Sara Coleridge

Sara Coleridge was the fourth child of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his first (and only) daughter. She was born at Greta Hall, Keswick. From an early age she was surrounded by literary giants since the Coleridges, Robert Southey and his wife (Mrs Coleridge's sister), and Mrs Lovell (another sister), widow of Robert Lovell, the Quaker poet, all lived together at Greta Hall and the Wordsworths at Grasmere were their near neighbours. In fact her own father was often away from home and Robert Southey was a convenient substitute father.
Sara Coleridge remained at Greta Hall until her marriage to Henry Nelson Coleridge (1798-1843) in 1829. Her husband was her cousin and the younger son of Captain James Coleridge. She then spent the first eight years of her married life in a small cottage in Hampstead.
She seems to have been educated entirely at Greta Hall guided by Southey. However with an ample library at her command and surrounded by such a learned group she flourished scholastically. She learned the classic languages and read for herself the chief Greek and Latin classics. Before she was twenty five she had learnt French, German, Italian and Spanish.
In 1822,before she was 20,she published an Account of the Abipones which was a translation in three large volumes of Martin Dobrizhoffer's work. Charles Lamb writing about her work to Southey in 1825, says, “How she Dobrizhoffered it all out, puzzles my slender Latinity to conjecture”. Her second work which appeared in 1825 was also a translation, this time from the medieval French, of the "Loyal Serviteur, The Right Joyous and Pleasant History of the Feats, Jests, and Prowesses of the Chevalier Bayard, the Good Knight without Fear and without Reproach: By the Loyal Servant".
In 1834 Sara, now Mrs Coleridge, published her “Pretty Lessons in Verse for Good Children; with some Lessons in Latin in Easy Rhyme”. Originally these had been written for her own children but they soon became very popular.
In 1837 the Coleridges moved to Chester Place, Regents Park; and Sara published her longest work yet. This was “Phantasmion, a Fairy Tale”, The songs in Phantasmion were much admired at the time by many critics including the famous Leigh Hunt. Some of the songs, such as Sylvan Stay and One Face Alone, are extremely graceful and musical, and the whole volume is noticeable for the beauty of the story and the richness of its language.
Sadly in 1843 Henry Coleridge died, leaving to his widow the unfinished task of editing her father's works. She also continued to write new work including “The Essay on Rationalism” and the Introduction to the Biographia Literaria. During the last few years of her life Sara Coleridge was an invalid. Shortly before she died she amused herself by writing a little autobiography for her 9 year old daughter. This was completed by her daughter, and published in 1873, together with some of her letters, under the title “Memoirs and Letters of Sara Coleridge”. The letters show a cultured and highly speculative mind. They contain many apt criticisms of known people and books, and are specially interesting for their references the Lake Poets including Wordsworth.
Sara Coleridge died in London on the 3rd of May 1852.
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