COLERIDGE’S PLAY OF MIND PaintingbyJosephWrightofDerby,1768:‘AnExperimentonaBirdinanAirPump’.CourtesyoftheNationalGallery. Coleridge’s Play of Mind JOHN BEER 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork #JohnBeer2010 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2010 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby theMPGBooksGroup ISBN 978–0–19–957401–8 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Contents Frontispiece ii Abbreviations vii Introduction xi 1. TheMissingPlayground 1 2. FantasticSportiveness 8 3. DancesoftheIntellectandEmotions 21 4. ColeridgeandMackintosh:RevisionaryPoetand Simpering‘Dungfly’ 39 5. Nature,Poetry,andtheVicissitudesofLove 53 6. Coleridge,TomWedgwood,andConceptions oftheMind 68 7. WordsworthianNaturalismandtheColeridgean Sublime 82 8. PublicJournalism,PrivateAffections 102 9. Politics,Principle,andTheFriend 113 10. FascinationsoftheEsoteric 127 11. ThePoetasCritic,CriticasPoet 145 12. Shakespeare’sPlaysofPassion 159 13. MentalEnergies,AncientandModern 172 14. InterinvolvingGuiltandInnocence 187 15. LucencyandFlorescences 203 16. QuestioningClosure 223 17. ‘ObstinateinResurrection’ 238 Bibliography 257 Index 261 This page intentionally left blank Abbreviations BK Blake: Complete Writings, with variant readings, ed. G. Keynes (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; reprinted with additions and corrections in the Oxford Standard Authorsseries,1966). CAR Coleridge,AidstoReflection[1825],ed.JohnBeer,CC9 (Princeton,N.J.andLondon,1993). CBL Coleridge,BiographiaLiteraria[1817],eds.JamesEngell and Walter Jackson Bate, CC 7 (2 vols., Princeton, N.J. andLondon,1983). CBL(1907) Coleridge,BiographiaLiteraria[1817],ed.JohnShawcross (2vols.,Oxford:ClarendonPress,1907). CC TheCollectedWorksofSamuelTaylorColeridge,generaled. Kathleen Coburn, associate ed. Bart Winer (16 vols., Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, and London:Routledge&KeganPaul,1969–2002). CCL The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, general ed. Charles Richard Sanders (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1970– ). CF(1809) Coleridge,TheFriend(28parts,printedandpublishedby J.Brown,andsoldbyMessrs.LongmanandCo.,1809–10). CFriend Coleridge,TheFriend[1809–18],ed.BarbaraRooke,CC 4(2vols.,Princeton,N.J.andLondon,1969). CH Coleridge: The Critical Heritage, ed. J. R. De J. Jackson (2 vols., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970–91). CL Coleridge, Collected Letters, ed. E.L. Griggs (6 vols., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956–71). CLects(1795) Coleridge,Lectures1795:OnPoliticsandReligion,ed.Lewis Patton and Peter Mann, CC 1 (Princeton, N.J. and London,1971). CLects(1808–19) Coleridge, Lectures 1808–1819: On Literature, ed. R.A.Foakes,CC5(2vols.,Princeton,N.J.andLondon, 1987). viii Abbreviations CLects(1818–19) Coleridge,Lectures1818–1819:OntheHistoryofPhilosophy, ed.J.R.DeJ.Jackson,CC 8(2vols.,Princeton,N.J.and London,2000). CLR Coleridge,LiteraryRemains,ed.H.N.Coleridge(4vols., London:Pickering,1834–6). CM Coleridge,Marginalia,eds.GeorgeWhalleyandH.J.Jackson, CC12(6vols.,Princeton,N.J.andLondon,1980–2001). CN