Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

COLERIDGE, SARA (1802–1852)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 681 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

COLERIDGE, SARA (1802–1852) , See also:English author, the See also:fourth See also:child and only daughter of See also:Samuel See also:Taylor Coleridge and his wife Sarah Fricker of See also:Bristol, was See also:born on the 23rd of See also:December 1802, at Greta See also:Hall, See also:Keswick. Here, after 1803, the Coleridges, See also:Southey and his wife (Mrs Coleridge's See also:sister), and Mrs See also:Lovell (another sister), widow of See also:Robert Lovell, the Quaker poet, all lived together; but Coleridge was often away from See also:home; and " See also:Uncle Southey " was a See also:pater familias. The Wordsworths at See also:Grasmere were their neighbours. See also:Wordsworth, in his poem, the Triad, has See also:left us a description, or " poetical glorification," as Sara Coleridge calls it, of the three girls—his own daughter Dora, Edith Southey and Sara Coleridge, the " last of the three, though eldest born." Greta Hall was Sara Coleridge's home until her See also:marriage; and the little See also:Lake See also:colony seems to have been her only school. Guided by Southey, and with his ample library at her command, she read by herself the See also:chief See also:Greek and Latin See also:classics, and before she was five-and-twenty had learnt See also:French, See also:German, See also:Italian and See also:Spanish. In 1822 Sara Coleridge published See also:Account of the See also:Abipones, a See also:translation in three large volumes of See also:Dobrizhoffer, undertaken in connexion with Southey's See also:Tale of See also:Paraguay, which had been suggested to him by Dobrizhoffer's volumes; and Southey alludes to his niece, the translator (See also:canto iii. See also:stanza 16), where he speaks of the See also:pleasure the old missionary would have See also:felt if . he could in See also:Merlin's See also:glass have seen By whom his tomes to speak our See also:tongue were taught." In less grandiloquent terms, See also:Charles See also:Lamb, See also:writing about the Tale of Paraguay to Southey in 1825, says, " How she Dobrizhoffered it all out, puzzles my slender Latinity to conjecture." In 1825 her second See also:work appeared, a translation from the See also:medieval French of the " Loyal Serviteur," The Right Joyous and Pleasant See also:History of the Feats, Jests, and Prowesses of the See also:Chevalier See also:Bayard; the See also:Good See also:Knight without Fear and without Reproach: By the Loyal Servant. In See also:September 18ao, at Crosthwaite See also:church, Keswick, after an engagement of seven years' duration, Sara Coleridge was married to her See also:cousin, See also:Henry See also:Nelson Coleridge (1798–1843), younger son of See also:Captain See also:James Coleridge (176o–1836). He was then a See also:chancery See also:barrister in See also:London. The first eight years of her married See also:life were spent in a little cottage in See also:Hampstead. There four of her See also:children were born, of whom two survived. In 1834 Mrs Coleridge published her See also:Pretty Lessons in See also:Verse for Good Children; with some Lessons in Latin in Easy See also:Rhyme. These were originally written for the instruction of her own children, and became very popular.

In 1837 the Coleridges removed to See also:

Chester See also:Place, See also:Regent's See also:Park; and in the same See also:year appeared Phantasmion, a See also:Fairy Tale, Sara Coleridge's longest See also:original work. The songs in Phantasmion were much admired at the See also:time by See also:Leigh See also:Hunt and other critics. Some of them, such as " Sylvan Stay " and " One See also:Face Alone," are extremely graceful and musical, and the whole fairy tale is noticeable for the beauty of the See also:story and the richness of its See also:language. In 1843 Henry Coleridge died, leaving to his widow the unfinished task of editing her See also:father's See also:works. To these she added some compositions of her own, among which are the See also:Essay on See also:Rationalism, with a See also:special application to the See also:Doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration, appended to Coleridge's See also:Aids to Reflection, a See also:Preface to the Essays on his Own Times, by S. T. Coleridge, and the Introduction to the BiographiaLiteraria. During the last few years of her life Sara Coleridge was a confirmed invalid. Shortly before she died she amused herself by writing a little autobiography for her daughter. This, which reaches only to her ninth year, was completed by her daughter, and published in 1873, together with some of her letters, under the See also:title See also:Memoirs and Letters of Sara Coleridge. The letters show a cultured and highly speculative mind. They contain many See also:apt criticisms of known See also:people and books, and are specially interesting for their allusions to Words-See also:worth and the Lake Poets.

Sara Coleridge died in London on the 3rd of May 1852. Her son, See also:

Herbert Coleridge (183o-1861), won a See also:double first class in classics and See also:mathematics at See also:Oxford in 1852. He was secretary to a See also:committee appointed by the Philological Society to consider the project of a See also:standard English See also:dictionary, a See also:scheme of which the New English Dictionary, published by the See also:Clarendon See also:Press, was the ultimate outcome. His See also:personal researches into the subject were contained in his Glossarial See also:Index to the Printed English Literature of the Thirteenth See also:Century (1859).

End of Article: COLERIDGE, SARA (1802–1852)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
COLERIDGE, SAMUEL TAYLOR (1772-1834)
[next]
COLERIDGE, SIR JOHN TAYLOR (1790-1876)