I have received your letter. Considering the necessary
labour, and (from the questionable nature of the original work, both as to its
fair claims to Fame—the diction of the good and wise according to
unchanging principles—and as to its chance for Reputation, as an
accidental result of local and temporary taste), the risk of character on the
part of the Translator, who will assuredly have to answer for any
disappointment of the reader, the terms proposed are humiliatingly low; yet
such as, under modifications, I accede to. I have received testimonials from
men not merely of genius according to my belief, but of the highest accredited
reputation, that my translation of ‘Wallenstein’ was in language and
in metre superior to the original, and the parts most admired were
substitutions of my own, on a principle of compensation. Yet the whole work
went for waste-paper. I was abused—nay, my own remarks in the Preface
were transferred to a Review, as the Reviewer’s sentiments against me, without even a hint that he had copied them
from my own Preface. Such was the fate of ‘Wallenstein’! And yet I dare appeal to any number of men of
Genius—say, for instance, Mr. Walter
Scott, Mr. Southey,
Mr. Wordsworth, Mr. Wilson, Mr.
Sotheby, Sir G. Beaumont,
&c., whether the ‘Wallenstein’ with
all its defects (and it has grievous defects), is not worth all Schiller’s other plays put together. But
I wonder not. It
| SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. | 301 |
On the other hand, though I know that executed as alone I can or dare do it—that is, to the utmost of my power (for which the intolerable Pain, nay the far greater Toil and Effort of doing otherwise, is a far safer Pledge than any solicitude on my part concerning the approbation of the Public), the translation of so very difficult a work as the ‘Faustus,’ will be most inadequately remunerated by the terms you propose; yet they very probably are the highest it may be worth your while to offer to me. I say this as a philosopher; for, though I have now been much talked of, and written of, for evil and not for good, but for suspected capability, yet none of my works have ever sold. The ‘Wallenstein’ went to the waste-basket. The ‘Remorse,’ though acted twenty times, rests quietly on the shelves in the second edition, with copies enough for seven years’ consumption, or seven times seven. I lost £200 by the non-payment, from forgetfulness, and under various pretences, by ‘The Friend’;* and for my poems I did get from £10 to £15. And yet, forsooth, the Quarterly Review attacks me for neglecting and misusing my powers! I do not quarrel with the Public—all is as it must be—but surely the Public (if there be such a thing) has no right to
* Twenty-seven numbers of The Friend were published by Coleridge at Penrith in Cumberland in 1809-10, but the periodical proved a failure, principally from the irregularity of its appearance. It was about this time that he was addicted to opium-eating. |
| 302 | MEMOIRS OF JOHN MURRAY |
The ‘Faust,’ you perhaps know, is only a Fragment. Whether Goethe ever will finish it, or whether it is ever his object to do so, is quite unknown. A large proportion of the work cannot be rendered in blank verse, but must be given in wild lyrical metres; and Mr. Lamb informs me that the Baroness de Staël has given a very unfavourable account of the work. Still, however, I will undertake it, and that instantly, so as to let you have the last sheet by the middle of November, on the following terms:—
I. That on the delivery of the last MS. sheet you remit 100 guineas to Mrs. Coleridge, or Mr. Robert Southey, at a bill of five weeks. 2. That I, or my widow or family, may, any time after two years from the first publication, have the privilege of reprinting it in any collection of all my poetical writings, or of my works in general, which set off with a Life of me, might perhaps be made profitable to my widow. And 3rd, that if (as I long ago meditated) I should re-model the whole, give it a finale, and be able to bring it, thus re-written and re-cast, on the stage, it shall not be considered as a breach of the engagement between us, I on my part promising that you shall, for an equitable consideration, have the copy of this new work, either as a separate work, or forming a part of the same volume or book, as circumstances may dictate to you. When I say that I am confident that in this possible and not probable case, I should not repeat or retain one fifth of the original, you will perceive that I consult only my dread of appearing to act amiss, as it would be even more easy to compose the whole anew.
If these terms suit you I will commence the Task as soon as I receive Goethe’s works from you. If you could procure Goethe’s late Life of himself, which extends to a short way, or any German biographical work, it would enable me to render the preliminary Essay more entertaining.
