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-0^>
C H A T T E R T O N
A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY.
/
CHATTER ION:
.'} lUOGNAPIIICAL STi'DY.
■>,,/'
Bv DANIEL WILSON. LL 1).
I'KOFESSOH iiF HISTOKV AM) EN(;i.ISH IN fNIVERSITY COI.I.KliK, I'OKdNI ( i.
/■
" And we at sober eve iioiild round tlice t/iroii!;.
Hanging, enraptured, on thy stately song;
A nd greet with smiles the young-eyed Foesy.
All deftly tnask'd. as hoar Antiquity.'^
Col.KKIIXiK.
^'onbon :
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1869.
[ The Right of Reproduction and Translation is resen'ed.'\
\N
n%^o
LONDON :
* K. CI. AY, SONS, AND TAYLOK, I'RINTEKS,
UREAD STREET HII.I..
//
•n
L
ti
IN LOVING lOKKN
OF ENDUUINi; FKIENDSIIII' AND IN ADMUATION OF HIS c;ENirs
THIS VOLUME
|s |le&;itftttb I
T<»
SIR GKORGE HARVEY, KT., F. R. S. K
PRESIDENT OF THE RDYAI. SCOTTISH ACADEMY,
r.Y HIS OLD FRIEND
THE AUTHOR.
/.-■•'I
■«
' !
'. ■■ ;
■I
CONTENTS.
PACE
INTRODUCTION XV
\ CHAPTKR I.
THE CHATTERTONS I
CHAPTER II. ' •
ST. MARY REDCMFFE I
CHAPTER HI.
Colston's hosi'ital . 25
CHAPTER IV. '
THE DE BERGHAM lEDIGKEE 50
CHAPTER \.
BRISTOL PATROI'S . 66
CHAPTER VI.
imisroL FRIENDS 93
viil ' CO^TTENTS.
CllAl'TlCR VII.
I'AdK
THE PASSAOF. OK IIIK liKIDiiK 11$
CIIAITKR VIII.
THE ROWLI'A' ROMANCK 129
CHArrKK IX. "
THE MODERN CANYNGF. l6l
CIIAI'TKR X.
THE SATIRIST 191
CIIAl'TKK XI.
EMANCIPATION * 221
CHAI'TKR XII.
LONDON 248
CHAPTER XIII.
THE LAST IIOPi: 279
CHAPTER XIV.
DESPAIR AND DEATH 297
ji CHAPTER XV.
■ ■ :^' • /■■^:
THE poet's monument 306
INDEX 325
I
PREFACE.
'* NoBDDV," says Johnson, " can write the Hfe of a man, but one
who has eat anci 'Irunk, and lived in social intercourse with him."
The time, therefore, is past for writing a true life of Chatterton ;
for on the 24th of August, 1870, a century will have elapsed
since his brief career ended in despair. But it is not too late,
but rather, perhaps, a fitting time, for r.n appeal against the
judgment pronounced on him by interested or vindictive contem-
poraries. Did I not believe that the boy-poet has been mis-
judged, and that the biographies hitherto written of him are
not only imperfect but untrue, I should not now produce this
study of a life which has long been to myself a subject of
interest. '
The first editions of Chatterton's works were not only very
defective, but their editors proceeded on the assumption that he
was not the author. The earliest edition with any pretension
to completeness is that of Southey and Cottle ; but to all appear-
ance the former contributed little more than the preface. Writing
to his co-editor in August 1802, Southey says : "Well done, good
and faithful editor. I suspect that it is fortunate for the edition
of Chatterton that its care has devolved upon you." He had pre-
viously said of Dr. Gregory's life of the poet : " It is a bad work.
Coleridge should write a new one; or, if he declines it, let it
devolve on me." Nevertheless the co-editor had to prefix this
condemned work to their collection of the poet's writings. If
generous kindliness of heart could have sufficed for all editorial
tv
I R Eh ACE.
\ \
■^
functions, Mr. Joseph Cottle was well qualified for his task.
But the edition abounds in misreadings and careless blunders,
many of which Kave continued to be reproduced to the present
time.
In 1842 a more complete edition of the poems, accompanied
by an anonymous biography of their author, was published by
Mr. W. P. Grant of Cambridge. This includes additional poems
and carefully collated versions of some other pieces. But much
of it is a mere reprint from Cottle's edition ; from which also
the " De Bergham Pedigree" and the "Will" are copied with
all his errors. A popular edition of Chatterton's Poems is still
a desideratum. If his assumption of archaic orthography is to
be retained, reference must be made as far as possible to Chat-
terton's own MSS. Unfortunately Mr. George Catcott's zeal to
enhance the value of his presumed antiques tempted him to
exaggerate their disguise. " By comparing Mi. Catcott's copy
with the original," says Cottle, " it appeared that Mr. C. had
very general'^' altered the orthography, so as to give the appear-
ance of greater antiquity, as ' lette ' for ' let,' and * onne ' for ' on,'
&c." 1 Excepting in one or two brief extracts, designedly selected
to illustrate the disguise of the poet, I have, in the following
pages, modernised the spelling of the poems, and even replaced
coined or obsolete words by the equivalents furnished in Chat-
terton's own foot-notes, where this could be done without marring
the rhythm of the passages quoted. Until the best of his antique
pieces are edited in the same manner, the " Rowley Poems "
wdll remain a sealed book to the great mass of English readers ;
while the few among them who actually turn to Chatterton's
works will be tempted to judge of him by his modern satires
and other ephemeral pieces, most of which were never designed
for publication.
} Cottle's Reminiscences of Coleridge and Southey, p. 227.
■^^
pNErict':
xt
At this late date no great additions to the materials for the
poet's biograjjhy could be looked for; but unfortunately the.
chances have been further diminished by a fire which destroyed
'^Manuscript Chattertoniana" collected by the late Mr. J. M.
Ciutch, and Mr. William Tyson, K.S.A. ; and further augmented
by their last possessor, Mr. Thomas Kerslake of Bristol. The
value of some of those was, indeed, sufficiently dubious; ior tb«y
included Dix's autograi)h version — the only copy ever '4»Kl)duced,
— of the " Coroner's In()uest," which excited such ilively discus-
sion, when first contributed by Mr. (tutch to .'''.Notes and
Queries." But the loss of the collection as a whole is justly to
be regretted. ■. <.■
Amongst other very favinirable advantages enjoyed by Mr. John
D'x as a biographer of Ciiatterton, he acknowledges his indebted-
ness to Mr. Gutch " for tlie use of his unrivalled collection of Chat-
terton papers." He also refers to obligations to Dr. Southey, Mr.
Joseph Cottle, and others, for valuable aid ; and more recently he
has named Southey as the contril)Utpr of tiie report of the Coro-
ner's Inquest. The use he made of it was sufficiently strange.
If genuine, its value to the poet's biograi)her could scarcely be
exaggerated. But, though lie had it in his ; yssession at the very
time when he was eking out his "life" with familiar pajjers, such
as Walpole's narrative an.'-
yary poets.
■I
■
XVI
Introuic-
IION.
7 rue esti-
mate of the
poet's career.
The fact of
boyhood.
Interest tils'
subject of
study.
IXTRODLCTION.
w
what Hazlitt has to say of Smollett ; Boswell of Johnson ;
Forster of Goldsmith ; Southey or Grimshaw of Cowper ;
Cunningham, Chambers, or other biographers, of Burns ;
up to their eighteenth \ "•'r : he will be better able to
estimate a career which then came to its close. For he
will be able to answer for himself these questions : What
life did they lead? what faith did the best of them
hold ? what work had the most gifted of them done, at
seventeen ?
At every step it is needful to recall this fact of boy-
hood, apart from every other adverse element of orphan-
age, poverty, and misguidance. For the study is that of
a child, a boy, a youth, running counter to all the tastes
and habits of his age; acting in defiance of ordinary
influences ; at every stage doing a man's work : often
unwisely, perversely, unaccountably; but still doing the
j work of a man, and baffling the astute selfishness of
' men, while yet a child.
Viewed in its most unfavourable aspects, such an
I intellectual phenomenon may well attract our study, as a
; strange example of precocity, approximating almost to
I genius acting by instinct : like those manifestations of
I irrational vital action, which puzzle us by their resem-
j blance to the highest intelligence. But the brief exist-
I ence here retraced has also its phases of sorrowful, and
I even tragic interest, on which we now look back as on
i a precious inherit.^nce which that eighteenth century
■ wasted and flung aside.
CHATTERTON.
CHAPTER I.
< I
THE CHATTERTONS.
Among the memorials of early wealth and piety in the
ancient city and seaport of Bristol, the church of St.
Mary RedclifFe attracts an interest far beyond its walls
from the novel and enduring associations which have
gathered around it in modern times. The office of
sexton of St. Mary's had been transmitted for nearly
two centuries in the same family; while other members
of it had laboured in the maintenance and repair of the
venerable fabric. In the parish registers for 1661, and
subsequent years, the name of Thomas Chatterton, free-
mason, repeatedly appears in connexion with payments
for work done. A younger Thomas, probably his son,
succeeds him on the same register in 1678 and following
years, till 1723, when he is replaced by William Chat-
terton ; while an entry on April 25th of that year — " paid
Widow Chatterton her salary from Lady-day to the latter
end of Easter week, 3^. 6^." — shows that some humble
situation was found for the widow of the former.^
John Chatterton, the last of the name who inherited
the office of sexton, " a worthy but singular man," died
\
^ Pryce's Canynges' Family, pp. ".76, 277.
B
Chap. I.
The heredi-
tary race of
sextons.
Last of the
name.
<■
'I
CHATTERTON.
!';
1/
ii
I h
f(i
Chav. I.
Relationship
to the poet.
» f
Docuwen-
tary traces
of the old
race.
in 1748, after fulfilling its duties for twenty-three years;
and appears to have been succeeded, after some brief
interval, by his son-in-law, Richard Phillips. Some con-
fusion pervades the references to the connexion of the
poet who has conferred celebrity on the name, with this
old line of sextons. Thomas Chatterton, his father, is
confounded by early biographers and critics with the last
sexton. Dr. Gregory calls him the nephew of the latter ;
while Mr. Dix, though probably meaning to repeat the
statement, has left it so ambiguous, that Mr. George Pryce
in following him, in his "Canynges' Family and their
Times," makes the sexton uncle of the poet himself.
A document printed on a subsequent page serves, at
least, to show that this cannot be right.^ In 1772,
William, son of John Chatterton, the sexton, petitions
the parish vestry for that appointment, in anticipation of
his " brother-in-law, Richard Phillips," the poet's favourite
uncle, obtaining that of parish clerk. I presume Mrs.
Phillips to have been his father's sister; in which case
the old sexton must have been the poet's grandfather;
while she herself was the last of the Chattertons to
occupy the hereditary sextonship. When, long subse-
quent to the poet's death, Mr. George Cumberland
pursued his inquiries regarding him, he found the widow
of Richard Phillips in the office, and a Mr. Perrin, of
Colston's Parade, acting as her deputy.
Such a hereditary tenure of the humbler offices of the
Church was not without precedent in ancient times ; and
the register of the munimfent room of Redcliffe Church
preserved materials for the history of its old line of
sextons, till its coffers were invaded and their contents
dispersed. Yet even now curious traces of its hereditary
1 Vide Pryce, pp. a77, 299. Dix's words are — " Chatterton's
father never was sexton of Redcliffe Church ; his uncle, John
Chatterton, having been the last of the family who held that off! ,e."
P. 2. An anecdote communicated to Mr. Cottle by " a gentleman
of Bristol who, when a boy, was present," though confounding the
sexton and the poet's father, is presumably reliable in referring to
the former as an old man. ( Vide Southey's Ed. Chatterton's Works,
vol. iii. p. 496.)
THE CHATTERTONS.
sextonship might reward the diligence of a Bristol anti-
quary: if only in its contrast to the imaginary descent
from Sire de Chasteautonne, of the house of KoUo, the
first Duke of Normandy, and Eveligina of Ghent ; of
which the materials, executed with all suitable heraldic
blazonry by Chatterton's own hand, are preserved in the
British Museum.
The poet's father is the first of the Chattertons who
aspired beyond the humble rank of his fathers, and
attained to a position requiring some education, as
well as natural ability. After filli'jg for a time a sub-
ordinate office in a classical school, he received the
appointment of sub-chaunter of Bristol Cathedral, and
the mastership of the Pyle Street Free School, on the
north side of RedclifFe Church, where, in 1752, his
son was born. I'he genius which the boy manifested,
almost from infancy, was of so rare and exceptional a
nature, that little importance can attach to any traces
of its hereditary development. Nevertheless, a just
interest pertains even to the slightest indications of
inherited genius, apart from the extrinsic influences
which Chatterton unquestionably derived through his
father.
In the muniment room of St. Mary's Church, on
Redcliffe Hill, Bristol, towards the middle of the
eighteenth century, lay accumulated from times when
the Wars of the Roses were current news of the day,
ancient parchments, deeds, and writings of diverse
kinds, secured for the most part in quaint oaken chests
or coffers, which have acquired an interest for all men
since the name of Chatterton won a place in English
letters. The hereditary race of sextons had doubtless
come to regard the church and all its accessories as their
own peculiar domain ; and so, when a Chatterton became
master of the neighbouring Free School, he turned its
ancient parchments to account for his primers and copy-
books. Nor were the Chattertons without a direct
interest in those old documents; for among them, as
his daughter states, were family records of the race of
B 2
Chap. I.
The poet's
/at/ur.
/
Redcliffe
viKniinent
room.
CHATTERTON.
The elder
Chatterton.
Chap. I. the sextons, carrying them back to the year 1630, if not
earlier. "My father," writes Mrs. Newton, the poet's
sister, "received the parchments in the year 1750. He
discovered by some writings he found among them that
persons of the name of Chadderdon were sextons of St.
Mary Redclift parish, 120 years before. He therefore
supposed that it was the same family ; as his father had
affirmed that the family had held that office, to use his
own phrase, time out of mind."^
This inheritor of the family honours of the Chattertons
manifested, as we have seen, a capacity for some higher
vocation than the sextonship. He was, moreover, seem-
ingly of an aspiring disposition. One of his pupils, Miss
James (afterwards Mrs. Edkins), speaks of him as a man
of talent, but negligent in his domestic relations ; and
adds : " All the family were proud." ^ He is described
by more than one of his contemporaries as one possessed
of somewhat varied abilities. He was fond of reading ;
in the constant habit of borrowing as v/ell as lending
books ; ^ one " whose accomplishments were much above
his station, and who was not totally destitute of a taste
for poetry ;" * a musical composer, and even a writer of
verse.^ But the only known composition ascribed to him
is a catch for three voices, which celebrates above all other
joys those of the Pine-apple : a Bristol tavern kept by
one Golden, a bookbinder, where the convivial club tor
which the catch was composed was wont to assemble.
The impression left on the mind of Mr. Chatterton's
pupil was not such as to justify regret at the orphanage
of his gifted son. She described him, indeed, as :. man
of talent, but an unkind husband, of dissipated habits,
and fond of low society ; " a very brutal fellow, with a
mouth so wide that he could put his clenched fist into
it." The description, however, is probably exaggerated ;
Mrs.
Edkins'
description
of him.
* Works of Chatterton, Southey's Ed. vol. iii. p. 525.
2 Dix's Life, App. p. 310.
3 Letter of E. Gardner, Works, iii. p. 523.
* Warton's Hist, of Eng. Poetry, vol. ii. p. 341.
* Works, iii. p. 495.
r,
THE CHATTERTONS.
as Mrs. Edkins employs the same strong language when
speaking of Mr. Lambert, to whom his son was sub-
sequently bound apprentice : describing the irritated
attorney as throwing his apprentice's MS. poems at
him "with great brutality." A more favourable idea
is conveyed in the description of one of his chief
associates, a member rf the Pine-apple Club. " My
father," writes Mr. Edward Gardner, "was the very
intimate acquaintance of old Mr. Chatterton, and was
Mrs. Newton's godfather by proxy. The two old gentle-
men were in constant habits of lending books to each
other, for both were fond of reading. . . . Old C. was not
a little inclined to a belief in magic, and was deeply read
in Cornelius Agrippa. He was one of the singers in the
cathedral, and a complete master of the theory and practice
of music:" — to all appearance a clever, versatile, dissipated
lover of song and good fellowship, for whom domestic
life had no charms \ but of whom, also, all that is known
reveals glimpses both of genius and an unwonted range
of pursuits not greatly dissimilar to those of the son.^
Among other rare tastes characteristic of both, he appears
to have had a great love for antiquities. He had formed
a collection of several hundred Roman coins, dug up in
the neighbourhood of Bristol, which were subsequently
acquired by Sir J. Smith of Ashton Court ; and his son,
Sir John Hugh Smith, communicated to the historian of
Bristol the circumstances of their discovery, as detailed
in conversations with the elder Chatterton. ^
The convivial habits ascribed to him were common
enough in his age ; but his abilities and favourite pursuits
appear to have been far above his associates, and accom-
panied by some eccentricities suggestive of inherited
peculiarities of his posthumous child. An old female
relative said of him : " He talked little, was very absent
1 Mr. Gardner wrote in 1802, fifty years after the elcUr Chat-
terton's death. Associating nim, therefore, with his recollection of
his own father in later life, he speaks of " the two old gentlemen ;"
whereas he died a young man.
2 Barrett's History and Antiquities of the City of Bristol, note, p. 1 9.
Chah. r.
Giiriiiift'x
Aiiti-
qunrian
tastes.
Convivial
hnhits ana
eccentri-
cities.
mmmrmmmmm.
CHATTERTON,
Chap. I.
The fioet's
motker.
Flashes of
temper.
!
in company, and used very often to walk by the river
side, talking to himself, and flourishing his arms about." ^
Though far from loveable as husband or father, he was
undoubtedly, in all intellectual characteristics, one who
had a right to aspire to higher duties than those of the
hereditary sextonship.
The wife of the sub-chaunter, and mother of the poet,
appears, on the whole, as a meek, long-suflFering woman,
of no shining abilities, but tenderly attached to her
children. Though her daughter Mary was already in her
second year, she was only entering on womanhood when
left a widow, to learn the hardest lessons of adversity.
It has hitherto escaped notice that she must have been
married when a mere girl, and was just of age at the
birth of her son. This is apparent from the inscriptions
on the family tombstone in Redcliffe churchyard. She
cannot have been more than eighteen, while her husband
was double that age, at the time of their marriage, ^
She is described by Miss Day, afterwards Mrs. Stock-
well, — one of her pupils, who resided for years under her
roof, — as "kind and motherly;" though liable to sudden
flashes of temper, " sharp but soon over ; " or, as Molly
Hayfield, an old servant of Mrs. Newton characterised
her, " attery," a word used in the north of Scotland as
^ Rev. Sir Herbert Croft's "Love and Madness." (Ed. 1786, p.
167.) This strange volume consists of a series of sentimental letters,
professedly addressed by Mr. Hackman, a clergyman, formerly an
officer in the 66th Regiment, to Miss Ray, an actress ; to whom,
though in every way unfit, he had made proposals of marriage. On
being refused, he resolved to shoot himself in her presence ; but,
instead of carrying out his intention, he shot her on the 7th April,
1779, when leaving Covent Garden Theatre. The volume also
includes replies ascribed to her. Hackman raves about Goethe's
"Werther, love and suicide; and h-propos to this Chatterton is
dragged in, along with a variety of French and English madmen
and suicides. The association is offensive ; but the idea stimulated
the author to research, at a time when it was still possible to recover
facts invaluable for the poet's biography.
2 "Thos. Chatterton, schoolmaster, died 7th Aug. 1752, aet. 39.
Sarah Chatterton, widow of the above, died 25th Dec. 1791, aet. 60.
Mary Newton [the poet's sister], died 23d Feb. 1804, aet. 53."
THE CIIATTERTONS.
equivalent to fretful. The young widow had cares enough
to make her so. But the gentler elements evidently
predominated ; and she is spoken of by her niece, Mrs.
Stephens, as one of the best of women. ^
Thomas Chatterton, the cathedral sub-chaunter, died
on the 7th of August, 1752, leaving his widow and
daughter seemingly without any provision for their main-
tenance, or for that of the old grandmother — widow, as
I presume, of the last hereditary sexton of the name, —
who resided under their roof. But the young widow
established a girls' school ; took in sewing and ornamental
needlework ; and appears in an honest though humble
way to have provided for her family. To this an impor-
tant addition was soon to be made ; for on the 20th of
November, 1752— upwards of three months after her
husband's death, — a son was born ; and, on the first day
of the new year, he was baptized at St. Mary's Redcliffe,
by his father's name of Thomas.
Brief and strange was the career of the child thus
sorrowfully ushered into the world. But that it was a
remarkable one is apparent, when, now at the close of a
century after that career abruptly terminated in seeming
failure, the memory of the poor Bristol boy claims a
larger share in the world's estimation than most other
things pertaining to the ancient city of his birth. Thomas
Chatterton was born, there can be little doubt, in a
humble dwelling at the back of Pyle Street School-house,
erected only three years before by a Bristol citizen as
the residence of the master ; but which the widow had
to quit soon after for her later residence and dame-school,
opposite the Upper Gate, on Redcliffe Hill. The boy
returned, in his fifth year, to Pyle Street School, as a
pupil of Mr. Stephen Love.^ But his faculties lay beyond
reach of the routine system in vogue there ; and the
* Notes of Mr. G. Cnmberland, collected for Cromek. App.
Dix's Life, pp. 299, 305, 307.
2 The immediate successor of the elder Chatterton, as master of
Pyle Street School, was Mr. Edmund Chard. He was succeeded,
in 1757, by Mr. Love.
ClfAH. I.
Death of
tkr sub
chaHHter.
The Pott 's
birthplace.
His first
teacher.
wm
CHATTERTON.
Chap. I.
Dormant
faculties.
If
Mr. G. Cum-
berland 's
notes.
i
Thirst for
pre-
eminence.
impatient teacher remanded him to his mother as an
incorrigible dunce. Wayward, as it seems, almost from
his cradle, and from the first manifesting few of the
common tastes or sympathies of children, Chatterton
was regarded for a time as deficient in intellect. But it
is impossible to trace out the first indications of his
peculiar characteristics, without a keen sense of regret
that the child had no one near him more capable of
appreciating his wonderful natural faculties, than the
kind but simple mother, to whom his strange moods and
tastes were only a perplexing riddle.
Mr. R. H. Cromek, a London engraver, with literary
aspirations of his own, and considerable zeal as a collector,
employed himself in the early part of the present century
in accumulating information concerning Chatterton, which
he did not live to reduce to form. But to him we are
indebted for the valuable though undigested notes of
Mr. George Cumberland, printed as an Appendix to
Mr. Dix's life of the poet; and especially for the in-
formation derived from Mrs. Edkins. She appears to
have resided with Mrs. Chatterton, assisting her as a
sempstress, and thus enjoyed the most favourable oppor-
tunities for studying the disposition and habits of the
boy. She was present at his birth, and was wont to
speak of him tenderly as her foster-child. " Many,"
says she, "were the uneasinesses that his singularities
cost his mother ; and until he was six years and a half
old, they thought he was an absolute fool."^ But this
hasty conclusion seems to have been mainly based on
his distaste for the rudimentary studies of a child's
schooling. One of his sister's earliest remembrances of
him was his " thirst for preeminence. Before he was
five years old he would always preside over his playmates
as their master, and they his hired servants." His foster-
mother also states : he was so ingenious when a child,
that if anything got out of order he was always set to
mend it, and generally succeeded, to the admiration of his
mother ; when older, his ingenuity in the mechanic arts
* Dix's Life, App. p. 314.
THE CHATrEKTONS.
was surprising, and he used to observe that a man might
do anything he chose. His mother, however, considered
him in general as stupid, because, when (juite a child, he
would sit alone crying for hours, nobody knew wh?t
for. Once when he was in one of his silent moods, she
said, " When will this stupidity cease?" anu Mrs. Edkins
added to rouse him, "I wish your father was alive, he
would manage you ; " at which, starting, he replied, " I
wish he w^as ! " uttering a deep sigh, and spoke no more
for a long time.^
These fits of abstraction characterised him to the last.
" At seven years old he was tenderly sensible of every
one's distresses, and would frecjuently sit musing in a
seeming stupor ; at length the tears would steal, one by
one, down his cheeks : for whi h his mother, thinking to
rouse him, sometimes gave him a gentle slap, and told
him he was foolish ; and when asked what he cried for,
he would say, * Sister beat me, that's all : ' " evading
thereby an explanation of the reveries which already
occupied his mind.^
These strange musings, which ere long were the pre-
cursors of his poetical activity, were incomprehensible to
those among whom he moved, and only excited suspicion,
or doubt of his sanity. His mother said, " he had cost
her many uneasy hours, from the apprehension she enter-
tained of his going mad j as he was accustomed to
remain fixed for above an hour at a time quite motion-
less, and then he would snattth up a pen and write in-
cessantly."^ What he did write, after such prolonged
reveries, does not seem to have excited any curiosity.
The influence of this misapprehension and lack of
all appreciative sympathy, could not fail to affect the
boy's character. A reserve which was natural, was
quickened by this means into habitual secretiveness ;
and not a little of the love of mystery which gave so
peculiar an aspect to his chief literary achievements at a
1 Dix's Life, App. p. 310. * T!)if1. p. 314.
3 Mrs. Stockwell, Dix, App. p. 300.
CHA»'. 1.
Silent
moods.
Fits of
abstraction.
Poetical
imfiiiUes,
Lack 0/
(i/>/>rcciatiTi
syiii/iatlty.
lO
CHATTERTON.
Chap I.
Uniuitahle
companions.
Key to the
dormant
intellect.
Kagerness
for I'ooki.
later period, may be traced to his being reared, not only
in infancy, but at school, and even during his brief
apprenticeship, in companionship with those who could
not comprehend the aspirations of the boy, or interpret
the thoughtful fits of musing of the child, who seemed
to them so " dull in learning, not knowing many letters
at four years old."^ It is easy now to perceive that there
was no lack of intellect. The reasoning and reflective
powers were already at work ; though arbitrary alpha-
betic signs, which appealed only to the memory, and not
to the understanding, had no attractions for him. From
the first dawn of reason, he appears to have manifested
a will and tastes essentially original ; and even in the
very sentence in which his sister records his tardy
mastering of the alphabet, she adds the characteristic ,
trait that he " always objected to read in a small bcok."
Such manifestations of his peculiar idiosyncrasy were
only a puzzle and a grief to the simple woman on whom
the early training of the boy devolved. But a happy
acc'dent furnished the key to his seemingly dormant in-
tellect. The decorations of an old musical folio of his
father's, which his mother was tearing up for waste paper,
attracted his notice, and, as she graphically expressed it,
he fell in love with its illuminated capitals. The first step
in education was thus achieved; the next was equally
characteristic. He was taught to read from an old black-
letter Bible, selected probably for its size ; so that he
only turned in later years from medieval illuminations
and antique typography, to the unfamiliar aspect of con-
temporary literature.
The mother's apprehensions about her strange child
were thus gradually dissipated. "At seven he visibly
improved, to her joy and surprise, and at eight years of
age he was so eager for books, that he read from the
moment he waked, which was early, until he went to
bed, if they would let him." He was, at the same time,
domestic in his tastes, and seemingly also frank and
companionable, notwithstanding his occasional relapses
^ Mrs. Newton's Letter, Croft, p. i6i.
THE CHATTERTONS.
II
into reveries, which have been called moody fits. In
their extreme form they niore nearly approached to a
trance. He had a bright eye, a keen satirical sense of
humour, and a bold independent bearing; so that his
uncle, Richard Phillips, early took a liking to the boy for
his spirit.^ His social qualities were indeed altogether
remarkable in one so reticent. He was fond of female
society even from a child ; had his little favourite. Miss
Sukey Webb ; and when, after a whole day's absence, no
other inducement could tempt him from the deserted
lumber room overlooking the garden, which he early
converted into a study, his foster-mother would get him
to the tea-table by telling him she was going to visit his
favourite.
His mother's anxiety was thenceforth occasioned by
his intense devotion to study. He was now as grateful
for instruction as he had formerly seemed indisposed for
it. In the pursuit of knowledge he would neglect both
food and sleep. At times he became so absorbed
in his studies as to lose consciousness of all that was
going on around him; and after being repeatedly ad-
dressed, would start and ask what they were talking
about.
To such a child, the want of an intelligent father's
oversight, or intercourse with some one able to sym-
pathise in his desire for knowledge, and invite his con-
fidence by responding to his curious inquisitiveness, was
an irreparable loss. It is easy to see how, in its absence,
the habit of secretiveness should grow upon him. He
derived in some degree, from both father and mother, a
passionate, impulsive nature, which was placed under
slight restraint in childhood. According to his mother's
description, he was sharp-tempered, but it was soon over.
Yet he showed from the first a rare self-control in re-
ference to food and drink, and always regarded tea as
his favourite beverage. He also manifested a sensitive,
kindly disposition ; subject indeed to occasional outbursts
of passion ; but generous according to his means, always
^ Mrs. Jane Phillips, Dix's App. p. 302.
Chap. I.
Hutnonr
and high'
spirit.
r ..
De7>otiim
to study.
Want of
intelligent
oversight.
St
CHATTERTON.
Chap. I.
The child-
poet's study.
I''rt.cocious
intellectual
■7'igour.
I
affectionate, and with peculiarly winning ways when he
had an object to gain.
His delight was to lock himself up in his little attic,
with his books, papers, and drawing materials. He
appears to have hid an intuitive taste for drawing, as
for so much else that was strange for his years; and
there also, before long, he is found with his parchments,
" great piece of ochre in a brown pan, pounce bags full
of charcoal dust, which he had from a Miss Sanger, a
neighbour; also a bottle of black-lead powder, which
they once took to clean the stove with, and made him
very angry." So at length his mother carried off the
key, lest he should hurt his health in this dusty old garret,
from whence, after long abstinence, he was wont to
emerge, begrimed with the traces of his antiquarian
handicraft. Thus excluded from his favrjurite haunt,
" he would come to Mrs. Edkins and kiss her cheek,
and coax her to get it for him, using the most persuasive
expressions to effect his end."^
An intellect of rare power was thus prematurely mani-
festing itself, and groping in all available directions, with
no other guidance for its development than such as a
simple loving mother could supply. With anxious
wonder she puzzled over the strange ways of the boy;
perplexed by her own incapacity, and watching his way-
ward doings, much as we may fancy the foster-hen when
her brood of ducklings takes to the water, in spite of her
despairing remonstrances. Doubtless the poor widow
exerted herself to procure for him access to the best
instruction within her reach ; and so we find him, in his
eighth year, elected on the foundation of Colston's
Charity, situated at St. Austin's Back, on the site of
the dissolved house of Friars' Carmelites : the Bluecoat
School of Bristol.
* Mrs. Edkins, Dix's Life, App. p. 313.
CHAPTER II.
ST. MARY REDCLIFFE.
/
Chatterton was seven years and eight months old,
when, on the 3d of August, 1760, he was admitted to
Colston's Hospital. To the superficial obser\'er he still
appeared a dull boy, turning his attention reluctantly to
the ordinary routine of instruction. But long before this
his mind had been developing under influences altogether
peculiar; and before we follow him to the Bluecoat
School, where he was subjected for the next seven years
to the discipline and restraints of its cloistral rules, it is
necessary to understand what those influences were.
The direct line of the old sextons of St. Mary Red-
cliffe came to an end with the death of John Chatterton,
in 1748. But the office did not pass out of the family ;
and the new sexton, Richard Phillips, regarded his
nephew with special favour from early childhood. The
house to which Mrs. Chatterton removed was one opposite
the Upper Gate, on Redcliffe Hill. There the boy's home-
life was passed, in the immediate vicinity of the church
with which his ancestry had been connected for centuries \
and the favour with which he was regarded by his uncle,
the sexton, may be accepted as good evidence of many
an hour of his childhood and early youth spent in the
spacious precincts of the old church ; or wandering
through its aisles in wondering admiration of the grace-
ful columns, as they pass, by shaft and groining, to the
lofty clerestory and embossed roof
St. Mary Redcliffe is justly regarded as one of the
finest specimens of parochial church architecture in
I Cmai'. II.
j Admitted to
I Colston's
Hospital.
Ihmif-li/f
on RedcliJTr
Hill.
St. Mary
Redcliffe.
n
li
14
Chap. II.
Taste for
vtedievnl
art.
Ideas of
/•osthumous
fame.
CHATTER TON.
England; and its elevated site on the "clifi" greatly
adds to the effect of a building which has excited the
admiration of successive generations. William of Wor-
cester, Camden, Fuller, and many another worthy of
later centuries, have lavished their praises on its stately
tower, richly groined and many-windowed avenues of
nave, choir, transepts, and Lady Chapel. But when the
child-poet yielded to its aesthetic influences, the taste for
such memorials of ancient piety was at its lowest ebb ;
though ere long the first glimmerings of that renewed
appreciation of medieval art were discernible, which has
culminated in our own day in a revival of much else
more fitly pertaining to the same "good old times."
But the imaginative boy anticipated this medieval passion,
and lived apart in an olden world of ideal perfection.
" This wonder of mansyons," he exclaims, in one of his
early utterances from behind the antique mask which he
so speedily assumed, "was ybuildenne bie the nowe
Mastre Canynge, of vhych need no odci to bie said
botte see ytte and bee astonyed. Ytte was desyned bie
Johne a Shaillinger, a Bristowe mann(i borne; who yn
the sayde chyrche wyll shewe hys Reede for aye : each
one pyllare stondynge as a letterre in hys blase."
This idea of fame reaching far into the coming time
was strong within him even as a child ; and it grew and
took its strange shape as he made himself familiar with
the ancient dwellers in Redcliffe Church : pondering
over the beautiful altar-tomb of William Canynge and
his wife Joan, with its laudatory epitaph in prose and
verse, the addition of a later age ; or studying the
quaint sculpture of the nameless occupant of an adjoin-
ing tomb, where the reputed purse-bearer of the old
merchant and church-builder lies, with an angel support-
ing his head, and at his feet his dog with a huge bone in
its paws. Near by a plain slab, decorated only with a
large knife and strainer, records in antique characters a
prayer for the soul of one faithful servitor, supposed to
have been his cook ; another slab, with incised cross, is
dedicated to his reputed brewer; while on an adjoining
ST. MARY REDCLIFFE.
»5
altar-tomb reposes a nameless ecclesiastic commonly
regarded as the same "riche merchant of Bristowe,"
in his later character as Dean of Westbury.
Thus on every hand the boy found that old genera-
tion reposing there in dignified contrast to the men of
his own day. Nor was he wholly limited to Canynge
and his times. Under the great window of the north
transept lies the effigy of a mailed knight, cross-legged
after the fashion of an old crusader : supposed to repre-
sent Robert de Berkeley, Lord of Bedminster and Red-
clifFe, whose armorial bearings, along with those of the
Beauchamps, Montacutes, and other benefactors of the
church, are sculptured on bosses in the north aisle of the
nave. Other benefactors are commemorated in like
heraldic fashion, in sculpture or painted glass ; and in
earlier times the windows were rich with the blazonry of
the Cradocks, Sturtons, Says, Fitzwarrens, Rivers, and
others, who claimed a share in the exequies and requiems
for founders and benefactors. Everywhere walls and floor
were enriched, as they still are, with graven brasses of
ancient knights and dames, chief justices, and civic
dignitaries, of the times of the Roses ; judges and
magnates of the Tudors and Stuarts ; and on one of the
pillars, the armour and banners of Admiral Sir William
Penn, father of the more celebrated founder and legis-
lator of Pennsylvania.
Such were the chosen associates of Chatterton's boy-
hood, in whose company many a pleasant hour was
dreamt away, until that old past, with its knights, priests,
and merchant princes, became for him the world of reali-
ties in which alone he willingly dwelt.
•' So the foundations of his mind were laid.
In such communion, not from terror free,
While yet a child, and long before his time,
Had he perceived the presence and the power
Of greatness ; and deep feelings had impressed
Great objects on his mind, with portraiture
And colour so distinct, that on his mind
They lay like substances, and almost seemed
To haunt the bodily sense."
ClI.M'. II.
Worthies
the oil/en
time.
Iviiigiiirttice
world of
realities.
l6
CHATTER ton:
\
Chap. II,
Living in
phantasy.
His cousin
Phillips.
y:\
Associations
ivith
St. Mary
Redclijf'e.
It is not to be doubted that the strange, stolid-looking
child, whose marvellous powers even a mother's eye was
slow to discern ; and who, in his eighth year, took his
unheeded place among the boys of Colston's Charity:
was already living in phantasy, nurturing associations
which thenceforth became a part of his being. ^Ua,
Lord of Bristowe Castel ; Sir Simon Burton, the original
founder of Redcliffe Church ; Sir Charles Baldwyne, a
famous Lancastrian k.iight ; with the Canynges and their
imaginary friends, became substantial realities to him :
and soon the circle was enlarged by the addition of
Thomas Rowley, the impersonation of his own ideal as
the Bristowe poet of Canynge's time.
The daughter of Richard Phillips, recalling the
memory of her little cousin, Chatterton, as her school-
mate at the Pyle Street Free School, described him to
Mr. George Cumberland as a cheerful child, having a
face round as an apple, rosy dimpled cheeks, flaxen hair,
and blue, or more correctly, bright grey eyes. He had
a little pouch under his petticoat, in which to carry his
fruit and cakes ; and reappears to our imagination as a
bright, attractive child. So far, indeed, as I can discern
from all the evidence recoverable in reference to him,
the terms moody, sullen, dogged, and the like, have been
far too indiscriminately employed by his biographers.
He was indeed prone from childhood to fits of abstrac-
tion ; but his natural disposition appears to have been
kindly and social ; he loved a jest ; and, as a good old
lady, who had herself been the butt of his practical jokes,
said of him, " He was a sad wag of a boy." ^
But an earnest seriousness appears to have marked
Chatterton in all his associations with the ancient church
of St. Mary Redcliffe. His cousin Phillips recalling him
again, in his eleventh year, when he wore the quaint
garb of the Bluecoat School, described him as habitually
mounting the steps of the church, and repeating poetry
to those whom he preferred among his playfellows.^ A
^ Gent. Mag. N.S. x. p. 603.
2 Mrs. Stephens, Dix, App. p. 304.
i
S7: MARY REDCLIFFE.
17
C'hai'. II.
Picture of
the boy.
The (esthetic
chunh-
wardeti.
picture in bar father's possession — the work, as she
believed, of Chatterton's own pencil, — represented him
in the same dress, cap in hand, with his mother leading
him towards a tomb : not improbably Canynge's altar-
tomb, in Redclifife Church. Around its precincts, or in
the fine old church itself, all his leisure hours were spent;
and soon the hold it acquired on his fancy manifested
itself in the jealousy with which he resented any irre-
verent encroachment on its sanctity. He was eleven
years of age when several satirical pieces, in prose and
verse, appeared in Farley's Bristol Journal^ two of which
specially invite attention as illustrations of the veneration
thus early manifested.
Mr. Joseph Thomas, churchwarden of St. Mary Red-
cliffe in 1763, appears to have busied himself after the
fashion of sesthetic churchwardens of the eighteenth
century. The cemetery around the ancient church,
crowded with the memorials of many generations,
offended the eye of its new curator, and he resolved
to restore it to a tasteful propriety. The grave-mounds
were levelled ; old familiar monuments disappeared ;
and, among other good works, it is apparently due to
him that the ancient structure, described by William
of Worcester, in 1480, as a most beautiful cross of
curious workmanship, no longer graces the churchyard
on Redcliffe Hill.
It was not till 1789, more than a quarter of a century Dootu of Uu
after the memorable churchwardenship of Mr. Joseph
Thomas, that Barrett's long-promised History of Bristol
appeared. The historian merely states that an elegant
cross, from which sermons used to be preached, formerly
stood in the centre of Redcliffe churchyard, but it is
now destroyed.^ But the history of another procedure
in the year of the churchwarden's rule on Redcliffe Hill
probably throws some light on his motive for its demoli-
tion. The ancient city cross, or Bristol High Cross as
it was called, after various disasters, restorations, and
changes of site, had found a suitable resting-place in the
* Bairett's History and Antiquities of Bristol, 4to. p. 588.
C
ancient city
cross.
tft
Chap. II.
A)i irret'f-
nnt age.
I
I
I
St. Mary
Re,hUffe
cross
demolished.
The f>nrish
i 'txiidnl
piUorijd,
CirATTERrON.
centre of the College Green. But " even here, in time,"
says the city historian, "the cross lost that reverence and
regard that had been hitherto paid it throughout all ages ;
' for in the year 1763 it was at length found out that this
beautiful structure, by intersecting one of the walks,
intercepted ladies and gentlemen from walking eight or
ten abreast."^ So the Dean and Chapter, on whose
J ground it stood, gave their sanction to its demolition.
The spirit of veneration developed in the boy is thus all
the more remarkable in its contrast to every idei» and
teaching of the age in which he lived. The deed Dnd
its chief perpetrators are thus recalled at a later date, in
his metrical Journal, written shortly before he left Bristol,
where he celebrates
"The lazy Dean,
Who sold the ancient cross to Hoare
For one church dinner, not)\ing more."
The example was not lost on the churchwarden of St.
Mary Redcliffe. There also spacious avenues, since
planted with all the formality of a Dutch garden, were
encumbered with the cross which delighted the eye of
William of Worcester three centuries before ; and so it
too was swept away. A mania for such demolitions
possessed that eighteenth century. The doom of the
j old cross of Edinburgh had been pronounced a few years
before, according to a local satirist, Clandero, " for the
horrid crime of being an incumbrance to the street."
Scott long after recorded, m his "Marmion," his malison
on its destroyer's head. More promptly the Bristol
^ charity boy took pen in hand — not altogether for the
first time, — and thus pilloried the parish Vandal : —
" The night was cold, the wind was high,
And stars bespangled all the sky ;
Churchwarden Joe had laid him down,
And slept secure on bed of down ;
But still the pleasing hope of gain,
That never left his active brain,
J Barrett's History and Antiquities of Bristol, 410. p. 475.
S r. AfA R Y KED CL IhFE.
19
Kxposed the churchyard to his view,
That seat of treasure wholly new.
' Pull down that cross,' he quickly cried.
The mason instantly complied :
When lo ! behold the golden prize
Appears ; joy sparkles in his eyes.
The door now creaks, the window shakes.
With sudden fear he starts and wakes," —
and finds hiniself face to face with the ghastly phantom
of his own conscience, accusing him of selfish hypocrisy,
and of making a gain of godHness. As the production
of a boy only emerging from childhood, this slight jeu
d'^esprit is chiefly noticeable for the veneration for the
monuments of antiquity in which it had its origin, reveal-
ing thereby sympathies as dissimilar to those natural to
boyhood, as they were to the taste inculcated by that
eighteenth century. In this respect it contrasts with
" Apostate Will," another juvenile satire, which embodies
borrowed sentiments of worldly experience, and the
current prejudices of his day.
What "golden prize" Churchwarden Joe dreamt of as
the reward of his vandalism — unless the beautiful old
cross was the reputed shrine of some sacred treasure, — is
not now apparent. But tradition reports him as a brick-
maker, to wliom the ancient cemetery presented the
lucrative aspect of a clay-field. When accordingly he
proceeded to reduce the mouldering heaps of centuries
to one uniform level, there appeared in Felix Farley's
Journal for Jan. 7th, 1764, a letter, under the nom dc
plume of " Fulford the grave-digger," the earliest of
Chatterton's literary disguises. Sir Baldwin Fulford, a
zealous Lancastrian executed at Bristol in the reign of
Edward IV. and the hero ere long of the "Bristowe
Tragedie," no doubt suggested the name ; but the ideal
impersonation was his own grandfather, the last of the
direct line of hereditar}' sextons. The old grave-digger
protests that he has enjoyed his place so long, he has
dug the graves of half the parish, and could tell to an
inch where they lie; but, he says, " My head master, a
great projector, has taken it into his head to level the
c 2
Chap. II.
The );otdt-n
(•rize.
hidford t/w
digger.
■■
CHATTER TON.
helix
J'ariry's
spondeiit.
\\
Chap. 11. I churchyard, and by digging and throwing about his clay
there, and defacing the stones, makes such a confusion
among the dead, that no man living will be able to find
where to lay them properly;" and, after stating that
" even the poor love to bury with their kindred," he adds
an ironical offer to rent the old spot, when the green turf
is all removed ; and, for decency's sake, to make a
potato patch of it, which will prevent the naked appear-
ance, besides helping him to a profitable job, as well as
his master!^
Felix Farlefs Journal, the v.eekly Bristol newspaper,
appears to have placed little restriction on anonymous
correspondence ; and hence the boy was able to assume
whatever guise his fancy suggested. At how early a date
the idea was formed of figuring behind the mask of
" Thomas Rowley, parish priest of St. John's in the city
of Bristowe," and resuscitating the time when the bountiful
Canynge ruled in Bristowe's civic chair, is now matter of
conjecture. It was, no doubt, a work of gradual develop-
ment. First there was the dreamy realization of that
remote past when the church of Our Ladye was rising
anew from its foundations on Redcliffe Hill ; and the
knights and dames, princely mayors, architects and priests,
who slumber there in stone, were the living actors. But
besides these, there were actual records and parchments,
engrossed by the hands of those very artists and builders
of the fifteenth century : all already familiar to him
almost from his cradle. The poetical romance which was
to win for him an enduring place in English literature
was already taking shape in his young mind ; while he
thus tasted the first pleasures of literary disguise.
Over the north porch of St. Mary Redcliffe — rebuilt on
the site of an earlier structure, and traditionally affirmed
to have been completed at the cost of William Canynge,
merchant, and mayor of Bristol in the reigns of Henry VI.
and Edward IV., — there is a chamber, designated in
St. Mnry'i
Treasury
Hoftse.
* This piece was first pointed out, and assigned to the author
of the "Bristowe Tragedie," by Mr. W. Tyson, of Bristol. (Pide
I Dix, pp. 30,326.)
/.
.97: MARY REDCU FIE.
%\
Mastfr
i offer .
ancient deeds the Treasury House, in which lay, deposited cmai . ii.
in six or seven oaken chests, the charters and title-deeds
of the church, including documents of a still earlier date
than the present noble edifice. Among those was one
large, iron-bound coffer secured with six locks, designated
in a deed of the fifteenth century, " William Canynge's
chest in the treasury-house of the church of the Blessed
Mary of Redclifife." ^ Such receptacles for the safe-
keeping of the holy vessels, vestments, charters, and
service-books, are still common in old churches, and are
frequently ornamented with iron sr-oll-work, or wrought
in carved panelling according to the style of the con-
temporary architecture. But Master Canynge's coffer
was long guarded with i)eculiar jealousy, as in the days
when it held the treasures of the old merchant. Two of
its six keys were entrusted to the vicar and procurator of |
the church, two to the mayor, and one to each of the i
churchwardens : whereby it is no marvel that by and \
by they could nowhere be found. An impatient vestry i
wanted access to certain deeds ; and so, about the year
1730'-^ the locks, not only of Mr. Canynge's coffer, but
of all the chests, were forced, the deeds relating to the
church property removed, and the remaining papers
and parchments exposed to neglect, because the vestry
attorney could not read them, and they seemed valueless
as title-deeds of any church estates.^ j
The actual wort.'i of the ancient documents to the • Kstimnthn
ignorant custodians to whom they were now abandoned, ''■^^,^,\'^,'"lls.
was simply the material on which they were engrossed.
The muniment room was accessible to the sexton and
' Barrett's History, p. 576.
2 Dr. Gregory says (Life, p. xxiv.) "about the year 1727." Mr.
Barrett gives the date 1 748, in a letter to Dr. Ducarel of Doctors'
Commons, in 1772 ((lent. Mag. vol. Ivi. p. 460). But the old
Vicar, Mr. Gibb, whose school JJibles were covered with the parch-
ments, was succeeded by Mr. Thomas Broughton in 1744. The
date should probably be 1735. In the following year the first of the
old documents, hereafter referred to, was produced at a meeting of
the Society of Antiquaries.
•^ Barrett, Gent. Mag. vol. Ivi. p. 460.
I:
•41
^w
22
Chap. II.
Then' most
unscru-
piilous
plunderer.
CHATTER TON.
Precious
wrappers
for school
primers.
Meaner uses
for ancient
parchments.
his family, and its contents were turned to account as
mere waste paper. Some of the old documents were
even employed to wipe the church candlesticks, and
many more were carried off for equally vile uses.^ But
the most unscrupulous plunderer was the old sexton's
heir, Thomas Chatterton, father of the poet, who
found he could turn them to account in various ways in
the parish Free School. From time to time, accordingly,
bundles of the parchments were removed ; until at length,
summoning to his aid a posse of the schoolboys, he carried
off a large basketful, and deposited the spoils in a cup-
board of the school-room for common use.
Primers and copy-books were thenceforth furnished
with wrappers that would now be worth more than any
volume they could cover. Twenty Bibles presented to
the buys by the Rev. John Gibb, Vicar of St. Mary
Redcliffe prior to 1744, were covered with the old parch-
ments ; and when the death of the schoolmaster necessi-
tated his widow's removal from Pyle Street, in 1752,
there still remained so large a stock that she emptiea the
school-room cupboard " partly into a large deal box
where her husband used to keep his clothes, and into a
square box of a smaller size." The ample receptacles
indicate the abundance of the antique store, after all the
depredations it had suffered at the hands of her husband
and his pupils. It is inconceivable, indeed, that the box-
loads still remaining were all parchments. The greater
part were probably the ordinary parish registers, accounts,
&c., usually found in such repositories : but still including
curious, and probably valuable deeds.
Old parchments were thus more abundant in the poor
widow's house than ordinary paper : " some being turned
into thread-papers, some into patterns, some into dolls,"
and applied to other equally mean uses.^ In all proba-
bility, Chatterton's first efforts with the pencil and pen
were scrawled on the margins of deeds in imitation of
1 Letter of Rev. John Chapman, Gent. Mag. vol. Ivi. p. 361.
2 Mr. William Smith, Milles's Rowley, p. 13.
ST. MARY REDCrJFI'E.
23
characters engrossed in the time of the Plantagenets,
or when Occleve and f^ydgate were feebly reechoing
Chaucer's rhythm. Thus the chihl, who acquired his first
knowledge of letters from the illuminated capitals of an
ancient music-book, and learned their use in the pages
of an old black-letter Bible, was familiar from infancy
with medieval palaeography and the aspect of antique
parchments. Mrs. Phillips remembered that when his
mother's thread-papers were found to be of such material
he said they belonged to Redcliffe Church, and intimated
his intention of informing his uncle, the sexton.^ Bryant,
an early champion of the authenticity of the fifteenth-
century Rowley and his poems, assigns the discovery of
the antique thread-papers to the period of Chatterton's
entering the office of Mr. I,ambert. But the date rests
on the authority of statements chiefly furnished by Mr.
William Smith fully fifteen years after that event; and
is contradicted by various independent proofs of his
familiarity with the spoils of Canynge's coffer before he
entered Colston's Hospital : apart from the more con-
clusive fact that he produced some of his Rowley MSS.
while still a Bluecoat boy.
The antique poems had no doubt made some progress,
and the romance begot in the strange reveries of the
young dreamer was assuming shape and consistency,
before an actual Thomas Rowley, priest and poet of the
olden time, was called into being as their assigned author.
The Rowley romance had been realized in the purlieus
of St. Mary Redcliffe, by the child-poet, in very early
years. But, to his simple unimaginative mother, his
reveries were suggestive rather of defective intellect
than poetic inspiration. Hence he learned to conceal
his poetical recreations as reprehensible, if not altogether
criminal indulgences. With a strength of filial attach-
ment which never failed him, he nevertheless cherished
his most familiar thoughts in his own breast : until we
have to note among his many singular characteristics, a
Chap. II.
Singular
trainiitg
from
in/tittcy.
Thomas
R 01V ley,
priest and
f)oet.
Mrs. Jane Phillips, iJix, App. p. 303.
24
CHATTERTOiV.
Chap. II.
The hoy's
first con-
fidant.
Quits his
J.wonrite
haunts.
secretiveness altogether remarkable from the consistent
persistency with which it was manifested from childhood.
Archaic tastes and old-world reveries, withheld from
the knowledge of his own mother and sister, were little
likely to be disclosed to others at so early an age. His
uncle, Richard Phillips, is described by his daughter as
" very reserved on all occasions." To him, more probably
than to any other, the boy, who won his favour by his
spirit and manly ways, and perhaps also by the interest
he manifested in the old church and all that pertained
to it, may have been more communicative. We can
fancy the old sexton smiling kindly at his childish prattle
about the ancient mayor, and the knights and dames
whose monuments were familiar to both. But the sexton
himself was dead before curiosity had been aroused about
his young companion ; and his silent ways, so suitable
to the duties of his office, left few reminiscences for sur-
vivors to retail.
Let us now follow the strange child from the favourite
scenes of such antique reveries, in which he could call up
at will an imaginary world of the past, to the common-
place realities of Colston's Bluecoat School.
I
CHAPTER III.
Colston's hospital.
Edward Colston, the heir of an ancient line of merchant
adventurers who had flourished in Bristol, from the time
of Edward III., and furnished sheriflFs, mayors, and
deputy-lieutenants of the city, in the days of the Tudors
and Stuarts, is still venerated there as one of the noblest
specimens of its old princely merchants : nor altogether
lacking some characteristic traits of the Bristol citizen of
later times. Born there in 1636, his biographer specially
notes among the guests at his christening, Colonel Taylor,
who fell mortally wounded at the storming of Bristol by
General Fairfax, in 1645, ^^^ ^^e Rev. Richard Standfast,
Rector of Christ Church, " a steadfast and earnest cham-
pion of the Church," who was ejected and imprisoned
by the Parliamentary Committee in the following year.^
The facts are not without their significance, reminding
us that Colston grew up amid the party strifes of the
Commonwealth era, when his own father's life was placed
in jeopardy, and his fortune impaired by his royalist
leanings. He was in his twenty-first year when the Pro-
tector wrote to his "trusty and well-beloved" Arthur
Farmer, the Puritan mayor of Bristol, desiring to be
informed "from time to time, what occurs touching
the malignant party," and warning him that he heard
" on all hands that the Cavaliers are designing to put us
into blood." Within less than three years the glorious t
Restoration turned the tables on the Roundheads, who <
now became the " malignants ;" and the young merchant
^ Tovey's Memorials of Colston, 2d edition, pp. 2, 3.
Chap. III.
TAe old
princely
tuerchant of
Bristol.
The malig-
nant pit > ty.
ad
CHATTERTON.
Chap. III.
Noncon-
formity at a
discount.
The found-
ing of ^
Colston s
fortune.
His alms-
houses and
otiier
cluirities.
retained through life, and left with his philanthropic
bequests to his native city, the lasting impress of opinions
formed amid the throes of revolution. " He had seen,"
says his biographer, "the Church in the beauty of
holiness, purity, and peace. He had seen dissent in
the deformity of fanaticism, intolerance, and discord ;"
and so, as we shall by and by see, he took care that
his Bristol charities should lend no countenance to
" Whiggism" or Nonconformity. ^
Little is known of Colston's early years. When the
first definite notices occur, he appears as a resident of
London, though retaining a large interest in the com-
merce of his native city. According to his earlier
biographers, Barrett and Chalmers, he spent sor^.e time
in Spain, laying the foundation for later commercial
dealings with that country; and the saiae authorities
tr '_c his great fortune, in part at least, to the bequests
of brothers, one of whom is said to have resided
at Venice in the capacity of British Consul. To all
appearance, however, he was mainly the architect of
his own fortune \ and this he freely distributed with wise
and generous liberality. All his charitable designs were
carried out in his own lifetime ; and he personally
superintended the organization of schools, hospitals,
and other philanthropic schemes, both in Bristol and
London : relieving and freeing poor debtors, without
their knowing their benefactor ; succouring suffering
seamen and their orphan families; and providing for
the education and establishment in life of poor boys.
When challenged by his friends for remaining unmarried,
he was wont to reply with grave pleasantry that he found
a wife in every destitute widow, and children enough
in her orphans.
Colston had already built and endowed almshouses
for poor sailors and others ; provided for the maintenance
of four boys, the sons of free burgesses of Bristol, at
Queen Elizabeth's Hospital there ; and in various other
ways contributed to the charities of Bristol : when in 1706
^ Tovey's Colston, p. 85.
COLSTON'S HOSPITAL.
n
he originated the plan for t.ie Bluecoat School, to which,
as the scene of Chatterton's school-life, and his sole
means of early maintenance and instruction, its bene-
volent founder mainly owes the memory of his name
in later times beyond the walls of his native city. The
Society of Merchants was selected as his trustees, and
ere long the " Great House on St. Augustine's Back," an
ancient civic mansion where Queen Elizabeth had held
court in 1581, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges had dwelt in
1642, was purchased and converted into a hospital for the
reception and maintenance of one hundred boys, who were
to wear the dress familiar to him as one of the governors
of Christ's Hospital, London ; and to be '* instructed
in the principles of religion as laid down in the Church
Catechism," by a master of sound orthodoxy, " approved
of by the major part of the beneficed clergy of the city,
and licensed by the ordinary." Colston's directions for
the government of his hospital further provide for the
expulsion of any boy whose parents shall prevail on him
to go to meeting; and for appeal against the trustees
should they ever connive at Dissenting teaching in
matters of religion. In full accordance with this, he
confirms the rules and method of teaching for the boys
in Temple Street School, another of his charities, as
well calculated to " fit them for apprentices, and also
qualify them to be staunch sons of the Church, provided
such books are procured for them as have no tincture of
Whiggism!"!
