{"id":883,"date":"2015-10-15T18:06:36","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T18:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=883"},"modified":"2015-10-17T14:07:54","modified_gmt":"2015-10-17T14:07:54","slug":"on-this-day-in-1815-samuel-taylor-coleridges-christabel-and-his-letters-to-lord-byron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=883","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1815: Samuel Taylor Coleridge\u2019s \u2018Christabel\u2019 and his letters to Lord Byron"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"S<\/a>

S T Coleridge by George Dawe c. 1811-1812 (Wordsworth Trust)<\/p><\/div>\n

Exactly two hundred years ago today, on the 15th<\/sup> October 1815, Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote to one of his sincere admirers. Coleridge was approaching his 43rd<\/sup> birthday, and had been through many personal trials and tribulations since the publication of Lyrical Ballads <\/em>in 1798. The admirer was Lord Byron, who, following the success of Childe Harold\u2019s Pilgrimage<\/em> and his more recently published Eastern Tales (such as The Giaour <\/em>and The Corsair<\/em>) was securing his status as one of the eminent and respected poetic figures of his day.<\/p>\n

This letter sparked the interchange that led to Byron expressing his admiration for Coleridge\u2019s other-worldly and mysterious poem Christabel<\/em>. With Byron\u2019s support, the poem was eventually published in 1816. On the 15th<\/sup> October 1815 Coleridge writes of his dramatic compositions and his future \u2018intentions of presenting three old plays adapted to the present stage\u2019. This letter details his affection for Richard II <\/em>(\u2018perhaps the most admirable of Shakespear\u2019s historical plays\u2019). He suggests that in his new rewritten version of the drama he will introduce a \u2018new female character\u2019, one of the faults of the original narrative being \u2018the entire absence of female interest\u2019. STC\u2019s letter (which is characteristically rambling and yet charming) then goes on to muse on actors and actresses of the day, and he signs off: \u2018Your Lordship\u2019s obliged servant S. T. Coleridge\u2019.<\/p>\n

Byron\u2019s reply on the 18th<\/sup> October instigates a discussion on Christabel<\/em>, as yet unpublished, and still unfinished:<\/p>\n

Last spring I saw Wr. Scott. He repeated to me a considerable portion of an unpublished poem of yours \u2013 the wildest and finest I ever heard in that kind of composition. The title he did not mention, but I think the heroine\u2019s name was Geraldine. At all events, the \u2018toothless mastiff bitch\u2019 and the \u2018witch Lady\u2019, the description of the hall, the lamp suspended from the image, and more particularly of the girl herself as she went forth in the evening \u2013 all took a hold on my imagination which I never shall wish to shake off. I mention this, not for the sake of boring you with compliments, but as a prelude to the hope that this poem is or is to be in the volumes you are now about to publish. I do not know that even \u2018Love\u2019 or the \u2018Antient Mariner\u2019 [sic] are so impressive \u2013 and to me there are few things in our tongue beyond these two productions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Coleridge replies:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My Lord<\/p>\n

The Christabel, which you have mentioned in so obliging a manner, was composed by me in the [year] 1797 \u2013 I should say, that the plan of the whole poem was formed and the first Book and half of the second were finished \u2013 and it was not till after my return from Germany in the year 1800 that I resumed it \u2013 and finished the second and a part of the third Book.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He then goes on to explain that \u2018A Lady is now transcribing the Christabel\u2019. The editor of Coleridge\u2019s letters Earl Leslie Griggs has identified the lady as \u2018probably Mrs. Morgan or Charlotte Brent\u2019. However, the copy of Christabel<\/em> sent to Byron was the one made by Sara Hutchinson, for whom Coleridge had expressed an unrequited love that caused pain and suffering for the poet and those close to him. Sara was the sister of Mary Hutchinson (Wordsworth\u2019s wife). The idea of Coleridge sending off the transcript of the poem in her hand strikes me as a poignant recollection of Coleridge\u2019s difficult personal life, at a time when Byron\u2019s serious personal difficulties – including debt, scandal and a broken marriage – were just beginning. Coleridge goes on to mention Wordsworth (in 1808 Wordsworth had written a preface to the \u2018White Doe\u2019 acknowledging his indebtedness to Christabel<\/em>) and muse on poetical form in this second letter.<\/p>\n

