266 1808. Coleridge. CHAP. XII. He spoke at length on the connection of poetry with moral principles as well as with a knowledge of the principles of human nature. He said he could not respect the mother who could read without emotion his poem Coleridge's "Once in a lonely hamlet I sojourn'd." He said he wrote his "Beggars" to exhibit the power of physical beauty and health and vigour in childhood, even in a state of moral depravity. He desired popularity for his "Two voices are there, one is of the sea," as a test of elevation and moral purity. I have a distinct recollection of reading in the Monthly Review a notice of the first volume of Coleridge's poems before I went abroad in 1800, and of the delight the extracts gave me; and my friend Mrs. Clarkson having become intimate with him, he was an object of interest with me on my return from Germany in 1805. And when he delivered lectures in the year 1808, she wished me to interest myself in them. I needed, however, no persuasion. It was out of my power to be a regular attendant, but I wrote to her two letters, which have been printed, for want of fuller materials, in the "Notes and Lectures on Shakespeare," edited by Mrs. Henry Coleridge.* At the time of my attending these lectures I had no personal acquaintance with Coleridge. I have a letter from him, written in May, 1808, sending me an order for admission. He says, "Nothing but endless interruptions, and the necessity of dining out far oftener Pickering, 1849. 1808. Lectures. than is either good for me, or pleasant to me, joined CHAP. XII. with reluctance to move (partly from exhaustion by company I cannot keep out, for one cannot, dare not always Coleridge's be 'not at home,' or 'very particularly engaged,'—and the last very often will not serve my turn) these, added to my bread and cheese employments, + my lectures, which are-bread and cheese, i.e. a very losing bargain in a pecuniary view, have prevented me day after day from returning your kind call. I will as soon as I can. In the meantime I have left your name with the old woman and the attendants in the office, as one to whom I am always at home' when I am at home. For Wordsworth has taught me to desire your acquaintance, and to esteem you; and need I add that any one so much. regarded by my friend Mrs. Clarkson can never be indifferent, &c. &c., to S. T. Coleridge."* * I find among my papers two pages of notes of Coleridge's lecture, Feb. 5th, 1808 : Feb. 5th, 1808. Lecture 2nd on Poetry (Shakespeare), &c. Detached Minutes. The Grecian Mythology exhibits the symbols of the powers of nature and Hero-worship blended together. Jupiter both a King of Crete and the personified Sky. Bacchus expressed the organic energies of the Universe which work by passion-a joy without consciousness; while Minerva, &c., imported the preordaining intellect. Bacchus expressed the physical origin of heroic character, a felicity beyond prudence. In the devotional hymns to Bacchus the germ of the first Tragedy. Men like to imagine themselves to be the characters they treat of—hence dramatic representations. The exhibition of action separated from the devotional feeling. The Dialogue became distinct from the Chorus. The Greek tragedies were the Biblical instruction for the people. Comedy arose from the natural sense of ridicule which expresses itself naturally in mimickry. Mr. Coleridge, in Italy, heard a quack in the street, who was accosted by his servant-boy smartly; a dialogue ensued which pleased the mob; the next day 268 CHAP. XII. - 1808. Sir Charles Sir C. Bunbury. In a visit to Bury, my friend Hare Naylor being a guest at the house of Sir Charles Bunbury, my brother and I were invited to dinner by this beau-ideal of an English sportsman, who was also well known as a Whig politician and a man of honour. A few months afterwards I met him in London, when I was walking with Lamb. Sir Charles shook hands with me, and asked where my regiment was. I evaded the question. Lamb the quack, having perceived the good effect of an adjunct, hired a boy to talk with him. In this way a play might have originated. The modern Drama, like the ancient, originated in religion. The priests exhibited the miracles and splendid scenes of religion. Tragi-Comedy arose from the necessity of amusing and instructing at the same time. The entire ignorance of the ancient Drama occasioned the reproduction of it on the restoration of literature. Harlequin and the Clown are the legitimate descendants from the Vice and Devil of the ancient Comedy. In the early ages, very ludicrous images were mixed with the most serious ideas, not without a separate attention being paid to the solemn truths; the people had no sense of impiety; they enjoyed the