"Christabel, Part Third,"Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, No. XXVII, Vol. V (June 1819), 286-87
[Moir, D.M. (David Macbeth), 1798-1851]. “Christabel, Part Third.” Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine. No. XXVII, Vol. V. June 1819. 286-91.
AP4 B6
AP4 B6
Printed with an accompanying letter to the editor, this satirical continuation of Coleridge’s “Christabel” was included in the June issue of Blackwood’s Magazine, one of the few major periodicals not to review the original poem. The satire joins Christabel nine or ten month’s after her encounter with Geraldine related in Coleridge’s unfinished romance. Pregnant with Geraldine’s child and abandoned by the “father,” Christabel lives in Edinburgh and has taken to drink:
"Repair to thy secret and favourite haunt
And drink the wine as thou art wont!
Hard to uncork and bright to decant.
My merry girl—she drinks—she drinks,
Faster she drinks and faster, [. . .]
Wine, wine is a cure for every disaster"
In the letter, “Morgan Odoherty” of Archie Cameron’s College, Glasgow, introduces his sequel and points to other great works he has taken the liberty of finishing: “If Lord Byron does not publish Don Juan speedily, I will, for I have written him, and he is very restless in my desk.” The author also promises to send “a bale of [Wordsworth’s] Excursion by the waggon very soon.” This last comment is most likely a reference to Wordsworth’s Benjamin the Waggoner, which was also panned in the same volume of Blackwood’s.
