172. To Joseph Cottle Address: Mr. Cottle Bookseller | High-Street | Bristol Single MS. Harvard College Lib. Pub. with omis. and as three separate letters, Early Ree. i. 188, 219, and 229. The postscript which Cottle added ( ibid. i. 189 ) will be found in vol. vi, Appendix B, Letter 148. Stamped: Bridgewater. [Friday] Morning [ 6 January 1797] 2 My dear Cottle We arrived safe -- our house is set to rights -- we are all, Maid, Wife, Bratling, & self, remarkably well -- Mrs Coleridge likes ____________________ 1 'The "miserable cottage" did not possess an oven.' Thomas Poole, i. 211 n. 2 This letter was written a few days after Coleridge's arrival at Nether -296- 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 1 -- 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, 2 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. 3 -- Of my last Ode I have received criticisms from these Quarters, 4 which ____________________ Stowey. Since Coleridge speaks of having missed Milton the carrier on Wednesday and tells Cottle the Ode on the Departing Year as published in pamphlet form on 31 Dec. 1796 would have been better if he had had the advantage of Lamb's criticism, sent from London on 2 Jan. 1797, Friday, 6 Jan. 1797, seems a safe conjecture. 1 The 1797 edition Coleridge's Poems did not quite follow these suggestions. The pages and not the poems are numbered. See also Letter 180. 2 Cottle omits the preceding part of this sentence, substituting the introductory clause, 'If you delay the press'. Early Rec. i. 229. 3 Ultimately Lamb's unfavourable opinion of The Destiny of Nations was in part responsible for Coleridge's abandonment of the poem for the 1797 volume. See Letter 178. 4 This is further evidence that Wordsworth and Coleridge were in correspondence. See Letter 127. -297- 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 1 & 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, 2 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. 3 (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 -- ____________________ 1 In the 1797 volume Coleridge reprinted with alterations the Preface of 1796 and also added a second Preface. 2 In 1797 a blank verse Dedication to the Reverend George Coleridge replaced the proposed 'Dedicatory Sonnet'. 3 This poem was omitted in 1797, the Ode on the Departing Year being the first poem after the dedication. -298- 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 1 -- 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. 2 Page 16. / After the words 'on which occasion,' [a]dd 'and at which time,' / page 18. Streaks the East [w]ith purple Light -- ____________________ 1 All of the suggested alterations in the Monody on the Death of Chatterton were followed in 1797, with the exception of lines 41 and 54. Coleridge directed that line 41 read, 'Yes I in Nature's rich array', but it was printed, 'Yes I Clad in Nature's rich array'. In line 54 light-flashing appeared instead of light-flushing. 2 All of the suggested changes in the Songs of the Pixies were followed in 1797, except: froths not altered to froth (line 72) ; The purpling not altered to Th' impurpling (line 107); and August, 1793 was not added at the end of the poem. -299- 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. 1 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 2 -- 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 3 -- & that from 154 to 158 -- 208 to 220 deserve to have been [pu]blished after the Joan of Arc, as proofs of progressive genius. 4 -- God bless you & S. T. C. ____________________ 1 The changes requested for The Rose, &c., were all made in the Poems of 1797. 2 Coleridge refers to the following poems in Southey 1797 volume: The Triumph of Woman; Ode written on the 1st. of January; two poems entities Birth-Day Ode; Humphrey and William; John, Samuel, and Richard; Sappito; Ode written on the 1st. Decr.; To Contemplation; To Horror; Mary; and Donica. 3 Coleridge refers to the following poems: Poems on the Slave Trade, six sonnets; To the Genius of Africa; To my own Miniature Picture; The Pauper's Funeral; Inscriptions (1-8); Elinor; Frederic; ten sonnets; Written on a Sunday Morning; Ode on the Death of a Favorite Spaniel; The Soldier's Wife; The Widow; The Chapel Bell; The Race of Banquo; and Rudiger. 4 Coleridge refers to Musings on a Landscape of Gaspar Poussin and Hymn to the Penates. -300-