COLERIDGE, SAMUEL TAYLOR, an English poet and philosopher ; born in Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, Oct. 21, 1772. Sent to school at Christ's Church Hospital, he was noted for a dreamy ab stracted manner, though he made con siderable progress in classical studies. From Christ's Church he went with a scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge. His ultra-radical and rationalistic opin ions made the idea of academic prefer ment hopeless, and perhaps to escape the difficulties gathering about his future, Coleridge suddenly quitted Cambridge and enlisted in the 15th Dragoons. Res cued by his friends from this position, he took up his residence at Bristol with Robert Southey, who had just been obliged to quit Oxford for his Unitarian opinions, and Lovell, a young Quaker. The three conceived the project of emi grating to America, and establishing a pantisocracy, as they termed it, or com munity in which all should be equal, on the banks of the Susquehanna. This scheme, however, never became any thing more than a theory, and was finally disposed of when, in 1795, the three friends married three sisters, the Misses Fricket of Bristol. Coleridge about this time started a periodical, the "Watch man," which did not live beyond the ninth number.
In 1796 he took a cottage at Nether Stowey, in Somersetshire, where, sup ported by the companionship of Words worth, he wrote much of his best poetry, in particular the "Ancient Mariner" and the first part of "Christabel." While residing at Nether Stowey he used to officiate in a Unitarian chapel at Taun ton. An annuity bestowed on him by
some friends (the Wedgewoods) fur nished him with the means of making a tour to Germany, where he studied at the University of Gottingen. In 1800 he returned to England and took up his residence beside Southey at Keswick, while Wordsworth lived at Grasmere in the same neighborhood. About 1804 Coleridge went to Malta to re-establish his health, seriously impaired by opium eating. In 1806 he returned to England, and after 10 years of somewhat desul tory literary work as lecturer, contrib utor to periodicals, etc., Coleridge in a way took refuge in the house of his friend Mr. Gillman at Highgate, Lon don. Of the many years he spent here nothing remains but the "Table Talk." He died July 25, 1834. The dreamy and transcendental character of Coleridge's poetry eminently exhibits the man. As a critic, especially of Shakespeare, his work is of the highest rank. Coleridge's poetical works include "The Ancient Mariner," "Cristabel" (incomplete), "Remorse," a tragedy; "Kubla Khan," a translation of Schiller's "Wallenstein," etc. His prose works, "Biographic Lit eraria," "The Friend," "The Statesman's Manual," "Aids to Reflection," "On the Constitution of Church and State," etc. Posthumously were published specimens of his "Table Talk," "Literary Re mains," etc.