The Friend

‘June 7th, 1809.

DEAR Coleridge,—I congratulate you on the appearance of “The Friend.” Your first number promises well, and I have no doubt the succeeding numbers will fulfil the promise…’

Charles Lamb’s letter to Samuel Taylor Coleridge (begun above) references Coleridge’s publication  “The Friend”, which was to ultimately reach 28 volumes.  Coleridge mentioned Sir Walter Scott more than once in “The Friend”.  The following is found in the notes to “The Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge” (edited by James Dykes Campbell).

‘…in after years, Coleridge himself looked back on his Wallenstein with some complacency.  In a note to Essay XVI of The Friend (1818, i. 204 – it is suppressed in later editions), he thanks Sir Walter Scott for quoting it ‘with applause’.  Sir Walter certainly said ‘Coleridge had made Schiller’s “Wallenstein” far finer than he found it’ (Lockhart’s Life, iv 193).  In another passage in The Friend (1818, iii. 99) Coleridge again makes his acknowledgements to Sir Walter and other ‘eminent and even popular literati.’

Cristabel

‘In the following month (May 8, 1816) Mr. Coleridge offered Mr. Murray

his "Remorse" for publication, with a Preface. He also offered his poem

of "Christabel," still unfinished. For the latter Mr. Murray agreed to

give him seventy guineas, "until the other poems shall be completed,

when the copyright shall revert to the author," and also £20 for

permission to publish the poem entitled "Kubla Khan."…’

Coleridge’s “Christabel” has a controversial connection with Walter Scott, since Scott heard Coleridge recite an early version, in 1802.  As related on the Spencerians.cath.vt.edu website, Scott borrowed a line and something of the cadence from Coleridge’s poem in his "Lay of the Last Minstrel".  It took until 1816 for Coleridge to reach a conclusion and publish, thanks to publisher John Murray.  The text above comes from Samuel Smiles’ “A Publisher and his Friends”.

Pig Tale

 

In a letter Charles Lamb wrote to Samuel Taylor Coleridge on March 9, 1822, a pig provides a source of some amusement:

‘It gives me great satisfaction to hear that the pig turned out so well – they are interesting creatures at a certain age – what a pity such buds should blow out into the maturity of rank bacon!  You had some of the crackling – and brain sauce – did you remember to rub it with butter, and gently dredge it a little, just before the crisis?...Not that I sent the pig…’

Another porcine character amused the Scott party one day, and inspired Scott to turn to verse, as told in Richard Hutton’s “Sir Walter Scott”.  ‘The order of march had been all settled, and the sociable was under weigh, when the lady Anne broke from the line, screaming with laughter, and exclaimed, “Papa! Papa! I know could never think of going without your pet.”  Scott looked round, and I rather think there was a blush as well as a smile upon his face, when he perceived a little black pig frisking about his pony, and evidently a self-elected addition to the party of the day.  He tried to look stern, and cracked his whip at the creature, but was in a moment obliged to join in the general cheers.  Poor piggy soon found a strap round his neck, and was dragged into the background.  Scott, watching the retreat, repeated with mock pathos the first verse of an old pastoral song:

“What will I do gin my hoggie die?

My joy, my pride, my hoggie!

My only beast, I had nae mae,

And wow! But I was vogie!”…

Double Touch and Dreaming

June 11 (1826).—Bad dreams about poor Charlotte. Woke, thinking my old and inseparable friend beside me; and it was only when I was fully awake that I could persuade myself that she was dark, low, and distant, and that my bed was widowed. I believe the phenomena of dreaming are in a great measure occasioned by the double touch, which takes place when one hand is crossed in sleep upon another. Each gives and receives the impression of touch to and from the other, and this complicated sensation our sleeping fancy ascribes to the agency of another being, when it is in fact produced by our own limbs acting on each other. Well, here goes—incumbite remis.

From Scott's Journal.

Walter Scott seems to have a somewhat practical conception of the cause of "double touch", as related to dreaming.  As a comparison, Jennifer Ford in her "Coleridge on Dreaming: Romanticism, dreams, and the medical imagination" notes:

...Coleridge was not the first person to explore the possibilities of single and double sense phenomena, but his investigations are particularly coloured by his profound and often complex meditations on dreaming and dreams...Single and double touch seem to be inexorably connected for him with organs and the flesh, but most specifically with experiences of sexuality and the sexual organs.  It is not only touch which can be delineated into single and double manifestations: vision also has this capacity, and it is quite possible that both vision and touch are at work in the derangement of the circulation in nightmairs.

The first mention Coleridge makes of single and double sense awareness occurs in September (25th) 1798..."Dined at the Table-d'hot/Wine Soup with currants in it...That night sate up till 4 in the morning and versified 200 lines/went to bed, could not sleep - saw curious instance of single and double vision...

On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford, for Naples

The poem named in the title bar (displayed below) was written by Scott's contemporary William Wordsworth.  Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, (a year before Scott) at Cockermouth, in the Cumberland Lake District.  With Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Wordsworth jointly published "Lyrical Ballads", demarking the beginning of the Romantic Age in English literature.

Wordsworth and Scott met and became friends, around 1803.  That Wordsworth made an impression on Scott is evident from the more that 30 entries in his journal, either referencing his work or a social gathering.  Clearly, the feeling was mutual:

On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford, for Naples

A trouble, not of clouds, or weeping rain,
Nor of the setting sun's pathetic light
Engendered, hangs o'er Eildon's triple height:
Spirits of Power, assembled there, complain
For kindred Power departing from their sight;
While Tweed, best pleased in chanting a blithe strain,
Saddens his voice again, and yet again.
Lift up your hearts, ye Mourners! for the might
Of the whole world's good wishes with him goes;
Blessings and prayers in nobler retinue
Than sceptred king or laurelled conqueror knows,
Follow this wondrous Potentate. Be true,
Ye winds of ocean, and the midland sea,
Wafting your Charge to soft Parthenope!

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Coleridge was born on this day, in 1772. He was contemporary with Scott, and unwittingly played a major role in Scott's success. In the fall of 1802, Scott heard an unpublished version of Coleridge's "Christabel"; recited by John Stoddart. Scott published his "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" in 1805, well before Christabel was published. It did not take long before Coleridge's friends noticed similarities in the two works. In fact, some of the verses are nearly identical. For example, Scott used the refrain, "Jesu Maria, shield us well!" Coleridge's original was "Jesu Maria, shield her well!"

Coleridge was charged with plagiarism by an anonymous reviewer when his Christobel was published. The opposite was more true. It took until 1824 for Scott to confess to Lord Byron that he had been influenced by Coleridge's work. Finally in 1830, in his Poetical Works, Scott publicly admitted to borrowing from Coleridge.