“In the course of the Work will be introduced a copious selection from the Lyrics of Casimir, and a new Translation of the Basia of Secundus.”
One ode, “Ad Lyram,” was printed in The Watchman, No. 11, March 9, 1796, p. 49.
[45] The Barbou Casimir, published at Paris in 1759.
[46] Compare the note to chapter xii. of the Biographia Literaria: “In the Biographical Sketch of my Literary Life I may be excused if I mention here that I had translated the eight Hymns of Synesius from the Greek into English Anacreontics before my fifteenth year.” The edition referred to may be that published at Basle in 1567. Interprete G. Cantero. Bentley’s Quarto Edition was probably the Quarto Edition of Horace, published in 1711.
[47] Charles Clagget, a musical composer and inventor of musical instruments, flourished towards the close of the eighteenth century. I have been unable to ascertain whether the songs in question were ever published. Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by George Grove, D. C. L., 1879, article “Clagget,” i. 359.
[48] The entry in the College Register of Jesus College is brief and to the point: “1794 Apr.: Coleridge admonitus est per magistrum in præsentiâ sociorum.”
[49] A letter to George Coleridge dated April 16, 1794, and signed J. Plampin, has been preserved. The pains and penalties to which Coleridge had subjected himself are stated in full, but the kindly nature of the writer is shown in the concluding sentence: “I am happy in adding that I thought your brother’s conduct on his return extremely proper; and I beg to assure you that it will give me much pleasure to see him take such an advantage of his experience as his own good sense will dictate.”
[50] A week later, July 22, in a letter addressed to H. Martin, of Jesus College, to whom, in the following September, he dedicated “The Fall of Robespierre,” Coleridge repeated almost verbatim large portions of this lettre de voyage. The incident of the sentiment and the Welsh clergyman takes a somewhat different shape, and both versions differ from the report of the same occurrence contained in Hucks’ account of the tour, which was published in the following year. Coleridge’s letters from foreign parts were written with a view to literary effect, and often with the half-formed intention of sending them to the “booksellers.” They are to be compared with “letters from our own correspondent,” and in respect of picturesque adventure, dramatic dialogue, and so forth, must be judged solely by a literary standard. Biographia Literaria, 1847, ii. 338-343; J. Hucks’ Tour in North Wales, 1795, p. 25.
[51] The lines are from “Happiness,” an early poem first published in 1834. See Poetical Works, p. 17. See, too, Editor’s Note, p. 564.
[52] Quoted from a poem by Bowles entitled, “Verses inscribed to His Grace the Duke of Leeds, and other Promoters of the Philanthropic Society.” Southey adopted the last two lines of the quotation as a motto for his “Botany Bay Eclogues.” Poetical Works of Milman, Bowles, etc., Paris, 1829, p. 117; Southey’s Poetical Works, 1837, ii. 71.