Seven lectures on Shakespeare and Milton

Front matter

FRANCES E. BENNETT.

Vr-,

V

Contents

PREFACE ......

Coleridge's first lecture . • .

second lecture .

Part III. King Richard III

KING HENRY VIII.

TROILTJS AND CRESSIDA

CORIOLANUS .

TITUS ANDRONICUS

ROMEO AND JULIET

TIMON OF ATHENS

JULIUS CESAR

MACBETH .

HAMLET

KING LEAR

OTHELLO

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

CYMBEL1NE .

PAGE

PKEFACE.

Before I advert, in some detail, to the character and contents of the ensuing volume, I wish to place in the hands of the reader the following Affidavit, sworn by me, and filed in the Court of Queen's Bench,* in answer to certain charges and insinuations contained in an anonymous tract, published towards the close of last year, entitled " Literary Cookery."

The affidavit (taken in connection with the prefaces to my two editions of " Notes and Emendations to the text of Shakespeare's Plays") to a certain extent explains the whole matter, and renders it unnecessary to notice, in any other way, the particular expressions of a libel, which compelled me, with the utmost reluctance, to apply for a Criminal Information. That species of redress the forms and practice of the Court did not permit me to obtain ; but the Lord Chief Justice took the opportunity of stating his conviction that I had cleared myself from all imputation, adding, in terms too flattering for repetition here, his opinion of me, whom his Lordship

* It was not filed until the beginning of May last, owing to a mistaken notion on the part of my legal friends, that the application founded upon the affidavit having been unsuccessful, it could not be placed upon record in the usual way.

b ii PREFACE.

happened to know, and of my labours in antiquarian literature, with which his Lordship was also acquainted.

AFFIDAVIT.

In the Queen's Bench.

I, John Payne Collier, of Maidenhead, in the County of Berks, Esquire, Barrister-at-law, and one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society of Antiquaries of London, make oath and say : —

1. That in the years 1841, 1842, 1843, and 1844, I prepared for the press and published an edition of the works of Shakespeare : — that in the spring of the year 1849 I purchased of the late Mr. Rodd, of great Newport Street, bookseller, a copy of the second folio of Shakespeare's Plays, bearing the date of, and which I believe was published in the year 1632; and which copy contained, when I so purchased it, a great number of manuscript notes, purporting to be corrections, alterations, and emendations of the original text, made, as I believe, by the same person, and at a period nearly contemporaneous with the publication of the said folio itself.

2. In order that any person interested in the subject might have an opportunity of inspecting the said book, and examining the said manuscript notes, I exhibited the said book to and before the Shakespeare Society, and three times before the Society of Antiquaries, and it was inspected and examined by a great number of persons. The said folio has, since the publication of the volume next hereinafter mentioned, become, and is now, the property of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire.

3. In the year 1852 I published a volume containing some, but not all, of the said manuscript corrections, alterations, and emendations, and a facsimile of a part of one page of the said folio, with the manuscript emendations thereon; and an "Introduction," setting forth the circumstances under which I became possessed of the said folio edition, and which induced me to publish the said volume.

4. In the year 1853 I published a second edition of the said notes and emendations, containing, besides the said " Introduction," a statement, in the form of a Preface to the last-mentioned edition, of facts and circumstances which occurred subsequently to the publication of my first edition of the said " Notes and Emendations," — a copy of which second edition is

PREFACE. iii

now shown to me and marked with the letter A. And I say, that all the statements in the said Preface and Introduction, relative to the discovery, contents, and authenticity of the said folio copy, and the manuscript notes, corrections, alterations, and emendations thereof are true ; and that every note, correction, alteration, and emendation in each of the said two editions, and every word, figure, and sign therein, purporting or professing to be a note, correction, alteration, or emendation of the text, is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, a true and accurate copy of the original manuscript in the said folio copy of 1632 ; and that I have not, in either of the said editions, to the best of my knowledge and belief, inserted a single word, stop, sign, note, correction, alteration, or emendation of the said original text of Shakespeare, which is not a faithful copy of the said original manuscript, and which I do not believe to have been written, as aforesaid, not long after the publication of the said folio copy of the year 1632.

