Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - 4. Naturalism in EnglandBrandes, Georg
History
Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - 4. Naturalism in England
Brandes, Georg
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Naturalism in literature; Romanticism
This was discovered by his captain, who inquired into the position
of affairs, and arranged with Coleridge's family for his return to
Cambridge. On this followed the short period during which the young
poet was an anti-orthodox democrat. As such he could expect no
advancement in the University. His and Southey's glorification of
Robespierre (the first act of _The Fall of Robespierre_ was written
by Coleridge, the second and third are Southey's) and their wild
project of a communistic settlement have been already mentioned. The
little emigrant society they founded consisted only of themselves and
two other members, a young Quaker named Lovell, and George Burnet, a
school friend of Southey's. But the God Hymen had decided that the
year 1795 should witness the wreck of the plans which boded so ill
for society. In 1795 Coleridge went to lecture at Bristol, where he
displayed the eloquence which (as in the case of the similarly eloquent
and persuasive Welhaven) seems to have sapped his power of poetic
production. A young lady in the town of Bristol won his heart; and
before the year was over, Sara Fricker was married to Coleridge, her
sisters, Edith and Mary, to Lovell and Southey--and the emigration plan
was abandoned. Coleridge, who was without will-power all his life,
could never have carried out a plan laid so long beforehand. He never
succeeded in doing anything except what he had not determined to do, or
what, from its nature, could not be determined beforehand.
In 1796 the young man, who was still an enthusiastic Unitarian, allowed
himself to be persuaded by some other philanthropists--he is always
"persuaded"--to publish a weekly magazine called _The Watchman_, which
was to consist of thirty-two pages, large octavo, and to cost the
reasonable price of fourpence. Its flaming prospectus bore the motto,
"Knowledge is power." With the object of enlisting subscribers, the
young and ardent propagandist undertook a tour of the country between
Bristol and Sheffield, preaching in most of the great towns, "as an
hireless volunteer, in a blue coat and white waistcoat, that not a rag
of the woman of Babylon might be seen on me." The description he has
given of this, his Odyssey, shows us the young English Romanticist as
he was then and as he continued to be--imprudent in worldly matters,
enthusiastic in behalf now of this, now of that religious or political
half-truth, yet with a humorous appreciation of his own and others'
ridiculousness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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