Hartley Coleridge

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Hartley Coleridge

David Hartley Coleridge (born September 19, 1796 in Clevedon , Somerset , † January 6, 1849 in Rydal , Cumbria ) was an English writer. He was the eldest son of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge . He became known for his unfinished work Prometheus and his sonnets , which were summarized in Essays and Marginalia and Poems in 1851. He also wrote biographies of people from Yorkshire and Lancashire , which were published under the names Biographia Borealis (1833) and Worthies of Yorkshire and Lancashire (1836).

Live and act

Hartley Coleridge at age 10

Hartley Coleridge was born in 1796 as the eldest child of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his wife Sarah. Fricker was born in Clevedon, a village near Bristol where his mother was from. They chose his first name David in memory of the philosopher David Hartley . Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote two sonnets on the birth of his son and mentioned him in several of his poems, such as Frost at Midnight and The Nightingale , written in 1798 . In them he already formulated expectations for the future of his son. The poem To HC six years old (1802) by William Wordsworth , who was friends with Hartley's father, was also addressed to the boy.

After Hartley, his siblings Berkeley (1798–1799), Derwent (1800–1883) and Sara (1802–1852) were born. In 1800 the family moved to the Lake District , where Hartley lived from then on, apart from a stay in London in 1807. His parents' marriage was unhappy until they finally separated in 1808. Hartley Coleridge grew up mainly with the husband of his mother's sister, the poet Robert Southey , at Greta Hall in Keswick . He attended a school in Ambleside with his brother Derwent and was taught by Rev. John Dawes. During this time he met a lifelong friend, the Scottish philosopher and author John Wilson (1785-1854), and maintained contacts with William Wordsworth and his family.

From 1815 Coleridge attended Merton College in Oxford . He took part in the Oxford student competition for the Newdigate Prize for the best English-language poem several times , but never achieved this goal. According to his own statements, the frustration of such a defeat in 1816 led him to turn increasingly to alcohol and develop an addiction that he struggled with for the rest of his life. In 1818 Coleridge received his degree in literis humanioribus with the second best rating (similar to magna cum laude ). The following year he received a scholarship to Oriel College . However, his way of life aroused the displeasure of the university management. He was often absent from church services, smoked, and regularly came home drunk. With a height of only about 5 feet , thick black eyebrows and a beard, he appeared to his contemporaries outwardly disadvantaged, but his intellect and eloquence made him a popular guest at parties. Ultimately, he lost the scholarship after a probationary year, mainly due to his excessive alcohol consumption. Despite the intercession of his father, who among other things wrote a letter to the Provost of Oriel, this decision remained. While Coleridge was not formally charged and received £ 300 in compensation, according to his biographers, he never got over the failure.

After this abrupt end of his university career, Coleridge went to London in 1820 , where he made his debut as an author with his first sonnets in the literary and art magazine The London Magazine . During this time, his unfinished lyrical drama Prometheus , which his father met with great interest, was written. Two years later he returned to Cumbria from London and began working as a teacher in Clappersgate and then at the school in Ambleside, which he had previously attended, but this did not suit his interests and skills. He left the job after four to five years and lived in the Lake District until his death. From 1820 to 1831 he published poetry in Blackwood's Magazine . In 1830 he signed a contract with the publisher FE Bingley from Leeds for a collection of biographies of famous people from Yorkshire and Lancashire . A total of three issues appeared with a total of 13 biographies. Then the series ended prematurely as Bingley went bankrupt. The biographies were reprinted in a book three years later as Biographia Borealis and later known as Worthies of Yorkshire and Lancashire . In addition brought Bingley in 1833 and a book of poems by Hartley Coleridge called Poems: Vol I.. Out. Coleridge lived at his publisher's house until he went bankrupt. In 1837 and 1838 he briefly taught at a primary school in Sedbergh . In 1839 he published a collection of works by Philip Massinger and John Ford, with biographies written by him as an introduction.

The Nab Cottage on Rydal Water in Rydal , where Coleridge spent the last years of his life

Coleridge spent the last part of his life secluded in Grasmere . Aside from his attempts to teach, he remained financially dependent on relatives and friends and therefore never married. From 1840 he lived as a neighbor of Williams Wordsworth in Nab Cottage in Rydal , where he devoted himself to studies and hikes. In December 1848 he became seriously ill with bronchitis and finally died the following month. He was buried in St Oswald's Churchyard in Grasmere. His brother Derwent Coleridge, also an author and scholar, published poems and essays from Hartley Coleridge's late works in 1851, which he provided with biographical information.

reception

Contemporary critics rated Hartley Coleridge's work mostly benevolent, but did not rate it as outstanding. Was the verdict of Richard Garnett in the Dictionary of National Biography , Hartley's work was most elegant and symmetrical, but not powerful enough to impress the readers and to be remembered. His poems are full of elegant beauty, but almost all remain below the level of high poetry ("below the level of high poetry"). The Prometheus fragment is impressive, but it was created under the influence of Shelley. Garnett, however, praised the sonnets, they were almost perfect and Coleridge a master of this literary form. He also praised Coleridge's reviews and essays, the latter being humorous and reminding him of Charles Lamb . Coleridge's marginalia, on the other hand, are rambling like his father's and sometimes almost as astute, but they don't have their weight and conciseness.

