BARTRAM'S INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE l4l 



suggestion that Coleridge modeled the " snaky " nature of Lady 

 Geraldine upon Bartram's descriptions of snakes deserves atten- 

 tion, although it is, at first blush, far-fetched. We know that 

 Coleridge entered long extracts from Bartram into his Note 

 Book just about the time when he worked on " Christabel." 

 Lady Geraldine, Bersch observes, has " A snake's small eye " 

 (1. 583) and a "' look of dull and treacherous hate! " (1. 606), 

 yet Christabel finds herself under the spell of those eyes so 

 that " what she knew she could not tell, O'er-mastered by the 

 mighty spell " (11. 619-20) . Now Bartram, speaking of rattle- 

 snakes, tells us that " They are supposed to have the power of 

 fascination in an eminent degree, so as to inthral their prey 

 . . . they charm birds, rabbits, squirrels and other animals, and 

 by steadfastly looking at them possess them with infatuation." ^^ 

 However, Coleridge may have read about this charming power 

 of snakes long before he came upon Bartram, for the tradition 

 is well-known in literature. 



Coleridge's use of one episode or one image more than once 

 is disclosed by more than his employment of the conflict be- 

 tween a bird and a snake in three poems — " Christabel," " The 

 Wanderings of Cain," and Zapolya. We have noted the 

 owls in Osorio, in " The Ancient Mariner " and in " Christabel." 

 They hoot once more in " Frost at Midnight." In this poem the 

 " owlet's cry " comes " loud — and hark, again! loud as before." 

 The relation of this owlet to Bartram is not so certain as that of 

 the owlet in " The Ancient Mariner " whooping to the wolf 

 below, but there are other lines in " Frost at Midnight " which 

 indicate that Bartram was in Coleridge's mind when he wrote 

 the poem. The calm which " vexes " his meditation with " its 

 strange and extreme silentness " makes him think at the same 

 time of the 



Sea, and hill, and wood, 

 With all the numberless goings-on of life, 

 Inaudible as dreams! the thin blue fiatne 

 Lies on my low-burnt fre, and quiver not (11. 8-14). 



''' P. 267. See Bersch, op. cit., p. 102. E. H. Coleridge, however, cites a 

 passage from M. G. Lewis's Ambrosio, or The Monk as a possible source for 

 Coleridge's snake charm (' Christabel," pp. 92-93). 



