Effusion XV: a memory of Pantisocracy

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 11, Issue 1, 1 May 1978, Page 18

Effusion XV: a memory of Pantisocracy

JUNE STARKE

Two young revolutionary idealists, embryonic poets, met at Oxford in June 1794 and planned their Utopia; a round century later a New Zealand bibliophile was gathering together a library which was becoming the centre of his life. A link was established between these men when Alexander Turnbull bought for his collection of English literary works a copy of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Poems on Various Subjects published by Joseph Cottle of Bristol in 1796. Slipped in beside a sonnet, Effusion XV “Pale Roamer thro’ the Night! thou poor Forlorn!” on page 60, lay a small folded leaf, an emended draft in Coleridge’s hand headed Effusion 75 1 “Poor wanderer of the Night! thou pale Forlorn!”. Interest in the discrepancies between the two versions has led to an investigation into the circumstances which brought the sonnet into being and into the provenance of this defective and undistinguished volume in its original grey boards. Turnbull’s extant papers provide no positive record of his purchase of this volume which was sold at Sotheby’s, on behalf of an unnamed vendor, on 4 December 1902 and bought for £13.15.0 by Pickering and Chatto, booksellers and publishers. 2 Their invoice of 8 May 1907 lists a vaguely specified purchase by Turnbull of “Coleridge’s Poems” for £2l at a time when a finely bound edition was bringing £3-4. Turnbull, who left ample evidence of knowing and using his collections was, for some reason, apparently unaware of the existence of the manuscript and merely noted, in characteristically meticulous fashion and neat hand “pp. 19-29 misplaced in binding” on the front flyleaf when in fact his annotation should have recorded the misfolding of one sheet spanning pp. 17-32. 3

Coleridge in his preface to the edition of Poems on Various Subjects acknowledges that the first half of Effusion XV was written by Robert Southey. 4 From their meeting at Balliol College in June 1794 the two young poets and a small group of friends, inspired by the French Revolution and The Rights of Man, and disillusioned with the quality of life in England, evolved a plan to set up a select community in America. “Twelve gentlemen of good education and liberal principles were to embark with twelve ladies” 5 to establish a pantisocracy “of equal government of all.” The colony was to be supported by two or three hours of manual labour by all members, with leisure hours to be spent in study, liberal discussion and the education of their children. They planned to purchase a

thousand acres of virgin land on the banks of the Susquahannah River. Southey and Coleridge’s share was to be raised by their writings, lectures and a jointly edited magazine, The Provincial Magazine. They lived and wrote together in Bristol earning barely enough for subsistence until the Utopian scheme which occupied their thoughts and actions foundered towards the end of the year. There remained the permanent tie established by their marriage to sisters, Sara and Edith Fricker, daughters of a Quaker Bristol merchant—seen by the pair almost as prerequisite to emigration with the community of friends and the establishment of the “fraternal community.”

Joseph Cottle, Bristol bookseller and publisher, left his imprint on Effusion 15 in the form of two additions “96” and “Coleridge” on the top right hand edge of the draft. 6 Cottle was a vain but generous young man with literary aspirations, and practically supported the pantisocrats though he was not tempted to join them. It was Cottle who realised their hopes of publication by bringing out Coleridge’s Poems on Various Subjects in 1796, followed by a second and much revised edition in 1797, and two editions of Southey’s poems in 1797. Each poet received thirty guineas for the copyright of these works and Southey was, in addition, paid fifty guineas for his Joan of Arc published in 1796. Cottle arranged and gathered support for their lectures in Bristol and provided the means which enabled Coleridge to marry Sara Fricker on 4 October 1795 by his offer of a guinea and a half for every hundred lines his protege might write after the volume contracted for —“and all my prose work he is eager to purchase.” 7

To Cottle must go credit for the preservation of the only substantial body of working manuscripts of Coleridge’s poems known to have survived 8 and with it Effusion 15 . He bound up material in Coleridge’s hand comprising drafts of poems, preface and other material for Poems on Various Subjects, 1796, along with a few drafts for the second edition. The volume, known as the Rugby MS was purchased by the metaphysician Shadworth Hollway Hodgson, an old Rugbeian, apparently at the sale of the library of his relative, Thomas De Quincey 9 , and presented to his old school in 1901-02. It was sold at Sotheby’s, 15 May 1967, by order of the Governing Body of Rugby School and purchased by the University of Texas, where it is held in the Humanities Research Center, at Austin, Texas. The form of the Rugby MS 10 is the result of Cottle’s practice of mounting Coleridge’s poems and numbering the sheets in ink for the printer as they were extracted piecemeal from the poet from July 1795 11 until publication on 16 April 1796. The missing and uncancelled “96” on the manuscript under examination is “very clearly in the same hand” 12 as the cancelled “95” and “98” placed

