December 7 1812: Coleridge and Goethe

On December 7, 1812, in the morning, Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes to Henry Crabb Robinson:

Excuse me for again repeating my request to you, to use your best means as speedily as possible to procure for me (if possible) the perusal of Goethe's work on Light and Color.* In a thing I have now on hand it would be of very important service to me; at the same time do not forget Jacobi to Fichte, and whatever other work may have bearings on the Neuere, neueste, und allerneueste Filosohe. It is my hope and purpose to devote a certain portion of my time for the next twelve months to theatrical attempts, and chiefly to the melodrama, or comic opera kind; and from Goethe (from what I read of his little Singspiele in the volume which you lent me) I expect no trifling assistance, especially in the songs, airs, &c., and the happy mode of introducing them. In my frequent conversations with W. (a composer and music-seller), I could not find that he or the music-sellers in general had any knowledge of those compositions, which are so deservedly dear to the German public. As soon as I can disembarrass myself, I shall make one sturdy effort to understand music myself, so far at least of the science as goes to the composition of a simple air. For I seem frequently to form such in my own mind, to my inner ear. When you write to Bury, do not forget to assure Mrs. Clarkson of my never altered and unalterable esteem and affection.

S. T. Coleridge.

*Goethe's Theory of Colors. Translated from the German; w Jh Notes by Charles Lock Eastlake, R. A., F. R. S." London, 1840.