Memoir of John Murray
Samuel Taylor Coleridge to John Murray, 26 March 1817
Highgate, March 26th, 1817.
Dear Sir,
I cannot be offended by your opinion that my talents are not
adequate to the requisites of matter and manner for the Quarterly Review, nor
should I consider it as a disgrace to fall short of Robert Southey in any department of literature. I owe, however,
an honest gratification to the conversation between you and Mr. Gillman, for I read ![]()
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Southey’s article, on which Mr. Gillman and I have,
it appears, formed very different opinions. It is, in my judgment, a very
masterly article.* I would to heaven, my dear sir, that the opinions of
Southey, Walter
Scott, Lord Byron, Mr. Frere, and of men like these in learning
and genius, concerning my comparative claims to be a man of letters, were to be
received as the criterion, instead of the wretched, and in deed and in word
mystical jargon of the Examiner and Edinburgh Review.
Mr. Randall will be so good as to repay
you the £50, and I understand from Mr.
Gillman that you are willing to receive this as a settlement
respecting the ‘Zapolya.’ The corrections and additions to the two first
books of the ‘Christabel’ may become of more value to you when the work is
finished, as I trust it will be in the course of the spring, than they are at
present. And let it not be forgotten, that while I had the utmost malignity of
personal enmity to cry down the work, with the exception of Lord Byron, there was not one of the many who had
so many years together spoken so warmly in its praise who gave it the least
positive furtherance after its publication. It was openly asserted that the
Quarterly
Review did not wish to attack it, but was ashamed to say a
word in its praise. Thank God! these things pass from me like drops from a
duck’s back, except as far as they take the bread out of my mouth; and
this I can avoid by consenting to publish only for the present times whatever I
may write. You will be so kind as to acknowledge the receipt of the £50 in
such manner as to make all matters as clear between us as possible; for, though
you, I am sure, could not have intended to injure my character, yet the
misconceptions, and perhaps misrepresentations, of your words have had that
tendency. By a letter from R. Southey I
find that he will be in town on the 17th. The article in Tuesday’s Courier was by me, and two other
articles on Apostacy and Renegadeism, which will appear this week.
Believe me, with respect, your
obliged,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
English poet and philosopher who projected
Lyrical Ballads (1798)
with William Wordsworth; author of
Biographia Literaria (1817),
On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other
works.
John Hookham Frere (1769-1846)
English diplomat and poet; educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was envoy to Lisbon
(1800-02) and Madrid (1802-04, 1808-09); with Canning conducted the
The
Anti-Jacobin (1797-98); author of
Prospectus and Specimen of an
intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft (1817, 1818).
James Gillman (1782-1839)
The Highgate surgeon with whom Coleridge lived from 1816 until his death in 1834; in 1838
he published an incomplete
Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Mr. Randall (1817 fl.)
An acquaintance of Coleridge and John Murray who was involved with the publication of
Zapolya.
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose
works, among them the
Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813),
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and
The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).
The Courier. (1792-1842). A London evening newspaper; the original proprietor was James Perry; Daniel Stuart, Peter
Street, and William Mudford were editors; among the contributors were Samuel Taylor
Coleridge and John Galt.
The Examiner. (1808-1881). Founded by John and Leigh Hunt, this weekly paper divided its attention between literary
matters and radical politics; William Hazlitt was among its regular contributors.
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
