The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume II Part 176

The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume II Part 176

First published in _Memoirs of C. M. Young_, 1871, p. 221. First collected in 1893.

77

INSCRIPTION FOR A TIME-PIECE

Now! It is gone--Our brief hours travel post, Each with its thought or deed, its Why or How:-- But know, each parting hour gives up a ghost To dwell within thee--an eternal Now!

First published in _Lit. Rem._, i. 60. First collected in 1844.

78

ON THE MOST VERACIOUS ANECDOTIST, AND SMALL-TALK MAN, THOMAS HILL, ESQ.[974:1]

Tom Hill, who laughs at Cares and Woes, As nauci--nili--pili-- What is _he_ like, as I suppose?

Why, to be sure, a Rose--a Rose.

At least, no soul that Tom Hill knows Could e'er recall a _Li-ly_.

Now first published from an MS.

79

Nothing speaks our mind so well As to speak Nothing. Come then, tell Thy Mind in Tears, whoe'er thou be That ow'st a name to Misery: None can _fluency_ deny To Tears, the Language of the Eye.

Now first published from an MS. in the British Museum.

80

EPITAPH OF THE PRESENT YEAR ON THE MONUMENT OF THOMAS FULLER

A Lutheran stout, I hold for Goose-and-Gaundry Both the Pope's Limbo and his fiery Laundry: No wit e'er saw I in Original Sin, And no Sin find I in Original Wit; But if I'm all in the wrong, and, Grin for Grin, Scorch'd Souls must pay for each too lucky hit,-- Oh, Fuller! much I fear, so vast thy debt, Thou art not out of Purgatory yet; Tho' one, eight, three and three this year is reckon'd, And thou, I think, didst die _sub_ Charles the Second.

Nov. 28, 1833.

Now first published from an MS.

FOOTNOTES:

[951:1] A great, perhaps the greater, number of Coleridge's Epigrams are adaptations from the German of Wernicke, Lessing, and other less known epigrammatists. They were sent to the _Morning Post_ and other periodicals to supply the needs of the moment, and with the rarest exceptions they were deliberately excluded from the collected editions of his poetical works which received his own sanction, and were published in his lifetime. Collected for the first time by Mrs. H. N.

Coleridge and reprinted in the third volume of _Essays on His Own Times_ (1850), they have been included, with additions and omissions, in _P.

and D. W._, 1877-1880, _P. W._, 1885, _P. W._, 1890, and the Ill.u.s.trated Edition of Coleridge's _Poems_, issued in 1907. The adaptations from the German were written and first published between 1799 and 1802. Of the earlier and later epigrams the greater number are original. Four epigrams were published anonymously in _The Watchman_, in April, 1796.

Seventeen epigrams, of which twelve are by Coleridge, two by Southey, and three by Tobin, were published anonymously in the _Annual Anthology_ of 1800. Between January 2, 1798, and October 11, 1802 Coleridge contributed at least thirty-eight epigrams to the _Morning Post_. Most of these epigrams appeared under the well-known signature ?S??S?. Six epigrams, of which five had been published in the _Morning Post_, were included in _The Friend_ (No. 11, Oct. 26, 1809). Finally, Coleridge contributed six epigrams to the _Keepsake_, of which four had been published in the _Morning Post_, and one in the _Annual Anthology_.

Epigrams were altogether excluded from _Sibylline Leaves_ and from the three-volume editions of 1828 and 1829; but in 1834 the rule was relaxed and six epigrams were allowed to appear. Two of these, _In An Alb.u.m_ ('Parry seeks the Polar Ridge') and _On an Insignificant_ (''Tis Cypher lies beneath this Crust') were published for the first time.

For the discovery of the German originals of some twenty epigrams, now for the first time noted and verified, I am indebted to the generous a.s.sistance of Dr. Hermann Georg Fiedler, Taylorian Professor of the German Language and Literature at Oxford, and of my friend Miss Katharine Schlesinger.

[953:1] N.B. Bad in itself, and, as Bob Allen used to say of his puns, looks d.a.m.ned ugly upon paper.

[954:1] Lines 3, 4, with the heading 'On an Insignificant,' were written by S. T. C. in Southey's copy of the _Omniana_ of 1812 [see nos. 9, 11].

See _P. W._, 1885, ii. 402, _Note_.

[961:1] The ant.i.thesis was, perhaps, borrowed from an Epigram ent.i.tled 'Posthumous Fame', included in _Elegant Extracts_, ii. 260.

If on his s.p.a.cious marble we rely, Pity a worth like his should ever die!

If credit to his real life we give, Pity a wretch like him should ever live.

[962:1] The first and second versions are included in _Essays, &c._, 1850, iii. 976: the third version was first published in 1893.

In 1830 Coleridge re-wrote (he did not publish) the second version as an Epitaph on Hazlitt. The following apologetic note was affixed:--

'With a sadness at heart, and an earnest hope grounded on his misanthropic sadness, when I first knew him in his twentieth or twenty-first year, that a something existed in his bodily organism that in the sight of the All-Merciful lessened his responsibility, and the moral imputation of his acts and feelings.' _MS._

[964:1] The 'One who published' was, perhaps, Charles Lloyd, in his novel, _Edmund Oliver_, 2 vols. 1798. Compare the following Epigram of Prior's:--

To John I ow'd great obligation, But John unhappily thought fit To publish it to all the nation: Sure John and I are more than quit.

[974:1] Extempore, in reply to a question of Mr. Theodore Hook's--'Look at him, and say what you think: Is not he like a Rose?'

JEUX D'ESPRIT

1

MY G.o.dMOTHER'S BEARD[976:1]

So great the charms of Mrs. Mundy, That men grew rude, a kiss to gain: This so provok'd the dame that one day To Pallas chaste she did complain:

Nor vainly she address'd her prayer, Nor vainly to that power applied; The G.o.ddess bade a length of hair In deep recess her muzzle hide:

Still persevere! to love be callous!

For I have your pet.i.tion heard!

To s.n.a.t.c.h a kiss were vain (cried Pallas) Unless you first should shave your beard.

? 1791

First published in _Table Talk and Omniana_, 1888, p. 392. The lines were inscribed by Coleridge in Gillman's copy of the _Omniana_ of 1812.

An apologetic note is attached. J. P. Collier (_Old Man's Diary_, 1871, March 5, 1832, Part I, p. 34) says that Coleridge 'recited the following not very good epigram by him on his G.o.dmother's beard; the consequence of which was that he was struck out of her will'. Most probably the lines, as inscribed on the margin of _Omniana_, were written about 1830 or 1831. First collected in _Coleridge's Poems_, 1907.

LINENOTES:

[4] Pallas chaste] Wisdom's Power S. T. C.