The Bristol Library Borrowings of Southey and Coleridge, 1793-80

A public library existed in Bristol in the fifteenth century but was destroyed by fire in 1466.  The modern Bristol City Library was founded in 1613 by Robert Redwood, a building being erected for it in King Street in the following year.  The library was enlarged in 1640, but there is a long gap in its history until in 1740 the old building was replaced by a new one.  Thereafter the Library fell into disuse and was farmed out by an indolent council to a closed subscription association constituted in January 1773 under the name of the Bristol Library Society.  The Society took custody of the City Library books, and on 1 July of the same year opened its reading-room in the City Library premises with a membership of 132 subscribers.  Thanks to generous contributions of books, and an energetic and open-minded policy of acquisition, the Society accumulated a fine collection of eighteenth-century and standard works which circulated with remarkable velocity among its members.[1]  In 1855 the Society removed its books to another building, and the City Library was revived in its function as a free public library.  When the City Library was moved to College Green in 1906 a replica of the King Street reading-room was built in the new building, incorporating the original eighteenth-century presses, a pair of doors, and the Grinling Gibbons chimney-piece.[2]

The discovery of the Bristol Library Society Registers was announced in 1889.  James Baker published a summary of their contents in 1890 and again in 1908.[3]  In 1924 Paul Kaufman issues a list of the Southey and Coleridge entries to repair the incompleteness and ‘deplorable inaccuracies’ of Baker’s list.[4]  John Livingston Lowes used Kaufman’s list in manuscript, in preparing the first (1927) edition of The Road to Xanadu; and in the revised edition corrected one of Kaufman’s errors after himself examining the Registers in Bristol.[5]

The Registers of the Bristol Library Society are of peculiar interest in that they preserve the only continuous record of the early collaboration of Southey and Coleridge.  Southey’s first borrowing is dated nearly two years before he first met Coleridge.  When Coleridge returned his last book, almost three years after the venture with Southey had broken down, the three great poems of his annus mirabilis had been written, the Wordsworths were about to leave Alfoxden, and Lyrical Ballads was in the press.  Kaufman’s list is inaccurate in some details and his silent editorial manipulation is misleading.  Because Lowes’s pioneer work has by no means exhausted the implications of the Bristol Library borrowings, the following transcript has been abstracted from the Registers.[6]

The entries for 1793 and 1794 in the following list are all Southey’s: those for 1796, 1797, and 1798 are all Coleridge’s.  Any attempt to separate the entries made during the spring of 1795 produces equivocal and confusing results: these entries are therefore listed in chronological order of borrowing as they appear in Volumes xi and xii of the Register.  The identity of each item is established by reference to the Catalogue of the Bristol Library Society, 1798, and in most cases by an examination of the books themselves, which still bear their eighteenth-century press-marks.[7]  The title of each book is cited fully enough to give some indication of the contents without further annotation.

For comparison and as additional source material, some account is given in the Appendix of the library transactions of some of Southey’s and Coleridge’s associates in Bristol – Robert Lovell, Joseph and Amos Cottle, John Prior Estlin, and the brothers Pinney.

LIST OF BORROWINGS[8]

1793

Southey

(1)       22-5 Oct.  Enfield’s History of Philosophy, Vol. I.

(2)       25-8 Oct.  Enfield’s history of Philosophy, Vol 2^nd

ENFIELD, William.  The History of Philosophy, from the earliest times to the beginning

of the present century; drawn up from Brucker’s Historia Critica Philosophiae,

&c. 2 vols.  1791.  4°.

            Kaufman gives the date of return at 13 November, reading the entry immediately

preceding.

(3)       28 Oct.-4 Nov.  Gilliesses history of Greece Vol 2^nd

GILLIES, John.  The History of Ancient Greece…from the earliest accounts, till the

division of the Macedonian Empire…including the history of literature,philosophy,

and the fine arts.  2 vols.  1786.  4°.

(4)       4-18 Nov.  Smiths Wealth of Nations Vol 1^st

(5)       18-25 Nov.  Smith on the Wealth of Nations Vol 2^nd

            SMITH, Adam.  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.  2 vols. 

1776.  4°.

(6)       25-8 Nov.  Godwyn on Political Justice Vol 1^st

GODWIN, William.  An Enquiry concerning Political Justice and its influence on

general virtue and happiness.  2 vols.  1793.  4°.

(7)*     29 Nov.-2 Dec.  Gilpins Forest Scenery.  Vol. 1^st

GILPIN, William.  Remarks on Forest Scenery, and other Woodland Views (relative

chiefly to Picturesque Beauty), illustrated by the Scenes of New-Forest in Hampshire. 

2 vols.  1791.  8°.

By misreading ‘Mr. Rothley’ and ‘Mr. Southey’ Kaufman includes ‘Robertson’s

Topographical Survey, Vol I’ after Entry 6.

(8)       2-9 Dec.  Gilpins Observa^ns on the Mountains & Lakes of Cumberland &c Vol 1

            GILPIN, William.  Observations relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty,…particularly the

Mountains and Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland.  2 vols.  1788.  8°.

(9)       9-18 Dec.  Godwin on Political Justice Vol 2^nd

            In 1811 Coleridge acknowledged that Southey had first drawn his attention to Godwin’s

            Political Justice (Biographia Epistolaris, ii. 70).  Coleridge read the book in October 1794

            (Letters, E. H. Coleridge, i. 91).  There is an undated set of jottings on a reading of this

             work in the Gutch Memorandum Book (ff. 55^v-56).

(10)     18-20 Dec.  Wollstonecraft’s rights of Woman

WOLLSTONECRAFT, Mary, later GODWIN.  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman:

&c. Vol. i [all published].  1792.  8°.

            Southey dedicated his Triumph of Woman to Mary Wollstonecraft in 1795, but did not

meet her until March or April 1797.

(11)     20-3 Dec.  Headly’s ancient English Poetry Vol 1^st

            HEADLEY, Henry.  Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry, with remarks, &c.  2 vols. 

1787.  8°.

