[135] The Rev. William Money, a descendant of John Kyrle, the “Man of Ross,” eulogised alike by Pope and Coleridge, was at this time in possession of the family seat of Whetham, a few miles distant from Calne, in Wiltshire. Coleridge was often a guest at his house.
[136] A controversial work on the inspiration of Scripture. A thin thread of narrative runs through the dissertation. It was the work of the Rev. J. W. Cunningham, Vicar of Harrow, and was published in 1813.
[137] The Hon. and Rev. T. A. Methuen, Rector of All Cannings, was the son of Paul Methuen, Esq., M. P., afterward Lord Methuen of Corsham House. He contributed some reminiscences of Coleridge at this period to the Christian Observer of 1845. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a Narrative, by J. Dykes Campbell, 1894, p. 208.
[138] The annual payments for board and lodging, which were made at first, for some time before Coleridge’s death fell into abeyance. The approximate amount of the debt so incurred, and the circumstances under which it began to accumulate, are alike unknown to me. The fact that such a debt existed was, I believe, a secret jealously guarded by his generous hosts, but as, with the best intentions, statements have been made to the effect that there was no pecuniary obligation on Coleridge’s part, it is right that the truth should be known. On the other hand, it is only fair to Coleridge’s memory to put it on record that this debt of honour was a sore trouble to him, and that he met it as best he could. We know, for instance, on his own authority, that the profits of the three volume edition of his poems, published in 1828, were made over to Mr. Gillman.
[139] Zapolya: A Christmas Tale, in two Parts, was published by Rest Fenner late in 1817. A year before, after the first part had been rejected by the Drury Lane Committee, Coleridge arranged with Murray to publish both parts as a poem, and received an advance of £50 on the MS. He had, it seems, applied to Murray to be released from this engagement, and on the strength of an ambiguous reply, offered the work to the publishers of Sybilline Leaves. From letters to Murray, dated March 26 and March 29, 1817, it is evident that the £50 advanced on A Christmas Tale was repaid. In acknowledging the receipt of the sum, Murray seems to have generously omitted all mention of a similar advance on “a play then in composition.” In his letter of March 29, Coleridge speaks of this second debt, which does not appear to have been paid. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a Narrative, by J. Dykes Campbell, p. 223; Memoirs of John Murray, i. 301-306.
[140] Murray had offered Coleridge two hundred guineas for “a small volume of specimens of Rabbinical Wisdom,” but owing to pressure of work the project was abandoned. “Specimens of Rabbinical Wisdom selected from the Mishna” had already appeared in the original issue of The Friend (Nos. x., xi.), and these, with the assistance of his friend Hyman Hurwitz, Master of the Hebrew Academy at Highgate, he intended to supplement and expand into a volume. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a Narrative, by J. Dykes Campbell, p. 224 and note.
[141] Apart from internal evidence, there is nothing to prove that this article, a review of “Christabel,” which appeared in the Edinburgh Review, December, 1816, was written by Hazlitt. It led, however, to the insertion of a footnote in the first volume of the Biographia Literaria, in which Coleridge accused Jeffrey of personal and ungenerous animosity against himself, and reminded him of hospitality shown to him at Keswick, and of the complacent and flattering language which he had employed on that occasion. Not content with commissioning Hazlitt to review the book, Jeffrey appended a long footnote signed with his initials, in which he indignantly repudiates the charge of personal animus, and makes bitter fun of Coleridge’s susceptibility to flattery, and of his boasted hospitality. Southey had offered him a cup of coffee, and Coleridge had dined with him at the inn. Voila tout. Both footnotes are good reading. Biographia Literaria, ed. 1817, i. 52 note; Edinburgh Review, December, 1817.
[142] Two letters from Tieck to Coleridge have been preserved, a very long one, dated February 20, 1818, in which he discusses a scheme for bringing out his works in England, and asks Coleridge if he has succeeded in finding a publisher for him, and the following note, written sixteen years later, to introduce the German painter, Herr von Vogelstein. I am indebted to my cousin, Miss Edith Coleridge, for a translation of both letters.
Dresden, April 30, 1834.
I hope that my dear and honoured friend Coleridge still remembers me. To me those delightful hours at Highgate remain unforgettable. I have seen your friend Robinson, once here in Dresden, but you—At that time I believed that I should come again to England—and in such hopes we grow old and wear away.