5. In the year 1811, I attended each of a course of fifteen lectures given by the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge on Shakespeare and Milton, and took, in pencil, short-hand notes of the same. These notes I laid aside, and was unable to find any of them until the year 1854, when I removed from Gey's House, Maidenhead, to my present residence at Riverside, Maidenhead. I then discovered the original notes of the first, second, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and twelfth lectures, and also transcripts in long-hand of some of the said notes ; but the notes of the remaining lectures I have never been able to find. I also, about the same time, found the original Prospectus of the said lectures stitched to the fragments of a diary of mine, which is now shown to me, and marked B, and which is in the same state as when I so found it. I do not remember when I put the figures in pencil " 1812 " upon the said Prospectus, or the same figures in ink upon the said Diary ; but the writing of the said figures on each of them is mine. Having discovered the said short-hand notes, I transcribed such of them as had not been before transcribed, for the purpose of sending, and afterwards sent articles thereon, and extracts therefrom, for publication in a periodical called "Notes and Queries," the numbers of which, containing my communications on the subject of the said lectures, are now shown to me, and marked respectively C, D., E., F. ; and I say that the pieces therein purporting to bear my name were written by me, and that the statements therein are true.

6. After I had completed the transcripts of the said lectures, I destroyed

b 2 iv PREFACE.

the original short-hand notes thereof, as being of no value, except the two now produced to me, and marked Gr. and H., which are the original notes taken down by me, from the mouth of the said Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in the year 1811 as aforesaid.

7. Seeing the pencil date " 1812 " on the said Prospectus, and the same date also on my Diary, I assumed that that was the true date. I had no purpose, desire, motive, or intention to misrepresent the date when the said lectures were delivered, and I verily believed, when I sent the said communications for publication in " Notes and Queries," that 1812 was the year in which the said Prospectus was issued, and the said Lectures were delivered. And I say, that in the copy of the Prospectus which I sent for publication in the said "Notes and Queries," I inserted the date 1812 in brackets, for the purpose of indicating that the said date was not part of the Prospectus itself, but was added by me as the year when it was issued. I further say that I never read or saw " Gilman's Life of Coleridge," or De Morgan's Book of Almanacks, mentioned in the pamphlet hereinafter referred to, and marked K, and never referred to, or consulted, any book or authority whatever, upon the subject of the date of the said Lectures; — that I did not know, and had not to my recollection ever heard, when I sent the said communications to the said " Notes and Queries," that any other date than 1812 had been ascribed to the said lectures, or been supposed to be the year of their delivery ; — that my communications to "Notes and Queries" were gratuitous, and my motive for making the same is truly stated in the said communications bearing my name, and contained in the numbers of the said Periodical hereinbefore referred to.

8. The reference in page 58 of the said " Notes and Queries," No. 247, to the lecture therein called the third, was intended by me of the third in my possession, being the sixth of the said course of Lectures : and I say that the word " scientific " in the copy of the Prospectus of 1818, printed in the said " Notes and Queries," No. 245, page 22, is either an error in copying, or a misprint for the word " specific," but I cannot state which, as the original manuscript of the said article, sent by me to the Editor of the said " Notes and Queries," has, as I am informed and believe, been destroyed.

9. On the 21st day of November, 1855, I was first informed of, and first saw the pamphlet now shown to me, and marked K ; and I say that the statements and imputations therein contained refer to me, and to my said Editions of the said " Notes and Emendations to the text of Shakespeare's

PREFACE. v

Plays," and my said notes and publications in the said "Notes and Queries "

relating to the said Lectures, and that the said statements and imputations,

except so far as relates to the mere inaccuracy of date, and of the words in

the eighth paragraph of this my Affidavit mentioned, are wholly, and I

believe maliciously, false.