(12)     23-7 Dec.  Cowper’s Homer Vol 1^st

(13)     27-30 Dec.  Cowper’s Homer Vol 2^nd Odyssey &c

COWPER, William.  The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, translated into English blank

verse, &c.  2 vols.  1791.  4°.

(14)     30 Dec.-13 Jan.  Gilpin’s Forest Scenery Vol 2^nd

1794

Southey

(15)     14-27 Jan.  Polwhele’s Theocritus

POLWHELE, Richard.  The Idyllia of Theocritus, Bion and Moschus with the Elegies of

Tyrtaeus: with dissertations and notes, &c.  Exeter, 1786.  4°.

Poems by Bion [Southey] and Moschus [Lovell] was published in Bath in 1794.  For

Coleridge’s comment, see Letters, i. 110.

(16)     29 Jan.-10 Feb.  Gillies’s History of Greece Vol 1^st

(17)     10 Feb.-26Mar.  Hooke’s Roman History Vol 1^st

HOOKE, Nathaniel.  The Roman History from the Building of Rome to the Ruin of the

Commonwealth.  4 vols.  1770-1.  4°.

(18)     26-31 Mar.  Mitfords history of Greece Vol 1^st

MITFORD, William.  The History of Greece.  5 vols.  1789-1818.  4°.  [Of which the

Society held only vols. i and ii.]

(19)     31 Mar.-30 Apr.  Gillies’s History of Greece Vol 2^nd

(20)     30 Apr.-7 May.  Gast’s History of Greece

GAST, John.  History of Greece from the accession of Alexander…until its final

subjection to the Roman power.  1782.  4°.

(21)     8 July-7 Aug.  Hartley on Man Vol. I.

            Coleridge and Southey met in Oxford on or about 11 June 1794.

(22)     7-22 Aug.  Hartley on Man Vol. 2^d.

HARTLEY, David.  Observations on Man, his frame, his duty, and his expectations.  2
            pts.  1749.  8°.

(23)     22 Aug.-1 Sept.  Coxes travels into Pol. &c V. I.

(24)     1-5 Sept.  Cox’s Travels into Poland &c Vol 2^nd

COXE, William.  Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark.  3 vols.  1784-90.  4°. 

For Southey’s reading of Scandinavian literature and travels, see H. G. Wright,

‘Southey’s Relations with Finland and Scandinavia’, Modern Language Review,

vol. xxvii (1932), pp. 149-67.

(25)     5-10 Sept.  Cartwrights Journal V I

(26)     10-16 Sept.  Cartwright’s Journal Vol 2^nd

(27)     16-18 Sept.  Cartwright’s Journal Vol. 3^d

CARTRIGHT, George.  A Journal of Transactions and Events, during a Residence of

nearly sixteen years on the Coast of Labrador, &c.  3 vols.  Newark, 1792.  4°.

Comparison of this date with Southey’s Commonplace Book, iv. 515 raises a query about

the date of Coleridge’s departure from Bath for London and Cambridge.

(28)     18-22 Sept.  Clavigero’s Hist. of Mexico Vol. I.

(29)     22-3 Sept.  Clavigero’s History of Mexico Vol 2^nd

CLAVIGERO, Francisco Saverio.  The History of Mexico.  Collected from Spanish and

Mexican historians, from manuscripts, and ancient paintings of the Indians…

Translated by Charles Cullen, &c.  2 vols.  1797.  4°.

(30)     23-5 Sept.  Helvetius’s Child of Nature &c.  V. I.

HELVÉTIUS, Claude Adrien, pseud.  The Child of Nature improved by Chance.  A

philosophical novel.  2 vols.  1774.  12°.

(31)*   25-6 Sept.  Boydes Dante.  Vol. 1^st

(32)     26 Sept.-24 Oct.  Boyds’s Dante Vol 2^nd

BOYD, Henry.  A translation of the Inferno of Dante Alighieri, in English verse, with

historical notes and the Life of Dante [from Aretino]…[with] a specimen of a new

translation of the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto.  2 vols.  1785.  8°.

(33)*   3-29 Oct.  Lillo’s Works.  Vol. 2

            LILLO, George.  The Works of Mr. George Lillo, &c.  2 vols.  1775.  8.

(34)*   3 Nov.-28 Jan.  Holinsheds Chronicle –

           HOLINSHED, Raphael.  The First (Laste) Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and

            Irelande, &c.  3 vols [in one].  1577.  F°.  Kaufman reads the date of return as 26 January.

1795

(35)     Southey

            1-21 Jan.  Williams’s Observations on the Discovery of America

WILLIAMS, John.  Farther Observations on the discovery of America by Prince Madog

ab Owen Gwynedd…containing the Account of a Welsh tribe now living in the

Western parts of North America, &c.  1792.  8°.

(36)     Southey

            21 Jan.-27 Mar.  Hartley’s Observ^ns on Man.  Vol 1^st

            Kaufman omits this entry.

(37)     Southey (in Lovell’s hand)

            28 Jan.-26 Feb.  Carte’s Hist of Engl^d, Vol 4

            CARTE, Thomas.  A General History of England from the earliest times (to A. D. 1654).

            4 vols.  1747-55.  F°. 

            Entry endorsed ‘Letter Mar^h: 25’.  See also Appendix.

(38)*   Coleridge

            2-10 Mar.  Poetical Tracts Vol. 3.

[Miscellaneous Poems, a set of three volumes bound up by the Library.  Vol. iii contains:

Thomas Russell, Sonnets and Miscellaneous Poems (Oxford, 1789); [William Crowe],

Lewesdon Hill (Oxford, 1788); John Sargent, The Mine (1785); H. M. Williams, Peru,

a poem (1784); Hannah More, Florio (1786) and Slavery (1788); W. J. Mickle, Almada

Hill (Oxford, 1781); Ann Yearsley, Poems on several occasions (1785) and Poems on

the inhumanity of the slave trade (1788).]

(39)*   Southey

            5-23 Mar.  Mitfords Hist of Greece.  V. I

(40)*   Coleridge

            19-23 Mar.  Gast’s Hist. of Greece Vol

            Kaufman reads the date of return as 29 March – a Sunday.

