Bohemian & Libertine · Grasmere / Rydal, Cumbria (Westmorland)
De Quincey's Opium Marriage at Dove Cottage
The Opium-Eater moved into Wordsworth's old cottage, got a farmer's daughter pregnant, married her — and the Wordsworths never forgave the 'beneath him' match.
Evidence note. Documented literary biography: De Quincey and Margaret had a son in 1816, married 1817; the Wordsworths' snobbish disapproval and his opium life are well attested.
The story
the Opium-Eater moved into Wordsworth's cottage and married "beneath him." The story: Dove Cottage tenancy from 1809; son born 1816, marriage to Margaret Simpson 1817; Wordsworths' snobbery; Confessions (1821). What survives: Dove Cottage (Wordsworth Trust) and Nab Cottage, Rydal (now a language school — exterior). Visiting: Nab Cottage private; Dove Cottage ticketed.
Sources
Nearby on the map
The tiny lakeland cottage of William, his adored sister Dorothy — whose journals record wearing his wedding ring the night before he married — and his bride Mary. The intensity of the brother-sister bond has fascinated and divided scholars ever since; the documented record is devotion, and this entry claims nothing more.
Documented historyLiterary PassionWordsworth's Secret French DaughterGrasmere, Cumbria (Westmorland) · EnglandEngland's poet of daffodils fathered a daughter in revolutionary France in 1792 — then quietly buried the fact for a lifetime.
Documented historyHot spotFolk Rite & FertilityCastlerigg — the Invented Fertility CircleKeswick, Cumbria (Cumberland) · EnglandThe 'Druid fertility temple' that isn't: Georgian and Victorian romantics literally rearranged the stones to make the legend fit.
Fact & fictionSpotted an error, or hold a better source? Write to marquis@marquisdemayfair.com — corrections are made, never defended. Our methodology.