Address: Mr. Cottle Bookseller | High-Street | Bristol Single
Stamped: Bridgewater.
[Friday] Morning [6 January 1797]
My dear Cottle
We arrived safe — our house is set to rights — we are all, Maid, Wife, Bratling, & self, remarkably well — Mrs Coleridge likes Stowey, & loves Thomas Poole, & his Mother, who love her — a communication has been made from our Orchard into T. Poole's Garden, & from thence to Cruikshanks's, a friend of mine & a young married Man, whose Wife is very amiable; & she & Sara are already on the most cordial terms — from all this you will conclude, that we are happy. — I have not been unmindful of you, and my engagements — & but that Milton, the carrier, passed by on Wednesday Morning two hours earlier than his usual time, you would have received a parcel — Now I wish you to adopt for my sake as a poet & for Biggs's sake as a printer, the following plan — which was suggested by Thomas Poole — not to page the volume; but merely in the last page instead of Finis to put the number of pages_________ 256 pages. | thus. _____________
but instead thereof to put over the pages in the centre No. 1. No. 2. etc — as for instance the Visions of the Maid of Arc, notes & introduction, will comprise exactly four sheets, reckoning that there are actually in each page eighteen lines, which I find is the case in Southey's — (bye the bye what a divine poem his Musings on a Landscape after Gaspar Poussin is! — I love it almost better than the Hymn to the Penates.) — Now [ov]er every page of these 64 pages (No. 1.) — then Chatterton (No. 2) — etc — This will answer three ends — it will be new- — t will be uniform / whereas sticking the Titles over the pages, some very long titles, others short, others without any, is hateful to the eye — & lastly, it will give me that opportunity which I so much wish, of sending my Visions of the Maid of Arc & my correcting of the Joan of Arc, to Wordsworth, who lives not above 20 [40] miles from me & to Lamb, whose taste & judgment I see reason to think more correct & philosophical than my own, which yet I place pretty high. — Of my last Ode I have received criticisms from these Quarters, which if I had seen before it's publication would have brought my Ode much nearer to perfection. — This therefore is my wish & intention — but at all events you may depend on receiving from Milton on Thursday next the Prefaces & six hundred lines of the first poem -it will consist of eight hundred twenty more or less — but the Notes will be numerous. — This then must be the order of the Volume.
Title page, Dedicatory Sonnet, first half-sheet Table of Contents Prefaces (for I second half-sheet. make two) Then No. 1. The Progress of Liberty, or the Visions of the Maid of Orleans. (Four sheets. — No. 2. Monody on Chatterton. No. 8 Songs of the Pixies No. 4. The Rose. (page 80. No. 5. The Kiss (page 82. No. 6 To a young Ass No. 7 Domestic Peace (p. 77. No. 8 The Sigh No. 9 Epitaph on an Infant. (No. 9. over the page; but let number 10. begin in the same page — No. 10. The Man of Ross. No. 11 The Spring in a Village — No. 12. Edmund No. 13 Lines with a Poem on the French Revolution. No. 14. Lines with an unfinished Poem. No. 15. The Sonnets — / which there will be 10 I will send you 6 already printed — 4 new.——— No. 16. Shurton Bars. new. No. 17. My pensive Sara! thy soft cheek reclin'd No. 18. Low was our pretty Cot. No. 19 The flower in February. Sweet Flowerl that peeping &c — No. 20 The Hour, when we shall meet again. No. 21 The Poem to Charles Lloyd No. 22 Ode on the Departing Year. No. 28. Religious Musings. Then — No. 24. No. 25. No. 26.
Charles Lamb's Poems Divided into three numbers -Sonnets — Fragments — Ode —
Then — my Juvenile pieces — unnumbered, to shew how little I value them — with a short Advertisement.
The notes will be printed at the bottom of the page-& I write exactly the same number of words in a line as are printed in the lines of Southey's notes — so that I know, I am accurate in giving five sheets to Title, Preface, & Visions of the Maid of Orleans. -You may therefore On Monday Morning send my Chatterton & Songs of the Pixies to the Press — In the Chatterton make the following alterations — Page 1st inclose the two last lines in a parenthesis/. Page. 2nd. omit bosom-startling. Yet oft ('tis Nature's call). Page 8rd. Line the 3rd — let line be Line — i.e. I into L. Page 4th. line the 3rd omit, aye, as — Light-hearted Youth! he hastes along, And meditates the future Song, How dauntless Ælla fray'd the Dacyan Foes: Seel as floating &c. And instead of He -line 4th. & See instead of And — line 6th — then omit the eight last lines of this Page. / — Page 5th instead of Clad in Nature's &c put Yes! in Nature's rich array —
His eyes dance rapture, & his bosom glows! Yes! in Nature's rich array &c
Page 5th line 4th Most fair instead of How fair — & in the last line of the Page — light-flushing instead of that lighten'd —
land Joy's wild gleams light-flushing o'er thy face.
Page 6. line 7th omit death-cold. Page 7th line 2nd omit thrilling -& at the end of the Monody put — October, 1794. Songs of the Pixies. Page 16. / After the words 'on which occasion,' [a]dd 'and at which time,' / page 18. Streaks the East [w]ith purple Light — instead of Purples the East with streaky Light. [I]n the 12th line scented instead of lily-scented. Page 20. Solemn Thought instead of solemn thought — i.e. capitals in the Initial letters. Page 21. Wild instead of wildly-bow'rd. Page 22. Omit the comma after [w]aves & alter froths into froth. Page 24. Obeisance instead of obedience. Page 25th line 4th Th' impurpling instead of The purpling — [A]t the end — put — August, 1798. — The Rose (p. 80.) omit the word 'the' before dew —. — Inebriate with dew. — The Kiss (p. 82) needs [n]o alteration. In the Ass. p. 92. line 9th. 'thy Master' instead of 'her Master' [a]nd line eleventh alter to For much I fear me, that He lives, like thee. Line 18th alter to 'How askingly it's footsteps hither bend['] — P. 98. last line alter [to] The aching of pale FASHION'S vacant breast! — & then put December, 1794. Domestic Peace & the Sigh need no alteration — & these will last Biggs till Thursday Morning — when if you will send down your young man to the Bear Inn, Red Cliff Street, to ask for Milton, the Stowey Carrier, you will find a parcel containing the book of my poems interleaved with the alterations — & likewise the Prefaces & Poem which I shall send to you for your criticisms. -Let me hear from you, my friend! — & tell me about my Ode-it is very strange that Parsons has not advertised it. — Is Southey gone to London yet? I think that the Poems from p. 7 to 28. 49 to 52. 67 to 74. 83 to 98. 121 to 128. 135 to 144. 163 to 182 — would have appeared to more advantage in the volume of Lovell & Southey -that they do not rise much above mediocrity — that the Poems from 29 to 48. from 55 to 64. from 77 to 82. 99 to 116 — 129 to 184. 145 to 158 — 187 to 198 — are worthy the author of Joan of Arca — & that from 154 to 158 — 208 to 220 deserve to have been [pu]blished after the Joan of Arc, as proofs of progressive genius. —
God bless you & S. T. C.
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