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COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834). The Fall of Robespierre. An Historical Drama. Cambridge: Benjamin Flower for W.H. Lunn and J. and J. Merrill; and sold by J. Marsh, 1794.
8o (210 x 129 mm). Collation: π2 B-E4 (E+1). Wove paper. (Title much restored affecting imprint and rules, dedication leaf remargined and with closed tears, D3 with long vertical tear crossing text skilfully repaired, final leaf with inner marginal losses renewed, a few minor marginal repairs some touching a few letters, stain towards end, lacking the final leaf of advertisements.) Blue morocco gilt, edges gilt, by Riviere. Provenance: purchased from Seven Gables Bookshop, New York, 1971.
FIRST EDITION OF THE AUTHOR'S FIRST BOOK. In June 1794, Coleridge walked from Cambridge to Oxford and soon encountered Robert Southey. This meeting was to be a defining moment in Coleridge's development as a writer. The Fall of Robespierre grew out of Coleridge and Southey's conception of pantisocracy, a term of Coleridge's invention to define their "noble and philosophic project for a group emigration to America. Twelve young men and their wives were to settle there as an ideal community, an 'experiment of human Perfectability'" (I.A. Richards). Conflicts between the various proposed participants defeated the plan, but a strong literary bond resulted from these early philosophical discussions.
Coleridge and Southey and fellow Pantisocrat Robert Lovell agreed one day to produce a tragedy by the following evening. Coleridge wrote the first act, though in a longer period of time. Southey wrote the second and, ultimately, third acts, as Lovell's work would not fit. The work was published as Coleridge's own in September 1794. Coleridge in his dedication to Henry Martin states that it has been his "sole aim to imitate the empassioned and highly figurative language of the French Orators, and to develope the characters of the chief actors on a vast stage of horrors." Copies of The Fall of Robespierre in any condition are SCARCE. Ashley I, p.193; Tinker 670; Wise Coleridge 1.
8o (210 x 129 mm). Collation: π2 B-E4 (E+1). Wove paper. (Title much restored affecting imprint and rules, dedication leaf remargined and with closed tears, D3 with long vertical tear crossing text skilfully repaired, final leaf with inner marginal losses renewed, a few minor marginal repairs some touching a few letters, stain towards end, lacking the final leaf of advertisements.) Blue morocco gilt, edges gilt, by Riviere. Provenance: purchased from Seven Gables Bookshop, New York, 1971.
FIRST EDITION OF THE AUTHOR'S FIRST BOOK. In June 1794, Coleridge walked from Cambridge to Oxford and soon encountered Robert Southey. This meeting was to be a defining moment in Coleridge's development as a writer. The Fall of Robespierre grew out of Coleridge and Southey's conception of pantisocracy, a term of Coleridge's invention to define their "noble and philosophic project for a group emigration to America. Twelve young men and their wives were to settle there as an ideal community, an 'experiment of human Perfectability'" (I.A. Richards). Conflicts between the various proposed participants defeated the plan, but a strong literary bond resulted from these early philosophical discussions.
Coleridge and Southey and fellow Pantisocrat Robert Lovell agreed one day to produce a tragedy by the following evening. Coleridge wrote the first act, though in a longer period of time. Southey wrote the second and, ultimately, third acts, as Lovell's work would not fit. The work was published as Coleridge's own in September 1794. Coleridge in his dedication to Henry Martin states that it has been his "sole aim to imitate the empassioned and highly figurative language of the French Orators, and to develope the characters of the chief actors on a vast stage of horrors." Copies of The Fall of Robespierre in any condition are SCARCE. Ashley I, p.193; Tinker 670; Wise Coleridge 1.