The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume II Part 219

165-8.

[1113:2] The quotation is from an apology addressed 'Meliori suo', prefixed to the Second Book of the _Silvae_:--'nec nunc eam (_sc._ celeritatem) apud te jacto qui nosti: sed et caeteris indico, ne quis asperiore lima carmen examinet et a confuso scriptum, et dolenti datum c.u.m paene sint supervacua sint tarda solatia.' Coleridge has 'adapted'

the words of Statius to point his own moral.

[1113:3] _Multa cruciata lima_ [S. T. C.] [SILV. lib. iv. 7, 26.]

[1114:1] From Dr. Johnson's Preface to the _Dictionary of the English Language_. _Works_, 1806, ii. 59.

[1114:2] Akenside's _Pleasures of the Imagination_ (Second Version), Bk.

I.

F

Preface to the MS. of _Osorio_.

[Vide _ante_, p. 519.]

In this sketch of a tragedy, all is imperfect, and much obscure. Among other equally great defects (millstones round the slender neck of its merits) it presupposes a long story; and this long story, which yet is necessary to the complete understanding of the play, is not half told.

Albert had sent a letter informing his family that he should arrive about such a time by s.h.i.+p; he was s.h.i.+pwrecked; and wrote a private letter to Osorio, informing him alone of this accident, that he might not shock Maria. Osorio destroyed the letter, and sent a.s.sa.s.sins to meet Albert. . . Worse than all, the growth of Osorio's character is nowhere explained--and yet I had most clear and psychologically accurate ideas of the whole of it. . . A man, who from const.i.tutional calmness of appet.i.tes, is seduced into pride and the love of power, by these into misanthropism, or rather a contempt of mankind, and from thence, by the co-operation of envy, and a curiously modified love for a beautiful female (which is nowhere developed in the play), into a most atrocious guilt. A man who is in truth a weak man, yet always duping himself into the belief that he has a soul of iron. Such were some of my leading ideas.

In short the thing is but an embryo, and whilst it remains in ma.n.u.script, which it is destined to do, the critic would judge unjustly who should call it a miscarriage. It furnished me with a most important lesson, namely, that to have conceived strongly, does not always imply the power of successful execution. S. T. C.

[From _Early Years and Late Reflections_, by Clement Carlyon, M.D., 1856, i. 143-4.]

APPENDIX V

ADAPTATIONS

For a critical study of Coleridge's alterations in the text of the quotations from seventeenth-century poets, which were inserted in the _Biographia Literaria_ (2 vols., 1817), or were prefixed as mottoes to Chapters in the rifacimento of _The Friend_ (3 vols., 1818), see an article by J. D Campbell ent.i.tled 'Coleridge's Quotations,' which was published in the _Athenaeum_, August 20, 1892, and 'Adaptations', _P.

W._, 1893, pp. 471-4. Most of these textual alterations or garblings were noted by H. N. Coleridge in an edition of _The Friend_ published in 1837; Mr. Campbell was the first to collect and include the mottoes and quotations in a sub-section of Coleridge's Poetical Works. Three poems, (1) 'An Elegy Imitated from Akenside', (2) 'Farewell to Love ', (3) 'Mutual Pa.s.sion altered and modernized from an Old Poet', may be reckoned as 'Adaptations'. The first and third of these composite productions lay no claim to originality, whilst the second, 'Farewell to Love', which he published anonymously in _The Courier_, September 27, 1806, was not included by Coleridge in _Sibylline Leaves_, or in 1828, 1829, 1834. For (1) vide _ante_, p. 69, and _post_, _Read_:--p. 1123; for (2) _ante_, p. 402; and for (3) vide _post_, p. 1118.

1

FULKE GREVILLE. LORD BROOKE

G.o.d and the World they wors.h.i.+p still together, Draw not their lawes to him, but his to theirs, Untrue to both, so prosperous in neither, Amid their owne desires still raising feares; 'Unwise, as all distracted powers be; 5 Strangers to G.o.d, fooles in humanitie.'

Too good for great things, and too great for good; Their Princes serve their Priest, &c.

_A Treatie of Warres_, st. lxvi-vii.

MOTTO TO 'A LAY SERMON', 1817

G.o.d and the World _we_ wors.h.i.+p still together, Draw not _our_ Laws to Him, but _His_ to ours; Untrue to both, so prosperous in neither, _The imperfect Will brings forth but barren Flowers_!

Unwise as all distracted _Interests_ be, 5 Strangers to G.o.d, fools in Humanity: Too good for great things and too great for good, _While still_ 'I dare not' waits upon 'I wou'd'!

S. T. C.

The same quotation from Lord Brooke is used to ill.u.s.trate Aphorism xvii, 'Inconsistency,' _Aids to Reflection_, 1825, p. 93 (with the word 'both', subst.i.tuted for 'still' in line 1). Line 8 is from _Macbeth_, Act I, Sc. VII, 'Letting I dare not,' &c. The reference to Lord Brooke was first given in _N. and Q._, Series VIII, Vol. ii, p. 18.

2

[Vide _ante_, p. 403]

SONNET XCIV [Coelica]

The _Augurs_ we of all the world admir'd Flatter'd by Consulls, honour'd by the State, Because the event of all that was desir'd They seem'd to know, and keepe the books of Fate: Yet though abroad they thus did boast their wit, 5 Alone among themselves they scorned it.

Mankind that with his wit doth gild his heart Strong in his Pa.s.sions, but in Goodnesse weake, Making great vices o're the lesse an Art, Breeds wonder, and mouves Ignorance to speake, 10 Yet when his fame is to the highest borne, We know enough to laugh his praise to scorne.

Lines on a King and Emperor-Making-King altered from the 93rd Sonnet of Fulke Greville, the friend of Sir Philip Sydney.

ll. 1-4 The augurs, &c.

l. 5 _Abroad they thus did boast each other's_ wit.

l. 7 _Behold yon Corsican with dropsied heart_

l. 9 _He wonder breeds, makes_ ignorance to speak

l. 12 TALLEYRAND WILL _laugh his Creature's_ praise to scorn.

First published in the _Courier_, Sept. 12, 1806. See Editor's note, _Athenaeum_, April 25, 1903, p. 531.

3

OF HUMANE LEARNING

STANZA CLX

For onely that man understands indeed, And well remembers, which he well can doe, The Laws live, onely where the Law doth breed Obedience to the workes it bindes us to: And as the life of Wisedome hath exprest, If this ye know, then doe it, and be blest.

LORD BROOKE.

Motto to _Notes on a Barrister's Hints on Evangelical Preaching, 1810_, in _Lit. Rem._, 1839, iv. 320.

ll. 2, 3

_Who_ well remembers _what_ he well can do; The _Faith_ lives only where the _faith_ doth breed.