It may be suggested that this sudden resolution was forced upon
Coleridge by the _res angusta domi_. But I do not think that was
the case. In the winter of 1797 he had obtained an introduction to and
entered into a literary engagement with Mr. Stuart of the _Morning
Post_, and could thus have met, as in fact he afterwards did meet,
the necessities of the hour.
CHAPTER IV.
Visit to Germany--Life at G?¶ttingen,--Return--Explores the Lake Country
--London--The _Morning Post_--Coleridge as a journalist--Retirement
to Keswick.
[1799-1800.]
The departure of the two poets for the Continent was delayed only till
they had seen their joint volume through the press. The _Lyrical
Ballads_ appeared in the autumn of 1798, and on 16th September of
that year Coleridge left Yarmouth for Hamburg with Wordsworth and his
sister. [1] The purpose of his two companions' tour is not known to
have been other than the pleasure, or mixed pleasure and instruction,
usually derivable from foreign travel; that of Coleridge was strictly,
even sternly, educational. Immediately on his arrival in Germany he
parted from the Wordsworths, who went on to Gozlar, [2] and took up his
abode at the house of the pastor at Ratzeburg, with whom he spent five
months in assiduous study of the language.
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