During the summer of 2025, as part of my Stephen Copley Research Award, I was able to further investigate the friendship between Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Hebrew scholar Hyman Hurwitz.
Arguably, many notable friendships were formed during the Romantic period, with Coleridge closely linked to Wordsworth, Southey, Lamb, and others throughout his lifetime. During my PhD, which I submitted in 2024, I became intrigued by Coleridge and Hurwitz as friends, collaborators, and mentors, yet I was surprised by how little Hurwitz features in biographies on Coleridge. To me, there was something fascinating and unique about their situation, and the more I started to dig, the more things I began to find.
The funding from the BARS Stephen Copley Research Award allowed me to take several research trips to archives, libraries, and locations that shed more light on the Coleridge-Hurwitz friendship. They notably collaborated on two poetic projects: Coleridge translated Hurwitz’s Hebrew verse into English, creating Israel’s Lament (1817) and The Tears of a Grateful People (1820). These works commemorated the deaths of Princess Charlotte of Wales and King George III, respectively. Coleridge also relied on Hurwitz’s expertise in Hebrew and religion, which deepened his own understanding of the Bible and Christianity. They stayed in regular contact and frequently cited each other in their other writing projects, including Hurwitz’s Hebrew Tales (1826), which contained three tales translated by Coleridge.
Their friendship, therefore, was not a footnote in history but one that yielded so many connections, ideas, and activities. My research project aimed to uncover more and create a fuller picture of Coleridge and Hurwitz. I sought to gather and view as much as possible on Hurwitz and bring him further into the conversation about Romanticism, as well as positioning him as a scholar and poet in his own right.
My first trip was to the British Library in London, where I saw many original texts by Coleridge and Hurwitz up close. Seeing a reprint of their collaborative project, Israel’s Lament and The Tears of a Grateful People, printed on silk pages, showed the care and attention given to this particular volume. Coleridge’s name was listed only on the title page of Israel’s Lament, whereas the English translation of The Tears of a Grateful People was attributed to simply a “friend” of Hurwitz. Despite the omission of his name, a copy of the poem from the Ashley collection held at the BL has been signed by Coleridge on the endpaper and on the title page. Subsequent letters show that Coleridge tried to use his connections to get a copy of The Tears of a Grateful People sent to George IV.
A week later, I headed over to West London to the National Archives at Kew, which provided many items that helped to understand Hurwitz’s life following his move to Great Britain from Poland. This included a petition of denization submitted to King George III in 1816, which would have granted Hurwitz additional rights as a foreign citizen living in Britain. The petition was signed by a number of individuals who vouched for Hurwitz’s character, most were residents of Highgate where he had lived for a number of years, including Dr James Gillman, with whom Coleridge lived with from 1816. Although the application was ultimately rejected, it did help to provide solid evidence as to when Hurwitz arrived in Great Britain, which contradicted Hurwitz’s listing on the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. I was also able to view a newspaper announcement of his death, his last will and testament, and records pertaining to the sale of his library following his death.
My final London summer research location took me to the University College London Special Collections, where I had access to a number of documents dating from the first decade of the University’s existence. Here I viewed letters written by Hurwitz when he was among the first members of the teaching staff in the late 1820s, following his appointment as Professor of Hebrew Studies. The thrill of being able to see Hurwitz’s handwriting, which was thankfully very easy to read, and to see his signature was such an important moment for me. The correspondence helped to understand Hurwitz’s later life as a teacher and scholar, a role for which Coleridge had written a letter of recommendation for Hurwitz. It was wonderful to see records of the names of students who were registered for the Hebrew studies classes, with the low numbers prompting Hurwitz to later write to the University’s leaders for permission for extended leave until the figures improved to prevent him paying for unnecessary travel.
The funding also allowed me to spend a few days in Cambridge to access a range of texts in the University Library and write up the vast number of notes that I had gathered. I was able to cross-reference the Collected Letters of Coleridge edited by Earl Leslie Griggs with key dates and events, thereby creating a clear timeline that helped to map out the interactions and connections between Coleridge and Hurwitz. Although I stayed at Christ’s College (attended by John Milton and Charles Darwin), there was a wonderful connection in being able to walk the streets that would have been trodden by Coleridge and Wordsworth when they had attended Cambridge. I was able to view further editions of Coleridge and Hurwitz’s collaborative projects, along with maps and reference books that documented the history of Highgate. Through this, I was, at long last, able to pinpoint exactly where Hurwitz’s Jewish School had been located and map out in better detail the time he had shared in Highgate with Coleridge.
This summer of research has proven that there is a lot more to say about Coleridge and Hurwitz. Building on these discoveries, I am now working to develop this project into a number of possible outcomes, including journal articles and a conference paper. I hope that by sharing my findings, I can help bring greater recognition to the significance of Coleridge and Hurwitz’s friendship, and, more importantly, raise the profile of Hurwitz.
I am grateful for the support of BARS through the Stephen Copley Research Award, which has helped to properly kick-start this research idea. As an independent researcher, such schemes really do enable our scholarly work and are such a lifeline to help provide the resources and backing to make it happen. I am also thankful for the kindness and support received from the staff at UCL, the British Library, the National Archives at Kew, and Cambridge University Library, who made navigating, searching, and registering with a number of new systems and places so much easier.
Jordan Welsh is an ECR who submitted his PhD at the University of Essex in 2024, with his thesis focusing on Romantic and Victorian literature, environments, and religion. He currently works outside of academia whilst continuing with research. His research interests include the literature and culture of the Romantic and Victorian eras, literature and religion, eco-criticism, and crime fiction since the Victorian age. He has contributed pieces to The Coleridge Bulletin and the British Association for Victorian Studies Newsletter and is currently working on a number of research projects in preparation for publication.