1796-1849
[Sidenote: Derwent Coleridge’s _Memoir of Hartley Coleridge_.]
“I first saw Hartley in the beginning, I think, of 1837, when I was
at Sedbergh, and he heard us our lesson in Mr. Green’s parlour.
My impression of him was what I conceived Shakespeare’s idea of a
gentleman to be, something which we like to have in a picture. He was
dressed in black, his hair, just touched with gray, fell in thick waves
down his back, and he had a frilled shirt on; and there was a sort of
autumnal ripeness and brightness about him. His shrill voice, and his
quick, authoritative ‘Right! right!’ and the chuckle with which he
translated ‘rerum repetundarum’ as ‘peculation, a very common vice in
governors of all ages,’ after which he took a turn round the sofa--all
struck me amazingly.”--1837.
[Sidenote: Derwent Coleridge’s _Memoir of Hartley Coleridge_.]
“His manners and appearance were peculiar. Though not dwarfish either
in form or expression, his stature was remarkably low, scarcely
exceeding five feet, and he early acquired the gait and general
appearance of advanced age. His once dark, lustrous hair, was
prematurely silvered, and became latterly quite white. His eyes, dark,
soft, and brilliant, were remarkably responsive to the movements of his
mind, flashing with a light from within. His complexion, originally
clear and sanguine, looked weather-beaten, and the contour of his
face was rendered less pleasing by the breadth of his nose. His head
was very small, the ear delicately formed, and the forehead, which
receded slightly, very wide and expansive. His hands and feet were
also small and delicate. His countenance when in repose, or rather
in stillness, was stern and thoughtful in the extreme, indicating
deep and passionate meditation, so much so as to be at times almost
startling. His low bow on entering a room, in which there were ladies
or strangers, gave a formality to his address, which wore at first the
appearance of constraint; but when he began to talk these impressions
were presently changed,--he threw off the seeming weight of years, his
countenance became genial, and his manner free and gracious.”--1843.
[Sidenote: Littell’s _Living Age_, 1849.]
“His head was large and expressive, with dark eyes and white waving
locks, and resting upon broad shoulders, with the smallest possible
apology for a neck. To a sturdy and ample frame were appended legs
and arms of a most disproportioned shortness, and, ‘in his whole
aspect there was something indescribably elfish and grotesque, such as
limners do not love to paint, nor ladies to look upon.’ He reminded
you of a spy-glass shut up, and you wanted to take hold of him and
pull him out into a man of goodly proportions and average stature. It
was difficult to repress a smile at his appearance as he approached,
for the elements were so quaintly combined in him that he seemed like
one of Cowley’s conceits translated into flesh and blood.... His
manners were like those of men accustomed to live much alone, simple,
frank, and direct, but not in all respects governed by the rules of
conventional politeness. It was difficult for him to sit still. He
was constantly leaving his chair, walking about the room, and then
sitting down again, as if he were haunted by an incurable restlessness.
His conversation was very interesting, and marked by a vein of quiet
humour not found in his writings. He spoke with much deliberation,
and in regularly-constructed periods, which might have been printed
without any alteration. There was a peculiarity in his voice not
easily described. He would begin a sentence in a sort of subdued tone,
hardly above a whisper, and end it in something between a bark and a
growl.”--1848.