University of Virginia Library

Unrecorded Coleridge Variants
by
David V. Erdman

WHILE PURSUING COLERIDGE'S CAREER through the pages of the Cambridge Intelligencer, the Morning Chronicle, the Morning Post, the Monthly Magazine, and the Courier, I have unearthed so many variant readings and unexpected occurrences of verses not hitherto recorded that it has seemed advisable to make all these available in a brief chronological report. To be usefully inclusive I have also collated all the periodical publication of Coleridge's verse up through 1820 (with exceptions to be noted). And in the same list I have taken occasion to notice certain poems not previously collected, though their attribution to Coleridge will require a separate and fairly elaborate demonstration.

To these Professor Robert D. Mayo has enabled me to add a report of two Coleridge poems, "Absence: An Ode" and "Absence: A Poem," which he has recently discovered in the Sherborne Weekly Entertainer of 1793.

The standard Oxford edition, edited by Ernest Hartley Coleridge in 1912, of The Complete Poetical Works in two volumes or The Poems in one volume (identical in congruent portions), has all the appearance of a thorough collation, and I trust it may be so for manuscript sources (except in such clearly editorially determined matters as the capitalization or non-capitalization of personifiable nouns). In his preface the editor promises "to furnish the student with an exhaustive summary of various readings," and he defends the supplying of an "exhaustive table of variants" however apparently trifling or accidental. He does indeed record what are intended to be complete newspaper variants whenever the fact of newspaper publication is known to him—with the exception of the Ode to the Rain, supposed to have appeared in an issue of the Morning Post that is missing from the British Museum file. There is a legend, however, that E. H. Coleridge did not do all the newspaper collations himself, and it becomes evident

that whoever assisted him sometimes let him down. Rather considerable variants of some poems have been overlooked, and the report of minor textual variants is especially careless for the earlier part of the period covered. Patent typographical errors (e.g. "freeze" for "breeze") have been emended silently even in the table of supposed variants—with the effect of contradicting Coleridge's statements that certain poems were badly printed. And in at least one instance what purport to be variants from a newspaper seem to be merely compiled from one of the manuscripts. Furthermore the discovery of several poems appearing at dates not noted makes it evident that no systematic examination of the periodical files has ever been made. Anything like an orderly search could hardly have missed the 148-line "Fragment by S. T. Coleridge" of The Visions of the Maid of Orleans, for instance.

It seems to have been a matter of editorial policy to disregard variations in spelling, punctuation, and other mechanics; yet it is disconcerting to find differences in line indention, in spelling ("clothes" for "cloathes," "tease" for "teize"), and capitalization ("Earth" for "earth" or "remorse" for "Remorse") —even in what purport to be separate transcriptions of the text "as first printed in the Morning Post" or in texts derived uniquely from the newspaper printing.

Of rather greater importance is the almost regular neglect of pseudonyms, signatures, or anonymity. Only after the present investigation will it be possible to compile a biography of Coleridge as "Albert," "Laberius," "Cuddy," etc., or variously "S.T.C.," "ESTEESI," and "EΣTHΣE." Again, in the E. H. Coleridge text, the titles actually used in periodical publication are often neglected, or titles are given to poems which had none.

The present tabulation, while not claimed to be without its own errors of transcription, is intended to supply all variants in text, title, and signature (not spelling and mechanics, though these are privately available to anyone contemplating an edition) needed to correct the E. H. Coleridge table of variants of all Coleridge poems printed in periodicals from 1793 through 1820—not including the Watchman, the Friend, the Annual Anthology, or Felix Farley's Bristol Journal. My concern is with poems or versions first published in periodicals and not with mere reprintings, although for the four newspapers carefully surveyed, the Intelligencer, Chronicle, Post, and Courier, all items have been attended to. Thus, with the exceptions just noted, all items in E. H. Coleridge's list No. I of "Poems first published in newspapers or periodicals" and No. II of "Epigrams and jeux d'esprit" (pp. 1178-1180) have been collated. But I have not dealt with his list No. III of

"Poems included in anthologies and other works" (except to make one addition for 1803) nor made any search for reprints in other periodicals or for poems quoted in reviews.

It has seemed advisable, however, to list, even when variants are not involved, the few further newspaper printings mentioned in E. H. Coleridge's notes but not in his lists I and II; also to notice poems not accepted by E. H. Coleridge though assigned to Coleridge by earlier editors.

To bring the record up to date I have added two publications of poems in the Courier and New Times discovered by Professor Thomas M. Raysor in 1930; also a first publication of Genevieve as an "Irregular Sonnet" in the Morning Chronicle and three new epigrams in the Monthly Magazine discovered by Professor Earl Leslie Griggs in 1954.

Undated items which I have not located are: "On a Late Connubial Rupture," said to have been reprinted in Felix Farley's Bristol Journal, and "To a Friend who had declared his intention of writing no more poetry," said to have appeared "in a Bristol newspaper."

Professor Carl R. Woodring, having made an independent collation of most of the newspaper poems, has now checked through the present list and has improved it with several corrections and suggestions.

In the course of this survey it was suggested to me that the possibility of duplicate composition of the newspapers in question must be taken into account, and accordingly I made an effort to collate all extant copies noted in William S. Ward's recent and nearly exhaustive Index and Finding List of Serials Published in the British Isles, 1789-1832 (University of Kentucky Press, 1953). The point is that before the introduction of the steam press in 1814 the rate of printing did not normally exceed 250 impressions an hour, so that there had to be more than one setting of type for a daily newspaper if more copies were needed than could be printed on one press in eight or ten hours, i.e. 2000-2500 copies—or, by halfsheet imposition, 4000-5000 copies.

