Table Of ContentOUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,17/9/2018,SPi
WORDSWORTH AND COLERIDGE
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Wordsworth and
Coleridge
The Radical Years
Second Edition
NICHOLAS ROE
1
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3
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OriginallypublishedintheOxfordEnglishMonographsseries
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,17/9/2018,SPi
To the memory of
JOHN THELWALL
Citizen, Poet, Prophet
–
1764 1834
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‘Andpleasewhat’sHulks?’saidI.
‘That’sthewaywiththisboy!’exclaimedmysister,pointingmeout
with her needle and thread, and shaking her head at me. ‘Answer
him one question, and he’ll ask you a dozen directly. Hulks are
prison-ships,right’crossth’meshes.’Wealwaysusedthatnamefor
marshes,inourcountry.
‘Iwonder who’s putinto prison-ships,andwhythey’reput there?’
saidI,inageneralway,andwithquietdesperation.
ItwastoomuchforMrsJoe,whoimmediatelyrose.‘Itellyouwhat,
young fellow,’ said she, ‘I didn’t bring you up by hand to badger
people’slivesout.PeopleareputintheHulksbecausetheymurder,
and because they rob, and forge, and do all sorts of bad; and they
alwaysbeginbyaskingquestions.’
(CharlesDickens,GreatExpectations,ch.2)
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Preface, 1988 2018
On Tuesday 30 September 1794 the following advertisement appeared
onthefrontpageoftheMorningChronicle:
ThoseFamilieswhoseHusbandsandFathersarenowinConfinementunder
a Charge of HIGH TREASON, and whose Trials will come on in a few Days
intreattheIMMEDIATEPECUNIARYASSISTANCEoftheREALFriendstoLiberty.
The husbands and fathers charged with treason were the leaders of the
LondonCorrespondingSocietyandtheSocietyforConstitutionalInfor-
mation. They had been arrested in May and held in the Tower and
Newgate over the summer; not surprisingly, their dependents were in
need of supportafter four months—hence the subscription organized by
theCorrespondingSociety’sCommitteeofCorrespondence.
The‘REALFriendstoLiberty’respondedgenerously.On19November,
the committee announced that £314 19s. 3d. had been collected, and
publishedalistofsubscribers.AmongthemweretheCountessDowager
ofStanhope,£20;CharlesJamesFox,£10;ThomasWalkerofManches-
ter, 3 guineas; and Francis Place, breeches-maker, 5s. But one contribu-
tioninparticularleapsoutofthelist:‘CitizenWordsworth1s.—0d.’This
donationwasreceivedbyJohnSmith,abooksellerinPortsmouthStreet,
Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Smith was also a leader of the 29th Division of the
Corresponding Society,anda member ofthecommittee thathad organ-
izedthesubscription.Butwhowas‘CitizenWordsworth’,andwashe in
factWilliamWordsworth?
As it turns out, no. ‘Citizen Wordsworth’ was Henry Wordsworth of
JewinStreet,London,andamemberofbooksellerSmith’s29thDivision.
Still,thetantalizingpossibilitythatWilliamWordsworthmightbefound
amongthemassedfriendsoflibertyintheCorrespondingSocietywasmy
starting-point for the more extensive study of Wordsworth’s and Cole-
ridge’sradicalyearsinthisbook.Ihavetakentheyearsbetween1789and
the poets’ departure for Germany in September 1798 as my period, and
havelookedbackatreligiousdissentinCambridgesince1770toprovidea
contextforColeridge’spolitics,andforwardsbywayofincorporatingThe
Prelude,TheFriend,BiographiaLiteraria,andotherlaterwritings.
This new edition of the book has been revised, updated, and slightly
expanded.Ihavetakenaccountofthemostsignificantworkinthefieldover
the three decadessince the book firstappeared,drawn freshmaterial from
manuscripts,newspapers,andelectronicsources,andgivenmoreattention
