The following letter also on this subject, was received from Mr.
Coleridge.
"My dear Cottle,
Neither Wordsworth nor myself could have been otherwise than
uncomfortable, if any but yourself had received from us the first offer
of our Tragedies, and of the volume of Wordsworth's Poems. At the same
time, we did not expect that you could with prudence and propriety,
advance such a sum as we should want at the time we specified. In short,
we both regard the publication of our Tragedies as an evil. It is not
impossible but that in happier times, they may be brought on the stage:
and to throw away this chance for a mere trifle, would be to make the
present moment act fraudulently and usuriously towards the future time.
My Tragedy employed and strained all my thoughts and faculties for six or
seven months; Wordsworth consumed far more time, and far more thought,
and far more genius. We consider the publication of them an evil on any
terms; but our thoughts were bent on a plan for the accomplishment of
which, a certain sum of money was necessary, (the whole) at that
particular time, and in order to this we resolved, although reluctantly,
to part with our Tragedies: that is, if we could obtain thirty guineas
for each, and at less than thirty guineas Wordsworth will not part with
the copy-right of his volume of Poems. We shall offer the Tragedies to no
one, for we have determined to procure the money some other way. If you
choose the volume of Poems, at the price mentioned, to be paid at the
time specified, i. e. thirty guineas, to be paid sometime in the last
fortnight of July, you may have them; but remember, my dear fellow! I
write to you now merely as a bookseller, and intreat you, in your answer,
to consider yourself only; as to us, although money is necessary to our
plan, [that of visiting Germany] yet the plan is not necessary to our
happiness; and if it were, W. could sell his Poems for that sum to some
one else, or we could procure the money without selling the Poems. So I
entreat you, again and again, in your answer, which must be immediate,
consider yourself only.
Wordsworth has been caballed against _so long and so loudly_, that he has
found it impossible to prevail on the tenant of the Allfoxden estate, to
let him the house, after their first agreement is expired, so he must
quit it at Midsummer; whether we shall be able to procure him a house and
furniture near Stowey, we know not, and yet we must: for the hills, and
the woods, and the streams, and the sea, and the shores, would break
forth into reproaches against us, if we did not strain every nerve, to
keep their poet among them. Without joking, and in serious sadness, Poole
and I cannot endure to think of losing him.
At all events, come down, Cottle, as soon as you can, but before
Midsummer, and we will procure a horse easy as thy own soul, and we will
go on a roam to Linton and Limouth, which, if thou comest in May, will be
in all their pride of woods and waterfalls, not to speak of its august
cliffs, and the green ocean, and the vast Valley of Stones, all which
live disdainful of the seasons, or accept new honours only from the
winter's snow. At all events come down, and cease not to believe me much
and affectionately your friend,