together in the bound volume which was renumbered in sequence in pencil. It can reasonably be assumed that Cottle removed from its mounting this particular leaf, on which was written the only poem in the collection to be a joint composition, folded it and put it in beside the printed poem in a defective copy of Poems on Various Subjects set aside as unsaleable. His reason was probably no more than to be able to readily recall or compare the first eight lines almost as they were originally written by Southey prior to Coleridge’s considerable alterations. In 1837 Cottle published Early Recollections; Chiefly Relating to the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge in the face of strong opposition from Coleridge’s family. The work, based on the poet’s papers and letters preserved by Cottle sadly

misdated and garbled, enumerates his generosity to the young pantisocrats, and in spite of Cottle’s obtuseness, has some significance as a contemporary record of their endeavours to bring their ideal society into being. A copy of the book bearing a bookplate of Alexander Turnbull contains Cottle’s autograph letter written from Bedminster, 4 November 1837, accompanying his gift “. . . of my ‘Early Recollections’ of our old friend Coleridge” to Richard Smith Esq.; the handwriting identifies Cottle as the writer of “Coleridge” on the draft o (Effusion 15.

Effusion 15 can be regarded as one clue in establishing the measure of collaboration between the two poets. “Coleridge” wrote Southey on 8 February 1795, “is writing at the same table: our names are written in the book of destiny, on the same page”. 13 However before this state of blissful proximity was achieved a letter Coleridge wrote from London on 17 December 1794 to Southey, then at Bath, 14 reveals that the sonnet began as a product of Southey’s pen. The latter’s poetry “is criticised with gusto” 15 while in return Coleridge asks Southey for his “minutest opinion” of sonnets published or to be published in the Morning Chronicle in December 1794—-January 1795. 16 Coleridge’s somewhat confused comment on Southey’s poems runs: I am astonished at your preference of the ‘Elegy’! I think it is the worst thing you ever wrote . . .

The hard World scoff d my Woes —the chaste one’s Pride Mimic of Virtue mock’d my keen distress *Her little Boon with cruel taunts denied, And Vice alone would shelter wretchedness. Even Life is loathsome now etc — *lmplied in the second line. [S.T.C.] These two Stanzas are exquisite—but the lovely thought of ‘the hot Sun etc as pityless as proud prosperity [’] —loses part of its Beauty by the Time being Night. It is among the chief excellencies of Bowles 17 that his Imagery appears almost always prompted by the surrounding Scenery. Before you write a Poem, you should say to yourself—What do I intend to be the Character of this Poem —Which Feature is to be predominant in it? —So you may make it a Unique. But in this Poem now Charlotte speaks and now the Poet — Assuredly the Stanzas off] Memory, thou worst of Fiends! [’] etc’ and Gay Fancy fond and frolic! etc. are altogether poetical —You have repeated the same Rhymes ungracefully and the thought on which you harp recalls too forcibly Eudeis, hrephos —of Simonides —Unfortunately the ‘Adventurer’ 18 has made this sweet Fragment an object of popular admiration —On the whole I think it unworthy of your other Botany Bay Eclogues —yet deem the two Stanzas above selected superior—almost to anything you ever wrote —Quod est magna res dicere a great thing to say/

Four poems under the heading Botany Bay Eclogues are included in Southey’s Poems published by Cottle in 1797 but there is no trace of the lines singled out by Coleridge. Convicts Humphrey and William, John, Samuel and Richard, and Frederic, reflect on the circumstances which brought about their transportation and Elinor, the sole female convict, expresses her thoughts as she sets out in the morning to collect shells for lime-making. Southey must have drafted a fifth poem for Charlotte “Poor Wanderer of the Night to complement Elinor. Conjecture gathers substance from a letter Southey wrote from Bristol, received in London 14 May 1795 by his friend from schooldays at Westminster, Grosvenor Charles Bedford. This letter written after the poets had been writing together for some months is printed in Professor Curry’s New Letters of Robert Southey. Three of the five poems which open the letter were objects of Coleridge’s comment in December 1794 and Southey clarifies in a few words obscurities and allusions in Coleridge’s rather confused evaluation. Significantly the opening poem is Elinor followed closely by a heading Sonnet. The 6 last lines by Coleridge. Professor Curry does not print these poems but his footnote reveals that the opening phrase of Sonnet in this letter 19 reads the now familiar “Poor Wanderer of the Night!”. The present writer suggests that Southey’s placing of these two poems almost together substantiates the view that he planned Charlotte as a companion to Elinor. A sense of spontaneity in the easy flow of Coleridge’s hand in drafting Effusion 15 suggests that he took a slip of paper and experimented with these few lines as he was writing to Southey on 17

