to Cambridge, but only for a very short time. The
French Revolution, in its early promise, had raised the spirit of
enthusiasm for liberty in the bosom of all generous-natured young men.
This had brought together Coleridge, Southey, and others of the like
temperament. Coleridge now went to visit Southey, at Oxford, where
they hit upon the Pantisocracy scheme, an offshoot from the root of
Rousseau's visions of primitive life. Coleridge is said first to have
broached it, and that it was eagerly adopted by Southey, and a college
friend of his, George Burnet. These young men, soon after, set off to
Bristol, Southey's native place, where they were soon joined by
Coleridge. Here Southey, Coleridge, and Burnet occupied the same
lodging; Robert Lovell, a young Quaker, had adopted this scheme, and
they all concluded to embark for America, where, on the banks of the
Susquehannah, they were to found their colony of peace and perfection,
to follow their own ploughs, harvest their own corn, and show forth to
the world the union of a patriarchal life of labor, with the highest
exercise of intellect and virtue. Luckily for them, the mainspring was
wanting. Without the root of all evil, they could not rear this tree
of all good fruits. They were obliged to borrow cash of Cottle even to
pay for their lodgings; and the shrewd bookseller, while he listened
to their animated descriptions of their future transatlantic Eden,
chuckled to himself on the impossibility of their ever carrying it
out. The dream gradually came to an end. Lovell died unexpectedly,
being carried off by a fever, brought on through a cold, caught on a
journey to Salisbury. Symptoms of jarring had shown themselves among
the friends, which were rather ominous for the permanence of a
pantisocracy. Coleridge had quarreled with Lovell before he died,
because Lovell, who was married to a Miss Fricker, opposed Coleridge's
marriage with her sister till he had better prospects. Coleridge and
Southey quarreled about the pantisocracy afterward. The most important
results to Southey and Coleridge of this pantisocratic coalition were,
that they eventually married the two sisters of Lovell's wife. Both
these young poets, with their minds now fermenting with new schemes of
politics and doctrines of religion, commenced at Bristol as lecturers
and authors. The profits of the lectures were to pay for the voyage to
America; they did not even pay the rent. Coleridge lectured on the
English Rebellion and Charles I., the French Revolution, and on
Religion and Philosophy; Southey, on General History: both displaying
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