(41)*   Coleridge

            23 Mar.-6 Apr.  Young’s (Ed) Works.  Vol 5^th.

            YOUNG, Edward.  The Works &c.  6 vols.  1774-8.  12°.

Coleridge has entered the title precisely as it appears in the 1798 Catalogue.  Entries 41

and 42 are separated by an entry in another hand.

(42)*   Southey

            23-7 Mar.  Fergusons Rom. Republic.  Vol. I

            FERGUSON, Adam.  The History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman
                        Republic.  3 vols.  1783.  4°.

(43)*   Coleridge

            27 Mar.-6 Apr.  Enfield’s Hist. of Philosophy Vol. 1^st

(44)     Southey (in Coleridge’s hand)

            27 Mar.-14 Apr.  Priestley’s Corruptions Vol. 1^st

PRIESTLEY, Joseph.  An History of the Corruptions of Christianity.  2 vols.
            Birmingham, 1782.  8°.

Kaufman places this entry in Southey’s list as well as in Coleridge’s, writing for Southey,

‘Priestley’s Corruption of Man, Vol. I’, and for Coleridge, ‘“Priestley’s Corruption [of Man],

Vol I” (signing Southey’s name for this)’.

(45)*   Southey

            6-9 Apr.  Burns Poems

            BURNS, Robert.  Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.  1787.  8°.

(46)     Coleridge (in Southey’s hand)

            6-14 Apr.  Robertsons Charles 5^th.  Vol. I

ROBERTSON, William.  The History of the Reign of Charles V., with a view of the

Progress of Society in Europe, from the subversion of the Roman Empire to the

beginning of the sixteenth century.  4 vols.  1772.  8°.

            The published topic of Southey’s eighth Historical Lecture was ‘History of Europe

             the Abdication of the Emperor Charles the Fifth’.  Announced for 7 April, the lecture

             was delivered on the 10^th.

(47)*   Southey

            13 Apr.-18 May.  Hist. of Paraguay

            CHARLEVOIX, Pierre François Xavier de.  The History of Paraguay…written originally

             in French.  [Abridged.]  2 vols.  1769.  8°.

(48)*   Coleridge

            13-20 Apr.  Mosheim – Vol. 3^rd

            MOSHEIM, Johann Lorenz von.  An Ecclesiastical History,… Translated… with… notes…

            by A. Maclaine.  5 vols.  1758, &c.  8°.

Entries 47 and 48 do not appear consecutively in the Register.  Kaufman misplaces Entry

48 in March 1795.

(49)*   Southey

            16-20 Apr.  Raynals European Settlements.  Vol. 5.

            RAYNAL, Guillaume Thomas François.  A Philosophical and Political History of the

            Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies.  Translated by J.

            Justamond.  5 vols.  1776.  8°.

(50)*   Coleridge

            20-7 Apr.  Burnet’s History of his own time Vol. I

(51)     Southey (in Coleridge’s hand)

            20-7 Apr.  Ditto.  Vol. 2

            BURNET, Gilbert.  Bishop Burnet’s History of My Own Time.  2 vols.  1724, 1734.  F°.

(52)*   Coleridge

            27 Apr.-12 May.  History of George the third Vol. 2^nd

(53)     Southey (in Coleridge’s hand)

            27 Apr.-12 May. – Ditto Vol. 3^rd

            [MACFARLANE, Robert.]  History of the Reign of George the Third.  3 vols.  1770-94. 
                        8°.

(54)*   Southey

            4 May-1 June.  Fuller’s Worthies –

            FULLER, Thomas.  The History of the Worthies of England, &c.  1662.  F°.

            A pencil note on this entry, erased and almost wholly illegible, reads: ‘N. B. […] Southey

(?) returned (?) by me 1^st June’.

(55)*   Coleridge

            15 May-1 June.  Cudworth’s Intellectual System

            CUDWORTH, Ralph.  The True Intellectual System of the University: The first part; wherein

            All the reason and philosophy of atheism is Confuted, and Its impossibility Demonstrated…

            Edited by T. Birch, &c.  1743.  4°.

            Kaufman reads the date of return as 6 June – a Saturday.

(56)*   Coleridge

            18 May-11 June.  Balguy & Sturges

BALGUY, John.  Divine Benevolence Asserted and Vindicated from the Objections of

Ancient and Modern Sceptics.  1781.  8°.  [And in the same volume]

            STURGES, J.  Considerations on the Present State of the Church Establishment &c. 1779.  8°.

(57)     Southey (in Coleridge’s hand)

            18 May-1 June.  Maclaurin’s Newton

            MACLAURIN, Colin.  An Account of Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophical Discoveries, &c. 

1748.  4°.

(58)*   Coleridge

            1-11 June.  Paley’s Evidences Vol. I.

PALEY, William.  A View of the Evidences of Christianity, &c.  2 vols.  1794.  8°.

(59)*   Coleridge

            1-11 June.  Michaelis Vol. 1^st

(60)     Southey (in Coleridge’s hand)

            1-11 June.  Michaelis Vol. 2^nd

MICHAELIS, Johann David.  Introduction to the New Testament, translated… [and]

augmented…by Herbert Marsh.  2 vols.  Cambridge, 1793.  8°.

(61)*   Coleridge

            15-25 June.  Clarkson on the Slave Trade

           CLARKSON, Thomas.  An Essay on the Impolicy of the African Slave Trade.  In two

           parts.  1788.  8°.

           Coleridge’s lecture on the Slave Trade was advertised for 16 June.  In the printed version

           of the lecture (The Watchman, no. iv) he cites both Raynal (Entry 49) and Wadström (Entry 62).

(62)     Southey (in Coleridge’s hand, signing Southey’s name after striking out his own)

            15-25 June.  Wadstrom on Colonization

            WADSTRÖM, Carl Bernhard.  An Essay on Colonization, particularly applied to the Western

            Coast of Africa, &c.  1794-5.  4°.

(63)*   Southey

            13-29 July.  Edda Saemundina

            EDDA SÆMUNDAR hinns Fróda.  [3 vols.]  Hafniae, 1787, [1818, 1828].  4°.

Kaufman gives the date of return as 16 July, reading the entry immediately preceding.

