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ridge suggested the Ancient Mariner, founding it on a dream. of his friend, Cruikshank.* Wordsworth added a good deal. He had been recently reading about albatrosses, and he suggested that the crime of the "Old Mariner" should be the shooting of an albatross on entering the South Sea, and his being doomed in consequence by the tutelary spirits of the south to wander over the ocean. He also suggested “the navigation of the ship by the dead man." They "began the composition together," and Wordsworth wrote a few of the lines. But, as they went on, differences in their mode of working prevented their making the poem a joint one. The subject did not suit the genius of Wordsworth, nearly so well as it suited Coleridge; and Wordsworth very wisely left to him the working of it out, believing that co-operation would only have been "a clog" to the imagination of his friend. Nothing but the "Ancient Mariner" was thought of during that walk to the Valley of Stones. But on

returning to Alfoxden, they planned a joint volume, to which each might contribute separately. It was to be a volume of poems, "chiefly on natural subjects taken from common life, but looked at, as much as might be, through an imaginative medium." Such is an epitome of Wordsworth's account of the origin of the Lyrical Ballads.

Coleridge's account, in the Biographia Literaria,† coincides with it. He tells us that he and Wordsworth had often, during that winter at Alfoxden, discussed the essential principles of Poetry, which they thought were an adhesion to the truth of Nature, while adding fresh interest by the work of the imaginaiton; as the glow of sunset or as moonlight give an added charm to a familiar landscape. They thought that,

* Doubtless the Cruikshank referred to in Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal. February 26th, 1798. See p. 139.

Vol. ii., ch. i.

in this fashion, poems might be composed, either when the incidents and agents were supernatural or romantic, or when they belonged to ordinary human life as it is found in every village. It was agreed that he should take the former class of subjects, and, by humanising the stories, give a life and charm to their imaginative setting; while Wordsworth should take the latter, and try to invest the things of everyday life with the charm of novelty, and by breaking up the "lethargy of custom," disclose something of the loveliness of the world and its wonders, which the great majority of persons, from "the film of familiarity," could neither see nor understand. For this purpose he wrote The Ancient Mariner, and was preparing the Dark Ladie and Christabel; but Wordsworth, having been much more industrious, and "the number of his poems so much greater," his (Coleridge's) contributions seemed out of keeping, and of less significance than his friend's.

Wordsworth himself, in the Preface to the second edition of the Ballads, when a new volume was added, said that they were published as "an experiment," to ascertain how far the process of throwing into verse "the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation" would result in giving poetic pleasure; and it was his defence of this special theory —that all true poetry consists in the language of real life made vivid by imagination—that, in Coleridge's opinion, made the Ballads so long comparatively unpopular. The exposi-' tion and defence of a questionable theory of poetry—a theory which was not, by any means, an explanation of the practice on which the poet himself worked-might well retard the sale, and keep back the influence of a wholly new style of poetic production. And Coleridge was right. Had Wordsworth omitted his "Preface," and pruned a few of the ballads of their more trivial phases and stanzas, the "new departure" in our English poetry—which the publication of

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that small volume at Bristol in 1798 inaugurated-might have been rapid and continuous.

Wordsworth's Tragedy was written during the winter of 1795-6, after he had settled at Racedown. Coleridge's admiration of it, though sincere, was excessive; and it is just possible that a tendency to "mutual admiration" found a partial outlet in the letter already printed (p. 112). The tragedy was read by many. Coleridge wrote to Poole to come and hear it read, under the trees at Nether Stowey. And he subsequently wrote a letter to Cottle,* making a formal offer of his own formal offer of his own and Wordsworth's tragedy to the Bristol publisher. The following is Coleridge's letter:-"I am requested by Wordsworth to put to you the following question--what could you, conveniently and prudently, and what would you give for, first, our two tragedies, with small preface, containing an analysis of the principal characters? (exclusive of the prefaces the tragedies are together five thousand lines, which in printing in the dialogue form, with directions respecting actors and scenery, are at least equal to six thousand). . . Second, Wordsworth's 'Salisbury Plain' and 'Tale of a Woman,' † which two poems, with a few others which he will add, and the notes, will make a volume." Cottle says he replied to this, offering “Mr Coleridge and Mr Wordsworth thirty guineas each, as proposed, for their two tragedies; but this, after some hesitation, was declined, from the hope of introducing one or both upon the stage. The volume of poems was left for future arrangement." +