(Signed) JOHN PAYNE COLLIER.

Sworn at the Judge's Chambers, Rolls Garden, Chancery Lane, this eighth day of January, 1856, before me, Wm. Clark, a Commissioner, &e.

As it is probable tbat few of my readers will have seen the pamphlet entitled " Literary Cookery," more especially as it was withdrawn from circulation, when it was known that it was about to be made the subject of a judicial proceeding, it may be fit for me to say something in farther explanation of portions of my affidavit. I will first advert to those paragraphs which particularly relate to Coleridge's seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton, and which fill about the first half of the succeeding sheets.

The Lectures are, as nearly as possible, transcripts of my own short-hand notes, taken at the close of the year 1811, and at the opening of the year 1812. My father taught me at an early age the use of abbreviated characters, and I hardly know any species of instruction that, in after-life, has stood me in greater stead. It has, it is true, made ordinary writing more wearisome ; but, in as much as we have not yet arrived at the period when people will be sensible of the absurdity of persevering in the present dilatory and complicated method, I have been obliged to conform to the established practice. If printers could have decyphered my marks and symbols, as they really might have done (and as I learned them) by a very brief study, I should have been spared an infinity of labour in my time.

vi PREFACE.

Among other things, I should have had to do little more than hand over to an intelligent compositor my notes of Coleridge's Lectures, ■with some obvious corrections, instead of having had to write out the whole of them hy a tedious and irksome process.

Knowing the great advantage of short-hand, I say this, not at all as a matter of complaint, or even of regret, but with a view to induce fathers of families to have their children taught stenography with as much diligence as they are now instructed in any other branch of knowledge. Only let us once agree upon a system — let the simplest and the clearest be ascertained and preferred, — and we may soon make this mode of recording thoughts or opinions in some sort compete with the rapidity of railroads, and almost with the lightning of the telegraph.

This topic is not altogether beside the subject, because, as my affidavit serves to show, some persons have, not long since, more than insinuated that my notes of the Lectures of Samuel I Taylor Coleridge are pure inventions ; and as they maintain that he never uttered such criticisms on Shakespeare and Milton, they may easily go the farther length of insisting that I never wrote short-hand, and, therefore, could never have taken down what I assert was delivered. I am fully aware that my memoranda, of forty-five years standing, are more or less imperfect : of some of the Lectures I appear to have made only abridged sketches : of others my notes are much fuller and more extended ; but I am certain, even at this distance of time, that I did not knowingly register a sentence, that did not come from Coleridge's lips, although doubtless I missed, omitted, and mistook points and passage's, which now I should have been most rejoiced to have preserved. In completing

PREFACE. vii

my transcripts, however, I have added no word or syllable of my own; and with regard to the whole I may be permitted to observe, that it is a compliment I heartily wish I merited, to have it supposed (as must have been supposed by the writer of " Literary Cookery,") that I possess taste, knowledge and originality, sufficient for the composition of such productions. Many of the Lecturer's opinions will, I apprehend, be new, even to those who, at this day, are best acquainted with his works.*

I was a very young man when I attended the Lectures in question ; but I was not only an enthusiast in all that related to Shakespeare and his literary contemporaries, but a warm admirer of Coleridge, and a firm believer in his power of opening my faculties to the comprehension, and enjoyment of poetry, in a degree beyond anything that I had then experienced. I had seen something of him, and had heard more about him; and when my father proposed that all his family, old enough to profit by them, should attend the Lectures advertised in 1811, I seized the opportunity with eagerness. The series was delivered extemporaneously (almost without the assistance of notes) in a large room at what was • called The Scot's Corporation Hall, in Crane Court, Fleet Street; and on applying for tickets, Coleridge sent us a copy of his prospectus, which, many years afterwards I was glad

