The 1800 Lyrical Ballads, Mary Robinson, and ‘The Mad Monk’

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the friendship between Coleridge and Mary Robinson during the last year of her life, and shows this closeness is revealed in their Morning Post publications. In addition to offering each other mutual admiration and support, Coleridge and Robinson shared confidences about Wordsworth’s domestic and poetic plans. The chapter includes discussions of the connections between Robinson’s Lyrical Tales and Wordsworth’s 1800 Lyrical Ballads, the relevance of Robinson’s ‘The Granny Grey’ for her knowledge of Wordsworth’s relationship with Annette Vallon, and the publication of ‘The Mad Monk’. The publication of ‘The Mad Monk’ on 13 October 1800, shortly after the exclusion of ‘Christabel’ from the new edition of Lyrical Ballads, may be read as Coleridge’s public response to his sense of defeat and abandonment by Wordsworth.