a scheme which speedily fell through, owing firstly to want of funds, and secondly to the circumstance of the two projectors falling in love simultaneously with two sisters, Sarah and Edith Fricker, of whom the former became, in 1795, the wife of C., and the latter of Southey.  C. had spent one more term at Camb., and there in Sept. 1794 his first work, The Fall of Robespierre, a drama, to which Southey contributed two acts, the second and third, was pub. After his marriage he settled first at Clevedon, and thereafter at Nether Stowey, Somerset, where he had Wordsworth for a neighbour, with whom he formed an intimate association.  About 1796 he fell into the fatal habit of taking laudanum, which had such disastrous effects upon his character and powers of will.  In the same year Poems on various Subjects appeared, and a little later Ode to the Departing Year.  While at Nether Stowey he was practically supported by Thomas Poole, a tanner, with whom he had formed a friendship.  Here he wrote The Ancient Mariner, the first part of Christabel and Kubla Khan, and here he joined with Wordsworth in producing the Lyrical Ballads.  Some time previously he had become a Unitarian, and was much engaged as a preacher in that body, and for a short time acted as a minister at Shrewsbury.  Influenced by Josiah and Thomas Wedgwood, who each in 1798 gave him an annuity of L75 on condition of his devoting himself to literature, he resigned this position, and soon afterwards went to Germany, where he remained for over a year, an experience which profoundly influenced the future development of his intellect.  On his return he made excursions with Southey and Wordsworth, and at the end of 1799 went to London, where he wrote and reported for the Morning Post.  His great translation of Schiller’s Wallenstein appeared in 1800.  In the same year he migrated to Greta Hall, near Keswick, where he wrote the second part of Christabel.  Soon after this his health gave way, and he suffered much; and, whether as the cause or the consequence of this, he had become a slave to opium.  In 1804 he went to Malta in search of health, and there became the friend of the governor, Sir Alexander Ball, who appointed him his sec., in which position he showed remarkable capacity for affairs.  Resigning this occupation, of which he had become tired, he travelled in Italy, and in the beginning of 1806 reached Rome, where he enjoyed the friendship of Tieck, Humboldt, and Bunsen.  He returned to England in the end of 1806, and in 1808 delivered his first course of lectures on Shakespeare at the Royal Institution, and thereafter (1809), leaving his family at Keswick, he went to live with Wordsworth at Grasmere.  Here he started The Friend, a philosophical and theological periodical, which lasted for 9 months.  That part of his annuity contributed by T. Wedgwood had been confirmed to him by will in 1805, and this he allowed to his wife, but in 1811