* I should, perhaps, state, that I have referred to none of Coleridge's subsequent publications to ascertain whether he has there broached, modified, or altered any of his opinions. Some points, in the two volumes of his " Literary Remains," 1836, may possibly accord; but, although I have them by me, I have purposely not consulted them with reference to my present transcripts, since my object was to give Coleridge's sentiments precisely as, I believe, they were pronounced in 1811-12.

viii PREFACE.

to see I had accidentally preserved, and which was in the following form : —

LONDON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,

SCOTS CORPORATION HALL, CRANE COURT, FLEET STREET,

(ENTRANCE FROM FETTER LANE.J

MR. COLERIDGE

WILL COMMENCE

ON MONDAY, NOV. 18th, A COURSE OF LECTURES ON SHAKESPEAR AND MILTON,

IN ILLUSTRATION OF

THE PRINCIPLES OF POETRY,

AND THEIR

Application as Grounds of Criticism to the most popular Works of later English Poets, those of the Living included.

After an introductory Lecture on False Criticism, (especially in Poetry,) and on its Causes : two thirds of the remaining course, will be assigned, 1st, to a philosophic Analysis and Explanation of all the principal Characters of our great Dramatist, as Othello, Falstaff, Richard 3d, Iago, Hamlet, &c. : and 2nd, to a critical Comparison of Shakespear, in respect of Diction, Imagery, management of the Passions, Judgment in the construction of his Dramas, in short, of all that belongs to him as a Poet, and as a dramatic Poet, with his contemporaries, or immediate successors, Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Ford, Massinger, &e. in the endeavour to determine what of Shakespear's Merits and Defects are common to him with other Writers of the same age, and what remain peculiar to his own Genius.

The Course will extend to fifteen Lectures, which will be given on Monday and Thursday evenings successively. The Lectures to commence at 4 past 7 o'clock.

Single Tickets for the whole Course, 2 Guineas ; or 3 Guineas with the privilege of introducing a Lady : may be procured at J. Hatchard's, 190, Piccadilly ; J. Murray's, Fleet Street ; J. and A. Arch's, Booksellers and Stationers, Cornhill; Godwin's Juvenile Library, Skinner Street ; W. Pople's, 67, Chancery Lane ; or by Letter (post paid) to Mr. S. T. Coleridge, J. J. Morgan's, Esq. No. 7, Portland Place, Hammersmith.

W. Pople, Printer, Chancery Lane, London.

PREFACE. ix

It will be seen that the only date given is "Monday Nov. 18th," without the addition of the year; and when, in July and August 1854, I sent some brief quotations from these Lectures to the Editor of '.' Notes and Queries," looking at the Prospectus and seeing my figures "1812" in pencil upon it, and finding also that in a Diary I then kept, I had written the same year in ink, I concluded, without farther inquiry, that that date was correct. At what remote period I wrote either the pencil figures, or those in ink, is not very material : suffice it to say, that I could have no reason, nor intention, to misstate the fact, since 1811 would have suited my purpose quite as well, or even better, than 1812 ; and when I transmitted my first communication to the periodical I have named (for which, and for the rest, I never dreamed of remuneration) for the sake merely of clearness I added " 1812" in brackets, in this form, "November 18th (1812)," thereby meaning, that the figures were no part of the document as it had been issued. Such was a very usual course, and I apprehended that it would be well understood. ►

Nevertheless, in Gilman's incomplete Life of S. T. Coleridge (which I never saw until a short time ago) it was stated that the Lectures were delivered in 1811; and those figures were placed after " November 18th," without brackets, and just as if they had been so printed in the Prospectus. Upon this circumstance a charge has been got up against me, that I inserted " (1812)" for the purpose of deceiving the reader, and that as no Lectures were delivered by Coleridge in 1812, I must have fabricated my communications to " Notes and Queries," and pahned upon its readers my own notions as the dicta of the poet-critic.

x PREFACE.

