[70] [Issued in 1848.]
[71] [1795.]
[72] [1815.]
[73] The remarks in that article upon my Father’s remarks on poetic diction I have vainly tried to understand:—“a paste of rich and honeyed words, like the candied coat of the auricula, a glittering tissue of quaint conceits and sparkling metaphors, crusting over the rough stalk of homely thoughts; &c. such is the style of Pope and Gray; such very often is that of Shakespeare and Milton; and, notwithstanding Mr. Coleridge’s decision to the contrary, of Spenser’s Faëry Queen.” Homely thoughts clothed in a glittering tissue of poetic diction are but pseudo-poetry; and the powder on the auricula would be nothing, if the coat itself were not of velvet. Mr. C.’s decision respecting the Faëry Queen is equally misrepresented, for he maintains that Spenser’s language is distinct from that of prose, such language being required by his thoughts and in harmony with them. To say that he decided “the contrary,” as if he had denied poetic diction to Spenser, is not like the auricula’s coat, candid.—S. C.
[74] A Dissenting minister of Bristol [Cottle].]
[75] It is apprehended that this must be a mistake. I sent Mr. Coleridge five guineas for my Shakspeare ticket, and entertain no doubt but that some others did the same. But his remark may refer to some succeeding lectures, of which I have no distinct recollection [Cottle].
[76] A request of permission from Mr. Coleridge, to call on a few of his known friends, to see if we could not raise an annuity for him of one hundred a year, that he might pursue his literary objects without pecuniary distractions [Cottle].
[77] [Estlin.]
[78] A worthy medical Friend of Bristol, who first in that city, interested himself in the establishment of infant schools [Cottle].
[79] [I include the whole of this correspondence with Cottle because fragments only have been printed in biographies of Coleridge.]