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Ted's Reviews > Coleridge's Writings on Shakespeare
Coleridge's Writings on Shakespeare
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This edition of Coleridge's writings and thoughts on Shakespeare, while obviously a labor of love for the editor, is not really a pleasurable read. More useful to the scholar than to a casual reader seeking insight into Shakespeare.
I say this because the entries are not really shaped into a cohesive narrative. Little bits and pieces of marginalia written by Coleridge find their way into the book along with larger selections and many other odd bits.
Some of the entries begin with things like "He said that Shakespeare was almost the only dramatic poet ..." or "He lived in an age when the religious controversies ...". "He" in the former quote refers to Coleridge, it's from a conversation reported by one J.P. Collier in 1811. In the latter quote "he" is Shakespeare himself, the quote is from "a report by J. Tomalin of a lecture by Coleridge, 1811-12".
Other entries are from third person diaries, manuscript fragments, and notes for lectures. Certainly an excruciatingly inclusive collection.
The book lacks an index, but the Table of Contents does provide entry into finding the sections pertaining to specific plays, which thankfully have been collected in a single section for each play represented. (Material is included for about half of Shakespeare's plays, ranging from a single paragraph to almost 30 pages for Romeo and Juliet.)
At the end there's a Select Bibliography. This includes books both by and about Coleridge, but not books specifically about Shakespeare.
I say this because the entries are not really shaped into a cohesive narrative. Little bits and pieces of marginalia written by Coleridge find their way into the book along with larger selections and many other odd bits.
Some of the entries begin with things like "He said that Shakespeare was almost the only dramatic poet ..." or "He lived in an age when the religious controversies ...". "He" in the former quote refers to Coleridge, it's from a conversation reported by one J.P. Collier in 1811. In the latter quote "he" is Shakespeare himself, the quote is from "a report by J. Tomalin of a lecture by Coleridge, 1811-12".
Other entries are from third person diaries, manuscript fragments, and notes for lectures. Certainly an excruciatingly inclusive collection.
The book lacks an index, but the Table of Contents does provide entry into finding the sections pertaining to specific plays, which thankfully have been collected in a single section for each play represented. (Material is included for about half of Shakespeare's plays, ranging from a single paragraph to almost 30 pages for Romeo and Juliet.)
At the end there's a Select Bibliography. This includes books both by and about Coleridge, but not books specifically about Shakespeare.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
December 31, 2014
– Shelved
December 31, 2014
– Shelved as:
lit-crit
December 31, 2014
– Shelved as:
elizabethan
December 31, 2014
– Shelved as:
have
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I read Coleridge's Notebooks and letters--three volume of each, plus three vol of notes to the notebooks--thirty years ago; I inherited them from the early decease of my brilliant friend Tom Weiskel, Yale prof at 26, d at 29. They ar extensive and uneven, but remarkabl--for instance, on my man, Giordano Bruno. They show he read xtensivley in Bruno's Latin, in a few weeks. as I open one of 'em now, I read: Dec 1803, "What a beautiful Thing Urine is, in a Pot, brown yelow, transpicuous, he Image, diamond shaped of the Candle in t, especialy, as it now appeared, have emptied the Snuffers into it..." (Notebooks, vol 1, Bollingen, p. 1770)
Yes, Coleridge's Notebooks have none of the posturing for posterity that's to be found in those of H. James or even Hawthorne....They were, in the truest sense, note books--jottings. Vide "The Road to Xanadu" by J. L. Lowes for more info on the Notebooks, and how they shaped the major poems...as submerging in then emerging from that deep Well of unconscious cerebration.
Alan, Eric - thanks so much for these interesting comments on Coleridge's notebooks. Something I might be tempted to look into.
I agree, Elham - and echo the Happy New Year back to you!