comic scenes, and were yet edified by the instruction of the serious parts. Mr. Coleridge met with an ancient MS. at Helmstädt, in which God was represented visiting Noah's family. The descendants of Cain did not pull off their hats to the great visitor, and received boxes of the ear for their rudeness; while the progeny of Abel answered their catechism well. The Devil prompted the bad children to repeat the Lord's Prayer backwards. The Christian polytheism withdrew the mind from attending to the whisperings of conscience; yet Christianity in its worst state was not separated from humanity (except where zeal for Dogmata interfered). Mahometanism is an anomalous corruption of Christianity. In the production of the English Drama, the popular and the learned writers by their opposite tendencies contributed to rectify each other. The learned would have reduced Tragedy to oratorical declamation, while the vulgar wanted a direct appeal to their feelings. The many feel what is beautiful, but they also deem a great deal to be beautiful which is not in fact so: they cannot distinguish the counterfeit from the genuine. The vulgar love the Bible and also Hervey's "Meditations." The essence of poetry universality. The character of Hamlet, &c., affects all men; addresses to personal feeling; the sympathy arising from a reference to individual sensibility spurious. [N.B. This applies to Kotzebue.] Times Correspondent. 269 1808. was all astonishment-“I had no idea that you knew CHAP. XII. Sheridan."-" Nor do I. That is Sir Charles Bunbury." -"That's impossible. I have known him to be Sheridan all my life. That shall be Sheridan. You thief! you have stolen my Sheridan!" That I did not quite neglect my German studies is shown by my having translated for the Monthly Repository Lessing's "Education of the Race."* Though I had not the remotest intention now of studying the Law, yet during this spring I luckily entered myself a member of the Middle Temple; and I at the same time exercised myself in business speaking by attending at the Surrey Institution. German studies. Entering the Middle Temple. Spain as correspondent of the Times. During some weeks my mind was kept in a state of Journey to agitation in my editorial capacity. The Spanish revolution had broken out, and as soon as it was likely to acquire so much consistency as to become a national concern, the Times, of course, must have its correspondent in Spain; and it was said, who so fit to write from the shores of the Bay of Biscay as he who had successfully written from the banks of the Elbe? I did not feel at liberty to reject the proposal of Mr. Walter that I should go, but I accepted the offer reluctantly. I had not the qualifications to be desired, but then I had experience. I had some advantage also in the friendship of Amyot, who gave me letters which were eventually of service; and I was zealous in the cause of Spanish independence. I left London by the Falmouth mail on the night of July 19th, reached Falmouth on the 21st, and on the Voyage. 270 - 1808. Correspondent CHAP. XII. 23rd embarked in a lugger belonging to Governmentthe Black Joke, Captain Alt. The voyage was very rough, and, as I afterwards learnt, even dangerous. We were for some time on a lee shore, and obliged to sail with more than half the vessel under water; a slight change in the wind would have overset us; but of all this I was happily ignorant. Corunna. State of political feeling in Spain. I landed at Corunna on the evening of Sunday, July 31st, and was at once busily employed. I found the town in a state of great disorder; but the excitement was a joyous one, the news having just arrived of the surrender of a French army in the south under Marshal Dupont. This little town, lying in an out-of-the-way corner of Spain, was at this period of importance, because, being the nearest to England, it became the point of communication between the Spanish and English Governments. The state of enthusiastic feeling in Galicia, as well as in every other province of Spain where the French were not, rendered the English objects of universal interest. I took with me several letters of introduction, both to merchants and to men in office, but they were hardly necessary. As soon as I could make myself intelligible in bad Spanish, and even before, with those who understood a little French, I was acceptable everywhere, and I at once felt that I should be in no want of society. I put myself in immediate connection with the editor of the miserable little daily newspaper, and from him I obtained Madrid papers and pamphlets. There were also a number of Englishmen in the place-some engaged in commerce, others attracted by curiosity. And there was already in the |