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Coleridge, Godwin and Mary Robinson:

the identity of 'C.'

 

Pamela Clemit

 

(A shortened version of this article appears as a letter in
the Times Literary Supplement, 18 February 2005)

 

 

Adam Sisman (Letters, TLS, December 3) is right to question Paula Byrne’s claim (Commentary, TLS August 6) that Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Godwin, and Mary Robinson supped together on February 25 and March 4, 1796, prior to the composition of “Kubla Khan”. As he notes, this claim is based on a mistaken reading of two entries in Godwin’s unpublished diaries in the Abinger papers, purchased by the Bodleian Library in 2004. The mysterious “C.” who accompanied Godwin to Mary Robinson’s on these two occasions, as he also did on February 17 and 29, was not Coleridge but Thomas Abthorpe Cooper, Godwin’s second cousin and a future star of the American theatre, who was then seeking to establish himself on the London stage.

 

Cooper, who lived in Godwin’s household from 1788 to 1792, and was educated by him, is regularly denoted in Godwin’s diary as “C.”. Godwin often adopted abbreviated forms to record the presence of family members, close friends, or acquaintances whose names he did not wish to divulge to posterity. However, his usage is not entirely consistent: Cooper is denoted by his full surname on occasions, whilst Mary Robinson is mentioned as both “M Robinson” and “MRⁿ”. That the “C.” who supped with Mary Robinson in early 1796 was indeed the young actor is further indicated by a passage in an unpublished letter from Cooper to Godwin, written from Bath, dated 26 March 1796:

 

I beg you will let me know and immediately, whatever (if any thing) has passed concerning myself at M^rs Robinson’s – I am given to understand (in a letter she has written to a friend) that she is very friendly in her wishes for my success – but how can I reconcile incongruities – Has she ever mentioned my parting letter to thee? (Bodleian [Abinger] Dep. b. 214/1, quoted here by kind permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford)

 

In the event, Cooper had no need of Mary Robinson’s professional assistance. In September 1796 he accepted the offer of a three-year contract in the Philadelphia and Baltimore theatres and sailed to America, where he quickly made his name. Further information may be found in F. Arants Maginnes, Thomas Abthorpe Cooper: Father of the American Stage, 1775-1849 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004), a generally illuminating study, although marred by a few unfortunate errors in the citation of materials from the Abinger papers.

 

As regards the question of Coleridge’s and Godwin’s acquaintance, also raised by Adam Sisman (see his excellent article), Godwin’s diary confirms that the two men scarcely knew each other in 1796. Although Godwin dined with Coleridge (and Samuel Porson) at Thomas Holcroft’s on December 21, 1794, the pair had no further personal contact until Coleridge called to see Godwin on November 30, 1799, after which they became fast friends. They took tea together at Mary Robinson’s on January 15, 1800, and supped with her on January 18 and February 22, 1800. Paula Byrne misdates the historic encounter between three celebrated figures of the English Romantic era by almost exactly four years.