The political and religious elements thus curiously
combined, were characteristic of the age. These bene-
volent designs for the orthodox training of the poor boys
of Bristol were still in progress, in 17 10, when Queen Anne
dissolved the Whig Parliament by which Marlborough
was sustained in his protracted campaigns against the
generals of Louis XIV. The triumphant High-Church
party of Bristol selected Edward Colston as its Tory
representative ; and, amid bonfires and ringing of bells,
carried their new member through the city, with the
^ Tovey's Colston, p. 85.
Chap. III.
Plan of tlir
Bristol
B lite coat
School.
Inioleraiicc
of Dissent.
Curious
blending' of
politics ami
religion.
a8
CHATTERTON.
1
m
\ 1
%
I
Chai'. III.
Enduring
elements of
party strife.
Colston's
Cathedral
stall.
Bluecoat boy
choristers.
r,
mitre borne before him, in symbol of victory over the
hated sectaries.^ The elements of party strife which
thus intermingled even widi the charities of Bristol in
the eighteenth century, have furnished notable evidence
of their vitality in much more recent times ; and were
not without their influence on the boy, whose share
in the benevolent provisions of the old Bristol merchant
for the education of future generations confers a novel
interest on the High Church, and Whig and Tory feuds
of Sacheverel, Sunderland, and Bolingbroke.
The Dean and Chapter of Bristol Cathedral shared
in Mr. Colston's liberality, and manifested their estimate
of his rare virtues by appropriating to his use a stall
in the cathedral choir, specially designated by his dolphin
crest and initials. There also his Bluecoat boys attended
on Sundays and saints' days, when it was the custom of
the good old merchant to await their arrival at the door,
and after patting some on the head, and speaking words
of encouragement to others, to follow them to his
accustomed seat in the choir.^ In 1762 the Dean and
Chapter perpetuated the evidence of their esteem for
his memory, by undertaking to select their six choristers
from his Bluecoat boys, and to promote such of them
as made good proficiency in music, when vacancies
occurred. It is not improbable, therefore, that the
connexion of his father with the Cathedral may have
paved the way for Chatterton's admission to Colston's
Hospital. He was elected on the nomination of the
Rev. John Gardiner, Vicar of Henbury, through the
influence of Mr. Harris, — the same, probably, who as
Mayor of Bristol ii) 1769, figures in his graceless
protege's " Kew Gardens," and other later satires.^
1 The Bristol Post Boy, Oct. 31st, 1710. Tovey's Colston, p. 71.
2 Tovey's Colston, p. 99.
3 A list of *' Boys admitted into Mr. Colston's Hospital on J. G.'s
account," from 1746 to 1763, exists, with this note, "Tho. Chad-
flertci, at the request of Mr. Harris." The name, it will be seen,
is spelt nearly as in the old Redcliffe parchments. ( Vide Notes and
Queries, vol. xi. p. 281.)
COLSTON'S HOSPITAL.
a^
71-
To the widowed mother this was doubtless a source
of gratulation. But the Bluecoat School which he now
entered was designed only for the most ordinary class of
boys, and had little adaptability for one of such rare
genius as was now to be subjected to its meagre culture.
The boys were boarded, and clad in the half-monkish
garb of blue gown, knee-breeches, and yellow stockings,
borrowed from Christ's Hospital, London. But the
simple curriculum was in striking contrast to the ample
provisions of Edward the Sixth's foundation, with its up-
per and lower schools, its first and deputy Grecians, and
University exhibitions, in which Charles Lamb, and
another "inspired charity boy," Coleridge, shared to
such good purpose. Its benevolent founder aimed at
training up his boys as good citizens, after the most
approved standard of his age. The master was to be
"one that will make it his chief business to instruct
the children in the principles of the Christian religion,
as they are laid down in the Church Catechism, and
who shall, twice a week, explain it to the meanest
capacity, by some good exposition." The Church
Catechism, indeed, appears to have occupied the fore-
most place in all Colston's ideas of education, at least
for the poor. For Bristol had also its Grammar School,
with liberal endowments and Oxford exhibitions, for
burgesses' sons; while the teachers of the Bluecoat
School were required only to instruct its inmates in
the most ordinary elements of a plain English educa-
tion.
Chatterton was too young to comprehend the great
contrast between the advantages enjoyed by the privileged
eleves of the Grammar ;School, and those of the institution
to which he was now admitted ; and he was at first
greatly elated at his election, " thinking he should there
get all the learning he wanted ; but soon he seemed
much hurt, as he said : he could not learn so much at
school as he could at home."^ The consciousness of
powers and aims far beyond those of his fellows was
' Mrs. Edkius, Dix, App. p. 314.
Chap. III.
Simple
curricutiiin
for the
Bluecoat
School.
Great con-
trast ivith
the Grant-
war School,
30
C HATTER TOM.
\
Chap. III.
Thirst
for pre-
fiHiHcnce.
Distaste-
fulness of
Colston's
Hospital.
Kagfmess
for know-
ledge.
even now manifesting itself in the boy. A.s a mere child
he had shown a thirst for preeminence ; claimed to
take the lead among his playmates; began to talk to his
mother and sister of the good things in store for them
when he grew up and was able to repay their kindness ;
and already indulged in dreams of future fame. While
still very young, a manufacturer of earthenware undertook
to present Mrs. Chatterton's children with specimens of
his art, and asked the boy what device he would have
upon his. "Paint me," he replied, " an angel, with wings
and a trumpet, to trumpet my name over the world."
It is not to be wondered that to such a child, Colston's
Hospital should prove distasteful. Instead of wandering
at pleasure about St. Mary Redcliffe, or musing over its
monuments till he dreamt of himself as the monk-poet
of the days when it was in building, he had to submit
to the actual durance of a modern Bluecoat monk. The
absence of all means of retirement must have been no
less irksome to him than the inadequacy of the instruc-
tion received. The unvarying routine of a common
school education was only relieved by the catechising and
church services of Sundays and saints' days. The
school hours were in the morning, from seven till noon ;
and from one till five in the afternoon. During the
shorter winter days they did not enter the school-room
till eight, and left at four. But throughout the year they
were required to be in bed by eight ; ^ so that, with the
additional . .me for meals, the moments snatched for such
communings with his own thoughts as the young poet
craved must have been scanty enough. This may well
account for his sister's remark, that he became gloomy
from the time he began to learn. ^ All his bright anticipa-
tions of getting the knowledge he craved had vanished ;
and he instinctively longed to return to his own little
study, and his solitary musings in Redclifife Church.
But no impediments could shut out the eager youth
from the acquisition of knowledge. By his tenth year he
^ BristoUensis, Gent. Mag. vol. xlviii. p. 403.
'■^ Mrs. Newton's Letter, Croft, p. 162. . '
COLSTON'S HOSPITAL.
31
was perusing all the books accessible to him ; and
expending the little pocket-money his mother allowed
him in hiring others from a lending library. Then, too,
brief hours of release from the noisy playground and the
unattractive studies of the school recurred at frequent
intervals. Each Saturday brought about its precious
half-holiday; and, like its great London prototype, the
Bristol Bluecoat School held the saints' days of the
Anglican Calendar in becoming reverence. On those
welcome occasions the boys were emancipated from the
hospital bounds from noon till eight in the evening ; and
then Chatterton hastened home to the happy solitude of
the attic he had appropriated as his study under his
mother's roof. Each Saturday, says Mrs. Edkins, he was
always at home, returning punctually a few minutes after
the clock struck twelve, to get to his little room and shut
himself up. There were deposited his own little stock
of books, parchments, and all the materials already in
use by him in the first efforts of his antique muse. His
scheme of a series of poems to be produced under the
guise of an ancient poet-monk was already in embryo ;
and he would lock himself in his favourite retreat, and
frequently remain there witliout food the whole day: till
his mother became alarmed for his health ; and wonder
grew into doubt and suspicion at his strange proceedings,
the apparatus, the parchments, both plain and written,
" and the begrimed figure he always presented when he
came down at tea-time, his face exhibiting many stains of
black and yellow. All these circumstances began to alarn*
them ; and," as Mrs. Edkins relates, "when she could get
^ into his room, she would be very inquisitive, and peep
about at everything. Once he put his foot on a parchment
on the floor to prevent her from taking it up, saying, ' you
are too curious and clear-sighted, I wish you would bide
out of the room ; it is my room.' To this she replied it
was only a general lumber-room, and that she wanted
some parchments, some of his old Rowley's, to make
thread-papers of; " — for already he had familiarised those
at home with his imaginary monk, — "but he was offended.
Chap. III.
hoiidnys ninf
Sitiiitx' icioH.
3«
CIIATTERTOy.
\
\ ' '
Chap. III.
Strange
Materials of
the boy's
antique art.
A self-
taught
draughts-
man.
and would not permit her to touch any of them, not
even those that were not written on. But at last, with a
voice of entreaty, he said, * Pray don't touch anything
here,' and seemed very anxious to get her away." ^
At other times, it was only by entreaty, or threats to
force the door, that he could be induced to unlock it ;
and then, as Mrs. Edkins described it, he sat surrounded
by the strange materials of his antique art : his ochre,
charcoal, pen and pencils, the little square deal
table covered with letters, papers, and parchments in
utmost confusion, and all round the room a complete
litter of parchments. His hands and face betrayed, as
usual, the nature of his work. But it has been too hastily
assumed that the boy was systematically engaged in
the conversion of modern parchments into spurious
antiques. His antique poem- became, ere long, volu-
minous enough; but as to the spurious parchments, all
he ever produced could have been manufactured in a few
days. But he was a self-taught draughtsman ; delighted
in realizing to the eye his fancies of the long-vanished
architecture of the Bristowe, of ^lla, Canynge, and
Rowley : as in the elaborate elevations of the Bristowe
Castle of A.D. 1 138, gravely reproduced, with accom-
panying ground-plans, in Barrett's *' History," as " en-
graved from drawings on vellum preserved to this day."
Such drawings are spoken of as numerous. His uncle
Phillips had some ; Barrett and Catcott obtained others.
His relative Mr. Stephens, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Richard
Smith and others, had many of his heraldic drawings ;
and Mrs. Edkins, in describing to Mr. George Cumber-
land " the old deeds that came from the muniment room,
which were used indiscriminately for any purpose," adds,
" there were many of diem covered with strange figures
of men's heads, &c., on the backs," which she supposes
were his drawing. It may be assumed, therefore, that
the half-holidays of the Bluecoat boy were more fre-
quently spent in gratifying his artistic and antiquarian
tastes — in recreating, in such visible form, his concep-
1 Mrs. Edkins, Dix, p. 313.
or othc
in life.
Sonii
of his
his ho
seat of
accom
If any
get do)
make t
the chi
COLSTON'S HOSPITAL.
33
VnfoHHtieif
suspicions.
tions of the past — than in manufacturing professed I Cmai'. hi.
originals of his Rowley poems. Such spurious anlic^ues
belong altogether to a later period, after the poems
themselves had been produced, and the originals were
called for by Barrett and others.
In every step of Chatterton's brief career we meet
with surmises and suspicions of his contemporaries,
dealt with at a subsequent period as facts. Towards
the close of his residence in Colston's Ho.spital, where
we know some of his Rowley poems were written, he
was observed to seclude himself more than ever in his
little study. When Mrs. Edkins narrated this to Mr.
Cumberland long afterwards, she entertained no doubt
that he was then assiduously labouring at the Rowley
manuscripts. But this was an after-thought. So little
did even the mother and other nearest relations compre-
hend the strange boy, that when he was nearly fourteen
years of age they became apprehensive " lest he should
be doing something improper, knowing hi3 want of
money and ambition to appear like others ;" but the only
idea they could conjure up to account for his recluse
habits was, " that these colours were to colour himself,
and that, perhaps, he would join some gipsies one day
or other, as he seemed so discontented with his station
in life." \
Sometimes, however, especially in the earlier period
of his residence in the Bluecoat School, he would spend
his holidays in his mother's company, writing " on the
seat of the schoolroom window, which was high, and to
accomplish which he was obliged to stand on a chair.
If any of his mother's pupils interrupted him, he would
get down from it in a great rage, and strike them to
make them quiet. Occasionally his mother would take
the children into an upper room when he was thus
engaged, that he might not be disturbed." ^ It was not
therefore from an unsocial disposition, or any undue
secretiveness, but from the natural craving of the young
poet for silence in his hours of inspiration that he
I Mrs. Edkins, Dix, App. p. 314. ^ Dix's Life, p. 15.
D
Holiday
Iwnie-ivotk.
!«' 1
-■A
34
CIIA TTERTON.
ClIAl'. III.
First puhHc
ttppearance
its II poet.
I'-
ll
Ell
Earliest
religious
poem.
learned to court the privacy of his little study. The
noise of his mother's pupils would have been no impedi-
ment to the manufacture of antique MSS. ; but it was
sufficient to banish every antic^ue fancy and poetic
thought.
It appears to have been in his eleventh year that
Chatterton took to writing verse ; and at the same early
age he made his first public appearance as a poet. About
this period he was presented to the Bishop for confirma-
tion, and the serious impressions then produced on his
youthful mind were reflected in some of his earliest
verses. About the same time, apparently, his sister
presented him with a pocket-book as a New Year's gift ;
and at the end of the year .she received it back, filled
chiefly with poetry.^ Writing long afterwards from
memory, she assigned her brother's confirmation to his
thirteenth year.^ But the researches of Mr. W. Tyson,
of Bristol, have led to the discovery of one of the
poetical productions referred to by Mrs. Newton, in
Felix Farley's Journal^ of the earlier date of January 8,
1763, when he was only ten years of age.^ Soon after
his confirmation he paraphrased the ninth chapter of
Job : " How shall man be just with God ? If he will
contend with Him, he cannot answer Him one of a
thousand For He is not a man, as I am, that I
should answer Him, and we should come together in
judgment. Neither is there any days-man betwixt us,
that might lay his hand upon us both." At the same
time he also wrote the following little piece, entitled :
ON THE LAST EPIPHANY ; OR, CHRIST'S COMING
TO JUDGMENT.
Eehold ! just coming from above,
» The Judge, with majesty and love !
The sky divides and rolls away
To admit Him thro' the realms of day ! 1
^ Gregory's Life, p. 10. ^ -^rs. Newton's Letter, Croft, p. 162.
3 Dix, App. p. 320.
COLS TON \9 If OS PITA L.
35
The sun, astonish'd, hides its face ;
The moon and stars witli wonder gaze
At Jesu's bright superior rays.
Dread lij^htnings flash, and thunders roar,
And shaKo the earth and briny shore ;
The trumpet sounds at Heaven's command,
And piercelh thro' the sea and land ;
The uead in each now hear the voice ;
The sinners fear, and saints rejoice ;
For now the awful hour is come
When every tenant of the tomb
Must rise, and take his everlasting doom.
This simple effusion of youthful piety, though a mere
echo of the religious teachings of the sch 'olroom, is of
interest from the contrast it presents to the productions
of later years. When finished it so pleased its young
author that he dropped it into the letter-box of the
weekly journal, now famous chiefly through his con-
tributions, and had the delight of seeing his first work in
print. No doubt he took his sister into his confidence,
and showed her the wonderful production, which left so
strong an impression on her mind that her recollections
of it fifteen years afterwards led to its later identification.
Now, at length, the young poet had discovered his
vocation. " He had been gloomy," his sister says,
" from the time he began to learn ; but we remarked
he was more cheerful after he began to write poetry."
He became, ere long, a frequent contributor to Felix
Farley's Journal^ and soon learned to enjoy the de-
lights of anonymous journalism with keenest zest. It
was in the following December that the unpopular
churchwarden of St. Mary Redcliffe became the butt of
his satirical muse; and a few months later "Apostate
Will," long regarded as Chatterton's first effort in verse,
made its appearance. It is a satirical sketch, in the
same measure as " The Churchwarden," of a hypocritical
renegade, whose attempts to make a gain of godliness
had, no doubt, excited popular censure. The piece,
though it refers to the
"Days of yore, when Wesley's power
Gathered new strength by every hour,"
D 2
Cha>> III.
Sees his Jirst
ivork in
print.
The poet has
discovi red
his vocation.
The voting
satirist.
wmm^T^rrr.
36
CHATTERTON.
Chap. III.
\ i ■
Unwearied
zeal in his
xtiic/ies.
Familiarity
with the
poets.
I
Readirgs in
disunity.
and pictures a bankrupt trader turning Methodist
preacher for gain, is not designed, like lome of his
later productions, to ridicule religious belief ; but already
he manifested one strong bent of his mind, towards
satire, under the influence of which, ere long, neither
friend nor foe was to be spared. "
Chatterton now gave full play to his intellectual powers.
His reading was pursued with unwearied zeal ; and the
ushe." reported that he made rapid progress in arith-
metic. Between his eleventh and twelfth years, as his
sister reports, "he wrote a catalogue of the books he
had read, to the number of seventy. History and
divinity were the chief subjects ;" and these, as his
schoolmates informed her, he retired to read at the
hours allotted for play.^ Ere long, also, the elder poets
were lovingly studied. Chaucer was his special favourite.
The motto to his " Epistle to Mastre Canynge " is taken
from Barbour's " Bruce ;" his MSS. in the British Museum
include an extract from " Piers Ploughman," though else-
where he ascribes its authorship to Chaucer. His own
writings furnish evidence of his familiarity with Shake-
speare, Milton, Dryden, Prior, Cowley, and Gray ; Pope
and Thomson were studied with care ; and Churchill be-
came his favourite model as a satirist. It was probably
for modern authors such as those that he resorted to the
circulating library ; while private collections chiefly sup-
plied the rarer folios and quartos of Hall, Hollingshed,
Camden, Stowe, Weever, and the like historical, heraldic,
and antiquarian works, which furnished delightful occupa-
tion for the play-hour. The loss of the record of his
early course of reading is greatly to be regretted, from
the light it was calculated to throw on some of his
peculiar tastes and modes of thought. His readings in
divinity, however, find an illustration from one of the
allusions in his " Apostate Will."
*' Then lifting his dissembling eyes :
How blessed is the sect ! he cries ;
1 Croft, p. 162.
r,
mmmm
COLSTON'S HOSPITAL.
37
Nor Bingham, Young, nor Stillingfleet,
Shall make me from tliis sect retreat."
But all this while Chatterton appeared to his com-
panions in the Bluecoat School, dull and unimpressible,
and alike devoid of inclination or ability for such literary
pursuits as received a very unwonted encouragement
there. While secretly resenting the inadequacy of the
resources within his reach to satisfy his intellectual
cravings, and brooding over thick - coming fancies,
speedily to find enduring form: his rough schoolmates
were already rivals in verse-making, as well as in the
sports of the playground, and no doubt thought him
little less fitted for the one than the other. Yet in this
seemingly uncongenial retreat he found teachers capable
of appreciating some of the finer elements of his nature ;
while, at the same time, it also yielded materials for his
vein of satire.
Stephen Chatterton Phillips, the son of the sexton, and
consequently cousin of the poet, — who appears himself
to have been a Bluecoat boy, — informed Mr. Cumber-
land that among the papers found after Chatterton's
death, were some written by him while still an inmate of
Colston's school ; but " all he could remember of them was,
that a story went about, when he was at the school, of a
lad named Bess, called Crazy Bess by the boys, having
got Chatterton to write some lines satirizing the usher,
who caught him finishing the last line and corrected him
severely for it." The object of the satirical assault thus
prematurely arrested, was probably Mr. Warner, the
head-master, who is only known from having provoked
later attacks from the same caustic pen. The first was
the mere thoughtless effervescence of youthful spirit ; but
the feeling of dislike remained after he had exchanged
the schoolroom for an attorney's office, and found venf
in new satirical assaults. Dr. Gregory relates the exposure
of one of these, chiefly owing to its being written on
office paper, with consequent corporal penalties.
The loss of those school-boy lampoons is to be re-
gretted, not from any probable merit Ihey possessed as
Chap. III.
Estimate of
him by his
schooiinntes.
His cousin a
reminis-
cences
of school
verse.
\ ;
38
CHATTERTON.
Chap. III.
Biographi-
cal value of
his sat ires ,
riw poetical
usher,
rhiUips.
\
I
Chattertoft's
early com-
panions.
poems, but solely for their autobiographical value. Their
caricatures of the unpopular head-master were no doubt
overdrawn and iiTeverent enough ; but they would have
helped to account for the lack of sympathy between him
and the most remarkable of his pupils. That the fault
was not altogether in the boy, is proved by the fact that
Mr. Warner was the only master in Colston's Hospital
who failed to appreciate his better qualities, and win his
regard. Mr. Haynes, the second master, is indeed quoted
by Bryant as reporting of him that "he was not a boy
of extraordinary parts, nor did he make any display of
abilities during the time he was at school ;"i but this
blindness to his intellectual gifts did not prevent Chatter-
ton winning his good-will ; and Dr. Gregory informs us
that he found in him a friend who conceived for him a
strong affection.
But Chatterton's true teacher, so far as the training of
others had any share in the development of his genius,
appears to have been the junior master, or usher, Thomas
Phillips, to whose example and influence his first contri-
butions to Felix Farley's Bristol Journal were probably
due. Thistlethwaite, another of Phillips' pupils, in
writing to Dean Milles, speaks of him as one who,
" notwithstanding the disadvantages of a very confined
education, possessed a taste for history and poetry," and
was himself a frequent contributor to the periodicals of
the day.
In reviewing the account furnished by Thistlethwaite to
the Dean of Exeter, of his introduction to Chatterton,
through the intervention of Phillips, and their subsequent
intercourse, some suggestive hints are furnished in refer-
ence to various claimants to early companionship with
the boy. For the most part it becomes obvious that they
v/ere incapable of appreciating the true worth of their
strange, silent, studious companion. " The most perfect
masters of human nature in Bristol " did indeed distinguish
him, as he tells us in his Will, by the title of " The Mad
Genius ;" but even that equivocal recognition of his
^ Bryant's Observations, p. 560.
ton
the
fourt(
and
the
r.
COLSTON'S HOSPITAL.
39
gifts was of a considerably later date. We have accounts
from those who shared with him the bounty of Colston's
Hospital ; from acquaintances of his own age during his
later apprenticeship ; and from those who claim to have
befriended and patronised him : but all tinged with the
same depreciatory tone. The letters of Thistlethwaite,
Gary, Smith, and Rudhall, and the narratives of Catcott,
Barrett, and other seniors, alike betray the feeling that
the boy " was no such great things after all !" But when
learned antiquaries, deans, baronets, and professors,
began to ply them with inquiries about their past inter-
course with him, their self-importance was gratified, and
informants became minute and precise about facts and
dates, which have since been too implicitly accepted as
authentic.
Mr. James Thistlethwaite had better opportunities of
knowing Chatterton's early career than he was willing to
confess. Bound apprentice to Mr. Grant, bookseller and
stationer, near St. Leonard's Gate, Bristol, in 1765, he
subsequently went to London, and became a student of
law. It was not, therefore, to be expected that he should
be anxious to publish to the world that he and Chatter-
ton had worn the Bluecoat garb ton:ether, and were under
the same obligations to Colston's charity. He was about
fourteen months older than Chatterton, a pupil of Phillips,
and one who, stimulated by his example, became one of
the poets of the school. According to his own more
guarded way of stating the case, in the summer of 1763,
being then in his twelfth year, he contracted an inti-
macy with Phillips, and by this means, towards the latter
end of the year, formed a connexion with his pupil,
Chatterton.^
Translated into a literal version, the probability is that,
towards the close of 1763, the younger Bluecoat boy was
promoted to a higher form, and thus came into compa-
nionable contact with Thistlethwaite, at the same time
that he was brought under the influence of the assistant
master, Thomas Phillips. The poetical achievements of
1 Letter to Dr. Milles, Dean of Exeter.
Chap. III.
Disparaging
accounts
furnished by
his com-
panions
Thistle-
thwaite a
Bluecoat
boy.
Chniiertcm
makrs his
acquaint-
ance.
I
%
!;
40
CHATTER ton:
Chap. III.
A spirit of
pnctical
emulation
excited.
Acamnt
i;,7>ju tj
Dean
Milks.
the usher had already excited a keen spirit of emulation
amongst the elder boys in the school. " The love of
fame anima:;ed their bosoms, and a variety of competitors
appeared to dispute the laurel with him." When we
think of the ordinary character of the pupils in institu-
tions of this class, the master capable of producing these
results from such unpromising materials rises correspond-
ingly in our estimation. Dr. Gregory, indeed, speaks of
his taste for poetry having " excited a similar flame in
several young men who," he adds, " made no mean figure
in the periodical literature of that day ; in Chatterton,
Thistlethwaite, Gary, Fowler, and others." ^ But if we
judge of the names thus associated with Ghatterton's by
the one best known to us, Thistlethwaite's letter shows
that in them the potter had to work on but common
clay. 2
Describing to Dean Milles, nearly twenty years after-
wards, Ghatterton's communicating his professed acquisi-
tion of certain ancient MSS. — the first of the Rowley
poems, which were now (in 1764) sorely puzzling Phillips
to decipher their antique caligraphy, — Thistlethwaite adds :
" For my own part, having little or no taste for such
studies, I repined not at the disappointment. Phillips, on
the contrary, was to all appearance mortified, indeed
much more so than at that time I thought the object
deserved, expressing his sorrow at the want of success,
and repeatedly declaring his intention of resuming the
attempt at a future period." He then adds, " In the year
1765 I was put apprentice to a stationer at Bristol, at
which period my acquaintance and correspondence with
Ghatterton and Phillips seem to have undergone a tem-
porary dissolution." This incidental reference to his own
apprenticeship supplies evidence of the most reliable kind
on the all-important question of the earliest date when
^ Gregory's Life of Chatterton,,p. 7, note.
2 Fowler's verse is repeatedly alluded to in Ghatterton's satires in
terms of contempt. Vide *^ yournal :''^ "As heavy as Fowlerian
song;" ^' IV//ore of Babylon:'''' "What Fowler, happy genius,
titles verse ;" and the '■^ Epistle to Rev. Mr. Catcott."
COLSTON'S HOSPITAL.
41
Chatterton produced any of his Rowley poems. The
letters of his sister to Sir Herbert Croft and Mr. Cottle
appeal to us for acceptance by the guilelessness of their
apologetic tenderness ; but their dates must be tested by
other evidence. Mr. George Catcott, another authority,
wrote under the influence of a preconceived theory ;
amended his dates in his letters to the Gentkmafi's
Magazine in the same dogmatic fashion in which we shall
find him responding to Dr. Johnson's personal inquiries ;^
and indulged in an illogical pertinacity little calculated to
carry conviction to any mind. But the year of Thistle-
thwaite's apprenticeship, in which he left Colston's
Hospital, and severed his connexion with Phillips and
Chatterton, was too marked a date to admit of error ;
and therefore fixes beyond dispute the important fact that
the orphan charity boy, with only such common English
education as the Bluecoat School afforded, had already,
in his twelfth year,^ conceived the idea of a series of
antique poems, ascribed to the imaginary Thomas
Rowley, a monk of the fifteenth century, which were to
puzzle learned critics, deans, titled dilettanti, and a
whole century of able editors.
Bearing in remembrance what Thistlethwaite chose to
withhold from Dean Milles, that he was himself at the date
referred to an inmate of Colston's school, "liis account is
as folloivs : — " Going down Horse Street, near the school,
one day during the summer of 1764, I accidentally met
with Chatterton. Entering into conversation with him.
Cww. III.
I 'iic<>t(tiiiiy
lis II' tiiiti's.
I
/■'■rst />;'(>-
(iiictii'ii iif ,1
AVtc/i'i'
MS
!s in
rian
lius,
1 Gent. Mag. vol. xlviii. p. 347. " He (Mr. Warton) says Chat-
terton was seventeen years old when he first produced the poems to
me. He was but just turned fifteen. He gave me the poems in
the beginning of the year 1768. He had the tonsure on his head,
being just come from Mr. Colston's charity school." In a subse-
quent letter (Ibid. p. 403) he alters the date to the end of the year ;
"but," he says, "in my opinion it is of little moment as to the
precise time in which we becam»«acquainted, as it will not add a
single minute to his life, and of course not the least degree of cre-
dibility to the supposition of his being the author of the poems
attributed to Rowley. "
2 Chatterton was not twelve years of age till November 1 764.
■■'J ,
%l
I
A
42
CHATTER TO JSr.
\
Chai'. III.
4'
^' Klinonre
mid yiign."
The heroines
of the poem.
Modern
echoes in the
he informed me that he was in possession of certain old
MSS. which had been deposited in a chest in Redcliffe
Church, and that he had lent some or one of them to
Phillips. Within a day or two after this, I saw Phillips,
and repeated to him the information I had received from
Chatterton. Phillips produced a MS. on parchment or
vellum, w^hich I am confident was ' Elinoiire and Juga^
a kind of pastoral eclogue, afterwards published in the
Town and Country Magazine.'^
Different manuscript copies exist of some of Chatter-
ton's larger antique poems, showing that they were
carefully elaborated, and underwent repeated revisions
ere he recognised them as complete ; but this eclogue,
or rather ballad, is only known as it appeared in the
Town aftd Country Magazine for May 1769, under the
title " Elinoure and Juga : written three hundred years
ago by T. Rowley, secular priest."
Two tearful maidens, the nut-brown Elinoure and
fair Juga, sit by the banks of the river Rudborne, near
St.. Albans, bewailing the perils of their absent knights,
both of whom prove to have fallen, fighting for the
White Rose, in the old wars of York and Lancaster.
The language and orthography are of the affected Chau-
cerian character which formed the disguise of all the
Rowley poems ; but it is curious to catch in its stanzas
echoes of the polished quatrains of Gray's " Elegy," then
in the first blush of its popularity. Slightly modernised,
two of its stanzas thus present the maidens interchanging
their plaints : —
JUGA.
" Sisters in sorrow, on this daisied bank,
Where melancholy broods, we will lament ; ,'
Bewet with morning dew and even dank ;
Like levind oaks in each the other bent ;
Or like forletten halls of merriment,
"Whose ghastly mitches hold the train of fright,
Where lethal ravens bark, and owlets wake the night.
ELINOURE,
No more the miskynette shall wake the morn,
The minstrel dance, good cheer, and morris play ;
COLSTON'S HOSPITAL.
43
No more the ambling palfry and the horn
Shall from the lessel rouse the fox away ;
I'll seek the forest all the live-long clay ;
All night among the graved church-glebe will go,
And to the passing sprites lecture my tale of woe."
The stanzas as given here are modernised in spelling ;
and if in addition to this the small sprinkling of obsolete
or coined words were replaced by their modern equiva-
lents in the footnotes — e.g. forletten, forsaken ; mitches^
ruins; lessel, forest, or bush, — the whole would be restored
to the language of the eighteenth century. Here and
there, indeed, the line would require modification where
the modern equivalent in the footnote differs in accent
or number of syllables ; and not infrequently a rich allite-
ration would be lost : as in the replacement of levynde
by blasted ; chyrche-glebe, by churchyard ; forletten by
forsaken ; and miskyjiette by its interpretation of a small
bagpipe. A single couplet will suffice to illustrate the
obscurity — so inimical to every chance of popularity, —
which Chatterton purposely bestowed on his antique
poems by the affectation of ancient orthography.
"Lyche levynde okes in eche the odher bente,
Or lyke forletten halles of merriemente. "
The execution of Sir Baldwin Fulford, at Bristol, in
1 46 1, in the reign of Edward IV., as a Lancastrian
plotter against the life of Wanvick the King-maker, was
one of the incidents of local history belonging to the
era of Canynge, which made . lasting impression on
Chatterton's mind, and accounts for the choice of his
earliest theme, where the nut-brown maid thus plains to
the fair Juga:
*' To fyghte for Yorke mie love ys dyght in stele ;
O mat ne sanguen sleine the whyte rose peyncte."
Here then we have evidence that the boy-poet was
already preening the Muse's wing for those strong though
devious flights, in which his genius manifested its amplest
jDowers. The " Elinoure and Juga " is simple and tender.
It is in reality a little dramatic lyric, or ballad-poem, of
Chah. hi.
A re hate
language
andspellhig.
hnpressive
\ ■
ineident 0/
local
history.
i
44
CHATTERTOJSr.
Chap. III.
Thisile-
ihwaitc
claims to be
the poet 's
conjidant.
I nadequnte
record of
Phillips.
seven stanzas, such as might fitly be the first offspring of
a youthfiil muse ; but wonderful as the product of a boy
at the age to which its origin is assigned.
James 'Fhistlethwaite, to whom we owe the important
fact of the date of this early production, was Chatterton's
senior by little more than a year. He appears from his
letter to Dean Milles to have been a matter-of-fact youth,
thrown by accident into companionship with the young
poet, but wholly incapable of sympathy with the tastes
and aspirations of the schoolmate whom he represents
as choosing him for his literary confidant. In reality,
however, it was to their master, Thomas Phillips, and not
to Thistlethwaite, that the manuscript poem was produced,
in antique guise of language and spelling, " the lines
written in the manner of prose, and without any regard
to punctuation."
Dr. Gregory expresses a well-founded regret at the
want of any adequate record of this, the only teacher
whose mental and moral influences are recognisable in
Chatterton's career. He was, I imagine, still young,
probably not greatly the senior of his oldest pupils ; of a
gentle, kindly, sociable nature, and a vigorous, manly
presence, well calculated to win the admiration of his
youthful companions. His connexion with Colston's
Hospital appears to have ceased soon after Chatterton
left it ; as he is referred to in one of the elegies of his gifted
pupil, in which those characteristics are perpetuated, as
residing at Fairford at the time of his death. The earliest
of these elegies is dated October 1769; and this, with
a longer poem in which Chatterton mourns the death of
his loved teacher and friend, are the only records of him
besides Tliistlethwaite's brief notice. The latter extends
to thirty-four stanzas, of very unequal merit, but which
might have been compressed, by the rejection of those
of inferior character, into a poem worthy to rank along-
side the fine creations of his antique muse. In the
opening lines he exclaims :
" Ts Phillips dead, and is my friend no more?
Gone like the sand divested from the shore."
COLSTON'S HOSPITAF..
45
1, as
He then proceeds in strains of extravagant eulogy, to
dwell on the virtues of his friend, and his own irreparable
loss ; but from these the following may be selected as
conveying some idea of the special attractions which left
so deep an impression on the mind of Chatterton, long
after he had left the Bluecoat School : —
'• Peace deck'd in all the softness of the dove,
Over thy passions spread her silver plume ;
The rosy veil of harmony and love
Hung on thy soul in one eternal bloom.
Peace, gentlest, softest of the virtues, spread
Her silver pinions, wet w^ith dewy tears.
Upon her best distinguished poet's head.
And taught his lyre the music of the spheres.
Temperance, with health and beauty in her train.
And massy-muscled strength, in graceful pride,
Pointed at scarlet luxury and pain,
And did at every frugal feast preside."
The virtues recorded in the last stanza preeminently
distinguished Chatterton himself, and may have been
confirmed and strengthened by Phillips' influence and
example. Other verses betray unmistakeable echoes of
the same popular elegy which has been already recognised
as his model in part of his first antique ballad ; as in the
following : —
•* Here, stretched upon this Heaven-ascending hill,
I'll wait the horrors of the coming night,
I'll imitate the gently-plaintive rill,
And by the glare of lambent vapours write.
Wet with the dew the yellow hawthorns bow ;
The rustic whistles through the echoing cave ;
Far o'er the lea the breathing cattle low,
And the full Avon lifts the darkened wave.
Now as the mantle of the evening swells,
Upon my mind I feel a thickening gloom ;
Ah ! could I charm by necromantic spells
The soul ' if Phillips from the deathly tomb !
Then would we wander thro' this darkened vale,
In converse such as heavenly spirits use ;
And, borne upon the pinions of the gale.
Hymn the Creator, and exert the Muse."
CHAf. III.
Ele<;y t ii
J'/i'Uii/i.
Imitation of
Gray's elegy.
46
fHAI'. III.
Iiieqtmlity
of the poem.
l.a'cr iiiter-
coiirse ivith
/lis favourite
II Ulster.
Congenial
sympathy
found.
CHATTER TON.
\h
Through the second of the above stanzas Chatterton
drew his pen as " too flowery for grief." 'Vht same
critical taste might have been applied to other stanzas
with advantage. It is diffuse and unequal ; but the
tender recollections of his master and friend are reiterated
with all the earnestness of genuine admiration and regret.
He dwells on his genius, his unsullied purity, his appre-
ciation of nature under all the changing aspectfj of the
seasons, his honour and unvarying cheerfulness j and as
he draws towards a close, exclaims :
"Now rest, my Muse ! but only rest to weep
A friend made dear by every sacred tie ;
Unknown to me be comfort, peace, or sleep :
Phillips is dead ; 'tis pleasure then to die."
Those stanzas, the work of a later date, when Chatterton
was in his seventeenth year, shov that his intercourse
with his favourite master survived his departure from
school, and was only broken by death. Phillips was in
many respects such a friend as he then specially needed.
The relations in which they had stood to each other as
teacher and pupil would make Chatterton look up to him
with confidence when their intercourse ceased to be con-
strained. He, if any one, was fitted to draw his young
companion forth from the strange seclusion begot, in no
slight degree, by the circumstances of his childhood. In
his younger years especially he appears to have been
peculiarly open to all kindly influences ; and in his
teacher he found the congenial sympathy for which he
craved. Could we now trace the various steps in their
intercourse, from the first partial confidences of the school-
boy to the franker intercourse of later date, when for a
brief period they met on equal terms, it would probably
appear that Phillips did more than all others with whom
he was brought in contact to develop whatever was
great or good in him. The elegy shows that they
had their pleasant evening walks together, when they
held high converse, worthy of true poets, and yielded
willingly to all the devout emotions of that suggestive
hour.
COLSTON'S HOSPITAL.
47
or a
)ably
horn
was
they
they
Ided
stive
Phillips was, no doubt, a man of literary tastes. As
to his actual merits as a poet they may have been small
enough. Thistlethwaite evidently regarded him as one
whose preeminent genius was proved by the triumphs
achieved over himself and other youthful poets of the
Bluecoat School. The kindly relations established be-
tween him and them prove him, at any rate, to have
possessed in an eminent degree that sympathetic ardour,
so invaluable in a teacher, which enkindled in the group
of charity boys among whom his lot was cast a s[)irit of
poetic emulation, little to be looked for in such a class
of pupils. But when we learn that in all his contests
with them, " Phillips still, to the mortification of his
opponents, came off victorious and unhurt," ^ it would
seem that he found gratification in such triumphs ; and we
are less ter->pted to think of him, with Chatterton, as :
** Phillips ! great master of the boundless lyre,"
than as a genial counterpart of Goldsmith's village
schoolmaster, content with such preeminence within his
own narrow domain. On him Chatterton essayed his
first serious attempt to pass off his own verse as the
production of a poet of the fifteenth century. The
boldness of this poetical masquerading was, under all
the circumstances, fully equal to the later attempts on
the credulity of Barrett, or even Walpole himself. How
far a sincere confidence was subsequently established
between them can only be surmised ; but in him the boy
found a congenial sympathiser, eager to solve the mystery
of the supposed antique parchment, yet not less ready
to enter into the aspiring hopes of the young poet. As
to Thistlethwaite he is a fair type of old and young in
the common circle of Chatterton's acquaintance. To
his purblind vision the boy, who was his junior at an
age when the difference of a year or two constitutes
an important element in the relations of schoolmates,
1 Letter of Thistlethwaite to Dean Milles.
ClIAl'. III.
Afi-ritii or
rhillit>.ui)i
a pott.
First />n>-
(iiution of
proji'ssed
(intiiini'x.
■■r (.
Mi
i \
4S
CHA TTERTOX.
IIIM'. Ill
H,-althfitl
iiiJluriiiYS o/
Colston'ji
Hospital.
Tender sen-
sibility to
tiistjTss.
appeared as simply contenting himself with the sports
and pastimes more immediately adapted to his age, and
apparently possessing neither inclination, nor indeed
ability, for literary pursuits ! The confidence extended
to such a companion was not likely to include any
hint of the real authorship of the romantic ballad of
the White Rose.
But, notwithstanding the utter inadequacy of Colston's
Hospital to satisfy th'^, cravings of the remarkable boy
who wore its garb, and partook of the best training it
had to offer, it is obvious that its influences were, on
the whole, of a healthful nature; and, above all, the
moral culture to which its founder attached such just value
appears to have been sound. However evanescent may
have been the first religious impressions, which found
expression in his Epiphany verses and other juvenile
poems, including a lost paraphrase of some portions of
Isaiah : all that we know of his youth indicates sound
moral feeling. " He was a lover of truth," says his
sister, " from the earliest dawn of reason, and nothing
would move him so n ich as being belied. When in the
school, we were informed by the usher, his master de-
pended on his veracity on all occasions." ^ His foster-
mother describes him, at seven years of age, as " tenderly
sensible of every one's distresses." At twelve the same
sensibility remained unblunted. " He could not bear to
hear of any one suffering ; " and would part with his last
halfpence, and submit to the privation of coveted objects
he was about to purchase, in order to relieve the beggars
who frequented the drawbridge, over which his usual road
from school lay. If he had no money, Mrs. Edkins
adds, he would request a penny from her for the object
of his compassion, telling her " he loved her for it as
much as if she had given it to himself." ^ At a later
date she describes him as a good son and brother,
preferring his home to every other resort; and th^re
^ Mrs. Newton's Leiter, Croft, p. 162.
* Mrs. Edkins to G. Cumberland, Esq., Dix, App. p. 315.
COLSTON'S IIOSriTAL.
49
attracting the love of all who knew him.^ For, curiously
enough : though silent, reserved, and spending from
choice much of his time alone; he was, nevertheless,
of a social disposition, and at a very early age displayed
a singular power of winning the sympathy both of old
and young.
* Mrs. Edkins to G. Cumberland, Esq., Dix, App. p. 309.
Chap. III.
Social
dUftodtion.
\f
E
CHAPTER IV.
THE DE BERGHAM PEDIGREE.
Chah. IV.
The Great
House on St.
A rti^Hstine's
Back.
Mr.
Barrett's
mansion.
Holiday
route horns.
When the " Great House " was selected by Colston as
the hospital in which his Bluecoat boys should be lodged,
it stood amid gardens and orchards, with the open green-
sward in front reaching to the river's brink. Though the
mason's handiwork had encroached on garden and grass-
plot by the time Chatterton became an inmate there, it
was still a pleasant neighbourhood, to which well-to-do
citizens resorted ; and in one of the mansions close by,
the Bristol surgeon and antiquary, Mr. William Barrett,
resided, with his well-stocked library and other attrac-
tions, the value of which were somehow or other dis-
covered and made available by the Bluecoat boy. They
trafficked ere long in old parchments, in borrowed books,
and in talk on many subjects strange enough to most
inmates of a charity school. The surgeon could not fail
to see in him something out of the ordinary run of Blue-
coat boys ; took special note of his bright, intelligent eye ;
and used often to send for him that he might enjoy his
eager discussion of some disputed point. In this way
Chatterton escaped at times from the hospital and his
juvenile associates there, returning with some borrowed
volume over which to pore while they were sporting in
the playground.
On Saturdays and other half-holidays his road home
lay by the drawbridge over the river Frome, a tributary
of the Avon, on which the hospital stood, and so by the
old bridge to the Somersetshire side of the Avon, and on
to Redcliffe Hill. For the most part we know that he
LJl...i.
THE DE BERG II AM PEDIGREE.
51
made straight for home with as little delay as possible ;
and then, after a loving welcome from mother and sister,
was speedily ensconced in his favourite attic, amid his
parchments and drawing materials. But litde as the
cloistral life of Colston's Hospital seemed calculated to
prepare its inmates for free intercourse with the outer
world of Bristol, Chatterton af)pears to have made
acquaintance with some of its notabilities at a very early
period, and turned them to account. The hospital
system of training was framed in part with a view to
counteract the evil tendencies which its founder imagined
to be inseparable from nonconformity ; but to this were
added other features, which might seem as though they
were directly inherited from the old Friars Carmelites
who had been the precursors of the Jiluecoat boys. Not
only did the boy-monks wear the blue-gown, but they
appear to have perpetuated something symbolical of the
old friars' shaven crown. " Mr. Capel," says Bryant,
" told me that he saw Chatterton the very day that he
came from Colston's, with the tonsure on his head, and
in the habit of the place ; " and Mr. George Catcott,
whose shop he passed every time he crossed the bridge,
when telling of his receipt of Rowley manuscripts from
the boy, says : " He gave me the i)oems in the beginning
of the year 1768. He had then the tonsure on his head,
being just come from Mr. Colston's charity school."^
Probably in the Bristol of a century ago, as in London
even now, the quaint garb of the Bluecoat boy was a
passport that facilitated ingress to many resorts not
otherwise accessible. But the peculiar tastes and habits
of Chatterton must have singled him out ere long, and
attracted special notice from some, whose attentions he
soon turned to account. There appears to have been a
strange fascination about the boy ; and when it pleased
him it almost seemed as though he could make friends
at will.
Writing to his mother soon after his arrival in London,
he tells her of a stranger he encountered in Drury Lane
^ Gent. Mag. vol. xlviii. p. 348.
E 2
Chai'. IV.
Bny-monks
o/Cfl/s ton's
Hospital.
w
Facilities
to the Blue-
coat boy.
a
CHATTERTON.
Chap. IV.
Aptitude fur
nvinvDig
)iinni-wtU.
Mr.
Catcott's
part /to:
A self,
tnu^lit man.
Theatre, under circumstances which made an introduction
desirable ; and so he says : " I contracted an immediate
acquaintance with him, which you know is no hard task
to me." The same aptitude for winning the good-will
of others was noticeable from childhood. He seems to
have taken his place among his seniors, as it were, with
a consciousness of equality that made him at his ease
among the best of them.
Mr. George Catcott, who notes for us the tonsured head
of the young poet ; and who we shall find ere long the
zealous collector of the reputed writings of the good
priest Rowley : had for partner in his trade as pewterer,
Mr. Henry Burgum, a Bristol worthy, with whom Chat-
terton had some curious dealings. Mr. Burgum had
come from Gloucestershire to Bristol at an early age, in
a very humble capacity ; obtained help apparently from
one or other of the charities established there by its
philanthropic old merchant, Edward Colston; and so
was apprenticed to the trade in which he is now found.
He had risen by his own exertions, and appears to have
been a self-taught man, with not a little of the vanity
which is apt to accompany such acquirements. We glean
from later notices of him, in the " Kew Gardens " and
others of Chatterton's satires, that his language was un-
grammatical, and his habit of profane swearing notorious.^
He is described by Mr. Richard Smith, Mr. Catcott's
nephew, as " a presumptuous, vulgar fellow, who boasted
of his ancestry." ^ As, however, he adds that he robbed
his partner of 3,000/., his all, — which is another mode
of stating that the pewtering business failed ; — we may
presume that Mr. Burgum is shown at his worst. So far
as we can now recover any glimpse of his true character,
it will be found not to be without some redeeming
traits.
Among other characteristic memorials of the bene-
volent old merchant and High Church M.P. of Bristol
1 Vide Chatterton's " Will," " Epistle to Rev. Mr. Catcott," and
"Kew Gardens."
2 Gent. Mag. N. S. vol. x. p. 604.
mmmmm
THE DE BERGHAM PEDIGREE.
in the latter days of Queen Anne, various associations
have been organized to celebrate the " Colston anniver-
sary," and emulate his example. First in order among
these charitable associations is " The Colston Society,"
founded in 1729 ; and which, as Mr. Tovey tells us, has
ever been heartily promoted by "many distinguished
characters devoted to the constitution in Church and
State."^ Let us hope that, in dispensing their charities, this
did not prevent their occasionally relieving a starving dis-
senter. "The Dolphin Society," named after Colston's
well-known crest, followed : " established," according to
the same local authority, "by the Tories in 1749."
Next came "The Anchor Society," in 1768: a year
famous for Wilkes's Middlesex election, his expulsion from
Parliament, and universal political ferment in conse-
quence ; and its memoriaUst selects as preeminent
among the distinguished members of the new charity
" Henry Cruger, so highly famed in the electioneering
annals of Bristol." This curious admixture of charity and
politics is well deserving of note, if we would understand
the strange social life into which Chatterton passed on
emerging from the cloisters of the Bluecoat School.
Without some comprehension of its character, it is im-
possible to do justice to the youth in his later aspect as
local satirist and politician.
But whilst sound Church and State benevolence was
thus active, democracy put forth its claim to a share in
the good work \ and so, in 1758, " The Grateful Society "
was founded : differing from the others, according to Mr.
Tovey, "in not blending the elements of party feeling
with the pure spirit of charity in which it originated."
Sundry citizens who had been educated or otherwise
helped in life by Colston's generous provisions, resolved
to show their gratitude by establishing a Bristol bene-
volent society, in which for once politics should have
no share ; and amongst its early office-bearers appears
the name of Henry Burgum as president in 1766. The
poor Gloucestershire boy had owed his start in life,
^ Tovey's Colston, pp. 156 — 160.
II
Chai'. IV.
The Colston
anni-
versary.
The Dolphin
and A nchor
Societies.
if
I;
The Grtttr-
ful Society.
;.:
54
CHATTERTON.
Chap. IV.
Mr.
Burgum's
aspirations.
His musical
taste.
and probably most of the education he possessed, to
Mr. Colston's charities ; and it is a pleasant trait in his
character to find him prominent among those who were
not ashamed, in later life, to acknowledge their obliga-
tions to their benefactor.
Very possibly the plebeian tradesman, though aspiring
enough in his own way, did not sympathise with the
benevolent High Church Tories of the " Anchor " and
" Dolphin ; " but happily no rival " tincture of Whiggism"
was called in to mar the simplicity of this best of all the
Colston anniversary charities. Mr. Burgum's ambition
rather incited him to the patronage of art and letters.
Chatterton introduces in his "Kew Gardens" this satirical
allusion to one of his blunders as a connoisseur :
**If Burgum bought a Bacon for a Strange,
The man has credit, and is great on change."
His reading dso extended beyond the current litera-
ture of the day, and he is even said to have taught
himself Latin and Greek. ^ But if so, repeated allusions
in Chatterton's satires serve to indicate that any smatter-
ing of classics he had contrived to acquire, only sufficed
to expose him to the ridicule of "the lettered throng
of Oxonian pedants," headed by the Vicar of St. Mary
Redcliffe. But music commanded his special favour.
Dr. Maitland notes his name among the subscribers to
a set of quartetts by Kotzwara, the composer of the
" Battle of Prague," published at Bath ; and to a set of
concertos by Norris of Oxford.^ Mr. Thomas Kers-
lake of Bristol informs me that thirty years ago he
bought a library, the property of a gentleman then far
advanced in years, which included two chests about four
feet long and twenty inches wide, each containing a con-
cert set of music for about twenty instruments, and in as
many volumes, with a partitioned compartment for each.
One of the sets was, he believes, Handel's " Messiah ;"
the other included some of Haydn's pieces. The whole
was got up in the most sumptuous and costly style.
1 Croft, p. 183. 2 Maithind's Chatterton : an Essay, p. 18.
THE DE BERGHAM PEDIGREE.
55
One of the sets was bound in red morocco, and each
volume had the name " Henry Burgum " stamped in gold
on the side. They were believed to be the concert books
of a music club which he entertained at his house. It
is obvious, therefore, that Mr. Burgum could be lavish
enough when indulging his own favourite tastes. In that
of music Chatterton thoroughly sympathised. To what
extent his practical knowledge of it had been developed
we have no record, But it is not difficult to conceive of
mutual grounds of attraction between the Bluecoat boy
and the President of " The Grateful Society," apart from
such incitements to later intercourse as his library supplied.
The precise date of the most notable transaction in
which Chatterton figures in connexion with Mr. Burgum
is uncertain. Mr. Cottle, indeed, speaks of it as occur-
ring when he was about sixteen years of age ; but if a
precocity so abnormal may be tested by any ordinary
rules, the production now referred to exhibits all the
crudeness of one of his earliest antiquarian efforts. The
poetic specimen especially betrays the use of the glossary
in its manufacture to an extent in striking contrast with
the ease and naturalness of his later Rowley poems.
Probably, therefore, Mr. Dix, who derived much of his
information from Mr. Cottle more than thirty years later,
is right in speaking of " the De Bergham pedigree " as
produced while Chatterton was still an inmate of Col-
ston's Hospital.
On a Saturday half-holiday, as we may presume, — at
latest in the spring of 1767, — Chatterton paid a visit to
the shop of Mr. Burgum, at the west end of Bristol
Bridge, then in process of rebuilding, and delighted
the pewterer with the announcement that he had dis-
covered among the ancient parchments of Redclifife
Church an heraldic blazon of the De Bergham arms, and
had a pedigree at home which proved his descent from
some of the noblest families in England. Mr. Burgum
had, no doubt, already betrayed his weakness on the
point of family descent, and so furnished the hint which
his youthful deceiver turned to such account. He
Chap. IV.
Mutual
grounds of
attraction.
First
transactions
with him.
Visit to Mr.
Burgum^
shop.
56
CHATTERTON.
Chap. IV.
Tlie De
Bergham
guarterings.
Simon de
Seyncte
Lyze.
Sources of
the De
Bergham
pedigree.
Heraldic
Lalm.
craved sight of the wondrous pedigree ; and within a
few days was presented with the De Bergham quarterings
blazoned on an old piece of parchment about eight
inches square, and a first instalment of the pedigree
itself, in Chatterton's own handwriting, copied into a
book in which he had already transcribed portions of
antique verse with this title : " Poems by Thomas
Rowley, Priest of St. John's, in the City of Bristol,
containing The Tournament, an Interlude, and a piece
by Canynge, called the Gouler's Requiem."
From this pedigree it appeared that Mr. Burgum's
ancestor, Simon de Seyncte Lyze, alias Senliz, came into
England with the Conqueror, married Matilda, daughter
of Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland, and in 1075,
after the execution of the Earl for high treason, obtained
a deed of gift of Bergham Castle, with the title of Earl of
Northampton. The document in which this, and much
else of the like kind, was set forth, bore this heading in
large text : " Account of the family of the De Berghams,
from the Norman Conquest to this time ; collected from
original Records, Tournament Rolls, and the Heralds of
March and Garter's Records, by Thomas Chatterton."
The arms alone claimed to be of ancient authority. Never-
thel'^'ss the sources of the family pedigree are of the most
indisputable character. Marginal references abound, with
such authorities as the " Roll of Battle Abbey j" " Ex
stemma fam. Sir Johan de Leveches," " De Lee," &c. ;
Stowe, Ashmole, Collins, Dugdale, Rouge Dragon, Garter,
Norroy, and, better than all, " Rowley's MSS." Mr. Wil-
cox, a critical editor, was sorely aggrieved by supposed
reference to oral charters, where the marginal note
appealed, in a common enough abbreviation, to the ori^
ginals : e.g. " Oral Ch. from Hen. II. to Sir Ino. De
Bergham." But, in truth, the references are, in many-
cases, as apocryphal as the pedigree itself; though not
without some interesting traces of the unwonted range
of study in which the boy delighted.
The pedigree is also garnished with sundry scraps of
heraldic Latin, adapted from Weaver, and other sources
HE
THE DE BERGHAM PEDIGREE.
not difficult to trace. Notwithstanding Mr. Burgum's
reputed scholarship, these infallible evidences of the
genuineness of the wondrous document were a mystery
to him ; and either he or Chatterton must have applied
to Mr. Barrett, the learned surgeon and antiquary, as
translations in his handwriting form part of the original
pedigree. The boy had learned no Latin at Colston's
school, and was, indeed, sensitive on his deficiency. In
his " Episde to the Rev. Mr. Catcott," he exclaims : —
" But my objections may be reckoned weak,
As nothing but my mother tongue I speak."
And in this and other satires he assails " classic dunces "
who " hesitate to speak their native tongue." His com-
panion Mr. William Smith informed Dean Milles that " he
had no knowledge either of Greek or Latin, but expressed
a design to teach himself Latin ;" ^ and there can be no
doubt that this design was attempted to be realized. Of
Latin scholarship, in any true sense, he had none ; but he
carried out his intention far enough to be able to master
the general import of the Latin passages he appropriated,
though his ignorance of the grammar of the language is
apparent wherever he had to extend contractions or alter
the text. Bryant refers to the numerous Latin quotations
in the " Merrie Tricks of Laymyngtonne " as a proof that
that interlude was entirely beyond the capacity of the
Bristol charity boy. " None of these quotations," he says,
" were obvious, and such as a boy could attain to. Nor
are they idly and ostentatiously introduced. They are all
pertinent and well adapted," ^ as also, no less so, are
those in the De Bergham pedigree ; but they turn out to
be just the sort of quotations accessible to a student busy
with the Latin rudiments. They are borrowed, not without
grammatical blunders, from " Cato's Distichs " and " Sen-
tences of Publius Syrius," to be met with in a little volume
which in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was one
of the first put into the hands of the young grammarian.^
^ Milles's Rowley, p. 14. 2 Bryant's Observations, p. 564.
2 Tyrwhitt's Vindication, p. 209.
57
IHAI'. IV.
Mr.
Bityj^utii's
scltoliirship.
Chatterton s
knowki1:;e <>/
Greek e.nd
Latin.
Pert incut
Latin
quotations.
i
't;
1
S8
CHATTER TON.
Chai'. IV.
The De
Bcrgliain
alchemist.
Radcliffe de
Chatter ton.
Theglpr:fied
^eivterer.
But their pertinent adaptation was the work of the self-
taught boy.
In this way Chatterton had contrived to fit into the
De Bergham pedigree a learned record of one of the
pewterer's ancestors, who in the 24th year of- the reign
of Henry VI. obtained a patent for the use of alchemy,
whereby this philosophic metallurgist was to transmute
the inferior metals into gold or silver. There was a
delicate flattery in this discovery, that working in the
baser metals was an honourable art pertaining to the
Burgums as a hereditary chartered right. Immediately
following this comes another paragraph, no less apt
and curious. Thomas de Asheton, the old alchemist,
left issue four sons, of whom, according to the De
Bergham pedigree, the second was " Edward Asheton, of
Chatterton in Com. Lane, in the right of his wife, the
daughter and heir of Radcliffe de Chatterton of Chatterton,
the heir-general of many families." The name is suffi-
ciently suggestive to the reader now, though Mr. Bur-
gum doubtless passed it over without thought of its
bearing any reference to his humble protdgd. Radcliffe
DE Chatterton ! There is a volume of poetical romance
crowded into the very name. It is an epitome of the
whole biography of the inspired charity boy.
