Cobwebs of criticismA review of the first reviewers of the 'Lake', 'Satanic', and 'Cockney' schools . forbear toquote, in repudiation of the charge, a portion of aletter never meant for the public eye. When SirRobert Peel offered Southey a baronetcy, as an adorn-ment of what he termed the greatest name in Englishliterature/ and eminent men in London urged him toleave his solitude at the foot of Skiddaw, and liveamong them, he wrote to a friend : There is such a comfort in ones old coat and oldhoes, ones own chair and own fireside, ones ownwriting-desk and own library—with a little girl climb-i
Cobwebs of criticismA review of the first reviewers of the 'Lake', 'Satanic', and 'Cockney' schools . forbear toquote, in repudiation of the charge, a portion of aletter never meant for the public eye. When SirRobert Peel offered Southey a baronetcy, as an adorn-ment of what he termed the greatest name in Englishliterature/ and eminent men in London urged him toleave his solitude at the foot of Skiddaw, and liveamong them, he wrote to a friend : There is such a comfort in ones old coat and oldhoes, ones own chair and own fireside, ones ownwriting-desk and own library—with a little girl climb-ing to my neck and saying, Dont go to Londonpapa ; you must stay with Edith—and a little boywhom I have taught to speak the language of cats,dogs, cuckoos, jackdaws, etc., before he can articulatea word of his own—there is such a comfort in allthese things that transportation to London seems aharder punishment than any sins of mine deserve. Shall we not, indeed, drop the curtain gently onsuch a scene ? aBJrf,\yil\\VIKV/KVII^SV>^\-Jl^^^i»^<Jiik.^JJ-^iiJ^\um\\J/n«jm\\^^^^. ?.??^//•;;^/XI!^/* COLERIDGE. MUCH as we now admire the genius of thiswriter, we are none of us amazed when welearn that in his own time he was the subject of merci-less lampoon, and the victim of malignant had he in common with the many personi-fications of pedantry and jealousy that walked theearth in his day in the guise of learning and morality?At his worst and their best—he was erratic, and theywere endowed with the amiable regularity of an^eight-day clock. Coleridge never properly felt the solidearth beneath his feet; he was, indeed, the reverseof Antaeus, and the contact of earth took all strengthout of him. When he did tread the world of actuali-ties, he was constantly caught in tangled realm was above the earth ; it was in the regionwhich an able writer has called Nowhere; andwithin that dreamland of mingled music and colour,in wh
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Keywords: ., bookauthorwordsworthcollection, bookcentury1800, booksubjectengl
