SOUTHEY AND COLERIDGE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 520, 29 May 1909, Page 9

SOUTHEY AND COLERIDGE.

■■'■ In tho'old days there was-a white magic as well-as a black magic, and perhaps there is a. black bibliomania as well as a white one. In any case it is .decidedly/ of .the white passion that a scarco..hrochure/ r:"Bibliomahia,";'. for which' we' are' , indebted, to : an. obliging' Edinburgh, correspondent,' treats. Tho author was John Taylor Brown, cousin of the more famous Dr.; John Brown, and.the recipient of so many of-the'recently published ■"letters." His thesis is that, the antiquarian hatit of; book-collecting is a useful as well as an interesting pursuit. _ Curiously enough, .his essay. proves it by its resulte as well as by its arguments. It was,.no doubt/ltho alarm here raised on , the subject of the state of Milton's text that led to Masson's investigation into' it, and ultimately to the publication .nine;years ago •of..:Ganon Beeching's- collection of the Poems in the. spelling' of -tllei early editions. The thesis, however, is : liot :tho main'' interest ■of - ; the pamphlet. It, is only, tho author's pretext ■for setting :: forthah v ;immense ';' quantity' of entertaining: book-lore and for. exciting the reader's furioUs envy over, the books he describes. '".-'Oho of these is Souihey's ' "Joan of Arc," with Coleridge's annotations in red p*oncil.-. Now.the two poets were brothers-in-law, ibiit;that the 'sacred ,ties of kinship did; not blind ' Coleridgo to the. defects of Southoy's poetry will be sden from the following code of,signs by means of which-he proposes to set forth his opinions on tho margins of V the pages:—"N.B. —S.E. ' means Southey's English—i.e., no. English at all. N.' means • nonsense. J. ' means discordant jingle of sound-7-one word rhyming or halfrhyming to another,/ proving cither utt6r ■want.of car or else very long ones. 'L.M. ludicrous metaphor.- I.M. incongruous metaphor. S. pseudo-poetic: slang, generally, too, not English." As a samplo of his use of those-, signs, .against'the first of these two ■, .;-■■•■-■-.■ •'". ■ •-. : '■- ", '■ /' Heedless of death that rode the iron storm, Firebrands, and darts, ; and stones,-' and .javelins, , . . , , ■ . ■"' ' he jots down S.E., N., L.M., and 'against the second the ejaculation "Verso!" .There are comments, however, as well as signs, and they are so plentiful that presently he pulls himself up with the exclamation, "Mercy on us,.if Igo on thus I'shall make tho book what," I suppose, it never was before, / red all thro'." - Now, part of the poem was written by Coleridge himself—more than Southey admits in the preface,—and- ho handles himself DO more .tenderly than he does. Southey.. Thus on tho verses,. . . ■' - . Shrieked Ambition's ghastly throng, And with them those, the Locust Fiends that .. 'crawled , ■ '■■.-. And glittered;in Corruption'o shmy track,. ; he-testily, remarks, "If. locusts, how could they, shriek? ■■ I must ..have caught tho contagion of unthinkingness." On tho long passace, later reptinted in "The ODestiny of Nations," beginning "Maid beloved of Heaven," Coleridge quaintly says, "These are very fino. lines, tho' I say it that should not—but hang mo ifil know or.ever did know the meaning of them, tho' my own composition."—"Manchester. Guardian." ■ ■■■ ' ; .i