ABSTRACT
William Hazlitt, was a painter, a philosopher and, from 1813 when he began to write for the Morning Chronicle, until his death, the greatest literary journalist in London. Hazlitt made a point of reviewing everything Coleridge published in 1816–18, invariably and obsessively attacking him. Where the ‘First Acquaintance’ essay is dominated by a tone of celebration, punctuated and punctured by moments of amused disdain, the reviews are the opposite: their antagonism lapsing when Hazlitt gives away his continuing, if unwilling, admiration. Hazlitt makes Coleridge into an example of what he most despised and what he congratulated himself for constantly avoiding.
