Robert Southey

Although Robert Southey more than likely heard Coleridge recite Part I of "Christabel" in 1799, it is not until 11 October 1799 that he speaks of the poem to Coleridge, when he requests "Christabel" for inclusion in the Annual Anthology for 1800:

Let me have Christabel for the Anthology as soon as you feel inclination. It should be the opening poem, and the book should go to press as early in December as possible. Perhaps you may be in Bristol and can correct your own proofs.(1)

Coleridge responds to Southey on 15 October 1799, advising that he "will set about Christabel with all speed: but I do not think it is a fit opening Poem."(2) Coleridge elaborates his reasons on 10 November:

In my last letter I said I would give you my reasons for thinking Christabel, were it finished and finished as spiritedly as it commences, yet still an improper opening Poem. My reason is--it cannot be expected to please all / Those who dislike it will deem it extravagant Ravings & go on thro-- the rest of the Collection with the feeling of Disgust--& it is not impossible that were it liked by any, it would still not harmonize with the real-life poems that follow--It ought to be the last.(3)

Coleridge's interest in the placement of "Christabel" in the Annual is telling of his concern for the reception of his poem, and of the collection. He fears that the poem will localize a negative horizon of expectation, framing the reading experience of the material subsequent to "Christabel." Readers who dislike it will potentially be predisposed to dislike the rest of the collection--or so Coleridge's logic seems to be.

Southey disagreed with Coleridge's ideas on to to arrange and "haromonise" the Annual material with "Christabel," informing Coleridge on 15 December:

In the Anthology I see no advantage from method--mixed is best. Do not think of Christabel on that account. You will want all of your time and I suspect more, and much as I should like the poem I can do without it and feel no inconvenience.(4)

Southey's eagerness for "Christabel" appears to wane. That he can "do without" Coleridge's poem suggests Southey's recognition of the potential difficulty of including "Christabel": to do so may have to be on Coleridge's terms for the arrangement--an arrangement different that Southey's "mixed" method. Coleridge is insistent. He raises the matter again in a letter of 19 December

I hold to my former opinion concerning the arrangement of the anthology / & the Booksellers, with whom I talked, coincide with me-- I am afraid that I have scarce poetic enthusiasm to finish Christabel--but the poem, with which Davy is so much delighted, I probably may finish time enough.(5)

Where Coleridge's concern about the placement of "Christabel" in the 10 November letter was largely aesthetic--how does it "harmonize" with the collection?--here his interest is economic. If "Christabel" opens the Annual, Coleridge has heard, the volume may not sell well. The excitement that Southey stirs with his request for "Christabel" is short-lived; work did not continue on "Christabel" until the summer of 1800, and "Christabel" did not, in the end, appear in Southey's 1800 Annual Anthology.

A more complete assessment of Southey's opinion of the poem is a matter of speculation. His personal and professional writings rarely offer any critical views of "Christabel." Indeed, throughout the poem's lengthy manuscript life, Southey does not mention it to friends or family. Similarly, Southey is silent during the hostile reception of "Christabel" once it issues from John Murray's press in 1816. When the poem does appear in print, however, it contains a 22-line piece of verse that Coleridge had originally enclosed in a letter to Southey on 6 May 1801. The lines form the Conclusion to Part II. To view a parallel edition of the lines from the Southey letter and the 1816 Conclusions, click here.

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Notes

1. New Letters of Robert Southey, ed. Kenneth Curry, 2 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1965), 1: 203. (back)
2. Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. E.L. Griggs, 6 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1956-71), 1: 540. (back)
3. Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1: 545; Coleridge's emphasis. (back)
4. New Letters of Robert Southey, ed. Kenneth Curry, 2 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1965), 1: 207. (back)
5. Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1: 549. (back)