In The Cambridge History of English and American Literature Coleridge is listed in The Romantic Revival section of the Lesser Poets . Again, his reviews and sonnets are praised (especially his Shakespeare and Homer sonnets, as well as Prayer ). Hartley Coleridge's works, however, would only be reminiscent of those of his father before 1796 and not rival those created after the birth of his first child. In the opinion of the critic, Prometheus could have been a good work if completed, but even then would undoubtedly not come close to the work Shelley later wrote, even if it was very similar to this.

Stanley Kunitz recognized Hartley Coleridge's ability as a critic and writer of marginalia and sonnets in the British Authors of the 19th Century biographical collection . His strength lies in such limited literary forms, but his more extensive prose pieces and poems are diffuse and clumsy, as he lacks the strength for continued efforts. He inherited most of his father's genius, but also most of his weaknesses.

Works (selection)

  • Biographia borealis; or, Lives of distinguished Northerns. Whitaker, Treacher and Co and FE Bingley, London / Leeds 1833 ( archive.org ).
  • Poems: Vol. I. FE Bingley; and Baldwin and Cradock, London 1833 ( archive.org ).
  • as editor: The dramatic works of Massinger and Ford. E. Moxon, London 1839.
  • Poems. edited by Derwent Coleridge, E. Moxon, London 1851 ( archive.org ).
  • Essays and marginalia. edited by Derwent Coleridge, E. Moxon, London 1851 ( archive.org ).
  • Letters of Hartley Coleridge. Oxford university press, H. Milford, London 1936.

literature

  • Charles Knight: Hartley Coleridge In: Biography, or, Third division of The English cyclopaedia. Volume 2, Bradbury, Agnew & Co., London 1867, pp. 320-321 ( books.google.de) .
  • Ashley P. Abraham: Hartley Coleridge In: Some portraits of the lake poets and their homes. GP Abraham, Keswick 1920, pp. 28-31 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  • Coleridge, Hartley . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 6 : Châtelet - Constantine . London 1910, p. 677 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
  • Richard Garnett:  Coleridge, Hartley . In: Leslie Stephen (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 11:  Clater - Condell. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1887, pp. 298 - 300 (English).
  • Stanley Kunitz : Coleridge, David Hartley In: British Authors of the 19th Century. HW Wilson Co., New York 1936, pp. 137-141.
  • Hartley Coleridge In: The Cambridge history of English and American literature: An encyclopedia in eighteen volumes. Volume XII. The Romantic Revival. V. Lesser Poets, 1790-1837. edited by AW Ward, AR Waller, WP Trent, J. Erskine, SP Sherman, and C. Van Doren, GP Putnam's Sons; Cambridge, England: University Press, New York 1907-21, ISBN 1-58734-073-9 .

Web links

Commons : Hartley Coleridge  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Anne Fadiman : The Oakling and the Oak Tags. In: Lapham's Quarterly , accessed May 26, 2013.
  2. ^ Charles Knight: Hartley Coleridge In: Biography, or, Third division of The English cyclopaedia. Volume 2, Bradbury, Agnew & Co., London 1867, p. 320.
  3. ↑ Hartley Coleridge. In: Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved May 25, 2013 .
  4. ^ Stanley Kunitz: Coleridge, David Hartley In: British Authors of the 19th Century. HW Wilson Co., New York 1936, 137.
  5. ↑ Derwent Coleridge: Memoir of Hartley Coleridge In: Poems. E. Moxon, London 1851, p. Xcix.
  6. ^ A b Stanley Kunitz: Coleridge, David Hartley. In: British Authors of the 19th Century. HW Wilson Co., New York 1936, p. 140.
  7. ↑ Coleridge, Hartley . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 6 : Châtelet - Constantine . London 1910, p. 677 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
  8. ↑ Ashley P. Abraham: Hartley Coleridge. In: Some portraits of the lake poets and their homes. GP Abraham, Keswick 1920, p. 31.
  9. ↑ Hartley Coleridge In: Find a Grave , accessed May 25, 2013.
  10. ↑ Richard Garnett: Coleridge, Hartley. In: Leslie Stephen (ed.): Dictionary of National Biography (DNB), Volume 11 (Clater - Condell), MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City, London 1887, p. 300.
  11. ↑ Hartley Coleridge In: The Cambridge history of English and American literature: An encyclopedia in eighteen volumes. Volume XII. The Romantic Revival. V. Lesser Poets, 1790-1837. edited by AW Ward, AR Waller, WP Trent, J. Erskine, SP Sherman, and C. Van Doren, GP Putnam's Sons; Cambridge, University Press, New York 1907-21.
personal data
SURNAME Coleridge, Hartley
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Coleridge, David Hartley (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1796
PLACE OF BIRTH Clevedon , Somerset
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1849
Place of death Rydal , Cumbria