The truth is, that Mr. Gilman no more meant to deceive about the year, when he incautiously made it seem as if 1811 had stood in the original Prospectus, than I did when I erroneously supposed that 1812 was the date, and for greater caution placed those figures between brackets. Mr. Gilman was right in his date, but wrong in his mode of printing it : I was wrong in my date, but right in my mode of printing it.

As to the mere matter of fact, I was nearly as correct as Mr. Gilman; for, although the Lectures began in 1811, they did not end until 1812. They commenced on November 18th, at the rate of two in each week ; so that, supposing Coleridge not to have been at all interrupted, either by indisposition or by the usual festivities of Christmas, the series of fifteen Lectures could not have been concluded until near the middle of January, 1812. What really happened in this respect I cannot remember : I know nobody alive to whom I can appeal ; but my strong persuasion is, that Coleridge was obliged several times to break in upon the regularity of his course. My original memoranda give me no light upon the point, because they are severally headed " Coleridge's First Lecture," " Second Lecture," &c, without date of the day or year. I have little doubt that the last Lecture was not delivered until February, or even March, and that when I wrote "1812" upon the Prospectus, and in my Diary, I referred to the time when the series had been concluded.

But, really and truly, this is a point on which it would be most unreasonable to expect any third person to take the slightest interest ; and I can only excuse my notice of it on the score, that the supposed error in date has been made the

PEEFACE. xi

ground of serious imputation against me, with reference to Coleridge's Lectures.

My original notes, therefore, were taken at the close of 1811 and at the opening of 1812. I endeavoured in the interval between each lecture to transcribe them ; but, from other avocations, I was unable to keep pace with the delivery, and at the termination of the course I must have been considerably in arrear : while I am writing I have two of my short-hand books (sheets of paper stitched together) before me, which remained undecyphered from 1812 until 1854, — a period of forty-two years. During the whole time I did not know what had become of any of them. I attended another course by the same lecturer in 1818, of which I had taken and preserved only a few scattered excerpts ; and I cannot call to mind whether, even at that date, my notes of the previous lectures of 1811-12 were forthcoming. I know that I afterwards searched for them several times unsuccessfully; and with great diligence about the year 1842, when I was engaged in preparing a new edition of Shakespeare, to which I apprehended the opinions of Coleridge on the different plays would have been an important recommendation. I again failed to find them, and in 1850 I took up my residence in the country, carrying with me only such furniture as I required, and among it a double chest of drawers, in the highest part of which I subsequently discovered some of, but, I lament to say, by no means all, my lost notes. Even these were not brought to light until I was preparing to remove to my present residence, and was employing myself in turning out waste paper and worthless relics from every receptacle.

As doubt, however unfairly and unjustifiably, has been cast xii PREFACE.

on my re-acquisition of these materials, I will just state, with some iDarticularity, of what they consist.

1. Several brochures and fragments of a Diary in my own handwriting, not at all regularly kept, and the earliest entry in which is 10th October, without the year, but unquestionably 1811.

2. Five other small brochures, containing partial transcripts, in long-band, of Coleridge's first, second, sixth, and eighth lectures.

3. Several brochures, and parts of brochures, of my original short-hand notes, two of which (those of the ninth and twelfth lectures) were complete, but entirely untranscribed.

On turning out these papers from the upper drawer, where they must have been deposited for many years, I looked anxiously for the rest of the series of Lectures, but in vain, and to this day I have recovered no more. I announced the fact of my " find " to the editor of " Notes and Queries " — sent him a copy of the prospectus with the mistaken date of " 1812," and subsequently furnished him with several short extracts from the Lectures themselves. In the meantime I had employed myself in collating my early transcripts with such of the original short-hand notes as I had recovered, and in transcribing the ninth and twelfth Lectures, which still remained in their original state. The early transcripts were not in the first person : they, as it were, narrated the observations and criticisms of Coleridge, with constant repetitions of "he said," "he remarked," " he quoted," &c. On the other hand, my original notes, taken down from the lips of the Lecturer, were, of course, in the first person, — " I beg you to .observe," " it is my opinion," " we are struck," &c. I there-

PREFACE. siii

fore re-wrote the whole, comparing nay recovered transcripts with my short-hand notes (where I had them) as I proceeded, and putting the earliest Lectures, as well as the latest, in the first instead of the third person ; thus making them consistent with each other, and more conformable to the very words Coleridge had employed.

