Eats Tripe:
It is therefore credible
That tripe is edible.
And therefore, perforce,
It follows, of course,
That the Devil will gripe
All who do not eat Tripe.
To fetch 'em below:
[983] And Gifford, the attorney,
Won't quicken their journey;
The Bridge-Street Committee
That colleague without pity,
To imprison and hang
Carlile and his gang,
Is the pride of the City,
And 'tis Association
That, alone, saves the Nation
From Death and Damnation.
First published in Letters and Conversations, &c., 1836, i. 90, 91. These lines, which were inscribed in one of Coleridge's notebooks, refer to a 'Constitutional association' which promoted the prosecution of Richard Carlile, the publisher of Paine's Age of Reason, for blasphemy. See Diary of H. C. Robinson, 1869, ii. 134, 135. First collected P. W., 1885, ii. 405.
13
NONSENSE SAPPHICS[983:1]
All in the antique style of Mistress Sappho,
Latin just like Horace the tuneful Roman,
Sapph's imitator:
Know a thing or two in a scurvy Planet:
Don't we, now? Eh? Brother Horatius Flaccus,
Tip us your paw, Lad:—
Rich men of England! would ye be immortal?
Patronise Genius, giving Cash and Praise to
Gillman Jacobus;
Minor ætate, ingenio at stupendus,
Sapphic, Heroic, Elegiac,—what a
Versificator!
First published in Essays, &c., 1850, iii. 987. First collected 1893.
14
TO SUSAN STEELE ON RECEIVING THE PURSE
EXTRUMPERY LINES
That's never naughty—
When the Mare was stolen, and not before,
The wise man got a stable-door:
And he and I are brother Ninnies,
One Beast he lost and I two guineas;
And as sure as it's wet when it above rains,
The man's brains and mine both alike had thick coverings,
For if he lost one mare, poor I lost two sovereigns!
A cash-pouch I have got, but no cash to put in it,
Tho' there's gold in the world and Sir Walter can win it:
For your sake I'll keep it for better or worse,
So here is a dear loving kiss for your purse.
1829. Now first published from an MS.
15
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS[984:1]
I.—By Likeness
O guard your tempers! hedge your tongues about
This empty head should warn you on that point—
The teeth were quarrelsome, and so fell out.
II.—Association by Contrast
Disease! vile anti-Phidias! thou, i' fegs!
Hast turned my live limbs into marble pegs.
III.—Association by Time
simplicius snipkin loquitur
And instantly there rises in my mind
Napoleon's mighty hosts from Moscow lost,
Driven forth to perish in the fangs of Frost.
[985]For in that self-same month, and self-same day,
Down Skinner Street I took my hasty way—
Mischief and Frost had set the boys at play;
I stept upon a slide—oh! treacherous tread!—
Fell smash with bottom bruised, and brake my head!
Thus Time's co-presence links the great and small,
Napoleon's overthrow, and Snipkin's fall.
? 1830. First published in Fraser's Magazine, Jan. 1835, Art. 'Coleridgeiana'. First collected 1893.
16
VERSES TRIVOCULAR
A heart of one chamber they call unilocular,
And in a sharp frost, or when snow-flakes fall floccular,
Your wise man of old wrapp'd himself in a Roquelaure,
Which was called a Wrap-rascal when folks would be jocular.
And shell-fish, the small, Periwinkle and Cockle are,
So with them will I finish these verses trivocular.
Now first published from an MS.
17
CHOLERA CURED BEFORE-HAND
Or a premonition promulgated gratis for the use of the Useful Classes, specially those resident in St. Giles's, Saffron Hill, Bethnal Green, etc.; and likewise, inasmuch as the good man is merciful even to the beasts, for the benefit of the Bulls and Bears of the Stock Exchange.
In stomach or entrail,
Think no longer mere prefaces
For grins, groans, and wry faces;
But off to the doctor, fast as ye can crawl! 5
Yet far better 'twould be not to have them at all.
