A newly edited readers' edition of Coleridge's foundational lectures on ShakespeareThis volume comprises a freshly composed edition of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1811-12 Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton and 1818-19 Lectures on Shakespeare. Coleridge is a foundational figure in Shakespeare criticism, and remains to this day one of the most incisive and best. Nobody interested in Coleridge, Shakespeare or Literary Criticism more broadly can afford to be ignorant of Coleridge's famous lectures.Key FeaturesA new edition of one of Romanticism's (and English Literature's) most influential critics lectures on ShakespeareNewly edited to take advantage of modern scholarship and new electronic research resources; an edition in which all hitherto untraced allusions and quotations have been identifiedUnlike other editions, this presents the lectures as works of fluent and readable prose, rather than notes or shorthand jottingThe volume follows the same format, and embodies many of the specific features, as the editor's new edition of Coleridge's Biographia Literaria (2014)
Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Select Poems is a classic poetry collection by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge lived in what may safely be called the most momentous period of modern history. In the year following his birth Warren Hastings was appointed first governor-general of India, where he maintained English empire during years of war with rival nations, and where he committed those acts of cruelty and tyranny which called forth the greatest eloquence of the greatest of English orators, in the famous impeachment trial at Westminster, when Coleridge was a sixteen-year-old schoolboy in London. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (originally The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere) is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797-98 and published in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. Some modern editions use a revised version printed in 1817 that featured a gloss. citation needed] Along with other poems in Lyrical Ballads, it is often considered a signal shift to modern poetry and the beginning of British Romantic literature. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner relates the experiences of a sailor who has returned from a long sea voyage. The mariner stops a man who is on the way to a wedding ceremony and begins to narrate a story. The wedding-guest's reaction turns from bemusement to impatience to fear to fascination as the mariner's story progresses, as can be seen in the language style: Coleridge uses narrative techniques such as personification and repetition to create a sense of danger, the supernatural, or serenity, depending on the mood in different parts of the poem. The mariner's tale begins with his ship departing on its journey. Despite initial good fortune, the ship is driven south by a storm and eventually reaches Antarctic waters. An albatross appears and leads them out of the ice jam where they are stuck, but even as the albatross is praised by the ship's crew, the mariner shoots the bird: The crew is angry with the mariner, believing the albatross brought the south wind that led them out of the Antarctic. However, the sailors change their minds when the weather becomes warmer and the mist disappears: 'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay, That bring the fog and mist. They soon find that they made a grave mistake in supporting this crime, as it arouses the wrath of spirits who then pursue the ship "from the land of mist and snow"; the south wind that had initially led them from the land of ice now sends the ship into uncharted waters near the equator, where it is becalmed. Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean. Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink. The very deep did rot - Oh Christ That ever this should be. Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs, Upon the slimy sea. The sailors change their minds again and blame the mariner for the torment of their thirst. In anger, the crew forces the mariner to wear the dead albatross about his neck, perhaps to illustrate the burden he must suffer from killing it, or perhaps as a sign of regret.
A few magical poems by Coleridge remain among the most celebrated works in the language: KUBLA KHAN, CHRISTABEL and - above all -THE ANCIENT MARINER. All are included in this volume, together with many other superb but lesser-known poems and a selected prose extracts from the BIOGRAPHIA LITERIA and the NOTEBOOKS which show that Coleridge was not only a major poet but also a great critic and prose writer.
Coleridge's Poems is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1899. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.