Christabel and the Origin of Evil

Abstract

I N a 1796 notebook entry, Samuel Taylor Coleridge envisioned writ ing Origin of Evil, an Epic Poem and at some point enthusi astically discussed the project with Charles Lamb, who reminded him in 1797 when in town you were talking of the Origin of Evil as a most prolific subject for a Long Poem.' George Whalley famously speculated that Coleridge never wrote this poem because as time went on he came to realize that he had already embodied his epic theme in The Ancient Mariner, and Peter Kitson has suggested similarly that perhaps this project became 'Religious Musings.'2 My alternate sug gestion is that Christabel embodies Coleridge's long-considered poem on the origin of evil. My related suggestion is that the text's rumina