Eat no plums nor plum-cakes;
Cry avaunt! new potato—
And don't drink, like old Cato. 10
Ah! beware of Dispipsy,
And don't ye get tipsy!
For tho' gin and whiskey
May make you feel frisky,
[986] They're but crimps to Dispipsy; 15
And nose to tail, with this gipsy
Comes, black as a porpus,
The diabolus ipse,
Call'd Cholery Morpus;
Who with horns, hoofs, and tail, croaks for carrion to feed him, 20
Tho' being a Devil, no one never has seed him!
There's no cure for you
For loves nor for monies:—
You'll find it too true. 25
Och! the hallabaloo!
Och! och! how you'll wail,
When the offal-fed vagrant
Shall turn you as blue
As the gas-light unfragrant, 30
That gushes in jets from beneath his own tail;—
'Till swift as the mail,
He at last brings the cramps on,
That will twist you like Samson.
So without further blethring, 35
Dear mudlarks! my brethren!
Of all scents and degrees,
(Yourselves and your shes)
Forswear all cabal, lads,
Wakes, unions, and rows, 40
Hot dreams and cold salads,
And don't pig in styes that would suffocate sows!
Quit Cobbett's, O'Connell's and Beelzebub's banners,
And whitewash at once bowels, rooms, hands, and manners!
July 26, 1832. First published in P. W. 1834. These lines were enclosed in a letter to J. H. Green, dated July 26, 1832, with the following introduction: 'Address premonitory to the Sovereign People, or the Cholera cured before-hand, promulgated gratis for the use of the useful classes, specially of those resident in St. Giles, Bethnal Green, Saffron Hill, etc., by their Majesties', i. e. the People's, loyal subject—Demophilus Mudlarkiades.'
LINENOTES:
om. Letter 1832.
To escape Belly ache Eat no plums nor plum cake Letter 1832.
And therefore don't get tipsy Letter 1832.
with this gipsy] of Dys Pipsy Letter 1832.
And oh! och my dear Honies Letter 1832.
offal-fed] horn-and-hoof'd Letter 1832.
dreams] drams Letter 1832.
And whitewash at once your Guts, Rooms and Manners Letter 1832.
After 44
Vivat Regina Plebs!
Hurra! 3 times 3 thrice
repeated Hurra!
18
TO BABY BATES
From famed Columbia's land,
And you have sons and daughters,
And money at command.
Great Britain is its name,
With money none to buy land,
The more it is the shame.
Of one great God of Love,
Whose mercy like a mill-drain
Runs over from above.
Sugar-plums and cates,
Close your little peeping eye,
Bonny Baby B——s.
First collected 1893. 'Baby Bates' was the daughter of Joshua Bates, one of the donors of the Boston Library. Her father and mother passed a year (1828-1829) at Highgate, 'close to the house of Dr. and Mrs. Gillman.' See a letter to Mrs. Bates from S. T. C. dated Jan. 23, 1829. N. and Q. 4th Series, i. 469.
19
TO A CHILD[987:1]
So cubic and canny,
With blue eyes and blue shoes—
The Queen of the Blues!
As darling a girl as there is in the world—
If she'll laugh, skip and jump,
And not be Miss Glump!
1834. First published in Athenæum, Jan. 28, 1888. First collected 1893.
FOOTNOTES:
[976:1] 'There is a female saint (St. Vuilgefortis), whom the Jesuit Sautel, in his Annus Sacer Poeticus, has celebrated for her beard—a mark of divine favour bestowed upon her for her prayers.' Omniana, 1812, ii. 54. 'Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixere! What! can nothing be one's own? This is the more vexatious, for at the age of eighteen I lost a legacy of fifty pounds for the following epigram on my godmother's beard, which she had the barbarity to revenge by striking me out of her will.' S. T. C.