Presumably the weekly Cambridge Intelligencer (circulation not known) would never have required duplicate setting. And presumably the Morning Chronicle in 1793-1795 and the Morning Post in 1797-1802 (their Coleridge years) would not have required it for their normal circulations. The Morning Post in 1802 boasted that its circulation had risen "from 400 to 2100 per day" between 1795 and 1801 and again "from 2100 to 3500 per day" by December 3, 1802. The circulation of the Morning Chronicle dropped below 2000 in 1802 and had probably not exceeded 3000 in the preceding decade. None of

these figures approaches the critical limit, if halfsheet imposition was practicable. (The Times is said to have used duplicate setting when the circulation exceeded 4500 copies, as it did not do before 1806.) But bibliographical information about the newspapers is so scanty that a thorough check was advised. (I am grateful to Eugene B. Vest and Gerald E. Bentley, Jr. for help with some of the collating.)

Files of the Cambridge Intelligencer in the British Museum (Duke University film), Oxford, and the University of Chicago were collated, leaving unexamined only the file at the Cambridge Public Library. Files of the Morning Chronicle in Oxford, the Boston Public Library (Duke University film), and the University of Chicago were collated, leaving unexamined only one extensive file, the one at Cambridge University. Files of the Morning Post in the British Museum (Duke University film), Oxford, the New York Historical Library, and the Newberry Library in Chicago were examined, leaving only the file which is listed in Ward as at Richmond, Virginia, but cannot now be located.

In all cases the texts examined, in which typographical peculiarities such as broken letters were frequently noted, proved to be identical. The evidence appears conclusive that duplicate composition was not practised by the newspapers concerned at the dates in question. It thus seems safe to conclude that apparent errors in E. H. Coleridge are actual errors and not variants derived from variant printings.

The few poems appearing in the Courier (on eleven scattered days between 1804 and 1818) are with one exception correctly collated by E. H. Coleridge; so the possibility that in the latter half of that period the Courier reached a circulation requiring multiple setting hardly concerns us. I have collated two or three copies for each of the days for which that many copies were available and found no variation, except that the Courier sometimes went into a "Second Edition" with one or two news paragraphs refreshed.

Finally a word should be said about the text of the poems reprinted in 1850 in Sara Coleridge's third volume of Coleridge's Essays on His Own Times. Although she claims to be reprinting these "as they originally appeared," her text is sometimes that of 1817 (Recantation and Parliamentary Oscillators); sometimes a doctored text (in "Hippona" the third line, "Whate'er obscenities you say," becomes "Whate'er men over boldly say"); but usually a text changed only in mechanics (for example The Devil's Thoughts and most of the Epigrams). In spelling and punctuation she is more faithful than E. H. Coleridge to the newspaper, and her text does not seem to account for any of his errors.

Signs and Abbreviations

* Asterisk marks a publication or title or signature not recorded by E. H. Coleridge.

τDagger marks a poem not previously ascribed to Coleridge.

[] Brackets indicate a questionable attribution not accepted by E. H. Coleridge.

E.H.C. Ernest Hartley Coleridge edition of The Complete Poetical Works (2 vols.) or The Poems of Coleridge (1 vol.), Oxford, 1912 (pagination identical for relevant overlapping portions).

• C Courier
• CI Cambridge Intelligencer
• MC Morning Chronicle
• MM Monthly Magazine
• MP Morning Post
• WE Weekly Entertainer (Sherborne, Dorsetshire)

First line is given only where needed for identification. When no signature is noted in E. H. C. the poem has none unless listed here. A reproduction of the varying typographical styles of the titles has not been attempted; they were frequently in small capitals.

Chronology of Variants

1793

• * July 15. MC. Irregular Sonnet. "Maid of my love! sweet Genevieve!" Signed "C.—Ætatis 14." (E. H. C. pp. 19-20). Publication first noted by Earl Leslie Griggs (MLN, LXIX [1954], 27-31). Collation identical to CI, Nov. 1, 1794 (below) except:
  • 3 Thine eye CI] Thy eye MC
  • 4 Thy voice is lovely as the Seraph's song CI] soft as seraph's MC
  In line 14 "therefore" is not in italics; no common nouns are capitalized; punctuation slightly varies from CI.
• * Oct. 21. WE. ABSENCE: An Ode. For the Weekly Entertainer. Signed "S. T. COLERIDGE. Ottery St. Mary, October 12, 1793." Discovered by Robert D. Mayo and here first noted. Collation with the version in CI Oct. 11, 1794 (noted below) and with E. H. C. pp. 29-30 (here cited as P) follows, the variants being listed in the reverse of chronological order. (The early reading of line 3 is referred to by Coleridge in a letter of 6 November 1794 first printed in Collected Letters of Coleridge, ed. Earl Leslie Griggs [1956], I, 129.) Both CI and WE lack the subtitle, "A farewell etc."
  • 1 spoil P, CI] sport WE
  • 3 I haste to urge P] Once more I woo CI] I haste to woo WE
  • 5 days P] day CI] days WE
  • 6 rays P] ray CI] rays WE
  • 7 Peace, and Cheerfulness P] friendship, gaiety, CI, WE
  • 10 Memory's wing P] mem'ry's wings CI, WE

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  148

  
  
  
  • 13 But . . . this bootless moan P] O . . . thy bootless moan CI] Oh . . . thy bootless moan WE
  • 22 To mourn awhile in murky P, CI] Awhile to mourn in murksome WE

• * Oct. 28. WE. ABSENCE: A Poem. "Imagination! mistress of my lore!" For the Weekly Entertainer. Signed "S. T. C---RIDGE. Ottery St. Mary." Discovered by Robert D. Mayo, who is to publish a full text elsewhere. This constitutes a second draft of An Effusion at Evening written in August, 1792 (E. H. C. pp. 49-50). The still later draft published in 1796, Lines on an Autumnal Evening (pp. 51-54) makes some use of the WE version but often reverts to that of 1792.

  The new version is valuable for the study of Coleridge's progressive emendation and for elements pointing toward Kubla Khan and Dejection.