(64)*   Coleridge

            14 July-7 Aug.  Edward’s West-Indies Vol. 2

            EDWARDS, Bryan.  The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West

            Indies.  2 vols.  1793-4.  4°.

(65)*   Coleridge

            21 July-21 Sept.  Rowley’s Poems.  Cambridge Edition.

            ROWLEY, Thomas [i.e. CHATTERTON, Thomas].  Poems, supposed to have been written at

            Bristol, by Thomas Rowley, and others, in the fifteenth century. [Edited by Lancelot Sharpe.] 

            Cambridge, 1794.  8°.

            The first 129 lines of Coleridge’s revised ‘Monody on the Death of Chatterton’ were first

published in this edition.  Sharpe’s preface is dated 20 July 1794.

(66)*   Southey

            10 Aug.-14 Oct.  D. Herbelot Bibliotheque Orientale.

            D’HERBELOT, Barthélemy.  Bibliothèque Orientale ou Dictionaire Universel contenant gènèralement

            tout ce qui regarde la connoissance des peoples de l’Orient, &c.  [With a Supplement by Visdelou

            and Galand, on China and Tartary.]  Maestritcht, 1776-80.  F°.

            Coleridge and Wordsworth probably met for the first time in Bristol early in September 1795. 

            Coleridge married Sarah Fricker on 4 October; Southey married Edith Fricker on 14 November.

(67)*   Southey

            14 Oct.-12 Nov.  Edda Saemundina.

Coleridge

(68)*   19-19 Oct.  Carmina Quadrages.  Vol. II^nd

CARMINA QUADRAGESIMALIA.  Poetical Miscellanies.  2 vols.  Oxford, 1723-48. 8°.  [Vol. iii was

published in 1830.]

(69)*   25 Nov.-23 Dec.  Burgh’s Pol. Disquisitions Vol 1 and 2nd

            BURGH, James.  Political Disquisitions: or, an Enquiry into public errors, defects, and

abuses, &c.  3 vols.  1774-5.  8°.

            The immediately succeeding entry is for the third volume of Burgh, Coleridge signing for

Joseph Cottle.  See also Appendix.

(70)*   23-23 Dec.  Essay on Material World

            [RUSSEL, —.]  Essay on the Nature and Existence of a Material World.  1781.  8°.

(71)*   24 Dec.-8 Jan.  Akenside’s Poems

            AKENSIDE, Mark.  The Poems of Mark Akenside, &c.  1772.  8°.

(72)*   30 Dec.-28 Jan.  Poetical Tracts Vol. 3^rd

1796

Coleridge

(73)*   6 Jan.-24 Feb.  Ossian’s Poems I and IInd Vol.

            [MACPHERSON, James.]  The Poems of Ossian, translated by James Macpherson, &c.

            2 vols.  1773.  8°.

            Entry endorsed ‘take [n] Feb^y 11 and Feb. 23^d’.

(74)     26 Feb.-10 Mar.  Annual Register for 1782 & 83

            THE ANNUAL REGISTER; Or a View of the History, Politicks and Literature of the year,

            &c. 32 vols.  1758-90.  8°.

            Lowes does not mention these volumes, although one of the articles which he ingeniously

            traced to Philosophical Transactions, vol. lxxiii, is printed in abstract, and the reference to

            Santarini is found in a footnote, in the 1783 volume.

(75)*   10-28 Mar.  Berkleys Works Vol. 2^nd

            BERKELEY, George.  The Works…To which is added an account of her life…and several of his

            letters, &c.  2 vols.  1784.  4°.

(76)*   28 Mar.-25 Apr.  Anthologia Hibernica

            ANTHOLOGIA HIBERNICA; or, Monthly Collections of Science, Belles-Lettres, and History.  4 vols. 

            Dublin, 1793-4.  8°.

[Of which the Society held only vol. i.]

            Lowes found articles of interest in this volume (op. cit., pp. 452, 458, 547; 453, 515). 

            The volume also contains a notice of a new edition of The Harleian Miscellany (Entry 77); and

             inter alia the text of Rogers’s Pleasures of Memory (see Coleridge’s Poems, ed. E. H. Coleridge

             (1912), i. 52-3 n,; ii. 1147).

(77)*   25 Apr.-6 May.  Harleian Miscellany Vol. VI

            THE HARLEIAN MISCELLANY: a collection of scarce, curious, and entertaining pamphlets and tracts…

            found in the Earl of Oxford’s Library.  8 vols.  1744-6.  4°.

(78)*   6 May-6 June.  Observer Vol 1 4 & 5th

            CUMBERLAND, Richard.  The Observer: a collection of moral, literary and familiar essays.  5 vols. 

            1786-90.  8°.

            In the date column is written ‘17 & 6’, indicating the date of return of vols. i and v respectively. 

            This item is not to be confused with the rare volume entitled The Observer, part 1st, being a transient

            glace at About forty youths of Bristol, &c.  [? Bristol, ? 1795].  The three copies of the anonymous Observer

            now in the Bristol Central Library are, as far as I can determine, the only ones in existence.  Two were acquired

            in 1908, the third at an earlier but unrecorded date.

(79)*   6-29 June.  Essay on exist. & nat. of an External World.

(80)*   23 June-4 July.  Boyd’s Dante Vol. 1 & 2^nd

(81)*   4 July-31 Aug.  Vet. Persarum Religio

            HYDE, Thomas.  Historia religionis veterum Persarum, eorumque Magorum ubi…Zoroa-stris vita, ejusque et

            aliorum vaticinia de Messiah e Parsarum aliorumque monumentis eruuntur…atque Magorum liber Sad-der,

            (Zoroastris praecepta sen religionis canones continens), &c.  Oxford, 1700.  4°.

            Entry endorsed ‘Letter Aug 22nd’.

(82)*   13 July-31 Aug.  D. Williams on Education

            WILLIAMS, David.  A Treatise on Education.  1774.  8°.

            Entry endorsed ‘Letter August 22nd’.

(83)*   2-16 Sept.  Ramsay’s Phil. Principles Vol. 1. & 2.

            RAMSAY, Andrew Michael.  The Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion unfolded in

            geometrical order.  2pts.  Glasgow, 1748-9.  4°.