The delight of the glorified pewterer on the acquisition
of his patent of nobility may be imagined. His aspiring
partner had already achieved notoriety by more than
one notable deed, duly set forth ere long in Chatterton's
satirical effusions ; but here was he, without effort of his
own, exalted to an equality with the proudest peer of the
realm. The first act of the ennobled tradesman was to
present the discoverer of his pedigree with five shillings.
The sum, though but poor largess from the hands of a
De Bergham of Norman lineage, was probably a greater
amount than the young herald had ever before possessed;
and its acceptance cost him no scruples, either then or
afterwards. It figures at a later date, among other counts
in the satirical indictment against Burgum and others,
appended to his Will, where he exclaims : —
he
epis
THE DE BERGHAM PEDIGREE.
59
' ' Burgum, I thank thee, thou hast let me see
That Bristol has impressed her stamp on thee ;
Thy generous spirit emulates the Mayor's ;
Thy generous spirit with thy Bristol pairs.
Gods ! what would Burgum give to get a name,
And snatch his blundering dialect from shame !
What would he give to hand his memory down
To time's remotest boundary? A crown I"
But this was an after-thought, if not a mere piece of
satirical exaggeration, when he had exchanged the Blue-
coat school for an attorney's office ; and experience had
given him further insight into the value of money. At
the time it was given, Burgum's crown-piece amply re-
warded the genealogist, for what I conceive to have been
no more, at first, than a roguish experiment on the credu-
lity of the pewterer. That this was the case finds con-
firmation from another of the boy's heraldic jests. Mr.
Richard Smith, a relative both of the Catcotts and Smiths
who figure so prominently in connexion with Chatterton,
has recorded some interesting reminiscences of him. " Two
of my paternal uncles," he says, " were his constant play-
mates ; three of my maternal uncles were very intimate
with him ; and to this list may be added an aunt and my
own father. Every one of these he by turns laughed at,
ridiculed, censured, and, with the exception of the female,
satirised most unmercifully, and abused most grossly." ^
Aunt Martha, a venerable spinster, described by her
nephew as " one of those pious and wise women ycleped
* old maids,' " appears to have better appreciated the
young scapegrace than others who were made the butts
of his jests. She told her nephew that " young Chatter-
ton was a sad wag of a boy, and always upon some joke
or another." The old lady incurred his displeasure by
taking him to task for some of his misdeeds, whereupon
he revenged himself by forwarding to her " a scolding
epistle," enclosed in which was her coat of arms, sur-
rounded by a garter, and surmounted, for crest, by what
its inheritor describes as a queer-looking flower, tinted
^ Gent. Mag. N.S. vol. x. p. 603.
Chap. IV.
Biirgum'i
large a.
A nut
Alart/ta's
estimate of
the boy.
-■\
\.
■1 i
■■\ ■'
;i il
6o
CIIATTERTON.
Chap. IV.
Continua-
tion of the
pedigree.
fl
A poetical
ancestor.
gules, with a scroll over it, labelled, " The Rose of Vir-
ginity ! "
In the same spirit, I doubt not, the first instalment of
the De Bergham pedigree was produced. But stimulated
by the largess of the ennobled pewterer, and encouraged
by his demands for more, the family tree, which at first
came no nearer his own day than that of Sir John, son of
Alan de Bergham, Kt. of the thirteenth century, was
followed up with a " Continuation of the Account of the
Family of the De Berghams from the Norman Conquest
to this time." Of this only the second instalment exists,
bringing it down to John, a grandson of William Bergham,
who served under Sir Francis Drake, and who by his
magnificence on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth's acces-
sion greatly diminished his fortune. To compensate for
this the Queen made him keeper of the. royal forests in
Gloucestershire, from whence the Berghams emerged in
the eighteenth century in the person of the Bristol pew-
terer ! The heraldic discoverer had brought the family
tree down to the reign of Charles II., from which period
his own genealogy was clearly traceable. It required
some caution, therefore, in dealing with the modem rami-
fications of the Burgums. It even lay within the bounds
of possibility that Mr. Burgum knew his own grandfather.
But other and still more characteristic guarantees placed
the second instalment of the pedigree beyond suspicion ;
for not only does Master John de Bergham, a Cistercian
monk of the church of the Blessed Mary of Bristol, a
collateral ancestor of the pewterer, obtain special notice as
" one of the greatest ornaments of the age in which he
lived :" a poet, a translator of the Iliad, and a voluminous
author ; but the dry heraldic document is reUeved by one
of the old monk's poetical romances. John, son of Sir
John de Bergham, says the continuator of the pedigree,
" was a monk of the Cistercian Order in Bristol, as ap-
pears by the following testimonial letter :" — ^and thereupon
follows a commendatory Latin epistle, according to wonted
formulae, beginning " Universis Sancte Matris Ecclesie
filiis, ad quos praesentes littere pervenerint," &c. By
^1
Tim DE BERGHAM PEDIGREE.
is
this it appears that the Chancellor and Society of Masters
of Oxford, piously bearing in mind the scriptural maxim
that a lighted candle should not be put under a bushel,
and dreading lest, by the envy of calumniators, the bril-
liant light of their dearest brother. Master John de Berg-
ham, monk, of the church of the Blessed Mary of Bristol,
should fail to diffuse its rays far and wide, according to
the true merits of his proficiency and worth, had caused
these letters to be written, and sealed with the common
seal of the University, on the Vigil of All Saints, a.d. 1330.
A scrap of antique French is next quoted, as possibly
referring to his translation of the Iliad, under the title of
" Le Romaunce de Troys."
Having thus led up to the grand act of this " genteel
comedy " of the eighteenth century, the commentator
naively adds : — " To give you an idea of the poetry of
the age, take the following piece, wrote by John de
Bergham, about 1320." The specimen of the old monk's
verse is entitled "The Romaunte of the Cnyghte," but
its «^bsciire language and orthography had to be rendered
into a modernised paraphrase before Mr. Burgum could
comprehend its drift. Its confirmation of the De Bergham
genealogy, however, was altogether satisfactory to him,
and so he testified his gratification by another gift of five
shillings.
The pedigree is described by Dr. Maitland as " a
great coat of arms, and a string of rubbish, indescribably
ignorant and impudent," preserved, as he conceives, only
to the shame of its author ; the memorial of a transaction
for which " swindling " appears to him the fittest term.^
It may console the reader who sympathises in such
virtuous indignation, to know that the pedigree did not,
after all, prove a bad investment. The copy-books,
containing, along with it and its "Romaunte of the
Cnyghte," some of the earliest transcripts of the Rowley
poems, were ultimately disposed of by the family to Mr.
Joseph Cottle, for the sum of five guineas. For its
author, however, the results were far from profitable. It
^ Chatterton : an Essay, p. 19.
61
Chap. IV
A lighteil
candle
should not
be hid.
" The
Romaunte
of the
Cnyghte:'
>
/
Estimate of
tlie pedigiee.
6a
CHATTERTON.
Chap. IV.
Unprofit-
nNe results
to th»
author.
Dniehping
the humour
of the hoax.
Learned
critics.
was the misfortune of Chatterton to be brought in con-
tact, at a very early age, with vain, credulous men, so
greatly his inferiors in intellect that he was tempted by
their amazing folly to persevere in deceptions which their
credulity had suggested. Nor can it be doubted that his
success on this occasion, when not more than fourteen
years of age, was calculated to confirm the tendency to
mystery and deception. If we could ignore the moral
influences on the boy himself, and forget the age, the
privations, and all the disabilities of its perpetrator, the
humour of the hoax would predominate above all else
connected with its history. But as the production of a
youth, whose whole education had been obtained in a
charity school, though crude enough when tested by
learned heralds and antiquaries, and in its moral efiFects
on himself injurious beyond all question, it still appears
to me truly wonderful.
But it was leff for Mr. Burgum and the Rowley com-
mentators to develop all the latent humour of the hoax.
Mr. Cottle learned, on inquiry at the College of Heralds,
that the De Bergham pedigree was formally submitted to-
that court of honour by Mr. Burgum, as a document
deriving its chief authority from ancient deeds found in
the muniment-room of Redcliffe Church. Let the reader
picture, if he can, the disgust of the ennobled pewterer,
on learning that his crown-pieces had been squandered
as the reward of an impudent fabrication. But the grave
comments perpetrated by learned critics, at long subse-
quent dates, equal in absurdity the pilgrimage of Mr.
Burgum to Doctors' Commons, to have his pedigree
attested by the College of Heralds. Mr. Joseph Cottle
devotes eight pages of small type to " a few cursory
remarks upon it, till the public shall be presented with a
fuller investigation which the subject amply merits ;" and
so he proceeds gravely to prove, among other things,
that no such person as Simon de Seycnte Lyze came to
England with the Conqueror : that the De Berghams do
not appear in any heraldic record as entitled to coat
armour : that the Azure, three Hippotames naisant Or ;
THE DE BERGIIAM PEDIGREE.
«3
5s,
I to
do
\x ;
Argent, three Fermoulxes sable; Or, between a Fess
dancetty sable, two Cat-a-mountains ermine ;" and much
else of the like kind, including Radcliflfe de Chatterton's
'♦ Pheon azure, ermine Lyon rampant," &c. &c., are
wholly without authority from Garter, Clarencieux, or the
Heralds' College! I
The pomp of heraldry had a fascinating charm for
Chatterton ; and tht intricacies of its symbolic ramifica-
tions evidently furnished a favourite recreation, in which
he could live over again that heroic past which he had
already made his own. The study was a strange one
for the charity boy ; but heraldry had its origin in un-
lettered ages, and appealed intelligibly to thousands to
whom its mottoes were known only traditionally as
slogans or cries de guerre. In like manner the painted
and sculptured blazonry in Redcliflfe Church probably
attracted his wondering delight, before he had mastered
his letters, with the help of the illuminated folio which |
served as his primer. He was left in no mystery as to
his own pedigree, for, sure enough, the parchments of
Redcliffe treasury-house preserved the genealogies of its
old sextons for at least a hundred and fifty years. But
the Radcliffe de Chatterton of the De Bergham pedigree
was too pleasant a romance to be summarily dis-
missed. In his " Last Will and Testament," which
Chatterton's biographers have been content to accept as
a serious document, he gives directions for inscriptions
on four sides of his monument. The first of these, in
Norman French, commemorates an imaginary Guateroine
Chatterton, of a.d. 1260 ; the second records, in Latin,
the names of Alan Chatterton and his wife Alicia, the
former of whom is said to have died in 1415 ; while
the third is dedicated to the memory of his father, a sub-
chaunter of the cathedral of this city, whose ancestors
were residents of St. Mary Redcliffe since the year
1 140.
The actual old family name of Chadderdon, recovered
by his father from the parchments of Redcliffe muniment-
* Works, vol. ii. p. 455.
Chai' IV.
The c/iarnis
0/ heraldry.
A pleastvii
romancf.
The flhi
fatiitly
iKime.
^p
64
CHATTERTON.
Chap. IV.
Cenealo^
o/the
Clintterioiis.
A parallel
for the
young
romancer.
The hinnour
o/the
dreamer.
The
Somerset
Herald,
room, does not seem to have taken the boy's fancy.
Among the MSS. in the British Museum is an elaborate
piece of blazonry of nine distinct shields, executed by
him as the first materials for an imaginary genealogy
of the Chattertons, which was to throw the De Bergham
pedigree entirely in the shade. Getting back far beyond
Norman William's time, he starts with Sire de Chasteau-
tonne of the House of Rollo, the first Duke of Nor-
mandy, and Eveligina of Ghent : a lady perhaps as
genuine as the fair Gisella, daughter of Charles the
Simple, whom ancient chroniclers assign to Rollo with
the dower of Normandy.
If we could discard the elements of youth and all
the disadvantages under which the orphan child laboured,
it would not be difficult to find a parallel for the ingenious
romancer. The charity-boy reappears in fancy, in his
quaint Bluecoat garb, poring over his imaginary pedigree
with an earnestness akin to that with which Sir Walter
Scott contemplated the plans of his Tweed-side mansion,
and dreamt of a long array of Scotts of Abbotsford who
were to carry down the honours of his line to remote
centuries. For the time it was a reality to both. Then
came a change in the humour of the dreamer; and,
jusu as Scott could appreciate the absurdity of his own
over-ridden 'hobby, and picture its most grotesque phases
in his Baron of Bradwardine, or his Laird of Monkbarns :
so th boy-poet and antiquary discerned the humorous
side of his self-deceiving fancies, and sported with the
weakness of Mr. Buigum ; or wrote to his relative, Mr.
Stephens, the Salisbury breeches-maker, "whose good
sense disdains flattery :" — " When you quarter your arms
in the mullet, say, 'Or a Fess vert, by the name of
Chatterton.' I trace your family from FitzStephen, Earl
of Ammerle in 1095, son of Od, Earl of Bloys, and
Lord of Holdemess." The breeches-maker, it seems
probable, had already been in correspondence with him
on the quarterings of the family shield.
In a different vein he wrote to Ralph Bi^land, Esq.
Somerset Herald : " Hearing you are composmg a book
THE DE BERG HAM PEDIGREE.
65
of heraldry, I trouble you with this. Most of our
heralds assert piles should never be borne in even
numbers. I have seen several old seals with four, six,
and eight ; and in tiie cathedral here is a coat of the
Berkeleys with four." Then follows a list of apocryphal
coats-of-arms " in and about Bristol ;" for he was palming
off heraldic fictions on the very custodier of arms in the
Court of Honour. ]5ut both this letter and the commu-
nication to Mr. Stepliens of Salisbury belong to the later
period of his apprenticeship in an attorney's office, when
he had formed the accjuaintance nf Thomas Palmer, an
heraldic engraver, from whom lie received instruction in
drawing and colouring coats-of-arms. It was a favourite
practice with him to inform his friends what their arms
were ; and meeting his instructor one day, he said, " I'll
tell you the meaning of your name. Persons used to
go to the Holy Land, and return from thence with palm
branches, and so were called Palmers ;" and he added,
the arms of the Palmers were three ])alm branches, and
the crest a leopard, or tiger, with a palm branch in its
mouth.
It was with Chattcrton's heraldry, as with his antique
prose and verse ; a vein of earnestness is inextricably
blended with what, in other respects, appears as palpable
fraud. We are reminded of the boy and the visionary
dreamer, in the midst of his most elaborate fictions, till
it becomes a puzzle to determine how much of self-
deception and of actual belief were blended with the
humour of the jest.
Chap. IV.
Heraldic
fictions.
\ \
Deceptions
ami self-
deceptions.
OOk
P
I
CHAPTER V.
BRISTOL PATRONS.
Chap. V.
First reh-
iions with
patrons.
Unforgiven
lampoons.
Messrs.
Catcott and
Burgum,
The history of Chatterton's heraldic dealings with Mr.
Burgum exhibits him in one of the least defensible
transactions of his boyhood. It shows him, however,
while still an inmate of Colston's Hospital, establishing
relations with some of those who figure subsequently
as his professed patrons. The most noticeable among
them turned him to account for their own • purposes, and
received from him in gift, or for such trifling sums as
could be offered to one in his position, parchments which
they believed to be valuable ancient documents filched
from the repositories of Redcliffe Church. He saw, ere
long, through their meanness, and yielding to his satincal
vein, lampooned them in a way that some of them never
forgave. It became necessary, by and by, to vilify
Chatterton, in defence of patrons he had shown in their
true light. This spirit animates the correspondence in
the Gentleman's Magazine many years after his death,
and has permanently affected his reputation. His
Bristol contemporaries resented every recognition of his
genius as an endorsement of all the indiscretions and
foIUes of the juvenile satirist, who caricatured civic and
ecclesiastical dignitaries alike, too often with profane
levity.
Among those who figure, both in friendly relationship
to Chatterton, and as the butts of his unsparing satire,
Messrs. Catcott and Burgum occupy a prominent place.
They had each an ambition for fame, which showed itself
repeatedly in very novel ways ; coveted the distinction of
V
BRISTOL PATRONS.
<7
patrons of letters, and achieved considerable notoriety
among the citizens of Bristol in their day. This, no
doubt, attracted the notice of Chatterton, who had a
keen sense of humour; and is not unlikely to have
prompted his choice of one of the partners as a confidant
in the reputed discovery of his Rowley antiques.
The bold experiment by which the impudent young
satirist put the credulity of Mr. Burgum to so severe
a test, helps to illustrate the character of both. The
vain, arrogant, but kindly tradesman had taken a fancy
to the Bluecoat boy, who humoured his follies, and
interested him by his saucy wit, as well as by his thirst
for knowledge. He had had his own struggles in
younger days, which helped to make him somewhat
niggardly ; had had to pick up for himself such culture
as he possessed : and so could sympathise with some,
at least, of Chatterton's difficulties. So he lent him
books, including possibly his Latin grammar and dic-
tionary ; contributed occasionally to the slender pocket-
money expended by him,
"When wildly squandering everything he got
On books, and learning, and the Lord knows what ;"i
hinted mysteriously at ancestral honours of his own ; and
treated the boy to Latin quotations and other scraps of
learning, such as men of his calibre delight to expend on
wondering juniors.
Chatterton speedily gauged the weakness of his Mentor,
and estimated his generosity as well as ins learning and
family honours at their true worth. N'^vertheless Mr.
Burgum appears to have been one of the first beyond the
walls of Colston's Hospital to appreciate his character
as something extraordinary -, and in one of the latest and
profanest of his satires, the " Kew Gardens," he does his
old friend rough justice after the ibllowing fashion. Con-
trasting the homely, vulgar tradesman with the Rev.
Thomas Broughton, Vicar of St. Mary Redclifte, author
1 Chn.tterton's "Will."
F 2
Chap. V.
Character
of Bur gum.
Chatterton
gauges the
weakness of
his Mentor.
68
CHATTERTON.
Chap. V.
T/ie Vicar
of St. Mary
Redcliffe.
Acute dis-
crhiiitiation
<)/ character.
of " An Historical Dictionary of all Religions, from the
Creation of the World to this Present Time ;" and, it may
be added, the only object connected with Redcliffe
Church which failed to win his regard : he exclaims : —
" Burgum wants learning ; see the lettered throng
Banter his English in a Latin song.
If in his jests a discord should appear, ' *•
A dull lampoon is innocently dear ;
Ye sage, Broughtonian, self-sufficient fools,
Is this the boasted justice of your schools?
Burgum has parts ; parts which would set aside
The laboured acquisitions of your pride ;
Uncultivated now his genius lies,
Instruction sees his latent talents rise ;
His gold is bullion, yours debased with brass,
Impressed with Folly's head to make it pass.
But Burgum swears so loud, so indiscreet,
His thunders echo through the listening street ;
Ye rigid Christians, formally severe.
Blind to his charities, his oaths you hear ;
Observe his virtues : calumny must own
A noble soul is in his actions shown ;
Though dark this bright original you paint,
I'd rather be a Burgum than a saint. "^
Such was the final estimate formed by Chatterton of
the friend he had hoaxed so cruelly. It shows sagacity
and acute discrimination of character, in judging of the
patron to whose vanity we are indebted, not only for a
knowledge of juvenile heraldic studies and much other
miscellaneous reading, but for proof of the still earlier
production of Rowley poems. The young herald, to
whom Mr. Burgum's crown-piece was so welcome a gift,
had no pence to spare when the pedigree was in requisi-
tion ; and so he appropriated for its first instalment the
copy-book into which he had already transcribed "The
^ The same passage occurs, with some variations, in the " Epistle
to the Rev. Mr, Catcott." The reading in the latter of "Ye classic
dunces," Instead of "Ye sage, Broughtonian, self-sufficient fools,"
seems to point to the Vicar of St, Mary Redcliffe as one of the
pedants whose parade of learning, and ridicule of the self-taught
tradesman, offended Chatterton's sense of justice, and provoked his
satire.
\
/
BRISTOL PATROyS.
69
Tournament," the earliest of his antique dramatic inter-
ludes ascribed to Rowley's pen ; and the " Gouler's," or
Miser's Requiem, the supposed production of his patron,
William Canynge. The latter fairly illustrates the cha-
racter of the modern antiques already in progress, with
their echoes of Chaucerian and other verse, as in the
lines : —
"Sonne as the niorne dyd dyghte the roddie sunne,
A shade of theves eche streake of lyghte dyd seeme ;
Whann ynn the heavn full half hys course was runn,
Eche stirryng nayghbour dyd mie harte afleme."
Here the reader is at once reminded of the Prologue
to the "Canterbury Tales:" —
"Whan the yonge soime
Hath in the Ram his halfe course yroune."
The " Tournament " no less clearly betrays the hand
of the author of the " De Bergham Pedigree," if indeed it
did not suggest that production. It opens with the entry
of a herald, who announces himself as " Son of Honnoure,
[di]spenser of her joys ;" and among the knights who
bear them:>elves gallantly in the Tourney, " Syrr Johan
de Berghamme" jjlays •, distinguished part. In all pro-
bability the adoption of this name for one of his knights,
with the view of gratifying the friendly tradesman,
suggested the hoax of the Norman pedigree, with its
marvellous array of nobles, poets, and alchemists, ac-
cepted with such undoubting faith.
It was difficult for such a boy to deal justly with patrons
of this stamp ; and none of them was treated with more
injustice than the kindly though parsimonious and con-
ceited pewterer. He was duped, satirized, and laughed
at by his impudent protege. And yet the boy, too, is to
be felt for. He appears, as it were, two beings : the
moody, self-communing poet, living in a past of his own
creation ; and the clever, pert, saucy youngster, looking
with profane contempt on civic and church dignitaries,
elderly citizens, and all who in any way seemed to claim
superiority. He was already conscious of intellectual
Chai'. v.
The
" Gouler's
Reqttifin."
The "Tonr-
iiaiiicnt."
Difficult
to (leal
justly ivith
f\q%\ with a bushy wig and solemn grace,
Ctttcott admires him for a fossil face.
When first his farce of cc mtenance began,
^ Ere the soft down had marked him almost man,
A solemn dulness occupied his eyes,
And the fond mother thought him wondrous wise ;
]hlt little had she read in nature's book
That fools assume a philosophic look.
(J Education, ever in the wrong.
To thee the curses of mankind belong ;
Thou first great author of our future state,
Chief source of our religion, passions, fate ;
On every atom of the Doctor's frame
Nature has stampt the pedant with his name ;
IJut thou hast made him — ever wast thou blind, —
A licensed butcher of the human kind.''^
But the young satirist was not unmindful of his obli-
gations to Barrett's library, nor ungrateful for his advice :
^ Happiness.
Chap. V.
Ackncnu-
iedgment of
authorship
rejected.
Estimate of
Barrett's
character.
Obligations
recognised.
78
CHATTERTON.
Chap. V.
ColUctiotis
for a civic
history.
Date of its
publication.
Comprehen-
sive plan of
the work.
and, though he thus sketched him in a poem written at
Mr, Catcott's dictation; when dealing with both their
names, in the metrical addition to his "Will," written
immediately before he quitted Bristol in 1770, he writes
of the former: —
" To Barrett next, he has my thanks sincere > ,
For all the little knowledge I had here." - >
The patron whom he thus celebrated was beset with
the ambition to produce one of those dry, unreadable
folios, of which most of our chief cities were made the
theme during the latter part of the eighteenth century.
Chatterton was a child when " collections for the design
were being sought for with great assiduity, and no small
expense."* Its "copper-plates" were in process of en-
graving, after a fashion familiar to the eighteenth century
topographer : with stiff elevations and impossible per-
spectives, in which any capacity for the appreciation of
medieval art is so obviously wanting, that it is hard to
guess from their feeble generalizations what is the actual
style or age of the buildings represented. When at length
the " History of Bristol" issued from the press, in 1789,
with its folio plates folded into the reduced dimensions
of a quarto, the boy Chatterton — to whom it owes all
that confers on it any genuine human interest, — had lain
nearly twenty years in his grave. It had been heralded
by many a nattering note of promise ; and doubtless its
author awaited its advent with all the eagerness of a
long expected triumph. Alas for human expectations !
he would appear, more truly than the poet Keats, to
have " let himself be snuffed out by an article ! "
The work, planned after the comprehensive fashion
of medieval chronicles, or of Knickerbocker's famous
"History of New York," opens with this imposing
exordium : " The Great Jehovah, who hath made of
one biood all nations to dwell upon the earth, and
determined the bounds of their habitation, assigned to
* Barrett's History, preface.
i
BRISTOL PATRONS.
79
man at first this one employ, with labour to till the
ground in which he was placed. Thus we find patriarchs
and people engaged in agriculture only and the pastoral
life, till increasing they went off in tribes to seek more
distant habitations ; " and so it proceeds, in accordance
with monkish precedent, till Britain and Julius Caesar
are reached. The antiquary reposed undoubting faith in
Rowley while this history was in progress ; but the very
existence of any such medieval poet and chronicler was
in question before its publication ; and hence the manu-
script appears to have undergone some partial revision,
so as to evade responsibility for the genuineness of the
Rowley contributions, which were nevertheless the founda-
tion and buttress of its A^hole historical superstructure.
For his own part he evidently did not know what to \
make of them. He corrects Camden, for example, with |
the help of Rowley's version of Turgot's "Saxonnes Latyn,"
which "must be acknowledged to be of great weight;"^
quotes the coins of Mr. Canynge's cabinet, as described
" by Thomas Rowlie about 1460, in his own writing, still
extant;" 2 and then, in his preface and elsewhere, dis-
claims all responsibility : refers to the " late learned Dean
Milles' elegant edition of Rowley's Poems with notes,"
containing " everything that tends to develop this intricate
and obscure affair;" and so leaves " the judicious reader "
to form his own opinion, with the soothing hint that
possibly "the truth may be found not to be with one,
but betwixt the two contending parties." ^
Such was the most judicious of antiquaries and intelli-
gent man of letters which Bristol could furnish as the
patron and adviser of one of the rarest geniuses of that
eighteenth century. His history winds up with " Annales
BristoUiae,"' extending from a.d. 50 to the year 1789, and
the mayoralty of Levi Ames, to whom it is dedicated.
" In this mayoralty, March 5th, 1789, a general joy was
diffused throughout the city, on account of the king's
happy recovery, and being able to resume the reins of
government ; " and so the annals of Bristol draw merrily
^ Barrett's History, p. 31. ^ jbid, p. ^7. 3 YdxA. p. 46.
Chah. V.
Accordance
with
monkish
precedent.
A model
patron oj
genius.
8o
CIIA TTERTON.
Chap. V.
Bristol
A ttnals
drawn to
a close.
Fate of the
historian.
Catcott's
first kuo7u-
ledge of
the poet.
to a close, with " bell-ringing, firing cannons all day from
Brandon Hill, a general illumination at night, with trans-
parent emblematical devices, and every demonstration of
joy that could be displayed." Soon after this jubilant
celebration, the History itself issued from the press ; and
on the 4th of November following, Horace Walpole wrote
to Miss Hannah More of Bristol : " I am sorry, very
sorry for what you tell me of poor Barrett's fate ; though
he did write worse than Shakespeare, it Is great pity he
was told so, as it killed him !"^
The fate of the historian, which really dates nineteen
years after Chatterton's death, is characteristic of the
weakness and vanity of this his chief patron : who appro-
priated for a monument to his own fame, works wrought
by the cunning hand of his despised protdge, and reaped
in this fashion his merited reward. The story told by
Dr. Gregory of the first introduction of Chatterton to Mr.
Barrett, "whose friendship and patronage," he adds, "by
these means our young literary adventurer was fortunate
enough to secure," when detac? ^^d from the circnm-
stantial evidence which evidently misdates it, is as
follows : " Mr. Catcott, a gentleman of an inquisitive
turn, and fond of reading," walking with a friend in
Redcliffe Church, was informed by him of several ancient
pieces of poetry which had been found there, and were now
in the possession of a young person of his acquaintance.
His extreme youth is indicated subsequently by the state-
ment that " Mr. Catcott declared, Avhen he first knew
Chatterton he was ignorant even of grammar." 2 it would
not be difficult to point out, in the latest productions of
the poet, grammatical shortcomings. In his antiques,
indeed, it almost seems as if he affected the conjunction
of a singular verb with a plural nominative. But Mr.
Catcott's remark evidently points to a period when his
education was in progress, and therefore when he was
still an inmate of the Bluecoat School, where all the
1 Letters of Horace Walpole, E. of Orford. Cunningham, vol.
ix. p. 230.
2 Gregory's Life, p. 55. .
BRISTOL PA TRONS.
It
grammar he ever learned was acquired. Mr. Catcott
sought an interview with tlic youth, and soon after
" obtained from him, very readily, without any reward,
the * Bristowe Tragedy,' ' Rowley's Epitaph upon Mr.
Canynge's Ancestor,' with some other smaller pieces. In
a few days he brought some more, among which was the
'Yellow Roll.'"^ This was the ingi .
confidniit.
Gent. Mag. vol. Ivi. p. 547.
Gent. Mag. vol. xlviii. p. 347
Europ. Mag. vol. xxi. p. 88.
Ciohhmith' s
interest in
the poems.
88
CHATTERTON.
Chap. V.
Dr. John-
son's tnter-
7>ie7v luith
Catcott.
/>
\ J
Recollections
of the poet's
conversa'
turns.
able apprehension of being called upon to refund the
money should their modern origin be substantiated.
Boswell has preserved a lively account of the interview
of Catcott with Dr. Johnson, when the latter visited
Brstol in 1776. ^*0n Monday, April 29th," writes
Boswell, " he and I made an excursion to Bristol, where
1 was entertained with seeing him inquire, upon the spot,
into the authenticity of Rowley's poetry. George Catcott,
the pewterer, attended us at our inn, and with a trium-
phant air of lively simplicity, called out, ' I'll make Dr.
Johnson a convert' Dr. Johnson, at his desire, read
aloud some of Chatterton's fabricated verses, while
Catcott stood at the back of his chair, moving himself
like a pendulum, and beating time with his feet, and now
and then looking into Dr» Johnson's face, wondering
that he was not yet convinced. Honest Catcott seemed
to, pay no attention whatever to any objections, but
insisted, as an end of all controversy, that we should go
with him to the tower of St. Mary RedclifFe, and view
with our own eyes the ancient chest in which the manu-
scripts were found. To this Dr. Johnson good-naturedly
agreed; and, though troubled with a shortness of
breathing, laboured up a long flight of steps, till we came
tj the place where the wondrous chest stood. 'There,'
said Catcott, with a bouncing, confident credulity, * there
is the very chest itself.' After this ocular demonstration
there was no more to be said."
Such was the most enlightened patron that Chatterton
could find in his native Bristol, to whom to confide the
disguised treasures of his own creation. According to
the account furnished by Mr. Catcott, during conversa-
tions he had with him, " he heard him mention the names
of most of the poems since printed, as being in his
possession. He afterwards grew more suspicious and
reserved, and it was but rarely, and with difficulty, that
any more originals could be obtained from him. He
confessed to Mr. Catcott that he had destroyed several ;
and some which he owned to have been in his possession
were never afterwards seen."^
^ Bryant's Observations, p. 517.
^N
1H
BRISTOL PATRO\'S.
Catcott ultimately became possessor of the greater
portion of the professed copies of the Rowley poems,
and also of some of his prose pieces, in part, at least,
as free gifts.^ To his zeal accordingly we owe the
preservation of many of them. But the spirit in which
this was done was that of the mere trader, and not of
the patron of letters, and therefore amply justifies the
tone of Chatterton's lampoons. Soon after the death
of the poet, he completed the collection by giving five
guineas to the poor widow for all the papers remaining
pf those her son left with her on setting out for London.
The correspondence of Mr. Chapman and Dr. Ducarel
shows him, ere long, jealously producing select scraps as
specimens of his wares. Before the end of 1771 he is
reported to have refused two hundred pounds for the
poems, but it is thought would be content with half
that sum.2 A little later he is found offering part of the
collection for fifty pounds ;^ and finally he disposes of
the whole to Messrs. Payne and Son of London at that
price, without thought of the widowed mother, who was
in great indigence.
Catcott was made the theme of some of Chatterton's
most caustic satires, still preserved with the marginal
annotations of their victim, showing that his inordinate
vanity discerned in them only laudatory records of his
achievements, and fresh avenues to fame. But in all
ways his reward was ample. If he supplied occasional
contributions to the scanty pocket-money of the boy,
they were investments which yielded an abundant return ;
and if notoriety could gratify him, he had it in its most
* Tyrwhitt, preface to Rowley Poems, p. ix.
. '^ Gent. Mag. vol. Ivi. p. 361.
•"* Ibid. p. 346. There appears to have been some sort of johit
property between Catcott and Barrett in certain of- the pieces
which interfered with Catcott's sale of the whole. Barrett, no
doubt, wanted to hold them in reserve for his History, and Catcott
grumblingly complied ; ** though," he says, "Barrett's behaviour to
him does not deserve this compliment. ( Vide Letter of Rev. J.
Chapman to Dr. Ducarel, Sept. 12th, 1772.) The Bristol patrons
of letters were evidently beginning to quarrel over the spoils.
89
Chaw. V.
Acquisition
of the Row
ley poems.
Estimate if
the poet 's
satires.
3i
(
90
Chap. V.
A new
subject
suggested.
Sketches of
Bristol
notabilities.
CHATTERTON.
attractive forms, as the correspondent of the foremost
scholars and critics of his day, and the local authority on
all Rowley? '• mysteries, till his death in 1802.
Towart .J the close of the year 1769, famous as that
in which Catcott deposited the memorial of his perilous
adventure on the summit of St. Nicholas' steeple :
according to his own report, when talking one day with
Chatterton, the subject of happiness was started, a theme
which the boy said had not hitherto occupied his thoughts.
How far this is to be literally accepted depends on the
date of one of the antique poems ascribed, not to
Rowley's, but to Maister Canynge's own pen, "On
Happienesse." But this will come under review more
fitly hereafter. On the occasion now referred to, Chat-
terton, on the following day, placed in Mr. Catcott's
hands, a piece extending to nearly one hundred and fifty
lines of heroic verse, and opening in this fashion :
' ' Since happiness was not ordained for man,
Let's make ourselvfes as easy as we can."
This poem has already furnished the characteristic picture
jf Barrett under the name of Pulvis ; and \s noticeable
for its satirical sketches of sundry other Bristol notabili-
ties of the day : but especially for that of the aspiring
pewterer himself, whose vanity would seem to have found
gratification in the following fancied panegyric : —
"Catcott is very fond of talk and fame ;
His wish a perpetuity of name ;
Which to procure, a pewter altar's made,
To bear his name and signify his trade,
In pomp burlesqued the rising spire to head,
To tell futurity a pewterer's dead. .
Incomparable Catcott, stili pursue '
The seeming happiness thou hast in view : '
Unfinished chimneys, gaping spires complete.
Eternal fame on oval dishes beat ;
* ' Ride four-inch ^ridges, clouded turrets climb,
And bravely die, to live in after time. v
Horrid idea ! if on rolls of fame •>
The twentieth century only find thy name.
Unnoticed this, in prose or tagging flower, . , »■.
1.
BRISTOL PATRONS.
91
lie left his dinner to ascend the tower.
Then what avails thy anxious spitting pain ? ^.
Thy laugh-provoking labours are in vain. j
On matrimonial pewter set thy hand ; |
Hammer with every power thou cansi command ; :
Stamp thy whole self, original as 'tis, I
, , To propagate thy whimsies, name, and phiz ; .
Then, when the tottering spires or chimneys fall,
A Catcoit shall remain, admired by all." |
Some of the allusions, though sufficiently suggestive,
are left to the reader's unaided interpretation. When
the satire was produced their significrnce was obvious ;
to every man who looked on the pewterer's dishes,
stamped with his favourite device and motto, and needed
no explanatory note. It was otherwise with the more i
important deeds here celebrated. There still exists an |
interleaved volume of tracts, collected by Mr. Catcott,
and enriched with his own comments. Among those
this poem of" Happiness" is included, with notes in which ,
the allusions to himself are illustrated with a vain-glorious
satisfaction that throws the satire itself into the shade.
" Ride four-inch bridges" has its accompanying record
of the first crossing of Bristol Bridge, and paying the !
first toll — of five guineas, it is said, — for the privilege. ^ |
'I'he more important note reveals what the twentieth |
century has in store for it, if enduring pewter prove i
faithful to its trust. A piece of pewter, five inches square, '
now reposes where it was deposited by the hand of Mr.
George Catcott, beneath the top stone of St. Nicholas'
spire, with the following inscription deeply graven on its
face :=— I
I
" Summum hiijusce turris Sancti Nicholai lapidem posuit mensi
Decembris 1769, Georgius Catcott, philo-architectos,
Reverendi Alexandri S. Catcott, Filius."
Fully to comprehend Chatterton, and the estimate he
formed of the Bristol of his day, it is needful to realize
to ourselves the character of those who thus represented
to him its intellectual manhood. Inconceivable as it
' J. Evans, Dix's Life, p. 58.
Chai>. v.
allusions.
f - ■
Illiistrathw
CJUtiiientnry.
Bristol
representa-
tive men.
■MIlTCWWHnpawnp
■ (
92
CHAT TEUTON,
Chap. V. I might Seem, it is obvious that the complacent tradesman
j was wholly unconscious the boy was laughuig at his
j follies, With such patrons, to whom alone he could
, submit the works by which he purposed to " live in after
] time," need we wonder that the young poet turned with
a si^h to the good old ames of the princely Canynge and
I his imaginary' poet-priest.
\
>man
: his
:ould
after
with
: and
CHAPTER VI.
BRISTOL FRIENDS.
nxsociates.
While Chatterton was still a child, he appears to have chap. vi.
associated from choice with his seniors ; and had circum- i chokTo/
stances favoured him, it is probable that his personal
friends would, in like manner, have been selected from
among those who, by the experience and acquirements of
age, were more on an intellectual equality with himself.
But at home he had only Mrs. Edkins, Mrs. Phillips,
and oth?r gossips of his mother, and so he was thrown
entirely on his own resources, or left to such chance
school-boy friendships as Colston's Hospital afforded.
There accordingly he made the most of the materials
within his reach : took Thistlethwaite into his confidence ;
made a friend of his bed-fellow Baker; and flung his
whole heart into the affection that grew up between him
and the young usher, Thomas Phillips. But school-life,
with all the advantages and drawbacks pertaining to it,
came to an end on the ist of July, 1767 ; and, after a
sojourn of seven years in the Hospital, a new career
presented itself to thr boy, with its vistas of hope and
riper aspirations.
The same day on which Chatterton left the Bluecoat
School he was bound apprentice to Mr. John Lambert,
a Bristol attorney, to learn the art of a scrivener. The
apprentice fee of ten pounds was paid out of the fund
left by Mr. Colston for that purpose ; and, as appears
from the indentures njw preserved in the Bristol Insti-
Bouna
apprfitttice
to Mr.
I.nmbcrt.
94
CHATTER TON.
Character of
the Bristol
attorney.
J.'
chah. VI. ; tution, his master engaged to louge, board, and clothe
him ; while, by a special agreement, his mother under-
took to wash and mend his clothes.
Of the Bristol attorney on whom now devolved the
professional training of the gifted boy, little of an au-
thentic character .o recoverable. His name does not
appear in the official lists of the Bristol charities of his
day ; nor as a patron of letters, among the subscribers
to the famous " History of Bristol," of which so large a
portion was to be the work of his own apprentice, during
office hours. This much, however, we may confidently
surmise in regard to him, that he was a " staunch son of
the Church," sound in poHtics, as well as in faith : for
Mr. Colston, writing to his Hospital masters in 17 17,
conjures them " that they take effectual care, as far as in
them lieth, that the boys be bred up in the doctrine of
our present established Church of England ; and that
none of them be afterwards placed out as apprentices to
any men that be dissenters from the said communion, as
tliey will be answerable for a breach of their trust at the
last and great tribunal before which we must all appear."
I How far this solemn appeal bore any fruit in the relations
I now established between Mr. Lambert and his new ap-
! prentice, we shall have occasion presently to consider.
' The Hospital Trustees no doubt conceived they had
: well and faithfully fulfilled their trust, in transferring their
■ charge to such a master.
i So far, it must be owned, Colston's charity had done
what it could for the boy. Its meagre, curriculum of
schooling was, indeed, wholly inadequate to his intel-
1 lectual cravings. But it gave its best, with such added
; influences as Phillips could supply -, and now, with its
i aid, he was started on a career which must have seemed
, well suited to his favourite tastes. Old parchments, law
! deeds, tenures, and charters, had been his familiar play-
j things from infancy ; so that Mrs. Edkins said of him,
j she " thought he was a lawyer before his time." He
; was elated when he received the presentation to Colston's
' School, because there he imagined there must be books
Si-nuces
rendered
by Colston
iiospital.
BRISTOL FRIENDS.
95
as
enough to satisfy all his eager longings for knowledge.
With no less elation must he have anticipated the eman-
cipation from its routine of dull realities, and their ex-
change for the attorney's office, where his daily duty
would be to handle parchments, engross deeds, and
unravel the mysteries of English jurisprudence.
The change from school to the actual business and
battle of life is at all times an important one; but it
becomes doubly so, when, as in Chatterton's case, it
involved the emancipation from rigid constraint, to the
freedom which necessarily accompanies office duties and
city life. He was now introduced to an entirely new
circle of acquaintances, and soon began to interest him-
self in civic affairs, local politics, and ere long in all the
public questions that then agitated the national mind.
Mr. Lambert was a Bristol attorney ; and when he under-
took to board, lodge, and clothe the Bluecoat boy, for
seven years, it was with the reasonable expectation that,
v/hile teaching him the art and profession of a scrivener,
he should receive in return such services as would eke
out the very moderate apprentice fee, and remunerate
him for his cost and labour. We must not judge too
harshly of the attorney if he did deal with a true poet
like the peasant who, unwittingly acquiring Apollo's
steed, when he only bargained for a farming-drudge,
yoked Pegasus to the plough. Each ultimately did
justice to the character of the other, according to his
capacity of discernment.
To most apprentices transferred from the Bluecoat
School to the attorney's home, it would have seemed no
great grievance to be required to take his meals witli
the servants and share a room with the footboy. But
Chatterton was " proud," — proud as the Ayrshire peasant
himself. The boy was puzzled by this very element of
his character, which sprang from the unconscious recog-
nition of his own preeminent genius. He instinctively
resented the association with the illiterate society to
which he was remanded ; and Mr. J^ambert, little dream-
ing that the charity boy in his office could deem himself
Chav. VI.
Change
from school
to city life.
Cwnevanccs
of the poet-
appt entice
#
Chak VI.
Office and
house hours.
Work to
which they
were
unvoted.
CHATTER TON.
\
better than the footboy who served him at home: ac-
cused him of " a sullen and gloomy temper, which
particularly displayed itself among the servants." *
Mr. Lambert's office was at some distance from his
dwelling. There Chatterton had to attend daily from
eight in the morning till eight at night, with the mid-day
interval of an hour for dinner. He was not required to
be at his master's house till ten; and the punctuality
with which he conformed both to office and house hours
is deserving of special notice, in view of other accu-
sations that have been brought against him. He appears
to have had the sole charge of the office ; and Mr.
I^mbert admitted to his sister that, though the footman
and other servants had been frequently sent to ascertain
if he attended to its duties, they had never found him
absent. He had every motive to pass his evenings else-
where than in his master's kitchen ; but his most frequent
resort was his mother's house. His sister says, " he was
seldom two evenings together without seeing us;" and
only once, on a Christmas evening spent with a i)arty
of friends there, did he exceed the hour fixed for his
return.
But while thus- regular in office hours, not a few of
these were devoted to literary work on which his master
looked with as litde favour as if his spies had actually
found him absent from his post. The hours of attend-
ance seem to have been needlessly long ; for according
to his sister's account, " he had litde of his master's
business to do; sometimes not two hours in a day,
which," she adds, " gave him an opportunity to pursue
his genius." 2 When no business requirements occupied
his pen, he was instructed to improve himself in pro-
fessional knowledge, by copying precedents ; and of
these one volume of thirty, and another of three hundred
and forty closely written folio pages, in Chatterton's
writing, are preserved. Besides a library of law books,
not wholly unreadable to him, the shelves were enriched
^ Communicated by Mr. Lambert to a friend, ^'/V/^ Gregory, ji. i«).
2 Mrs. Newton's Letter ; Croft, p. 163.
BRISTOL FRIENDS.
97
OH n //v-
/rssiotial
carvi-r.
with an early edition of Camden's "Britannia." By cmai. vi
purchase and borrowing, these resources were constantly
augmented; and thus he found himself, with coveted
solitude and leisure, in a literary atmosphere congenial
to his tastes, where study was a legitimate occupation.
Here then we have the young adventurer fairly started,
as it seemed, on a professional career ; master, to a con-
siderable extent, of his own time, and free to select the
companions of his choice. And foremost in his choice
must be ranked those silent letLi,red companions whose
society he had coveted even before he entered Colston's
School. Books on history, antiquities, and heraldry ; on
astronomy, natural philosophy, medicine, and surgery ; as
well as the elder poets, and whatever of general literature
or politics came within his reach : were all welcome to
his insatiable appetite for knowledge. But besides those,
another class of reading reminds us that the good priest
Rowley was a frequent visitor at the attorney's office;
and laboured systematically there in the creation of the
wondrous modern antiques. Mr. ^^arrett's library fur-
nished him with Skinner's " Etymologicon Linguae Angli-
canae," and Benson's "Saxon Vocabulary." A copy of
Bailey's Dictionary supplemented their Latin with che
needful English gloss ; and Mr. Green, a Bristol book-
seller, to whom he was indebted for other borrowed
volumes, lent him Speght's Chaucer, with its ample
glossary. From those and other sources he compiled
for his own use a glossary of double references in
archaic and modern English, which thenceforward con-
stituted an unfailing resource in his antique poetic
labours. On his removal to London, flushed with
dreams of triumph in the exciting and profitable field of
political warfare, it was neglected or forgotten ; but, so
soon as his thoughts reverted to his favourite literary
toils, the glossary was again in demand, and is urgently
inquired for among the earliest commissions despatched
to his mother and sister.
Such were the favourite companions of a solitude which
Chatterton guarded from intrusion little less sedulously
H
Rcivley
at the
attorney's
office.
Co/fi/^aniotis
of hu
solitude.
98
CHATTERTOr^.
\
Chap. VI.
/Kilmer' s
rfmim's-
icnces.
/.r
Literary
associates.
The old
priest of
Bristowe
CflvipanioHS
of his
leisure
hours.
than that of the lumber-room which had formed his study
in his mother's house. One of his intimate companions
of this period, Mr. Thomas Palmer, the heraldic engraver,
survived in 1837 to tell Mr. Dix some interesting reminis-
cences of Chatterton. He was apprenticed to Mr. Anthony
Henderson, a jeweller, who rented part of the same
building in which Mr. Lambert's office latterly was, and
thus the two youths were brought into frequent contact.
Mr. Palmer stated that " Chatterton was much alone in
his office, and much disliked being disturbed in the day-
time ; but he, with some of the other apprentices
in the house, were in the habit of spending much of
their time of an evening with Chatterton, Mr. Thomas
Tipton, and Mr. Thomas Capel in the office." These,
with Mr. Thistlethwaite, were wont to consult together
on Hterary subjects, and in preparing articles for the
Bristol newspapers and magazines. Mr. Palmer describes
Chatterton as having been " at this time very reserved, and
apparently possessed of great pride. He would some-
times, for days together, go in and out of the house
without speaking to any one, and seemingly absorbed in
thought. After such occasions he frequently called some
of his associates into his room, and read them some
poxdons of Rowley. "1 The old priest of Bristowe, his
self-created alter ego, had become the sole sharer of those
lonely hours on which he dreaded the intrusion of the
outer world. The spirit of the boy seemed then to pass
at will into that other life ; and the attorney's apprentice
of the eighteenth century was replaced by the parish
priest of St. John's ; the confessor and confidential friend
of William Canynge ; the Bristowe poet of the times
when Richard Nevill, Earl of Warwick, \ as making and
unmaking kings.
But Chatterton had also hours of leisure to spare for
the society of his seniors, including among these such
literary men as Bristol afforded ; and the companions of
his own age, if incapable of sympathy with the aspira-
tions of his poetic mind, appear to have been the most
^ Dix's Life, pp. 29, 30.
B/i.rSTOL FR/EA'DS.
99
intellectual he could find. Thistlethwaite, Fowler, Gary,
Gardner, Lockstone, Capel, and Smith, were all writers
of verse and contributors to Farley's Jounialy the Toicn
ami Country Ma<:;azim\ or other periodicals of the day ;
Alcock was a miniature painter in good repute, and
Palmer the best heraldic authority within reach.
Mrs. Newton says of her brother, in his earlier years,
" his intimates in the school were but few, and they solid
lads ; and, except the next neighbour's sons, I know of
none acquaintance he had G.;t." It was otherwise with
the attorney's apprentice, who lived more in the world of
Bristol, and made himself known, ere long, as one of its
most noticeable characters. But even then she could still
report of him that "he had many cap acquaintances,"
who already recognised by their greeting one in whom a
more than ordinary interest centred ; " but few '.ruiir'ate
friends." Yet with the few there was no lack of frank-
ness ; and had his simple mother and sicter been capable
of appreciating his labours, they might have had his
full confidence. To the former he read the " Bristowe
Tragedie ;" and when she admired it, he readily acknow-
ledged its authorship. The latter, with little less efifort,
drew from him the acknowledgment that the poem " On
Oure Ladies Chyrche " was his own;^ and, to learned con-
troversialists, questioning her after his death, she replied
that, at home, he was perpetually talking about Rowley's
poems ; and once, in particular, when their relative,
Mr. Stephens, of Salisbury, visited them, the year after he
quitted the Bluecoat School, he talked of nothing else.^
Could Chatterton, at this critical period, have found a
friend capable of faith in his genius, to receive his con-
fidence, and urge him onward in the one course on which
it moved unerringly in its sustained and lofty flights, how
different might his whole career have been ! But the
precious seed fell upon stony ground, and only the ele-
ments common to him and them were fostered by the
meaner natures with whom he associited. This, I think,
1 Mrs. Newton's Letter to Southey ; Works, iii. p. 524.
' Milles's Preliminary Dissertation, p. 7.
H 2
Chah. VI.
A bevy of
fiot'tx and
artists.
Mrs.
Nnvton's
ri-fiort of her
brother.
Want of an
appreciative
friend.
mmm
lOO
CHATTERrOiV.
\
Chap. VI.
Craving/or
sympathy.
Mr.
Barrett's
incredulity.
Thistle-
thwaitc,
the Blue-
coat boy.
Reneived
acquain-
tance with
Chatterton.
becomes apparent from the confidence that existed be-
tween them. So far from being naturally the deceptive
or reticent recluse he has been described, Chatterton
appears to have had a keen craving for the sympathy of
some kindred soul ; and, for lack of better, to have made
the most of such companions as he had.
Mr. Barrett, as we have seen, was told in plainest
terms that " The Battle of Hastings " was Chatterton's
own work. But he treated the statement simply as an
absurd lie : pressing the boy to produce the original
fifteenth-century manuscript, from which he persisted in
taking for granted it had been copied. It was the same
with the companions of the poet's own age. Ever and
anon we find him trying their capacity to appreciate or
comprehend his Rowleyan mystery ; and then, repelled
by their stolid dulness, he retires once more to solitary
communings with the creations of his own fancy.
James Thistlethwaite, the Bluecoat boy, has already
been referred to at the period when he and Chatterton
were companions in Colston's Hospital. As his senior,
he left it nearly two years before Chatterton ; and he
describes the consequent interruption and resumption of
their intercourse, in his letter to the Dean of Exeter. He
was apprenticed, as we have seen, to a Bristol stationer,
in 1765 ; and some few months after Chatterton had
entered the office of Mr. Lambert, in 1767, his former
school-mate was sent for some of the attorney's books
for the purpose of binding. Thus, accidentally, the
acquaintance was renewed, and in their first interview
Thistlethwaite learned that his companion "had been
venturing in the fields of Parnassus, having produced
several trifles, both in prose and verse, which had then
lately made their appearance in the public prints." The
acquaintance thus resumed ripened, in Thistlethwaite's
estimation at least, into intimate friendship ; and he thus
sets forth his estimate of the communicativeness of the
young poet. " That vanity and an inordinate thirst after
praise eminently distinguished Chatterton, all who knew
him will readily admit. From a long and intimate
BRISTOL FRIENDS.
loi
acquaintance with him, I venture to assert that, from the
date of his first poetical attempt until the final period of
his departure from Bristol, he never wrote any piece,
however trifling in its nature, and even unworthy of him-
self, but he first communicated it to every acquaintance
he met, indiscriminately : as wishing to derive applause
from productions which I am assured, were he now living,
he would be heartily ashamed of." It was scarcely to be
expected that Thistlethwaite should conceive it possible
that Chatterton gauged the capacity of such critics, and
limited his confidence by the appreciation they displayed ;
and so he draws this inference from his premises, that
*' had Chatterton been the author of the poems imputed
to Rowley, so far from secreting such a circumstance, he
would have made it his first, his greatest pride ; for
to suppose him ignorant of the intrinsic beauty of
those compositions would be a most unpardonable
presumption."
Thistlethwaite was in the habit of stepping into Mr.
Lambert's office from time to time to have a chat with
his new acquaintance, and with his aid we are able now
to discern much that was invisible to his faithless sight.
The eager youth was acquiring knowledge in all ways.
AVithout a guide, and dependent on the chance resources
of such private libraries and booksellers' shelves as were
accessible to him, his studies were desultory enough.
But we see him undaunted by impediments, turning the
most unlikely means to account, and from all sources
striving to acquire for himself, what schools and colleges
were offering to thousands heedless of its value. No
knowledge was without some attractions for him. " One
day he might be found busily employed in the study
of heraldry and English antiquities, both of which are
numbered amongst the most favourite of his pursuits ;
the next discovered him deeply engaged, confounded,
and perplexed, amidst the subtleties of metaphysical dis-
quisition, or lost and bewildered in the abstruse labyrinth
of mathematical researches ; and these in an instant
again neglected and thrown aside to make room for
Chap. VI.
F.stiniiite
of his
iharacter
ami
al'ilitifs.
Looking
beneath the
surface.
Versatility
of his
tastes.
-■^;:;j|
^
msmmm
wmmmmm
liti
CHATTERTON.
Chap. VI.
Uncom-
f>n'hendcd
by his
companion.
Visits to the
attorney's
office.
Copying
Rowley.
astronomy and music, of both which sciences his know-
ledge was entirely confined to theory. Even physic was
not without a charm to allure his imagination, and he
would talk of Galen, Hippocrates, and Paracelsus with
all the confidence and familiarity of a modern empiric."
Such is the account of Thistlethwaite, who, as by his
own confession he had little or no taste for such studies,
fancied all this miscellaneous reading was vague and pur-
poseless. But he only gave fresh proof thereby of his
inability to comprehend his gifted companion. Chatter-
ton's studies were, of necessity, uLsystematic ; but, so far
as his opportunities permitted, he aimed at a mastery of
the subjects he took in hand. In medicine, for example,
he not only turned Mr. Barrett's library to account, but
solicited from him instruction in surgery ; and such was
his confidence in the extent of the knowledge he had ac-
quired in a study so foreign to his favourite pursuits, that
we shall find him reverting to it in his final struggles
before he abandoned himself to despair; and applying
to Mr. Barrett for a testimonial of his acquirements, with
a view to offering himself for the appointment of a sur-
geon's mate.
But in Thistlethwaite's visits to the office he also re-
peatedly found Chatterton at work on the Rowley poems.
He had long ago, as a Bluecoat boy, been admitted to
the confidence of his companion, so far as to learn of the
reputed discoveries in the ancient coffers of Redciiffe
Church, and judge for himself of the beautiful little
ballad of "Elinoure and Juga." But he had no taste
for such studies ; and in la^^er days, as indeed to the
last, he held stoutly to the belief in an actual monk
Rowley, of the fifteenth century. There was no use,
therefore, in Chatterton trying to find a sympathising
confidant in him. So Thistlethwaite walked in and out
of the office; at diverse visits, in the year 1768, "found
him employed in copying Rowley," from what he had no
doubt were authentic originals ; and as he told the Dean
of Exeter eleven years after the poet's death, " Among
others, I perfectly remember to have read several stanzas
BRISTOL FRIENDS.
103
lis know-
lysic was
, and he
Isus with
npiric."
as by his
1 studies,
and pur-
)y of his
Chatter-
ut, so far
lastery of
example,
ount, but
)Uch was
e had ac-
uits, that
stmggles
applying
nts, with
of a sur-
also re-
y poems,
nitted to
rn of the
Redcliffe
[ful little
no taste
i to the
al monk
no use,
mthising
and out
" found
I had no
he Dean
* Among
I stanzas
copied from the * Deathe of Sir Charles Bawdin,' the
original also of which then lay before him. The beauti-
ful simplicity, animation, and pathos that so abundantly
prevail through the course of that poem, made a lasting
impression on my memory. I am, nevertheless, of opinion
that the language, as 1 then saw it, was much more
obsolete than it appears in the edition published by Mr.
Tyrwhitt: probably occasioned by certain interpolations
of Chatterton, ignorantly made, with an intention, as he
thought, of improving them."
