Samuel Taylor Coleridge [I] [September 1834]

This chapter discusses de Quincey's encounter with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Quincey's knowledge of him as a man of most original genius began about the year 1799. A little before that time Mr. Wordsworth had published the first edition (in a single volume) of the ‘Lyrical Ballads,’ at the end or the beginning of which was placed Mr. Coleridge’s poem of the Ancient Mariner, as the contribution of an anonymous friend. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was the son of a learned clergyman – the vicar of Ottery St. Mary, in the southern quarter of Devonshire. It is painful to mention that he was almost an object of persecution to his mother. In his childish days, and when he had become an orphan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was removed to the heart of London, and placed on the great foundation of Christ’s Hospital. In his politics, Mr. Coleridge was most sincere and most enthusiastic.