(84)     16-22 Sept.  Lowth’s Praelections

LOWTH, Robert.  De sacra poesi hebraeorum.  Praelectiones academicae, &c.  Oxford, 1753.  4°.

            Kaufman omits this entry.

(85)*   22 Sept.-12 Oct.  Taylor’s Sermons

            TAYLOR, Jeremy.  Sermons.  1668.  F°.  [Containing XXVIII Sermons Preached at Golden Glove, &c.,

            XXV Sermons Preached at Golden Grove, &c., and ten separate sermons.]

The immediately succeeding entry is in Joseph Cottle’s hand.

(86)*   27-8 Sept.  Critical Review, May, 1796

            THE CRITICAL REVIEW; Or, Annals of Literature.  1756 &c. 8°.

This volume contains reviews of Charles Lloyd’s Poems on Various Subjects (1795), and of

George Dyer’s Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Robert Robinson (1796).  Southey’s

Joan of Arc (1796 for 1795) and Coleridge’s Poems on Various Subjects (1796) were not 

reviewed in the Critical Review until the issue of June 1796.

(87)*   12-26 Oct.  Ramsay’s Phil. Principles, Vol. 1 & 2

            This entry is signed simply ‘Coleridge’, though he elsewhere signs ‘S. T. Coleridge’. Kaufman

            reads ‘Vol. III’; he also gives the date of return as 14 October, reading the immediately preceding

            entry.

(88)*   25 Oct.-9 Nov.  Foster on Accent & Quantity

            FOSTER, John.  An Essay on the different nature of Accent and Quantity, &c.  Eton, 1763.  8°.

(89)*   [4]-9 Nov.  Apuleii Opera Vol. 1st

            LUCH APULEII…opera interpretatione et notis illustravit Julianus Floridus, &c.  2 vols. 

Paris, 1688.  4°.

            In the withdrawal columns, instead of the date, is written: ‘9 Dutch ships taken, with 3000 troops

            Bravo’.  I am not satisfied that this comment is written in Coleridge’s hand (see Lowes, op. cit.,

            p. 604e), although the rest of the entry undoubtedly is.  The date 4 November appears immediately

            above and below Coleridge’s entry.  This Volume contains ‘Apuleii vita’ and ‘Metamorphoseon sive

            de asino libri XI’.  Kaufman reads ‘Vol. V’ and places this entry in 1795: Lowes correctly dates it in 1796.

(90)*   9 Nov.-13 Dec.  Cudworth’s Intell. System

(91)*   25-30 Nov.  Monstrelet Vol 1 & 2

            MONSTRELET, Enguerrand de.  Chroniques (ensuyvantes Froissart) de France, d’Angleterre, de

            Bourgogne, et autres pays circonvoisins, commençant 1400 et finissant 1467.  3 vols. in 2.  Paris, 1518.  F°.

            This work is no longer in the Bristol Library.  The title is quoted from the 1798 Catalogue, but does

            not correspond with any entry in the British Museum Catalogue.

(92)*   13 Dec.-9 Mar.  Foster on Accent & Quantity

            Entry endorsed ‘Letter March 3^rd’.  Coleridge’s move to Nether Stowey was completed

by 31 December 1796.

1797

Coleridge

(93)*   23 Mar.-11 May.  Brucker, Hist. Crit. Phil. Vol. 1.

(94)*   23 Mar.-11 May.  Brucker, Hist. Crit. Phil. Vol. II^d

            BRUCKER, Johann Jakob.  Historia Critica Philosophiae, a mundi incunabulis ad

            nostram usque aetatem deducta.  6 vols.  Leipsic, 1766-7.  4°.

            Entries 93 and 94 are both endorsed ‘Letter Apr 26, May 5’.  For Coleridge’s reply to

            Catcott see Joseph Cottle, Reminiscences, pp. 116-18, or Biographia Epistolaris, i. 128. 

            At the beginning of June Coleridge first visited the Wordsworths at Racedown, and at the

            beginning of July he had brought them to Alfoxden.

(95)*   18-28 Aug.  Massinger’s Works, Vol. 1^st & II^nd

            MASSINGER, Philip.  The Dramatick Works…with…Critical Reflections on the old

            English dramatick writers [by G. Colman], &c.  4 vols.  1779.  4°.

(96)     25 Aug.-13 Oct.  Nash’s Worcestershire, Vol. I^st & II^nd

            NASH, Treadway Russell.  Collections for the History and Antiquities of Worcestershire. 

            2 vols.  1781-2.  F°.

            Entry endorsed ‘Letter Oct^r 4 D° 18’.

(97)     25 Oct.-9 Nov.  Burney’s History of Music Vol 2

            BURNEY, Charles.  General History of Music, from the earliest ages to the present

            period, &c.  4 vols.  1776-89.  4°.

            Below the date of withdrawal is written ‘26th’.

(98)*   1-15 Dec.  Benyowski’s Mem.  Vol. I.

            BENYOVSKY, Mauritius Augustus.  The Memoirs and Travels of Mauritius Augustus

            Count de Benyowsky, consisting of his military operations in Poland, his exile

            into Kamchatka, his escape and voyage from that peninsula through the Northern

            Pacific Ocean, touching at Japan and Formosa, with an Account of the French settlement

            he was appointed to form upon the Island of Madagascar, &c. [Translated by W. Nicholson.] 

            2 vols. 1790.  4°.

(99)     11 Dec.-24 Jan.  Saemundi Edda

            Entry endorsed ‘Letter Jan^y 17 & 24’.  Here and in most of the succeeding entries Catcott

has signed ‘M^r Sam Coleridge’.

            Amos Cottle’s Icelandic Poetry, or the Edda of Saemund, translated into English Verse was

            published in Bristol about 11 November 1797.  It is a translation (without acknowledgement

            of sources) of the Latin version printed parallel to the Old Icelandic originals in the definitive

            Copenhagen edition (Entry 63).  Lowes is wrong in suggesting that Coleridge on this occasion

            borrowed Cottle’s translation.  A copy of it passed through Coleridge’s hands on its way from

            Joseph Cottle to Wordsworth some time before 13 December 1797; and Cottle’s translation does

            not appear in the Catalogue until the supplement to the 1798 edition.

