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44
MISS COLERIDGE
she differed so disconcertingly from the type
with which we have grown agreeably familiar
in the " English Men of Letters " series, that,
without violence, she could never have been
fitted into the traditional mould. Her biographer
has done the work thoroughly, but
she is a thought heavy in the hand ; she is
too literary, not to say professional
she is
;
definite at all costs. She has " restored "
Miss Coleridge as a German archaeologist might
restore a Tanagra figure. Indeterminate lines
have been ruthlessly rectified and asymmetry
has grown symmetrical. Though we do not
suggest that she misunderstood her friend, we
are sure that the lady exhibited in the memoir
is not the lady who reveals herself in the
poems.
Of the author of the poems we catch a
glimpse in the fragments of letters and diaries
which form the penultimate section of the
volume. But here, again, we find cause for
discontent. If private reasons forbade full-
ness, was it wise to print scraps ? Why tantalize
us ? In the letters we should, perhaps,
have recaptured the lady we have lost in the
essays and stories ; but these fragments,
though suggestive, are too slight to be
consolatory : besides, Miss Coleridge was no
coiner of aphorisms and epigrams who could
give her meaning in a handful of sentences.