December 1794. He undoubtedly followed closely the guidance he gave Southey for writing a poem and did away with weaknesses pointed out in his commentary. Coleridge made the poet speak instead of Charlotte, altered words in line 5 and 6, replaced line 7 struck out and wrote six lines to round out the portrayal of an outcast 20 —Coleridge himself used the less euphemistic “Prostitute” 21 to identify the sonnet in an undated notebook entry listing sonnets for inclusion in Poems on Various Subjects. In these lines, perhaps sent with the letter or shown to him when they were together in Bristol, may lie the reason why Southey did not revise the poem and publish it himself.

Southey’s letter to Bedford leaves no doubt that Effusion 15 was written prior to May 1795. Effusion XV came later 22 with the transposition of “poor” and “pale” and the substitution of “Roamer” for “Wanderer” in line 1 together with rewriting of line 4. The third poem under consideration in Southey’s letter to Grosvenor Bedford, The Soldier’s Wife , provides a valid reason for these changes which may have been made as the poets prepared for publication an abortive joint volume of their poems which occupied their attention as late as July 1795. 23 The Soldier’s Wife is followed by the comment “Written with Coleridge. Read this aloud and accent it.” A note in an unidentified hand in Alexander Turnbull’s copy of Southey’s Poems, 1797, links The Soldier’s Wife with the next poem in the collection The Widow. “Southey told me that with some degree of labour he would engage to write Dactylics or Sapphics that should please as well in English or Latin . . ,” 24 The first and third stanzas of The Soldier’s Wife. Dactylics 25 read:

Weary way-wandererl 26 languid and sick at heart Travelling painfully over the rugged road, Wild-visag’d Wanderer l . 26 ah for the heavy chance! *Woe-begone mother, half anger, half agony, As over thy shoulder thou lookest to hush the babe, Bleakly the blinding snow beats in thy hagged face. *This stanza was supplied by S. T. Coleridge. The first stanza of The Widow. Sapphics 27 reads: Cold was the night 26 wind, drifting fast the snows fell, Wide were the downs and shelterless and naked, When a poor Wanderer 26 struggled on her journey Weary and way-sore. Coleridge’s stanza in The Soldier’s Wife ties the poem to his comment on Simonides “sweet fragment” Eudeis brephos and may well be another experimentation as he wrote to Southey on 17 December 1794. Substitution for “ Poor Wanderer 26 of the night!” with

“Pale Roamer thro’ the Night!” had become a necessary change to enable the poets to publish three poems. Southey was satisfied with his Dactylics and Sapphics and retained his original image of a poor wanderer of the night while a compromise “Pale Roamer thro’ the Night!” enabled Coleridge to use Southey’s stanzas he found “exquisite” in his Effusion XV. There remained only lines 2, 3 and 8 as written in 1794 by Southey at the time the sonnet was published. Coleridge must have been well satisfied with Effusion XV as it appeared in all collections of his poems published in his lifetime though he acknowledged Southey’s inspiration only in his first Preface of 1797.

Now, extensive collaboration in the preparation of a poem is not familiar to twentieth century authors or readers, but it is quite common in the eighteenth century. It is true that eighteenth century readers were sensitive to plagiarism (when they could detect it) and to fraud, when it could be proved (as in Chatterton’s case), or was suspected (as in Macpherson’s). But willing co-operation between brother authors was another matter. Not only did eminent writers contribute prologues and epilogues to one another’s plays, they also contributed lines which a fellow author would unashamedly, and without acknowledgement, incorporate in a work of his own. Dr Johnson, as one might expect, often obliged —to such an extent that when Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Discourses proved unexpectedly eloquent, Johnson was, quite unjustly, rumoured to be their real source. But in the present case this customary courtesy had the support of a closer intimacy, both personal and ideological. An emended draft of a sonnet, Effusion 15, and two letters provide an insight into the intricacies of joint composition by two young Romantics as they wrote to achieve an ideal society. Collaboration to mutual advantage in three lines of a poem written by Robert Southey in a much revised sonnet that Samuel Taylor Coleridge made his own, was the measure of their trust in their Utopia—a Pantisocracy—“of equal government of all.”

6 o

EFFUSION XV.

-P ALE Roamer thro’ the Night! thou poor Forlorn!

