to the people than poet Wordsworth.' There is a vivid description of his conversation in Caroline Fox's 'Journals,' 1 Oct. 1844. His only literary effort of any consequence was an edition of Massinger and Ford, published in 1840, accompanied by valuable biographies of the dramatists, but the projected criticisms were never written. He died of bronchitis, 6 Jan. 1849, after a short illness, during which he was affectionately attended by his brother Derwent. Wordsworth selected the place for his grave, indicating at the same time the spot immediately adjoining where he was himself laid little more than a twelvemonth afterwards. Two volumes of Hartley's poetical and two of his prose remains were edited by Derwent Coleridge in 1851.
Hartley possessed a mind of extreme refinement, in which beautiful thoughts seemed to spring up without an effort, and all his literary work was in the highest degree elegant and symmetrical. What he wanted was power. He was not merely deficient in strength of will and steadiness of purpose, but he had not the energy to impress his ideas upon his readers with full effect. His poems are full of graceful beauty, but almost all fall below the level of high poetry. They are not sufficiently powerful for vivid remembrance, and are much too good for oblivion. His striking fragment of 'Prometheus' almost seems an exception; but although his brother attributes it to an earlier period, it is plainly composed under the influence of Shelley. The one species of composition in which he is a master is the sonnet, which precisely suited both his strength and his limitations. His sonnets are among the most perfect in the language. As a critic ('Shakspeare as a Tory and a Gentleman,' 'On the Character of Hamlet') he is delicate and suggestive; as an essayist ('Brief Observations on Brevity,' 'Ignoramus on the Fine Arts,' 'On Black Cats') he is quaintly humorous, with a strong resemblance to Charles Lamb. His pure style is admirable for its elegance and perfect adaptation to the matter in hand. His marginalia are as discursive as his father's, and sometimes almost as acute, but have little of the latter's weight and pregnancy.
[Memoir by Derwent Coleridge, prefixed to Hartley Coleridge's Poems, 1851; Letters, &c., of S. T. Coleridge, edited by T. Allsop, where Hartley is denoted by the initial J.; Journals and Letters of Caroline Fox; Fraser's Magazine, vol. xliii.; Macmillan's Magazine, vol. xiii.]
COLERIDGE, HENRY NELSON (1798–1843), nephew of Samuel Taylor Coleridge [q. v.], and son of Colonel James Coleridge of Ottery St. Mary, was born on 25 Oct. 1798. He was educated at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow. In 1825 he accompanied his uncle, William Hart Coleridge [q. v.], the bishop of Barbados, to the West Indies, and described his excursion in a bright and lively little book, 'Six Months in the West Indies in 1825,' published anonymously in the following year. In 1826 he was called to the bar, and in 1829 married his cousin Sara [q. v.], daughter of the poet. He was the author, as appears from Southey's correspondence, of 'The Life of Swing, a pamphlet called forth by the rick-burning disturbances of 1830, which went through several editions. In the same year he published an introduction to Homer, the first of a contemplated series on the Greek poets, which was not continued further. He became Coleridge's literary executor on the death of the latter in 1834, and the short remainder of his life was chiefly devoted to the fulfilment of this trust. Coleridge's 'Literary Remains,' 'Aids to Reflection,' and 'Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit' were edited by him. His most signal service, however, was the preservation of Coleridge s 'Table Talk,' which he had taken down from his lips during a series of years, and of which he published in 1835 'such parts as seem fit for present publication.' How much was withheld we do not know. The work is accompanied by an eloquent preface, vindicating Coleridge's conversation from the charge of obscurity, and his literary character from the charge of plagiarism. Henry Nelson Coleridge died on 26 Jan. 1843, after long suffering from a spinal complaint. He was lecturer on equity to the Incorporated Law Society, and contributed several articles to the 'Quarterly Review.' He is described as singularly bright and animated when in health, which the general character of his writings tends to confirm. His son Herbert is separately noticed.
[Gent. Mag. new ser. vol. xx.; Memoirs and Letters of Sara Coleridge.]
COLERIDGE, HERBERT (1830–1861), philologist, the son of Henry Nelson [q. v.] and Sara Coleridge [q. v.], was born at Hampstead on 7 Oct. 1830. Educated at Eton by his uncle, the Rev. Edward Coleridge, he obtained the Newcastle medal and the Balliol scholarship in 1847, and in 1848 was declared Newcastle scholar. His university career at Oxford, which began in 1848, was honourably concluded in 1852 with the attainment of a double first-class in classics and mathematics. Life was now opening upon him with every prospect of happiness. In the spring of 1853
