Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert SoutheyCottle, Joseph
General
Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey
Cottle, Joseph
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Biography; Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834; Southey, Robert, 1774-1843
I see nothing so advisable for him, as that he should come here to Greta
Hall. My advice is, that he should visit T. Poole for two or three weeks,
to freshen himself and recover spirits, which new scenes never fail to
give him. When there, he may consult his friends at Birmingham and
Liverpool, on the fitness of lecturing at those two places, at each of
which he has friends, and would, I should think beyond all doubt be
successful. He must be very unfortunate if he did not raise from fifty to
one hundred pounds at the two places. But whether he can do this or not,
here it is that he ought to be. He knows in what manner he would be
received;--by his children with joy; by his wife, not with tears, if she
can control them--certainly not with reproaches;--by myself only with
encouragement.
He has sources of direct emolument open to him in the '_Courier_,' and in
the '_Eclectic Review_.'--These for his immediate wants, and for
everything else, his pen is more rapid than mine, and would be paid as
well. If you agree with me, you had better write to Poole, that he may
press him to make a visit, which I know he has promised. His great object
should be, to get out a play, and appropriate the whole produce to the
support of his son Hartley, at College. Three months' pleasurable
exertion would effect this. Of some such fit of industry I by no means
despair; of any thing more than fits, I am afraid I do. But this of
course I shall never say to him. From me he shall never hear ought but
cheerful encouragement, and the language of hope.
You ask me if you did wrong in writing to him. A man with your feelings
and principles never does wrong. There are parts which would have been
expunged had I been at your elbow, but in all, and in every part it is
strictly applicable.
I hope your next will tell me that he is going to T. Poole's--I have
communicated none of your letters to Mrs. Coleridge, who you know resides
with us. Her spirits and health are beginning to sink under it. God bless
you.
Yours affectionately,
Robert Southey."
After anxious consideration, I thought the only effectual way of
benefitting Mr. Coleridge, would be, to renew the object of an annuity,
by raising for him, amongst his friends, one hundred, or, if possible,
one hundred and fifty pounds a year; purposing through a committee of
three, to pay for his comfortable board, and all necessaries, but not of
giving him the disposition of any part, till it was hoped, the correction
of his bad habits, and the establishment of his better principles, might
qualify him for receiving it for his own distribution. It was difficult
to believe that his subjection to opium could much longer resist the
stings of his own conscience, and the solicitations of his friends, as
well as the pecuniary destitution to which his _opium habits_ had reduced
him. The proposed object was named to Mr. C. who reluctantly gave his
consent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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