Coleridge,Notebooks,eds.KathleenCoburnandAnthony John Harding (5 vols. in 10, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UniversityPress,andLondon:Routledge&KeganPaul, 1959–2002). CNB Coleridge’s MS Notebooks, in the British Library and elsewhere. COM Coleridge,OpusMaximum,ed.ThomasMcFarland,assisted by Nicholas Halmi, CC 15 (Princeton, N.J. and London, 2002). CPL(1949) ThePhilosophicalLectures,HithertoUnpublished,ofSamuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. Kathleen Coburn (London: Pilot Press,1949). CPW(Beer) Coleridge, Poems, ed. J. B. Beer, new edn., Everyman’s Library (London: David Campbell Publishers Ltd. and Random House (UK), 2000). CPW(CC) Coleridge,PoeticalWorks,ed.J.C.C.Mays,CC 16(2(out of6)vols.,Princeton,N.J.andLondon,2001). CPW(EHC) Coleridge, Poetical Works, ed. E. H. Coleridge (2 vols., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912). CShC Coleridge’sShakespeareanCriticism,ed.T.M.Raysor[1936]; Everyman’sLibrary2ndedn.(2vols.,London:J.M.Dent andNewYork:E.P.Dutton,1960). CSWF Coleridge,ShorterWorksandFragments,eds.H.J.Jackson and J. R. De J. Jackson, CC 11 (2 vols., Princeton, N.J. andLondon,1995). CTalker ColeridgetheTalker:ASeriesofContemporaryDescriptions and Comments, eds. Richard W. Armour and Raymond F.Howes(Ithaca,N.Y.:CornellUniversityPress,1940). CTT Coleridge,TableTalk[1835],ed.CarlWoodring,CC14 (2vols.,Princeton,N.J.andLondon,1990). Abbreviations ix CWatchman Coleridge,TheWatchman[1796],ed.LewisPatton,CC 2(Princeton,N.J.andLondon,1970). DQW TheCollectedWritingsofThomasDeQuincey,ed.D.Masson (14vols.,Edinburgh,1889). DWJ Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, ed. E. de Selincourt (2vols.,Oxford:ClarendonPress,1941). GEL GeorgeEliot,Letters,ed.G.S.Haight,Yaleedn.(9vols., NewHaven,Conn.:YaleUniversityPress,1954–78). HCR Henry Crabb Robinson on Books and Their Writers, ed. E. J. Morley (3 vols., London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd.,1938). HW The Complete Works of William Hazlitt, ed. P. P. Howe, after the edition of A. R. Waller and Arnold Glover (21 vols., London: J. M. Dent, 1930–4). KL LettersofJohnKeats,1814–1821,ed.H.E.Rollins(2vols., Cambridge,Mass.:HarvardUniversityPress,1958). KP Poems of John Keats, ed. M. Allott (London: Longman, 1970). LL(Lucas) LettersofCharlesandMaryLamb,ed.E.V.Lucas(3vols., London:J.M.Dent&SonsLtd.,Methuen&Co.Ltd., 1935). LL(Marrs) LettersofCharlesandMaryLamb,ed.EdwinMarrs(3vols.only, Ithaca,N.Y.andLondon:CornellUniversityPress,1976). PMLA PublicationsoftheModernLanguageAssociation. RX John Livingston Lowes, The Road to Xanadu (London: Constable, 1927). TLS TimesLiterarySupplement. WL(1787–1805) TheLettersofWilliamandDorothyWordsworth,TheEarly Years, 1787–1805, ed. E. de Selincourt, 2nd edn., rev. C.L.Shaver(Oxford:ClarendonPress,1967). WL(1806–11) TheLettersofWilliamandDorothyWordsworth,TheMiddle Years,1806–11,ed.E.deSelincourt,2ndedn.,revd.Mary Moorman(2vols.,Oxford:ClarendonPress,1969). WL(1821–53) TheLettersofWilliamandDorothyWordsworth,TheLater Years, 1821–53, ed. E. de Selincourt; 2nd edn., revd. A.G.Hill(4vols.,Oxford:ClarendonPress,1978–88).