[981:1] These lines are written on a fly-leaf of a copy of Five Bookes of the Church by Richard Field (folio 1635), under the inscription: 'Hannah Scollock, her book, February 10, 1787.' The volume was bequeathed to the poet's younger son, Derwent Coleridge, and is now in the possession of the Editor.
[983:1] Written for James Gillman Junr. as a School Exercise, for Merchant Taylors', c. 1822-3.
[984:1] Written in pencil on the blank leaf of a book of lectures delivered at the London University, in which the Hartleyan doctrine of association was assumed as a true basis.
[987:1] To Miss Fanny Boyce, afterwards Lady Wilmot Horton.
FRAGMENTS FROM A NOTEBOOK[988:1]
Circa 1796-98
1
From viewless Hybla brought, when Melodies
Like Birds of Paradise on wings, that aye
Disport in wild variety of hues,
Murmur around the honey-dropping flower.
First published in 1893. Compare The Eolian Harp (Aug. 1795), lines 20-5 (ante p. 101).
2
His rugged forehead in the calmy sea.[988:2]
First published in 1893. Compare Destiny of Nations (1796), lines 342, 343 (ante p. 143).
3
And scarce the Willow's watery shadow trembles.
First published in 1893. Compare line 1 of A Fragment Found in a Lecture-Room, 'Where deep in mud Cam rolls his slumbrous stream' (ante, p. 35).
4
First published in 1893. The alternative line was first published in Lit. Rem., i. 279.
5
First published in 1893. A line from Verses to Horne Tooke, July 4, 1796, line 20 (ante, p. 151).
6
Spurring their Pegasus to tortoise gallop.
First published in 1893.
7
Forget thirst's eager promise, and presume,
Dark Dreamers! that the world forgets it too.
First published in Lit. Rem., 1836, i. 27.
LINENOTES:
Due] These L. R.
8
Unfaithful to its seeming!
First published in Lit. Rem., i. 279.
9
'His wither'd Fist still knocking at Death's door.'
First published in Lit. Rem., i. 279. Quoted from Sackville's Induction to a Mirrour for Magistrates, stanza 48:
Tumbling and driveling as he drawes his breth;
For briefe, the shape and messenger of death.'
10
All of the whole possessing!
First published in Lit. Rem., i. 279. Compare Religious Musings, ll. 156-7.
11
Wherefore art thou come? doth not the Creator of all things know all things? And if thou art come to seek him, know that where thou wast, there he was.
First published in 1893. Compare the Wanderings of Cain.
12
First published in 1893.
13
First published in 1893.
14
First published in 1893.
15
First published in 1893.
16
Like the faint echo of a distant valley.
First published in Notizbuch, 1896, p. 350.
17
A DUNGEON
Told me that now the rising sun shone lovely
On my garden.
First published in Lit. Rem., i. 279. Compare Osorio, Act I, lines 219-21 (ante, p. 528), and Remorse, Act I, Scene ii, lines 218-20 (ante, p. 830).
LINENOTES:
sun at dawn L. R.
18
Shot half his rays aslant the heath whose flowers
Purpled the mountain's broad and level top;
Rich was his bed of clouds, and wide beneath
Expecting Ocean smiled with dimpled face.
First published in Lit. Rem., i. 278. Compare This Lime-Tree Bower (1797), lines 32-7 (ante, pp. 179, 180).
19
First published in Notizbuch, p. 351.
20
First published in Notizbuch, p. 355.
21
First published in 1893.
22
By chalcographic art!
First published in 1893.
23
And touch the pollutions of the Dead.
First published in 1893. Compare Destiny of Nations, ll. 177-8 (ante, p. 137).
24
First published in Lit. Rem., i. 278.
25
Of Genius fancy-craz'd.
First published in Lit. Rem., i. 278. Compare Destiny of Nations, ll. 257, 258 (ante, p. 139).
26
Seiz'd in sore travail and prodigious birth
Sick Nature struggled: long and strange her pangs;
Her groans were horrible, but O! most fair
The Twins she bore—Equality and Peace!
