Your correspondent S. Y. ought not to have charged the editors of Coleridge's _Poems_ with negligence, until he had shown that the lines he quotes were inserted in the original edition of _Christabel_. They have not the musical flow of Coleridge's versification, but rather the dash and vivacity of Scott. At all events, they are not to be found in the second edition of _Christabel_ (1816), nor in any subsequent edition. Indeed, I do not think that Coleridge made any alteration in the poem since its composition in 1797 and 1800. I referred to two reviews of Coleridge's _Poems_ published in Blackwood in 1819 and 1834; but found no trace of S. Y.'s lines. "An old volume of Blackwood" is rather a vague mode of reference. It is somewhat curious that, previous to the publication of _Christabel_, there appeared a _conclusion_ to that splendid fragment. It was entitled "Christobell, a Gothic Tale," and was published in the _European Magazine_ for April, 1815. It is dated "March, 1815," and signed "V.;" and was reprinted in _Fraser's Magazine_ for January, 1835. It is stated to be "written as a sequel to a beautiful legend of a fair lady and her father, deceived by a witch in {293} the guise of a noble knight's daughter." It commences thus: "Whence comes the wavering light which falls On Langdale's lonely chapel-walls? The noble mother of Christobell Lies in that lone and drear chapelle." The writer of the review in Blackwood (Dec. 1839) of Mr. Tupper's lame and impotent conclusion to _Christabel_, remarks that-- "Mr. Tupper does not seem to know that _Christabel_ was continued many years ago, in a style that perplexed the public, and pleased even Coleridge. The ingenious writer meant it for a mere _jeu d'esprit_." Query: Who was this "ingenious writer?" While on the subject of _Christabel_, I may note a parallelism in reference to a line in Part I.: "Her face, oh call it fair, not pale!" "E smarrisce il bel _volto in un colore,_ _Che non è pallidezza, ma candore_." _Tasso_, _G. Lib._ c. ii. st. 26. J. M. B. S. Y. is "severe _over_ much" and _under_ informed, in his strictures on the editors of Coleridge's _Works_ (1852), when he blames them for not giving Coleridge the credit of lines which _did not belong to him_. The lines which S. Y. quotes, and a "great many more,"--in fact, a "third part of _Christabel_,"--were sent to _Blackwood's Magazine_ in 1820, by the late Dr. William Maginn, as a first fruits of those _imitations_ and _parodies_ for which he afterwards became so famous. The success of his imitation of Coleridge's style is proved by the indignation of your correspondent. It is no small honour to the memory and talents of the gifted but erratic Maginn, that the want of his lines should be deemed a defect or omission in "one of the most beautiful poems in the English language." But in future, before he condemns editors for carelessness, S. Y. should be sure that he himself is correct.