Sara Coleridge

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Sara Coleridge

Sara Coleridge (born December 22, 1802 in Greta Hall near Keswick , Cumberland , † May 3, 1852 in London ) was an English writer and translator .

life and work

Sara Coleridge was the fourth child and the only daughter of the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his wife Sarah Fricker. She grew up in the Robert Southeys family, who were friends with her father . Her father was rarely home during her childhood and she did not see him at all from 1812 to 1822; instead it was heavily influenced by Robert Southey at the time. Under his guidance and with the help of his extensive library, she read important works of classical Greek and Latin literature; she also acquired a thorough knowledge of newer languages ​​such as French, German, Italian and Spanish. After 1822 she had closer contact with her father again. She worked as a translator early on. B. An Account of the Abipones , an Equestrian People of Paraguay (from the Latin of Martin Dobrizhoffer , 3 vols., 1822) and Memoirs of the Chevalier Bayard (from the French of the 16th century, 1825).

After seven years of engagement, Sara Coleridge married her cousin Henry Nelson Coleridge (1798–1843), the younger son of Captain James Coleridge, in September 1829 at Crosthwaite Church in Keswick . Her husband was working as a lawyer in London at the time. The couple spent the first eight years of their marriage in a small house in Hampstead . Four children resulted from the marriage, of which only two, Herbert (1830–1861) and Edith, reached adulthood.

Originally intended to teach her own children, Sara Coleridge wrote Pretty Lessons in Verse for Good Children; with some Lessons in Latin in Easy Rhyme (1834, 6th edition 1874), which became very popular. In 1837 she and her husband moved to Chester Place, Regent's Park . In the same year she wrote the delightful poetic fairy tale Phantasmion (1837; new edition by Lord Coleridge, 1874), in which numerous poems were inserted. The lyrical chants contained in Phantasmion were praised by Leigh Hunt and other critics at the time . Some of them like Sylvan Stay and One Face Alone are very melodic.

After the death of her husband in 1843, Sara Coleridge took on the unfinished business of editing her father's works. She also added her own discussions, including her Essay on Rationalism, with a special application to the Doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration as an appendix to the 5th edition of Aids to Reflection (1843), a foreword to the Essays on His Own Times, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge as well as a biographical supplement and detailed notes on the 2nd edition of Biographia Literaria (1847).

Sara Coleridge was chronically ill during the last few years of her life. Shortly before she died of breast cancer in London on May 3, 1852 at the age of 49 , she wrote a short autobiography for her daughter. However, these life memories only last up to the age of nine; they were completed by her daughter Edith and edited together with some of her letters as Memoirs and letters of Sara Coleridge (2 vols., London 1873).

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Sara Coleridge , on Encyclopædia Britannica online
personal data
SURNAME Coleridge, Sara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer and translator
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1802
PLACE OF BIRTH Greta Hall at Keswick , Cumberland
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1852
Place of death London