Coleridge, Samuel Taylor.

8vo, first edition, presentation copy inscribed by coleridge on half-title (''Mr and Mrs Gisborne in remembrance of past times and mark of present regard and respect from the Author S.T. Coleridge Dec 1821 Highgate''), advertisements at end, original drab paper wrappers, label mounted on upper cover (with fragment on verso of front free endpaper), endpapers and a few leaves spotted, wrappers slightly torn and dust-stained

Sotheby's, 11 December 2003, lot 83

Wise 46; cf. Ashley 1:206-7; Tinker 700

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, when appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

an inscribed presentation copy of coleridge's reworking of shakespeare's "the winter's tale".

John and Maria Gisborne were two of Shelley's closest friends in Italy, where the accomplished Maria was a magnet for cultivated English expatriates. She had refused William Godwin before marrying John, a businessman with ''a prodigious nose'' and an undeserved reputation for being ''an excessive bore'' (The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley, ed. F.L. Jones, 1964, II, no.511). He often helped Shelley with his domestic and financial problems, and acted as his de facto literary agent when in London.

Shelley described Coleridge to the Gisbornes during one of their visits to England in 1820, when he composed ''Letter to Maria Gisborne'': ''You will see Coleridge -- he who sits obscure / In the exceeding lustre and the pure / Intense irradiation of a mind, / Which, with its own internal lightning blind, / Flags wearily through darkness and despair -- / A cloud-encircled meteor of the air, / A hooded eagle among blinking owls.''

After 1820 the Gisbornes visited Coleridge in Highgate and lent him books: ''Mrs Gisborne, an excellent Spanish Scholar, together with her Husband passed the whole of yesterday with me -- in reading Calderon -- and highly amused I was...when I have acquired a power of reading Spanish, even idiomatic Spanish, rapidly (which by Mr & Mrs Gisborne's aid I shall soon do, God permitting) I will make a Volume...'' (letter to J.A. Hessey of 9 September 1823, in Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. E.L. Griggs, V, no.1350). Maria had also introduced Shelley to the works of Calderón.