COLERIDGE'S CHRISTABEL.
(Vol. vii., pp. 206. 292; Vol. viii., pp. 11. 111.)
Mr. J. S. Warden might well express astonishment at the rash and groundless statement in "Blackwood" (Dec. 1839), that the third part of Christabel which Dr. Maginn sent to that magazine in 1820 "perplexed the public, and pleased even Coleridge." How far the "discerning public" were imposed upon I know not; the following extract will show how far the poet-philosopher was "pleased" with the parody.
"If I should finish 'Christabel,' I shall certainly extend it, and give new characters, and a greater number of incidents. This the 'reading public' require, and this is the reason that Sir Walter Scott's poems, though so loosely written, are pleasing, and interest us by their picturesqueness. If a genial recurrence of the ray divine should occur for a few weeks, I shall certainly attempt it. I had the whole of the two cantos in my mind before I began it; certainly the first canto is more perfect, has more of the true wild weird spirit than the last. I laughed heartily at the continuation in 'Blackwood,' which I have been told is by Maginn. It is in appearance, and in appearance only, a good imitation. I do not doubt but that it gave more pleasure, and to a greater number, than a continuation by myself in the spirit of the two first (sic) cantos (qu. would give)."—Letters, &c., Moxon, 1836, vol. i. pp. 94-5.
C. Mansfield Ingleby.
Birmingham.