1794

• [Sept. 4. MC. The Triumphs of the New Cabinet, An Ode. Unsigned. 72 lines, transcribed in Thomas J. Wise, Coleridgeana, 1919, pp. 32-34, without explanation. Not accepted by E. H. C. Not collated.]
• Sept. 23. MC. An Elegy. E.H.C. (pp. 69-70) gives "Zephyr" for "zephyr" and "remorse" for "Remorse" and overlooks:
  • 2 rivulet's sleep-persuading] riv'let's peace-persuading MC
  The question of the "doubtful origin" of this poem is removed by a note found beside it in a copy of the Watchman once owned by Wise and now in the Duke University Library: "Rhymified by me, S.T.C., from the much nobler blank verse of Akenside."
• Sept. 27. CI. Lines . . . the "Man of Ross." * Signed "Jes. Coll. S. T. C." E. H. C. (pp. 57-58) does not collate. Line 4 should read "the reverent Tear" not "the glistening"; the cheek in line 9 should be "Virgin's snowy" not "maiden's glowing"; all nouns are capitalized except "hoards," "friendless," "man," "wealth," "gaze," "cheek," "blushes," and "thought."
• Oct. 11. CI. Absence. * Signed "Jes. Coll. Wednesday, Oct. 8. S. T. C." E. H. C. (pp. 29-30) does not collate. See variants above under Oct. 21, 1793.
• * Oct. 25. CI. Song. (From the FALL of ROBESPIERRE, an Historic Drama, by S. T. COLERIDGE.) "Tell me, on what holy ground." 14 lines, not known to have been published separately before 1796. "First published in the Fall of Robespierre," observes E.H.C. (p. 71) correctly, but he gives a wrong date, 1795. The Fall is advertised as published "this day" in the CI for Oct. 4 and again Oct. 11, 1794. Variants in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation; and:
  • 4 wings] wing CI.
• Oct. 25. CI. * Sonnet. "Along this glade was Anna wont to rove." * Signed "Jes. Coll. S. T. C." First collected in 1880. E. H. C. (p. 16) reports the title as Anna and Henry, perhaps from a manuscript.

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• Nov. 1. CI. * Sonnet. "Maid of my love, sweet genevieve!" * Signed "Jes. Coll. S. T. C." Variants are wrongly attributed in E. H. C. (pp. 19-20). The CI readings are not those given for "C. I." but those given for "MS.E." Line 10 has "outstretch'd" not "stretcht out." In line 14 "therefore" is not italicised. (See above, July 15, 1793.)

• Dec. 26. MC. Sonnets on Eminent Characters. No. VII. TO THE REV. W. L. BOWLES. In the footnote signed "S. T. C.," after the word "applicable," appears the following Greek passage, not copied out by E. H. C. (p. 84) though mentioned:

  "Ου τοι λεγω τῆν τῳ τερπνῳ τῆζ ακοῆζ τιμηθεισαν, δεδεκασμένηζ τῆζ ακοῆζ δεδεκασμένου και του τῶν 'αλλων. αισθητηριων δικασ[τ]ηριου τὴν δὲ εκ του νοερου Eλικωνοζ Mουσαν, τὴν κα? υψηλην καὶ ανθρωπινην καὶ επι τῇ ψυκῇ ἰουσαν.—"
  (In this transcription, standard letters replace certain abbreviated forms not in the modern printer's font.)

  All the Sonnets on Eminent Characters, MC Dec. 1, 1794 through Jan. 29, 1795 (E. H. C. pp. 79-88), are signed "Jesus College, Cambridge. S. T. C." or simply "S. T. C." but the introductory letter is not signed. E. H. C. gives all the sonnets titles, but in MC only numbers are used for those on Burke, Priestley, La Fayette, Koskiusko [sic in text], Pitt, and Mrs. Siddons.

• Dec. 30. MC. Address to a Young Jack-Ass . . . (E. H. C., pp. 74-76). * Signed "S. T. C."

1795

• τJan. 29. MC. Sonnet. To Mrs. Siddons. "'Tis not thy fascinating charms to trace." Signed "FONTROSE." By Coleridge, I believe—but this will have to be demonstrated elsewhere.
• τFeb. 21. CI. Sonnet, Written on contemplating a very fine setting Sun. Inscribed to Lord Stanhope. "Behold yon splendid Orb, whose dazzling rays." Unsigned. Coleridge's, possibly.

1796

• Sept. MM. On a Late Connubial Rupture in High Life. * Signed "S. T. Coleridge." E. H. C. p. 152.
• Oct. MM. Reflections on entering into active life. Correct in E. H. C. (pp. 106-108) except for mechanics, and
  • 55 Seizes my praise, when I reflect on those MM.
• Dec. 17. CI. Lines to a young Man of Fortune. * Signed "Bristol, December 11. s. t. coleridge." E. H. C. (pp. 157-158) neglects to capitalize "WANT'S" and "WIDOW's" while erroneously capitalizing "thron'd murderers of mankind!" Also, "fortune" should be lower case, "Flesh-birds" upper.

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• Dec. 31. CI. Ode for the last day of the Year, 1796. * Signed "December. 27. s. t. coleridge." E. H. C. (pp. 160-166) gives a variant after line 83, "Vendee streaming C. I." which simply does not exist. In the note "the Scalp-merchants" should be "their Scalp-merchants." And the following need correction:
  • 4 Yet . . . unchanging] But . . . unchanged CI
  • 85 And mask'd] And marked CI
• Annual Register for 1796. Lines to a Beautiful Spring in a Village. * "From Poems by S. T. Coleridge." E.H.C. (pp. 58-59) ignores these simple misprints:
  • 2 thy] the AR 9 well] dwell AR