As the weeks advanced, Coleridge managed, through one of the Messrs Poole, to get The Borderers brought under

* See Early Recollections, vol. i. p. 298. but it evidently belongs to the previous year. + The Female Vagrant.

‡ See Early Recollections, vol. i., p. 299.

+

Cottle gives 1798 as the date,

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the notice of the authorities at Covent Garden Theatre. In an undated letter to Cottle, in 1797, he said, "I have procured for Wordsworth's tragedy an introduction to Harris, the manager of Covent Garden, who has promised to read it attentively, and give his answer immediately; and, if he accepts it, to put it in preparation without an hour's delay."* "William's play," wrote Dorothy Wordsworth on the 20th November 1797, "is finished, and sent to the managers of the Covent Garden Theatre. We have not the faintest expectation that it will be accepted."

An actor who read the play, joined in the praise of it, but suggested sundry changes, and asked the writer to come up to London, and adjust these on the spot. So the brother and sister went up, and spent three weeks in town, doubtless staying at Richard Wordsworth's house. Returning to Bristol, Dorothy wrote, on the 21st December, "We have been in London: our business was the play; and the play is rejected. It was sent to one of the principal actors at Covent Garden, who expressed great approbation, and advised William strongly to go to London to make certain alterations. Coleridge's play is also rejected." For the rejection of Coleridge's she expresses great sorrow and disappoint

ment.

Neither his contemporaries nor successors have agreed with Coleridge's eulogy on his friend's drama.† The Borderers had no success, and it deserved none. From London Wordsworth wrote to Cottle in Bristol, December 13th, "Mr Harris has pronounced it impossible that my play could succeed in the representation," and he admitted that it was by Mr Harris most "judiciously returned as not

See Early Recollections, vol. i., p. 251.

+ Coleridge's own tragedy had better fortune. It was rejected as Osorio in 1797, but in 1813 it was again brought forward as Remorse, and had a temporary run on the stage.

calculated for the stage." Wordsworth had no dramatic faculty, not even that of the "dramatic lyric" writer; his dramatis persona were not various enough; and he had the good sense to perceive this, and to admit it. He said, when sending the work to the press in 1842—on the whole it is a pity it was ever published-that, had he written it later in life, the plot would have been more complete, and there would have been "a greater variety in the characters, to relieve the mind from the pressure of incidents so mournful." But in issuing it to the public-after keeping it for forty-six years unprinted--while he revised it carefully, Wordsworth made no alteration on the story, or on the characters, simply because he did not wish it to be thought that he was adapting it for dramatic performance. He had the sense to see that what failed in 1797 would fail in 1843, and therefore wished it simply to be read as an exhibition of the underlying tendencies of human nature; and, (Oswald's character in particular), as casting some light on "the apparently motiveless actions of bad men."

On his return to Alfoxden, Wordsworth continued to write fresh lyrical ballads. Coleridge had left Nether Stowey, having undertaken the work of preaching in a Unitarian chapel at Shrewsbury. The brothers, Josiah and Thomas Wedgwood, however, whose large philanthropy was as memorable as their artistic work in pottery,-recognising his rare genius, and seeing it dissipated by miscellaneous work, offered him an annuity of £150, to free him from present embarrassment; and in January 1798, Coleridge wrote as follows to Wordsworth from Shrewsbury: "You know that I have accepted the magnificent liberality of Josiah and Thomas Wedgwood. I accepted it on the presumption that I had talents, honesty, and propensities to persevering effort. Of the pleasant ideas which accompanied this unexpected event, it was not the least pleasant, that I should be

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