ABSTRACT
A Tragedy from the pen of Coleridge may justly be regarded as a dramatic curiosity: but that he should be the author of a successful tragedy is a decisive proof of the vitiated taste, or immoveable good nature of a British audience. Mr. Coleridge combines in a pre-eminent degree the various peculiarities and absurdities of the school of poetry, that his exertions first contributed to establish; his images are in general unnatural and incongruous; his diction uncouth, pedantic, and obscure: he mistakes abruptness for force, and supposes himself to be original when he is only absurd. That he should exhibit occasional glimpses of poetical excellence, was necessary to the favourable reception of his writings, even among a limited circle of admirers. If they fatigue and disgust the reader notwithstanding the occasional pathos and sublimity that pervade the general confusion or obscurity of composition, what would have been their fate had they exhibited in addition to their absurdities, the heavy uniformity of unvaried but eccentric dullness?
[summarizes the plot]