1797

• Nov. MM. Sonnets, attempted in the manner of 'Contemporary Writers.' Three sonnets, each signed "Nehemiah Higginbottom." E.H.C. (pp. 209-211) collates titles and text properly—except for a mechanical matter of some historical interest, the use of italics and capital letters in Sonnet I (the other two being unvaried in this respect). Since Coleridge's aim was parody of "favourite phrases" and of "flat lines forced into poetry by Italics," it is of some interest to know which words bore emphasis in the earliest printing, and which received emphasis only in subsequent texts.
• In MM. the only italicized words are: 5 dampy, 13 one . . . no; the only capitalized words are: 9 Sorrow, 10 myself, 11 spirit. The same is true of the reprinting in the Poetical Register for 1803 (1805). In the Biographia Literaria, 1817, a self-conscious Coleridge reprinted the sonnet with added italics and capitals thus:
  • 1 hard world 2 my poor heart . . . Moon
  • 6 paly 7 did pause me 8 mused me . . . wretched ones
  • 11 soothe . . . breezy
  • 14 my poor heart's inexplicable Swell.
  At the same time he dropped Sorrow and spirit to plain sorrow and spirit. (All this is faithfully reproduced in the J. Shawcross edition of Biographia Literaria [1907], I, 17.)
• Cottle, in the first posthumous reprinting, emphasized only: MYSELF, SPIRIT, one . . . no-thing, and later editors generally followed suit. James Dykes Campbell in 1893 restored dampy but reduced Sorrow, Myself, Spirit to simple capitalization. E.H.C. restores the emphases of 1817 with a careless hand, neglecting to italicize breezy and my (line 11) while adding an italic I in line 7, dropping Moon down to Moon and Swell to swell, and tampering thus with lines 9 and 11:
  9 O'er the black heath of Sorrow MM
  O'er the bleak [sic] heath of sorrow 1817
  O'er the black heath of Sorrow E.H.C.
  11 sooth Spirit . . . breezy wood MM
  soothe spirit . . . breezy wood 1817
  sooth Spirit . . . breezy wood E.H.C.
  

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151




• Dec. 7. MP. Lines to an Unfortunate Woman, in the Back Seats of the Boxes at the Theatre. * Signed "ALBERT." Albert is, of course, the good brother in Osorio. (E. H. C., pp. 171-172).

• * Dec. 26. MP. The Visions of the Maid of Orleans. A Fragment, by S. T. COLERIDGE. "If there be Beings of a higher class than Man." 148 lines. This is an important find. It corresponds to the portion of The Destiny of Nations, lines 127-277, referred to in E. H. C. (pp. 131, 136) as "Coleridge's unpublished poem of 1796 (The Visions of the Maid of Orleans)" supposed not to have appeared in print until 1817, in Sibylline Leaves. The 1817 text (lines as numbered in E. H. C.) proves to have been considerably emended, generally for the better. It is curious to see "sweltry" deriving from "sultry" and to find that "The crisp milk frozen on its innocent lips" (line 215) is not mentioned in the earlier account of the babe. The variants follow, except for mechanical ones, which may be dismissed with the observation that such nouns as "Spirit," "Sloth," and "Pity" are not capitalized in MP, though on the other hand "huntress" and "maid" (usually) are.

  • 132 choose their human ministers from such states 1817] chuse their servants from such mean estates MP
  • 134 Repelled from all the minstrelsies 1817] Disdain'd by all the minstrelcies MP
  • 135 palace-roof and soothe the monarch's 1817] palace roof, soothing the Monarch's MP
  • 139 infant] childish MP
  • 150-153
    The sweltry man . . .
    Vacantly watched the rudely-pictured board
    Which on the Mulberry-bough with welcome creak
    Swung to the pleasant breeze. Here, too, the Maid 1817
    The sultry man . . .
    Watch'd the gay sign-board on the mulberry bough
    Swing to the pleasant breeze! Here too the Maid MP
    
  • 158 would she] she would MP
  • 164 Had shrunk or paled.] Had sicklied o'er; MP
  (A borrowing wisely abandoned, considering what it was that had been sicklied o'er or rather not sicklied o'er: the "Virgin's form" by "nor sloth nor luxury.")
  • 166 her full eye] her large eye MP
  • 174 Beamed forth] Out-beam'd MP
  • 188-194
    . . . shapes out Man's course
    To the predoomed adventure. Now the ascent
    She climbs of that steep upland, on whose top
    The Pilgrim-man, who long since eve had watched
    The alien shine of unconcerning stars,
    Shouts to himself, there first the Abbey-lights
    Seen in Neufchatel's vale; now slopes adown 1817
    

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    152

    
    

    

    . . . shapes out our course
    To some predoom'd adventure) and the ascent
    Now pass'd of that steep upland (on whose top
    Not seldom some poor nightly-roaming man
    Shouts to himself, there first the cottage lights
    Seen in Neufchatel's vale) she slop'd a-down MP
    
    (Note how cottage turns into Abbey and poor man into Pilgrim.)
  • 195-197
    The winding sheep-track vale-ward: when, behold
    In the first entrance of the level road
    An unattended team! The foremost horse 1817
    The bleak hill's further side, till at the base,
    In the first entrance of the level road,
    A waggon stay'd her speed. Its foremost horse MP
    
  • 199 But stiff and cold] But stiff with cold MP
  • 203 Then hailed] And hailed MP
  • 204 From the thwart wain at length there reached her ear 1817 At length she listen'd, from the vehicle MP
  (Vehicle and waggon have become "thwart wain"!)
  • 205 sound] voice 207 man crept forth] man crawl'd forth:
  • 209 She, meantime,] : she meanwhile
  • 214-218
    . . . sight; and one, a babe,
    The crisp milk frozen on its innocent lips,
    Lay on the woman's arm, its little hand
    Stretched on her bosom.
    Mutely questioning,
    The Maid gazed wildly at the living wretch. 1817 . . . sight! and one, a babe,
    Lay on the woman's arm, its little hand
    Smooth on her bosom. Wildly pale the maid
    Gaz'd at the living wretch, mute questioning. MP
    
  • 225-228
    . . . homeward. There arrived
    Anxiously tends him she with healing herbs,
    And weeps and prays—but the numb power of Death
    Spreads o'er his limbs; and ere the noon-tide hour, 1817
    . . . homewards. There arriv'd,
    Anxious she tended him with healing herbs
    And wept and pray'd; but green putridity
    Spread o'er his limbs; and ere the noontide hour, MP
    
  (In revision Coleridge approaches closer the detail of "crisp milk frozen" but retires from "green putridity" to "numb power." The inversion of 226 is a dubious improvement. And it is odd that "one, a babe" [214] escaped. See Lamb to Coleridge, August 26, 1800 laughing at Cottle's "Guinea Epic"; "Instead of a man, a woman, a daughter, he constantly writes one a man, one a woman, one his daughter.")
  • 231 interruptions long] interruptions strange MP
  • 234 By sudden inroad had been seized and fired 1817 By sudden foragers was seiz'd and fir'd MP

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  153

  
  
  
  (Source of conflict muted from "foragers" to "inroad.")
  • 241 hearth-fire] hearthfires MP
  • 244 children's moans; and still they moaned 1817 cries—and still they cry'd MP
  • 251 He crept . . . entranced] He crept . . . and doz'd MP
  • 262 the heat of soul] th' heat of soul MP
  • 264 up whose smouldered stones] down whose moulder'd stones MP
  (A curious mutation—or is "smouldered" simply a misprint?)
  • 267 the ominous] th'ominous MP
  • 270 to flee] to fly MP 271 Presence] presence MP
  • 272 troublous] troubled MP
  • 275 'O Thou] "O thou MP
  Altogether the early draft is three lines shorter than that of 1817.