He then assigns to the same year sundry pieces, in-
cluding '* certain pretended translations from the Saxon
and Ancient British," which appeared at a later date in
the Town and Country Magazine. These, he says,
Chatterton readily acknowledged to be the offspring of
his ovvn fancy. But, " on the contrary, his declaration,
whenever questi ned as to the authenticity of the poems
attributed to Rowley, was invariably and uniformly in
support of their antiquity, and the reputation of their
author Rowley; instantly sacrificing thereby all the credit
he might, without a possibiHty of detection, have taken
to himself, by assuming a character to which he was con-
scious he had no legal claim : a circumstance which I am
assured could not, in its effect, fail of operating upon a
mind like his, prone to vanity, and eager of applause,
even to an extreme."
The inconsequential nature of this, and much other
reasoning of the same kind, which thus satisfied Thistle-
thwaite of the vanity of his friend, and therefore of his
capacity to execute the inferior but not the truly poetical
antiques, is amusing enough. But also it shows the
necessity of reconsidering the verdict thus pronounced
on one declared to have been notably distinguished for
" vanity and an inordinate thirst for praise ;" but who
gratified this assumed ruling passion by producing to his
companions the lampoons and other trifles of the hour ;
while he withheld from them all knowledge of his part in
the immortal works which he was secretly treasuring as
his passports to fame.
Chap. VI.
" Deathe 0/
Sir Charles
Baivdin:'
Saxon and
British
aittiqiu's.
Inconse-
gucntia/
reasoning.
*-,^,-,iW
p-
"•ntnumK-rr
mi
tm
104
CHATTERTON.
\
\ '
Chap. VI.
Confidence
repelled.
Confusmi
0/ ideas.
Want of
fa,ith in
C/taiterion's
i;riiius.
Chatterton had, indeed, in a moment of rare confi-
dence, yielded to Mr. Barrett's solicitations, and acknow-
ledged one of the finest of the presumed antiques as his
own. But Barrett and Thistlethwaite got over the diffi-
culty with equal ease, by the simple assumption that the
boy told a lie ! " With respect to the first poem of the
Battle of Hastings," says Thistlethwaite, " it has been said
that Chatterton acknowledged it to be a forgery of his
own. But let any unprejudiced person, of common
discernment, advert only for a moment to the situation
in which Chatterton then stood, and the reason and
necessity of such a declaration will be apparent." And
then, after referring to " the very contracted state of his
finances, " and the meanness of Bristol patrons, who re-
ceived his poems, but made no adequate return, Thistle-
thwaite goes on to say : " From this circumstance it
is easy to account for the answer given to Mr. Barrett
on his repeated solicitations for the original, viz. that he
himself wrote that poem for a friend; thinking, perhaps,
that if he parted with the original poem, he might not be
properly rewarded for the loss of it."
The reader " of common discernment" cannot fail to
mark the strange confusion of ideas, so characteristic of
a century of criticism on these remarkable poems. If
Chatterton produces a beautiful poem, and acknowledges
himself to be its author, it is not to receive the credit due
to him as such. He merely confesses it to be " a forgery
of his own ! "
But even this is a rare admission of his presumption
of authorship. There is a ludicrous uniformity in the
disclaimers of Chatterton's companions, alike of sympathy
with his tastes, or faith in his genius. Mr. William Smith,
according to his nephew's account, "was Chatterton's
bosom friend. In fact," he says, " they were birds of a
feather," which may well be doubted. But they recognised
some community of feeling as contributors to Farley's
Journal and other periodicals. To him Chatterton
addressed his " Defence," a vigorous though unequal
maintenance of rationalistic views, written a few months
BRISTOL FRIENDS.
m
before he le^;, Bristol ; and within a fortnight after reaching
IvOndon, he transmits this message to him through his
friend Cary ; " When you have any poetry for publication
send it to me, to be left at the Chapter Coffee-house,
Paternoster Row, and it shall most certainly appear."
He was the correspondent addressed as the " Infallible
Doctor," in a medley of ironical superlatives, evidently
in reply to some poetical scheme propounded in grandilo-
(juent fashion by his friend, the Actor, "who," as his
nephew reports, " wrote verses in torrents daily, to within
a few hours of his death ;"i and therefore might very
fitly be answered in the fashion adopted in this odd
epistolary vein :
" Infallible Doctor,
"Let this apologize for long 'silence. Your request would
have l.'een long since granted, but I know not what it is best to
compjHe ! a llondecasyllabum carmen Hexastichon, Ogdastich,
Tetmmetrum, or Septennarius;" and after much of the same sort
the letter thus winds up : "I am resolved to forsake the Parnassian
Mount, and would advise you to do so too, and attain the mystery
of composing smegma. Think not I make a mysterismus ui men-
tionhig smegma. No ; my mnemosque will let me see — unless I
have an amblyopia, — your great services, which shall be always
remembered by
"Hasmot Etchaorntt."2
Mr, William Smith informed Dean Milles that Chat-
terton read many of Rowley's poems to him while he was
an apprentice of Mr. Lambert. Sometimes he read
whole treatises, sometimes parts only, and that very often.
He did not know that they were all by Rowley, but never
heard him mention any other ancient poet, and, it is
plain, never troubled himself to ask. He had also very
1 Gent. Mag. N.S. x. p. 605.
'^ This letter was furnished to Mr. Cottle by Catcott, and is printed
In the edition of 1803, with the signature ^^ Flasinot Eychaorit;" but
it Is obviously a mere transposition of the letters of Thomas Chat-
h'l'toil, Mr. Cottle has been followed in this and other misreadings
of Chat crton's MSS. by subsequent editors ; as in the De Bergham
Pedigree, where he gives Simon de Leynde I.yz^, instead of De
Siyncti! t.yse, alias Senliz.
Chap. VI.
His friends
Cnrj' and
Smith.
To tltc
injaliible
doctor.
Readings of
Rowley's
poems.
io6
Chap. VI.
IV n Iks in
Rciicliffe
uwaduius.
The pod's
'' bosom
Mend."
CHATTERTON,
\
often seen him at work at Mr. Lambert's office,
transcril)ing some of the ancient pieces of writing which
came, an he assumed, from the Redcliffe muniment-room ;
and he had read them to him immediately after he had
written them out. But Mr. Smith added, he had no taste
for Kucli things ; was, in fact, bored by them ; and
wondered how his companion could take up his time
with .such incomprehensible stuff. He also told the Dean
that " Chatterton was fond of walking in the fields, and
particularly in RedcUfife meadows ; of talking with him
about these MSS. ai.d reading them to nim. 'You and
I,' says he, 'will take a walk in Redcliffe meadow. I have
got the cleverest thing for you that ever was. It is worth
half-a-crown to have a sight of it only and to hear me
read it to you.' He would then produce and read the
parchment ;" but he never seemed, to wish that any one
should regard him as the autho/; and Mr. Smith was
quite certain he never dreamt of claiming them as his own.^
Let the reader fancy the enthusiastic young poet pacing
the meadows under Redcliffe Church, and reading the
latest of his Rowley poems to this "bosom friend." "I
have often talked with him on the subject," says Mr.
Richard Smith. " ' What, sir !' (he would say,) ' he write
Rowley ? No ! no ! no ! I knew him well. He was a
clever fellow, but he could not write Rowley. There was
a mystery about the poems beyond me ; but Tom no
more wrote them than I did. He could not!'"^ No
wonder that to such friends Chatterton was content to
, produce some lively jeu iV esprit^ or trifling lampoon, and
! seem delighted with the applause of his admiring critics.
I As for the antiques, he spoke of all as really ancient ;
some as Rowley's, but whether all of them Smith did not
know ; " He never seemed desirous that any one should
suspect, much less believe, them to be written by him."^
So it is with all Chatterton's companions. Each
echoes the sentiment of the others. Mr. John Rudhail,
apprentice to Mr. Francis Greesley, a Bristol apothecary
* Millc»S Rowley, p. 14. 2 Gent. Mag. N.S. vol. x. p. 605.
^ Milles's Rowley, p. 14.
PRISTOL FRIENDS.
lo:
s office,
ng which
nt-room ;
r he had
[ no taste
im; and
his time
:he Dean
slds, and
vith him
You and
•. I have
is worth
hear me
read the
any one
nith was
[lis own.^
it pacing
ding the
d." " I
ays Mr.
he write
e was a
lere was
Fom no
"2 No
ntent to
)on, and
5 critics,
mcient ;
did not
I should
him."^
Each
^udhall,
Dthecary
p. 605.
in the neighbourhood of Mr. Lambert's office, was taken
into his confidence at an early date, as to the authorship
of the " Opening of the Old Bridge," which, as we shall
presently see, created no little sensation on its appear-
ance in Farley's Bristol Journal. Yet for all this, as
he tells the Dean of Exeter, "he thinks Chatterton to
have been incapable of writing the Battle of Hastings,
or any of those poems produced by him under the name
of Rowley ;" though he did intimate to him that " he
was possessed of some valuable literary productions :"
but under promise of secrecy so binding that he scrupu-
lously kept the secret fcr nine years, and only revealed it
at last, as he said, on the prospect of procuring a gratuity
of ten pounds for Chatterton's mother, from a gentleman
who came to Bristol to collect information about the poet ;
and "he thought so material a benefit to the family would
fully justify him for divulging a secret by which no person
living could be a sufferer." ^ In other words, this friend —
to whom, in some hour of special confidence, Chatterton
had hinted, that besides the ephemeral satires, eclogues,
and other trifles of his muse, he had poems by him of
real and enduring worth, — was still in doubt, nine years
after the poet's death, whether he had made secret
confession that he was a forger or a thief !
Even Mr. Thomas Gary, who is named by Mrs. Edkins,
and seemingly with reason, as Chatterton's most intimate
friend; to whom he will be found writing confidentially
from London, within a few months of his death, enclosing
his " Kew Gardens" and other poems : even he discards
the idea of his being " equal to the works of Rowley" as
too absurd for any rational being to entertain. ^
Mr. Gary was a literary tradesman of Bristol, who had
been drawn into friendly sympathy with the boy. There
must have been considerable disparity in years ; for
in writing to Mr. Gatcott he speaks of having observed
the progress of his genius from infancy. But this did not
prevent an intimacy, partaking more of the confidence
1 Milles's Rowley, p. 436.
2 Letter to Mr. G. Catcott, Works, vol. iii. p. 482.
Chai'. VI.
Cotifidnicf
extended
to Mr.
Rudliall.
Iiitiiiiate
reldtious
with
Mr. Gary.
A literary
pipe-maker.
'7/
"^"1
loS
CHATTERTON.
\
Chap. VI.
Traces of
mutual
friendship.
J/
Afi>sc of
Povins.
Contrast of
Bristol and
Loudon.
Lrs^/timatc
uoccssityfor
money.
■^^IW
mmm
ri^mm
124
s
CHATTERTON.
Chap. VII.
Humorous
claim 0/
debt.
'\^
Patrotis
acquisitions
p/MSS.
Admissions
ofautlwr-
ship.
occasional pecuniary returns. He had at least tran-
scribed them, whoever might be their author, and for
that, at any rate, remuneration was due. With a touch
of humour highly characteristic of the boy, he presented
the following bill, on the only occasion on which he is
known to have made a direct application for money in
any form : —
Mr. G. Catcott to the executors of T. Rowley, Dr.
, £ s. d.
To pleasure reed, in readg. his Historic works ..550
„ ,, „ Poetic works ...550
;ClO 10 o
Mr. Barrett and Mr. Burgum also occasionally supplied
him with money, in no very extravagant fashion ; and
Mr. Clayfield in this, as well as in other ways, so gene-
rously aided him as to win his lasting gratitude as " the
Muses' friend," and the rightful heir to whatever debt
the world might yet own as the poet's due.
On glancing over the collected works of Chatterton,
it will be seen that, in addition to some of his modern
poems directly addressed to Bristol patrons, the best of
the remainder are derived from original manuscri))ts in
their possession. For these, at least, the boy-poet had
as much right to receive a pecuniary return as Pope
or Goldsmith ; as Scott, Byron, Wordsworth, or any poet
laureate, ancient or modern, for his verse. But the
Rowley poems appear, for the most part, to have been
reluctantly produced — as the crude MS. of Goldsmith's
"Vicar of Wakefield" was, — when necessity tempted
their author to barter portions of his incompleted scheme,
while he hoarded the secret of its authorship as sacred
to himself alone. To Thistlethwaite, and others of the
same stamp, he seemed prodigal in his indiscriminate
disclosure of the most worthless productions of his pen.
Of his imitations of Ossian, and the like crude attempts,
such as his "Ethelgar," " Kenrick," *; Cerdick," and
" Gorthmund," when asked for the originals, he " hesi-
THE PASSAGE OF THE BRIDGE,
"5
tated not to confess that they existed only in his own
imagination. On the contrary, his declaration, whenever
questioned as to the authenticity of the poems attributed
to Rowley, was uniformly in support of their antiquity ;
sacrificing thereby all the credit he might, without a
possibiUty of detection, have taken to himself by assum-
ing a character to which," adds Thistlethwaite, " he was
conscious he had no legal claim ;" and so he arrives at
ti e conclusion that, " had Chatterton been the author of
the poems imputed to Rowley, so far from secreting such
a circumstance, he would have made it his first, his
greatest pride ; for to suppose him ignorant of the intrinsic
beauty of those compositions would be a most unpardon-
able presumption."
Without drawing the same inference, it is obvious that
the Rowleyan romance was guarded as a treasure for
clearer eyes and brighter days that never dawned. With
the child-poet, Rowley and himself, I conceive, were one.
In the solitude on which he dreaded intrusion, he dwelt
apart, another being, in that ideal world of the past.
But as the child grew into boyhood, and the boy emerged
from Colston's cloisters into the wider world of Bristol,
the fiction of his waking dreams took tangible shape,
challenged inquiry, and involved him in the dilemma of
enforced confidences, or of such fraud as has not been
uncommon in the maskings of literature. It has, indeed,
its very diverse phases : its innocent fictions, like Moore's
" Raphael Hythloday" and his Utopian experiences ; and
its impudent forgeries, like the " Vortigern and Rowena"
of Ireland. Assuredly Cliatterton's good priest Rowley
approaches far nearer the former than t^e latter. Yet
this critical period was, to him, in its most significant
sense, "The passage of the bridge." To a truthful
mind, the necessity of maintaining a literary fiction at
all hazards is not a healthful condition of things. " The
imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature ima-
gination of a man is healthy; but there is a space
of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the
character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambi-
Chap. vii.
Main-
tenance of
Kmvley's
antiquity.
Anticipa-
tion of
brighter
days.
Diverse
literary
maskings.
ii ,-ilU. I' JJJIl l MMJ i JL| l
126
CIIATTERTON.
Chap. VII.
Ktirly Inve
of truth.
\
A limit ting
Ills niotlwr
nnii sister
ti> /lis COH-
Jiiii'iici:.
\\
V
i
i,
{
tion thick-sighted ;"i and on this transitional stage —
beyond which Chatterton never reached, — he was now
entering. His sister says of him : '* He was a lover of
truth from the earliest dawn of reason, and nothing would
move him so much as being belied." The usher at
Colston's School bore testimony to the fact that " his
master depended on his veracity on all occasions." But
the secret of Rowley, with its unaccomplished dreams,
was his own, and had to be guarded at whatever sacrifice ;
though with very different degrees of reticence, according
to the character of the inquirer.
Mrs. Newton tells us : " My brother read to me the
poem on * Our Ladies Church.' After he had read it
several times, I insisted upon it he had made it. He
begged to know what reason I had to think so. I added,
his style was easily discovered in that poem. He replied,
* I confess I made this, but don't you say anything about
it* When he read the * Death of Sir Charles Bawdin'
to my mother, she admired it, and asked him if he made
it. He replied, ' I found the argument and versified it'
I never saw any parchment in my brother's possession
but the account of Canning, with several scraps of the
' Tragedy of Elle' on paper, of his writing, that he read
to his family, as a specimen of the treasure he had dis-
covered in the parchments ; and he always spoke of the
poems to his friends as treasures he had discovered in
the parchments. "2 It is apparent from this that with
loving friends, who had faith in the possible identity of
Thomas Chatterton and Thomas Rowley, the disguise
was even more lightly worn than that of " The Author of
Waverley." But with the Thistlethwaites, Rudhalls, and
Smiths; the Catcotts, Burgums, Carys, and Barretts : — all
of whom regarded him with the proverbial honour ac-
corded to a prophet among his own people ; — his secret
was guarded as too sacred a thing to be unmasked to
vulgar scorn.
The history of humble genius abounds with illustrations
^ Preface to Keats' Endymion. v
2 Mrs. Newton's Letter to Mr. Cottle.
THE PASSAGE OF THE BRIDGE.
lay
of such spurious apprizings of literary excellence. When,
for example, in 1809, Mr. R. H. Cromek made a i)ilgrimage
to Dumfriesshire in search of relitiues of Scottish song,
he discovered a Dumfries lad, Allan Cunningham, earn-
ing eighteen shillings a week as a stone mason ; but with
a wonderful knowledge of the poetry of his country, and
a taste and extent of reading altogether surprising. ]kit
the young mason was also a poet ; produced some of his
own verses ; and used in after-life to imitate, with great
humour, the condescending air with which the critic
received them, as, *' WeJl, very well, for such a rustic as
him." Cromek had no taste to spare for modern verse.
His ambition was to rival Percy and Scott in the recovery
of a lostNithsdale minstrelsy, which existed only in his own
fancy. So the mason-lad undertook the quest; and plied
his delighted patron with antique lyrics which he pro-
nounced " divine ! " " Pray what are the names of the
poets of Nithsdale and Galloway?" writes the credulous
dilettante to his correspondent, who had to evade an
answer, not having invented a Nithsdale " Rowley " as
the father of his songs ; and so, at length, the unknown
mason's modern antiques, — which, as his own, would have
been summarily rejected ; — were published to the world
in a handsome volume, with Cromek's name on the title-
page ; and the London critics congratulated their confrere
on the rich harvest he had gathered in the hitherto barren
region beyond the Solway. As for the poor mason-lad,
incidentally named in the introduction, no one could
fancy him capable of anything so good.
Allan Cunningham, though a true poet of his class,
claims no such rank in letters as the Bristol boy. Never-
theless the cases are analogous in their illustration of the
temptations to such literary disguisings. Burns himself
could assume the mask of the antique minstrel, and was
fond of passing off some of his best songs as the work
of forgotten bards. JJut that was the mere sport of the
masquerader in the pride of his power, not the device of
obscure genius to win a hearing and just award. Chat-
terton's masking began as an innocent dream of the
Chai'. VII.
0/ litcrnry
e.vccilfmr.
Crotiick ill
si'iinh 0/ tilt-
iiutiy of the " Canterbury Pilgrimage"
would have been worth no more than the parchment on
which it was written. Mrs. Chatterton and her semp-
stresses succeeded the elder Chatterton and his school-
boys in the work of destruction. Supposing, therefore,
the boy to have rescued the residue at seven or eight
years of age, the Rowleyans had to assume that he
recovered from such mere gleanings a consecutive series
* Bryant's Observations, pp. 513, 514.
2 Commentary, p. 16. '^ Fii/e ante, p. 21.
K 2
Chap. VIII.
T/ie anfi-
qiiariait
barber.
\\
First expo-
sure rf tlif
piirchments.
Tiit'ir
plunderers.
I "1" "liii'fm'
132
CHATTER TO.V.
IVkat be
came of
them.
Barrett's
tuquisitions
\ \
Chap. VIII. ' of poems, letters, and historical documents enough to
fill two ample volumes.
No doubt, however, Chatterton did acquire some of the
Redcliffe parchments. What became of them has been
accounted for in more than one way, according to the
j preconceived theories of the writers. "He had taste
I enough to find out the genuine merit of the writings, and
sufficient knowledge of law to be aware he had no claim
to them," says an obstinate Rowleyan, writing so recently
as 1859, to "Notes and Queries;" and so he copied the
originals, " the poems," and then burned them.^ In
! reality they appear to have passed into the hands of one
or two collectors, foremost among whom was Mr. William
Barrett, the future historian of Bristol, who had already
acquired Morgan's spoils, and established friendly rela-
! tions with Chatterton at an early period. We know that
[ he did both receive in gift and purchase from the boy,
I spurious antiques which he regarded as of the greatest
I value, and did not scruple to appropriate in the full
; belief that they were part of the spoils of Redcliffe muni-
! ment-room. Four parchments which Chatterton picked
up there, on learning whence his father had brought the
I others, were stated by Mrs. 'Chatterton, after his death,'
to be in Mr. Barrett's possession ; and no doubt the
! choicest of the old hoard went the same way. The
I boy could entertain no idea of wrong in disposing of the
I sole inheritance he derived from his father. Possibly
i indeed the spurious antiques only made their appearance
' when the genuine supply failed.
! The Bristol historian, after quoting from a deed the
description of the " Cysta ferrata cum sex clavibus, vocata
Cysta Willielmi Canynges, in domo thesauria ecclesiae
Beatae Marias de Redclive,' adds : " This chest furnished
Mr. Morgan with many curious parchments relative to
Mr. Canynges and the Church of Redclive ; and many
very valuable, there is reason to believe, were taken away
before, and since dispersed into private hands," including
Barrett's own. So notorious indeed was he as the resetter
1 Notes and Queries, Second Series, vol. viii. p. 234.
Master
Canynge's
coffer.
THE ROWLEY ROMANCE.
•33
I to
fthe
aeen
. the 1
taste
, and j
claim '
;ently
dthe
1 In
if one
illiam
Iready
J rela-
w that
le boy,
reatest
he full
J muni-
)icked
It the
death,'
bt the
The
of the
ossibly
earance
eed the
vocata
cclesise
imished
ative to
d many
en away
deluding
: resetter
Chak VIII.
Thistle-
thwaite's
satire.
huhfati-
cot hr tors.
of Morgan's spoils, that when his historical labours were
completed, long after Chatterton's death, he thus figured
in one of Thistlethwaite's satires : —
" Next Barrett came, of History dubb'd the Quack,
Old Morgan's rotten papers at his back ;
Press'd by the load, which, with unceasing pains,
Full twenty years employed his aching brains."
Barrett had begun to collect his materials before
Chalterton was born. He refers to Latin deeds in his
poHsession " such alone as would fill a volume ; " and of
these he ascribes the acquisition of the greater number
to the assiduity of the antiquarian barber. Mr. Haines,
another indefatigable collector, also receives his due
nieud of praise. In truth the historian s correspondence
with Dr. Ducarel shows him absolutely burdened with !
8U(;h stores, which might as well have remained under ;
the six locks of Mr. Canynge's coffer for any use he could |
make of them. |
That there had lain in the parish chests of Redcliffe ' ir/Mt the
Church for upwards of three centuries, a collection of fll^clTtl'in.
poems by an unknown Bristol priest, whose writings \
surpassed those of Lydgate, the laureat of Henry VI., 1
almost as much as true poetry does mere rhyme, would j
seem too absurd lor discussion, had it not already
obtained credence for a century. But, no doubt, the
parchments contained genuine names of old Bristol
citizens and Church dignitaries ; perhaps of nobles and
even kings of that fifteenth century. Did they include,
even in the most prosaic association, that of Thomas
Rowley ? Before attempting to answer this, let us
endeavour to trace to its source the origin of the
romance to which this name was attached.
In 1760 James Macpherson published his "P'ragments Mac/^hi-r-
of Ancient Poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scot-
land ;" and thereby produced such a sensation, that the
Kdinburgh Faculty of Advocates raised the requisite
funds to enable him to carry out a thorough search for
more, Had he travelled on his own resources, he .vould
{
son s
labours.
im
mm
134
CIIATTERTOX.
Chaf. VIII.
Tlie Ossia.i
poems.
Influence
ascribed to
them
I in it nt ions
ot oilier
poets
A romance
in stone.
\
probably have come back empty-handed. But he must
needH make some return for the money expended ; and
80, in 1762, he pubHshed his " Fingal, an Epic Poem, in
Six BooicH," and in 1763, his " Temora, an Epic in Eight
HookH," with other poems, all professedly translated from
the ancient Gaelic, or Erse, into the English language.
Great wan the excitement that followed. Homer himself
was believed to have been outdone ; and to question the
authenticity of the " Ossian Poems," as these came to be
called, was, in some literary circles, even more dangerous
than to challenge in the orthodox coteries of Bristol the
Hutchinsonian theory of creation and the deluge.
When Horace Walpole, nine years after the death of
Chatterton, entered on a defence of his neglect of the
poet and his wonderful antiques, it seemed to the learned
dilettante sufficient to say : " I then imagined, and do
still, that the success of Ossian's poems had suggested
the idea." What satisfied Walpole has been reechoed
ever since. But the success of Ossian's poems was still
a \\\\x\% of the future when Chatterton placed in the
usher Phillips' hand, in 1764, his " Elinoure and Juga ;"
nor is there the slightest resemblance between any of the
Rowley Poems and the Gaelic epics, either in rhythm,
form, or mode of thought. The probability is, that when
the Hluecoat boy produced his antique pastoral, he had
wtsiix heard of " Fingal " or " Temora." When their
fame did at length reach his ear, he proceeded to imitate
them ; as at different periods he imitated Gray, Collins,
Churchill, Junius, and other contemporaries. But the
true Rowley Poems remain unique ; and the name of
Ossian has no talismanic power to solve the riddle. To
do this with any satisfactory results, we must fall back on
the personal history, and the early circmiistances under
which the child-poet was nurtured, with as few external
helps as ever fell to the lot of genius.
In this age of enthusiastic revival of medieval art, it is
less diffi(!ult than it was in the eighteenth century to con-
ceive of the influence which the noble church on Red-
cliffe Hill exercised over the mind of Chatterton, even as
THE ROWLEY ROMANCE.
»35
iiust
and
1, in
:ight
from
lage.
nself
1 the
to be
erous
)l the
ith of
)f the
arned
\d do
Tested
choed
IS still
n the
uga ;"
of the
ythm,
when
e had
their
mitate
ollins,
ut the
me of
'lo
ick on
under
eternal
rt, it is
to con-
Red-
tven as
a child. He could not, like Beckford or Scott, realize Chap. viii.
for himself an Arabian fable, or an Abbotsford romance,
in stone and lime ; but he could appropriate the one
already created for him, and live over again the process
of its realization. 1
St. Mary Redclifife forms, accordingly, the centre around j Tnusounf
which revolve all the quaint, fanciiul, and richly poetic i ''■^oi'v/ey
phases of the Rowley fiction. The hold it retained on i >/'""
his imagination repeatedly manifests itself even in his
latest London correspondence; as in his letter to Gary, in
defence of his *' Kew Gardens " satire, and its panegyric
on Allen, a Bristol organist, whom he had pronounced
" divine." " Step into RedcUft'e Ghurch," he exclaims,
"look at the noble arches, observe the symmetry, the
regularity of the whole ; how amazing must that idea
be which can comprehend at once all that magnificence
of architecture. Do not examine one particular beauty, or
dwell upon it minutely ; take the astonishing whole into
your empty pericranium, and then think what the archi-
tect of that pile was in building, Allen is in music."
When he wrote this he seemed to be absorbed in the
excitement of London, and the politics of the day. But
the moment his thoughts reverted to Bristol and its
church, the old feelings revived. It was the cradle of
his inspiration, and the cynosure of all his latest fancies.
Within its charmed precincts he passed at will into
another life, and his antique dreams became credible and
true. In all his guisings and literary masquerades, the
same antique realism predominates. He Uves in the
middle of that fifteenth century in which lived William
Ganynge as merchant, mayor, church-builder, priest, and
dean ; and revels in fancy amid the noble doings of this
hero of his romantic dream. With this key to the plot,
the Rowley manuscripts acquire a consistent unity, im-
perfect as they are.
The guise in which Ghatterton clothed his Rowley
Poems, and the fashion in which his works have been
edited, have combined to exclude them from general
study almost as effectually as if he had written in the
."v^
The cradU'
(>f hisftira-
tioH.
Uuiittrac-
tiveiUs^iiht.
136
CHA TTERTON.
Chap. VIII.
T/tomas
Rowley,
priest of St.
yohn's.
Bluccoat
boys of the
olden time.
«
T/ie ideal
patron.
Saxon of his monk-poet, Turgot. In reality, his antique
prose and verse work out an historical romance of Bris-
towe in the olden time, exhibiting in the grouping of its
characters the graphic fulness of the novelist, and in many
of its passages not a little dramatic power as well as tender
lyrical sweetness.
Thomas Rowley, a native of Somersetshire, and a
zealous Yorkist,^ of the times when the Red and the
White Roses were the badges of party strife in England,
was priest of St. John's, in the city of Bristol, in the year
1465. From early years he had borne the most intimate
relations with the Canynges' family. He and William,
the second son of John Canynge, a youth of cunning
wit, — as we learn from the " Lyfe of W. Canynge," one of
the Chatterton MSS., — improved their lear together, under
the care of the Carmelite brothers, in the old priory which
once occupied the site of Colston's School. In fact,
they were Bristol Bluecoat boys of the good old times.
" Here," says Rowley, " began the kindness of our lives ;
our minds and kinds were alike, and we were always
together." William's father loved him not as he did his
brother Robert, because, while the latter was a man after
his own heart, — greedy of gain and sparing of alms, —
William was courteous and liberal in word and deed.
But both father and brother died the same year, leaving
William to inherit their great wealth ; and about the
same time his old school-mate, Thomas Rowley, took
holy orders, and was made his chaplain and confessor.
A brief extract from the good priest's account of his
friend and benefactor will serve to illustrate the quaint
graphic style of the narrative : — " Master Rcberte, by
Master William's desyre, bequeathed me one hundred
marks ; I went to thank Master William for his mickle
courtesie, and to make tender of myselfe to him.
' Fadre,' quod he, ' I have a crotchett in my brayne
that will need your aide.' ' Master William,' said I, ' if
you command me I will go to Roome for you.' ' Not
so farr distant,' said he ; ' I ken you for a mickle learned
^ Vide notes to Balade of Charitie.
( '
THE ROWLEY ROMANCE.
137
que
Jris-
f its
lany
ider
id a
the
and,
year
mate
liam,
ming
)neof
inder
which
fact,
times.
lives ;
I ways
id his
after
priest ; if you will leave the parysh of our Ladie, ^ and
travel for mee, it shall be mickle to your profits.' I
gave my hands, and, he told mee I must goe to all the
abbies and pryorys, and gather together auncient draw-
yngs, if of anie account, at any price. Consented I to
the same, and pursuant sett out the Mundaie following
for the Minster of our Ladie and Saint Goodwyne, where
a drawing of a steeple, contryvn for the belles when
runge to swaie out of the syde into the ayre, had I
thence. It was done by Syr Symon de Mambrie, who,
in the troublesome rayne of Kyng Stephen, devoted him-
selfe, and was shorn e."
In like fashion the good priest continues to collect
valuable drawings and manuscripts for Master Canynge,
and to partake liberally of his bounty. But the death of
his tenderly loved wife, Johanna, in child-bearing, leaves
him widowed and childless ; and he thenceforth devotes
himself to the patronage of art, letters, and all good
works. Then did his nobleness show forth to the world. 1
He was five times Mayor of Bristol : for William Canynge {
is a genuine historical character, whatever be made of
his confessor and biographer. As to his nobleness, he
was undoubtedly a princely merchant, and one who rightly
estimated pious deeds, according to the standard of his
day J though Mr. George Price, in his " Canynges
Family and their Times," has gone far to show that he
merely laid the foundation of the later portion of St.
Mary Redcliffe, in his civic capacity as Mayor; and
contributed towards its building, along with " others of
the worshipfulle to^ ne of Bristol." But it is with the
traditional rather than the historical Master Canynge
that we have to deal, in whom the veneration of many
generations had impersonated all the nobility and refine-
ment of medieval Bristol ; so that it was a matter of
faith with the men of Chatterton's day, that they rightly j
ascribed to their old mayor many memorials of ancient 1
munificence in his native city, besides the beautiful church |
^ From this it may be inferred that Chatterton originally purposed
to represent Rowley as parish priest of St. Mary Redcliffe. I
Chap. Yin.
A ncient
dmiviiigs
collected.
The
ividoivcil
merchant.
The
trndit'wual
Cnnynse.
I
! I
I '1 i
■11
138
C HATTER TO I^.
Chap. VIII.
'I'/ii' ^n'lit
Riuide
House.
A nigf^ard
patron of
till' Muxes.
Its ffroi/fi of
/>Oits itiid
iirfi;:t.i.
in which he lies interred. Rowley lived, as he tells us,
in a house on the hill, but often repaired to the great
Rudde House, near to the water, the princely mansion
of his patron. This was the resort of a choice set of
poets, artists, and virtuosi of that old time ; such as
Chatterton might possibly have matched in the circle
that gathered round Sir Joshua Reynolds, at the London
Literary Club, in Gerrard Street, Soho ; but which he in
vain sighed for in the Bristol of his day.
The Sir William Canynge of the Rowley Romance
is himself a man of letters, an artist, and even at times
a poet : devoted to all liberal tastes, and especially to
architecture ; and he gathers around him a group of
kindred spirits. There is his friend. Carpenter, liishop
of Worcester, not incapable of penning a stanza at times :
as appears from an inscription affixed to the cover of an
old mass book, which Chatterton was able to recover for
Mr. Barrett with Rowley's aid.^ Maystre John a Iscam,
Canon of St. Augustine's Abbey, — himself a poet, — also
bears his part, on more than one occasion, in the dramadc
performances at the Rudde House ; and wins the special
commendation of Maistre Canynge, in the character of
"Celmonde," when Rowley acts "^Ella" in his own
"Tragycal Enterlude." In a letter of Rowley to his
brother-poet, he thus jestingly invites him to become
verse-monger to a niggard patron of the muse : " I haveth
metten wythe a syllie knyghte of twayne hondreth poundes
bie the yeere. * God's nayles,' quod hee, * leave oute mie
scarlette and ermyne doublette, I know nete I love better
than vearses. I woulde bestowe rentalls of golde for rolles
of hem.' ' Naie,' quod I, * I bee notte a vearse-monger ;
goe to the Black Fryer Mynsterre yn Brystowe wheere the
Freeres rhyme to the swote smelle of the gowtes, theere
male you deale maiehappe.' ' Now, Johan, wylle you
stocke yis Worscypfulle knyghte wythe somme Ballet
oune Nellye and Bellie? You quotha naie — botte bee
here bie twa daies, we shall have an Entyrlude to plaie
whyche I haveth made, wherein three kynges will smeethe
1 Works, iii. p. 312.
Tim ROWLEY ROMANCE.
'39
H US,
great
nsion
ict of
:h as
circle
)nclon
he in
upon the playne. You moste bee a kynge and mie sillie
knyghte and loverde, the whyche, wythe the Jest of
Roberte, wylle bee pleasaunte sporte.' "
Sir Thybbot Gorges, a neighbouring knight of ancient
family, contributes to the "Tragycal Enterlude" one of the
minstrels' songs, as his quota of verse; enacts the character
of '* Hurra " the Dane, among the Rudde House amateurs;
and pledges, in surety of a liberal benefaction towards
the rebuilding of Reddiffe (3hiir. h, certain jewels of
great value. The group is completed by Sir Allan de
Vere, Mastre Edwarde Canynge, and others : knights,
aldermen, and minstrels ; among whom we may specially
picture to ourselves John a Dalbenie, — a citizen fond of
wordy strife, and prone to mar the pleasant gatherings at
the Rudde House by intruding politics into that haunt of
the Muses ; — who is twitted by the host in this e[)igram-
matic fashion : —
" Johne makes a jarre boute Lancaster and Yoike ;
Uee stillc gode manne, and learne to niynde tliie worke."
The old merchant prince of Bristowe, the centre of this
group, formed in the estimation of Dean Milles, — most
enthusiastic among the early champions of the ancient
Rowley, — a parallel to Maecenas with his three friends,
Virgil, Horace, and Varus. To him Rowley sends his
verses from time to time, ever sure of some liberal
acknowledgment in return. At times the real author
expressed under this guise his own estimate of some of
those wondrous creations of his muse, given away, or
requited by the niggard dole of Catcott or Barrett ; for
his chief antique productions figure in Rowley's narrative
with their becoming reward. " I sent him," writes the
good priest, " my verses touching his church, for which
he did send me mickle good things;" and again: "I
gave Master Cannings my Bristow tragedy, for which
he gave me in hands twentie pounds, and did praise it
more than I did think myself did deserve ; for I can say
in troth I was never proud of my verses since I did read
Master Chaucer; and now haveing nought to do, and not
ClIAl'. viii.
Sir
l7iy/ot's
(.lories.
'Vo/iH a
I htli'Citie.
Mtfcenns
und Ins
Irieiuis.
I
i
Autique
liberality.
i ,■
ni
140
C/fATTERTO.V.
I'liAf. VIM.
Story of the
" liiitlh of
l/itjityitgs. "
Pi'rturn/i;'s
in the
antii/tw
roiiiiiiicr.
Elder times.
vvyling to be ydle, I went to the minster of our Ladie and
Saint Goodwin, and there did purchase the Saxon manu-
scripts, and sett myself diligently to translate and worde
it in English metre, which in one year I performed, and
styled it the Battle of Hastyngs. Master William did bar-
gyin for one manuscript, and John Pelham, an esquire, of
Ashley, for another. Master William did praise it muckle
greatly, but advised me to tender it to no man, beying
the menn whose name were therein mentioned would be
offended. He gave me 20 markes, and I did goe to
Ashley, to Master Pelham, to be payd af him for the other
one I left with him. But his ladie being of the family of
the Fiscamps, of whom some things are said, he told me
he had burnt it, and would have me burnt too, if I did
not avaunt. Dureing this dinn his wife did come out, and
made a dinn, to speake by a figure, would have over
sounded the bells of our Ladie of the Cliffe ; I was fain
content to get away in a safe skin."
In the humour of the latter sketch it is not improbable
that Chatterton had in view some scjuire whose ire he had
roused by his modern verse ; and whose lady he may
have favoured with a heraldic blazon as appropriate and
unwelcome as Aunt Martha's •* Rose of Virginity." In
the antique romance as a whole, there is no difficulty in
recognising, through its transparent disguise, the modern
Bluecoat boy fondly imagining, in some fancied school-
mate among the Bakers and Thistlethwaites of his o\/n
day, the sympathising friend and future patron, whose
wealth was to be generously shared with the poet ; while
in the exercise of a liberal taste he rivalled the triumphs
of medieval art, and called into being a happy brother-
hood of kindred spirits, with whom the most sacred con-
fidences could be exchanged. Into this prose romance,
as into a quaint, antique setting, the Rowley poems take
their place as so many jewels of varying polish and
lustre.
Going back to elder times than those of Canynge, we
are introduced in prefatory fashion, to the first dedication
of the red cliff to sacred uses, as set forth in the tran-
rnE ROWLEY ROMANCE.
141
In
lance,
IS take
Hi and
Jge, we
lication
e tran-
script of "a parchment MS. of Rowley's," printed by
Barrett, vvith one of his two-sided footnotes dubiously
asseverating the probable genuineness of the old priest
and his poems.^ In a.d. i 285, Edward I. keeps Christmas
at Bristol in company with a body of gallant knights,
mustered to join in an expedition into Wales, but who
devote the holiday to a grand joust, which furnishes the
subject of " The Tournament, an Interlude." This must
have been written in an ampler form than it now exists,
when Chatterton was not more than fifteen years old.
Writing in March 1768, to his old schoolmate, Baker, who
had wandered to Charleston, South Carolina, after refer-
ring to sundry literary matters, including certain verses in
honour of Miss Eleanor Hoyland, — a Bristol belle, as I
surmise, to whom, with the poet's help, he is paying his
addresses,^ — he says, " The Tournament I have only one
canto of, which I send herewith ; the remainder is entirely
lost." Chatterton, it must be remembered, is writing to
one who, after much lively banter, he assures, in genuine
earnestness : " I am, and ever will be, your unalterable
friend." He has been telling of the interruption of his
poetical labours by his master's return, and is forwarding
specimens of his own work, not palming off spurious
antiques. Mr. Lambert, it is to be feared, had pounced
on the missing portions, and put them beyond author's
or critic's reach. But a copy made by Catcott from
Chatterton's MS. supplied the text as it now exists, with
its lively action and poetic thought obscured by an
extreme, and possibly exaggerated affectation of archaic
language : for Cottle, on comparing his copies with
originals, found that he was in the habit of altering the
orthography, so as to give an appearance of greater
antiquity.
The scene of the tournament is Redcliffe Hill, in
ancient days, before it was chosen as the site of St.
J Barrett's History, p. 568.
2 The exclusively local allusions addressed to Miss Hoyland in
one of his pieces (Works, i. p. 353) manifestly assume her familiarity
with Bristol and its citizens.
Cmai'. VIII.
Dftikiiiii'ii
0/ the ffii
Tlif Toimia-
' i
('
J I
Hill.
\ !
149
CIIATTERTON.
Chap. VIM.
.9/V Johixn
de Hcrg-
ham me.
Sir Simon
de Hour-
tonne,
Jnaccessii'!,
knowlediic.
hi
Mary's Church. There King Edward and his knights
assemble, with minstrels, servitors, and a brilliant heraldic
display. A herald opens proceedings as the dispenser of
honour's joys ; and the jousting begins. Among those
who enter the lists, Sir Johan de Herghamme, the pew-
terer's ancestor, appears, overthrows Sir l,udovic de
Clynton ; but is himself overcome by Sir Simon de Bour-
tonne. Thereupon an unknown knigJU enters, before
whose lance five of Edward's knights successively fall ;
on which Sir Simon vows, if successful against this puissant
foe, to buil(' a church to our Lady on the spot where he
shall fall:—
" By thee, Saint Mary, and thy Son, T swear,
* That in what place yon doughty Kniglit shall fall
Beneath the strong push of my stretched-out spear,
There shall arise a holy church's wall,
The which in honour 1 will Mary's call.
With pillars large, and spire full high and round ;
And this I faithfully will stand to all,
If yonder stranger falleth to the ground.
Stranger, be boune,^ I champion you to war ;
Sound, sound the slughorns to be heard from far."
Sir Simon is victorious, and hence the consecration of
the mount, and the erection of the church of our Lady
on the red cliff. Sir Simon de Bourtonne — in actual
civic history Simon de Burton, an opulent merchant,
and Mayor of Bristol. — was succeeded in the work of
church-building by William Canynge the elder, who, in
1376, "built the body of Redclifft Church from the
cross-aisle downwards," and so completed the original
structure.
Rowleyans and anti-Rowleyans were long puzzled t^
account for the acquisition by a poor charity boy of the
knowledge of facts or traditions, preserved, as they
believed, only in an inaccessible Latin MS. of VV^illiam
of Worcester. The mystery, however, proves to be of
easy solution. Among the friends to whom Chatterton
wrote after his removal to London was Mr. Henry Kator,
a sugar-baker of a literary turn, in whose parlour, — as we
' Bonne, read v.
THE ROWLEY ROMAXCE.
Ml
in
the
tinal
to
the
they
liam
fe of
Irton
Llor,
we
learn from Mr. Dix, — \\\\\\% an engraving of Redcliffc
Church, published by William Halfpenny, in 1746, with
an inscription setting forth its founding "by Simon dc
Burton, merchant ; " and further narrating how, ** in the
year 1446, the steeple of the said church was blown down
m a great storm of thunder and lightning, which did much
damage to the same ; but was by Mr. William Canynge,
a worthy merchant, who was several times mayor of ye
said town, with the assistance of diverse other wealthy
inhabitants, at a great expense, now covered, glazed, and
repaired ;" and so the inscrii)tion proceeds with a contise
epitome of the good mayor's life and deeds, in full
accordance with the Rowley romance. In 1467, he was
commanded to marry again : '* Whereupon he gave up
the world, and took orders of the Bishop of Worcester,
and was made a priest, and sung his first mass at our
Lady of Redclifte," and finally, " was buried worshipfuUy
in ye south end of ye middle ile of ye sd church, near
his wife."
The Rowley poems and prose are replete with ima-
ginary details of the old merchant prince, his social life,
and pious works. " Oure Ladies Chyrche" especially is
the theme of repeated versification, in which its praises
and those of its reputed builder are lovingly set forth : —
"Thou seest this mastery of a human hand,
The pride of Bristowe and the western land ;
i Yet aye the buiUler's virtues much more great,
Greater than can by Rowley's pen be scann'd.
Thou scest the saints and kings in stony state,
That seem with breath and hi man souls dispand ;
As 'pared to us enseem these men of slate,
Such is great Canynge's mind when 'pared to God elate."
Another poem, in lively ballad measure, describes the
dedication. At early dawn, when " fairies hide in cow-
slip cups," troops of friars come forth in procession,
marching, with holy relics, " around the high unsainted
church." Bishop Cari)enter appears, holily mitred, while
Mastre Canynge is tricked out "like a barbed king;"
and so the first mass is sung in the new church; the
(MM' VIM.
Rt'tktiffi-
I'lotvn iiiyivii.
\
(hir l.ixiiy n
I Clinrcli.
\
Pr:fu
nth'it 1
i'Y III
,/../
Carpi
Htcr. _ \
144
CHATTER TON
Chap. VIII.
A dramatic
interlude.
The Parlya-
inente of
Sprytes.
The Storie
of William
Canynge.
I \
\ \
Bishop preaches, followed with another sermon from
Rowley himself; and then all adjourn to a grand feast
and interlude at Mastre Canynge's house. Of the dra-
matic interlude this earlier notice is to be found in one
of Master Canynge's letters to Rowley, dated a.d. 1443.
'* The chyrche is ybuylden wythynne and wythoute.
Goe to Byshoppe Carpenterre for him to comme wythe
you to dedycate the same. Inne all haste ymake a smalle
Entyrlude to be plaied at the tyme." And so, in Barrett's
" History," may be seen duly set forth at length, " and
submitted to the judgement of the reader : " " An Entyr-
lude, plaied bie the Carmelyte Freeres at Mastre Canynges
hys greete howse, before Mastre Canynges and Byshoppe
Carpenterre, on dedicatynge the Chyrche of Our Ladie
of Redclefte, hight : ' The Parlyamente of Sprytes,' wroten
bie T. Rowlie and J. Iscam." In this the spirits of
departed worthies return to earth to do honour to the
pious work. The sprite of Brythryc, a Saxon who held
Bristol in the days of the Conqueror, when the red cliff was
but a bare rock, cannot believe that the wondrous structure
that disparts the clouds, and kisses the sky with its lofty
spire, can be the work of human hands. The sprite of
Byrtoune, the first builder, rejoices that his church was
overthrown, since it has made way for the brave structure
which greets his eye ; and so with the other spirits,
assembled : closing with Ella's devout anticipation that,
when the anchangel's trump shall affright the wick id, and
awaken all :
" Then Canynge rises to eternal re.st,
And finds he chose on earth a life the best."
" The Storie of William Canynge," a poem of some
length, and of great beauty, formed part of a work in
prose, which probably supplied the accounts of painters,
carvellers, poets, and othe- eminent natives of ancient
Bristol, printed by Barrett as Chatterton's communica-
tions to Horace Walpole. The poem appears to have
undergone careful revision, as more than one copy exists,
with variations and additions. It thus opens : —
. V
THE ROWLEY ROMANCE.
some
)rk in
Inters,
icient
lunica-
have
■exists,
" Anent a brooklet as 1 lay reclined,
Listening to hear the water glide along ;
Minding how thorough the green meads it twined,
Awhilst the caves respons'd its muttering song,
At distant-rising Avon to be sped,
Amenged ^ with rising hills did show its head.
** Engarlanded with crowns of osier weeds
And wreaths of alders of a bercie scent,
And sticking out with cloud-agcsted ^ reeds.
The hoary Avon showed dire semblanient ;
Whilst blatant Severn, from Sabrina cleped.
Roars frighted o'er the sandes that she heaped."
The poet then recalls to memory ^Ella, Brythric, Fitz-
Hardynge, " and twenty moe," whose brave deeds have
been witnessed by those floods ; and muses why they
have received so little fame : when suddenly there rises
from the stream the vision of a lovely maid, in native
beauty unadorned, who introduces herself as " Truth that
did descend from heaven." She refers to many cham-
pions and men of lore, painters, and carvellers, who have
gained good name; but. from those she passes to one
worthier than them all; and, endowing the poet with
divine insight, she says :
" Take thou my power, and see, in child and man,
What truly nobleness in Canynge ran."
As the toilworn peasant sleeps almost before he has laid
his head on his pillow, so the poet is at once entranced ;
his spirit is " from earthly bands untied ; " and he thus
describes the familiar translation to those elder times,
and that more real poetic life, in which the modern
Rowley had revelled from his own childhood : —
" Straiglit was I carried back to times of yore.
Whilst Canynge swatlied yet in fleshly bed.
And saw all actions which had been before.
And all the scroll of fate unravelled ;
And wlieii the fate-marked babe acome to sight,
I saw him eager gasping after light.
^ .4/,7t7/;Vc/, mingl'jd.
Agested, heaped up.
H5
Chai'. VI 1 1.
s/lt//SilS.
Th,'
0/7
'riith.
T]f^ poet's
trailer.
146
CHATTER TON.
Chai\ VIII.
I'he fate-
ma rkcd
babe.
Chatterion's
»iiister-
.TlUd and
/lis bride.
'!'i!C fldfr
I'oets.
" In all his simple gambols and child's play,
In every merry-making, fair, or wake,
I kenn'd a perpledi light of wisdom's ray ;
He eat down learning with the wastle-cake ;
As wise as any of the aldermen.
He'd wit enow to make a mayor at ten."
This beautiful picture of the childhood of the ideal
patron of Rowley is in reality that of the poet himself:
" the fate-marked babe," with his wondrous child-genius,
and all his romantic dreams realized. The entranced
revery was familiar to him. He had been wont to pass
in fancy back to times of yore, since first the solemn
beauty of the ancient fane in which he wandered at will
in early youth took hold on his imagination, and en-
kindled in him the poetic flame.
The "Tragedy of ^lla," Chatterton's master-piece,
was recovered from a manuscript in his own handwriting,
dated 1769, when he was sixteen years of age. It is
professedly the work of an elder poet than Rowley,
" modernised" by the old priest for his patron's behoof;
and accompanied by introductory epistles and dedica-
tion in verse. The work is thus complete according to
the poet's design. The tragedy opens on the morning
of u^illa's wedding-day. Ere it closes he is summoned
to the field ; on the morrow defeats the Danes ; but,
by the faithlessness of Celmonde, his bride is decoyed
away, under i)retence of flying to where he lies sorely
wounded. Her betrayer falls, with her, into the hands of
the Danes ; by whom she is generously restored to her
lord, only in time to see him expire from the wounds he
had given himself on hearing the report of her flight with
her supposed i)aramour. The simplicity, tenderness, and
dramatic action of this tragedy cannot fail to strike the
reader who will take the trouble to master its archaic
disguise. In one of the introductory epistles Rowley
contrasts the polished versification of his age with the
rough vigour of the elder poets, whose power lay in fine
thoughts, and not in mere numbers. The criticism is
^ Perpled, scattered.
THE ROWLEY ROMANCE.
M7
ideal
isclf :
enius,
meed
) pass
3lemn
It will
id en-
-piece,
writing,
It is
Lowley,
)ehoof;
dedica-
iing to
lorning
moned
s; but,
ecoyed
sorely
lands of
to her
nds he
ht with
ss, and
ike the
archaic
Rowley
ith the
in fine
licism is
Poetical
criticism.
in reality Ciiatterton's protest against the over-refinement Chap. viii.
of his own day, in which Pope, " as harmony itself, exact,"
imtl given such perfection to the form of verse, that his
imitators mistook mere rhythm for thought. He thus
.'uUlrcssus his fancied patron : —
" Say Canynge, what was verse in days of yore?
Fine tlioughts, and couplets fetively bewi7en ;'
Not such as do annoy this age so sore,
A studied pointed resting at each Une.
Verse may be good, but poesie wants more :
A boundless subject, and a song adign ;'^
According to the rule I have this wrought ;
If it please Canynge, I care not a groat."
T-caving, for the present, the consideration of the tragedy
itself, with its striking evidences of the varied powers of
its author : another of its ingenious preludes adds a
curious episode to the Rowley romance of which it
forms a part. John Lydgate, a London priest, — no
doubt meant for Ban John, of Bury St. Edmunds,'^ — and
personal friend of the Bristowe poet, is assumed to have
challenged Rowley to " a bowtyng match " in rhyme ;
whereupon the latter replies : —
' I'\'iivil)i betotycii, elegantly expressed. ^ PoitUt'l, pen.
•' Ai//[i^v, nervous, dignified.
* Tilt' nnmchas hitherto been printed Lad gate ; but Mr. Tyrwhitt
found it written I,ydgate in the professed original vellum in Mr.
Hari't'tl's puHsession. Indeed few of Ciiatterton's ancient names are
inmgillitfy, He had some old character in view in all his imper-
soniltittHH, Turgot was no doubt the biographer of St. Margaret,
Mftk'ohii Canmore's queen, though somewhat misdated. The
*• Stowy" mentioned in Lydgate's answer is a misprint for Stone,
a Cni'inclile friar of Bristol, educated at (.'ambridge, and famous
as rt [iivnclicr, Iscamm is josephus Iscanus, a Latin poet of the
thlrtyynlli century ; and Sir Thybbot Gorges one of a genuine Bristol
family, Cmying's wife Johanna receives, from Chatterton, as I
preHiime, llie surname of Hathwaie : having in mind the Anne
Ilalhftway of Shakespeare. Even the Simon de Seynte Lyze,
or Sc'llli/, of his De Bergham pedigree,— misprinted by Cottle and
most NUl»He(|Ucnt editors Leynte Lyze,- had its origin in Bernard
OL'ts tind
dramatists.
Opening of
Master
Canyuge's
Lodge.
Richard of
Cirencester,
lie rf rant's
''DeSitu
Britannia'. "
survives to illustrate the correspondence between Shake-
speare and his friends or fellow-players. But somehow
those of the poets and dramatists of Canynge's time got
all garnered under the six locks of his cofiter; and Mr.
Barrett — with Chatterton's aid — was able to '* submit to
the judgement and candour" of the readers of his vera-
cious history an unbroken series of letters between the
old merchant and those unheard-of poets who, had they
only been heard of, must have made their own Avon
famous in song before Shakespeare's Avon claimed its
pre-eminence among the tributaries of the Severn.
The old merchant writes to his friend and confessor
an account of his masonic lodge opened on the vigil of
Epiphany, 1432, with his address on the value of the
fine arts in their application to trade, to a chapter com-
posed of seven-and-tvventy friars, sixteen gentlemen, and
three brother aldermen, in which this sly touch of humour
betrays the modern Rowley's hand : " I dyd speek of the
use of the Artes to improve the trade. The Freeres did
enlarge, the gentlemen attende, and the Councylmen
felle asleepe ! " But more interesting to us now is this
passage in one of Rowley's letters addressed to Canynge
from Cirencester : " I have founde the papers of Fryar
Rycharde. He saieth nothynge of Bristolle albeit he
haveth a long storie of Seyncte Vyncente and the
Queede. His Celle is most lovelie depycted on the
whyte walles wythe black cole,- displaieynge the Iters of
the Weste." This passage was alone sufficient to confirm
the Dean of Exeter's faith in the ancient Rowley. Now
it is of itself evidence enough that he was a monk of the
eighteenth century. Chatterton was in his fifth year when
Dr. Stukeley delighted the learned world of Europe by
the publication of the " De Situ Britanniae " of Richard
of Cirencester, a monk of the fourteenth century, from a
MS. professedly discovered at Copenhagen by Charles
Julius Bertram : usually designated Professor of the English
Language at the Royal Marine Academy there ; but who
turns out to have been only an undergraduate when
he palmed off this impudent hoax on the antiquarian
THE ROWLEY ROMANCE,
'55
:hard
torn a
larles
iglish
who
/hen
larian
divine.^ This production, ro characteristic of the age,
has proved the most mischievous among all the literary-
frauds of that eighteenth century, misleading Gibbon,
Roy, Whittaker, Chalmers, Hoare, and other eminent
historians and topographers for a whole century, and
finding its fitting authentication in the epistles of the
good priest Rowley.
The collection of letters closes with an editorial
colophon from Rowley's pen, setting forth the virtues of
his revered patron : *' As a leorned wyseager he excelled
ynne alle thynges. As a poette and peyncter he was
greete. Wythe hym I lyved at Westburie sixe yeeres
before he died, and bee nowe hasteynge to the grave
mieselfe." So ends this ingenious romance, which Chat-
terton not only Avrote but lived. The disguise is so
transparent now, that one marvels it could deceive so
long. Not only are Thomas Chatterton and Thomas
Rowley one : but the more familiarly he is studied, the
more obviously the counterparts to the saucy humour of
his modern satire gleam out in the creations of his antique
muse. His friend Burgum's self-acquired Latin, for
example, only served to expose him to the ridicule of
Oxford pedants, including Chatterton's own clerical anta-
gonists ; and so we find him exclaiming in his " Epistle
to the Rev. Mr. Catcott:" —
" Burgum wants learning : see the lettered throng
Banter his English in a Latin song ;
Oxonian sages hesitate to speak
Their native language, but declaim in Greek."
Rowley in his " Epistle to Mastre Canynge on ^lla "
has much the same sentiment : —
" Syr John, a Knyghte, who hath a barne of lore,
Kenns Latyn att fyrst syghte from French'^ or Greke ;
Pyghtethe hys knowlachynge ten yeres or more,
To rynge upon the Latynne worde to speke.
Whoever spekethe Englysch ys despysed ;
The Englysch hym to please moste fyrste be latynized."
^ Vide Canadian Journal, July 1869.
Chap. VIII.
A mis-
liti'rury
/orj^try.
Ko7v/iy's
corn'-
s/>ondcnci'.
Ilituiour
of the
antiqiif ati,{
modt'rn
Classical
pedantry.
h
i !'
\\
kl
156
cn.rrr/iRTo.v.
