collections, ii. 173). With Morgan he seems to have been chiefly domesticated until 1816. A mysterious reference to the second of the four ' griping and grasping sorrows ' of his life (the first being the break-up of his domestic happiness), which fell upon him at this time through the failure of an ' enthusiastic and self-sacrificing friendship,' is made in a letter (Allsop, ii. 140). There is reason to believe that this refers to the misunderstanding with Wordsworth already noticed.
In the winter of 1810-11 he gave his lectures upon Shakespeare and other poets. They excited considerable interest. Coleridge, as Byron tells Harness, 15 Dec. 1811, 'is a kind of rage at present.' Byron, Rogers, and other men of note of the day went to hear him, and the fragments preserved are enough to show that they were listening to the greatest of English critics. He had an audience of about a hundred and fifty, and was at times warmly received (Crabb Robinson, i. 351, 366). He lectured again in the summer of 1812 and in the beginning of 1813 (ib. 385-7, 406). Coleridge again applied for employment on the ' Courier,' of which Street was now co-proprietor with Stuart. In 1809 the ' Courier ' had published some articles by him on the Spanish struggle as illustrated by an historical parallel with the insurrection of the Dutch against Philip II. Street's opinion of Coleridge was less favourable than Stuart's, but Coleridge wrote for the paper during the greater part of 1811. He proposed in June to come in daily from Hammersmith, walking back to save 9. a week from the stage fares. That he ever did so does not appear. He did not repeat his previous successes. An article in July by Coleridge, or rather by Stuart, on Coleridge's information, attacking the Duke of York (Gent. Mag. 1838, ii. 124; Essays on his own Times, p. 827), had to be suppressed, and his connection with the paper gradually ceased. On 7 Dec. 1811 he teUs Sir G. Beaumont that he has not been near the office for some months past, though articles by him appeared until the end of September. In 1814 he wrote a few more articles upon a charge of Judge Fletcher to an Irish jury, and in 1817 defended Southey against William Smith in the controversy arising from the republication of 'Wat Tyler.' So late as May 1818 he appears from a note in Robinson's diary to have been writing in the papers about the employment of children infactories.
In 1811 Josiah Wedgwood, annoyed by Coleridge's neglect of his duties, withdrew his share of the annuity. A promised life of Thomas Wedgwood had come to notching and Coleridge's transference of his family to Southey increased a not unnatural irritation. Coleridge not only made over his annuity, to his wife (Memoir of Hartley Coleridge, p. ccxxiv), but kept up till his death an insurance effected before his return to Malta, for which his widow received about 2,500l For himself, he had to depend upon accidents, including loans from friends. In 1824 he became one of ten ' royal associates ' of the Society of Literature, each of whom received 100l. a year from a grant made by George IV. This ceased upon the king's death, as his successor discontinued the subscription (Jerdan, Autobiography, iv. 162). This appointment, according to Stuart, was obtained by Mackintosh. Stuart himself made various advances, besides a yearly present of 30l. for a visit to the seaside. Other friends, like De Quincey, contributed at different times to his wants. A more desirable help came through Byron, who, though he had sneered at Coleridge in his early satire, retained a warm admiration for ' Christabel,' the metre of which he attempted to imitate in the lines now prefixed to the 'Siege of Corinth.' Through Byron's influence (Gillman, p. 266) ' Remorse ' was now accepted by the Drury Lane committee of management, and successfully performed on 23 Jan. 1813. Its reception is described in C. R. Leslie's Autobiographical Recollections' (ii. 34). It had a run of twenty nights, and no doubt helped Coleridge's exchequer. The theatre, he wrote to Poole, would make 8,000l. or 10,000l., and he would get thrice as much as by all his previous literary labours. At the end of 1813 (Ashe, Lectures on Shakespeare, pp. 455-7) Coleridge was again lecturing on Shakespeare and Milton at Bristol. A sudden impulse in the coach induced him to escort a lady to Wales, and thereby to miss his appointment. The lectures, however, or some lectures, were given after a time. Cottle and other old friends were shocked by his appearance, and he now confessed to Cottle, with painful self-abasement, his habit of opium-eating. Cottle declined to give him money, thinking the destination of his funds too certain, but administered a severe remonstrance. Coleridge himself declared that the best chance was to be placed in a private lunatic asylum. He stayed at Bristol with an old friend, Josiah Wade, who did his best to impose a restraint, which Coleridge avoided by various subterfuges (Cottle, Reminiscences, p. 384). He was treated by a Dr. Daniel, who tried to limit his consumption (letter to Wade, in Morrison's MSS.) From Bristol he went to stay with John Morgan, who had now settled in Calne, Wiltshire. Robinson (ii. 272) speaks of the 'unexampled assiduity and kindness' of this old
