button to main menu  Gents Mag 1834 part 2 p.545
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Gentleman's Magazine 1834 part 2 p.545
essay on English Poetry, intended for a society at Exeter, but which piece is not inserted in their published volume.
We presume that it was at this period of his life that he enlisted as a common soldier in the Dragoons. Upon this singular fact, or what might be called in the metaphysician's own language "psychological curiosity," the following authentic account has been communicated to the public by the Rev. W. L. Bowles, who is, perhaps, the only person now living who could explain all the circumstances from Mr. Coleridge's own mouth, with whom he became acquainted after a sonnet addressed to him in his poems; and who, moreover, was intimate with that very officer who alone procured Coleridge his discharge:
"The regiment was the 15th, Elliott's Light Dragoons; the officer was Nathaniel Ogle, eldest son of Dr. Newton Ogle, Dean of Winchester, and brother of the late Mrs. Sheridan; he was a scholar, and, leaving Merton College, he entered his regiment a cornet. Some years afterwards - I believe he was then a Captain of Coleridge's troop - going into the stables, at Reading, he remarked written on the white wall, under one of the saddles, in large pencil characters, the following sentence, in Latin -
'Eheu! quam infortunii miserrimum est fuisse felicem!'
"Being struck with the circumstance, and himself a scholar, Captain Ogle inquired of a soldier whether he knew to whom the saddle belonged. 'Please your honour, to Comberback,' answered the dragoon. 'Comberback!' said his captain; 'send him to me.' Comberback presented himself, with the inside of his hand in front of his cap. His officer mildly said, 'Comberback, did you write the Latin sentence which I have just read, under your saddle?' 'Please, your honour,' answered the soldier, 'I wrote it?' 'Then, my lad, you are not what you are not what you appear to be. I shall speak to the commanding officer, and you may depend on my speaking as a friend.' The commanding officer, I think, was General Churchill. Comberback* was examined, and it was found out, that having left Jesus College, Cambridge, and being in London without resources, he had enlisted in this regiment. He was soon discharged, - not from his democrratic feelings; for, whatever those feelings might be, as a soldier he was remarkable orderly and obedient, though he could not rub down his own horse. He was discharged from respect to his friends and his station. His friends having been informed of his situation, a chaise was soon at the door of the Bear Inn, Reading, and the officers of the 15th cordially shaking his hands, particularly the officer who had been the means of his discharge, he drove off, not without a tear in his eye, whilst his old companions of the tap room gave him three hearty cheers as the wheels rapidly rolled away along the road to London and Cambridge.
"It should be mentioned, that by far the most correct, sublime, chaste, and beautiful of his poems, meo judicio, his 'Religious Musings,' was written, non inter sylvas academi, but in the tap room at Reading. A fine subject for a painting by Wilkie."
In 1794, Coleridge ventured to publish a small volume of juvenile Poems, which were very favourably spoken of by the periodical critics, as the buds of hope, and promises of better works to come: though the same reviewers concurred in objecting to them, obscurity, a general turgidness of diction, and a profusion of new-coined double epithets. The same year he published "The Fall of Robespierre, an historic drama," in which the Conventional speeches were happily versified, and the sentiments expressed in language classically correct, and uncommonly vigourous. The French Revolution had at this time turned the heads of many persons, and this was the case with Mr. Coleridge, who became such a zealot in the cause of universal liberty as to abandon the friendly cloisters of his college to embark in the quixotic enterprise of reforming the world. he had, at this time, formed a close intimacy with Mr. Southey and Robert Lovell, on a visit to Oxford; and, their sentiments being perfectly in unison, the triumvirate began to project schemes for ameliorating the condition of human society. They began their operations at Bristol in a course of Lectures delivered by our young adventurer, with considerable applause from certain classes in that renowned trading city. Here, also, in 1795, Mr. Coleridge published two political pamphlets, one entitled, "Conciones ad Populum, or Address to the People;" and the other, "A Protest against certain Bills then pending for Suppressing Seditious Meetings."
In an inauspicious hour he was also persuaded to commence a weekly paper, "The Watchman;" and as the object of
* When he enlisted he was asked his name. He hesitated, but saw the name Comberback over a shop door near Westminster-bridge, and instantly said his name was "Comberback."
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