Chap. VI ri.
T/ic " True
ThotiKis "
(if the
Rotvlvy
fioems.
Dr.
DiuarcTs
corre-
nnnett
/'fin'es t/w
acnuineness
^o/the
antiques.
Whether, then, Chattcrton found among the names that
caught his eye in the old parcliments of Canynge's coffer
that of Thomas Rowley, or invented it for himself, does
not greatly matter. He is himself the " True Thomas "
of the Rowley poems ; and far truer lo the noble gifts of
" the fate-marked child," when clad in his antique guise,
than when " the strong fit of satire was upon him ; " and,
in retaliation for some real or fancied slight, he wrote
down to the level of the poor Canynges of his own
modern Bristol, There can be little doubt, however,
that the name adopted by Chatterton was a genuine
antique. In the Gaitkmaii's Magazine for May, June,
and July, 1786, is published a correspondence between
Dr. Ducarel of Doctors' Connnons and the Rev. John
Chapman, Vicar of Weston near Bath, Mr. Mathew
Brickdale of Clifton, and Mr. William Barrett, the
historian. The subject is the Rowley poems; but the
name of Chatterton receives a mere })assing notice. At
the date of the correspondence the faith of J3arrett in the
ancient priest of St. John's, Bristowe, was undoubting ;
and his mode of proving the genuineness of the antiques
by means of his own " originals," and then the genuine-
ness of their reputed author by an appeal to his hand-
writing, furnishes as amusing a specimen of reasoning in
a circle as could well be imagined.
Writing to Dr. Ducarel, March 7th, 1772, Barrett says :
" All the originals, the few that have been preserved, are
in my hands. I can prove the age and exact time when
most of them were written by the author's own hand-
writing."^ A month later he corrects Dr. Ducarel's
misconception that Rowley had been Vicar of Redcliffe,
and adds : " I have reason to believe he was a religious.
I am now examining the archives of the city for his name
and family. I think I have so far succeeded as to be able
to pronounce him a Bristol man." ^ At length his industry
is rewarded in some degree, and he writes on the 20th
July, " I have been taking all methods to inquire out the
name, family, burial, &c. of Rowley, but have not, I fear,
^ Gent. Mag. vol. Ivi. p. 460. ^ Ibid. vol. Ivi. p. 463.
Till-: ROWLEY KOMASCE.
»57
that
:offer
does
mas "
ifts of
guise,
and,
wrote
i own
^vever,
'nuine
June,
;tween
. John
lathew
tt, the
)ut the
:e. At
t in the
ibting ;
ntiques
enuine-
hand-
ning in
tt says :
^ed, are
|e when
hand-
[.icarel's
Klcliffe,
[ligious.
Is name
be able
Industry
le 2oth
I out the
I fear,
^63■
T/i " Vortigern.:> and Rowenas" were possible
things. The century was a very respectable one in its
achievements in letters, but historical or literary criticism
was by no means its forte ; and so learned Deans and
Fellows of Colleges, like Milles and Bryant, staked their
reputations on the genuineness of the antiques ; and in
their eflbrts to prove it, only showed that they could not
have read or understood a genuine fifteenth century MS.
had it fallen into their hands. ^ But if the triumph of
^ Vide Sir F. Madden's preface to " William of Palerne,"
THE ROWLEY ROMANCE.
159
ir own
[virginal
ir first
,t boy ;
.nd to
Kticism
jns and
id their
land in
lid not
ry MS.
iph of
deceiving scholarly experts had any share in stimulating
the labours of the boy, it has been reserved for our more
critical age to receive at the hands of one of its most
practised bibliographers the exhortation and entreaty to
its archaeologists, *' not to allow the notion of forgery to
prevent their keeping a look out for * Old Rowley,' and
just acquainting themselves with the printed portrait
(disfigured though it be,) which has come down to us,
that they may know him when they meet him ! " ^ It
scarcely adds to the marvel, that this same zealous
champion of " Old Rowley " scarcely finds the epithets
of Chalmers or Walpole ^ile enough to express his
contempt for the real author, both of Rowley and his
works.
One of the earliest waifs of Master Canynge's coffer
was an inventory of Easter gifts to the church of St.
Mary Redcliffe by the old merchant, after he had
become an inmate of Westbury College, with a view to
the fitting production of the annual miracle-play on
that great festival of the Church. This document sets
forth, in quaintest detail, the presentation, on the 3d of
July, 1470, to Maistre Nicholas Pyttes, Vicar of Red-
cliffe, of a new sepulchre, well gilt, with all requisite
furnishings, including " Heaven, made of timber and
stained cloths \ Hell made of timber and iron Avork, with
thirteen devils ; four pair of angels' wings, well painted ;
and four angels' chevelers," or perukes ! This genuine
document from the Redcliffe muniment-room, though
communicated to the Society of Antiquaries long before
Chatterton was born, and printed by "Walpole in his
" Anecdotes of Painters," was neither turned to account
by poet nor critics. The anti-Rowleyans might have
found in it the test of one of Chatterton's most notable
anachronisms, where, in the concluding stanza of Rowley's
" Epistle to Master Canynge," written professedly in the
very age of religious mysteries and miracle-plays, he thus
acidresses their notable encourager in the language and
1 " Chatterlon : an Essay ;" by the Rev. S, R. Maitland, D.D.,
F.R.S., and F.S.A. p. no.
Chap. VIII.
Successful
dccfption of
literary
experts.
Fitr}iisliiitgs
of the
Eastern
sepulchre.
A f:;:'nuiue
Redclijfe
doc2aitent.
i6o
CHATTER TON.
\\
il !
I
i
i.(
1)
'(I
ii. 1
%
w-
• I :
Chai'. VIII.
A critical
anacliron-
ism.
Master
Nicholas
the V'icar.
A triuiii/'h
of poetic
jictioii.
sentiments of the eighteenth, or still more of the seven-
teenth century : —
'* Plays made from holy tales I hold unmeet ;
Let some great story of a man be sung ;
When as a man we God and Jesus treat,
In my poor mind we do the Godhead wrong.
But let no words which droorie^ might not hear
Be placed in the same. Adieu until anere,^"
So foreign were such ideas to those of the fifteenth cen-
tury, that the venerable Dean of Westbury includes, in
the inventory of his Easter sepulchre furnishings for St.
Mary Redcliffe, "an ymage of God iMmighty risying
oute of the Sepulchre, with all the ordynance that 'longeth
thereto ; item, the Holy Ghost comyng out of Hevyn
into the Sepulchre." Had this curious inventory attracted
Chatterton's attention, Maister Nicholas Pyttes, the Vicar,
would no doubt have figured among the select group that
frequented the Rudde House ; and the miracle-play v/ould
have been noticed in the Rowley correspondence, if it
did not receive more prominent consideration. But it
was in the true spirit of the poet, and not of the anti-
quary, that Chatterton called up that imaginary past.
The boy could not escape the influences of his own era,
or imbue his mind with the feelings of Lydgate and his
times ; but he could give shape to the heroic age of his
fancy's creation, and people it with actors of his own
imagining : producing thereby poems compared with
which the best of Lydgate's are mere rhyme.
So far the literary masking in which the boy-poet
figured in the guise of his "gode prieste Rowley" invites
our unqualified admiration as a triumph of poetic fiction
replete with the realities of poetic truth. In following
out the maze ir: which it involved its creator, other and
less acceptable aspects meet our view.
^ Droorie, modesty.
2 A Here, another.
l.
Ill:
CHAPTER IX.
THE MODERN CANYNGE.
The " vision
splendid '
fades.
Thp, transition from the romantic illusions of the young \ Cmai-. in.
dreamtjr and the ingenious fictions wrought out by him
a8 tlic child-poet, to the deceptions and trickery of the
attorney's clerk, is not a pleasant one. The "vision
splendid" was already beginning to "fade into the light
of common day." The romance of Rowley, if it was to
be adhered to, had to be sustained by means far apart
from the poet's true vocation. Those who rejected his
claim to the authorship of the " Batde of Hastings," or
the " Tragedy of yl^'-lla," nevertheless called for the pro-
duction of the originals. So the process of manufacturing
such was begun. Of this we have more than one account
from eye-witnesses. Mr. John Rudhall, to whom he
acknowledged the authorship of " The Mayor's first pass-
ing the Old Bridge," gave Dean Milles a graphic account
of his mode of procedure. " He brought to him one day Manu/uc-
a piece of parchment, about the size of a half-sheet of ^"ntioLs
foolscap paper. Mr. Rudhall did not think that anything
was written on it ; but he saw Chatterton write several ,
words, if not lines, in a character which he did not
understand, totally unlike English ; and, as he appre-
hended, meant to imitate or represent the original, from
which ids account was printed." He then adds : " When
Chatterton had written on the parchment, he held it over
the candle to give it the appearance of antiquity, which
changed the colour of the ink, and made the parchment
ai»|)L'ar bliuk, and a little contracted." Among the few
genuine documents reclaimed by the authorities of St.
M
)J^
1 62
t'HAP. IX.
J''irst sti'/>s
in the
/irocess.
Moih'es for
producing
the early
copies.
J->aih
privation.
CIIA TTERTON,
Mary Kedclific, after the death of Chatterton, was a
book containing some pages of entries relating to church
matters, but with the flyleaf at the end covered with imita-
tions of the characters and writing of the fifteenth century,
repeated as in a school-boy's first lessons; and show-
ing, no doubt, the first steps in the process of supplying
" originals," when these came to be in demand by Barrett
and others. But this deception was an after-thought,
forced on liim by the perverse credulity of his dupes,
who, as in the case of the " Battle of Hastings," insisted
on being deceived. There can be little doubt, from the
invariable secrecy maintained by him relative to the
Rowleyan authorship, that had he possessed means and
opportunity to carry out his purpose, the Rowley MSS.
would have been withheld from all eyes till the romance
v/as flasljed on the literary world in its completed ampli-
tude. But, as Mr. Catcott informs us, he produced
transcripts of the alleged antiques from time to time " as
his necessities obliged him " and these necessities neces-
sarily increased with his hopes and aspirations. To his
mother and sister he often spoke in great rapture of the
undoubted success of his plans for future life, and in
moments of exultation would enjoy the gleams of
drawning fame ; and, as Mrs. Newton writes : " Confi-
dent of advancement, would promise my mother and me
should be partakers of his success." But while thus
sanguinely ])ainting a brilliant fiiture, the present was
beset with daily stint and privation. He was, as ere long
he wrote to Horace Walpole, " the son of a poor widow,
who supported him with great difiiculty," ^ and his literary
labours won him, as yet, little either of profit or fame.
It was a favourite saying of his, " If Rowley had been a
Londoner instead of a Bristowyan, his fortune would have
been made ; " or, as he put it to his mother, " he could
' Dr, Mftilland calls this "a deliberate lie;" because he was then
i boaicU'd niid clothed by Mr. Lambert. But even had the clothing
been all (hat he desired, he had no wages ; not even money to buy
j paper ; none to bestow on his mother or sister ; or to supply the
thousand wants of a youth of his age.
THE MODERN CANYNGE.
163
IS then
"Jothing
jio buy
)ly the
have lived by copying his works." Yet, as we shall see,
on his reaching London, it was not by means of his
Rowley poems that he strove to win his bread as a literary
adventurer. The task -work of that period illustrates the
versatility of his mind, in its striking contrast to those
cherished productions held in reserve for a time that
never arrived for him.
The dream of Chatterton's life, I doubt not, was the
realization of some modern Maecenas — the Canynge of his
fancy, — by whom his genius was to be recognised, and to
whom all his plans and hopes were then to be revealed.
But unhappily he had got mentally and morally entangled
in the meshes of his own ingenious sophistries, and the
method he resorted to for accomplishing his object
tended only to discredit him with the patrons of letters.
The boy, moreover, had no natural adviser. His simple
mother and his sister he regarded with all the affection
of which his nature was capable ; but he never dreamt of
consulting them in the perplexities of his daring ambition.
His very isolation and inexperience helped to foster his
self-confidence, and encourage him to cope single-handed
with the world, of which all his knowledge had been
acquired in Colston'? Hospital, before his admission to
Lambert's office and the uncongenial society of his
kitchen. His intellectual powers have probably rarely
been surpassed ; perliaps they were never equalled at his
age. But any Bristol trader could have told him that his
plan of baiting for patronage with spurious antiques was
sure to fail.
His first effort at winning his way in the literary world
was legitimate enough, from his own point of view.
Having completed his tragedy of "^lla" and other
Rowleyan poems, he offered them to Dodsley, the London
publisher, in this fashion : —
" Bristol, December 21, i']6%.
" Sir, — I take this method to acquaint you that I can procure
copies of several ancient poems ; and an interlude, perhaps the
oldest dramatic work extant ; wrote by one Rowley, a priest in
Bristol, who lived in the reigns of Henry the V]th and Edward
M 2
Chac. IX.
Dream of
Chattertons
life.
Isi love, &c.
* ♦ ♦ »
" See ! the white moon shines on high :
Whiter is my true love's shroud ;
Whiter than the morning sky,
Whiter than the evening cloud.
My love, &c.
* * * %
" With my hands I'll dent the briars
Round his halie corse to gree ;
\ \ 11 Ouphant^ fairy, light your fires ;
Here my body still shall be.
My love, &c.
" Come with acorn-cup and thorn,
Drain my hearte's blood away ;
Life and all its good I scorn.
Dance by night, or feast by day.
My love is dead,
Gone to liis death-bed
All under the willow-tree.
" Water-witches, crowned with reyts,'
Bear me to your lethal tide ;
I die ! I come ! my true love waits,
Thus the damsel spake and died."
In this, and other examples of suggested ideas, there
is no servile imitation. Repeatedly we catch a glimpse
of such suggestions ; but they are like the stray notes of
seemingly familiar airs that cheat the ear in listening to a
new opera. We are reminded, for example, of the pro-
• logue of Shakespeare's " Henry V." in the scene of " Cei-
monde near Watchette," but it is only for a moment : —
Chap. IX.
A Sh xke-
spcarUiH
lyric.
:
ly.
Ouphant, elfin.
2 Reyts^ watcrflags.
Cha7-acier
o/si/i'g-estt'if.
A ''*
168
CIIATTERTON.
Chap. IX
Dt'scriptive
pri>ltound the licarer's rede, *'
Making our foemeii's envying hearts to bleed,
Ybearing thro' the world our renoni'd name for aye.
" Bright Sim had in his ruddy robes been dyght ;
From the red east he flitted with his train ;
The hours drew away the gate of night ;
Her sable tapestry was rent in twain ;
The dancing streaks bedecked heaven's plain,
And on the dew did smile with shimering eye ;
Like gouts of blood which do black armour stain.
Shining upon the burn which standeth bye :
The soldiers stood upon the hillis side
Like young enleafed trees which in a forest bide.
" J\L\\i\ rose like the tree beset with briars,
His tall spear shining as the stars at night,
His eyne ensccming as a lowe of fire.
When he encheered every man to fight,
Kis gentle words did move each valorous knight ;
It moveth them as hunters lioncclles.
In treeble armour is their courage dighte ;
Each warring heart for praise and rciiome swells ;
Like slowly dinning of the crouching stream,
Such did the murmuring sound of tlie whole army seem."
Descriptive passages such as this, of considerable length,
and occasionally of great l.)eauty, are introduced as pro-
logues to the dramatic dialogue. But of all this Dodsley
had no opportunity of judging. He received only the
.speech of " /Ella ; " selected in all probability because it
is beset by more than, the wonted interfusion of archaic or
coined words; and obscured still further by anti(]uated
misspelling. Yet, probably, only on the assumption of
" .^lla " being a genuine antique could any publisher have
been induced to entertain the idea of its issue. Its author
possibly shrank from the labour of copying out tlie whole,
with the certain cost of transmission and the very pro-
bable chance of rejection, and so he asked the guarantee
of a guinea in advance. It only served to complete the
chances of failure. But who can tell what hard necessity
impelled him to crave the modest sum ?
Chatterton had been looking abroad for some appre-
THE MODERN CAXYNGE.
169
ngth,
pro-
sley
the
se it
ic or
iiated
Dii of
have
Lithor
lole,
pro-
mtee
I the
;ssity
ciativc aid, and, failing the i)uliHshers, had conceived the
idea of a friendly helper among the lovers of letters in the
great outer world. Unhappily the mode of winning such
favour, which forthwith possessed his mind, was borrowed
from the deceptive i)rocesses alreatly pursued with Bristol
patrons. Mr. Edward Gardner, one of his latest com-
panions, published, in 1798, a volume of " Miscellanies
in Prose and Verse," to which he appended some unpub-
lished poems of Chatterton, and a brief sketch of the
Rowleyan controversy. In this, after describing a clumsy
attempt witnessed by him "to antiijuate" parchment by
colouring it with ochre, and then rubbing it on the ground,
he adds: "I heard him once, also, affirm that it was very
easy for a person who had studied anti(iuity, with the aid
of a few books which he could name, to copy the style of
the ancient poets so exactly that the most skilful observer
should not be able to detect him. No, said he, not Mr.
Walpole himself." Mr. Gardner recalled this conversation,
be it remeiubered, twenty-eight years after its utterance.
Too much weight, therefore, must not be given to it in
all its details, as an accurate report of Chatterton's words.
One point, however, the allusion to Walpole, may be
accepted as a reliable glimpse of thoughts that were
ere long to bear fruit — of the Dead Sea kind.
As his dream of fame and fortune assumed sliape and
consistency, and visions of the recognition of his worth
by some modern Canynge rose before him, Chatterton
had already bethought him of Horace Walpole, subse-
quently fourth Earl of Orford, as the possible Maecenas
of that eighteenth century. Nor, from his distant point
of view, was the idea an extravagant one. To the sui)er-
ficial observer, this vain, yet clever dallier with art, virtu,
and belles lettres, might indeed seem the very man.
This son of the great minister of the first and second
Georges, though he did not abjure politics, made art
and letters the real business of his life. He afiected an i
extreme liberalism, akin to the Utopian sentiment of the
last days of Bourbon kingship in Erance. The death-
warrant of Charles I. hung in his bedroom, labelled
Chap. IX.
l.i'okiKi^ out
for friendly
help.
Hfr.
Gixrdner's
rciniuis-
Ci'UCi'S.
Horace
]V,i I pole's
liberalism.
1'i.i
I ,'!
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i
i
i
170
Cjup, IX,
Speculatlv0
republl'
canhm,
Patrlcmn
man 0/
letters,
A literary
dm run of
the "Caff I,'
qf Otrmtti."
/ i
CHATTERTON.
" Kngland's Magna Charta ; " and in other ways, by
choice of pictures and style of decoration, he sported
with a speculative republicanism that seemed to assert
an e(|iiality and common brotherhood for man. Yet all
the while he was, in taste and temperament, fastidiously
arJHtocfatic. He, too, had his dream of mediaeval art,
and realized it in costly, if not very tasteful fashion, by
converting his cottage at Strawberry Hill, Twickenharn,
into a pseudo-Gothic Aladdin's palace, which he filled
with mmiatures, statuettes, antiques, and bijoutry; and
a)«0 with rare books and MSS. in apt accordance with
the modijrn Rowley's ideal of " Mayster Canynge's
Cabynet of auntyaunte monumentis."
Waipole was also a man of letters, a novelist, a dra-
inatiKt, and even a clever writer of verse. He had been
the personal friend of the poet Gray, and printed his
ades at the private press of Strawberry Hill. But, above
all, he was the reputed author of a mysterious romance,
the famous " Castle of Otranto," replete with antique
feudalism, though deriving its immediate popularity from
its supernatural wonders. This marvellous story made its
first appearance in 1764, — when Chatterton was engaged
on his " Apostate Will " and other juvenile efforts, in the
niuecoat School, — professedly as a translation by one
Wiriam Marshall, from an Italian MS. of Onuphrio
Mitfalto, "found in the library of an ancient Catholic
family in the north of England, and printed at Naples, in
the black letter, in the year 1529." It won its way at
once to public favour ; and then, in the second edition,
its author takes off the mask, and " flatters himself he
shall appear excusable for having offered his work to the
world under the borrowed personage of a translator."
The " Castle of Otranto" had doubtless been eagerly
read by Chatterton, as it has been by thousands of other
boys. But for him the mystery of its antique MS. and
its reputed modern authorship had peculiar charms, sug-
gestive of possible sympathy with the concocter of another
romance of antique feudalism and mediaeval art.
Chatterton had written his second letter to Mr. Dodsley
lodsley
THE MODERN JANYXGE.
in the middle of February, and before the end of March
had either received the pubUsher's refusal, or construed
his silence into the same significance. Necessity pressed
hardly on the young poet. He was producing works
which now after the lapse of a century command the
admiration of the world ; yet he could not obtain recog-
nition of their worth. The irksome routine of Lambert's
office, with no duties to furnish legitimate occupation for
his active mind; the degradation of his kitchen and its
associates ; and the harsh conduct of the unsympathising
attorney : all prompted him, by some means or other, to
achieve his emancipation, and win what was his due. So
falling back, once more, on the Rowleyan mystery, he
addressed himself to the task of introducing the antique
poet to his modern Canynge. But if my interpretation
of some , of the facts of this introduction is correct, it
has hitherto been misunderstood by his biographers.
Mr. Barrett prints in his history of Bristol two elaborate
antiquarian papers on " The Ryse of Peyncteynge " and
" The Historie of Peyncters in Englande, wroten bie T.
Rowleie, 1469, for Mastre Canynge." These, he tells
us, " are printed from the very originals in Chattervon's
handwriting, sent in two letters to Horace Walpole,
Esq. ;"^ and this has been accepted without question
by every biographer of the poet. The first of those
papers opens in this fashion : " Peyncteynge ynn Eng-
lande, haveth of ould tyme bin yn use ; for saieth the
Roman wryters, the Brytonnes dyd depycte themselves,
yn sondrie wyse, of the fourmes of the sonne and moone
wythe the hearbe woade ; albeytte I doubte theie were no
skylled carvellers ; " and so it proceeds, with this affected
quaintness of language, to treat of painting, carving, and
stained glass ; of Saxon heraldry ; and of embroidery in
silver, gold, and silks of divers hues ; and not only refers
to unheard-of poets, but gives a specimen of the verse of
John, Abbot of St. Austin's Minster : the first English
painter in oils, and greatest poet of the age in which
he lived ! The whole piece is a stray leaf out of the
' Barrett's History, p. 639.
171
Chm', IX,
AV.'V'.w///V.»
0/ the yoHiig
poet.
" Tlw A\y.sy
of l\yiH-
tcyiigi'."
i
Autiqiii'
fiw tir/x.
17*
CHA TTERTON.
[I
r-i
Chap. IX.
The
' ' tiiysterie
of sti'iucyugi
gldsse. "
Lette7- to
Horace
lyalpole.
The
Mtrcctias of
tlie olden
time.
An ideal
patron.
Rowley romance. The armoury of -^lla, Lord of Bris-
tovve Castle, furnishes illustrations of heraldic blazonry ;
the representation of St. Warburge, in the stained window
of his own minster chancel, supplies the oldest example
of " the couneynge mysterie of steineynge glasse ; " and
" Henrie a Thornton, a geason depeyctcr of countenances,
peyncted the walles of Master Canynge hys howse ; a
moste daintie and feetyve performaunce, nowe yerased."
The curious narratives, whensoever composed, were
in all probability prepared for Walpole's eye ; and with
them this brief letter, also furnished by Barrett, from
" the very original to Horace Walpole, Esq."
" Bristol, March 2^th, Corn Street.
"Sir, — Being versed a little in antiquities, 1 have met with
several curious manuscript.^, among which the following may be of
service to you in any future edition of your truly entertaining anec-
dotes of painting. In correcting the mistakes (if any) in the notes,
you will greatly oblige your most hui 'Me servant,
'Thomas Ch\tterton."
Of the notes here referred to by the professed tran-
scriber, two specially attract our notice. In the one
Master Canynge is characterised as : " The founder of
that noble Gothic pile. Saint Mary Redclift Church in
this city; the Maecenas of his time; one who could happily
blend the poet, the painter, the priest, and the Christian,
perfect in each ; a friend to all in distress, an honor to
Bristol, and a glory to the Church." The reputed author
of the MS. is also depicted, with a special eye, we may
presume, to the virtuoso of Strawberry Hill : " T. Rowlie
was a secular priest of St. John's in this city ; his merit
as a biographer, historiographer, is great, as a poet still
greater ; some of his pieces would do honour to Pope ;
and the person under whose patronage they may appear
to the world will lay the Englishman, the antiquary, and
the poet under an eternal obligation."
The hint of what the romancer had in view is suffi-
ciently obvious to us now. Here, on one hand, is "the
Maecenas of his time," the ideal that Walpole, as a
generous encourager of letters, was expected to realize.
■
THE MODERN CANYNGE.
173
may
.owlie
merit
still
'Qpe;
ppear
, and
suffi-
"the
On the other hand is the poor Bristol poet, whose works
only awaited such patronage as he could easily bestow, to
lay all men under obligation to him. There is, to my mind,
a curious admixture of the simplicity of inexperienced
youth with this artful deception. But Chatterton was
only trying his " 'prentice hand." He had sense enough
to see that this, at least, would not do. So the manu-
scripts and note were thrown aside, and only recovered
among Chatterton's own papers, after his death, to be
printed in Barrett's uncritical jumble of romance and
blundering, to the confusion of the poet's biographers for
a whole century.
Thiis point is of importance, and requires to be care-
fully looked into. According to Barrett's account, the
manuscripts, notes, and accompanying letter, are all
" printed from the very originals in Chatterton's hand-
writing, sent in two letters to Horace Walpole, Escj." —
from which any reader was bound to assume that the
historian had obtained from Walpole the authenti-
cation of these same " very originals." But no sooner
did Barrett's " History and Antiquities of the City of
Bristol" issue from the press than Walpole wrote to
Miss Hannah More, referring to the two letters it con-
tained, "pretended to be sent to him, but never sent."
Still more explicitly he writes to the Countess of Ossory,
July 7th, 1792, after Barrett's death: "Poor Barrett,
author of the * History of Bristol,' printed there two
letters to me, found among Chatterton's papers, and
which the simple man imagined the lad had sent me,
but most assuredly never did, as too preposterous even
for him to venture after he had found that I began to
suspect his forgeries. For instance, he had ascribed the
invention of heraldry to Hengist, and of painted glass to
an unknown monk in the reign of King I^dmund."^
He also writes to Miss Hannah More about the same
time, in reply to a letter, telling him of Barrett's death :
" I rejoice I did not publish a word in contradiction of
^ Cunningham's Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford.
voL ix. p. 380.
Chai-. IX.
Inex-
pcrii'iice and
ait/iil
diWptioH.
Biirrctt'.t ,
nccruiit !(iudfiice
with
Chattcrton.
Keen hopes
revived.
V
If
la.
I
178
Chah. IX.
Fragment
0/ a tetter.
Chatter ton
thnnvs
himself on
IFa/po/e's
generoiity
Careful
pri'fiarntion
of his letters.
CIIATTRRTON.
which, whether ancient or modern, had genuine merit
of their own to appeal to Walpole, Mason, or any critic
capable of estimating true poetry at its worth.
A fragment of the letter which accompanied the speci-
mens of Rowley — returned at a later date, on Chatterton's
demand, — still exists among the manuscripts in the British
Museum. The proud youth destroyed the evidence of
his own appeal to Walpole on finding it vain, and only
the last line and a half remains, with its intimation of the
enclosure of *' some further anecdotes and specimens of
poetry." But happily for us Walpole published his
vindication, from which we learn that — betrayed by his
courtesy into a candour that only required the long-
coveted friendly response to be converted into an in-
genuous confession of his deception, — he threw himself
on the generosity of his correspondent. " Chatterton,"
says Walpole, " informed me that he was the son of a
poor widow, who supponed him with great difficulty;
that he was clerk or apprentice to an attorney, but had a
taste and turn for more elegant studies; and hinted a
wish that I would assist him with my interest in emerg-
ing out of so dull a profession, by procuring him some
place in which he could pursue his natural bent." He
then referred to the great treasures of ancient poetry
discovered in his native city, of which he enclosed speci-
mens, including "an absolute modem pastoral in dia-
logue, thinly sprinkled with old words : " — the " Elinoure
and Juga," no doubt, which he immediately afterwards
sent to the Toum and Coimtry Magazine?-
The correspondence was conducted on Chatterton's
part with a care that shows how much he felt to be at
stake. Among his manuscripts in the British Museum
are copies of subsequent letters of varying structure, the
first drafts of those forwarded to Walpole, or, in some
cases, written but never sent. They evince a strong
desire to put forward the poems on their own merits,
^ Gent. Mag. vol. Hi. p. 247. The second letter to Walpole is
dated March 30th, 1769. The " Elinoure and Juga" appeared in
the Town and Country Magazine of the following May.
THE MODERN CAiVYXGE.
179
; ment
y critic
e speci-
terton's
; British
ence of
nd only
n of the
mens of
^ed his
i by his
le long-
I an in-
himself
tterton,"
son of a
ifficulty ;
ut had a
hinted a
n emerg-
im some
It." He
t poetry
ed speci-
in dia-
ilinoure
terwards
itterton's
to be at
Museum
ture, the
in some
strong
1 merits,
Walpole is
ppeared in
a
though still as genuine antiques. He says, for example :
" I thought Rowley's Paston.1 had a degree of merit that
would be its own defence." I'ut he had owned himself
a mere youth, the son of a poor widow ; and appealed to
the sympathy of the patrician litterateur for aid in attain-
ing a position where his genius might expatiate freely in
its own favourite field of antique song.
The change which this confession and appeal produced
on the tone of Walpole's letters was only too marked,
though natural enough. He had characterised the first
antique verses as " wonderful for their harmony and
spirit." He submitted the later ones to the poets Gray
and Mason, " who at once pronounced them forgeries."
At the same time he wrote to a relative, a noble lady at
Bath, and through her learned the truth of Chatterton's
statement as to his humble and dependent circumstances.
This done, he thus narrates the further course he pur-
sued. " Being satisfied with my intelligence about Chat-
terton, I wrote him a letter with as much kindness and
tenderness as if I had been his guardian ; for though I
had no doubt of his imposition, such a spirit of poetry
breathed in his coinage as interested me for him; nor
was it a grave crime in a young bard to have forged false
notes of hand that were to pass current only in the parish
of Parnassus ; " — and so Walpole did what ? "I un-
deceived him," he says, " about my being a person of
any interest, and urged him that, in duty and gratitude to
his mother, who had straitened herself to breed him up
to a profession, he ought to labour in it, that in her old
age he might absolve his filial debt. I told him that,
when he should have made a fortune, he might unbend
himself with the studies consonant tc his inclinations. I
told him also, that I had communicated his transcripts
to much better judges, and that they were by no means
satisfied with the authenticity of his supposed MSS." ^
Chatterton replied, in what Walpole characterises as a
peevish letter, reiterating the genuineness of the antique
poems, and concluding thus : " Though I am but sixteen
^ Gent. Mag. vol. Hi. p. 248.
N 2
ClIAl'. IX.
Change in
Walpole's
tone.
His mvn
aciOUHt 0/
his doings.
■^WPWWH^l
tmm
m
i8o
CIIATTERTON.
I
J
I
I
Chah. IX.
Failure of
the poit's
great hope.
Waking
from the
dream of a
li/etitiw.
years of age, I have lived long enough to see that poverty
attends literature. I am obliged to you, sir, for your
advice, and will go a little beyond it, by destroying all my
useless lumber of literature, and never using my pen again
but in law."
His great hope had failed him. Possibly the boy was
sincere in the momentary resolution to have done for
ever with the Muse. A week later he again wrote request-
ing the return of his papers. Walpole betrays an irritable
resentment in the terms he applies to each successive
letter ; and of this he says : " Hf demanded to have
them returned." The point is unimportant ; but Chat-
terton's reasonable* demand was thus courteously ex-
pressed : " I should be obliged to you to return me the
copy I sent you, having no other." When this letter
reached Walpole, he was preparing to set out, in a day
or two, for Paris ; and, according to his own account,
" either forgot his request of the poems, or perhaps not
having time to have them copied, deferred complying till
my return." It is not very apparent what right he could
claim to make copies of the poems. Possibly the idea
was an after-thought \ for he adds : " I protest I do not
remember which was the case ; and yet, though in a
cause of so little importance, I will not utter a syllable of
which I am not positively certain."
To Walpole it was, indeed, a matter of the utmost insigni-
ficance. But to Chatterton it involved a harsh waking
from the dream of a lifetime. To Paris, accordingly,
Walpole went ; spent six weeks among the gaieties of
that brilliant capital ; and on his return found on his
table the following spirited, but, as it appeared to him,
"singularly impertinent letter " : —
" Sir, — I cannot reconcile your behaviour with the notions I
once entertained of you. I think myself injured, sir ; and did you
not know my circumstances, you would not dare to treat me thus.
I have sent twice for a copy of the manuscripts ; — no answer from
you. An explanation or excuse for your silence would oblige
,, ^ , ,, „ r ^ 1 " Thomas Chatterton.
"July 24th" [1769].
Flinging into the fire a half-written reply, replete with
THE MOD/'lh'.V CANYiYCE.
i8i
overty
r your
all my
I again
)y was
ne for
;quest-
ritablt'
cessive
5 have
: Chat-
sly ex-
me the
; letter
1 a day
ccount,
aps not
/^ing till
e could
he idea
do not
h in a
able of
insigni-
waking
rdingly,
sties of
on his
o him,
otions I
did you
me thus.
wer from
RTON.
jte with
good advice to "the wrong-headed young man," Walpole
packed U|) the pocmH and letters; sent them to Chatter-
ton's addresH ; and thought no more of him, till, a year and
a half later, at tlie Royal Academy's dinner, he heard
his name mentioned by (loldsmith, with enthusiastic
references to the trv-asures of ancient poetry he had
brought to light ; and then learned that their author had
come to London ; Htruggled to maintain himself with his
pen ; and failing, had perished by his own hand.
Such, concisely, are the facts of Chatterton's appeal
and Walpole'H response. Here, assuredly, was no modern
Canynge for the true Rowley of his day. In his vindi-
cation he thus set!< forth his " abilities in the character of
a Maicenas, My fortime is i)rivate and moderate ; my
situation niore private ; my interest, none. I was neither
born to weallh, nor to accumulate it. I have indulged
a taste for expensive Ivaubles, with little attention to
economy. It did not become me to give myself airs of
protection ; and, thrutgh it might not be generous, I have
been less fond of the company of authors than of their
works."
Vain and Helfish as Walpole undoubtedly was ; a
fastidious triller, incapable of any very generous impulse :
he has been hardly dealt with in the matter of Chat-
terton. lie never saw the boy; and the mode of intro-
duction resorted to might have failed with better men.
To have sent to the author of the " Castle of Otranto "
the chorus from "Coddwyn," the " Storic of Canynge,"
or the "Tragedy of ylvlla," as professed antiques, resting
them on tlicir own merits, would have fairly tested both
his generosity anoiitor!
Did ever dalHer in the vestibule of " Fame's proud
temple'* fling awav such laurels? With what a tender
Mpirit of appr«^- dtive criticism would the reader have
turned to the slightest triviaUties of his pen ; what a rare
brilliancy would have centred on his " Historic Doubts ; "
hin "Castle of Otranto;" his "Letters," and "A..ec-
(lotcM ; " even his " Catalogue of Royal and Noble
Authors : " had these appeared as the literary pastimes
of him who was privileged to rescue from poverty and
neglect one of the most remarkable geniuses of his
age! But, with callous insensitiveness, he repeatedly
a>i»eft8 the worth of the jewel he flung aside. To Mason
-in the midst of coarse vituperation, — he writes of his
" almost incredible genius," of " the amazing prodigy of
liis producing" the antique poems as " a larger miracle "
than if the ancient Rowley had anticipated the style ot
modern poetry ; and again, to the Countess of Ossory :
" As for Chatterton, he was a gigantic genius, and might
have soared I know not whither." Yet, in his public
defence, he draws strange comfort from the conviction
" that premature genius is seldom equally great in its
meriuian;" and with a perverse confusion of ideps, only
too characteristic of Chatterton's defamers, he exclaims :
" Upon the whole, I cannot agree that Chatterton's pre-
mature fate has defrauded the world of anything half so
extraordinary as the miracles he wrought in almost
childhood. Had he lived longer, ample proofs of his
forgeries, which proofs he destroyed in his rage, might
have been preserved ; and instead of the posthumous
glory of puzzling the learned world, his name might now
be only recorded as that of an arch impostor ; " — and
all i\m from one who had himself worn the literary
mask 1
ftiid KxpoftM, — also got before he was of age, — was afterwards ex-
dlflflgctl for what he calls "two other little patent places in the
Kxchcqucr, called Comptroller of the Pipe and Clerk of the
ICstrents." These were followed by other sinecures, bequests, and
liiheritrtnces. Altogether, Walpole hud no need to put aside such
Mll«e» tts he dallied with, till ** he should have made a fortune."
T
THE MODERN CANYNGE.
I8s
rds ex-
in the
of the
ts, and
le such
e."
" Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them,
But in the less fou' profanation."
!t is obviously in this spirit that Walpole b?ndies such
phrases as imposition, fraud, forgery, tie resented the
assumption of antiquarian and Uterary tantes by the
poor widow's son as an impertinence. " True Anti-
quaries," as he said, " would not taste a genius, if they
thought it a contemporary ; " and especially an unheard-
of plebeian. " Oh ye who honour the name of Man,"
wrote the indignant Coleridge, " rejoice that this Walpole
is called a Lord."
It is not to be doubted that Chatterton bitterly felt
this defeat of long-cherished hopes. He. resented the
contumelious rejection of his advances to the wealthy
patrician ; without recognising in any degree how much
of the blame attached to himself His pride revolted at
the change of tone, from the courtesy of an equal to
that of a condescending retailer of commonplace advice ;
and, with even greater ire than was justified by the facts,
— could he have known them, — he brooded over the
discourtesy with which his unanswered letter and poems
had been returned. To Mr. Catcott be affirmed that
Walpole despised him from the time he made known to
him his indigent circumstances ; and he not only medi-
tated, but in some degree carried out his purpore of
retaliation.
Recovering his equanimity, he described the corre-
spondence, and its results, in this complacent fashion,
to his relative Mr. Stephens of Salisbury : " Having some
curious anecdotes of paintings and painters, I sent them
to Mr. Walpole, author of the 'Anecdotes of Painting,'
* Historic Doubts,' and other pieces well known in the
learned world. His answer I make bold to send you.
Hence I began a literary correspondence, which ended
as most such do. I differed with him in the age of a
MS. He insists on his superior talents, which is no
proof of that superiority. • We possibly may publicly en-
gage in one of the periodical publications ; though I know
Chai', IX,
Im^irtittifnt
pld'tMH
assuttiption.
Chiiitrrti'v't
keen rt:u'iit-
iiient It/
defeat.
y
Assunz/ifiim
of pliilo-
sophie
equaniiitity.
%
1
mmim
i86
CHATTERTON.
Chap. IX.
A literary
duel con-
templated.
Satirical
revenge.
Am rising
critical
i'litnder.
Kitty Clive
the actress.
not who will give the onset." The literary duel, here
contemplated, never came off; but opportunities were
not wanting on which he could become the assailant.
He took his revenge while living; he has had it far
more effectually since the world has learned, too late,
how slight an effort on Waipole's part might have pre-
served the aspiring boy who appealed to him in vain.
Chatterton never missed his opportunity of having a
fling at the man of taste. To the Middlesex Journal he
contributed, under the signature of " Decimus," ironical
criticisms on an imaginary exhibition of sign paintings,
suggested by the proceedings of the Royal Academy,
then in its infancy. The allusions are chiefly political.
But in the second day's exhibition is No. 12, "A piece
of modern antiquity by Horace Walpole. This is no
other than a striking portrait of the facetious Mrs. Clive.
Horace, finding it too large to be introduced in his next
edition of Virt'd, has returned it on the town." A similar
satirical allusion, repeated in his " Advice," has been
amusingly mistaken for a reference to Lord Clive, and so
produced in proof that Chatterton repented of his assaults
on Walpole. It serves, on the contrary, to show how much
of the point of his ephemeral satires is lost to the modem
reader. Maria R , of Bristol — no doubt that " female
Machiavel, Miss Rumsey," repeatedly referred to in his
letters, — is reminded, at the beginning of a new year,
how rapidly youth and beauty fade; and the poet thus
proceeds : —
* ' Yet when that bloom and dancing fire
In silvered reverence shall expire,
Aged, wrinkled, and defaced ;
To keep one lover's flame alive
Requires the genius of a Clive,
With Waipole's mental taste ! "
The Town and Country Magazine for 1769 supplies
the interpretation of what was, no doubt, intelligible
enough to all readers then. The celebrated comic
actress, Mrs. Clive, withdrew from the stage that year,
after a successful career, begun in 1730: speak'.ng her
THE MODERN CANYNGE.
187
, here
; were
ailant.
it far
D late,
re pre-
in.
ving a
-nal he
ronical
intings,
ademy,
olitical.
\. piece
5 is no
. Clive.
lis next
similar
IS been
and SO
assaults
w much
modem
female
in his
w year,
)et thus
supplies
elligible
comic
[at year,
:'.iig her
farewell in an epilogue written for her by Walpole.^ The
suggestive " Tete-k-T€te " of the December number is
illustrated with the portraits of the " Baron Otranto "
and the retired actress, under the name of Mrs. Heidel-
burgh, — the discarded " Antiquity " by and by found
unsuitable for his next edition of Virt-Ci. For at the very
time that Walpole was " undeceiving " Chatterton about
his being " a person of any interest," he was providing a
house for the actress at Strawberry Hill, which he calls
in some of his letters " Cliveden." This, it will be seen,
furnishes an explanation more in accordance with the
satirist's humour, than the blunder of Lord Orford's later
champions, who — crediting him with penitence for wrong
done to the Man of Virtu, — fancied Chatterton had
likened his Maecenas to the hero of Plassey, when he
was only thinking of Kitty Clive !
Chatterton was not of a temperament to yield readily
to such a change of feeling, even had any motive existed
to induce it. He returns to the assault, in his Burletta
of " The Woman of Spirit ; " one of the slighter dra-
matic production! of his brief London career. Lady
Tempest — who has so far condescended to forget her
quality as to marry " such a tautology of nothing " as
Mr. Councillor Latitat — scornfully complains that, this
very morning, he has " invited all his antiquated friends,
Lord Rust, Horatio Trefoil, Colonel Trajedus, Professor
Vase, and Counterfeit the Jew, to sit upon a brass half-
penny, which being a little worn, they agreed mm. con.
to be an Otho ! " Again in " The Polite Advertiser,"
contributed to the Town and Country Magazine of
July 1770," by Sir Butterfly Feather," the first item reveals
the same pen. " Whereas a young fellow, whom I have
great reason to imagine is either a linen-draper or haber-
dasher, has had the assurance to tie himself to an unac-
countable long sword, thought by Horatio Otranto, the
great Antiquary, to be three inches longer than the ever-
* The farewell epilogue was . spoken, April 24th, 1769, and is
printed in The Tozvn and Cnmtry Magazine of the same month,
p. ?i8.
Chap. IX.
The Baron
of Otranto' s
Tite-d- Tfte-
Pcrsistcni
satirical
assaults.
Sir Butter-
fly Feather.
mm
1 88
CHATTERTON.
Chai'. IX.
Sir Stentor
Ranger and
the Baron.
The antique
dog-kcnncl.
An anti-
quarian
prize.
■;
memorable one of the famous P2arl of Salisbury : this
is to inform him that, unless he can wear it without
fisting it in the clumsy manner he does, it shall be taken
from him."
But the keenest assav'^ of Chatterton's trenchant satire
occurs in another of his contributions to the Town and
Country Magazine entitled " The Memoirs of a Sad
Dog." Sir Stentor Ranger, the Rake's brother-in-lav, a
sporting knight who has converted an ancient Abbey intd*
his stable, and turned the Chapel into a dog-kennel, " had
many curious visitors, on account of his ancient painted
glass windows : among the rest was the redoubted Baron
Otranto, who has spent his whole life in conjectures."
After dinner, and some talk, at cross purposes, between
the sporting knight and his antiquarian guest, they ad-
journ to the antique dog-kennel. " The Baron found
many things worthy his riotico in the ruinated chapel ;
but the Knight was so full of the praises of his harriers,
that tlie Antiquary had not opportunity to form one
conjecture. After looking round the chapel for some
moveable piece, of age, on which he might employ his
speculative talents, to the eternal honour of his judg-
ment, he pitched upon a stone which had no antiquity at
all ; and, transported with his fancied prize, placed it
upon his head, and bore it triumphantly to his chamber,
desiring the Knight to give him no disturbance the next
day, as he intended to devote it to the service of futurity.
" This important- piece of stone had, by the huntsman,
been sacrilegiously stolen from the neighbouring church-
yard, and employed, with others, to stop up a breach in
the kennel, through which the adventurous Jowler had
squeezed his lank carcase. Nothing can escape the
clutches of curiosity. The letters being' ill cut, had an
appearance of something Gothic ; and the Baron was so
far gone in this Quixotism of literature, that at the first
glance he determined them to be of the third Runic
alphabet of Wormius. The original inscription was :
* James Hicks lieth here, with Hester his wife.' The
broken stone is here represented : —
n , , ■/
THE MODERN CANYNGE.
189
Chap. IX.
The
mysterious
inscription.
" The Baron having turned over Camden, Dugdale,
Leyland, and Weever, at last de<^ermined it to be : Hie
jacet corpus Kenehna Saftdo Legero ; rcqiiicscat, &c., ^.^c.
What confirmed him in the above reading, and made it
impossible for him to be mistaken, was, that a great man
of the name of Sancto Legero had been buried in the
country about five hundred years ago
" Elated with the happy discovery, the Baron had an
elegant engraving of the curiosity executed, and pre-
, sented it to the Society of Antiquaries, who look upon
it as one of the most important discoveries which have
been made since the great Dr. Trefoil found out that the
word kine came from the Saxon cowme."
Walpole undoubtedly winced under the sarcasms of
his assailant ; though in one of his letters to the Rev.
William Cole he disclaims all feeling in reference to the /^""^
attack " under the title of Baron of Otranto, which is
written with humour. I must," he adds, *' have been the
sensitive plant, if anything in that character had hurt
me ! " and then, in the very next sentence, he betrays
the vindictive sensitive plant that he really was, by ex-
claiming : " Think of that young rascal's note, summing
up his gains and losses by writing for and against Beck-
ford. . . . There was a lad of too nice honour to be
guilty of a forgery ! "
The fancy that Horace Walpole was to prove the
Maecenas of the poet had thus been dissipated beyond
recall. Chatterton had learned a hard lesson of
world's experience, which, unhappily, brought with it
none of the sweet uses of adversity. One can see in
stray allusions to his plans and hopes, that he had been
looking earnestly into the uncertain future, revolving
Its pnblica-
tinn to the
learned
world.
The
vindictive
sensitive
Hard lesson
of world's
experience.
II
m^m
190
CHATTERTON.
C'HAI', IX.
The real
hattlto/ll/e.
many Hchemes for emancipation, and falling back on his
old dream of a Canynge worthy of the true Rowley j
and now came this harsh awakenmg to the truth that the
battle of life had to be fought by himself, as by many
another less gifted, without the aid of patronage or help
from without. His pride remained unsubdued, and his
will resolute as ever ; but his moral nature had suffered a
Hhock only too painfully traceable in the brief months of
hi» fevered life that remained. It is to this later period,
aH we shall find, that his bitter personal satires, and his
irreverent assaults on everything most sacred, belong.
I I
CHAPTER X.
THE SATIRIST.
Among those who influenced Chatterton, and extended
some friendly aid to the boy towards the close of his
career, the Rev. Alexander Catcott, brother of the more
notable pewterer, claims special notice. Their father
has been already referred to as master of the Grammar
School ; but he was also the author of a Latin treatise,
pubUshed in 1738, on the Hutch insonian philosophy,
and its interpretations of the Mosaic Creation. The
book, with its mystical tabulae of planetary diagrams,
elucidated with the help of Hebrew and Latin for-
mulae, is a specimen of darkening counsel by words
without knowledge, which even its later editor, Mr.
Maxwell, admits to be " confused, extremely coarse, and
not always intelligible."^ But his son, as was natural,
had formed a much higher estimate of the work, and
strove to follow in his father's footsteps, with all the
advantages that learning and science could supply. He
was a man of very different character from his brother ;
a clergyman and a scholar, with scientific tastes and
literary aspirations to which he still owes some re-
membrance. But when, ere long, he and his proUge
came into collision, it was not without some of the veri-
similitude which gives the sting to satire that Chatterton
described him as : —
** By birth to prejudice and whim allied,
And heavy with hereditary pride."
1 The Ancient Principles of the True and Sacred Philosophy, &c.
p. 120.
Chaf'. X.
The Rev.
Alexamh'r
Catcott
A scientific
vicar.
1 '
It
I
tmrnf
192
CHATTERTOy.
Chap. X.
Presentation
to tlie
Tem/>le
Vicantge.
I'.stiiiiaie of
f>oetry.
Wide
diversity of
tastes.
Geological
researches.
Mr. Catcott was presented to the vicarage of Temple
Church, Bristol, the same year in which Chatterton left
Colston's Hospital ; and one of his minor poems helps
us to trace their mutual relations during the poet's last
year in Bristol. The Vicar had not been left in ignorance
of the treasures his brother was accumulating from the
supposed spoils of Redcliffe Church. But his faith in his
brother's judgment in such matters, and his estimate of
the worth of the most genuine poetical treasures, were on
a par. According to a contemporary, " he considered
poetry to have an idle, if not an evil tendency; and
was so far from regarding the Rowley specimens of
antiquity with an eye of pleasure or curiosity, that he
condemned his brother for misspending his time in
attending to them." ^ He parted with the greater part
of his own library, after a time, reserving only books of
divinity and the whole Hutchinsonian controversy; but
subsequently finding among the reserved volumes a copy
of Barclay's "Ship of Fools," he transferred it to the
kitchen for use as waste paper.
The direction of the Vicar's tastes lay in all respects
far apart from any of Chatterton's favourite pursuits. He
is spoken of as one of the best Hebrew scholars of his
day. But his chief fame rests on certain theophilo-
sophical speculations, in which he strove, with the com-
bined aid of science and theology, to solve the problems
of Creation and the Deluge. So early as 1750, he had
explored the neighbouring caves of Ban well, ^ and for ned
an interesting palseontological collection, still preserved
in the Bristol City Library. A writer in the Town and
Country Magazine, after referring to his collection of
minerals and fossils, says : " If you pay him a visit, he
conducts you into his best parlour, where are deposited
the above valuable curiosities. After he has explained
the beauty and remarkableness of each class, the place
where they were found, as also how they came into his
possession, he asks you, with a look of infinite satis-
1 MSS. Bristol City Library.
' In Somersetshire, about sixteen miles from Bristol.
THE SATIRIST.
193
the
espects
ts. He
of his
ophilo-
le com-
oblems
e had
omed
served
n and
ion of
|isit, he
osited
lained
place
to his
satis-
liaction, whether all those things do not i)lainly prove a
deluge?" 1
In 1 761, when Chatterton was still a child, Mr. Catcott
pubHslicd his " Treatise on the Deluge and Structure of
the Karth," and was busy on a new and enlarged edition,
which appeared in 1768, when he first came in contact
with the poet. According to Warton, Chatterton owed
to him an introduction to the old library at Bristol, with
its rare and otherwise inaccessible books ; and if, while
conferring so welcome a service, he had been capable of
symi)athising with the poet in his favourite pursuits, his
moral influence might have proved invaluable. Due care
had doubtless been taken by Mr. Colston's trustees to
see that Chatterton was apprenticed to a sound Church-
man, according to the pattern of that eighteenth century.
But while Mr. Lambert exacted the most rigid con-
formity to house and office hours, he gave himself no
further concern about the boy ; and when the weather
was favourable, his Sundays appear to have been devoted
frequently to long country rambles. But early training
had familiarized him with the services of the Church ;
and his satirical criticisms on preaching, reading, and
Church music, suffice at least to show that he did not
wholly abandon public worship when left to his own
choice. But from repeated allusions, in his satires, it is
obvious that, in spite of all the fond associations of Red-
cliffe Church, its preacher and preaching w^ere alike dis-
tasteful to him ; '-^ and the appointment of Mr. Catcott to
the vicarage of the adjoining parish in 1767, probably
helped, ere long, to induce his withdrawal from it.
^ Town and Country Magazine, June 1771, p. 316.
" Somewhat may be learned of the Rev. Dr. Broughton, from his
virtues and preferments, as set forth on his marble tablet in Red-
cliffe Church. " He was a profound and elegant scholar; and
successfully employed his talents to the support of the Protestant
establishment," — successfully in this respect at least, as appears:
he was Rector of St. Andrew's, Holborn, and of Stepinj^ton, Herts,
Prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral, and Vicar of Bedminster, with
the Chapclries of Mary RedclifTe, St. Thomas, and Abbot's Leigh
annexed. Evidently a buttress and pillar of the Church.
Chap. X.
Catcott o'
'\
194
CHATTERTON.
Chap. X.
of Ti-iiifile
Church.
Cosvtkal
ami diluvial
neology.
Re'aliation
on the
censor.
I
The intercourse between Chatterton and the new Vicar
must, for some brief period, have been both friendly and
confidential. According to his own account he had access
when he pleased to the parson's study;* and Mr. Catcott
stated that, having had a conversation with him one even-
ing, he traced its very substance in a piece produced
some time after as Rowley's.^ Whether, therefore, the
pleasure of holding intercourse with a man of cultivated
intellect, the novelty of the Vicar's Mosaic interpretations,
or gratitude for personal attentions, first attracted the
boy, he evidently yielded himself for a time unreservedly
to his influence. Temple Church is on the Somerset-
shire side of the Avon, at no great distance from Mrs. Chat-
terton's house. Thither, on a Sunday morning, Chatterton
might occasionally be seen wending his way towards the
hour of morning service. For a time curiosity was excited,
and an interest awakened in the ingenious speculations of
the preacher. But the Vicar had to listen ere long, in his
study, to arguments challenging his teachings from the
pulpit; and so,,as numerous allusions in Chatterton's satires
show, the disciple came into collision with his teacher.
The whole subject of cosmical and diluvial geology,
alike in its theological and scientific aspects, has under-
gone so great a revolution, that the ablest treatises of
the last century are mainly interesting now as literary
curiosities. But in 1768, the Bristol Vicar honestly
maintained his long-exploded diluvian theories as a part
of revelation. He dogmatized ; the sharp-witted boy
detected the fallacies in his argument ; and on his own
productions being subjected to critical censure, he sat
down and penned a rhyming epistle to his censor, dated
December 6th, 1760, beginning thus: —
" What strange infatuations rule mankind !
How narrow are our prospects, how confined !
With universal vanity possessed,
We fondly think our own ideas best ;
Our tottering arguments are ever strong ;
We're always self-sufficient in the wrong."
1 Gent. Mag, N. S. vol. x. p. 604. ^ Gregory's Life, p. 127.
THE SA TIRIST.
'95
;r Vicar
lly and
access
Catcott
e even-
oduced
)re, the
Itivated
tations,
ted the
ervedly
merset-
s. Chat-
itterton
irds the
excited,
itions of
g, in his
the
om
s satires
cher.
jeology,
; under-
tises of
literary
onestly
a part
d boy
is own
he sat
dated
127.
In reviewing the i)ro(luctions of Chatterton's satirical
muse, it must not be overlooked that the best of them
are hasty effusiouH, expressing the mere feeling of the
moment, rather than any settled convictions. The most
of them were neither published, nor designed for publi-
cation 1)^ their author ; but circulated in manuscript
among hiH own circle, in versions modified to suit indivi-
dual tastes. II in " Kew (Jardens," " Whore of Babylon,"
and " Kxhibition," have many lines in common. Of the
first two, indeed, more than half of each differs from the
other only in occaHional phrases.^ In such productions
he had no thouj^ht of fame. They rank with the loose
after-dinner gossip or scandal, rather than with the earnest
thoughts, of ordinary men ; and their preservation has been
due to no regard for Chatterton's good name.
In the very freest fashion of this satirical vein, Chat-
terton penned his " J'!pistle to Rev. Mr. Catcott." After an
introductory review of the pride and dogmatism of philo-
sophic sages in general, and a glance in passing at various
minor objects of animadversion, the reverend geologist is
thus pictured in the midst of his cabinets of minerals and
fossils, demonstrating, with the aid of his philosophical
apparatus, the six days' work of creation, and solving
every difficulty in the universe to an assembly of " won-
dering cits " and fiiir philosophers : —
"The laisth to
Rev. Mr.
Catcott.
The
rcvci-cnd
gcoiog^ist.
% i;
!
If H
im^'^mmm^m
Wlml
■""imvi
,/"
196
CHATTERTON.
Chap. X.
A satirical
sketch.
Legitimate
criticism.
Iri'iiical
advice.
Sage natural philosophers adore
The fossil whimseys of the numerous store.
But see ! the purple stream begins to play,
To show how fountains climb the hilly way.
Hark what a murmur echoes thro' the throng !
Gods I That the pretty trifle should be wrong !
Experience in the voice of Reason tells
Above its surface water never swells.
Where is the priestly soul of Catcott now ?
See what a triumph sits upon his brow !
And can the poor applause of things like these,
Whose souls and sentiments are all disease,
Raise little triumphs in a man like you,
Catcott, the foremost of the judging few?
So at Llewellin's your great brother sits.
The laughter of his tributary wits ;
Ruling the noisy multitude with ease ;
Empties his pint, and sputters his decrees."
