Editing Samuel Taylor Coleridge (section)

==Early life and education==
{{Main|Early life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge}}

Coleridge was born on 21 October 1772 in the town of [[Ottery St Mary]] in [[Devon]], England.<ref>Radley, 13</ref> Samuel's father was the Reverend John Coleridge, the well-respected vicar of [[St Mary's Church, Ottery St Mary]], and was headmaster of [[The King's School, Ottery St Mary|the King's School]], a free grammar school established by King [[Henry VIII]] in the town. He had previously been master of [[Hugh Squier]]'s School in [[South Molton]], Devon, and lecturer of nearby [[Molland]].<ref>Unsworth, John, ''The Early Background of S.T. Coleridge'', published in ''The Coleridge Bulletin'', No 1, Summer 1988, pp 16–25 [http://www.friendsofcoleridge.com/membersonly/Unsworth.html] "Lecturer of Molland" was an office established and funded by a member of the Courtenay family, lords of the manor of Molland, and involved preaching sermons in Molland Church, possibly also in Knowstone Church adjoining</ref>

John Coleridge had three children by his first wife. Samuel was the youngest of ten by the Reverend Mr. Coleridge's second wife, Anne Bowden (1726–1809),<ref>James Gillman (2008) ''The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge''. Bastion Books</ref> probably the daughter of John Bowden, mayor of South Molton, Devon, in 1726.<ref>Unsworth, John, ''The Early Background of S.T. Coleridge'', published in ''The Coleridge Bulletin'', No 1, Summer 1988, pp 16–25 [http://www.friendsofcoleridge.com/membersonly/Unsworth.html]</ref> Coleridge suggests that he "took no pleasure in boyish sports" but instead read "incessantly" and played by himself.<ref name=Coleridge>Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, Joseph Noel Paton, [[Katharine Lee Bates]].''Coleridge's Ancient Mariner'' Ed [[Katharine Lee Bates]]. Shewell, & Sanborn (1889) p. 2</ref> 

After John Coleridge died in 1781, 8-year-old Samuel was sent to [[Christ's Hospital]], a charity school which was founded in the 16th century in [[Greyfriars, London]], where he remained throughout his childhood, studying and writing poetry. At that school Coleridge became friends with [[Charles Lamb (writer)|Charles Lamb]], a schoolmate, and studied the works of [[Virgil]] and [[William Lisle Bowles]].<ref name=Morley>Morley, Henry. ''Table Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Christabel, &c.'' New York: Routledge (1884) pp. i–iv</ref>

In one of a series of autobiographical letters written to [[Thomas Poole (tanner)|Thomas Poole]], Coleridge wrote: "At six years old I remember to have read ''Belisarius'', ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'', and ''Philip Quarll'' – and then I found the ''[[One Thousand and One Nights| Arabian Nights' Entertainments]]'' – one tale of which (the tale of a man who was compelled to seek for a pure virgin) made so deep an impression on me (I had read it in the evening while my mother was mending stockings) that I was haunted by spectres whenever I was in the dark – and I distinctly remember the anxious and fearful eagerness with which I used to watch the window in which the books lay – and whenever the sun lay upon them, I would seize it, carry it by the wall, and bask, and read."<ref>{{Cite web |title=October 9, 1797 to Thomas Poole {{!}} The Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge |url=https://stcletters.com/?p=62 |access-date=7 February 2024 |language=en-US}}</ref>

Coleridge seems to have appreciated his teacher, as he wrote in recollections of his school days in ''[[Biographia Literaria]]'': <blockquote>I enjoyed the inestimable advantage of a very sensible, though at the same time, a very severe master...At the same time that we were studying the [[Ancient Greek literature|Greek Tragic Poets]], he made us read [[Shakespeare]] and [[John Milton| Milton]] as lessons: and they were the lessons too, which required most time and trouble to bring up, so as to escape his censure. I learnt from him, that Poetry, even that of the loftiest, and, seemingly, that of the wildest odes, had a logic of its own, as severe as that of science; and more difficult, because more subtle, more complex, and dependent on more, and more fugitive causes...In our own English compositions (at least for the last three years of our school education) he showed no mercy to phrase, metaphor, or image, unsupported by a sound sense, or where the same sense might have been conveyed with equal force and dignity in plainer words...In fancy I can almost hear him now, exclaiming ''Harp? Harp? Lyre? Pen and ink, boy, you mean! Muse, boy, Muse? your Nurse's daughter, you mean! Pierian spring? Oh aye! the cloister-pump, I suppose!''...Be this as it may, there was one custom of our master's, which I cannot pass over in silence, because I think it ...worthy of imitation. He would often permit our theme exercises...to accumulate, till each lad had four or five to be looked over. Then placing the whole number abreast on his desk, he would ask the writer, why this or that sentence might not have found as appropriate a place under this or that other thesis: and if no satisfying answer could be returned, and two faults of the same kind were found in one exercise, the irrevocable verdict followed, the exercise was torn up, and another on the same subject to be produced, in addition to the tasks of the day.<ref>Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. ''[[Biographia Literaria]]''. Princeton UP, 1985, p. 10.</ref></blockquote>

He later wrote of his loneliness at school in the poem ''[[Frost at Midnight]]'':
"With unclosed lids, already had I dreamt/Of my sweet birth-place."<ref>{{cite web |title=Frost at Midnight |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43986/frost-at-midnight |website=[[Poetry Foundation]] |access-date=29 February 2024}}</ref>

From 1791 until 1794, Coleridge attended [[Jesus College, Cambridge]].<ref>{{acad|id=CLRG791ST|name=Coleridge, Samuel Taylor}}</ref> In 1792, he won the [[Browne Medal|Browne Gold Medal]] for an ode that he wrote attacking the [[Atlantic slave trade|slave trade]].<ref>Radley, p. 14</ref> In December 1793, he left the college and enlisted in the 15th (The King's) Light Dragoons using the false name "Silas Tomkyn Comberbache",<ref>Holmes, p. 4</ref> perhaps because of debt or because the girl that he loved, [[Mary Evans]], had rejected him. His brothers arranged for his discharge a few months later under the reason of "insanity" and he was readmitted to Jesus College, though he would never receive a degree from the university.<ref>  Haycock, D. (2003). Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1771–1834. In C. J. Murray (Ed.), ''Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760–1850'' (1st ed.). Routledge.</ref>