First published in Lit. Rem., i. 278. Compare concluding lines of the second strophe of Ode to the Departing Year, 4o, 1796.
27
Mild as an infant low-plaining in its sleep.
First published in 1893.
28
As the strong Voice that from the Thunder-cloud
Speaks to the startled Midnight.
First published in Lit. Rem., i. 278.
29
Interweaving there, mid the pair'd sea-mews
At distance wildly-wailing!
First published in 1893.
30
Sabbath day—from the Miller's merry wheel
The water-drops dripp'd leisurely.
First published in 1893. It is possible the Fragments were some of the 'studies' for The Brook. See Biog. Lit., Cap. X, ed. 1907, i. 129.
31
The neighing wild-colt races with the wind
O'er fern and heath-flowers.
First published in Lit. Rem., i. 278.
32
So overshadow'd, it might seem one bower—
The damp clay-banks were furr'd with mouldy moss.
First published in 1893.
33
First published in 1893.
34
Some wishes cross'd my mind and dimly cheer'd it—
And one or two poor melancholy Pleasures—
In these, the pale unwarming light of Hope
Silv'ring their flimsy wing, flew silent by,
Moths in the Moonlight.
First published in Lit. Rem., i. 277, 278.
LINENOTES:
In these] Each in L. R.
their] its L. R.
35
Grey cloud that cover'd but not hid the sky
The round full moon look'd small.
First published in Lit. Rem., i. 277. Compare Christabel, ll. 16, 17 (ante, p. 216).
36
In every breeze rose curling from the Grove
Like pillars of cottage smoke.
First published in Lit. Rem., i. 278.
LINENOTES:
Rose curling from the grove like shafts of smoke.
37
A-shining thro' the snow.
First published in 1893.
38
A maniac in the woods—She crosses heedlessly the woodman's path—scourg'd by rebounding boughs.
First published in 1893.
Compare this with discarded stanza in 'Introduction to the Tale of the Dark Ladié' as printed in the Morning Post, Dec. 21, 1799 (vide ante, p. 333).
Thro' briars and swampy mosses beat;
How boughs rebounding scourg'd his limbs,
And low stubs gor'd his feet.
39
HYMNS—MOON
In a cave in the mountains of Cashmeer, an image of ice, which makes its appearance thus: Two days before the new moon there appears a bubble of ice, which increases in size every day till the fifteenth day, at which it is an ell or more in height;—then, as the moon decreases the Image does also till it vanishes. Mem. Read the whole 107th page of Maurice's Indostan.
First published in 1893. 'Hymns to the Sun, the Moon, and the Elements' are included in a list of projected works enumerated in the Gutch Notebook. The 'caves of ice' in Kubla Khan may have been a reminiscence of the 107th page of Maurice's Hindostan.
40
A little mould fills up most eloquent mouths,
And a square stone with a few pious texts
Cut neatly on it, keeps the mould down tight.
First published in 1893. Compare Osorio, Act III, lines 259-62 (ante, p. 560).
41
Loving the God that made me.
First published in 1893. Compare Fears in Solitude, ll. 196-7 (ante, p. 263).
42
First published in 1893. Compare the last line of The Ode to the Departing Year (ante, p. 168).
43
First published in 1893.
44
First published in 1893.
45
Breath'd in his soul! etc. etc.
First published in 1893.
46
First published in 1893.
47
Chill me, like dew-damps of th' unwholesome Night.
My Love, a timorous and tender flower,
Closes beneath thy Touch, unkindly man!
Breath'd on by gentle gales of Courtesy
And cheer'd by sunshine of impassion'd look—
Then opes its petals of no vulgar hues.
First published in 1893. See Remorse, Act I, Sc. ii, ll. 81-4 (ante, p. 826). Compare Osorio, Act. I, ll. 80-3 (ante, p. 522).