So far, however imprudent the satire might be, it is not
only spirited but legitimate enough ; and when we turn
to more critical passages, the judgment of modern science
would be on the side of the poet. But unhappily the
science was inextricably interwoven with the theology of
the divine ; and more earnest disputants have failed to
discriminate between the truths of inspiration and the
blundering of its interpreters. After another flash of
satirical licence, he thus ironically advises : —
" Confute with candour, where you can confute ;
Reason and arrogance but poorly suit.
Yourself may fall before some a'ler pen,
InfaUibility is not for men.
With modest diffidence new schemes indite ;
Be not too positive, tho' in the right.
Tlio' pointed fingers mark the man of fame.
And literary grocers chaunt you- name ;
Tliough in each tailor's bookcase Catcott shines
With ornamental flowers and gikled lines;
Tlio' youthful ladies, who by instinct scan
The natural pliilosophy of man, '
Can every reason of your work repeat,
As sands in .A.frica retain the heat ;
Yet check your (lowing pride "
THE SATIRIST.
197
And so the critical censor proceeds to deal with the
theory of a universal diluvian dissolution and reconstruc-
tion of matter ; of aerial vortices propelling the planets
in their spheres j and the like teachings of long-forgotten
Hutchinsonian philosophy. He then adds : —
"'Twas the Eternal's fiat, you r \\y ;
And who will give Eternity the lie ?
I own the awful truth that God made all ;
And by His fiat worlds and systems fall.
But study Nature : not an atom there
Will, unassisted by her powers, appear ;
The fiat, without agents, is at best
For priestcraft, or for ignorance, a vest."
Clayfield is quoted as censuring the theologian, and
demonstrating his theory untrue ; and then Moses is
confounded with his interpreters, and the sacred Scrip-
tures are handled with irreverent scepticism. We thus
obtain a clue to the period when Chatterton first gave
expression to sceptical doubts. The death of his early
friend and adviser, Phillips, occurred, there can be little
doubt, in the autumn of 1769; and his introduction to
Mr. Clayheld followed on that event, to which indeed it
appears to have been mainly due. ^Vith the latter he
appears to have discussed the speculations of Mr. Catcott,
and to have received encouragement in his antagonism
to the new philosophy.
For the licence of his poetical effusions, so far as their
personal satire is concerned, considerable allowance
must be made in view of the prevailing style of the
period. Chatterton evidently considered it perfectly
compatible with a renewal of fnendly relations with the
victims of his saucy wit : with whom he contended on
terms of perfect equality, while in their estimation he
appeared only as a presumptuous boy. He meant no
more than a piece of sportive retaliation for some
free criticism of the Vicar on his own writings ; and so
he thus ironically schools his muse into more becoming
courses : —
Chap. X.
Teachings of
J/utchin-
sottiart
philosoJ>hy.
Irreverent
icc/>tkii!iit.
11
Style 0/ the
period.
h
I9S
CHA TTERTON.
Chap, X,
Plen of tho
itttirisi,
Thou^hthis
effitsions of
hispen.
The Copet
nkivi
iy stent.
" Restrain, O Muse, thy unaccomplished lines;
Fling not thy saucy iatire at divines ; —
This single truth thy brother bards must tell,
Thou hast one excellence, of railing well.
Uut disputations are befitting those
Who settle Hebrew points, and scold in prose."
In a postscript, dated December 20th, 1769, he thus
guriouHly disavows the maintenance of the extreme
opinions set forth in his satire, and invites a renewal of
friendly relations. " Mr. Catcott will be pleased to
obHUfve that I admire many things in his learned re-
marks. This poem is an innocent effort of poetical
Vitnjgoance, as Mr. Catcott has done me the honour to
critlclMe my trifles. I have taken great poetical liberties,
and what I dislike in verse probably deserves my appro-
bation in the plain prose of truth." The "Episde,"
therefore, was really sent to the Vicar; and until pub-
lished long after its author's death, — as the postscript
shows, — existed only in the copy he received. We cannot
indeed imagine he thought it worth preserving. But
probably it was handed to his brother, in confirmation
of opinions freely expressed as to his graceless protege,
and the less sensitive pewterer added the satire to his
literary hoard.
Chatterton, it is obvious, had no malicious design.
In the latest piece of composition penned by him before
leaving Bristol, we shall find him apologizing to the two
brothers for such fruits of his " unlucky way of raillery,
when the strong fit of satire is upon him." With all the
inexperienced rashness of youth, he gave full play to the
dangerous weapon he could handle so cleverly ; and he
fancied his verses would be laughed at and forgotten.
It is accordingly within three days after the above post-
script was penned, that we find him dating his " Coper-
nican System," the history of which is thus interestingly
associated with the Temple Church and the Vicar's
sermons. Mr. Corser, who claimed to have been one of
Chatterton's intimate acquaintances, well remembered
meeting him one Sunday morning, towards the close, as
THE SATIRIST.
is manifest, of his 'ast year in Bristol, "at the gate of
Temple Church, w len the bells were chiming for service.
There being yet seme time to spare before the prayers
commenced, Chatterton proposed their taking a walk
together in the churchyard, which was then open to the
public, and laid out like a garden. 'Come,' said he,
* I want to read you something I have just written ;' and
when arrived at a secluded spot, he read to Mr. Corser a
treatise on astronomy, and stated that he had not yet
finished it, but that he intended to make it the subject
of a poem."^ It appeared, accordingly, in the last num-
ber of the Towfi and Country Magazine of 1769, with
the date, " Bristol, Dec. 23d," and his favourite signature,
D. B.2
Up to the date of this interview, he had probably
maintained friendly intercourse with the Vicar, and
listened with an interest in no degree diminished by the
doubts they suggested^ to his geological speculations, and
the demonstrations of a system of the universe in har-
mony with his Hutchinsonian theology. Hence this
interesting link between the labours of the preacher and
the poet. Following the planets in their order, the earth
is thus described on her zodiacal path : —
" More distant still, our globe terraqueous turns,
Nor chills intense, nor fiercly heated burns;
Around her rolls the lunar orb of light,
Trailing her silver glories through the night.
On the Earth's orbit see the various signs :
Mark where the Sun, our year completing, shines ;
First the bright Ram his languid ray improves ;
Next, glaring watciy, through the Bull he moves ;
The amorous Twins admit his genial ray ;
Now burning, through the Crab he takes his way;
The Lion, flaming, bears the Solar power ;
The Virgin faints beneath the sultry shower;
Now the just Ballance weights his equal force,
The slimy Serpent swelters in his course.
1 Dix'sLife, p. 63.-
^ Town and Country Magazine 1769, p. 666,
199
Ckai', X.
A SuHi/tty
at Teinf'U
Chunk,
lujluencc of
the preachiv
on the poet.
If
I
i :,
I *,„
The signs of
the zoiiinc.
200
CHATTER TON.
Chap. X.
J'rodnciion
of his astro-
nottiicnl
J>oem.
Traces of
viore earnest
thoiisfit.
Filial' reach
ivith tlie
Vicar.
The sabled Archer clouds his languid face.
The Goat with tempest urges on his race ;
Now in the Water his faint beams appear,
And the cold Fishes end the circling year. "
This poem was already in hand before the " Epistle "
was despatched to the Vicar, if not indeed before it was
written. For that piece of satirical retaliation bears all
the marks of one of those hasty effusions, in which,
scorning Bristol's " narrow notions " of prudence, he says
of himself: —
" When raving in the lunacy of ink,
I catch my pen and publish what i think." i
But having thus had his critical revenge, his equanimity
was restored ; he could even recall with approval some
of the Vicar's favourite teachings ; and, under the influ-
ence of more earnest thoughts, honestly close with this
couplet : —
" These are Thy wondrous works, First Source of good,
Now more admired in being understood."
It evidently did not occur to Chatterton that his
audacious retort need cause any estrangement between
him and Mr. Catcott. But less sensitive men would
have resented such unscrupulous ridicule : and, as Chat-
terton added, in closing his postscript, " I am indifferent
in all things ; I value neither the praise nor the censure
of the multitude ;" so, on finding all friendly relations at
an end, he resumed the bitter vein, and proceeded to
still less "innocent" forms of poetical vengeance. He
apparently contemplated an elaborate satire, after the
model of Churchill's unsparing assaults on political and
personal antagonists ; as both the " Whore of Babylon,"
and the "Exhibition," are marked as "Book the First;"
and in each he works up old materials, and abruptly
terminates an incompleted design.
The " Exhibition " no doubt belongs to the latest
1 Kew Gardens.
THE SATIRIST.
201
months of Chatterton's Bristol carear. It has never
been published ; and it would have been well had it
perished, with its evidence that youthful purity had been
sullied, and the precocious boy was only too conversant
with forbidden things. The copy in the Bristol Library
bears date May ist, 1770 — a few days after he reached
London, — when we find him also copying his " Kew
Gardens," in order to transmit it to his friend Gary.
It is entitled "The Exhibition; a personal satyr;" and
fully merits its claim to personality in its satirical sketches.
Amongst others, the Temple Vicar is dealt with in terms
still freer than in the Epistle addressed to himself.
" This truth, this mighty truth, — if truth can shine
In the smooth polish of a laboared line, —
Catcott by sad experience testifies ;
1 And who shall tell a sabled priest he lies ?
\ Bred to the juggling of the specious band
Predestinated to adorn the land.
The selfish Catcott ripened to a priest,
And wore the sable livery of the Beast.
By birth to prejudice and whim allied,
And heavy with hereditary pride,
He modelled pleasure by a fossil rule
And spent his youth to prove himself a fool;
Buried existence in a lengthened cave,
And lost in dreams whatever nature gave."
The parson's study was now finally closed on the
reprobate. If he held poetry in little esteem before, it
was still less likely to win his favour now. A contem-
porary, writing four years after his death, says, " Mr.
George Catcott believes, had his brother survived him.
and these (the Rowley Poems) had fallen into his hands
before their publication, that he would have destroyed
them."^ With such a Mentor, collision was, sooner or
later, inevitable ; but now, unhappily, the whole clerical
order became the objects of his indiscriminate raillery,
including Bishop Newton, the editor of Milton, and
author of a " Dissertation on the Prophecies," against
1 MSS. Bristol Libraiy, dated 30th March, 1783.
Chai'. X.
"The
hition^
satire.
Exhi-
"a
^
Indiscrimi-
vnic assail'
ing of the
clerical
order.
%
Tr?i:^5!
202
CHATTERTON.
Chap. X.
Apprentice-
ship
drawing
to a close.
T/iejndff-
vent oj'
posterity on
poets.
Injustice
done to
ChattcrtoH.
Harsh
epithets
applied.
whom "The Whore of Babylon" is chiefly directed, in
so far as it differs from " Kew Gardens."
Chatterton's apprenticeship to Mr. Lambert was now
drawing towards its abrupt close. After a few more
months, he was to start on a course of his own choice.
Already we see him claiming equality with ^he most
learned among his critics, and asserting his independence
by the bold avowal of opinions calculated to place him
in antagonism with the wiser and better class of those
who had hitherto admitted him to their society. No
fitter opportunity therefore will occur for the consideration
of his peculiar mental and moral characteristics.
Poets have not in general had to complain of the hard
judgment of posterity on their personal failings, what-
ever may have been the measure meted out to them by
contemporaries. Much has been forgiven to Dryden
and the lesser wits of the Restoration era ; to Ottway,
Swift, Gay, Smollett, and even to Savage : in the licence
of their lives, or of their pens. But to Chatterton, the
very harshest judgment of unappreciating and vindictive
contemporaries has been reechoed for a century over his
grave. True poets, indeed, have sung the dirge of " The
sleepless Soul that perished in his pride ;" but still in
prose has been reiterated the echoes of his first traducers.
He has had every juvenile folly and indiscretion aggra-
vated ; every false surmise reiterated, as though it were
an established truth ; and acts in his strange literary
career, which he shares in common with Walpole, Percy,
Surtees, and Scott, have been spoken of in terms that
would be resented as harsh, if applied to Bertram or
Macpherson, not to mention Ireland. He is referred to,
even by Professor Masson, as dogged, sullen, malicious ;
while from the pages of Walpole, Chalmers, Warton, and
other critics, — culminating in our own day in the scholarly
librarian of a late Archbishop of Canterbury, — we glean
such choice epithets as rogue, swindler, unprincipled
impostor, liar, and forger; a consummate villain, an
unprincipled libertine, depraved in mind and profligate
in morals ; one, in fact, " whose death was of little
THE SATIRIST.
203
cted, in
'as now
iv more
choice.
le most
indence
ace him
)f those
ty. No
deration
he hard
3, what-
;hem by
Dryden
Ottway,
licence
ton, the
ndictive
over his
)f " The
still in
iducers.
1 aggra-
it were
literary
, Percy,
ns that
ram or
rred to,
icious ;
Ion, and
holarly
e glean
ncipled
lin, an
ofligate
f Uttle
consequence, since he could not long have escaped
hanging !"^
Much of this stupid slander is traceable to the wounded
vanity of Bristol patrons ; and still more, to the vindic-
tive ire of lettered antiquaries who were puzzled or duped
by the boy's spurious antiques. The style of literary
discussion in the eighteenth century partook of the
bitterness of its satire ; and irritated controversialists,
convicted of credulity and blundering, took their revenge
in maligning the author, over whose works they disputed.
Neither party had the poet's reputation in view. Indeed,
of those who asserted his authorship of the Rowley
Poems, the majority fancied that this was tantamount to
establishing their worthlessness. Hence opprobrious
epithets circulated unchallenged, till such a confusion of
ideas prevailed, that when the author of " The Castle of
Otranto," with his own experience in such matters, re-
marked that "all of the house of forgery are relations ;"
and spoke of Chatterton's "ingenuity in counterfeiting
styles " of imaginary poets of the fifteenth century, as an
easy step towards the forging of promissory notes : no
one ventured to assert broadly that the creator of the
imaginary Rowley and his works had, in tha^ at least,
done only what merited applause. It might well be said,
in the language of our living laureate : —
*' Wild words wander here and there ;
God's great gift of speech abused
Makes thy memory confused —
But let them rave."
Yet even the stupidest slander does not perpetuate
itself without some foundation. If literary forgery were
the capital offence, the same gallows should have suf-
ficed for Walpole and Chatterton. But it is not to be
overlooked that there are passages in Chatterton's modern
prose and verse, and allusions in his letters, which repel
^ Miscellanies, p. 18. Walpole's Vindication ; Letters to Mason,
Cole, &c. Gent. Mag. N. S. vol. x. p. 133, &c. Maitland, pp. 18,
19, 22, &c. Croft, p. 148, &c. &c.
Chai'. X.
Chief sour iC
of such iiiis-
represeiita-
tions.
Confusion
of ideas.
Some
fotindation
for the
slander.
H' \
I
I
M
204
CIlATTERTOy.
ClIAl'. X.
Mil nil I' ft
iiiul ajiirit 0/
tlif iijfc:
/iimmh-
ti'iicy 0/ t/ti!
RouiU'yam.
[.ati'st of
the ncfwol.
Assumed
iinioliiiif>ra-
pliic allu-
sions.
1)y their irreverence, and at times by their impurity. In
tiiis he only too clearly reflects to us the manners and
spirit of that eighteenth century; but no one familiar
with the literature of that age can accept it as proof of
his systematic profligacy, as has been insinuated, rather
than attempted to be proved. Apart from all the pro-
Ibundcr elements of interest in a life so brief, and marked
by such rare precocity, it has its curious phases as a
iini<|ue ])sychological study; and as such, the subser-
viency of the physical to the intellectual and moral nature
(;r the boy must not be overlooked.
With strange inconsistency the believers in a genuine
priest Rowley, resuscitated by Chatterton, — who, accord-
ing to their theory, had the honesty to disclaim all the
gl(;ry which he might have appropriated to himself, — have
concurred in blackening his moral character, c^en where
they acknowledge his intellectual vigour. Chalmers, and
writers of his class, represent him as precocious only in
vice. The anonymous editor of his " Miscellanies," with
ii better appreciation of his intellectual merits, asserts
that " his profligacy was, at least, as conspicuous as his
al)ilities;" while the latest of the Rowleyan school of
antifjiiaries, — having a theory of his own to maintain,
which required him to prove that Chatterton suffered no
privations in Bristol, made considerable sums of money
in l/ondon, and never was in want, — acquits him of the
charge in this ambiguous fashion : " That he was, in one
sense of the word, profligate — that is, that he was a
habitual and gross liar, and not restrained by any reli-
gious or moral principle from saying or writing that which
he knew to be false, for the sake of gain, — is too clear; but
that he was profligate as the v/ord is used with reference
to sensual immorality, at least in such way as should
accoimt for pecuniary distress, I do not believe." ^
In the same spirit, attempts have been made to give
an autobiographic character to passages in some of
liis slightest contributions to the Town and Country
Magazine^ written after a fashion familiar to readers of
* Maitland, p. 47.
THE SATIRIST.
205
rity. In
ners and
familiar
proof of
d, rather
the pro-
l marked
ses as a
; subser-
al nature
genuine
, accord-
1 all the
f, — have
m where
lers, and
I only in
es," with
, asserts
IS as his
:hool of
iiaintain,
Fered no
money
n of the
in one
I was a
any reli-
it which
ear; but
eference
should
to give
ome of
Country
iders of
the Tatlcr and Spectator: in the character of ^'' As-
irea Brockage" a Bristol boarding-school miss, who
boasts that she has read every novel published by
Lowndes or Noble ; and tells the editor : " I know all
the real names of your * Tetes-h-tetes,' and am very well
skilled in decyphering an asterism or dash ;" in that of
Maria Friendless, a frail woman ; of Frances, a widowed
countess who has taken a "false step;" of Tom Sehvood,
the heir of an eccentric country gentleman ; and of
Harry Wildfire^ who furnishes a sketch of his own career
as a well-born rake, under the title of " Memoirs of a Sad
Dog." In more than one of those passages, — such as that
of " the redoubted Baron of Otranto," and again of
Harry Wildfire, himself, setting up for a man of letters, —
unquestionably illustrate points of interest in the life of
their author. But beyond this it would be gratuitous
folly to go.
The novels of Lowndes and Noble were the impure
reading provided for youths ' of both sexes in that
eighteenth century, when Horace Walpole was printing
at Strawberry Hill a volume of poems by Lady Temple,
some of which could not now be produced without excit-
ing disgust by their indelicacy.^ Fielding's " Tom Jones"
and "Joseph Andrews," Smollett's "Roderick Random,"
and even his " Peregrine Pickle," then held the place in
the family library now filled by Thackeray's and Dickens'
writings ; and Sir Walter Scott has graphically described
the shock with which a venerable lady of his acquaint-
ance made the discovery, on turning over the leaves of
one of Mrs. Behn's novels, that she, and all the fashion-
able world of her youth, habitually read without thought
of impropriety, what disgusted her at fourscore.
The Town atid Country Magazine is no unfair speci-
mfen of a periodical of that age. The " Tetes-^-tetes"
which the boarding-school miss declares to be no mystery
to her, were histories of the current scandal of the day,
illustrated by portraits of the real or assumed heroes and
heroines. Among these we have already seen "The
^ Vide Grenville Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 257.
Cmai'. X,
Astrrii
ISrockii.k^e.
ffiiriy
Wiuifin-
Iiitf>i!re
litt-i-i-if uii' Iff
the pirioiL
The Tovn
ami Couim y
Miigaziiw.
'/
2o6
ClfATTERTON.
Chap. X.
The School
for Scandal,
Periodicals
of the day.
A specimen
"^'olumc.
A Ro7uley
contribu-
tion.
Baron of Otranto" figuring ; possibly with little more
justice than other victims of Mrs. Clackitt, of whom
Snake says, in " The School for Scandal," *' I have more
than once traced her causing a tete-h,-tete in the Town
and Country Magazine, when the parties, r)erhaps, had
never seen each other's faces in the course ot their lives."
To this feature, accordingly. Dr. Maitland refers, in illus-
tration of the " infamy of this publication ; *' and after
describing it in very plain language, as " the principal
embellishment and attraction of each number," he adds :
" This may be sufficient to enable the reader lo form an
estimate of the magazine," and, by implication, o': its
young contributor.^ Nothing, on the contrary, could be
more misleading.
The Town and Country Magazine was brought out
in the best style of periodicals of its day ; had a large
circulation ; and, I doubt not, lay unchallenged on many
a reputable drawing-room table ^f that eighteenth cen-
tury. The volume most interesting to us in relation to
Chatterton, — that of 1769, — apart from the one piece of
scandal ir each number, would not discredit Sylvanus
Urban's reputation. It begins with an article " On the
State of Europe," next comes a biographical notice of
" The late Duke of Newcasde," then follows the " Tete-
k-tete" for January, with its Sir E , Mrs. C , Sir
J L , &c., filHng two pages; no doubt piquant
enough for the Mrs. Candours and Lady Sneerwells of
its day, but obscure enough now. The next article com-
pares the ancient and mod 3rn dress of France and Eng-
land from the time of the Crusades ; and so leads to a
letter in the March number, from D. B. of Bristol, show-
ing on the authority of a MS. "written three hundred
years ago, by one Rowley, a monk," that " Richardus,
abbatte of Seyncte Augustynes, dyd wear a mantelle of
scarlette," &c. So the miscellaneous contents proceed.
There are reports of trials and other judicial matters;
including the famous "Douglas Cause," and the Great
Wilkes' question ; accounts of geographical discoveries ;
1 Maitland, p. 48.
THE SA TIRIST.
207
notices of local curiosities and antiquities ; reviews of
current literature, the drama, and politics ; and along
with them, very fairly executed engravings of such nota-
bilities as Alderman Wilkes, I-ord Mayor Reck ford. Lord
Chancellor Camden, the Corsican patriot, Paoli ; and
an elaborately executed plate of Carrick reciting his
Ode in honour of Shakespeare, at the Stratford Jubilee
of that year. Among other illustrations, the reader
is attracted by certain political caricatures, carefully
executed, and by no means devoid of spirit : the
"Brentford Sweepstakes," referring to the famous Mid-
dlesex election of the time; the "Battle of Cornhill,"
another episode in the grand contest of " Wilkes and
Liberty;" and "The Peace Makers" of 1769 : all full of
interest to the readers of a century ago. Woodcuts supply
minor illustrations. Mathematical problems are solved
with their aid. The apocryphal coats of arms of Keyna,
Wessex, &c., accompany a Bristol letter of D. B., on
Saxon Heraldry ; and a " wooden portrait " of Samuel
Derrick, Esq., late master of the ceremonies at Bath,
illustrates certain anecdotes of him which, as will be seen,
have a very notable significance in reference to Chat-
terton. The poetry consists of dramatic prologues and
epilogues, odes, elegies, &c., — some of them, such as an
Ode tc March, another entitled " Midnight," and a
Paraphrase of the First Psalm, of a decidedly religious
tone ; and all as chaste as in any periodical of the day.
"Amusing and instructive questions" follow, with answers
much in the style of our own " Notes and Queries ; " and
the whole concludes each month with a summary of
foreign and domestic intelligence ; births, marriages,
deaths ; prices of gold, grain, and stocks.
To this Miscellany Chatterton contributed during this
year, 1769, sixteen pieces in prose and verse. If its
editor showed himself ready enough to conform to the
licence of the age, these contributions all the more
strongly confirm the idea that up to this year, in which
the poet was rudely awakened from his dream of literary
triumph, his mind remained uncontaminated ; and to its
Chai'. X.
Engraved
ill list ra-
tioHt.
A Bristol
letter 0/
n.B.
f
Chatterton' s
contribu-
tions in
prose and
verse.
:u
".".U-. »U!PT»-L—
208
CiriTTERrON.
Chap. X.
Charitcter
find vnriety
of thf
F.n!hti>it; in
J>olitical
/>a>ty stfife.
His highest
$uoods of
inspiration.
very close, he published nothing but what consisted with
the idea of a mind preoccupied with its owii ingenious
fancies. None of all those fruits of his versatile industry
betrays the slightest idea that he was writing for a
licentious periodical. They include his " Kthelgar,"
" Kenrick," " Cerdick," and other prose i)oems written
on the Ossian model ; his papers on Saxon Heraldry
and the anti(iuity of Christmas games ; and poems in
his most diverse styles, incliiulug his " Klinoure and
Juga : " not one of which would discredit any modern
magazine. But the turning-point in Chatterton's mental
development was now reached. For a time, at least, the
antique muse was forsaken , and amid the ferment of
one of the most scandalous periods of English political
strife, the inexperienced boy enlisted on the popular
side, in the rivalries of local and national politics. In
such a day, with Wilkes for the hero of the "popular
party ;" Churchill for his model satirist ; Junius for his
ideal publicist ; and the current writing of the periodical
press as pattern for the new literary adventurer : Chat-
terton unquestionably followed the example of his
seniors, and talked and wrote as any reader of Walpole
or Boswell knows was the common style of that
eighteenth century. But it is a strange injustice to
charge a youth in his seventeenth year with the faults
of his age, and yet refuse him a trial according to its
standard.
Whatever evidence is furnished by modern poems
of Chatterton, that he was capable of matching the
licentious models of his own day, only makes more
striking the purity and elevation of thought of that
antique verse, which was the result of deliberate choice
and taste in his highest moods of inspiration. Had he
so inclined, Chaucer could have supplied as readily to
him as to Pope, a " Wife of Bath," or a " January and
May ; " and the literary ware would have proved greatly
more marketable than his " Elinoure and Juga." But
Rowley is altogether his own creation ; in fact his ideal
self. In that antique world he moved among equals of
THE HA TIKI ST.
•og
'alpole
that
;ice to
faults
to its
ClIAT. X.
I' i lily /,' ////•
tiistis oj /lit
associatfs.
his own choice, nnd comported himself accordingly.
IJut the moment he joined the men of his own time, the
social element predominated, and tempted him to con-
descend to their tastes. He writes his ** Romaunte of
the Cnyghle" in the character of John de IJcrgham, !
Cistercian monk of the fourteenth century ; but when |
he modernises it for Mr. Ilurgum, the i)ewterer, lie foists |
in a couplet in the loosest modern vein. It was as I
though the poet of an elder and purer time had revisited \
our earth in that degenerate age, and must needs adapt \
himself to its wayn. And wonderful was the adaptability |
of the boy. lie assumed Mie common clay of that |
Bristol circle amid which his lot was cast, shared in all I
the passions, jealousies, and frivolities of their little \
day ; and was keenly sensitive to their api)robation. \
When Chatlcrton produced his " Battle of Hastings,"!
or his " /l'!lla," he craved in vain the sympathy of aj)- 1
preciative faith in his antiijue muse. But when he aped | ;;v«;///,.i,'/./.f
the rakish style of verse and talk of his seniors, he re-
ceived the full meed of their ap[)lause. As in his
" Kpistle" to Mr. Catcott, he took- great licence; ridi-
culed in verse what he owned to be worthy of all appro-
bation in the plain prose of truth ; spared himself least
of all in his satirical exaggerations ; and has had to
endure the full conse(iuences of their literal acceptance.
Among other sketches or caricatures of this class, he
has left on n;cord this, which some accept as embodying
his own portr lilure. The boy of sixteen exclaims : —
sriiiors
iippliiHue.
/
I ;
•* O pniiji'iicc; t if, by friends or counsel swayed,
I liad lliy Hiivinx tiistiliites nlieyed,
And lohl l(» every love but love of self,
A wrt'lcli like Harris, living but in pelf:
Then, happy in a coach and turtle-feast,
I ini^ht have been an Alderman at least !
Sat;e an; the arLMiments by which I'm taught
To curb the wild excursive flights of thought:
I must cofif<:««, rejoins'tlie prudent sage,
You're really Bometliing clever for your age ;
to prudence.
2IO
CHATTERTON.
Chap. X.
Satire a
dangerous
thing.
No literal
self-por-
traiture.
Thcfollies
o/yonth.
Your lines have sentiment ; and now and then
A dash of satire stumbles from your pen.
But ah ! that satire is a dangerous thing,
And often wounds the writer with its sting ;
Your infant muse should sport with other toys,
Men will not bear the ridicule of boys;
And if you touch their aldermanic pride, ,
1)i(l dark reflection tell how Savage died. '
Besides the town, — a sober honest town —
Gives virtue her desert, and vice her frown ;
Bids censure brand with infamy your name —
I, even I, must think you are to blame.
Ts there a street within this spacious place
That boasts the happiness of one fair face,
Where conversation does not turn on you.
Blaming your wild amours, your morals too ?
Oaths, sacred and tremendous oaths you sw ear,
Oatlis that might shock a Lutterell's soul to hear ;
These very oaths, as if a thing of joke,
Made to betray, intended to be broke>
Whilst the too tender and believing maid —
Remember pretty Fanny, — is betrayed." ^
The irony, that but for his satire the poet might- have
been an ald'^rman, is sufficient to show that the picture
must not be regarded as a piece of literal portraiture.
Nevertheless the youth, who thus wrote, had' unquestion-
ably forfeited virgin purity in thought, whatever his manner
of life may have been. He was at an age concerning
which no biographer would pause over its follies, when
manhood had produced fruits worthy of study. But we
are dealing with a life that knew no later prime, and are
unconsciously tempted to test immaturities incident to
youth 1)y an exceptional standard. The world has par-
doned maturer follies in Goldsmith and Burns because of
their song ; and in Byron, even in spite of the creations
of his licentious muse. If, therefore, in the feverish life
of the boy-poet, he too struggled, and struggled in vain,
with " passions strong," it would suffice that his biographer
^ From the " Whore of Babylon." The same passage occurs in
a different connexion, and with some slight variations, in the " Kew
Gardens." .. ,
THE SATIRIST.
211
draw a sorrowful veil over the strife, and pass on. But
his fate in this respect has been as exceptional as in
all else.
That Chatterton was precocious in everything, except
in the experience of the world, is manifest enough ; but
the preoccupation of his mind on his favourite studies
was a valuable safeguard against the temptations of city
life \ and the strength of his domestic affections is a
proof that it did not fail. That he was systematically
vicious, is inconsistent with all the testimony of those by
whom he was best known ; and his master, who had
every motive to publish his faults, acknowledged the
undeviating regularity of his return home each evening
at the early hour prescribed. Nothing, indeed, could
show more clearly the consciousness of innocence in his
dealings with the attorney than this proud appeal in his
first letter after reaching London. " Call on Mr. Lam-
bert," he writes to his mother, "show him this, or tell
him if I deserve a recommendation he would oblige me
to give me one ; if I do not, it will be beneath him to
take notice of me."
As a son and a brother his conduct was exemplary ;
and his one fault as an apprentice was that he preferred
spending his unoccupied time on his own literary work,
to the dull routine of copying legal precedents. Till his
fifteenth year, his sister tells us, "he was remarkably
indifferent to females. One day he was remarking to
me the tendency severe study had to sour the temper,
and declared he had always - seen all the sex with equal
indifference, but those that nature made dear. He
thought of making an acquaintance with a girl in the
neighbourhood," Miss Rumsey, as afterwards appears,
" supposing it n.ight soften the austerity of temper study
had occasioned." Does the reader fully realize the scene
and the actors : the boy of fourteen gravely discussing
with his sister, not two years his senior, the tendency of
severe study to sour the temper; and considering whether
a little love-making with one of her companions might
not prove the best antidote ? So, as his sister narrates,
P 2
Chap. X.
Precocity
and inex-
perience.
Conscious-
ness o/
innocence.
/^
Exemplary
private
conduct.
Acqunint-
artce iviih
Miss
Rumsey.
\
y
212
CHATTERTOiX.
Chap, X,
Dnllyiii/i
•with llh'
HII4H',
His sisliv'ii
at at I' HID lit
Flirfn flail
ivitli If
liriitolHh,
** he wrote a poem to her, and they commenced corre-
sponding acquaintance."^ From this time he appears to
hiive dallied with the amorous muse. His lighter verse
Ih l"re<|Uently in the form of addresses, acrostics, and other
poetical tributes to Miss Clarke, Miss Bush, Miss Hoy-
Jiind, &(:. ; and a remark of his sister, when writing to Sir
I Herbert Croft of his selected fair correspondent, has been
interpreted in a manner never dreamt of by her. She was
' writing eight years after her brother's death, in a timid,
aijologetic tone, as of one whose name was only heard of
j tfiuti in connexion with charges of licentiousness, impos-
' ttlff, and forgery ; and so, after acknowledging that he
did write to Sir Horace Walpole, or Warpool, as she
callH him, she uu > proceeds: "Except his correspon-
I dunce with Miss Rumsey, the girl I before mentioned, I
I know of no othei'. He would frequently walk the College
Oreen with the young girls that statedly paraded there to
hUow their finery; but I really believe he was no de-
bauchee, though some have reported it.'' The readei"
will remember that the Dean and Chapter had demolished
the ancient City Cross only three years before, because
it obHtructed the walk, and " interrupted gentlemen and
lailicM from walking eight or ten abreast;" and amongst
such fashionable promenaders the poet might now be
Hfen, trying, as an antidote against the effects of over-
study, a parade with Miss Rumsey, or Miss Bush, dressed
for the occasion in her very gayest attire.
In truth, the interchange of billets doux with Miss
Rumftey was only a juvenile flirtation with a Bristol belle,
to whom it no doubt afforded considerable amusement
while it lasted. He was fifteen years and three months
old, when he learned to his disgust that she was on the
eve of marriage. " Your celebrated Miss Rumsey," he
writes to his friend Baker, " is going to be married to
Mr. Fowler, as he himself informs me. Pretty children !
about to enter into the comfortable yoke of matrimony,
to be at their own liberty ; just apropos of the old law, —
out of the frying-pan into the fire ! For a lover, Heaven
1 Mrs. Newton's Letter, Croft, p. 162.
THE SA TIRIST.
213
;d corre-
)pears to
ter verse
nd other
iss Hoy-
ng to Sir
las been
She was
a timid,
heard of
, impos-
that he
as she
rrespon-
ioned, I
College
there to
no de-
reader
lolished
because
len and
imongst
now be
)f over-
dressed
h Miss
•1 belle,
sement
months
on the
^y," he
ried to
ildren !
imony,
law, —
leaven
mend him ! but for a husband, O excellent ! What a
female Machiavel this Miss Rumsey is ! " Chatterton,
one sees, like other precocious lads, had fixed on a girl
considerably his senior, with whom to flirt, and carry on
an interchange of wit and badinage, in which there was
just seriousness enough on his part to make him resentful
and indignant when he made the discovery that she had
all along regarded him as a boy.
But, before another year's experience had been com-
pleted, sterner disappointments had disgusted him with
the studies which hitherto formed his true passion ; and
it is no longer possible to withhold assent from the dis-
criminating verdict of Professor Masson, on the com-
positions of this period, as " evidently the productions of
a clever boy too conscious of forbidden things, and eager
(as boys are, till some real experience of the heart has
made them earnest and silent,) to assert his questionable
manhood among his compeers, by constant and irreverent
talk about the sexes." ^ This accords with the statement
of his companion Thistlethwaite, whose evidence is all
the more trustworthy from the depreciatory terms in
which he speaks of him in all other respects. Referring
to passages to be found among his papers, " gross and
unpardonable," and " which, for the regard I bear his
memory, I wish he had never written;" he adds, "I
nevertheless believe them to have originated rather from
a warmth of imagination, aided by a vain affectation
of singularity, than from any natural depravity, or from a
heart vitiated by evil example. The opportunities a long
acquaintance with him afforded me, justify me in saying
that while he lived in Bristol he was not the debauched
character represented. Temperate in his living, moderate
in his pleasures, and regular in his exercises, he was
undeserving of the aspersion." ^
His foster-mother, Mrs. Edkins, tells us " his female
intimates were many, and all very respectable ; but a Miss
Thatcher was his favourite. He talked like a lover to
1 Masson's Essays,, p. 229.
* Thistlethwaite's Letter to Dean Millcs.
ClIAl'. X.
Mticliiawl,
r.jiwfof
disiipfioint-
mciiis.
Thisth-
thuiniti''$
testiiiioHjf.
I
!
Hisfusti'v-
moi/irr's
account.
-■I win ii natj i '
214
CIIA TTERTON.
Chap. X.
His fair
Bristol
/ricinfs.
Miss Silky
True coin-
vietitary.
Quite in
love.
many, but was seriously engaged to none. He liked their
company at the tea-table," where, as she adds, he was
immoderate in the indulgence in his favourite drink. In
one of his early letters from London he sends a string of
messages to numerous fair Bristol friends. Miss Rumsey,
who it seems is still unmarried, is told if she comes
to London to send him her address. " London is not
Bristol. We may patrole the town for a day, without
raising one whisper or nod of scandal." Miss Saker,
Miss Porter, Miss Singer, and his earliest favourit( . Miss
Suky Webb, are all remembered. *' Miss Thatcher may
depend upon it that, if I am not in love with her, I am in
love with nobody else ; " and so he goes on, with Miss
Love, Miss Cotton, Miss Broughton, Miss Watkins.
" Let my sister send me a journal of all the transactions
of the females within the circle of your acquair.iance. I
promised, before my departure, to write to some hundreds,
1 believe ; " but, he adds, he finds but little time even to
vrite to his own mother.
This letter is the best commentary on the allusion of
his sister. It is addressed to his mother : a tender-
hearted, virtuous woman, the humble friend of Miss
Hannah More; the very last person to whom a pro-
fligate son would send any message for women of
doubtful repute. But there is no mystery, for he had
nothing to conceal ; and the style of free badinage is
such as was thought no way indecorous in that eighteenth
century. About a fortnight later he writes a long letter
to his sister full of London news, but interspersed with
similar messages to fair Bristol friends \ and then he
adds this postscript : " I am this moment pierced through
the heart by the black eye of a young lady, driving along
in a hackney-coach. I am quite in love. If my love
lasts till that time, you shall hear of it in my next." The
boy's heart was untouched. " He jests at scars who
never felt a wound;" and jests such as to Addison's
ears would have sounded no way strange, and which
Goldsmith may have bandied in Johnson's hearing
without reproof, have been tortured into evidence of
ced their
he was
nk. In
tring of
^umsey,
comes
1 is not
without
Saker,
. Miss
ler may
I am in
■h Miss
-^atkins.
iactions
ice. I
id reds.
of
1^
T//£ SA riRIST.
215
such confirmed profligacy as is belied alike by his regular
hours, his studious habits, and the wonderful creations
of his prolific muse.
In another respect the virtuous moderation and self-
control of Chatterton can be spoken of with no apologetic
reservations. He was temperate, even to abstemious-
ness, in food as well as in drink. Tea was his favourite
beverage, of which alone he could be said to drink to
excess. He usually drank six or seven cups ; tarrying at
the tea-table until the supply was exhausted, and laugh-
ingly telling his godmother, who most frequently presided
there : " I'll stick to you to the last ! " When bidding
farewell to Bristol and all his old friends, he told his
sister that, " for all the good tea Mrs. Edkins had given
him, he would, if he did well, send her as good a teapot and
stand of silver as money could purchase." But, as the
latter remarks, strong liquors he avoided, even when
induced by importunity; and she never heard of his
being intoxicated in his life.
This testimony, which accords with all that is reported
of Chatterton both in Bristol and London, ought to have
its full weight when judging of the vague accusations
brought against him in reference to other vices. The
amount of firmness and self-control which it implies in
one so young, can only be fully estimated by recalling
the social habits of the age, and the known character
or circumstances of some of his friends. Mr. Mease was
a vintner, and apparently a crony of his friend Gary ;
Mr. Clayfield was a distiller ; and Mr. William Smith a
player, and the son of a brewer. Professor Masson, when
imagining the incidents of a political rejoicing in Bristol, —
on the very day in which we shall find Chatterton indig-
nantly writing to Mr Barrett : " I keep no worse com-
pany than myself; I never drink to excess ; and have,
without vanity, too much sense to be attached to the
mercenary retailers of iniquity ; " — does not think it dis-
paraging to the memory of its decorous historian and
antiquary to picture him and Mr. Catcott finding their
way home together about midnight in a very question-
Chai'. X.
Moderation
and self-
control.
Test of
7>ague
accusations.
/
.i
Indignant
protest to
Barrett.
2l6
CIIATTERTON.
Chat. X.
Catcott's
annnvial
habits.
Resistance
to iinpor-
tnnities.
llabitiial
self-denial.
able state of sobriety.^ As to Mr. George Catcott, his
convivial habits are sketched in Chatterton's freest style
in the :cene already quoted from the " Epistle " to his
brother, where the aesthetic tea-parties at the parsonage
are contrasted with the club of topers over which the
pewterer presides in all his glory. After a different
fashion, he charges his muse, in mock-heroic vein, to
vow for Miss Hoyland — in name, no doubt, of her
absent admirer, Baker,— a love more tender
" Than the soft turtle's cooing in the grove ;
More than the lark delights to mount the sky,
Then sinking on the green-sward soft to lie ;
More than the bird of eve at close of day
To pour in solemn solitude her lay ;
• • • • • fl
More than sage Catcott does his storm of rain,
Sprung from th' abyss of his excentric brain ;
Or than his wild-antique and sputtering brother
Loves in his ale-house chair to drink and pother ! "
At Llewellyn's, Matthew Mease's, or elsewhere, Chat-
terton met such loquacious topers, and had to encounter
all the urgency to excess which was then deemed the
height of good fellowship. But the widowed mother,
who had passed many a sleepless night in fear of her
husband's return from his orgies at the Pineapple Club,
had nothing to apprehend for her son. In this respect,
at least, he set an example of self-control rare among the
best men of his time, and remarkable in a youth wholly
self-trained. He systematically avoided whatever tended
to impede the free play of the mental faculties, and con-
^ Professor Masson, in his slight, but picturesque and graphic,
sketch, supposes the return of the two Bristol worthies from a
famous Wilkes dinner at the Crown. The tankards of ale and
bowls of punch are conceivable enough. But the idea of the anti-
quary and foremost practitioner in the good old Tory city of Bristol
being a Wilkesite surpasses belief. As for Catcott, he came of a
sound " Church and State" stock, and was faithful to the tra-
ditional creed. He held the royal Martyr in such esteem that the
" Eikon Basilike" was his favourite study ; and Wilkes, we niiay be
sure, liis special abhorrence.
^^ '
THE SATIRIST.
:i7
tented himself with bread and water when his mother and
sister indulged in the rare luxury of a hot dinner : telling
them "he had a work on hand, and must not make
himself more stupid than God had made him." But in
another respect his abstinence was carried to a dangerous
excess. His moody abstractions were but tlie preoccupa-
tion of his mind with some great pregnant thought. Mr.
Catcott left him one evening totally depressed ; but he
returned the next morning in unusual spirits. " He had
sprung a mine," he said, and produced his dramatic
mystery, " The Parliament of Sprytes," on which he had
spent the hours designed for sleep. This incident is charac-
teristic. He seems to have thought nothing of resuming
the duties of a new day, without having retired to rest.
When thus occupied on some engrossing theme, he
was frequently for days together alone in his study ; and
even in the family circle would fall into reveries, during
which he seemed unconscious of all around him, until at
last, after having been repeatedly spoken to with ever-
increasing emphasis, he would suddenly start, and ask
"What were you talking about?" Solitary Sunday rambles
furnished other favourite occasions when he could com-
mune with his own thoughts. Occasionally on his return
he would describe his walks, or produce sketches of
churches or other objects which had attracted his notice.
But in general he was disinclined to admit others to
any share in the occupation of those lonely hours, which
extended generally till the twilight had faded away, and
he returned home by the light of the stars. ^
He particularly fancied the long moonlight nights ;
believed, or affected to believe, that he could then
exercise his mental powers with peculiar vigour; towards
the full of the moon would often sit up all night writing
by its light ; and recorded, in the family Bible, his birth
within two days of the full moon : possibly, as Mr. John
Evans surmises, in mere waggish reference to his popular
title, in order to suggest the inference that he was " the
mad genius " by birthright. '^.
1 Cioft, p. i8i. ^ Dix, App. Note, p. 336.
ClI.M'. X.
Dntigcrous
fonii of
abstiucnce.
Strange
absoruhi^
reveries.
Sunday
rambles.
rrv/eiTiice
for inooH-
Uglit.
f
/
%.
%
WmnnMliM«!R!!r?«CLr^«u^
3l8
CIIATTERTON.
Chai', X,
Bristol mill
London
rootu-iHiiti'i,
Sytletiiiitic
neglect 0/
»kep.
The nil I
excess.
Tilt' footboy of Mr. Lambert could, in all probability,
have given very much the same account of the sharer of
hiH attic, as was communicated by his London room-
mate of a later date. The sister of the latter, having
never before come across any youth of literary tastes or
eccentricities, " took him more for a mad boy than l ^y-
thing else, he would have such flights and vagaries."
He took his meals with a relative who lodged in the
same house ; but she adds, " He never touched meat, and
drank only water, and seemed to live on the air." She
then completes the picture by adding : " He used to sit
up almost all night, reading and writing ; and her brother
Haid he was afraid to lie with him ; for, to be sure, he was
a sj^irit and never slept ; for he never came to bed till it
was morning, and then, for what he saw, never closed
hin eyes." For however brief had been the period thus
allowed for repose, his bedfellow always found him awake
when he opened his eyes; and he got up at the early hour,
—between five and six, — at which the young plasterer
had to resume his work. He had been busy on his com-
positions in i)rose or verse ; and almost every morning
the floor was covered with minute pieces of paper into
which he had torn his first drafts before coming to bed.^
The same habits characterised him to the last. Night
was his favourite time for literary toil ; and when occupied
on some engrossing theme, or tiansported in fancy to
times of yore, " the sleepless soul " was wholly forgetful
of the claims of the body ; and the labours of a new day
were rc'imed without any interval of repose.
Thfs indifference to sleep was the real excess, danger-
ous alike to healthful life and to reason. Abnormal as the
precocity of Chatterton's intellect was, there is nothing in
the history of his singular career to indicate any unusual
tendency towards mental disease. Byron's emphatic
dictum was : " Chatterton, I think, was mad." But the
same easy method of accounting for the eccentricities of
genius has been applied to himself. There are, indeed,
the rare types of preeminent intellectual power, like
1 Croft, p. 216.
77/^ SA TIKIST.
219
Not to /'/'
jiiitg;ett of hy
orttiiinry
stdiiitariii
Chaucer and Shakespear, who appear to have Ijeen chai . x
equal to every occasion, surpassing ordinary men even i\„.jr7i ti,^
in wise shrewdness and common sense. Milton moved jirst onh-r.
with statesmanlike dignity, bearing himself calmly amid
the strife of a great revolution. Burns and Scott were j
both marked by a rare sagacity, in spite of the un- 1
practical shortcomings of each ; and Wordsworth dwelt
in voluntary seclusion among his favourite mountains, '
the sage of another period of political convulsion. But
the theory of insanity may as fitly be applied to Gay,
Collins, perhaps to Pope himself; to Goldsmith, Cole-
ridge, Shelley, or to Byron : as to Chatterton.
He was, indeed, one to be judged of by no ordinary
standard. To his mother, his strange ways, and pro-
longed fits of reverie, had been incomprehensible enough
from childhood ; nor were such reveries reserved solely
for home. Though always accessible, as Dr. Gregory
says, and rather disposed to encourage than rej^el the
advances of others, he would at times be moody and
silent in company. His fits of absent-mindedness were
frequent and long.^ For days together he would go in
and out of Mr. Lambert's office without speaking to any
one, and seemingly absorbed in thought ; - and, accord-
ing to his relative, Mrs. Ballance, whose London lodging
he shared, " he would often look steadfastly in a person's
face without speaking, or seeming to see the person,
for a quarter of an hour or more, till it was quite
frightful."^
Yet all this is comprehensible enough without the old
Bristol theory of a "mad genius." The boy at fifteen
had a mind such as has rarely been equalled in power
and vigour in man's maturest years ; but it had been left
to develop itself without training or guidance. He was
already creating a mystery which a whole century of
criticism has not sufficed to solve to the satisfaction of
all men. In some respects he was a child, dealing with
that for which the schooling of man's tardy maturity is
Gregory's Life, p. 80.
2 Palmer; Dix's Life, p. 30.
' Croft, p. 214.
The oU
Bristol
theory.
%
«
> n
!'l
220
CIIA'ITEKTON.
power
without
I'.rpvrU'iicv.
iZww. X. i the natural training, and without even the oversight and
lutciicctuai \ culture of ordinary childhood. In other respects he was
already the man of more than ordinary cerebral develop-
ment and intellectual power; but there also, at every
step, compelled to provide experience for himself, or
groi)e his way destructively, like a blind Samson, till
he involved himself and his incompleted designs in a
common ruin. But before that end is reached, another
all-important element — the religious one, — must be re-
viewed, in connexion with events which give it a painful
prominence in association with the later incidents of his
strange career.
. I
; -\
CHAPTER XI.
EMANCIPATION.
The rule of Mr. Lambert, and the duties of his oflfice,
became ever more irksome to Chatterton, in spite of the
unquestionable advantages of leisure and solitude which
he enjoyed in the attorney's service. The foremost draw-
back, in reality, though unappreciated by him, was the
want of any legitimate work for the active mind of the
boy. He rebelled against the irksome task of coj^ying
precedents, of no use that he could see, to himself or
any one else. But the ungenial relations of master and
clerk made the bondage still more galling to his proud
spirit. The servile position he was compelled to assume
offended him more than the routine of office work. He
had not been a month away from it when he wrote his
mother : " Though as an apprentice none had greater
liberties, yet the thoughts of servitude killed me. Now
I have that for my labour I always reckoned the first
of my pleasures, and have still my liberty." He had
liberties, but not liberty : a nice distinction. We learn
from his letter to his friend Baker, in Charleston, that
Mr. Lambert had been absent in London ; but, he says,
" I must now close my poetical labours, my master being
returned." Again, in his second letter to Dodsley he
speaks of him as " now out of town." Mr. Capel told
Mr. Bryant that he thought he never saw him copying
what he took to be the Rowley parchments, " but when
his master was gone from home ; " ^ and the admission
that the footman was sent from time to time to ascertain
* Bryant's Observations, p. 524,
CitAl'. XI,
Duties in
Mr.
Lnuilvrt'ii
ojD'ue.
Rebellioti
against
servitude.
The
attorney's
absence
from hoiui'.
I
!
w
;>
ft
223
CHATTER TON.
Chap. XI.
WeUottie
nitcniuU of
freedom .
The sus-
picious and
trritiible
attorney.
Xo kindness
to respond to.
Cordial
relations
impossible.
if he was in attendance at the office, confirms the pro-
l)al)ility that such welcome intervals of freedom were of
freciuent occurrence. Then he could finish his average
two hours of legitimate office work, attend to whatever
Other duties devolved on him ; and these done, indulge
at will in modern song and satire ; or, retiring behind the
mask he hatl so long worn in secret, revel in the creations
of his anti(iue muse.
But such intervals of freedom would only tend to make
the situation more irksome, when the suspicious, irritable
attorney returned to task him with missjjent time, search
his drawer, tear up his poems and letters ; and even
destroy the paper which by its unprofessional character
betrayed its destination for such forbidden uses. Of Mr.
Lambert little has been recorded beyond the meagre notes
of Mrs. Newton and Mrs. Edkins. But all that we do
know suggests the idea of a peevish, fretful, unloveable
man, who dealt with the boy committed to his charge as
a mere hireling, and " took every opportunity to vex,
cross, and mortify" him. Chatterton's susceptible nature
prompdy responded to kindness ; but there is no glimpse
of any such appeal in the attorney's dealings with him.
When delayed a few minutes after the hour prescribed
for returning to his master's house, he would say with a
sigh, " Well I must go, I suppose, now, to be reproved ; "
and when, towards the close, his mother endeavoured to
dissuade him from his design of quitting Mr. Lambert's
office, and going to London, his reply was : " What am I
to do ? You see how I am treated ! " If Chatterton
drew his picture, either in confidential correspondence,
or when moved by the strong fit of satire to indiscri-
minate raillery, it has not been preserved ; but it is
abundantly obvious that no cordial relations could ever
have been established between the proud-spirited youth,
already conscious of an intellectual supremacy above all
his associates, and the master who saw in him only the
charity boy serving him for food and clothing. The
attorney regarded the poetical aspirations of his ap-
prentice with angry contempt. In his office he vigilantly
EiVAWIIW 770 X.
223
watched lest an unrx cupicd hour should be wasted in
writing " his stuff." In his house the boy was allowed
to grow up as utuared for as any transient menial who
drudged for hire.
While still an inmate of the IJluecoat School we have
seen Chatterlon deeply impressed with religious convic-
tions. When <'onlirmed, at an early age, *' he made very
sensible, serious reujarks on the awfulness of the ceremony,
and his own feelings and convictions during it." Some
of his first efforts at verse confirm the duration of such
impressions. His •* Hymn for Christmas Day," written
about eleven," though remarkable when the age of its
author is considered, — is chiefly interesting from the
evidence it sui>|)lies of his religious emotions. On this
account a Ktan/,a or two may be (quoted here : —
i " Alnii^lity Framcr of tlic skies !
O lei our pure devotion rise
l/ikc incense in Thy sij;ht !
VVnipl in iniiienctrable sliade
'I'll'- texture of our souls was made,
Till Thy command gave light.
" The Sun of glory gleam'd, the ray
KcrmM the darkness into day,
And had the vapours fly ;
Impelled by His eternal love
lie left His palaces above
To cheer our gloomy sky.
* • • .
" My Houl, exert thy powers, adore,
t')»oM elation,
it is that of the deist, in which Reason is set up in antago-
nism to Revelation, and priestcraft denounced with the
indiscriminating levity of the free-thinker. As a mere
piece of composition, executed almost impromptu, and
on a prescribed theme, it has many vigorous lines, as in
the couplet : —
The Oxoni-
an pedant.
Unscrupu-
lous satiri-
cal licence.
The " tytncs
of yore. "
" Conscience, the soul-chameleon's varying hue,
Reflects all notions, to no notion true."
Or where Revelation is daringly characterised as : —
*' Reason's dark-lantern, superstition's sun,
"Whose cause mysterious, and effect, are one ;
From thee ideal bliss we only trace,
Fair as ambition's dream, or beauty's face."
In the satirist's more legitimate vein, he sketches " Young
Yeatman," the Oxonian pedant : —
" Who damns good English if not latinised ;
In Aristotle's scale the muse he weighs,
And damps his little fire with copied lays :
Versed in the mystic learning of the schools,
He rings bob-majors by Leibnitzian rules,"
" Pulvis " and the " incomparable Catcott " are exhibited
in the same poem, in passages already quoted, with all
the unscrupulous freedom of the satirist : for the poem,
written at the pewterer's dictation, was adapted to the
taste of that patron of letters. He " had never thouglit
on the subject" before ; but no sooner was this free im-
promptu penned, than the poet, in search of what was
ever true happiness to him, betook himself to the heroism
of " tymes of yore ; " and ere long Mr. Catcott was
surprised to find that the very subject suggested by him
had occurred to Maistre William Canynge Uiree hundred
years before. The following are the very diverse refltc-
tions on Contentment and Happiness, or " Selynesse,"
as it is rendered in the professed antique, asciibed to
Rowley's patron : —
EMANCIPA TION.
229
** May happiness on earthe's bounds be had ?
May it adight in human shape be found ?
Wot ye it was with Eden's bowers bestad,
Or (juite erased from the scaunce-laidi ground,
When from the secret founts the waters did abound ?
Does it affrighted shun the bodied walk,
Live to itself, and to its echoes talk ?
All hail Content, thou maid of turtle eyne !
As thy beholders think, thou art iwreene ;2
To ope the door to happiness is thine,
And Christe's glory doth upon thee slieene ;
Doer of the foul thing ne hath thee seen ;
In caves, in woods, in woe, and dole distress.
Whoe'er hath thee liath gotten happiness.""*
Such I assume to be the history of this Httle poem, —
printed from Mr. Catcott's copy ; — the earnest protest of
the poet's better self against the degradation of his muse.
But if so, " the strong fit of satire " was upon him again
with the very next provocation ; and the work of the
year closes, so far as dates now guide us, with " The De-
fence," in which Reason is once more exalted to supreme
rule : —
" Reason, to its possessor a sure guide,
Reason, a thorn in Revelation's side."
It is not difficult to perceive from the letters, and the
lighter articles of Chatterton both in prose and verse, that
he manifested not a little of that self-assertion common
to self-taught men, but which is frequently no more than
the unrestrained habit of speaking out what others think.
It was notably characteristic of Hogg, Cobbett, and Hugh
Miller. It is not unapparent in Burns himself. With
his strong vein of satire, combined with such arrogant
self-assertion, the boy was prone to assail the decorous
conventionalities of seniors whom he saw through and
despised ; until the indulgence of this humour ended in
an indiscriminate ridicule of all that failed to commend
* Scaunce-laid, uneven. ^ ixvreene, displayed.
3 The poem is entitled *'.0n Happinesse ;" but throughout the
word selynesse is substituted for it.
Chai'. XI.
i Search/or
happiufss.
The fioi't'x
better self.
Trait of
self-asser-
tion.
w
230
CHATTERTON.
Chai'. XI.
Models of
his modern
Orthodox
abhorrence
of dissent.
Whitfield
and the
H'esleys.
itself to his acceptance. In his satires and much else of
his modern verse, as well as his prose, it is easy to detect
the models that he imitated ; and sometimes, in the latter,
the sources from whence he borrowed without scruple.
In those hasty productions, the cuckoo note re-echoes
the tone and sentiment of the age, in social manners, in
politics, and in religion.
From that happy day when his sacred Majesty's resto-
ration was proclaimed to its delighted citizens, Bristol
has held dissenters in most orthodox disfavour ; and the
masters of Colston's charity had, as their paramount
duty, to see that its Bluecoat boys were trained up in the
same creed. " Antipathy to dissent," says Colston's ad-
miring biographer, " was his most vulnerable point, which,
once touched, his serenity forsook him, and he stood no
longer exempt from the weakness of human nature." ^
A letter to his trustees refers with horror to the " scandal"
their chaplain had given rise to, apparently by recording
his vote, at a general election in the neighbouring county,
for a dissenter j and declines all further intercourse with
him, as " no sound son of the Church, but rather in-
clined to, and a favourer of fanaticism." Mr. Colston's
later trustees have proved more faithful to their duty ;
and in Chatterton's days they found occasion for their
most urgent zeal.
