188 WILLIAM BARTRAM 



Charles Lamb: 



It might be expected, with good reason, that a man who was 

 as close a friend to Coleridge as Charles Lamb was would read 

 Bartram's Travels. Coleridge was not in the habit of keeping 

 his literary enthusiasms to himself. And indeed Lamb did read 

 the book. Among the contribution to the Morning Post which 

 Mr. Lucas believes Lamb wrote appears the following, on Nov- 

 ember 2, 1803: 



Bartram, who, as a traveller, was possessed of a very Lively fancy, 

 describes vast plains in the interior of America, where his horse's 

 fetlocks for miles were dyed a perfect blood colour, in the juice of 

 the wild strawberries. A less ardent fancy than Bartram's may apply 

 this beautiful phenomenon of summer, to solve the present strawberry 

 appearance of the female leg this autumn in England. ^^ 



Percy By s she Shelley: 



In a note to The Revolt of Islam ^^ George Edward Wood- 

 berry points to the similarity between Shelley's expression 



Creaked with the weight of birds (X, xviii, 5 ) . 



and Coleridge's " Flew creaking o'er thy head." It will be re- 

 called that Coleridge justified his use of the phrase by invoking 

 Bartram's authority. It is possible, of course, that Shelley's use 

 of the word " creaked " as applied to the flight of birds is a 

 mere coincidence, but then, again, it may be an echo of Cole- 

 ridge and thus an echo of Bartram. That Coleridge did influ- 

 ence Shelley is attested by Brandl, who remarks that " Lewti " 

 had " a special charm for Shelley, who in his " Indian Serenade,' 

 has imitated both matter and manner." ^^ " Lewti," we may 

 again recall, owed much of its charm to Bartram. 



Whether Shelley read Bartram, after being referred to him 



'^ Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. Edited by E. V. Lucas. London, 1903, 

 II, 441. 



"^ The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Cambridge Ed., 

 Boston, 1901, p. 619. 



*' Alois Brandl: Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the English Romantic School. 

 English edition by Lady Eastlake. London, 1887, p. 191. 