Byron had not only praised Christabel<\/em> but sent it to John Murray, asking him to publish it. Coleridge and Byron met in person on the 10th<\/sup> April 1816, where Byron again brought up the subject of Christabel<\/em> and implored its author to publish it despite the work\u2019s unfinished state. At this famous meeting Coleridge also recited \u2018Kubla Khan\u2019 to Lord Byron and another literary icon, Leigh Hunt, who was also present. Two days later Murray came to see Coleridge to arrange the publication of Christabel<\/em> and \u2018Kubla Khan\u2019 along with \u2018The Pains of Sleep\u2019.<\/p>\n

Christabel<\/em> captured the imagination of those authors now known as the second-generation of Romantic poets: Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley would read the poem aloud one stormy night later that year (18th<\/sup> July 1816) at the Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva. A crucial participant in this evening of ghost-tales and philosophical discussion was Mary Shelley, who within the same month would start to write the narrative that became Frankenstein<\/em>.<\/p>\n

…But the full story of that night is for another post, which may well feature on this blog in 2016!<\/p>\n

From Christabel<\/em> (Part I, lines 135-189)<\/p>\n

So free from danger, free from fear,
\nThey crossed the court: right glad they were.
\nAnd Christabel devoutly cried
\nTo the lady by her side,
\nPraise we the Virgin all divine
\nWho hath rescued thee from thy distress!
\nAlas, alas! said Geraldine,
\nI cannot speak for weariness.
\nSo free from danger, free from fear,
\nThey crossed the court: right glad they were.<\/p>\n

Outside her kennel, the mastiff old
\nLay fast asleep, in moonshine cold.
\nThe mastiff old did not awake,
\nYet she an angry moan did make!
\nAnd what can ail the mastiff bitch?
\nNever till now she uttered yell
\nBeneath the eye of Christabel.
\nPerhaps it is the owlet’s scritch:
\nFor what can ail the mastiff bitch?<\/p>\n

They passed the hall, that echoes still,
\nPass as lightly as you will!
\nThe brands were flat, the brands were dying,
\nAmid their own white ashes lying;
\nBut when the lady passed, there came
\nA tongue of light, a fit of flame;
\nAnd Christabel saw the lady’s eye,
\nAnd nothing else saw she thereby,
\nSave the boss of the shield of Sir Leoline tall,
\nWhich hung in a murky old niche in the wall.
\nO softly tread, said Christabel,
\nMy father seldom sleepeth well.<\/p>\n

Sweet Christabel her feet doth bare,
\nAnd jealous of the listening air
\nThey steal their way from stair to stair,
\nNow in glimmer, and now in gloom,
\nAnd now they pass the Baron’s room,
\nAs still as death, with stifled breath!
\nAnd now have reached her chamber door;
\nAnd now doth Geraldine press down
\nThe rushes of the chamber floor.<\/p>\n

The moon shines dim in the open air,
\nAnd not a moonbeam enters here.
\nBut they without its light can see
\nThe chamber carved so curiously,
\nCarved with figures strange and sweet,
\nAll made out of the carver’s brain,
\nFor a lady’s chamber meet:
\nThe lamp with twofold silver chain
\nIs fastened to an angel’s feet.<\/p>\n

The silver lamp burns dead and dim;
\nBut Christabel the lamp will trim.
\nShe trimmed the lamp, and made it bright,
\nAnd left it swinging to and fro,
\nWhile Geraldine, in wretched plight,
\nSank down upon the floor below.<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Works Cited<\/em>:<\/p>\n

S T Coleridge, Collected Letters<\/em> ed. by Earl Leslie Griggs Vol IV 1815-1819 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959) pp. 596-607.<\/p>\n

S T Coleridge, Christabel <\/em>in Coleridge: Poetical Works <\/em>ed. by Ernest Hartley Coleridge (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1912 repr. 1974) pp. 220-222.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exactly two hundred years ago today, on the 15th October 1815, Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote to one of his sincere admirers. Coleridge was approaching his 43rd birthday, and had been… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=883"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":915,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions\/915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}