Remorfe that man on his death-bed poffefs, Who in the credulous hour of tendernefs Betrayed, then caff thee forth to Want and Scorn ! The world is pitylefs : the Chafte one’s pride Mimic of Virtue fcowls on thy diftrefs :

Thy Loves and they, that envied thee, deride : And Vice alone will fhelter Wretchednefs! O ! I am fad to think, that there Ihould be Cold-bofom’d Lewd ones, who endure to place Foul offerings on the Ihrine of Mifery, And force from Famine the carefs of Love ! May He fhed healing on thy fore difgrace, He, the great Comforter that rules above !

REFERENCES 1 For the purposes of clarity Effusion 15 has been used throughout when referring to the MS draft and Effusion XV only when referring to the printed sonnet. 2 The catalogue entry reads . . Interesting copy having inserted the manuscript of Coleridge’s ( Effusiva [sic] XV) ‘Poor wanderer of the night’ which differs considerably from the published version.” Book Prices Current. London, Elliott Stock, 1903, XVII, p. 169. 3 My thanks are due to Mr V. G. Elliott for pointing out is discrepancy and for much advice, guidance and encouragement from the time the MS was discovered. 4 ‘‘And the first half of Effusion XV was written by the Author of‘Joan of Arc’, an Epic Poem.” Coleridge, S. T. Poems on Various Subjects. London, printed for G. G. andj. Robinsons, andj. Cottle, bookseller, Bristol, 1796 p. xi.

5 Hanson, L. The Life of S. T. Coleridge. The Early Years. London, George Allen and Unwin, 1938, p. 42. 6 The sheet measuring 18.5 x 14.3 cm with 7 chain lines 2.68 cm apart and 10 wire lines per cm has no watermark; there are traces of glue and/or fragments of paper round all edges. 7 Hanson, L. op cit, p. 87. 8 Croft, P. J. Autograph Poetry in the English Language. London, Cassell, 1973, v. 2, p. 97. 9 MrsJ. Macrory, Temple Reading Room, Rugby School, and Mrs S. Leach, Associate Librarian, Humanities Research Center Library, the University of Texas, kindly provided information on the provenance and make-up of the Rugby MS including an extract from Arthur Coleridge’s Reminiscences, p. 45 which implies that Shadworth Hodgson had bought it at a sale of De Quincey’s Library. It is not impossible that the MS was lent to De Quincey by Cottle and not returned, a common failing of De Quincey. Cottle was the agent through whom De Quincey made a gift of £3OO to Coleridge in 1804. 10 Mrs S. Leach. [The volume] “is made up of sheets of various sizes which have been mounted on folio sheets or tipped onto stubs or bound.” There is no cancelled “96” or “97”.

11 Coburn, K. ed. The Notebooks of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1957, I, 1794-1804; Notes, p. 289. 12 Mrs S. Leach. 13 Hanson, L. op cit, p. 77. 14 Griggs, E. L., ed. Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1956, I, p. 75-76. 15 Hanson, L. op cit, p. 62. 16 A number of these sonnets addressed to “eminent Characters” appeared in Poems on Various Subjects. 17 William Lisle Bowles, 1762-1850, rector of Crickland, Wiltshire, author of Sonnets, Written Chiefly on Picturesque Spots, 1789, much admired by Coleridge. 18 Eudeis brephos. “Thou sleepest babe.” Coleridge refers to “A fragment of Simonides and an imitation of it” by Dr. Joseph Warton published as The Adventurer, No. 89, 11 September, 1753. The poet relates the distress of “Danae being by her merciless father inclosed in a chest and thrown into the sea with her child.” 19 Curry, K., ed. New Letters of Robert Southey. New York, Columbia University Press, 1965,1, p. 95. The letter is now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (English letters, C 22). Professor Curry’s note concludes “. . . Southey’s statement about this sonnet and ‘The Soldier’s Wife’ suggests that a great number of the poems of Coleridge and Southey written during 1794-95 were joint compositions.” 20 Rev. E. H. Coleridge in The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1912, I, p. 71, published the sonnet as The Outcast, giving the date of composition as “? 1794”. Coleridge himself titled it Effusion XV (1796), Sonnet VII (1797), Sonnet VI (1803), Sonnet IX (1828, 1829, 1834). 21 Coburn, K. op cit, I: Text, p. 305-306. 22 Coleridge continued to redraft and revise his poems right up until publication. 23 Whalley, G. “Coleridge and Southey in Bristol, 1795” Review of English Studies, n.s. v.I, 1950, p. 339. 24 Southey, R. Poems. Printed by N. Biggs, for Joseph Cottle, Bristol, and G. G. andj. Robinson, London, 1797, p. 146. 25 Ibid, p. 145-146. 26 My italics. 27 Southey, R. Poems (1797), p. 147.