  The discovery of these 148 lines, plus the 48 lines of the poem next listed, gives a much better appearance to the credit side of Coleridge's ledger for the first month of his regular employment in the "poetical department" of the Morning Post at a guinea a week. It used to be supposed that after the miserable Lines of December 7 and the 13-line Melancholy of the 12th nothing further was supplied before the two meager epigrams of January 2d. We have learned that Wordsworth helped out with The Convict December 14. And now we can add this handsome Joan of Arc fragment (actually that part of Coleridge's long poem liked by Charles Lamb) as well as the following sizable and fresh political satire:

• * Dec. 30. MP. To Sir John Sinclair, Alderman Lushington, and the whole Troop of Parliamentary Oscillators. Signed "laberius." 48 lines. Republished a week later, Jan. 6, in CI, with an addition to the title of the name "S. Thornton." There are enough variants to indicate that CI did not simply pick up the poem but that a separate text was sent to each paper. (E. H. C. pp. 211-213) This day is missing from the British Museum file.
  • 3 It's hardly CI] It is not MP
  • 30 Ditch-full oft CI] Ditch-full often MP
  • 31 Fallen CI] Fasten MP

1798

• Jan. 2. MP. To the Lord Mayor's Nose. Unsigned, but grouped with the following epigram. E. H. C. (pp. 8-9) notes these ten lines as from the third stanza of The Nose (1789) but does not record the following variants:
  • 21 from] at MP 25 shott'st] sent'st MP
  • 27 Gloomy and sullen thro' the night of steam] Sullen and sad across the murky steam MP
• Jan. 2. MP. On Deputy -----. Signed "Laberius." E. H. C. (p. 953) silently emends "ideot" to "idiot," "I write" to "I'll write."
• Jan. 6. CI. To Sir John Sinclair, S. Thornton, Alderman Lushington, and the whole Troop of Parliamentary Oscillators. Signed "Laberius." Does

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  154

  
  
  
  not have "tight" for "right" in line 2 as E. H. C. (p. 211) would have it. (See above, Dec. 30, 1797.)
• March 10. MP. "Under the arms of a goodly oak-tree" [The Raven] Unsigned. "As printed in the Morning Post" in E. H. C. (pp. 546-547 or 1048-1049)—but punctuation is inexact: "meet" (line 41) should be italicized; and an error in line 25, "eye" for "eyes," is silently corrected to rime with "guise."
• April 13. MP. Lewti. Signed "Nicias Erythrœus," a mistake for "Erythræus"—a matter perhaps too trivial to note.
• April 16. MP. The Recantation, An Ode. "By S. T. COLERIDGE." Line 12 reads "flow'ry" not "flowering" (in 1802 "flow'ring").
• May 10. MP. The two following verses from the French . . . "The hour-bell sounds, and I must go" * Signed "MORTIMER." (E.H.C., pp. 61-62). Assigned to Wordsworth by Professor Jane Worthington Smyser ("Coleridge's Use of Wordsworth's Juvenilia," PMLA, LXV [1950], 423) by an ingenious argument which proves correct, for the original, somehow overlooked heretofore, is in MS in Wordsworth's notebook, Dove Cott: MS Verse 4, p. 6. In MP the "Mortimer" signature, from The Borderers, is Coleridge's way of pointing to the author.
• July 30. MP. A Tale. Unsigned. Collated a bit carelessly in E. H. C. (pp. 299-303). The note to line 77 should read "fasting" not "a fasting." Textual variants are:
  • 1 with musty] on musty MP 7 fine] sweet MP
  • 35 'Od blast] 'Od bl—st MP 36 Presbyterian] Presbyterian MP
  • 37 gore the] gore our MP 61 tease] teize MP
  • 65 freeze] breeze [but an obvious error] MP
  • 68 like any Bull] like mad bull MP
  • 75 But all] And all MP 81 Our Parson] The Parson MP
  • 97 But here] But now MP 120 Our pursy] The pursy MP
  • 121 my Muse per force] per force, my muse MP 125 Mister] Mr. MP

1799

• * Aug. Microscope (I, 182-184). Extract from "Fears in Solitude." "For the Microscope. . . . Transcribed by G." Reported by Robert Mayo. I have not seen, but possibly an independent text, i.e. possibly transcribed from MS rather than 1798 text.
• Aug. 24. MP. The British Stripling's War Song. In E. H. C. (pp. 317-318) the readings given for Essays, &c., for lines 12 and 23, are also those of MP. Other readings given for MP are correct.
• Aug. 27. MP. Song From LEESING. [sic] Unsigned. E. H. C. (pp. 318-319) emends title. One may suppose the spelling came from the MS, as it is "Song from Leesing" in George Whalley, Coleridge and Sara Hutchinson

