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
Our climate (in the north) is inclement, and our houses not as compact as
they might be, but it is a stirring climate, and the worse the weather,
the more unceasingly entertaining are my study windows, and the month
that is to come is the glory of the year with us. A very warm bedroom I
can promise you, and one at the same time which commands the finest lake
and mountain view. If Leslie could not go abroad with you, and I could in
any way mould my manners and habits to suit you, I should of all things
like to be your companion. Good nature, an affectionate disposition, and
so thorough a sympathy with the nature of your complaint, that I should
feel no pain, not the most momentary, at being told by you what your
feelings require at the time in which they required it; this I should
bring with me. But I need not say that you may say to me,--'You don't
suit me,' without inflicting the least mortification. Of course this
letter is for your brother, as for you; but I shall write to him soon.
God bless you,
S. T. Coleridge.
Thomas Wedgewood, Esq."
"Keswick, November 3, 1802.
Dear Wedgewood,
It is now two hours since I received your letter; and after the necessary
consultation, Mrs. Coleridge herself is fully of opinion that to lose
time is merely to lose spirits. Accordingly I have resolved not to look
the children in the face, (the parting from whom is the downright bitter
in the thing) but to go to London by to-morrow's mail. Of course I shall
be in London, God permitting, on Saturday morning. I shall rest that day,
and the next, and proceed to Bristol by the Monday night's mail. At
Bristol I will go to _Cote-House_.[106] At all events, barring serious
illness, serious fractures, and the et cetera of serious unforeseens, I
shall be at Bristol, Tuesday noon, November 9.
You are aware that my whole knowledge of French does not extend beyond
the power of limping slowly, not without a dictionary crutch, or an easy
French book: and that as to pronunciation, all my organs of speech, from
the bottom of the Larynx to the edge of my lips, are utterly and
naturally anti-Gallican. If only I shall have been any comfort, any
alleviation to you I shall feel myself at ease--and whether you go abroad
or no, while I remain with you, it will greatly contribute to my comfort,
if I know you will have no hesitation, nor pain, in telling me what you
wish me to do, or not to do.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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