(100)* 13-14 Dec.  Rosseau, Vol. 7.-

            ROUSSEAU, Jean Jacques.  Collection complète des Œuvres de J. J. Rousseau, &c.  15 vols.  Geneva,

            1782.  4°.

            This volume contains the Dijon Discours of 1750 (which Rousseau describes in a prefatory note as

            ‘Cette Pièce…très-mauvaise’), some controversial letters and occasional pieces, translations of

            Tacitus, Seneca, and Tasso, fragments for a dictionary of botanical terms, and ‘Lettres èlèmentaires

            sur la botanique’.

1798

Coleridge

(101)   8-15 Jan.  Middletons Life of Cicero Vol. I^st

            MIDDLETON, Conyers.  The History of the Life of Marcus Tullius Cicero.  3 vols. 1767.  8°.

(102)   24 Jan.-26 Feb.  Saemundi Edda

(103)   29 Jan.-26 Feb.  Vol. 2^nd Blair’s Lectures

            BLAIR, Hugh.  Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres.  2 vols.  1783.  4°.

            A pencil note written below the title has been erased and is illegible.

(104)   20 Apr.-22 May.  Manchester Memoirs Vol 2^nd

            MEMOIRS of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester.  4 vols.  Warrington,

1785, 1790; Manchester, 1793, 1796.  8°.

            Lowes considers in some detail Coleridge’s use of Manchester Memoirs, vol. iii, but does

            not notice vol. ii is beyond repeating the Register entry (The Road to Xanadu, pp. 29, 470, 546, 565).

(105)   23 Apr.-22 May.  Philosophical Transac^ns Vol 75^th [of 1785]

            PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS of the Royal Society.  [Of which the Society held]

            40 vols.  (xlvii-lxxxvi).  1750-96.  4°.

(106)   25 May-1 June.  Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts &c Vol 10 &

11.

LETTERS and Papers on Agriculture, Planting &c., selected from the Correspondence of

the Bath and West of England Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture, Arts, Manufactures and

Commerce.  II vols.  Bath, 1783-93.  8°

            Added in pencil below: ‘1792 & 1793’.

(107)   31 May-13 July.  Benyowsky’s Memoirs Vol 1st & 2nd

(108)   8-14 June.  Massinger’s Dramatic works Vol 3 & 4

On 24 June the Wordsworths were obligated to leave Alfoxden.  They spent a week with

the Coleridges at Nether Stowey, and presently, on 16 September, Coleridge and the Wordsworths

sailed for Germany.

Later Use of the Library by Southey and Coleridge

When Southey left Bristol for Lisbon immediately after his marriage in November 1795, he allowed his subscription to the Bristol Library Society to lapse.  After returning Edda Saemundar on 12 November Southey had no further transactions with the Library; nor does his name appear in the 1798 list of members.  He was in Bristol again by November 1796.  Amos Cottle’s work on the Edda, in which Southey took some part, and Joseph Cottle’s collaboration with Southey on an edition of Chatterton, leave their marks on Joseph Cottle’s borrowings for 1797 (see Appendix B); but there is no positive evidence that Southey was using the Bristol Library then or later through Cottle’s membership.

Coleridge wrote to Thelwall in June 1796: ‘We have [in Bristol] a large and every way excellent library, to which I could make you a temporary subscriber, that is, I would get a subscription ticket transferred to you.’  But in 1799 he wrote to Thomas Poole from Germany: ‘The Bristol Library is a hum, and will do us little service.’  Although Coleridge’s name does not appear in the Registers after 14 June 1798, the pattern of Joseph Cottle’s borrowings late in 1799 suggests that Coleridge was borrowing through him.  In early 1800 he may possibly have seen some of the books borrowed by Cottle, Josiah Wade, and Matthew Gutch; but the evidence is far from conclusive (see Appendix B).  Hazlitt records that in 1814 Coleridge openly criticized Joan of Arc in the Bristol Library, reciting passages of it in ‘a ridiculous tone (I do not mean his usual tone, but one which he meant should be ridiculous)’.  In a letter of October 1815 Coleridge asks Gutch to borrow Harte’s Life of Gustavus Adolphus for him because to his surprise it is not in the Bristol Library (Unpublished Letters, ii. 142).  But I find no grounds for believing that, during his long sojourn in and around Bristol between October 1813 and April 1816, Coleridge made substantial use of the Library even through his friends.

APPENDIX

Borrowings by Friends of Southey and Coleridge

The following summary of entries for Robert Lovell, Joseph and Amos Cottle, John Prior Estlin, and John Pinney provides some perspective for the Southey and Coleridge borrowings.  Entries have been transcribed without correction or elucidation.  Each abstract is complete between the selected dates.  Except in John Pinney’s list, entries made in the borrower’s hand are marked with an asterisk.

Neither George Burnett’s nor Thomas Poole’s name appears in the Registers.

A.        Robert Lovell (1770-96), minor poet and Pantisocrat.  He was already engaged to Mary Fricker when Southey first approached him with the scheme of Pantisocracy.  Married in August 1794, he lived thereafter in the Old Market, Bristol.

1794

21 Feb.-23 Apr.          Gibbons’s Roman Empire Vol 1^st [first entry]

14 Mar.-2 Apr.            *Journey to the West Indies

2 Apr.-14 May             *Volney’s Ruins

22 Apr.-17 July           *Godwin on Polit. Justice Vol. I.

16 [?] May-17 July       Microcosm

17 July-13 Oct.           Godwin on Political Justice Vol. 2^d

23-23 July                   Imlay’s Description of America

23-8 July                     Gregory’s Life of Chatterton

28 July-(5) 13 Aug.      Minstrel – Vol 1^st & 2^nd

13-15 Aug.                  Letters from France by Helen M. Williams Vol 4^th

19-19 Aug.                  *Williams’s Letters – Vol 2

19-25 Aug.                  *Philips’ Botany Bay

25 Aug.-2 Sept.           *Williams’s Letters Vol 3^rd

2-10 Sept.                    Ld. Monboddo’s Act^t Metaph. Vol. I.