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  (1955), p. 16, as Professor Woodring notes. It is odd that Whalley's note reads "First published in Morning Post, 17 [sic] Aug 1799, with the title 'Song from Lessing' [sic]."
• Aug. 29. MP. To a Proud Parent. Unsigned. E. H. C. (p. 960) misses:
  • 4 infant] infants MP
• [Sept. 11. MP. Epigram. "As gay Lord Edward, in a lively freak" Unsigned. Printed by Sara Coleridge, Essays, III, 974, as one "probably from my Father's pen"; not accepted by E. H. C. She changes "antient Marg'ret" to "ancient Margaret."]
• Sept. 23. MP. Epigram. "Jem writes his verses" Unsigned. E. H. C. (p. 956) prints "And only" for "But only." Sara has "But" without the "only." Each editor is trying to repair a bad line.
• Sept. 24. MP. Lines Written in a Concert Room. Unisgned. E. H. C. (pp. 324-325) misses:
  • 7 strain] strain MP 8 squall] squawl MP
  • 13 accordant] according MP
• Oct. 1. MP. On the Sickness of a Great Minister. Unsigned. E. H. C. (pp. 957-958) reprints "for the first time" but confuses the sense in line 4 by giving "nor wounded not" for "but wounded not." In line I the reading is "bring," not "take."
• Oct. 28. MP. To a Virtuous Œconomist. From Wernicke. Unsigned. There is no other text, but E. H. C. (p. 958) misreads:
  • 3 takes] tastes MP 4 hate] flee MP
  He copied the sense, not the words. In this instance I have collated four extant copies of MP and found them identical.
• [Nov. 14. MP. Epigram. "Doris can find no taste in Tea" Unsigned. Printed in J. D. Campbell, ed., The Poetical Works of Coleridge, 1893, p. 444. Not in E. H. C.]
• Dec. 21. MP. Introduction to the Tale of the Dark Ladie. Introductory letter signed "S. T. COLERIDGE." Text of the letter (E. H. C. pp. 550-551 or 1052-1053) corrected in Collected Letters, I, 550-551.
• Dec. 24. MP. Ode to Georgiana . . . Unsigned. According to Coleridge (Letters, I, 320) this was "horribly misprinted," but E. H. C. (pp. 335-338) silently corrects the errors in his table of MP variants, thus leaving the impression that Coleridge was fibbing. The howlers were two pairs of reversed rime-words: lines 25 and 28 "finely-fibred flame" and "lambent frame"; lines 72 and 74 "aspect sweet" riming with "communions sweet" instead of "fleet." That was all, but horrible enough. (In the third line of the Motto, E. H. C. reads "preservst" for "preserv'd.")

1800

• * Sept. 27. CI. The Dungeon (From the Lyrical Ballads). Unsigned. A verbatim reprint, followed Oct. 5 by [Wordsworth's] The Complaint of a Forsaken Indian Woman (From the Lyrical Ballads).
• Oct. 13. MP. The Voice from the Side of Etna. Signed "CASSIANI, jun." E. H. C. (pp. 347-348) overlooks:
  • 11 With all . . . mine eyes] When all . . . my eyes MP
  • 20 in mournful tone] that mournful voice MP
• Oct. 21. MP. * Inscription for a seat by a road side half-way up a steep hill, facing the south. Signed "VENTIFRONS." E. H. C. (pp. 349-350) modifies the title and misprints:
  • 19 on those] on them MP
  • 27 thy motions high] thy motions light MP
  The poem is Wordsworth's, but it is curious to note that the editors of his Poetical Works (1940), I, 301-302, take their MP collation at second hand from E. H. C. (as punctuation and capitalization indicate) and even borrow the E. H. C. title without indicating that there is no title in the Words-worth MS. The point is significant, for the MP title is so generalized as to be a sort of burlesque of the original Wordsworthian title of an earlier draft, "Inscription for a seat by the pathway side ascending to windy brow."
• * Nov. 8. CI. Inscription for a Seat . . . Signed "Ventifrons." A reprint of the MP text (see preceding item) with the following corrupt line:
  • 17 Here pause, thankful, that he hath reach'd so far CI
• * Nov. 22. CI. Fire, Famine, and Slaughter. A War Eclogue. Unsigned. Text is that of the Annual Anthology, as given in E. H. C. (pp. 237-240).

1801

• Sept. 18. MP. Song. * Signed "Eστησε." (E. H. C. pp. 978-979) in MP the "as" in line 2 is omitted.
• Sept. 22 MP. Epitaph on a Bad Man. * Signed "Eσητσε." (E. H. C. p. 961.)
• Sept. 25. MP. Drinking versus Thinking. * Signed "Eσητσε." (E. H. C. p. 979).
• Sept. 26. MP. The Devil Outwitted. * Signed "Eσητσε." E. H. C. (p. 957) gives an impression of collating, but compare:
  3-6 He took his honours, took his health,
  He took his children, took his wealth,
  His camels, horses, asses, cows—
  And the sly Devil did not take his spouse. E. H. C.
  He took his children, took his health,
  He took his honour, took his wealth,
  His servants, horses, oxen, cows—
  And the sly Devil did not take his spouse! MP
  

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• * τNov. 28. MP. Translation of a Greek Ode on Astronomy. Written for the Prize at Cambridge, 1793. (Never before published.) "Hail, venerable Night!" Unsigned.

  In the summer of 1792 Coleridge won a medal with a Greek Ode on the Slave Trade; in the following year he is said to have competed unsuccessfully "with an Ode on the 'Praise of Astronomy.' He thought this second ode better than the other; there is a translation of it by Southey." Arthur Gray, Jesus College (1902), p. 182. This is Southey's translation, substantially as in his Poems, 3d. edn. (1806), II, 1-9. I have not collated. The original Greek version is not known to be extant.

• Dec. 1. MP. The Wills of the Wisp. * Signed "Eσητσε." (E. H. C., pp. 979-980).
• Dec. 4. MP. Tranquillity, an Ode. Unsigned. E. H. C. (pp. 360-361) omits title, fails to note "and" for "or" in line 4, and gives two variants for MP which are simply not there:
  • 21 Summer] Autumn MP
  • 23 The best the thoughts] She best the thought MP
• Dec. 26. MP. "Dormi, Jesu! Mater ridet." Unsigned. E.H.C. (p. 417) omits introduction:
  A correspondent, in Germany, transcribed the following elegant Latin Rhymes from the bottom of a small print, in an Inn, in a Roman Catholic village. We communicate them to our readers with great pleasure:—
• Dec. 26. MP. Pondere, Non Numero. Unsigned. E. H. C. (p. 963) has "he" for "has" in line 2.
• Dec. 26. MP. The Compliment Qualified. (Vide Thursday's Paper.) * Signed "P." E. H. C. (p. 963) omits the signature. Coleridge is responding to an epigram of Dec. 24 which was signed "O."
• Annual Register for 1801. Tranquillity, an ode. Unsigned. Verbatim reprint from MP (text as noted above).