These are what are now offered to the reader. I cannot but be sensible of their many and great imperfections : they are, I am sure, full of omissions, owing in some degree to want of facility on my part; in a greater degree, perhaps, to a mistaken estimate of what it was, or was not, expedient to minute ; and in no little proportion to the fact, that in some cases I relied upon my recollection to fill up chasms in my memoranda. A few defects may be attributed to the inconvenience of my position among other auditors (though the Lectures were not always very fully attended), and others to the plain fact, that I was not unfrequently so engrossed, and absorbed by the almost inspired look and manner of the speaker, that I was, for a time, incapable of performing the mechanical duty of writing. I present my notes merely as they are, doing, I know, great injustice to the man and to the subject, but at the same time preserving many criticisms, observations, and opinions, well worthy of attention from their truth, their eloquence, and their originality.

I wish I could say that any of them had been corrected, or even seen, by Coleridge ; but, although I was often in his company afterwards, I never ventured to show him a single sentence I had written.

As a general rule I am strongly opposed to the publication of diaries, which usually contain observations and criticisms on xiv PREFACE.

persons, events and books, made and offered in the confidence of private society : they never ought to be printed without great caution as regards the living, and great delicacy as regards the dead. It so happens that not one of the persons, whose names are introduced in my Diary, is now alive ; and as all I print can do no other injury to their memories than what may arise from my inadequate narration, I may perhaps be permitted to make a few quotations in the words I find written with my own hand about five-and-forty years ago. I adopt this course, because I am anxious to preserve all that relates to Coleridge, and to some others, his near friends, into whose company I happened then to fall.

My first note in which Coleridge is mentioned bears date on the 13th October- — as I presume 1811 ; but I am without any guide as to the year, beyond the fact that it appears to have been the 13th October, immediately preceding the 18th November, when Coleridge began his Lectures. My entries are the following : —

" Sunday, 12>th Oct. — I mentioned, a few pages back, having been in company with Godwin for several hours, and not having heard him say a single word that I cared to remember.*

* This was the first time I had seen Godwin, but I often met him afterwards. He was a small man, with a large handsome bald head, and a sweet voice, which was seldom applied even to the purposes of conversation ; he was generally silent in company, and when he did speak, it was to give vent, perhaps, to some common-place remark. He was in another respect the very opposite of Coleridge : he was not always charitable in his estimate of what fell from others. His tone was sarcastic, and I fancied he found pleasure in the trips and stumbles that others made in society. He was not unfrequently at Lamb's chambers in Inner Temple Lane, but the whist-table absorbed his attention. There was something, to me, disagreeable in his laugh, because it seemed not produced by natural hilarity and cheerfulness. I may be wrong in my estimate of Godwin, but I give what struck me at the time.

PREFACE. xv

Two or three months ago I was in Coleridge's company for the first time : I have seen him on various occasions since, to my great delight and surprise. I was delighted with his gentle manners and unaffected good humour, and especially with his kindness and considerateness for young people : I was surprised by the variety and extent of his knowledge, displayed and enlivened by so much natural eloquence. All he says is without effort, but not unfrequ entry with a sort of musical hum, and a catching of his breath at the end, and sometimes in the middle, of a sentence, enough to make a slight pause, but not so much as to interrupt tbe flow of his language. He never disdains to talk on the most familiar topics, if they seem pleasing to others.

"In a conversation at my father's, a little while since, he gave the following character of Falstaff, which I wrote down very soon after it was delivered.