COLERIDGE'S CHRISTABEL.
(Vol. vii., pp. 206. 292.)
It is difficult to believe that the third part of Christabel, published in Blackwood for June, 1819, vol. v. p. 286., could have either "perplexed the public," or "pleased Coleridge." In the first place, it was avowedly written by "Morgan Odoherty;" and in the next, it is too palpable a parody to have pleased the original author, who could hardly have been satisfied with the raving rhapsodies put into his mouth, or with the treatment of his innocent and virtuous heroine. This will readily be supposed when it is known that the Lady Geraldine is made out to have been a man in woman's attire, and that "the mark of Christabel's shame, the seal of her sorrow," is neither more nor less than the natural consequence of her having shared her chamber with such a visitor.
Is your correspondent A. B. R. correct in stating this parody to have been the composition of Dr. Maginn? In the biography of this brilliant writer in the twenty-third volume of the Dublin University Magazine, Dr. Moir, who had undoubtedly good opportunities of knowing, mentions that his first contribution to Blackwood was the Latin translation of "Chevy Chase," in the number for November 1819; if this be correct, many of the cleverest papers that appeared under the name of Odoherty, and which are all popularly attributed
to Maginn, must have been the work of other authors, a circumstance which I had been already led to suspect from the frequent local allusions to Scotland in general, and to Edinburgh in particular, which could have scarcely proceeded from the pen of a native of Cork, who had then never visited Scotland. Since Dr. Moir's own death, it appears that the Eve of St. Jerry, and the Rhyme of the Auncient Waggonere, have been claimed for him, as well as some other similar pieces; and I believe that the series of Boxiana, which also appeared under the name of the renowned ensign and adjutant, was written by Professor Wilson. Maginn's contributions were at first under various signatures, and some time elapsed before he made use of the nom de guerre of Morgan Odoherty, which eventually became so identified with him.
J. S. Warden.
Paternoster Row.