In the earlier part of the eighteenth century, the city
of Bristol was one of the chosen fields of labour in
the cause of vital religion, both of Whitfield and tiie
Wesleys; and the reflex of the agitation they excited
is discernible in the " Apostate Will," written when Chat-
terton was eleven years old, and long regarded as his
first effort in verse. But the antagonism to religion in
every form, which so luigely pervaded English society
then, had been openly avowed by him before the close
of 1769; and numerous passages in the productions of
that period — including the discarded or fugitive trifles
which have been preserved with so little regard to his
good name, — give painful evidence of it. Among the
^ Tovey's Colston, p. 79.
EMANCIPA TION.
231
Chatterton MSS. in the British Museum is the rude draft
of one book, or division of an unfinished satire, styled
"Journal 6th," dated Sept. 30th, 1769 ; and immediately
following it, on the same sheet, are two other fragmentary
pieces, without title, the latter of which pictures " the
mighty Whitfield " preaching :
" Tearing, sweating, bawling, thumping,
Oblique lightning in his eyes."
If quoted now, it might possibly recall to some readers
the " Holy Fair," and other equally witty and profane
satires, of one who, ten years before this, was born to
like poverty on the banks of the Ayr. But enough has
been produced to illustrate this melancholy phase of
noble gifts perverted to such a purpose. Let it sufiice
— while remembering that Chatterton was still little more
than a boy, whose childhood had known no " saint-like
father's" care, — that he merely re-echoed the prejudices of
an age in which even Cowper disguised the evangelist's
name " beneath well-sounding Greek." ^ When, more-
over, we reflect on the mental crisis through which Cole-
ridge and Southey passed, ere they won a firm foothold
of faith : we can only mourn the fate of the strangely
gifted boy, abandoned in his most impressible years to
such companionship as Bristol then yielded ; and perishing
while still blindly groping his way by the light of Reason.
The creed of Chatterton was common to that sceptical
age ; and scarcely differed from that of its greatest poet.
Pope. Bolingbroke, Toland, Bayle, Voltaire, Rousseau,
and Hume, had follow jd in succession, the teachers of
a coldly speculative deism. The intellect of the era
1 "
Leuconomus (beneath well-sounding Greek
I slur the name a poet must not speak)
Stood pilloried on infamy's high stage.
And bore the pelting scorn of half an age ;
The very butt of Slander, and the blot
For every dart that Malice ever shot.
The man that mentioned him at once dismissed
All mercy from his lips, and sneered and hissed," &c.
Cowper's Hope.
Chai'. XI.
Satirical
Jrag})ii:ttts.
Re-echoing
the preju-
dices ojhis
age.
T/ie creed of
Bolingbroke.
332
CHATTERTON.
chai'. xr,
JnhmoH and
A r tic lei of
l).iif/.
Heumed to have declared itself on the side of unbelief :
when Johnson and Cowper, holding fast by faith and
truth, gave to the rising generation a new and healthful
bias. But this Chatterton did not live to feel. Johnson
was to him but the pensioned ministerial penman; and
Cowper, in 1769, had his work as a poet and a satirist to
begin, when Chatterton reduced to form what he called
articles of belief. Among the Chatterton MSS. in the
British Museum is a small piece of foolscap paper, much
frayed and soiled, apparently from having been carried
in iii.s pocket, containing :
"TIIK articles of the belief of me, THOMAS CHAITRRTON.
*' That (iod is incomprehensible. It is not required of us to
know the mysteries of the Trinity, &c. &c. &c.
•• That it matters not whether a man is a Pagan, Turk, Jew, or
Christian, if he acts according to the religion he professes.
** That if a man leads a good moral life, he is a Christian.
"That the stage is the best school of morality.^ And
"That the Cliurch of Rome (some tricks of priestcraft excepted)
JH certainly the true Church.
"Thomas Chatterton."
A liberal
di/initioH,
Misorahle
fruits 0/ ill'
ftdelity.
The poor negation of a creed, thus systematically set
forth, would have received the subscription of thousands
in that age, as an admirable substitute for the Articles of
the Church, and a liberal definition of the philosophy of
the day. The miserable fruits of such teaching fully ac-
cordecl with their source. It becomes only too obvious
that, ere long, Chatterton had learned to contemplate
self-destruction as a possible means of escape from the
difficulties that environed him. It was part of the free-
thinker's creed, not only advocated but practised in that
Bristol circle in which he moved. Peter Smith, a brother
1 It must not be forgotten, in judging of this item of his creed, that
in the eighteenth century the stage was really esteemed to be a good
Kchool of morality by Johnson, Burke, Hannah More, and many
others. Warburton was one of its zealous patrons ; and Newton, —
the object of Chatterton's satirical invectives, — was the earliest and
mo«t discriminating of Garrick's critics ; and continued his regard
for him after he became a bishop.
EMANCIPA TIO.V.
233
of his friend William, on being brought to task by his
father for irregular courses, according to his nephew's
mode of stating it, " retired to his chamber, and set his
associate an example that was but too soon to be fol-
lowed." A curious chance evidence enables us now to
contradict the accompanying statement which represents
Chatterton as the personal friend of P?ter, and sharer in
his excesses. Among the MSS. i:i t'^j British Museum
is an " P^legy on Mr. William Smith," written evidently
on the first news of Peter's death, under the misappre-
hension that his own friend was the victim. But he has
subsequently added this note, in the attorney-like fashion
to which so many facts invaluable to his biographer are
due : " Happily mistaken, having since heard, from good
authority, it is Pet^r." Peter it is obvious was not his
personal friend, though, no doubt, an occasional asso-
ciate. Of the intercourse with his brother William,
Mr. George Pryce has recovered a highly interesting
memorial, which proves that the two friends did at times
indulge in earnest interchange of thought on worthiest
themes. The question of the immortality of the soul
appears to have been ':Larted ; when Chatterton produced
the following lines, written impromptu in the presence of
his companion : —
" Say, O my soul, if not allowed to be
Immortal, whence the mystery we see
Day after day, and hour after hour,
But to proclaim its never-ceasing power?
If not immortal, then our thoughts of thee
Are visions but of non-futurity.
Why do we Hve to feel of pain on pain,
If, in the midst of hope, we hope in vain ?
Perish the thought in night's eternal shade :
To live, then die, man was not only made.
There's yet an awful something else remains
Either to lessen or increase our pains.
Whate'er it be, whate'er man's future fate,
Nature proclaims there is another state
Of woe, or bliss. But who is he can tell ?
None but the good, and they that have done well.
Oh ! may that happiness be ours, my friend !
The little we have now will shortly end ;
ClIAl'. XI,
reti'r
Smith's
sukittf.
No /lersoiiiil
friind.
Till' iiiniiar-
tality 0/ thi'
soul.
V
\
I
tii
234
'Jhap. XI.
A pleasant
memorial of
coiiipanion-
Tossing on a
s.ut 'if doubt.
A c/taracter-
istic inci-
(iefit.
CHATTERTON.
When joy and bliss more lasting will appear,
Or all our hopes translated into fear.
Oh ! may our portion in that world above,
Eternal fountain of Eternal Love,
Be crowned with peace that bids the sinner live ;
With praise to Him who only can forgive —
Blot out the stains and errors of our youth ;
Whose smile is mercy, and whose word is truth."
The sentiments thus rendered into verse at the moment
of their utterance preserve for us one pleasant memorial
of a companionship, which might seem, thus far, akin to
that enjoyed with Phillips, when the evening walks were
prolonged till their return *' through the darkened valley,
in converse such as heavenly spirits use." But whatever
other bonds of friendship knit the two together, the con-
genial element of appreciative sympathy was wanting in
his companion. In the elegy written under the belief of
his death Chatterton exclaims : —
" I loved him with a brother's ardent love ;
Beyond the love which tenderest brothers bear."
It is sufficient to show of what stuff this friend was made,
whose supposed loss he thus mourned, that he survived
his elegist upwards of half a century, and died in the
belief that " Tom no more wrote the Rowley Poems
than he did ! "
It is obvious enough from the vacillating contrasts of
earnest thought and crude scepticism apparent in the later
writings of Chatterton, that his mind was then tossing
on a sea of doubt. In confidential moments of private
intercourse he would give utterance to the devout aspira-
tions of his better nature ; but in the companionship of
such a circle as the Young Bristol of his day a well-
founded religious belief was needed for the avowal of
such sentiments. An incident said to have happened
towards the close of his Bristol career is not inconceivable
in such a circle. One evening the question was started
as to the bravery or cowardice of self-destruction, when
Chatterton is affirmed to have pulled a pistol out of his
EMANCIPA TION.
235
W
breast, and, holding it to his forehead, exclaimed: "Now,
if one had but the courage to pull the trigger I" The
story rests on no satisfactory authority ;^ and there seems
little probability to favour the idea of his carrying fire-
arms in any such fashion. Uut it is not always easy to
form a correct judgment on such points. His old school-
mate, Thistlethwaite, is described by Mr. Richard Smith
as "a short, stocky man, who walked about the city
exchange with the butt-ends of two horse-pistols peeping
out of his coat pockets;"^ and, according to the state-
ment of the latter, when Chatterton was parting with him
before setting out for London, after telling with confidence
of his literary projects, and other schemes, he reverted to
the pistol as his last resource. Whether in earnest, or
mere bravado, such an idea undoubtedly received expres-
sion in those last months of Bristol life ; and is thus
ei -bodied on a stray sheet, dated 17O9, found among his
papers after his death : —
"Since we can die but once, what matters it
If rope, or garter, poison, pistol, sword,
Slow-wasting sickness, or the sudden burst
Of valve-arterial in the noble parts,
Curtail the miseries of human life?
Tho' varied is the cause, the effect's the same ;
All to one common dissolution tends."
To companions such as those, among whom the philo-
sophic teachings of that eighteenth century were thus
freely avowed, I presume Mr. Barrett to refer, in the
brief notice of Chatterton near the close of his "History ;"
where he speaks of " the bad company and principles he
had adopted."^ Bad, indeed, they undoubtedly were;
but the remark has been turned to another account by
his traducers. It is obvious, from the context, that it was
to the bad principles of a free-thinker, and not of a
profligate libertine, that Barrett alluded. Of that youth-
^ The anecdote occurs in the anonymous life attached to Chatter-
ton's Works, two vols. 8vo. Grant, Cambridge, 1842, p. cxvi. It is
claimed as first recorded there, but no authority is given.
2 Richard Smith's MSS. Bristol Library.
'■^ Barrett's History, p. 6.16.
Chap. XI.
Carry hi);
ylrearnu.
V
His last re-
source.
Bad com-
Jinny and
principles.
%
Is
236
CHATTER TON.
ClIAl'. XI.
Ah early
ptayiiiaU:
Letter to
Mr. Clay-
JieUl.
Mr. Bar-
rett's narra-
ih>e.
C linractcr-
istic letter
to hint.
fill circle, the one for whom alone it possesses any interest
for us now was already treading on life's brief close.
Another, Richard, the brother of William and Peter
Smith, and an early i)laymate of Chatterton, died in
1 791, senior surgeon of the Bristol Infirmary, "beloved
and regretted by the whole city."
The new opinions of Chatterton had probably already
reached the ear of Mr. Lambert, when, one day, he found
on his clerk's writing-desk, — or more probably concealed
among his papers — a letter addressed to his friend Mr.
Clayfield, stating his distresses, and that on the receipt
of that letter he should be no more. Mr. Lambert, in
alarm, despatched the letter, not to Mr. Clayfield, but to
Mr. Barrett, on whose authority the narrative rests \ and,
according to his statement, he sent " immediately for
Chatterton, (juestioned him closely upon the occasion,
in a tender and friendly manner ; but forcibly urged to
him the horrible crime of self-murder, however glossed
over by our present libertines ; blaming the bad com-
pany and principles he had adopted. This betrayed him
into some compunction, and by his tears he seemed to
feel it. At the sr ne time he acknowledged he wanted
for nothing ; and denied any distress upon that account."
Mr. Barrett had concealed from Chatterton his mode of
acquiring the information, and the following day he re-
ceived this characteristic letter : —
" Sir, — Upon recollection 1 don't know how Mr. Claytield could
come by his letter ; as I intended to have given him a letler, but
did not. In regard to my motives for the supposed rashness, I shall
observe that I keep no worse company than myself. I never drink
to excess ; and have, without vanity, too much sense to be attached
to the mercenary retailers of iniquity. No ! it is my pride, my
damn'd, native, imconquerable pride, that plunges me into distrac-
tion. You must know that l9-20ths of my composition is pride.
I must either live a slave, a servant ; have no will of my own, no
sentiments of my own which I may freely declare as such ; or die !
— perplexing alternative. But it distracts me to think of it. I will
endeavour to learn humility, but it cannot be here. What it will
cost me on the trial Heaven knows !
** I am, your much obliged, unhappy, humble Servant,
"T. C."
EMANCrPA TION.
237
The letter Ih merely dated " Thursday evening." Mr. '
Cottle K'veH an extract from another written to Mr. Baster
about the Hame time, in which he curses the Muses,
exclaiminj^ ; " 1 abominate them and their works. They
are the nurses of poverty and insanity." Other influ-
ences, besides the failure of his plans for the publication
of the Kowley l*oems, combined to seduce Chatterton
from his ovfrtv aud
insantty.
yiiniiis nHii
A change of
viinhtry.
/•'(•/to 0/
the Qn-iit
Umbra.
\
238
CHATTERTON.
Chap. XI.
" Decimiis "
to the Duke
of Craffoii.
p'txe ofcovi-
/•ositton.
An original
legal docu-
ment.
Repertory of
Chntterton
and his
doings.
been his pack-ass till your late retreat. 'Tis true, the
measures which have set the nation in a flame were
executed by you ; but they were planned by him and his
more inventive projectors. . . . The people are indeed
to be pitied. They have a king (the best of kings, in the
language of flattery), who never hears the truth. They
petition, and are not regarded ; and if they assume a
becoming spirit of freedom, it is licentiousness." Aiming
still higher, on the loth of April, he writes his letter "To
the Princess of Gotham," in which he draws a parallel
between the England of Charles I. and that of the pre-
sent time. " Both are misled, and both by women."
It was while thus admonishing statesmen and their
masters ; and intoxicated with the delight of fancied
political influence : that Chatterton penned a piece of
composition of a very different character, which, whether
written in jest or earnest, brought his Bristol career
abruptly to a close. The letter of Decimus " To the
Princess of Gotham," — or, as he more clearly indicates in
a subsequent letter, " To the P D. of W ," i.e.
the King's mother. Princess Dowager of Wales ; — ap-
peared in the Middlesex Journal of the 17 th April, 1770.
In the interval between its writing and publication, as the
dates show, he sat down, on Easter Eve, Saturday, April
14th, and penned " The last Will and Testament of
Thomas Chatterton of the City of Bristol," the only
original document of a legal character he has left us.
It has been treated by most of his biographers as a
thoroughly serious one, written in desperation, and on
the eve of suicide. It is no easy matter to determine in
what light it should be viewed ; but its model, as a
mere bit of literary workmanship, must have been mani-
fest enough to those into whose hands it first came.
The Town and Country Magazine for 1769 has already
been noted as a rich biographical repertory of Chatter-
ton and his doings. By its means we recover the very
subjects of his reading in those months. Here, after
perusing his own pieces, he turned to the study of Wilkes,
Beckford, and Junius himselt ; to the scandal of the
EMANCIPA TION.
m^
his
eed
the
ley
a
month, and the news of the day. In the April number,
after D. B.'s " Kenrick, a Saxon Poem," had been read :
a wood-cut on the following leaf attracted him to the
"Life of a Deceased Monarch," with its anecdotes of
Samuel Derrick, Esq., late Master of the Ceremonies at
Bath, including this, that " our Bath King, a few days
before his death, dictated and ratified his Last Will and
Testament, in the name of wit, gallantry, and the Muses,"
after a fashion worthy of the frivolous fop.^ The humour
of the thing took Chatterton's fancy ; and stimulated by
occurrences which tended to foster the idea of a testa-
mentary farewell to his Bristol friends and the world in
general, we find him, in the following April, reproducing
its fancies in a version of his own. Possibly enough,
in the mood that then possessed him, there was a serious
purpose implied in his first paragraphs. But this speedily
gave way to the conceit of rivalling the Bath King in a
series of satirical bequests.
Chatterton's original intention was to write in verse ;
nor did he abandon this for the legally constructed prose
satire, till the motives for the more earnest production
had passed away. But, as printed in Southey and Cottle's
edition of his works, the will is prefaced by fifty-three
lines, breaking off abruptly with a scornful reference
to the indignities of a suicide's grave. In those alone
can be traced unmistakeable evidence of the purpose
1 Derrick's Will altogether wants the serious element which
inextricably blends with the grave jests of that of Chatterton ; and
as the production of an old man, in the actual prospect of death,
its jests, and still more its impure allusions, are a melancholy exhibi-
tion of human folly. The following items, however, are clearly
recognisable as the source of passages in Chatterton's Will: "To
Charles J s, Esq. all my modesty and Christian patience. To
the witty but unfortunate Lady C r all my prudence and dis-
cretion. To the citizens and frequenters of Bath discernment
sufficient to elect another Master of the Ceremonies equal to myself.
My courage to Mr. B ph. My poetical genius to the New
Foundling Hospital of Wit. My ghost to the inhabitants of Cock
Lane, for their sole use -and emolument. To Dr. S 1 J n,
the power of laying it by the pressure of his tremendous dic-
tionary," &c.
Chap. XI.
The King of
Bath.
Te>>tamen'-
tary conceit.
Metrical
portion of
the Will.
Derrick's
Last Will
and Testa-
ment.
340
CHATTER TON.
Chai', XI,
No hqiiii»l
o/ hi» rctii
treauitrpi,
Mm. Ed'
klm' vernhn
0/ t/ui »tnpy.
Flaslu's 0/
tragic
eariu'ntiii'tt,
usually ascribed to the whole ; and there also occurs the
only allusion to his poems. To Catcott he says : —
*• If ever obligated to thy purse,
Rowley discharges all."
For, curiously enough, amid all the unquestionable
hcfiousness that pervaded this testamentary jest, his
bt'(|uests include no reference to the only, and really
valuable property, the poet did leave as an inheritance
to posterity. Dr. Gregory states that he had been " in-
formed on good authority it was occasioned by the
refuHal of a gentleman, whom he had occasionally com-
plimented in his poems, to accommodate him with a sup-
ply of money." Clearly enough, as appears from the docu-
ment itself, the gentleman in question was Mr. Burgum,
though he could scarcely be described with propriety as
one much complimented by Chatterton's muse.^ I am
inclined however to regard Mrs. Edkins' version as the
true one, where she says : "Lambert had little business,
and of course the clerk had little to do ; but, like the
(log in the manger, he would neither employ him, or let
him employ himself ; and when he wrote a paper about
killing himself, as worn out with vexations, she had no
doubt he did it to induce Lambert — whom he repre-
sented as afraid of his own shadow, — to let him go."
He had already told his mother and her he was resolved
to run away, if he could not get his dismissal from a
master who was continually insulting him, and making
his life miserable. 2
Yet the document has its flashes of tragic earnestness
too ; reminding us that it is the jest of one, to whom the
idea of self-destruction was already familiar. His mind
was in disordered strife with all its most cherished pas-
hions ; and he bitterly exclaims in the apostrophe to
Cutcott : —
^ According to his own statement, Chatterton had at this time only
two creditors : the debts amounting togetlioi- 10 less than five pounds.
" Cumberland ; Dix, App. p. 312.
! ■!
v;
EMANCIPA TION.
241
to
" Thy friendship never could be dear to me,
Since all I am is opposite to thee ;
If ever obligated to tliy purse,
Rowley discharges all : my first, chief curse ;
For had I never known the antique lore,
I ne'er had ventured from my peaceful shore,
To be the wreck of promises and hopes :
A Boy of Learning, and a Bard of Tropes ;
But happy in my humble sphere had moved.
Untroubled, unrespected,' unbeloved."
Omitting the portion in verse, from which the most
characteristic passages have already been quoted, the
strange document is as follows :
"This is the last Will and Testament of me, Thomas Chattcrton,
of the City of Bristol : being sound in body, or it is tlie fault of my
last surgeon. The soundness of my mind the Coroner and Jury arc
to be judges of ; desiring them to take notice, that the most perfect
masters of human nature in Bristol distinguish me by the title of the
Mad Genius ; therefo -2 if I do a mad action, it is conformable to
every action of my life, which all savoured of insanity.
" Item. If after my death, which will happen to-morrow night
before eight o'clock, being the Feast of the Resurrection, the Coroner
and Jury bring it in lunacy, I will and direct, that Paul Farr, Esq.
and Mr. John Flower, at their joint expense, cause my body to be
interred in the tomb of my fathers, and raise the monument over
my body to the height of four feet five inches, placing the present
flat stone on the top, and adding six tablets."
Then follow the inscriptions, in French, Latin, and
English, in memory of real and imaginary ancestors,
occupying three of the tablets. The fourth reads : —
" To the Memory of Thomas Chatterton. Reader, judge not ; if
thou art a Christian, believe that he shall be judged by a superior
power. To that power only is he now answerable."
The fifth and sixth tablets are devoted to his favourite
heraldic achievements ; and then ii; thus proceeds : —
" And I will and direct, that if the Coroner's inquest bring it in
felo-de-se, the said monument shall be, notwithstanding, erected.
And if the said Paul Farr and John Flower have souls so Bristolish
ClIAI XI.
. \f>ostri>f>hi
to Cntcott.
Cfiiillrrt.ni'x
Lust Will
miii Jixtii
iiinit.
AuccHlml
iincriptioiu.
ids.
1 Cottle prints this unsuspected, and has been followed, as usual,
by all subsequent editors.
R
242
CHATTERTON.
Chap. XI.
f
I>i'• i/>ri III-
I'ecuHitiyy
nsount*.
Fareiufll I ft
liriftvl.
CHAPTER XII.
tll Al'. XII.
Thi; young
itih'i-itttirt'K
A mvnl in
London.
First letter
home.
LONDON.
The adventurous boy who entered London on tlie 25tli
of April, 1770, confident of winning a foremost place in
the republic of letters, had not, so far as appears, ever
before been further than a holiday's ramble beyond the
bounds of his native city. His actual funds consisted of
the surplus of the purse provided for him by his Bristol
friends ; his resources lay in his pen and fertile brain ;
and on these, and the promises of the booksellers, rested
hopes which for the time being flattered him with the
assured realization of his brightest dreams. He reached
London about five in the evening, made his way to Mr.
Walmsley's, a plasterer in Shoreditch, where a relative,
Mrs. Ballance, lodged ; hunted up sundry aunts and
cousins whom he found well, and ready to welcome him ;
and, what was still more practical, either that evening, or
early next forenoon, waited on the most reliable of his
literary connexions. This done, he sat down before his
first day in London was over, and wrote his mother a
graphic account of the journey.
*' Here I am," he writes, '* safe and in high spirits :"
and then follow incidents of the stage coach and its com-
pany ; a snowy night on Marlborough Downs, and a
bright morning which tempted him to mount the coach-
box for the remainder of the day : all matters of liveliest
interest to the poor mother. What follows more concerns
us now. " Got into London about five o'clock in the
called upon Mr. Edmunds, Mr. Fell, Mr.
evenmg ;
Hamilton, and
Mr. Dodsley. Great encouragement
LO.VDOiV.
249
)
from them ; all approved of my design ; shall soon be
settled j" and then follows the proud message to Mr.
Lambert already quoted, asking such a recommendation
as he merited.
Chatterton's connexions with the Lonilon press were
of some standing : but his contributions had hitiierlo,
for the most part, been made, like tiie earlier ones to
Felix Farley's Journal^ with no thought of other reward
than the pride of authorship. Tn March 1770, only a
few weeks before leaving J3ristol, he transmitted the first
instalment of his " Kew Gardens " to the editor of the
M'uldlcsex Journal, with this note : " Mr. Kdmunds will
send the author, Thomas Chatterton, twenty of the
journals in which the above poem — which I shall con-
tinue, — shall appear, by the machine, if he thinks proper
to put it in. The money shall be paid to his orders."
The first political letters were probably offered on similar
terms ; though payment for the author's copies would no
doubt be declined by a judicious editor. The way was
thus opened for the literary adventurer; but lelations
between him and the publishers had now to be established
on a very different footing. Mr. Edmunds alone of
London publishers knew that the great Decimus of his
journal, and rival of Woodfall's Junius, was Mr. Thomas
Chatterton of Bristol. The first sight of the youthful
demagogue must have taken him somewhat aback, one
would think. It did not, however, prevent the publica-
tion of further Decimus philippics, and other contri-
butions from the same pen. Mr. Fell was editor and
printer of the Freeholders' Magazine, another political
miscellany of the day, strong for Wilkes and liberty ; and
therefore quite in Chatterton's present line. As to
Hamilton, of the Town and Country Magazine; and
l^odsley, of the Annual Register : he had already, as we
know, been in correspondence with them both ; and, to
the former at least, was known as one of his most in-
dustrious contributors. It is not unworthy of note that
all four are named to his mother without word of expla-
nation. His plans had evidently been talked over in
Chai'. XII.
Ci>iiiii'.vi(>m
-fith the
1. OtldOH
press.
Ih'cimns
ami t/w
Middksi-x
Journal.
Periodicals
0/ the day.
CIIATTERTOX.
i^ .
I'HAP. XII.
Firtt
I. oui/nn
rainl'le. '
Snurcrx of
in form a-
First host
and hostess.
Uses of poet -
folks.
the little home circle, .'fnd he was only assuring her now
that they were in a fair way of successful realization.
Mr. Hamilton was to be found close by the haunt of
Cave and Dr. Johnson, at St. John's (iate, Clerkenvvell ;
while Mr. Dodsley's establishment lay for to the west of
Temple Bar. We can thus follow the young stranger in
his first eager exploration of the London of an hundred
years ago : from Shoreditch, through the crowded city, to
St. Paul's, and Paternoster Row, in search of Mr. Fell ;
by Smithfield to Clerkenwell and old St. John's Gate ;
then to Mr. Edmunds, in Shoe Lane, Holborn ; and so
westward, past Charing Cross, to the great publisher's
house in Pall Mall. I'he ramble was a long one, full of
interest, in the freshness of its novelty, to the Bristol
boy ; and with " great encouragement," as yet, from all.
Partly by means of the information derived from
Chatterton's own letters, and still more through the per-
severing researches of Sir Herbert Croft, opportunely
prosecuted within a few years after his death : we can
realize with considerable minuteness the circumstances
attendant on his settlement in London. His first host
and hostess, Mr. and Mrs. Walmsley, were on the whole
favourably impressed with the lad : notwithstanding cer- *
tain habits incident to his literary labours, not likely to
prove acceptable to any tidy housekeeper. Mr. Walms-
ley was struck with " something manly and pleasing
about him ;" and added, that " he did not dislike the
wenches." As for Mrs. Walmsley, " she never saw any
harm of him, he never viislistcd her," as she phrased it,
" but was always very civil, whenever they met in the house
by accident. He would never suffer the room in which
he used to read and write to be swept ; because, he said,
poets hated brooms. She told him she did not know
anything poet-folks were good for, but to sit in a dirty
cap and gown, in a garret, and at last be starved :" — the
traditions of Grub Street having by this time penetrated
eastward to Shoreditch. She also stated that during the
whole period Chatterton lodged with her he never, but
once, stayed out after the family hours. Then " he did
f
/
i\
LOXDOX.
•ft
not conic home all night, and had ])ccn, she heard, poet-
in^j a son>< alnnit the streets:" — a report whieh his rehi-
tive, MrK. Hallance, corrected; as she ascertained that he
lodj^ed that night at one of the aunts or cousins aheady
referred to.'
Mrs. VVahnslcy had a nephew and niece, to wliom
reference han already been maile. The former, a )'oun.L';
man ahoiit twenty-f(--:r years of age,^ shared his bed witli
the Ktranger, and was rather put out, as we have already
seen, by some of the odd ways of this, the first poet he
had ever en<:ountered. Yet he also said that, *' notwith-
standing his pride and haughtiness, it was impossible to
help liking him," 'I'he niece, a young woman nearly ten
years hi« senior, somewhat resented the lad's saucy ways;
and declared that, " for her part, she always took him
more for a mad boy than anything else." Yet she also
was inipressed, in spite of herself, with the countenance
and bearing of the youth, and said that, " but for his
face, and her knowledge of his age, she should never
have tliought him a boy, he was so manly, and so much
himself." His own relative, Mrs. Ballance, was even
more piiz/.led what to make of him than Miss Walmsley.
From Chatterton's efforts, ere long, to obtain some in-
terest in her behalf at the Trinity House, she appears to
have been the widow of a seaman, originally, we may
presume, from the port of Bristol. She knew her relative,
Mrs. Chatterton, to have been left, like herself, in a very
humble way ; and no doubt, when written to, was ready
to do wliat little was in her power for the widow's son.
But, instead of the poor lad she had expected, she found
a youth " proud as Lucifer. He very soon quarrelled
with her for calling him • Cousin Tommy,' and asked her
* Croft, p. 215.
2 The rcLilive ages of Cliatterton and his companions is of
importance in correctly estimating their statements regarding hini.
Professor Maxwrn speaks of the nephew as a boy of fourteen. But
Sir H. Croft, writing in 1779, says: "Their ncpliew and niece;
the latter about a» old as .Chatterton would be now, the former
three yearn y(junger." The nephew, therefore, must have been
aboi.t twenty-four, and the niece twenty-seven.
C;i.>.f. XII.
.1 l.rnJoH
room- mill f.
Manly self-
possession.
Proitii as
I. nci/cr.
. I
t i
>! >i
^\
352
rHATTERTON.
Chap. XII.
Mrs.
Ballaiicc's
ndvkc.
I' I I'
i \
Poor Cousin
'J'oniiiiy.
Settling the
nation.
''The Flight
of Youth."
if she ever heard of a poet's being called Tommy ? But
she assured him that she knew nothing of poets, and
only wished he would not set up for a gentleman. Upon
her recommending him to get into some office, when he
had been in town two or three weeks, he stormed about
the room like a madman, and frightened her not a little
by telling her that he hoped, with the blessing of God,
very soon to be sent prisoner to the Tower : which would
make his fortune." The two took their meals together ;
though not in the most social manner, for he Avould cat
no meat, drank only water : and scared the poor woman,
in the midst of her well-meant advices, by declaring "he
should settle the nation before he had done ! How could
she think that her poor Cousin Tommy was so great a
man as she now finds he was ? His mother should have
v.ritten word of his greatness ; and then, to be sure, she
would have humoured the gentleman accordingly."
Chatterton was busy in those days on letters to the
A/iddicscx /oiin:al, Frcelwlders' Magazine., &c., "settling
the nation." The return, in the form of pride, and the
flattering notoriety so acceptable to the literary neophyte,
was ample. In actual money it must have been small
indeed. Fell, a needy adventurer on the verge of bank-
ruptcy, was only too happy to find a novice eager to con-
tribute clever political essays on the chance of future
)ay. But literary work was no longer, as in Bristol, the
pasvime of leisure hours. Some more reliable patron
must be found, if the profession of letters was to furnish
him with permanent bread-work. There is a piece in the
Annual Register for 1769, in imitation of an Ode of
Casimir on " The Flight of Youth," which bears the
initials T. C. and was possibly sent to Dodsley while the
"^illa" MS. was under consideration. Its merits are small,
nor do I find any distinct trace of Chatterton using his own
initials \^ though the very nature of his correspondence
about the mysterious "yElla" might tempt him to assume
this
signature
for an inferior modern piece ; and any
^ T. C. was the signature adopted by Thomas Gary, of Bristol.
From his sixteenth year Chatterton most frequently signed D. B.
^. J
LONDON.
2s:
a
,at
he
she
accepted piece would serve as an introduction to the
publisher. Chatterton accordingly presented himself
before the great bibliopole as he tells his mother, and
was dismissed with fair words which he estimated as full
of encouragement. Could he have made the shy, retiring,
but kind-hearted bookseller his friend, no better patron
need have been desired. With the worth of his genuine
works once known ; and through him introduced to the
noble band who formed the real representatives of letters
in that day; how different must have been the l)oy's ^ate.
The famous Turk's Head Club, founded in 1764, witli
Burke, Reynolds, Johnson, Goldsmith, Nugent ; and by
and by with Garrick, Percy, Dyer, and other London
wits and celebrities among its members : had been effect-
ing an infusion of new blood. Goldsmith, — who was
giving his final polish to his " Deserted Village," pre-
paratory to its publication, some four weeks after Chat-
terton's arrival in London ; — had just provoked Johnson
into one of his characteristic retorts, by telling the Club
that "they had travelled over each other's minds ;" and
wanted new men to give zest to their meetings. Fancy
the boy transferred from his Catcotts, Barretts, and Bur-
gums, to such society as this ; and interchanging sauc}'
wit, brilliant satire, and grave, earnest thought, with in-
tellectual equals who could estimate his true worth :
"And greet with smiles the young-eyed Poesy,
All deftly mask'd as hoar Antiquity. "
And what was to prevent it ? No social inequality ; and
as for the intellectual patent of nobility : it was Coleridge
who thus in fancy conceived of himself with Lloyd,
Southey, and Wordsworth gathering round the boy " at
sober eve," to listen to his " stately song."
But Chatterton had made a false start with Mr. Dods-
le)-, and whatever encouraging words he might say to the
self-introduced visitor, his present aims as an author were
not in the great publisher's line. No real good, indeed,
temporary or otherwise, was to be derived from his
Decimus letters, and otiier deaUngs with Edmunds, Fell,
Chap. XII.
Visit to
DoihUy.
The i'urk'i
licadCliib.
Ititi'U ctuni
equals.
i: i
A false
start.
\ I
mm
iW
i i
I )
! I
i
i !
254
Cm I', XI
it'iiy til
CHATTER TON.
/■'ff,'fi>\i t/n,/
" '//
Juniui
and the political adventurers of the London press. It
was as the True Thomas, the genuine Rowley, that his
l^lace must be won, if at all, among men of letters.
Yet it is i)rol)able tiiat the literary treasures he possessed
were not even hinted at, in his visit to Mr. Dodsley. He
was dazzled, for the time, with the empty noise and glare
of Junius letters and Churchill satires ; and dreamt, to
the no small alarm of Mrs. Ballance, of being sent ere
long to the Tower, and so becoming as famous as Wilkes
himself.
There Avas no lack of energy or self-reliance about the
youth, in his first efforts in this novel career. He went
straight to his point, like one to whom London, and all
the arts of its literary guild, had been long familiar;
■a\m\, in the wild whirl of that new life, the war of parties
had in it a iiiscination well calculated to banish for a
time the antique muse. There was much, moreover, in
the character of the period, to tempt an ardent young
writer into the political arena, for it was one of the most
memorable crises in the history of periodical literature.
The accession of George HL to his grandfather's
throne, in 1760, reawakened the war of parties with all
its old bitterness, and with a coarseness of vituperation
on a par with the worst days of the Restoration. The
popular prejudices against the Scot, to which Johnson
lent all the weight of his intense one-sidedness, acquired
a concentrated bitterness, when John Stuart, Earl of
I'utc, became the royal favourite, and Smollett led the
van in defence of his administration. Within the ten
years preceding Chatterton's arrival in London the news-
paper press had successfully asserted, under the strangest
auspices, its legitnnate influence in popular government.
'II10 Raml)lci\ Idler, Adventurer, and other light literai7
Herials which followed on the model of Steele and Addi-
tion's famous essays, had been superseded by Smollett's
IhHon, Wilkes' unscrupulous North Briton, and the still
more famous letters of Junius. Churchill, a profligate
churchman, had allied himself to the notorious dema-
gogue ', and the pungency of their shameless wit and
LONDON.
255
t young
he most
ature.
[father's
with all
)eration
The
iinson
quired
arl of
ed the
he ten
news-
angest
merit.
iterai'^
Addi-
lollett's
,ie still
fligate
dema-
t and
audacity proved more than a match for ro)al favour.
But with a Scottish Peer for the butt of their scurrihnis
vituperation, and a Scottish journalist as his ally, the
temptation to enlist the prejudices of race and ualic^n-
ality in the strife were irresistible : and so Churchill pro-
duced the bitterest of his satires : " 'i'he Prophecy ol
Famine ; a Scots Pastoral," re})lete with profane humour
and prejudice; and dedicated it to Wilkes. _ As for the
North Briton., it had come to a violent end with the
famous No. 45, seven years before Chatterton's arrival in
I ondon ; but the arrest of Wilkes, and the cjuestion ol
general search-warrants, which grew out of the prosecu-
dons of its publisher, protracted the strife till long after
his brief London career was at an end.
'l"he smouldering fires of this combustible embroglio
had suddenly blazed up, with no little smoke and heal,
at the very time when Chatterton started as a literary
adventurer. Wilkes, popular candidate, and, as fiir as
majority of votes could make him, member for Middle-
sex, had been expelled the House of Commons, con-
demned to pay a fine of ;^i,ooo, and undergo a pro-
tracted imprisonment. On the 17th of April, — in that very
Easter week when Chatterton had his Will in hand, —
his term of imprisonment came to an end ; and the
patriot hero of the mob emerged from the King's Bench
to enjoy an ovation such as has not often greeted the
noblest and best. " Wilkes and Liberty " was the motto
of the day. " Violation of the ught of election," of
''The Bill of Rights" itself, and much else, were in-
volved in the wrongs of the demagogue. So his fine was
more than paid by popular subsc iption ; public dinners
throughout England celebrated his release ; while already
in far-away Scotland he was commemorated in very
different fashion. For, curiously enough, on every Fifth
of November, when protestant English boys are kindling
their bonfires for Ciuy Fawkes, those of presbyterian
Scotland take advantage of the occasion to make an
auto-da-fe of Johnny Wilkes !
While still in Bris*:ol, and busy widi Saxon heraldry
CiiAr. XII,
( 'liin\ hill' t
.\iil:iYs
/' Hal til,-
liens.' ol'
mill
l.il'urty "
256
CITATTERTON.
Chap. XII.
A London
Alderwan.
The dona-
gogiie's
I
Kewards oj
a literary
patriot.
and Rowley poems, Chatterton had read in the first
number of the Town and Country Magazine an article
on the power and dignity of a London Alderman, illus-
trated by a full-length portrait of Alderman Wilkes in his
official robes. For the citi.'.ens had testified their sym-
pathy for that suffering patriot, while still in gaol, by
conferring on him this distinguished honour ; and the
article treats accordingly of " the abolition of general
warrants ; the seizure of private papers ; and the liberty
of the press, that great bulwark of our rights and pro-
perties :" telling the reader that, if such things "be dear
to Englishmen, or valuable to posterity, John Wilkes,
Esq. will be heM in that estimation by his countrymen
to the latest period of time." All this, and much more
of the like kind, Chatterton read and pondered, while
still busy on his own literary projects, in his last year in
Lambert's office.
Some legal technicalities had enabled the Court of
Aldermen to set aside the election of Wilkes by the
Ward of Earringdon Without, but he was re-elected
unanimously ; and by the tim.e Chatterton reached
London, he had been sworn in to the dignified office ;
in due time to be Sheriff; Lord Mayor ; and when, as he
himself styled it, he was "a fire burned out," to retire
at last into the lucrr.tive office of City Chamberlain.
Barely a month later, Lord Mayor Beckford — also
engraved at full length in the same volume, — bearded
Majesty, itself in an extempore speech in St. James's
Palace, still readable on his monument in Guildhall;
and so the young Bristol literateur, with his Decimus
fulminations in progress, found ferment enough to sti-
mulate his excitable brain.
But it was one thing for Decimus to write his letters
in the leisure intervals of office work, and enjoy the
delight of receiving from London his copy of the Middle-
sex^ or other journal, in which they were given forth to
the world ; and quite another thing for Chatterton to pay
his London board on the profits of such patriotic out-
bursts. So ere long he gave his sister the results of his
LONDON.
257
experience. Essay writing, as he told her, had the ad-
vantage of being sure of constant pay ; but " Essays on
the patriotic side fetch no more than what the copy is
sold for. As the patriots themselves are searching for a
place, they have no gratuities to spare. So says one of
the beggars, in a temporary alteration of mine, in the
' Jovial Crew : '
' A patriot was my occupation,
It got me a name, but no pelf,
Till, starved for the good of the nation,
I begged for the good of myself.
Fal, lal, &r.
* I told them if 'twas not for me,
Their freedoms would all go to pot ;
I promised to set them all free,
But never a farthing I got.
Fal, lal, &c.'
On the other hand, unpopular essays" — that is papers
on the side of the Government,— " will not even be
accepted ; and you must pay to have them printed ; but
then you seldom lose by it. Courtiers are so sensible of
their deficiency in 1. ;erit, that they generally reward all
who know how to daub them with the appearance of it."
The caricature is not greatly overdrawn. Enormous
sums were yearly expended in subsidising such literary
adventurers, and organizing a guerilla service on behalf
of the ministry of the day. Brief as was the London
career of Chatterton : his letters, and the productions of
his pen, alike in prose and verse, betray abundant traces
of this transitional period in the history of literary pa-
tronage, when the awards of the Crosvn to the most dis-
tinguished men of letters were regarded as bribes to
tempt them from their true vocation, rather than recog-
nitions of their intellectual worth. Home, the author of
" Douglas," was one of the literary partisans pensioned
for such services by the Scottish favourite. Smollett -won
his reward, not as the poet and noveUst, but as the
political pamphleteer ; and Johnson — who also owed
his pension to Bute, — was accredited with earning it
Chap. Xll.
Essays on
till- patriotic
side.
Courtiers'
rcivards.
Organiziug
a giicrilia
service.
Lord P-iiti 's
literary
partisans.
n
I i
I,
258
CHATTER TON.
w
Chap. XII.
Pensijiied
Johnson.
Patronage
of Mnc-
pherson.
Pirjuihcef:
0/ the it ay.
by political subserviency ;
Gardens :"
as in Chatterton's " Kew
" When Bute, the ministry and people's head,
With royal favour pension'd Johnson dead :
His works in undeserved oblivion sunk,
Were read no longer, and the man was drunk.
Some blockhead, ever envious of his fame,
Massacred Shakespear in the doctor's name. . . .
And universal cat-calls testified
How mourn'd the critics when the genius died.
But now, though strange the facts to deists seem,
His ghost is risen in a vernal theme.
And emulation maddened all the Row
To catch the strains which from a spectre flow ;
And print the reasons of a bard deceased,
Who once gave all the town a weekly feast.
As beer, to every drinking purpose dead,
Is to a wondrous metamorphose led,
And opened to the action of the winds
In vinegar a resurrection finds :
His genius dead, and decently interred,
The clamorous noise of duns sonorous heard,
Scour'd into life, assumed the heavy pen,
And saw existence for an hour again ;
Scattered his thoughts spontaneous from his brain,
And proved we had no reason to complain."
One evidence, however, peculiarly appropriate to our
present subject, shows that Lord Bute could appreciate
purely literary claims ; for it was under his patronage
that Macpherson had pubHshed the poems of Ossian
only a few years before. But, as the young satirist
ironically exclaims in the same satire :
"Alas ! I was not born beyond the Tweed." '
It is amusing thus to trace the reflex of the prejudices
and passions of that excited period, in the satires of the
Bristol boy : a zeal for Chatham, that can forgive even
the crime of his coronet ; a contempt for Grafton, that
cannot be appeased by his resignation ; and a dislike of
the Scot as intense as if the southern bank of the
Tweed, instead of that of the Severn, had witnessed his
LONDON.
259
birth and training. His " Resignation," a spirited piece
of satirical invective, furnishes the following picture of
the Scottish favourite :
" Far in the North, amid whose dreary hills
None hear the pleasant murmuring sound of rills ;
Where no soft gale in dying raptures blows,
Or aught which bears the look of verdure grows.
Save where the north wind cuts the solemn yew
And russet rushes drink the noxious dew ;
Dank exhalations drawn from stagnant moors,
The morning dress of Caledonia's shores.
Upon a bleak and solitary plain,
Exposed to every storm of wind and rain,
A humble cottage rear'd its lowly head. . . .
Here lived a laird the ruler of his clan,
Whose fame thro' every northern mountain ran.
Great was his learning, for he long had been
A student at the town of Aberdeen ;
Professor of all languages at once,
To him some reckoned Chappellow^ a dunce.
.^ ? With happy fluency he learned to speak
Syriac or Latin, Arabic or Greek ;
Not any tongue in which Oxonians sing
When they rejoice, or blubber, with the King,
To him appeared unknown
'Tis true his rent roll just maintained his state,
But some in spite of poverty are great.
Though famine sunk her impress on his face.
Still you might there his haughty temper trace ;
Descended from a catalogue of kings.
Whose warlike arts Macpherson sweetly sings.
He bore the majesty of monarchs past,
Like a tall pine rent with the winter's blast.
Whose spreading trunk and withered branches show
How glorious once the lordly tree might grow\
• • • •
Fired by Ambition he resolved to roam
Far from the famine of his native home ;
To seek the warmer climate of the south,
And at one banquet feast his eyes and month.
As from the hills the land of promise rose,
A secret transport in his bosom glows.
1 This learned Professor of i^rabic at Cambridge, celebrated for
his knowledge of Oriental languages, died in 1768.
S 2
Chap. XII.
Pictun- of
the Sf'tthk
favoitrltf.
.1 royal line.
I
\ >•
26e*
ClIAl'. XII,
Rfvoliiliini
the ffriuit
Thnntt,
laliie.
J)/l',/lfl/ off
at a lii'ttt.
CHATTERTON.
(.
A joy prophetic, until then unknown,
Assured him all he viewed would be his own.
He reached the great Metropolis at last.
Here fate beheld him as he trudged the street,
Bare was his buttocks and unshod his feet ; •,
A lengthening train of boys displayed him great,
He seem'd already minister of state.
The Carlton Sybil saw his graceful mien
And straight forgot her hopes of being Queen."
Then follows a cleverly drawn picture of the revolu-
tion wrought by the great Thane, when he at length at-
tained to power. " Plenty smiled in Scotland's barren
land ;" Merit hastened southward to receive its reward,
" And Genius having ranged beyond the Tweed
Sat brooding upon bards who could not read."
One more brief extract will suffice to illustrate the
vigour with which the young satirist could wield his pen
as ihe political partisan :
" When Grafton shook oppression's iron rod,
Like Egypt's lice, the instrument of God ;
When Camden, driven from his office, saw
The last weak efforts of expiring law ;
When Bute, the regulator of tlie state,
Preferr'd the vicious, to supplant tlie great ;
When rank corruption thro' all orders ran,
And infamy united Sawney's clan ;
When every office was with rogues disgraced.
And the Scotch dialect became the taste
Could Beaufort witli such creatures stay behind?
No! Beaufort was a Briton, and resigned."
Much longer extracts of equal vigoar and pungency
might be made. Yet this poem only exists in the first
rough unfinished draft, preserved among other rescued
papers, in the British Museum, v/itl\ all the blanks,
erasures, and illegible lines, as it was originally dashed
off and thrown aside. Such a writer, it might be supposed,
was worth enlisting on one side or the other, when
literary partisans were in such requisition. He had
LONDON.
26 1
naturally taken the popular side ; believed in all the
current scandals about the Court and its favourites ; and
so employed the old weapons he had used so recklessly
against the ecclesiastical and civic dignitaries of Bristol,
in assailing the supposed betrayers of the nation's
liberties.
There is surely something very noteworthy in the
versatility thus manifested at so early an age. The boy,
whose natural tastes had made of him the old-world poet
and recluse, passes to London, and steps into the front
rank of partisan combatants, with all the ease of a veteran
politician. It is the same in every department of prose
and verse. Chameleon-like, he catches the satiric vein
of Churchill ; the envenomed prejudice of Wilkes ; and
the lofty-toned, yet narrow, bitterness of Junius. He
assumes, not unsuccessfully, the rough vigour of Smollett ;
apes at times the rythmical niceties and the antithesis of
Pope, or the polished grace of Gray and Collins ; or, in
the guise of a Saxon monk, rivals the Gaelic Ossian, in
his heroic affectations. But, all the while, this versatile
mocking-bird had his own genuine song, in virtue of
which those imitative echoes of contemporaries have
still a value for us.
Confident in such varied resources ; and by no means
scrupulous as to the mode of employing them : the san-
guine youth flattered himself with dreams of imaginary
triumphs and abundant recompense. The essays and
poems already penned ; and all the possible essays,
poems, and literary achievements of every kind, pro-
jected, or deemed achievable by him : were coined into
actual wealth by his facile imagination ; and he hastened
to make his mother and sister sharers of his fortune.
The boastful extravagance of his home letters would at
times be sufficiently amusing, as a real Alnascar's dream,
could we forget the tragic bitterness of the awakening.
He was drawing on his imagination ; but only, he fancied,
as the heir of an unrealised fortune is free to pledge what
is already his own. And amid all the bombastic foibles
of the self-reliant youth there is ever the genuine element
C'HAr XM
1 III' pii/'itlur
11 'iiinlfyfiil
vi'rMllli(y,
Coiiflilfiit
niui iiHHtti-
pliloiit
A ri'nl
Alnnma/t
dreum,
I
^P »w . t tJJJ i i ' P ^ x w p iwn * win ' w .^ »» » n» m. i ' wkij ^ j ' jw
li
262
Chap. XII.
Ceiniitie
domestic
affection.
A s^orious
prospect.
Introduced
to the great
demagogue.
A needy
adventurer.
CI/ATTERTO.V.
of domestic afifection, anticipating the rays of a promised
dawn, that those whose poverty he had sharetl might
partake of its sunshine. Yet with all this, it is not easy
to determine how much is the reaUzation of sanguine
fancy, and how much the mere romancing of the boastful
youth, bent on impressing his provincial friends with an
imposing idea of his achievements. Before he had been
a fortnight in London he addressed a second letter to his
mother, in which he tells her : " I am settled, and in such
a settlement as I would desire. I get four guineas a
month by one magazine ; shall engage to write a History
of England and other pieces, which will more than double
that sum. Occasional essays for the daily papers would
more than support me. What a glorious prospect ! Mr.
Wilkes knew me by my writings, since I first corresponded
with the booksellers here. I shall visit him next week,
and by his interest will insure Mrs. Ballance the Trinity
House. He affirmed that what Mr, Fell had of mine
could not be the writings of a youth ; and expressed a
desire to know the author. By the means of another
bookseller I shall be introduced to Townsend and Saw-
bridge," — two of Wilkes's Liberal colleagues in the alder-
manic office. He then adds, " I am quite familiar at the
Chapter Coftee-house, and know all the geniuses there ;"
and so Mr. Gary, Mr. Kator, and other literary corre-
spondents are instructed to address letters for him to
this City haunt of authors and booksellers.
Wilkes knew him by his writings !-^had indeed ex-
pressed a desire to know their author ! Possibly enough
the young literateur made his way into the presence of
the great demagogue — then playing the roll of popular
patriot to ail P^ngland; introduced himself as the veritable
Decimus of the Middlesex Journal^ and was graciously
dismissed with the flattering lie. Or perhaps it was Mr.
Fell, who palmed off the story on his inexperienced
correspondent, along with some vague promise of four
guineas a month for contributions to the Freeholders'
Magazine; for Mr. Fell is one of the neediest of adven-
turers, who in another week has to be reported by Chat-
LONDON'.
263
terton as safe in the debtors' wing of the King's Bench ;
and was therefore Hkely enough to be Hberai in fine
words. Mr. Edmunds, also, of the Miiidlcsex Journal^
is by the same date in Newgate, under fine of the House
of Lords, on poHtical grounds ; so that the boy was not
so far wrong, after all, in thinking that if he handled his
pen to good purpose, he might land some day in the
Tower, or its equivalent.
Meanwhile Chatterton has an eye to his friends. His
interest with Mr. Wilkes he relies on for Mrs. Ballance ;
but should that great man fail him, there are higher in-
Huences within reach, as he indicates in his next letter.
" Intended waiting on the Duke of Bedford, relative to
the Trinity House ; but his (irace is dangerously ill,"
He also encloses a letter to his friend Gary, with mes-
sages for sundry other literary Bristol ians of his old circle.
They are to read the Freeholders' Magazine; and any-
thing they have for publication, they are to address to
him, to be left at the Chapter Coffee-house, " and it shall
most certainly appear in some periodical." Before the
close of the month, he dates a letter to his sister from
Tom's Coffee-house in the Strand, another favourite
resort of men of letters in Johnson's time ; and writes,
according to his own account, amid the noisy hum of
their talk on politics and public business. He is more
sanguine and boastful than ever ; has engaged to live
with a gentleman, the brother of a Lord, — only a Scotch
one however, — who has extensive bookselling schemes
in view; is about to write a voluminous history of London,
and much else. In fact if money flowed in upon him as
fast as honours, he would give his sister a portion of
There is an amusing air of self-importance in all this
romancing, which, like so much else of what is good as
well as evil in Chatterton, requires us to keep in mind
his age, and utter inexperience of the world in which he
now moved with so confident a bearing. He next pro-
ceeds to put his sister in possession of the public news,
which has a personal interest for her. " You have doubt-
CiiAP. xn.
An editor in
Si'wgiite.
lias an eye
to liis
/ricmti.
Tom's
(Joffee house.
A musing
air 0/ self-
importance.
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264
Chap. XII.
I ntrodttces
himself to
Lord Mayor
Beckjord.
CHATTERTON.
Prospects
ivith the
Court pa)-ty.
A f>nssHli;
slip to Si'll.
Contrast of
Bristol and
London,
less heard," he writes, " of the Lord Mayor's remonstra-
ting and addressing the King ; but it will be a piece of
news to inform you that I have been with the Lord Mayor
on the occasion. Havinp^ addressed an essay to his
Lordship, it was very well received ; perhaps better than
it deserved ; and I waited on his Lordship, to have his
approbation, to address a second letter to him, on the
subject of the remonstrance and its reception. His
Lordship received me as politely as a citizen could ; and
warmly invited me to call on him again. Th3 rest is a
secret. But the devil of the matter is, there is no money
to be got on this side of the question. Interest is on the
other side. But he is a poor author who cannot write on
both sides. I believe I may be introduced — and if not,
I'll introduce myself, — to a ruling power in the Court
party." He has been little more than a month in
London ; and already is learning how precarious are the
rewards of such literary taskwork. The thought has
crossed him in some moment of despondency of escaping
all this feverish drudgery by "a step to sea ;" and he lets
slip the hint : " I might have a recommendation to Sir
George Colebrook, an East India director, as qualified
for an office no ways despicable ; but I shall not take
a step to the sea, whilst I can continue on land." So
he turns aside to Mr. Wensley, some seafaring cousin,
as it would seem, whose ship, "the Levant man-of-
war," he had already mentioned in a former letter as
at Portsmouth ; and who is now at Woolwich receiving
his pay.
In his second letter to his mother, Chatterton draws
a sufficiently disparaging contrast between London, as
already revealed to him in a ten days' sojourn, and the
" mean and despicable " Bristol of his life-long experience,
and then proceeds : "The poverty of authors is a common
observation, but not always a true one. No author can
be poor who understands the arts of booksellers. With-
out this necessary knowledge the greatest genius may
starve \ and with it the greatest dunce live in splendour ;"
— prophetic words ! But he fancied himself master of
LONDON.
265
this literary craft, so needful even to genius; and ere
long embodied his experience in his " Art of Puffing by
a Bookseller's Journeyman:" a slight satirical piece, in
which its reputed author deals in sufficiently disparaging
terms with one of his most gifted contemporaries : —
" The trading wits endeavour to attain,
Like booksellers, tlie world's first idol — gain.
For this they puff ihe heavy (loldsmith's line,
And hail his sentiment, though trite, divine ;
For this the patriotic bard complains,
And Bingley binds poor liberty in chains ;
For this was every reader's faith deceived,
And Edmunds swore what noljody lielieved ;
For this the wits in close disguises fight.
For this the varying politicians write ;
For this each monili new magazines are sold,
With dulness (iiled and transcripts of the old.
The Tinoii uiui Country struck a lucky hit,
Was novel, sentimental, full of wit ;
Aping her walk the sanie success to find.
The Court and C'tiy hobbles far behind.
Sons of Apollo, learn; merit's no more
Than a goiul frontispiece to grace the door.
The author who invents a title well.
Will always fiutl his c(»vcred dulness sell ;
Flexney and every bookseller will buy :
Bound in neat cuff, the work will never die."
The trick of new magazines " filled with transcripts of
the old " was notorious among the liter:, ry hacks of that
eighteenth century. When (ioldsmith collected his essays
into a volume, he thus humorously reclaimed his pilfered
ideas : " If there be a j)ri(le in multiplied editions, I have
seen some of my labours sixteen times reprinted, and
claimed by different parents as their ovvn." Nor did
Chatterton, himself, scruijle to resort to the same process
when hard pressed. But, with every deduction on account
of such borrowed transcripts : in mere quantity, the
amount of literary work he accomplished is as remark-
able as the diversity of its cliaracter.
Chatterton tells his sister, before the end of May,
of his essay addressed to the patriotic Lord Mayor;
and of a second letter on his Lordship's uncourtly re-
ClIAP. XII.
The "Art 0/
J'uffmg."
Trichs i\f
iitera ry
hacLs.
The patri-
otic Lord-
Mayor.
f
266
Chap. XII.
Success
as a patriot
writer.
First letter
of Probus.
•
A ir-built
castles topple
doivn.
CIIATTERTON.