10 Sept.-9 Oct.             L Monboddo’s ancient Metaphysics Vol 2^nd

9 Oct.-21 Nov.              Lavater Tom. I

13-16 Oct.                   The Minstrel Vol 3^rd

16 Oct.-4 Nov.              Johnson’s Journey

1795

28 Jan.-26 Feb.           Rushworth’s Collection vol I [at the same time making

                                   Entry 37 for Southey]

21-4 Sept.                   History of y^e Hindoos

In the spring of 1795 Lovell quarreled with Coleridge, charging him with indolence.  Between 21 and 25 September three books were borrowed and returned in Lovell’s name.  The entries are not in his own hand, nor were they made by either of the librarians.  On 3 November borrowings are resumed, with twenty-four entries in rapid succession.  Among the titles are Darwin’s Botanic Garden (22 Jan.-24 Feb. 1796), Mary Wollstonecraft’s Rights of Woman (4-22 Mar.), and Moritz’s Travels (11-14 Mar.); but more characteristic entries, for D’Israeli’s Curiosities of Literature, The Idler, The Bachelor, The Lounger, The Loiterer, The World, The Mirror, mark the progress of the disease (variously described as putrid fever and brain fever) which finally killed him on 10 May 1796.  The last entry for Lovell on 25 April is endorsed ‘Letter May 27’.  The book (Townsend’s Travels through Spain, Vol. I) was returned on 7 June.  Thereafter Mrs. Lovell continued to use the Library for a long time; and her name appears, with her late husband’s, in the 1798 list of members.

B.        Joseph Cottle (1770-1853), Bristol bookseller, publisher, and incorrigible poetaster. 

          He first met Lovell in the autumn of 1794 but refused to become a Pantisocrat.  He met

          Southey a little later, and in January 1795 made Coleridge’s acquaintance.  He became

          their friend and publisher, and financed them on a modest scale.

1795

25 Nov.-23 Dec.         Burgh’s Pol. Disquisitions Vol. 3^rd [first entry: in Coleridge’s hand,

                                   immediately following Entry 69]

23 Dec.-4 Jan.             *Caesar’s Commentaries [Coleridge’s Entry 70 is four entries

                                   above Cottle’s]

1796

4 Jan.-8 Feb.               Keats’s Pelew Islands

5-8 Feb.                       *Hodge’s travels in India

8-29 Feb.                     *Hartley on Man Vol 1^st

11-29 Feb.                   *Hartley on Man Vol 2^d

16-22 Feb.                   Zeluco Vol. I

29 Feb.-7 Mar.              Zelucco Vol 2^nd

1-7 Mar.                      Chalmers’s Comparative Strength of Gr. Britain

4-29 Mar.                    Sketches of the history of Man Vol 1^st

29 Mar.-9 May            Keate’s Pelew Islands

9 May-9 June              *Locks Works Vol. 3^d

8 June-28 July             Smelly’s Phi. Of Nat. Histy

11 July-19 Aug.          Burnets History of his own Times Vol 1^st & 2^nd

5-19 Aug.                    *Keates Pelew Islands

18-23 Aug.                  Guthrie’s Cicero Vol 2

22 Sept.-26 Oct.          *Nott’s translation of Hafez [immediately following

Coleridge’s Entry 85]

26 Oct.-4 Jan.              *Nott’s Transⁿ of Hafez

1 Nov.-5 Dec.             *Treatise on the Metropolus

21 Dec.-12 Jan.           *Vol. I. Gibbons Rome

1797

4-9 Jan.                       *Vol 2. Monstrellet

9-12 Jan.                     *Vol 1^st Strutt’s ancient Armour [?]

12-12 Jan.                   Gibbon’s History Vol. 2^d

12-13 Jan.                   Strutt’s View Vol. 2^d

13 Jan.-3 Apr.             Grammatici Saxonis [Endorsed ‘Lett^r March 13’]

10 Feb.-9 Mar.            P^t I. Roland’s Appeal

31 Mar.-24 Apr.          *Observations on Rowley

13-24 Apr.                  Observations on Rowley.  Remarks on Warton’s History &c. 

24 Apr.-16 May          Murphys Works of Tacitus Vol 1^st & 2^nd

5 May-6 June              *Gibbons decline & fall

16-29 May                  Rousseau’s Confessions Vol. I.

29 May-3 July             Rousseau’s Confessions Vol 2^nd

12-19 June                  Gibbons His^y of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Vol 3^d

10-14 Aug.                  Strutt’s English Dresses Vol. I

11 Sept.-13 Oct.          Edda

13 Oct.-16 Nov.          Edda

17-19 Oct.                   Statistical Acc^t of Scotland Vol. 8

Thereafter no entry of interest until

1798

15 Jan.-19 Feb.           Middleton’s Life of Cicero Vol 2^nd [cf Coleridge’s Entry 101]

On the same date Cottle makes the first entry for Mrs. Lovell, borrowing ‘Cartwright’s Journal Vol 2^nd & 3^rd.’  Thereafter no entry of interest until a flurry of borrowings from August to October 1799 (Register No. xv) marks Coleridge’s return to Bristol from Germany.  (Personal entries are not indicated in this list.)

1799

18-25 July                   Pennants Wales

25-25 July                   Pennant’s British Zoology Vol I & II

2-5 Aug.                      Pinnants arctic Zoology

5-6 Aug.                      Hutchinson’s View of Northumberland (2 Vol)

6-6 Aug.                      Wood on Homer

6-6 Aug.                      Webb on Poetry

6-9 Aug.                      Kaimes’s Sketches of Man Vol. 1 & 2

9-15 Aug.                    Crantz’s History of Greenland Vol. 1 & 2

15-22 Aug.                  Hutchinson’s Cumberland Vol I, pt i, Vol 2, pt 3

22-6 Aug.                    Broughton’s Dictionary 2 Vols

26-7 Aug.                    Newcomes His of S^t Albans Abbey

26-7 Aug.                    Ogilvie on Composition Vol 1^st

27 Aug.-16 Sept.         Beckman’s Inventions Vol. I. & 2

10-16 Sept.                  Hist of Monmouthshire

16 Sept.-30 Oct.          Sully’s Memoirs Vol 5

3-10 Oct.                     Sully’s Memoirs Vol 6^th

11-22 Oct.                   Historical Mem^rs of Voltaire

Six entries in 1800 for Cottle and Josiah Wade (Register No. xvi) may have some bearing upon another of Coleridge’s visits to Bristol.

