This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 Excerpt: ...(1772-1834) Coleridge's Early Life.--Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in 1772, at Ottery St. Mary, a Devonshire village. His father was an eccentric and unworldly country parson. Of Coleridge's childhood we have some vivid glimpses, one in particular which shows him "slashing with a stick at rows of nettles ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 Excerpt: ...(1772-1834) Coleridge's Early Life.--Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in 1772, at Ottery St. Mary, a Devonshire village. His father was an eccentric and unworldly country parson. Of Coleridge's childhood we have some vivid glimpses, one in particular which shows him "slashing with a stick at rows of nettles representing the Seven Champions of Christendom." He tells us that he "never thought or spoke as a child," and his precocity made him solitary in the midst of his boisterous brothers. At nine he became a "blue-coat boy" at Christ's Hospital, an ancient charity school in the heart of London. One of his fellow-pupils was Charles Lamb, who has left us a picture of the school and of Coleridge, in his essay "Christ's Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago." Lamb tells us that casual visitors in the halls of the school would stop spell-bound to listen while Coleridge talked or recited Greek hexameters, and "the walls of old Greyfriars re-echoed the accents of the inspired charity boy." At nineteen he entered Cambridge. With his friend Robert Southey, then a student at Oxford, he took an excited share in the enthusiasm for social progress which the French Revolution had kindled. Before long, anxiety over some college debts drove him to London, where he enlisted as a cavalry soldier, and spent two wretched months in barracks. Fortunately, he was a favorite with his mess-mates, who groomed and saddled his horse in return for the charming letters which he wrote home for them. A Latin lament scribbled under his saddle-peg by "Private Cumberback" (as he signed himself in humorous allusion to his poor horsemanship) gained him his release. The incident shows his impulsiveness and human charm, as well as the weakn...
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Seller's Description:
Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Signed by previous owner. writing on inside of first pages grayed edges writing on index pages notes written on pages. xi, 488 p. incl. front (facsim. ) illus. (ports. ) 20 cm. Includes: Illustrations, Portraits, Facsimiles.