Recollections of the Lake Poets
Encyclopedia
Recollections of the Lake Poets is a collection of biographical essays written by the English author Thomas De Quincey
. In these essays, originally published in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine
between 1834
and 1840
, De Quincey provided some of the earliest, best informed, and most candid accounts of the Lake Poets
, William Wordsworth
, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
, and Robert Southey
, and others in their circle. Together, the essays "form one of the most entertaining of Lakeland
books."
De Quincey was the first person to address the problem of plagiarism
in Coleridge's works, a problem that would be ignored or neglected for a century and a half, until modern scholars addressed it in detail.
Some interested parties, however, responded more calmly. Coleridge's daughter Sarah found De Quincey's treatment of her father to be insightful and generally fair.
), the first British collected edition of De Quincey's works. For that edition, the author edited his essays, trimming some passages but adding others. The essays were reprinted again in a separate volume, as Recollections of the Lakes and the Lake Poets (1862
); that title may or may not have originated with De Quincey.
There were three twentieth-century editions of the essays. Edward Sackville-West's Recollections of the Lake Poets (1948) and John E. Jordan's Reminiscences of the English Lake Poets (1961) both relied primarily upon the 1854 revised texts; for his 1970 edition, David Wright returned to the original magazine texts and to the title of the 1862 collection.
Thomas de Quincey
Thomas Penson de Quincey was an English esssayist, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater .-Child and student:...
. In these essays, originally published in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine
Tait's Magazine
Tait's Edinburgh Magazine was a monthly periodical founded in 1832. It was an important venue for liberal political views, as well as contemporary cultural and literary developments, in early-to-mid-nineteenth century Britain....
between 1834
1834 in literature
The year 1834 in literature involved some significant new books.-New books:*William Harrison Ainsworth -Rookwood*Carl Jonas Love Almquist - Drottningens juvelsmycke*Honoré de Balzac - Le père Goriot...
and 1840
1840 in literature
The year 1840 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*Novelist Fritz Reuter is freed from the fortress of Dömitz after two years' imprisonment on a charge of high treason....
, De Quincey provided some of the earliest, best informed, and most candid accounts of the Lake Poets
Lake Poets
The Lake Poets are a group of English poets who all lived in the Lake District of England at the turn of the nineteenth century. As a group, they followed no single "school" of thought or literary practice then known, although their works were uniformly disparaged by the Edinburgh Review...
, William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
, and Robert Southey
Robert Southey
Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...
, and others in their circle. Together, the essays "form one of the most entertaining of Lakeland
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
books."
Candor
De Quincey wrote from direct personal familiarity, having known all three men during the first two decades of the nineteenth century. When he wrote about them twenty years later, De Quincey ignored the constraints and repressions typical of biography in his era, to produce realistic and nuanced portraits. He "certainly made many of his subjects live in the mind of the reader as few others of their biographers have been able to do. The racy, gossipy tone that often prevails makes these works eminently readable; indeed, Tait's Magazine never sold better than when De Quincey's literary reminiscences were appearing in it."De Quincey was the first person to address the problem of plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
in Coleridge's works, a problem that would be ignored or neglected for a century and a half, until modern scholars addressed it in detail.
Responses
The degree of candor that De Quincey brought to his portraits of people who were then still living or recently dead was extremely rare, if not unprecedented, in contemporaneous literature and journalism, and provoked strong negative reactions. In the mid-1830s, when the essays were being published, Southey called him "a calumniator, cowardly spy, traitor, base betrayer of the hospitable social hearth" and "one of the greatest scoundrels living!"Some interested parties, however, responded more calmly. Coleridge's daughter Sarah found De Quincey's treatment of her father to be insightful and generally fair.
The essays
De Quincey wrote about the figures of the "Lake School," especially Wordsworth and Coleridge, repeatedly throughout his canon. The essays that make up the collection are primarily these (each year links to its corresponding "[year] in poetry" article):- "Samuel Taylor Coleridge," Tait's Magazine, September through November 18341834 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-United Kingdom:* Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poetical Works, including "On Quitting School" * Sara Coleridge, Pretty Lessons in Verse for Good Children* George Crabbe, The Poetical Works of George Crabbe...
and January 18351835 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-United Kingdom:* Robert Browning, Paracelsus * John Clare, The Rural Muse... - "A Letter to William Wordsworth," August 18351835 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-United Kingdom:* Robert Browning, Paracelsus * John Clare, The Rural Muse...
- "William Wordsworth," January, February, and April 18391839 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* William Wordsworth granted an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree by Oxford University.-United Kingdom:...
- "William Wordsworth and Robert Southey," July 18391839 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* William Wordsworth granted an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree by Oxford University.-United Kingdom:...
- "Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge," August 18391839 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* William Wordsworth granted an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree by Oxford University.-United Kingdom:...
- "Recollections of Grasmere," September 18391839 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* William Wordsworth granted an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree by Oxford University.-United Kingdom:...
- "The Saracen's Head," December 18391839 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* William Wordsworth granted an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree by Oxford University.-United Kingdom:...
- "Westmoreland and the Dalesmen," January 18401840 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-United Kingdom:* Thomas Aird, Orthuriel, and Other Poems* Matthew Arnold, Alaric at Rome* Robert Browning, Sordello...
- "Society of the Lakes, I, II, and III," January, March, and June 18401840 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-United Kingdom:* Thomas Aird, Orthuriel, and Other Poems* Matthew Arnold, Alaric at Rome* Robert Browning, Sordello...
Editions
After their initial publication, several of the essays appeared in the second volume of Selections Grave and Gay (18541854 in literature
The year 1854 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* The Polyglotta Africana, an early classification of African languages based on field work under freed slaves in Freetown, Sierra Leone, is published by Sigismund Wilhelm Koelle....
), the first British collected edition of De Quincey's works. For that edition, the author edited his essays, trimming some passages but adding others. The essays were reprinted again in a separate volume, as Recollections of the Lakes and the Lake Poets (1862
1862 in literature
The year 1862 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*February - Ambrose Bierce joins the staff of General William Badcock Hazen....
); that title may or may not have originated with De Quincey.
There were three twentieth-century editions of the essays. Edward Sackville-West's Recollections of the Lake Poets (1948) and John E. Jordan's Reminiscences of the English Lake Poets (1961) both relied primarily upon the 1854 revised texts; for his 1970 edition, David Wright returned to the original magazine texts and to the title of the 1862 collection.