1800   

21 May-18 June          Cottle  Five pieces of Runic Poetry [which he had also borrowed at
                                                                        the end of 1799]

30 May-13 June          Wade   Bishop Horne’s Discourses

13 June-10 July           Wade   Zimmerman on Solitude [cf. Unpublished Letters of
                                                                        Coleridge, i, 129, dated 30 Sept [1799]]

13 June-20 July           Wade   Joness Mem^rs of Bishop Horne

27 June-15 July           Cottle  Vol I. Dryden’s Prose Works

27 June-15 July           Cottle  White’s Nat^l Hist^y of Selborne

In 1807 John Matthew Gutch became a member of the Library Society.  Four entries in 1807 (Register No. xxvi) may be suggestive.

1807

17 July-20 Aug.          Cottle  Enc. Brit Vol. 3

4 Aug.-1 Sept.             Gutch  Headley 2 vols

21 Sept.-18 Nov.         Gutch  Swift’s Works Vol. 1

21 Sept.-18 Nov.         Gutch  Pope’s Works Vol 2

C.        Amos Cottle (1768?-1800), brother of Joseph Cottle.  In 1797 he was an undergraduate at Cambridge. 

A few entries, signed by him in his own name, appear in Registers 12 and 13.  But his name does not appear

in the 1798 list of members, although his signature appears in the Members’ Register shortly after Joseph

Cottle’s.  His entries are not transcribed beyond the date of Coleridge’s last entry.

1796

21 June-11 July           Guy sur la Greece

16 Aug.-15 Sept.         *D’Anacharsis Vol. 1^st & 1^st one french & the other english.

22 Aug.-30 Sept.         *Madans Juvenal Vol. I

30 Sept.-26 Oct.          *Madens Juvenal Vol 1^st & 2^nd

1797

18 Sept.-23 Oct.          Froissart Vol 1^st [endorsed ‘October 20’]

D.        John Prior Estlin (1747-1817), Unitarian Minister of Lewin’s Mead Chapel, Bristol, and

friend of Coleridge.  A member of the first Committee of the Bristol Library Society (1773), he

served the Society in that capacity for a number of years.  The record of his sporadic borrowings

does not encourage the conjecture that he made Coleridge’s acquaintance in the Library before

hearing Coleridge’s Theological Lectures.  His list is not transcribed beyond the end of 1797.

1793

23 Dec.-4 Apr.                        Beloe’s Herodotus Vol 1^st

1794

4 Apr.-5 June              *Reid on the Intellectual Powers of Man

7 Aug.-25 Sept.           *Hucheson’s Moral Phil. V. I

24 Nov.-22 Dec.         Ferguson’s Moral Science Vol 2

22 Dec.-14 Jan.           Henrys His^y of Gr^t Britain Vol 1^st

1795

13 Jan.-9 Feb.             Henry’s Hist. of Britain Vol. 2^d

6-30 Oct.                     Rousseau’s Confessions Vol 1^st

30 Oct.-8 Dec.             Rousseau’s Confessions Vol. 2^d

1796

12 May-17 June          Bishop Berkleys Works Vol I

8 Aug.-4 Oct.              *Potter’s Euripides Vol 1^st

1797   

21 Dec.-17 Jan.           Steuart Political Oeconomy

E.         John Pinney, son of John Pinney, Bristol Merchant.  He and his brother Azariah

            were pupils in London of Basil Montague and Francis Wrangham, and so made the

            acquaintance of Wordsworth.  John Pinney, the son, offered his father’s house,

            Racedown Lodge, to the Wordsworths.  While visiting the Pinneys early in

            September 1795 to arrange to occupy Racedown Lodge Wordsworth probably met

            Coleridge for the first time in Bristol.  John Pinney’s first entry in the Bristol Library

            Registers was on 21 January 1794; Azariah’s (whose borrowings are not of interest)

            on 7 October 1796.  The dates of John Pinney’s transactions with the Library do not

            suggest that he met Coleridge there before September 1796; but a section of his

            borrowings gives an interesting sample of the reading of a man not closely associated

            with Southey or Coleridge.

1794

21 Jan.-11 Mar.           Zeluco Vol. 1. [first entry]

27 Mar.-2 Apr.            Gordons contrast Vol 1

2 Apr.-1 May              Gordons contrast Vol 2

17 Apr.-1 May             Edwards’s Hist. of West Indies Vol. 2^d

1-8 May                      Norfolk Tales

8-14 May                    Trencks Life Vol 1^st

14-19 May                  Trencks Life Vol 2^nd

19-21 May                  Trencks Life Vol 3^rd

1-7 July                       Jortins Discourses on the [Christian] Relⁿ.

27 July-15 Sept.          Bruce’s Travels Vol 5^th

15 Oct.-12 Nov.          Reeves’s (Clara) Progress of Romance

1795

21 Jan.-13 Feb.           Boswell’s Life of Johnson Vol 2^nd

13 Feb.-11 Mar.          Johnson & Piozzi’s Letters Vol 1^st

11 Mar.-1 May            Johnson & Piozzi’s Letters Vol 2^nd

17 Apr.-28 May          Woolstonecrafts rights of Woman [endorsed ‘Letter May 25’]

28 May-17 June          Rousseau’s Confessions Vol. I

17 June-10 Aug.         Rousseau’s Confessions Vol 2^nd [endorsed ‘Letter Aug^t 7^th’]

1796

11-18 Apr.                  Twiss’s Travels in Ireland

18 Apr.-30 May          Crump’s Essays [endorsed ‘Letter May 27’]

23 Nov.-2 Feb.            Crump’s Essays on the best means &c.

1797

17-17 Feb.                   Dresses of the Representatives of the French Republic.

INDEX

of Southey and Coleridge Entries