1802

• Sept. 6. MP. The Picture. * Signed "EΣTHΣE." E. H. C. (pp. 369-374) misreads line 94, where the word is "mis-shape" not "mis-shapes." In line 152 "this" is not italicized in MP, though it is in Poetical Register. Variants overlooked are:
  • 116 king-fishers] king's-fishers MP 124 waves] waters MP
  • 162 canvas, and those] canvass, and these MP 175 e'en] ev'n MP
• Sept. 11. MP. Chamouni. * Signed "EΣTHΣE" at end of introductory paragraph (E. H. C., p. 377).
• Sept. 23. MP. Original Epigrams. Signed "EΣTHΣE." E. H. C. (pp. 963-965) prints "hath" for "has" in line 4 of his No. 42, and (p. 381)

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  "merit" for "merits" in line 5 of "How seldom, friend!" (The reprint in the Poetical Register for 1802 follows MP verbatim.)
• Oct. 4. MP. Dejection. E. H. C. (pp. 574-579 or 1076-1081) gives this "as first printed in the Morning Post," yet makes some changes:
  • 5 cloud, in] clouds in MP 6 the dull] this dull MP
  • 73 sight] light [an error silently corrected by E.H.C.] MP
  • 77 There was a time that] a time when MP
  • 105 a host] an host MP 117 hath lost] has lost MP
  • 137 full of life and love] full of light and love MP
• * Oct. 7. MP. An Ode to the Rain. * Signed "EΣTHΣE." Publication not previously verified, since this day's MP is lacking in the British Museum file. See E. H. C., pp. 382-384. Collation yields an introductory letter, some extra lines, and a long footnote containing an excerpt from Coleridge's translation of Wallenstein, followed in turn by another note. The introduction reads:
  Mr. Editor, The following Verses were composed before daylight, on the morning appointed for the departure of a very worthy, but not very pleasant, visitor; whom, it was feared, the rain might detain. If you give it a place in your paper, it must be under the title of
  AN ODE TO THE RAIN.

• In the text Rain is always in capitals. Between lines 18 and 19 an extra couplet is found:

  18-19 [We] but ill agree:
  For days and months, and almost years 1817.
  as ill agree
  As fun'ral hymn with Fal de ral:
  The Lord in Heav'n knows, when we shall!
  For days, etc. MP.
  
  All other variants are merely in mechanics. But to "You're *" in line 32 is appended the following:
  * Here is seems that the Poet, in a dreamlike mood of mind, well suited to a Poet composing verses in the dark with his eyes shut, begins to confound, and gradually to identify, the personified Rain with the person of the visitor. If authority were wanting, it might be found in the first scene of the last act of Wallenstein, where the idea of the planet, Jupiter, is confounded with that of the young hero, who, as well as Wallenstein, was born under that star. The whole passage is incomparably superior to any other of all Schiller's Works. O si sic omnia. The passage is short, and deserves quotation: (Wallenstein at the window.)
  There is a busy motion in the heav'n, etc. [sic]
  The passage corresponds to Wallenstein, Act. V, Sc. i., lines 23-49 as published in 1800, with only one material variant:
  • 25 Fast sail the clouds 1800] Fast sweep MP

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  The punctuation differs greatly; the stage directions are omitted between lines 31 and 32; and the passage from line 38 to line 49 is telescoped to:
  • Countess. How?
  • Wallenstein—He is gone—is dust!
  • Countess.—Thou speak'st of Piccolomini, &c.
  The note on "sickle" in line 25 does not appear, but at the end of the excerpt the following paragraph takes up the point made in that note:
  If we recollect, that Wallenstein acted through the whole of his life, under the strongest influence of an astrological superstition, we shall not find it easy to admire this passage too highly. Some sapient Critics have charged the metaphor in the third and fourth lines of this quotation with an incongruity; but this must surely have been the consequence of their having neither seen the crescent moon in a cloudy, windy night, or a bright sickle at work in a corn field. A simile with greater similitude would scarcely be poetic.
  (A pleasant addition to Coleridge's dicta on moons and similes.)

• Oct. 9. MP. Epitaph to a Mercenary Miser. * Signed EΣTHΣE. (E. H. C., p. 967).
• Oct. 11. MP. Original Epigrams. Lot II. Signed, at the end, "EΣTHΣE." Eight epigrams (E. H. C., pp. 967-969) introduced thus: "The Three Epigrams in our paper of the 2d, shoulb [sic] have appeared in thi[s] Lot."
• Oct. 16. MP. The Language of Birds. * Signed "EΣTHΣE." E. H. C. (p. 386) overlooks "blackbird" in place of "Linnet" in line 2. This supports the hypothesis of George Whalley (Coleridge and Sara Hutchinson [1955], pp. 7-8) that the text in "Sara's Poets" is earlier than that in Mp. It has not only "Blackbird" for "Linnet" but "Chaffinch" for "Sparrow" and "green Earth" for "green fields." All these changes move in a characteristic direction.

1803

• *The Poetical Register and Repository of Fugitive Poetry, for 1802 (London, 1803), p. 372. epigram, from the german of lessing. 2 lines, unsigned. This is a variant of the 4-line Epigram, "Bob now resolves on marriage schemes to trample," which E. H. C. gives (p. 953) as "now first published from an MS." He traces it to Lessing's Sinnegedicht No. 93.
  You hesitate if you shall take a wife:
  Do as your father did—live single all your life.
  

1804

• *April 1. MM. "From off that delicate fair cheek." Headed "Cantabrigiana. CLXIV.—By a student of Jesus college." 14 lines. Discovered and reprinted by Earl Leslie Griggs (MLN, LXIX [1954], 27-31, also in Collected Letters, II, 1092) with this which immediately follows:
• *April 1. MM. Epigram.—By the same. "Dear Anne . . ."

