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Samuel Taylor Coleridge:A Brief History

October 21, 1772: Samuel Taylor Coleridge is born in Ottery

St. Mary, Devonshire, the youngest of ten children of John and Anne Bowden

Coleridge.

1775

At the age of three, Coleridge enrolls at Dame Key's Reading School. He

later attends Henry VIII Free Grammar School in Ottery St. Mary.

October 6, 1781

Coleridge's father, the Reverend John

Coleridge, dies. Samuel is sent to Christ's

Hospital, a London boarding school that

gives free education to orphans.

1791

Coleridge enrolls at Cambridge University as a member of Jesuit

College. He arrives just after William Wordsworth graduates.

1793

Coleridge enlists in the 15th

Light Dragoons under the alias Silas Tomkyn

Comberbache.

April 1794

The Coleridge family bargains to take Samuel out of the army, and

he returns to Cambridge. With fellow student Robert Southey, he organizes a utopian society known

as the Pantisocracy. Coleridge leaves Cambridge without a

degree. He lectures and writes in order to raise money for the

Pantisocracy.

October 4, 1795

Coleridge marries Sara Fricker, the sister of

Robert Southey's fiancée. Their marriage turns out to be an unsuccessful and unhappy one, and

Coleridge spends most of his life living apart from his wife and children.

1796

In September, the couple's first child, son Hartley Coleridge, is

born.

June 5, 1797

Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth meet for the first time. They

become instant friends.

March 23, 1798

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

is completed.

September 1798

Lyrical Ballads (a collaboration work with

Wordsworth) is published. Coleridge and Wordsworth travel to Germany for an

extended stay.

Another son is born, but dies before Coleridge comes

home. Coleridge sinks into depression

1799

Falls in love with Wordsworth’s sister-

in-law, Sara Hutchinson.

1800 Because of his

rheumatism, Coleridge is prescribed a medication

called Laudanum, an opiate. It begins an

addiction that he would struggle with for the rest of

his life.

Another son, Derwent, is born.

1803

Coleridge’s final child, a daughter

Sara, is born.

1804

Coleridge travels out of the country to Malta, hoping the climate will

improve his health. He stays

away for two years.

1806

Coleridge separates from his wife, but continues to support her and his children. A divorce never occurs.

1808

Moves in with Wordsworth. The two separate two years later when

Coleridge discovers that Wordsworth has been speaking ill of him behind

his back.

The two reconcile two years later, 1810

1815

Biographia Literaria is

published, an accumulation of

literary criticism.

1816

Coleridge moves in with a doctor to

kick his opium addiction.

1820

Hartley Coleridge is expelled from

school for drunkenness. Two years later, Hartley

runs away. Coleridge never

sees his eldest son again.

June 21, 1828

Coleridge travels Europe with Wordsworth and his daughter Dora.

July 25, 1834

Coleridge dies in his doctor’s home. He is

buried in Highgate in the

aisle of St. Michael's Church

Gravestone Inscription

'Stop, Christian Passer-by! - Stop, child of God,

And read with gentle breast. Beneath this sodA poet lies, or that which once seem'd he. -

O, lift one thought in prayer for S.T.C.;That he who many a year with toil of breath

Found death in life, may here find life in death!Mercy for praise - to be forgiven for fame

He ask'd for praise - to be forgiven for fameHe ask'd, and hoped, through Christ.

Do thou the same!'