Letter from John Stoddart, London, to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1801 January 7 : autograph manuscript signed with initials | WorldCat.org (original) (raw)

Summary:Commenting, at length and in detail, on William Godwin's play and his talent as a writer and relating news of Robert Allen; referring to the "..fate of poor Godwin's drama - He first ask'd me to father it, I declined not from any pique against the man as a private Individual, though I own he has a strong atmosphere of repulsion to me, but from other reasons - however I recommended Tobin (which you'll say was kind) who undertook the job - After the piece was consigned to such hissing hot damnation, the noble Godwin threw himself into a fiery Gulph with it. I do not think this was prudent either in him or Tobin for there are now two poor victims in the Auto da Fé, instead of one - Godwin told me in conversation that he had, from his youth up, a strong propensity to dramatic writing. I thought at the time it was very like a Methodistical Weaver's call of the spirit, or a stage-struck Prentice's desire of enacting Hamlet - as to the poor Philosopher himself he certainly has a small stock of strong feelings, but then the stock is so small, and it is so impossible for him to enlarge it, that he might as well think of walking to the Sidus Herschellium, as of sympathising with six persons in the world - and yet he writes a play - Well, God is a good man, there be wise authors & there be foolish ones, and in the last judgment of literature let us hope that they may all be saved;" relating news of Robert Allen and commenting on his career as a surgeon after three years in Minorca with the British Army; saying "He may retire on half pay after 3 years service & would then be enabled to graduate & become an eminent Physician perchance to catharticise or glysterise the sacred person of Majesty itself - God send that we could see him comfortably settled at home whether as Sir Robert Allen Bart. Portland Place, or as the humble Esculapius of Keswick - Now for yourself, if it shall please the fates & destinies & sisters three & such branches of learning that you arrive in London on the 19th I will take care that you have a convenient home either here or elsewhere according as I find the matter can be arranged to your own satisfaction, therefore let your mind go to sleep on that point...What with Travels & Philosophy, & Poetry, Dramas in prospect & old Dramas new revised I think you have a pretty number of irons in the fire, & if you strike them all while they are hot your head must be more like a Blacksmith's shop than Drayton describes his heart to be in a most elaborately ingenious Sonnet or as he phrases it Idea...Never forget that when I write to you I write to all the Muses & all the Penates of Grasmere & the Greta."

Publication:Joanna Langlais Collection (MA 1857)

Physical Description:1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 23.5 x 18.7 cm

OCLC Number / Unique Identifier:270574932

Notes:

This collection, MA 1857, includes seventeen autograph letters signed from various correspondents to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, three autograph letters signed to Robert Southey, one each from Edward Coleridge, John Taylor Coleridge and Sara Fricker Coleridge and two autograph letters signed from William Wordsworth, one to Robert Southey and one to Joseph Henry Green. This collection of letters dates from 1794-1834

This letter is from the Joanna Langlais Collection, a large collection of letters written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to various recipients. The collection has been divided into subsets, based primarily on Coleridge's addressees, and these sub-collections have been cataloged individually as MA 1848- MA 1857

Address panel with postmarks to "S.T. Coleridge Esq're / Greta Hall / Keswick / Cumberland."

Written from "4 Stone Buildings. Lincolns Inn / Wednesday."

Date of writing from postmark