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• April 16. C. The Exchange of Hearts. *Signed "S. T. C." (E. H. C., p. 391).
• *June 1. MM. Balsamum in vitro. Headed "CLXXIV.—By a Student of Jesus." Discovered and reprinted by Griggs (see April 1 above). (The three MM poems are among "Cantabrigiana" sent in by George Dyer.)

1806

• Sept. 12. C. *lines on a king-and-emperor-making emperor and king, altered from the 93d sonnet of fulk greville, the friend of sir philip sydney. * Signed "Civis." E. H. C. (p. 1116) garbles the title and the text:
  • 1 we] were C 9 makes] moves C
  • 12 will laugh] inly laughs C
  It is a curious fact that E. H. C. first published the text and signature of this poem perfectly in "Lord Brooke and S. T. Coleridge," The Athenaeum, April 25, 1903, p. 531.
• Sept. 26. MP. IMPROMPTU, the different sensations produced in france, by the death of two late public characters. "Our Nation's Foes lament on FOX's death." Unsigned. E. H. C. (p. 971) accepts the attribution of this quatrain to Coleridge on very shaky evidence. He forgets that Coleridge was connected not with the MP but with the Courier in 1806. He takes his text from Byron's Fugitive Pieces, capitalizing "let Sense and Truth unclue," though there are no capitals in the original, and then suggests that Coleridge "veiled his initials in the line, 'Let Sense and Truth unClue.'" The idiom "lament on" does not sound to me like Coleridge; I quite doubt the ascription. Incidentally the last line should read: "We give the palm where Justice points it due" (not "its due").
• Sept. 27. C. Farewell to Love. * Signed "C." E. H. C. (pp. 402-403) gives variants correctly except for spelling and punctuation. Again (see above) his Athenaeum article noted the signature; also signature "S. T. Coleridge" of reprint in Gentleman's Magazine, November 1815. E. H. C. also notes a reprint, apparently unsigned, in the Morning Herald, Oct. 11, 1806, which I have been unable to collate.

1811

• Aug. 30. C. The Virgin's Cradle-Hymn. Unsigned. Given correctly in E. H. C. (pp. 417-418) but for omission after "a few notes" of the words: "I send you the words, with an English Imitation:"

1812

• *May 4. C. [Love.] 3 stanzas quoted with the following note:
  Mr. Dawe has a large picture from Coleridge's Poem of 'Love,' and a spirited chalk drawing of Mr. Coleridge, together with a bust of great merit. The Poem was much admired by the late Mr. Fox, who called it in a letter the most pleasing Poem in the English language. It may be found in Walter Scott's Selection, published by Ballantyne [English Minstrelsy, 1810]. The Stanzas from which the Picture is taken are the following:

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  Quoted are lines 21-24, 33-40 (E. H. C. pp. 332-333). Text agrees with English Minstrelsy in line 22 ("sung" for "sang") but changes "suited" to "fitted" in line 23 and "The ruins" to "The ruin" in line 24. Coleridge, in the Courier office, probably supplied both text and note. And see next item.
• *Aug. 15. C. Genevieve. "by mr. coleridge." "All thoughts, all passions, all delights" (Love, E. H. C. pp. 330-335.) Not to be confused with the sonnet called Genevieve. Discovery of this Genevieve version of the poem usually called Love resolves the riddle of Thomas Moore's remark about the beauty but sensuality of "the 'Genevieve.'" (See Elisabeth Schneider, PMLA, LXX [1955], 425n.) The text is a transition between the texts of 1800 and 1828. It varies from the final E.H.C. text thus:
  • 13 leant] lean'd C
  • 15 lay] harp C
  • 22 sang] sung C
  • 23 suited] fitted C
  • 42 that] this C
  • 54 leaped] leapt C
  • 59 expiate] extirpate C
  • 74 An] And C
  • 78 virgin-shame] maiden shame C
  • 93 fears] tears C
  Mechanics vary, of course; "love" and "lady of the land" and "bride" are not capitalized, but "Knight" is (even in line 14). Stanzas 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 18, 19, 20 are enclosed by inverted commas, which the following footnote explains:
  *There is a beautiful Picture in the Royal Academy founded upon this Poem.—The Verses within inverted Commas are those which are embodied in the Picture.
• According to the catalogue of the 1812 Exhibition of the Royal Academy, George Dawe, Academician, of 22, Newman street, exhibited a "Portrait of S. T. Coleridge, Esq." among the Drawings, a "Bust of S. T. Coleridge, Esq." in the Model Academy, and a painting in the Inner Room, Number 220: "Genevieve; from a poem by T. Coleridge [sic] entitled 'Love.'" In the catalogue lines 33-40 are quoted, with the Lyrical Ballads version of line 34, "The low, the deep."

1813

• *Jan. 25. C. "Hear, sweet spirit!" Song of 14 lines (E. H. C., p. 849) in a review of Remorse informing us that the music for this lyric was "finely composed by Kelly" and "exquisitely sung by Mrs. Bland."

1818

• *Jan. 30. C. Fancy in Nubibus; or, The Poet in the Clouds. Signed "S. T. C." This first publication was first noted by Thomas M. Raysor (Coleridge's Shakespearean Criticism, II, 307). It varies from E. H. C. p. 435 only in mechanics.
• *Jan. 31. New Times. The Solitary Date Tree. "Imitation of one of the Minnesinger of the Thirteenth Century, introduced by Mr. Coleridge in his lecture on the literature of the Middle Ages." Noted by Thomas M.

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  Raysor, loc. cit., with mention of "variations from the later text." I have not collated.

1819

• November. Blackwood's. Fancy in Nubibus. *Signed "S. T. Coleridge." Variants as noted in E. H. C., p. 435. It is curious that the collected version reverts to the 1818 C text (above). Walter Graham (English Literary Periodicals, p. 289) notes that this poem also was printed as "for the first time" in Sharpe's London Magazine, 1829.