Coleridge on Shakespeare

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, R.A. Foakes

First published in 1971.

The only substantial text of a series of lectures on Shakespeare by S T Coleridge is that provided by J P Collier's Seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton (1856). His text of these important lectures given by Coleridge in 1811-12 has been the basis of all modern editions. This edition is based on hitherto unpublished transcripts of the lectures made by Collier when, as a young man, he attended Coleridge's lectures. R A Foakes' introduction and appendices demonstrate the extent to which Collier revised and altered Coleridge's words for the edition he published forty-five years later. This volume therefore provides a much more authoritative text of Coleridge's most important Shakespeare lectures.

Genres: Shakespeare, Literary Criticism, Nonfiction

188 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1812

About the author

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was an English poet, critic, and philosopher who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England and one of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as his major prose work Biographia Literaria.

Reviews

[Charis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great as an insight into Coleridge's way of thinking about the plays and as an artefact of the time but generally useless for any further understanding of Shakespeare. Some insights were clever and could inspire further analysis by the reader but most were cut short and he jumps from point to point without finishing his idea fully.