FARRAGO:

OR

THE LUCUBRATIONS

ОР

COUNSELLOR BICKERTON,

ESQUIRE.

No. I.

OXFORD:

PRINTED AND SOLD BY MUNDAY AND SLATTER.

THE FARRAGO.

MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1816.

SIR,

To Counsellor Bickerton, Esq.

IN

In consequence of your hint relative to criticism on new and popular works, I enclose you a Critique on Mr. Coleridge's last Poem. Should it meet with your approbation, I hope it may be honoured with a place in your "Farrago."

Oxford, June 14, 1816.

T. O.

Christabel-Kubla Khan-the Pains of Sleep-by S. T. Coleridge, Esq. pp. 64. London, 1816.

Concerning the merits of Mr. Coleridge the readers of poetry have been much divided: the praise of original genius has been denied to him by none; but many are disposed to reduce that praise to a very limited compass.-Now to state our own opinion of Mr. C.; he has always appeared to us as possessing a more than common share of wild and creative talent; but as marvellously deficient in what alone can render

that talent universally attractive and popular-a sound and critical judgment. Under these impressions we took

up the Poem which forms the subject of this article, and on perusing it received a stronger conviction from every page, that we had rightly appreciated the merits of the Author. It will be recollected that Lord Byron in his Notes to the "Siege of Corinth" bestowed a very high compliment on the then unpublished poem of “Christabel.” Such flattering notice coming from so celebrated a quarter, naturally excited great expectations among the literary world. The admirers of Mr. Coleridge's former works looked exultingly forward to that auspicious day which should greet the publication of the renowned Manuscript. But when that day did at last arrive, and the paper-knife had been applied to the first pages beyond the Preface, how mournfully was expectation disappointed. The first pages, instead of the beauty so celebrated by Lord Byron, exhibited nothing but a continued farrago of childishness and discord. As the perusal continued, a few flickering gleams of genius enlightened the dreary path, till at length even these were no more perceptible through the increasing darkness which overshadowed the conclusion. The world was at length too well convinced of the satirical talents of Lord Byron, and discovered, too late, that when he praised the originality, beauty, and wildness of the unpublished "Christabel," he was only repeating the experiment which he had tried in his own "Siege of Corinth," namely, to discover the exact measure of stupidity which the sanction of a name could induce the readers of poetry to admire.