\
Letter to
Lord Mayor
Beckford.
monstrance, about which its author hints a mysterious
secrecy. The history of this performance is fortunately
preserved by Walpole in one of the Appendices to his
" Narrative." Chatterton was at this time attaining all
the success that a patriot writer could desire. The Lord
Mayor had actually agreed that his forthcoming letter
should be publicly addressed to him. Bingley, printer
and proprietor of the Political Register^ and also of the
revived North Briton^ had undertaken its publication.
He might fairly consider himself second to none among
the political free-lances on the popular side ; and though
unhappily there was nothing to be got by it in the way of
direct money payment, his prospects justified the tone of
exultation which his letter betrays. He assumed a fresh
nom de plume; and as Probus his first Beckford letter
appeared early in the following month, in the Political
Register. The second was written, ^nd accepted by
Bingley; and Chatterton only waited its appearance to
present himself once more before the Lord Mayor, and
claim the reward of his able championship : when, on
the 2 1 St of June, London was startled with the news
of Beckford's sudden death.
The letter which was to signalise Chatterton's triumph
by its appearance in the North Briton had become so
much waste paper. All his fine air built castles had
toppled down \ and, as Mrs. Ballance told Sir Herbert
Croft, " when Beckford died, he was perfectly frantic,
and out of his mind ; and said that he was ruined."
But he recovered his equanimity ; and, years after his own
death, ar^ong sundry manuscripts examined by Walpole
in the hands of a private collector, was one which
is thus described by him : " A Letter to the Lord
Mayor Beckford^ signed Probus; dated May 26, 1770.
This is a violent abuse of Government for rejecting the
remonstrance, and begins thus : ' When the endeavours
of a spirited people to free themselves from an un-
supportable slavery.'"
On the back of this essay, which is directed to Gary,
is this characteristic endorsement : —
LONDON.
267
om an un-
" Accepted by Bingley, set for, and thrown out of the North
Briiottf 2 1st June, on account of the Lord Mayor's death.
£ s. d. £ s. (/.
Lost by his death on this Essay .... i 1 1 6
Gained in Elegies 220
„ Essays 3 3°
^ ^ °
Am glad he is dead by ;^3 ^3 6."
One at least of the Elegies written on this occasion
is preserved. It extends to twenty-eight stanzas, and was
published in a quarto pamphlet by Mr. Kearsley of Fleet
Street. Its tone is worthy of the gri f that found such
ready consolation ; but a stanza or two may be aptly
quoted here : —
" He knew when flatterers besiege a throne
Truth seldom reaches to a monarch's ear ;
Knew if oppressed a loyal people groan,
'Tis not the courtier's interest he should hear.
" Hence, honest to his prince, his manly tongue
The public wrong and loyalty conveyed.
While titled tremblers, every nerve unstrung,
Looked all around, confounded and dismayed ;
" Looked all around, astonish'd to behold —
Trained up to flattery from their early youth —
An artless, fearless citizen unfold
To royal ears a mortifying truth."
And so another patron had failed ; and political writ-
ing was altogether proving a very thankless task. An
ironical letter of his addressed to Lord North, which
appeared in the Freeholders' Magazine for August, is
shown by Dr. Maitland to have been mainly borrowed
from a long-forgotten periodical, entitled Common Sense,
published upwards of ten years before he was born.^
But he would appear to have put in practice his maxim
that " he is a poor author who cannot write on both
sides," if Walpole be right in ascribing to him an
unpublished letter to Lord North, under the signature
of "The Moderator," dated May 26, 1770, and de-
1 Maitland, p. 57.
C»AP. XII.
Debtor and
Cfi'ditor
account.
fieck/ord's
elegy.
Political
itnitint; a
t/innkless ,
tusk.
268
Chah. XII.
.
Trials of n
literary
adventurer.
Harry
WiUfirc
and Mr.
BritannicHS.
CHATTERTOM.
scribed by him as "an encomium on the administra-
tion for rejecting the Lord Mayor Beckford's remon-
strance." If so, the date is the same as that on which
the venal young politician addressed to the Mayor the
letter which was in the hands of Bingley's compositors
when its author was driven frantic by his Lordship's
death. Another of his unpublished Decimus letters,
" To Lord Mansfield," as seen by Walpole in MS., being
penned in no such courtly style, had many of its para-
graphs cancelled, with the marginal note, "Prosecution
will lye upon this."
It was hard to have his literary handicraft returned
once and again on his hands in this uncoward fashion.
Until matters came to such a crisis in the political world,
Chatterton doubtless reckoned for a time with reasonable
confidence on an income from the productions of his
versatile pen ; and even when the crash came he was
loth to abandon the exciting arena of party strife. Beck-
ford was still Mayor when, with a dignity becoming his
new importance, he addressed his mother as " Dear
Madam," dating from the King's Bench, where he had
been hunting up his debtor, Mr. Fell, and getting paid
seemingly by an introduction to the new proprietors of
the FrecJwldcrs^ Magazine ; and so he flatters himself he
will be " bettered by this accident ; " — have at least a
chance of pay for work done : for it is to be feared that
there has been little forthcoming as yet for a large amount
of political essay work.
We have a glimpse, I suspect, — autobiographic of a
sort, — of some of the experiences that were already
beginning to open his eyes, in Harry Wildfire's account
of his dealings with Mr, Britannicus, the publisher,
when that " Sad Dog," a^ a last resort, tu'-ns author.
" As I did not doubt my invention," he says, " and had
vanity enough for the character, I sat down to invoke
the Muses. The first fruits of my pen were a political
essay and a piece of poetry. The first I carried to a
patriotic bookseller, who is, in his own opinion, of much
consequence to the cause of liberty; and the poetry
LONDON.
269
was left with another of the same tribe, who made bold
to make it a means of puffing his magazine, but refused
an) gratuity. Mr. Britannicus, at hrst imagining the piece
was not to be paid for, was lavish of his praises, and I
might depend upon it, it should do honour to his llaming
patriotic paper ; but when he was told that I expected
some recompense, he assumed an air of criticism, and
begged my pardon. He did not know that circum-
stance ; and really he did not think it good language
or sound reasoning. I was not discouraged by the
objections and criticisms of the bookselling tribe ; and
as I know the art of Curlism pretty well, I make a
tolerable hand of it. But, Mr. Printer, the late prosecu-
tion against the booksellers having frightened them all
out of their patriotism, I am necessitated either to write
for the entertainment of the public or in defence of the
ministry. As I have some little remains of conscience,
the latter is not very agreeable." Harry Wildfire is,
in truth, only repeating what Chatterton had already
written to his friend Gary : " The printers of the daily
publications are all frightened out of their patriotism,
and will take nothing unless 'tis moderate or minis-
terial. I have not had five patriotic essays this fortnight.
All must be ministerial or entertaining."
Lord North, in his unsteady, vacillating way, had
been stimulated into active measures of coercion by
the joint influence of Lord Mayor Beckford's uncourtly
remonstrance, and one of the most rancorous of the
Junius letters, assailing the whole policy of the adminis-
tration, and backing up the ireful and insulted city. Both
events belong to Chatterton's first month in London, and
formed ?cts in the stirring drama in which he fancied
himself ere long no insignificant actor. Events, indeed,
crowded on him with exciting celerity. The Middlesex
Journal of the 2 2d May contains the letter of Decimus
" To the Prime Minister," which closes in this magnilo-
quent style : " You, my Lord, how mean and servile
soever your department is, may be of some use in avert-
ing the impending storm. Fly to the Council with your
Chap. XII.
Lavish of
prnUc.
rite art .'/
Curlism.
Lord
North' s
nicasutr of
coercion.
H
\
nnw
vio
CHATTERTON.
\
'Die Junius
vein.
I I
Chap. XII. facc whitened with fear. Tell them that justice is at the
door, and the axe will do its office. Tell them, while the
spirit of English freedom exists, vengeance has also an
existence ; and when Britons are denied justice from the
powers who have the trust of their rights, the constitution
hath given them a power to do themselves justice." This
letter appeared on the 2 2d ; the famous City remonstrance
belongs to the following day ; the letter of Junius to the
28th ; and by the ist of June the law-officers of the
Crown had the publishers under prosecution. So the
chances of the patriot-poliician were at an end for the
present; and Chatterton had to return to his older
vocation as a poet, or try his hand at tales and literary
essays.
Numerous fugitive pieces of Chatterton no doubt
remain undiscovered in the ephemeral periodicals of this
time. He adopted various signatures, and no less varied
styles and subjects, according to the nature of the publica-
tion. He names in different letters the Freeholders'^ the
Town and Country^ the Court and City^ The London^ The
Christian^ and The Gospel Magazines ; The Political
Register^ The London Museum, Tlie Middlesex, and 77tf
Foreign Journals : as periodicals to which he was a con-
tributor; and we know, besides those, of The Lady's
Magazine, The Annual Register, and the North Briton.
In the Town and Country Magazine his "Hunter of
Oddities " ran through a series of eleven slight but hu-
morous articles. His " Polite Advertiser " and " Memoirs
of a Sad Dog," — in which the Baron of Otranto figures,—
were contributed to the same magazine. Some of his poems
appear in it also under vhe signature Asaphides, to which
he drew attention in a letter to his relative, Mr. Stephens ;
and"Cutholf," one of his latest compositions, — a professe!an
earrs-
(iropptr.
Bacchus and
his bowl.
276
Chap. XII.
A flash of
earHestness.
I >i
Quarrel of
Cupid and
Bacchus,
Too tardy
production
of the
burlctta.
CHATTERTON.
Cupid. Hence, monster, hence ! I scorn thy flowing bowl ;
It prostitutes the sense, degenerates the soul."
Here spoke the poet, with a flash of earnestness,
almost out of keeping with Dan Cupid, on whom
Bacchus retorts the charge : — .^
*' He plays with ethics like a bell and coral."
The dialogue proceeds, in greatly varied measure,
adapted to recitative and airs, till Cupid transfixes the
drunken god with his arrow : on which Bacchus throws
the contents of the bowl in his face, and runs off. After
the plot has set all its Olympian characters at cross-
purposes, harmony is at last restored j and Bacchus and
Cupid, turning to the audience, pay, in song, their duty
to the fair and gay, closing thus : —
"Bacchus. For you the vine's delicious fruit
Shall on the lofty mountains shoot ;
And every wine to Bacchus dear
Shall sparkle in perfection here.
Cum... For you shall Handel's lofty flight
Clash on the listening ear of night ;
And the soft, melting, sinking lay
In gentle accents die away ;
And not a whisper shall appear,
Which modesty would blush to hear."
This spirited burletta there can be little doubt Chat-
terton did not live to see produced, with all the charms of
music and scenery. His letter to Cary is undated ; but
it appears to have been written in the end of June, when
the London Museum was on the eve of publication, with
his second African Eclogue, "The Death of Nicou."
He had then heard several airs of his burletta sung ; and
his head was so full of music, that much of his letter is
taken up with a discussion of it, and its Bristol professors.
The original receipt, attached to the last chorus of the
burletta, was accidentally recovered in 1824. It is dated
July 6th, 1770,— only seven weeks before the fatal close,
LONDON.
277
iated ; but
— and shows diat he received five guineas for his labours.^
Three years later, Mr. Upcott, one of the librarians of
the London Institution, picked up, among the waste
paper on the counter of a City cheesemonger, the original
manuscript, in Chatterton's handwridng, written in a com-
mon school copybook, as was his wont ; and with some
additional songs, after the receipt to Mr. Atterbury.^ It
had been given by the latter to Mr. Egerton, for the
purpose of printing; and after its issue from his press
in 1795, the MS. was reported to have been lost at the
printing-office : where it no doubt lay, till transferred
with other waste copy to the cheesemonger's use.^
The remuneration for the burletta was liberal in com-
parison with most of Chatterton's pecuniary returns : and
probably the largest sum he ever received for any literary
production. His sister recovered a pocket-book after
his death, in which, among other entries of moneys re-
ceived, Mr. Hamilton is credited with payment of ten
shillings and sixpence for sixteen songs ; or somewhat
less than eightpence each. Of those, and probably
many other ephemeral productions, we have no trace.
VValpole describes among the manuscripts seen by him :
"The Flight ; addressed to a great man ; Lord B e,"
— no doubt a political satire on the Scottish favourite. It
extended to forty stanzas of six lines each ; and had been
rejected by the Political Register because of its length.
A second satire dealt with Mr. Alexander Catcott and
his book on the Deluge ; and no doubt others have
perished, or can no longer be traced in the periodicals
to which they were contributed.
From all this we can form some idea of the amount
and variety of literary work accomplished by a youth of
seventeen, during four months' sojourn amid the distract-
ing novelties and temptations of London. Much of it
was mere task- work ; but indications are not wanting to
* Gent. Mag. vol. xcv. Part I. p. 99.
■'' Ibid. vol. xcvii. Part II. p. 355.
^ J. H. List of publications relating to Chatterton, p. 537.
c:ottie.
Chap. XII.
Recovery ij/"
tlu MS.
Liberal
remunera-
tion.
Ephemeral
prodnctiom
lost.
Amount and
variety of
•work.
278
CHATTERTON.
Chap. XII.
Revival of
the old
ina^iratioH.
show that even ther amid all the exactions which
necessity imposed ou him, the old inspiration revived ;
and he lived and wrote once more as the poet-monk of
an elder and nobler time. The resources of his brain
seemed inexhaustible. But such mental strain, followed
as it was by disappointment, and utter failure even in the
poor return for which so much of it had been under-
taken, may amply account for the despondency which
ended in despair.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE LAST HOPE.
Rtnvley in
London.
The MS.
jfiossmy.
Bristol is not so inferior to London, as are most of the Chap.xiii.
hasty productions of Chatterton's pen during his brief
sojourn there to the true Rowley Poems. He carried
the manuscripts of these with him ; but could Thomas
, Rowley, priest and poet, live in that intoxicating fever of
' politics, strife, and dissipation, amid which there seemed
even less hope of an appreciative audience than on the banks
of the Avon ? This at least seems certain, that, at a very
early period after he reached London, he meditated the
resumption of his antique art. When little more than a
fortnight from home, we find him specially naming " the
MS. glossary, composed of one small book, annexed to a
larger," as most needful among his missing volumes.
Again, some two weeks later, on the 30th May, he
writes his sister : "The manuscript glossary I mentioned
in my last must not be omitted." No doubt, therefore,
he not only cherished the dream of his youth, but
even then contemplated perpetrating the old reveries
of Redcliffe Hill in his new lodging, at Shoreditch,
or elsewhere. !
The last, seemingly, of all his Rowley Poems in point j Last of Mr
oMate, and the fitting close to the whol^, is his " Balade | ^pZnl
of Charitie." Some ten weeks after his arrival in London
it was forwarded to Mr. Hamilton, of the Toivfi and
Country Magazine^ where his " Elinoure and Juga " had
already appeared. According to his first editor, the note
which accompanied it bore the date : " Bristol^ July 4th,
1770;" Eo that he was still guarding the secret of his
28o
CHATTER TON.
Chap. XIII.
Its appro-
priate tofie
and senti-
ment.
Generous
remev-
brance of
home.
Boastfitl
extrava-
gance.
antique muse with even more than his old precautions.
The tone and sentiment of this fine ballad are so appro-
priate to a date which brings us within little more than a
month of the last sad scene of all, that it seems as though
it foreshadowed the ending. But a month is an important
item in the brief life of Chatterton, and a large portion
of his whole London career. Dating professedly from
Bristol on the 4th, we may presume that the packet was
not actually delivered till the 6th of July : which brings
us to the very day on which he signed the receipt for his
well-earned five guineas, the price of his burletta. Never,
perhaps, was he in better spirits. The prosecutions of
the press had driven him back to verse, and here was a
substantial return.
There is indeed touching evidence that this was the
only remuneration Chatterton received on such a scale as
really to seem to leave him a surplus in' hand. He had
meditated from the first making the dear ones at home
sharers in his earliest good fortune. Before he had been
three weeks in London, we find him telling his mother :
"Thorne shall not be forgot, when I remit the small
trifles to you." In his letter from Tom's Coffee-house,
on the lafjt day of the month, replete with high anticipa-
tions, he tells his sister : " Assure yourself every month
shall end to your advantage. I will send you two silks
this summer, and expect, in answer to this, what colours
you prefer. My mother shall not be forgotten ; " and as
he closes with the usual greetings to mother and grand-
mother, he adds : " Sincerely and without ceremony, wish-
ing them both happy. When it is in my power to make
them so, it shall be so."
The letter, in which this occurs, is the same in which
he recounts his interview with the Lord Mayor, and
much else. Amid its boastful extravagance, we might
be 'tempted to fancy such promises mere empty talk.
May passes over ; June succeeds, and draws to a close ;
his sister, as we discover from one of his own letters, fails
not to inform him of her choice of colour for the silks :
but still there is no word of the promised gifts. Buc on
THE LAST HOPE.
aSi
the 6th of July he signs the receipt for " five pounds,
five shilHngs, being in full for all the manuscripts con-
tained in this book : " viz. his burletta " Revenge ; "
with sundry additional songs. The 7th is proudly and
happily spent in purchasing and packing the long-pro-
mised " trifles ; " and on the 8th he thus writes : —
"Dear Mother, — I send you in the box six cups and saucers,
with two basons for my sister. If a china teapot and creampot is,
in your opinion, necessary, I will send them; but I am informed
they are unfashionable, and that the red china, which you are pro-
vided with, is more in use. A cargo of patterns for yourself, with
a snuflF-box, right French, and very curious in my opinion.
"Two fans — the silver one is more grave than the other, which
would suit my sister best. But that I leave to you both.
"Some British herb snuff, in the box; be careful how you 0{)cn
it. (This I omit lest it injure the other matters. )
"Some British herb tobacco for my grandmother. Some trifles
for Thome. Be assured, whenever I have the power, my will won't
be wanting to testify that I remember you.
" Yours,
"yuly2>tk, 1770. "T. Chattkrton.
"N.B. — T shall foresti'U your intended journey and pop down
upon you at Christmas. I "ould have wished you had sent my red
pocket-book, as 'tis very material.
"I bought two very curious twisted pipes for my grandmother :
but both breaking, I was afraid to buy others, lest they should break
in the box ; and, being loose, injure the china. Have you heard
anything further of the clearance ?
"Direct for me at Mrs. Angel's, Sack-Maker, Brooke Street,
Holborn."
Three days later his sister also gets a letter, with loving
tokens of remembrance, and abundant indications that
the all-important matter of silks is not forgotten, though
still beyond the present means of the sanguine boy. He
is a little astonished at the choice his sister has made :
not that "purple and gold" is beyond his expected
wealth, but it is scarcely elegant or genteel ! " I went
into the shop," he says, " to buy it ; but it is the
most disagreeable colour I ever saw — dead, lifeless,
and inelegant. Purple and pink, or lemon and pink,
are more genteel and lively. Your answer in this
affair v/ill oblige »ne." A few days later, he tells her :
Chap. XI 11
Rxpcnding
hit Jirst
iurplut.
Proniisni
Ckristutna
visit.
Vurhlc nmi
gold.
283
CHATTERTON.
Chap. XIII.
Thoughtful
home gifts.
Communi-
cations with
Barn-tt.
Kowhy did
become a
Londoucr.
/ i
)«;
" I am now about an oratorio, which, when finished, will
purchase you a gown. You may be certain of seeing me
before the ist January 1771. My mother may expect
more patterns :" that is, for her millinery and dressmaking.
He had already enclosed " -^ cargo of patterns " for her
when the box of presents was made up; but with the
expected pay for communications already in Hamilton's
hands, almost enough to fill the next number of the
To7aH and Country Magazine, he sees his way to still
more liberal gifts. So after a brief paragraph in his most
jubilant style, he adds : " You will have a longer letter
from me soon, and rrore to the purpose." Pay day, as
he trusted, was at hand. With the end of the month
would come the means of fulfilling such promises, and
accomplishing much else. So that we see, whatever
momentary fit of despondency may have prompted the
" Balade of Charitie," it is by nc means to be regarded
as the last plaint of failing hope.
There appears to have been an autograph copy of the
ballad in Mr. Barrett's hands, either left behind, or else
transmitted to him from London, — which, at first thought,
seems unlikely. But communications, as we shall see,
did pass between them after Chatterton left Bristol, and
he had his own reasons for conciliating the antiquary, and
reminding him of the excellency of charity. Certain at
any rate it is that the text in Southey's edition is " printed
from a single sheet in Chatterton' s handwriting, com-
municated by Mr. Barrett, who received it from Chatter-
ton : " whether personally, or transmitted from London,
to complete the intending historian's set of the Rowley
antiques, and keep the way open for future favours.
It is not, therefore, indispensable that we should rej ect
the idea that Rowley did become a Londoner at last.
It was a grand thing for the proud, self-confident youth
to congratulate ambassadors, countenance and flatter the
Lord Mayor, dictate to the Prime Minister, and lecture
Royalty itself. For a time it actually seemed to him as
though the wheels of state moved with an accelerated
speed under the impetus of his exertions. So, to the
THE LAST HOPE.
283
no small wonder of Mrs. Ballance, he quarrelled with her
for calling him " Cousin Tommy," and nearly frightened
the poor woman out of her wits by his extravagant pro-
cedure. She might be a fit enough object for the patronage
of the young poet, once his fortune was made ; but he
had not left Bristol, and his quarters in Mr, Lambert's,
with a share of the footboy's attic, to be addressed in
such terms : or, indeed, to prosecule his work in a room
shared with the Shoreditch plasterer's nephew. So, as
Mrs. Walmsley told Sir Herbert Croft, his stay at her
house was limited to nine weeks, or rather less, ris
appears from the date of his second Eclogue. He
parted with her on good terms, but assigned no reason
for quitting his lodging. His bedfellow nad noted
that " almost every morning the floor was covered with
pieces of paper not so big as sixpences, into which he
had torn what he had been writing before he came to
bed;" and when he finally quitted, he left the room
littered with, what Mrs. Walmsley called, the remains of
his poetings.
On the 12th of June, if not earlier, Chatterton found
himself for the first time absolutely alone, in new quarters,
and a more convenient locality for all his resorts of busi-
ness or pleasure. Brooke Street, Holborn, lies on the
western verge of the City proper ; and the house of Mrs.
Angel, sack or dressmaker, in which he now secured
lodgings, still stands unchanged, as when he occupied
one of its rooms. It has been identified with the aid
of the books for collecting the poor-rates for 1772, as
No. 39, on the west side of the street. ^ There, in a room
looking towards the street, we find him, on the 19th,
telling his sister some of thii first experiences of his
^ Tradition professed to identify the house as No. 4 ; and this is
duly notified accordingly in Mr. Peter Cunningham's carefully edited
"Handbook of London." An impudent forgery of a "Report of
the Coroner's Inquest" (Notes and Queries, vii. 138), shifted it to
No. 17 ; with this good result, that Mr. W. Moy Thomas, in proving
its spuriousness, produced the contemporary evidence of the actual
house where Mrs. Angel's taxes were collected {At/iematiu, Dec.
5th, 1857).
Chap. XI 11.
Qua rreh
with Mrs.
Hal la nee.
Quits /lis
first
lodging.
A lone in
nnv
quarters.
The house
iiientificd.
"1
2S4
Chap. XIll.
The poet's
titnv outlook.
Glimpse of
his new life.
I
Room-
mates.
CHATTERTON.
new outlook, in very familiar fashion : " I have a horrid
cold. The relation of my manner of catching it may give
you more pleasu/e than the circumstance itself. As 1
wrote very late Sunday night (or rather very early Monday
morning), I thought to have gone to bed pretty soon last
night : when, being half-undressed, I heard a very doleful
voice singing Miss Hill's favourite bedlamite song. The
humdrum of the voice so struck me, that though I was
obliged to listen a long while before I could hear the
words, I found the similitude in the sound. After hear-
ing her with pleasure drawl for about half an hour, she
jumped into a brisker tune, and hobbled out the ever-
famous song in which poor Jack Fowler was to have been
satirized. ' I put my hand into a bush ; * * I prick'd my
finger to the bone ; ' ' I saw a ship sailing along ; * • I
thought the sweetest flowers to find ; ' and other pretty
flov/cry expressions, were twanged with no inharmonious
bray. I now ran to the window and threw up the sash,
resolved to be satisfied whether or not it was the iden-
tical Miss Hill in proprid persond!^ But it turns out to
be only a drunken ballad-singer singing herself to sleep.
A huxter selling stale mackerel joir.s in the chorus ; and
before the listener's curiosity is satisfied he has " a most
horrible wheezing in the throat."
The picture is not a very refined one. But it shows
us the young poet writing far on into the morning, as
was his wont : busy, it may be, in the production of one
of the flimsy pieces already noted ; or, possibly, in the
delights of new-found- solitude, taking refuge once more
in that antique past, in which, as a poet, he had mused
from early childhood. For this removal to Brooke Street
has brought with it a change of no slight importance.
As a Bluecoat boy Chatterton slept with Baker, and
shared their common room with the companions of his
ward. As Mr. Lambert's apprentice he had to choose
between the kitchen and the attic he shared with the
footboy. At Mr. Walmsley's, in like manner, he had a
room-mate in the plasterer's nephew, whom he puzzled
not a little by his long night-watches and other strange
THE LAST HOPE.
28s
Lve a horrid
r it may give
itself. As 1
irly Monday
tty soon last
very doleful
song. The
:hough I was
uld hear the
After hear-
an hour, she
out the ever-
to have been
I prick'd my
g along;' 'I
i other pretty
inharmonious
J up the sash,
yas the iden-
turns out to
rself to sleep.
; chorus J and
has " a most
But it shows
; morning, as
uction of one
assibly, in the
ige once more
he had mused
Brooke Street
It importance,
h Baker, and
panions of his
lad to choose
ared with the
mer, he had a
)m he puzzled
other strange
proceedings. Now, for the first time, he enjoyed the
delights of solitude; could withdraw into those inner
chambers of imagery where all the petty wranglings
of that eighteenth century disappeared ; was with the
builders of Redcliffe Church, or the choice cotery of
the Rudde House : and elevated, earnest thoughts held
mastery of his soul. Nor is the " P^xcelente Balade
of Charitie " unworthy to have been the first-fruits
of such a time. There we do know that the grev dawn
found him busy with the poet's pen ; and theie, with
none to remind him that the body has claims, and
night is her fitting time for rest, he would work on un-
tiringly into a new day.
Chatterton did not wear his heart on his sleeve. We
have seen him on more than one occasion hide his morti-
fication under the bravest outside show. Walpole makes
shipwreck of the hopes of half a lifetime ; and he writes
of it to his relative Mr. Stephens, as of a tilt between two
literary knight- errants, of which, perchance, the best was
yet to come. Lord Mayor Beckford dies, and with him
perish expectations of honour and fortune. To his poor
relation, Mrs. Ballance, he betrayed his feelings at the
moment, frantically declaring he was ruined. But the
serio-comic balance-sheet of debit and credit, already
given, in which he finds himself " glad he is dead |
by 3/. 13^. 6. XIII
A good
Samuvitan.
CHATTERTON.
The ftPifii
ri Jecti'd.
'I' lie literary
inarketovcr-
.stt'clcrd.
And from the pathway side then turned he,
Where the poor aimer lay beneath the holmen tree.
" An almes; Sir Priest I " the drooping pilgrim said,
"For sweet Saint Mjiry and your order's sake."
The Limitour then loosen'd his nouch thread,
And did thereout a groat of silver take ;
The hapless pilgrim did for halline ^ shake :
" Here, take this silver, it may ease thy care ;
We are God's stewards all ; nought of our own we bear.
'• Hut ah ! unhappy pilgrim, learn of me,
Scarce any give a rentroll to their Lord ;
Here, take my seme-cope," thou art bare, I see ;
'Tis thine; the saints will give me my reward."
He left the pilgrim, and his way abord.
Virgin and holy saints who sit in glore.
Or give the mighty will, or give the good man power.
This beautiful poem, perversely disguised, according to
his wont, with such professed antiques, Chatterton trans-
mitted, through some indirect channel, to Mr. Hamilton
of the Town and Country Magazine^ and had it rejected.
The act was creditable to the worldly wisdom of the
editor, who was printing in his July number the first
moiety of the " Memoirs of a Sad Dog," one of his
"Hunter of Oddities;" and Sir Butterfly's "Polite
Advertiser : " in which the poet had aimed sufficiently
low to hit the taste of magazine readers. But the market
was already overstocked with such wares. " Almost all
the next T(nvn and Country Magazine is mine," he writes
to his sister, on the 20th July, — having then supplied its
editor with materials enough, had he been disposed to
use them. But, as became an able editor, he aimed at
variety ; had other contributors, as well as his readers,
tastes to consult ; and so withheld the larger portion of
Chatterton's work, and with it the money so needful
to him : issuing his pieces in later numbers, when their
writer no longer solicited either space or pay.
Among the finished materials brought with him to that
great world's mart, Chatterton had his "^lla," "Godd-
.
' Halline, joy.
2 Seme-cope, short under-cloak.
f-,
THE LAST HOPE.
289
of ii>itii/iu'
VitSf.
I
wyn," and " Bristowe " Tragedies ; his " Tournament," j chai. x 111.
" Parliament of Sprytes," and other interkides ; his
♦* Rattle of Hastings," and numerous minor poems
wrought after the same antique model : enough to make
a goodly volume of verse such as ought to have sufficed
for fame and fortune to any bard. Possibly it was m
the hope of attracting the notice of some appreciative
patron that he attempted to secure the publication of
his " Balade." But whatever his plans may have been,
lie made no other attempt to bring them before the
world ; and only when hard-pressed by the necessities
that now gathered around him, like the lowering tempest
of his hapless pilgrim, did he offer to pawn this one, —
not for fame, but bread.
Walpole had failed him, in part at least, through his
own mismanagement ; though the portraiture was most
true : —
" Knightes and barons live for pleasure and themselves."
\ J'liiliire.
Dodsley had been approached with little less tact, and
with no more success. But could he have found some
experienced friend to stand between him and the pub-
lishers, — as Johnson did for Goldsmith, when the bailiffs
had him in hand for his landlady's arrears ; — to keep his
secret if it must be kept, yet enlist their sympathy on
behalf of his literary venture, what a different chapter in
the history of that eighteenth century we might now
•have to write. Think who the men of that generation
were from whom the award should have come. Walpole,
as he tells us, on getting Chatterton's " impertinent "
letter, wrapped up both poems and letters, returned all
to him, and thought no more of him or them till about
a year and a half after, when, dining at the Royal
Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds in the chair, and the
most distinguished representatives of art and letters
around him : Dr. Goldsmith attracted the attention of
the company by his account of a marvellous treasure of
ancient poems lately discovered at Bristol, and got
laughed at by Dr. Johnson for his enthusiastic belief in
u
\\''a)it of nn
i-.r/irrii'iui'if
T/ii- Royal
Acaiiciiiy
ditnicr.
M
290
CHATTERTON.
Chap. XIII.
Walpole
and
Cioldsmith.
yohusMis
verdict.
Secrecy in-
dispe}tsahle
to success.
F.ar^y wish
to sttciy
tncdicinc.
them. " I told Dr. Goldsmith," says Walpole, ♦* that this
novelty was none to me, who might, if I had pleased,
have had the honour of ushering the great discovery to
the learned world. But though his credulity diverted
me, my mirth was soon dashed ; for on asking about
Chatterton, he told me he had been in London, and
had destroyed himself." But though rough old Samuel
Johnson was ready enough to raise the laugh at Gold-
smith's credulity as to the antiquity of the poems, that
was not his verdict as to their worth. When he did read
them, his exclamation was : " This is the most extraor-
dinary young man that has encountered my knowledge !"
But whatever plans Chatterton may have cherished for
ultimately presenting Rowley to the world, he was right
in keeping his secret, — however wrong in the modes he
resorted to for accomplishing that purpose. They had
been conceived in their antique form in the splendid
dream of the child-poet ; and could not be modernised
without loss. Presented as mere imitations of writings
of an imaginary monk of the fifteenth century, they would
have repelled the general reader, while inviting the cen-
sorious criticism of the professed antiquary. Either
they had to astonish the literary world as the strangely
recovered treasures of an unknown poet of the days of
the Roses, — as they ultimately did ; — and so arouse
criticism, controversy, and research : acquiring thereby
a fictitious interest, .such as actually pertains to them
even now ; or they had to be rewritten in, at least, the
English of Spenser. But the latter idea was foreign to
the whole dream of the poet's life. So when the " Balade
of Charitie" was rejected, and the ways of modern
literature grew ever more thorny, he bethought himself
of another fancied way to fortune.
According to his foster-mother's account, Chatterton
wished to have been bound to Barrett, to study medicine,
and share in the congenial pastimes of the antiquarian
surgeon. He would, at any rate, have found some em-
ployment for his active mind ; for he read largely of Mr.
Barrett's professional library, obtained from him what
THE LAST HOPE.
291
of n iiii'di-rii
instruction he could be induced to impart, and ever after ' Chai xiii
availed himself of all chances of increasing his little stock ;
of knowledge. Thistlethwaite, when describing the versa-
tility of his tastes, says : " Even physic was not without
a charm to allure his imagination, and he would talk
of Galen, Hippocrates, and Paracelsus, with all the con-
fidence and familiarity of a modern, empiric." In this
vein he writes to his sister from London, about Mrs.
Carty, the mother of one of his Bristol friends : " My
physical advice is, to leech her temples plentifully ; keep
her very low in diet ; as much in the dark as possible.
Nor is this last prescription the advice of an old woman.
Whatever hurts the eyes affects the brain ; and the
particles of light, when the sun is in the summer signs,
are highly prejudicial to th ^ eyes ', and it is from this
sympathetic effect that the headache is general in
summer. But above all, talk to her but little, and never
contradict her in anything. This may be of service. I
hope it will." The advice is given with all the con-
fidence of an experienced physician.
In Brooke Street, Holborn, within a few doors of Mrs.
Angel's, was the shop of Mr. Cross, an apothecary.
Chatterton made his acquaintance ere long, and fre-
quently visited him on his way to and from his lodging.
As usual, his fascinating manner won the stranger's good-
will ; and he afterwards told Mr. Warton that he found his
conversation most captivating, in spite of the occasional
intrusion of deistical opinions. There was no lack of
subject for talk. The stirring politics of the day ; gossip
about the London periodicals ; the wider range of litera-
ture, so thoroughly at his command ; and even medicine
itself, on which he would surprise the apothecary with
the amount of his knowledge.
As high hopes began to fade, old ideas of turning this
crude knowledge to account revived. While represent-
ing his prospects in such brilliant colours to his friends,
he had evidently, from an early date, recognised the
possibility of failure. He had been little more than a
month in London, when, in the midst of some of h'vs
u 2
Mr Crrs
the a/",
i/u'carv.
Old id,;Vs
spirit and
liberality.
Conciliatory
gifts tr
Catcott and
Barntt.
most sanguine revelations to his sister, he hinted of a
possible "step to the sea." Two more months had
tran:,pired ; the brilliant prospects of the young litterateur
had all faded away ; and he confessed to himself the
bitter truth that he had failed. The presents sent to hi.,
mother and sister in the beginning of July, were bought
on the faith of new supplies never forthcoming. I'he
rate of remuneration for work done and published
was not such as to leave much surplus ; and for much
work accepted but still unpublished, no money was to be
had. He had probably begun to urge payment under
the pressure of ever-increasing necessities, and then the
manner of his reception by the dispensers of literary
patronage would undergo a marvellous change. Flattery
was a cheap coin, liberally dispensed ; but when fair
promises were required to be discounted, unpalatable
truths would be apt to be substituted for them. And
so, at length, Chatterton sits down, on the 12th of
August, and pens a long and seemingly purposeless
letter to Mr. George Catcott, in which rumour, gossip,
art, and politics are discussed in a laboured fashion,
in striking contrast to the usual spirited style of his
letters. Yet even now, in the last letter he was ever
to pen, his thoughts linger around St. Mary Redclifife ;
and he refers ironically to the incredible rumour that
spirit and liberality enough for the completion of its long
mutilated spire have at length manifested themselves
among the citizens of Bristol. But the real object of the
letter appears in the last paragraph : " I intend going
abroad as a surgeon. Mr. Barrett has it in his power to
assist me greatly, by his giving me a physical character. I
hope he will ; " and then he adds : " I trouble y^u with
a copy of an essay I intend publishing." So the letter
closed, with respectful greeting. He is sending, as a
conciliatory gift, some piece of literary workmanshij)
adapted to Mr. Catcott's taste. The act suggests the
possibility that the copy of the " Balade of Charitie,"
written on. a single sheet, which long years after supplied
the text for Southey's edition of the poet's works, was the
THE LAST HOPE.
293
propitiatory offering nc w forwarded to Mr. Barrett, " as
wrote bie the gode pricsu; Thomas Rowleie." He had at
any rate written to him intimating the hope to which he
now clung, of obtaining an appointment as surgeon's mate
on board an African trading, or probably slave ship.
In Sir Herbert Croft's strange series of letters, styled
"Love and Madness," to which so much curious informa-
t'^^n about Chatterton is due, he refers to an article in
the Town and Country Maj^azine, which must have met
Kis eye ; and ignorant of this last scheme of becoming
surgeon's mate to an African trader, he exclaims : *' What
roust have been the sensations of Chatterton's feeling
mind, when he read that tlie number of slaves brought
from the coast of Africa in one year, 1768, between
Cape Blanco and Rio Congo, amounted to one hundred
and four thousand one hundred? How must the genius
of Rowley have fired at such a sum total of fellow-crea-
tures made beasts of burden, only because the common
Creator had made them of a different colour!"^ In reality
Chatterton had read this at most but a very few days
before he wrote to Barrett. It was published at the end i
of July, and by the 12th of August he is telling Mr. Cat-
cott of the application he has made to the Bristol surgeon,
and of his intention to go abroad : — rather encouraged
than repelled, it seems proljable, by such accounts of the
flourishing condition of the African slave-trade.
The requisites that then sufficed for surgeon's mate
have been described by another poet and literary adven-
turer of the eighteentli century. Smollett was himself
present in that capacity in 1741, at Carthagena, on
board a ship of the line ; and, in his " Roderick
Random," pictures some of the scenes he witnessed. -
A very moderate training would have put Chatterton on
1 Croft, p. 253.
^ Oliver Goldsmith, it will be remembered, also strove to escape
from an author's garret, and starvation, to an appointment as surgeon
to one of the East It dia Company's factories on the coast of Coro-
mandel. The salary was 1 00/, and he was broken-hearted wh'jn the
prospect failed. lUit CioldHiiiilli had stvdied medicine at Ediubuigh ;
and practised it, after a fasliion, in London.
Chap. XI 1 1.
A new liope.
The African
slave trade.
Requisites
for a
siiyi^'eon's
inaie.
204
Cii.Mv xni
II if A/, :.a>i
Jicio^ii ■
KofrieiiiUy
/land iii'- ..
CHArrERTON.
a par with many who had preceded him in the unenviable
occupation ; and possibly enough Mr. Barrett's testi-
monial might have sufficed to secure him the appoint-
ment, and so given him one more chance in the battle of
life. While, therefore, this seemed still within his reach,
he addressed some reproachful lines, in the high-flown,
unimpassioned strain of most of his amatory verse, to
Miss Bush, of Bristol, beginning thus : —
" Before I seek the dreary shore, r
Where Ganil)ia's rapid billows roar,
» And foaming pour along ;
To you I urge the plaintive strain, •
And though a lover sings in vain,
Yet you shall hear«he song."
The earliest of Chatterton's Brooke Street productions
was one of his African Eclogues ; but there is nothing in
it to show that his thoughts were then seaward toward
"the regions of the sun." But a single month had
brought with it bitter experiences. His position strongly
recalls that of Burns, when in a like hopeless condition, —
and with far more cause for self-reproach, — he published
his first volume of poems with the object, mainly, of
raising funds to carry him beyond the Atlantic. A clerk-
ship on a Jamaica plantation was the Scottish poet's out-
look ; and with this in view, he wrote, as he believed, the
last song he should ever compose on his native soil : —
"The gloomy night is gathering fast."
The Ayrshire peasant was in his twenty-eighth year;
his passage had already been taken for the West Indies :
when a collected edition of his poems raised him from
humble obscurity to a social equaUty with the noblest
in the land, and changed the whole course of his life.
The Bristol boy was but seventeen when the gloomy
night gathered around him ; but no friendly hand was
nigh to publish, ere too late, the abtmdant evidence of
his versatile genius.
Barrett refused the needful certificate on which all
Chatterton's hopes of appointment as a surgeon's mate
y "VNw,
THE LAST HOPE.
295
2 unenviable
rrett's testi-
the appoint-
the battle of
in his reach,
; high-flown,
)ry verse, to
productions
i.'j nothing in
ward toward
month had
tion strongly
condition, —
lie published
, mainly, of
ic. A clerk-
h poet's out-
believed, the
ive soil : —
eighth year ;
*Vest Indies :
ed him from
the noblest
of his life.
the gloomy
ly hand was
; evidence of
>n which all
rgeon's mate
rested ; and assuredly no one will censure him for that act.
But the refusal, made in full consciousness of his destitu-
tion, was accompanied by no other proffered aid. His
callousness is far more criminal than that of ^V^alpolc ;
but his excuse is to be found in the dreary stupidity of
his volume of '* Antiquities and History," which proves
his incapacity to appreciate the boy, or snatch from him
the thinly disguised secret of his antique muse. Tiic
only trace of any recognition of his rare (qualities by
Uarrett is preserved in the highly interesting note of Sir
Herbert Croft that he used often to send for him wliile
still a Bluecoat boy, " and differ fro'a him in opinion, on
purpose to make him earnest, and to see how wonder-
fully his eye would strike fire, kindle, and bla/e u[)."
Yet the purblind antiquary could look into the boy's
flashing eyes ; spell his way through the rare inventions of
his infant muse, palmed on him as the productions of an
unheard-of monk ; and recognise at the last no more
than the idle apprentice " led astray by the false glare of
a strong imagination, and flattering pride of superior
understanding."
Barrett devotes the last chapter of his quarto to " a
biographical account of eminent Bristol men," in whicli
the Canynges have a large share, and Rowley is not
forgotten ; but of the true Rowley, of whom he could
have told so much that would be invaluable now, he
records only some trite lamentations over his " libertine
principles" and hapless fate. Of the last despairing
scheme of the boy, and his unsuccessful appeal for aid,
Barrett says nothing. To him Chatterton was the mere
"producer of Rowley and his poems to the world ;" and
so, after discussing various surmises as to his death
before or after a.d. 1474, it is finally " left to the judicious
and candid reader to form his own opinion concerning
Rowley and Chatterton."
In his second London letter to his mother, Chatterton
says : " I am under very few obligations to any person in
Bristol. One, indeed, has obliged me \ but, as most do,
in a manner which makes his obligation no obligation."
CllAl. XIII.
Ilarntt 'a
rtj'usa:.
Tin-
aitlii/iiuiy.
i'.iiiiiii-iit
lU'istot iinii.
to Ills
patrons.
296
CHATTERTON^.
\
Chai. XIII.
Was this intended for Mr. Barrett, or was it Mr, Lambert
he had in view ? It was for either no unmerited return.
No wonder that, in the last letter he ever wrote, he
refers, in bitter irony, to a correspondent from Bristol,
who has raised his admiration to the highest pitch by
informing him that an appearance of spirit and generosity
had crept into its niches of avarice and meanness.
/. ♦
CHAPTER XIV.
DESPAIR AND DEATH.
On the 12th of August, 1770, Chatterton penned the
last piece of writing of which any distinct account has
been preserved, if we except the fragments which Httered
tlie floor of the room in which he died. There is indeed
'a story told, in more than one form, of a still later letter
received by his mother, in which he stated that, wander-
ing a few days before in some London churchyard, he
was so lost in thought that he did not perceive a newly
opened grave till he fell into it. According to Mr. Dix's
version, it occurred in St. Pancras Churchyard, and within
three days of his death. He was accompanied by a
friend, who, as he helped him out again, jestingly con-
gratulated him on the happy resurrection of Genius ; but
Chatterton, taking him by the arm, replied, with a sad
smile : " My dear friend, I feel the sting of a speedy
dissolution. I have been at war with the grave for some
time, and find it is not so easy to vanquish as I imagined.
We can find an asylum from every creditor but that.''^
It is difficult to conceive of any confidential friend in
London to whom Chatterton would unbosom himself
in such a fashion. In all probability this apocryphal
narrative is only an improved version of the more pro-
bable account Mrs. Edkins gives, of being sent for by
Mrs. Chatterton the week before she heard of her son's
death, when she found her in tears over a letter just
received. In this he had narrated the incident of his
stumbling into an open grave ; but added, with character-
istic humour, "it was not the quick and the dead together;"
1 Dix's Life, p. 290.
CiiAi'. XIV.
Last pi ce
o/zuriting.
A haf>/>y
resurrection
of Genius.
Fiual letter
to /lis
tnotlier.
29S
CITATTERTOiY,
■ 1
CiiAP. XIV.
T ast litigcr-
iiig hope.
f t--
Stinichiiig-
at ill It she
promises.
Solitudes of
old Loudon.
The dreary
void of
infidelity.
for he found the sexton under him, and still ahlc to
pursue his work.
The letter was written about the 15th or i6th of August,
Mr. Barrett, it may be presumed, had by this lime sciil
his refusal of the needful testimotiial ; but possibly a
lingering hope of Mr. Catcott's or other friend's inter
position still kept him in suspense. The letter, no doubt,
contained some desponding reflections, suggested by his
desperate circumstaiices, to which the accident that
brought his churchyard reveries to a close was apropos.
Hence his mother's anxiety and tears, in spile of the
sardonic jest with which the half-revealed truth was
turned aside. His mind was already in that morbiil slate
in which every trifle seems to carry an ill omen. I'roud,
and still ready to snatch at every illusive promise, he
strove to assume a cheerful bearing, and to suggest hopes
to others which no longer deceived himself. His mind
had fluctuated during the weeks of July, and uj) to this
date, through all the extremes of which it was so capable :
extravagant dreams of unrealizable fortune ; moody
reveries, in which he would lapse, as in childhood, inlo
a seeming stupor, and gaze blankly into the face of the
questioner, as though lost to all consciousness of an
external world; and passionate outbursts of feeling
that found rehef in tears.
Among all its millions, long since gone to their
account, no more forlorn one was to be found in the
vast solitudes of that old London, than the youth in
whose mind hope and pride were now battling with
despair. In his last letter to Mr. George Catcott, this
melancholy avowal occurs : " Heaven send you the
comforts of Christianity. I request them not, for 1
am no Christian." Terrible words at any moment, but
how terrible now ! Amid the wreck of all his hoi)cs
in this life, he looked beyond it into the dreary void
of infidelity. He owned, indeed, a God ; but he had
no reliance on his divine fatherhood. With a faculty
of veneration, rare in his day, and with sensibilities
intensely acute, vibrating responsive to every tender
DESPAIR AXD DEA TH.
299
Still able t()
emotion, his soul yielded no response of fliith in that
Divine One, himself made perfect throui^h suffering,
that he might be the succourer of the afflicted. A
stubborn, haughty pride was his only stay, nor did it
v/holly fail him in the terrible ordeal.
Chatterton had now occupied his lodgings in Brooke
Street fully eleven weeks. So late as the 20th of July,
when he wrote the last letter his sister was ever to
receive from him, there is no doubt that his hoijes were
still high. The next number of the Town and Country
M(ii:;azine, due on the last of the month, was to appear,
as he fancied, nearly filled with his accepted articles ;
and he might reasonably anticipate ])ayment for that
amount of work, and an anii)le commission for more,
]}iit with the new month came the overthrow of all such
]io[)es. The larger portion of his literary labours, if not
absolutely rejected, was at any rate thrown aside for
some indefinite future. His chief market was glutted. No
pay, apparently, was forthcoming for what had actually
been published ; and Mr. Hamilton had doubtless told
him, — in terms wonderfully different from the first gracious
reception of his Bristol correspondent, — that he need
not trouble himself to call again for months to come.
The notes, endorsements, and letters of Chatterton
])artake somewhat of the business-like method which
he, no doubt, acquired in Lambert's office ; and, among
other information due to this source, we possess one
important memorandum of pecuniary receipts. The
pocket-book of her brother, which Mrs. Newton recovered
and presented to Mr. Joseph Cottle, contained this
jotting of receipts duriiiig his first month in London : —
" Received to May 23, of Mr. Hamilton, for Middlesex £1
CiiAc. XIV.
//A- only
sliiy.
Ln^t li-tti-r
t'l Ilia sisti r.
0:Yr/,'iiv7f
0/ tilt hopes.
Ihtshtcss-
likc iitctliod.
»r
>>
of B-
of Fell for The Coiis/iliad .
of Mr. Hamilton for " Candi-
das *' and "Foreign Journal"
of Mr. Fell
Middlesex 'Journal ....
of Mr. Hamilton for 16 songs .
I II
6
y.'ttiuQo/
I 2
3
i\\i-i/>ts.
10
6
i
2
1
i
10
6
1
8
6
1
10
6
(
A 15 9'
300
CIIATTEKTO.V.
Chai'. XIV.
ivilh London
fiiUors.
Al'sfcvtifliis
liiiliits.
Legitimate
pastimes.
No trace of
dissipation.
/ t
The record unmistakeably suggests the idea that
Hamilton was making a tool of the inexperienced youth.
A shilling a piece for two articles ; eightpence each or
rather less for sixteen songs ; and no pecuniary acknow-
ledgment for a pile of work accepted and held in
reserve ! Fell's payments are scarcely more liberal ; for
" The Consuliad : an Heroic Poem," is a spirited satire,
extending to upwards of two hundred and fifty lines.
Here then are the actual receipts of the first month,
while the author was yet fresh, and his productions had
some charm of novelty. If they are accepted, ao they
probably may be, as a fair average of the whole period
of Chatterton's London career, it is easy to guess his
condition when the last guinea of his Bristol purse had
vanished ; and he began to dun his fair-spoken patrons
for fulfilment of promises, or payment for work already
furnished.
The abstemious habits of his earlier days were retained
by Chatterton unchanged during his short London career.
He drawk only water, and rarely touched animal food.
He frequented the theatres and pleasure gardens of the
metropolis ; but as a professional man, and for the
most part, it may be presumed, gratuitously. These
were indeed the most promising professional resorts.
He pleads such legitimate occupation of his time in
excuse for unwritten letters ; telling his mother : " What
with writing for publications, and going to places of
public diversion, which is as absolutely necessary to me
as food, I find but little time to write to you." The
most profitable of all his literary labours, and that which
supplied him with means for gratifying his generous
designs for his mother and sister, was his " Marylebone
Burletta." Immediately on receipt of its well-earned
five guineas, the sanguine boy wrote his mother : " I
shall forestall your intended journey ; and pop down on
you at Christmas."
There is no trace of the squandering of funds in any
form of dissipation. Mrs. Walmsley, who had no special
reason to uphold his character \ and Mrs. Ballance, to
DESPAIR AND DEATH.
301
whom "his flights and vagaries" were anything but a
cause of respect : concurred in testifying to his conformity
to the regular family hours, during the period of his
lodging at Shoreditch. His new landlady, Mrs. Angel,
noted in like manner his abstemious habits. He was
reserved, yet social and kindly in his ways, leaving on
the mind the impression of one superior to the rank in
which he moved. Mrs. Wolfe, the wife of a barber
in Brooke Street, spoke of his proud and haughty spirit,
and added that he appeared both to her and Mrs. Angel
as if born for something great.
One expensive taste, however, he did indulge in. The
social imi)ortance of dress had been a source of trouble
and irritation in Bristol ; and he early congratulated
himself that in London it was a mere matter of taste.
Yet there also he found ere long that a man was apt to
be judged by his outward appearance. Oliver Goldsmith
had already figured in his famous plum-coloured coat,
and was running up new bills with Mr. Filby, for velvets,
silks, and lace. It was an age in which the tailor had a
much larger share in the making of the man than he has
now ; and so Chatterton tells his sister, before May is at
an end : " I employ my money now in fitting myself
fashionably, and getting into good company. This last
article always brings me in good interest."
Still meditating fresh gifts for home, we find him, on
the 20th of July, anticipating the profits of his unfinished
oratorio as a means of gratifying his sister in the same
important matter of dress. He is still sanguine, in spite
of disappointments ; but his funds are now running very
low, and he must await the publication of the magazines,
and the anticipated payment for accepted articles. But
here also the inexperienced youth was reckoning on
fallacious data. The outlay is indisputable; but the
source of income rapidly fails.
With the utmost abstemiousness and moderation in
all ways, it is not difficult to understand how Chatterton's
slender finances must have well-nigh come to an end,
when with the commencement of another month he
LiiAi'. XIV,
Uuil'oriii
to /lis
rci^iilitrity.
Sociill
iiiif-crftiiUi'
0/ o'ri'jts. ,
I
! T/ie tnilor
makes the
iiiiiii.
Fivs/i i^i/in
for lionie.
Slfuder
fllKUICl'S
failing.
303
CllAITERTOW
\
Chap. XIV.
Jl,iii/:rii/>t
in iiii>ii,y
and hojic.
5
Promt
sf>ifit
of indt'-
/>i'n■/// if.i
!tir/i;/i/ in
/'.lis/ XC'IIl-
of all.
304
ciiatterton:
\
0C7in
rras:ed\
of'T/ir
Afiostatt
. ('-
:■!!■
ciiAi'. XIV. ' with the despairing sense of failure, and of wrong, he
j destroyed the works on which he had rested all his hopes
' I of fame. What indeed was fame to him now ?
Southey ascertained that Chatterton's sister had been
confined for a time in an asylum for the insane ; and re-
marks: "His mighty mind brought with it into the world
a taint of hereditary insanity, which explains the act of
suicide ; and divests it of its fearful guilt." Alas ! it may
be so. This only is certain, that the boy's career had
terminated abruptly, in the saddest of all possible forms
of life's close. The precious little bundle of MSS. he
had estimated so highly was never recovered. His latest
productions, torn into fragments, littered the floor where
he lay. " His daring hand unstrung the lyre," and with
its last effort strove to efface every memory of its notes.
His works, when at length collected for publication, were
derived mainly from copies in Mr. Catcott's and Mr.
Barrett's hands. Of the tragedy of "Goddwyn," only
two scenes are preserved ; though there seems good reason
to believe that the prologue was not written till he had
completed the whole. Other poems spoken of by him
have either wholly perished, or mere fragments survive in
evidence of the worth of what is lost. " I wrote my
* Justice of Peace,' " says Rowley, in his " Memoirs of
Sir William Canynge," "which Master Canynge advised
me secret to keep, which I did." Judging from the
mention of nearly all his chief works in the correspondence
ascribed to the imaginary priest of St. John's, it is
probable that "The Justice of Peace" is one of the
missing poems ; its secret only too well kept. Another
poem entitled " The Apostate : a Tragedy," of v/hich a
small portion fell into Mr. Barrett's hands, had for its
subject the apostatizing of its hero from the Christian to
the Jewish faith. Its loss is great, on account of the
light it might have thrown on the earlier phases of his
own mind in reference to the momentous questions of
religious belief, which received from him at last so fatal
a negative.
The little bvmdle of manuscripts, including probably
DESPAIR AND DBA TH.
305
pcems not even known to us by name, was either
deposited in some place from whence it was never
recovered, or was purposely destroyed. The last act of
their author undoubtedly was to tear in pieces whatever
manuscripts remained in his possession ; and no one
dreamt of attempting to piece together the fragments
which strewed his room, when it was broken open after
his death.
Thus perished by his own hand, in an obscure lodging
in London, among strangers, and in absolute want, a
youth assuredly without his equal — if his age is borne in
remembrance, — in that eighteenth century. Uncompre-
hended, misjudged, and maligned : he seemed to pass
away like the brief glance of the meteor, which flashes
from darkness into a deeper gloom. Oblivion gathered
around him and his works, with an obscuration which his
own final acts had striven to render complete. But his
name could not be so blotted out from the records of his
age ; though it was reserved for others to do it the justice
which was then denied. His own generation stood too
near him to recognise his greatness; and though poets have
since rendered fitting tribute to his powers, yet only
now, after a century of confused and blundering contro-
versies, do we clearly discern how wonderful was the
genius that wrapped itself in such quaint disguise to
tempt the credulity of that faithless age.
Chap. XIV.
Destruction
qflast MSS.
Perishing
hy /lis oivn
hand.
Oblivion
da it Its the
victory.
I
Chap. XV.
Ah
unheeded
event.
Posthutnous
Publkations.
Old Rowley,
CHAPTER XV.
THE poet's monument.
The death of Chatterton excited but a passing notice
even in Bristol, bf ^ond the sorrowful little circle in the
home he had so recently left. The London periodicals
of that month of August, 1770, have been repeatedly
ransacked, but in vain, for any recognition of the fact,
that a youth of high promise had perished there, the
victim of want. The caterers for news h'-^ not brought
their craft to the perfection of the modern press ; but
many a trivial incident figures in the publications of the
month in which the event occurred, unheeded then, but
so notable to us now. Hamilton's Town and Country
Magazine came out a wtek later, with its columns filled
in part by three of Chatterton's contributions, the
mcagerest remuneration for which might have rescued
their author from despair; but its editor had his own
reasons for leaving out of its " Domestic Intelligence" an
occurrence in which he had so much personal interest.
Sylvanus Urban by and by found much to say about
both the ancient and the modern Rowley ; but the event
passed unnoted in the '* Historical Chronicle" of the
Gentlemati's Magazine for August 1770. The name of
" Old Rowley" does indeed occur in that very number,
in a " New Baby Ballad," full of political allusions to
Parson Home, Wilkes, Paoli, &c., but a foot-note explains
it as " a nick-name of King Charles." ^ It had then no
other recognised literary significance. On the 2 2d of
August is chronicled the appearance of a Junius letter,
1 Gent. Mag. vol. xl. p. 385.
THE rOETS MONUMENT.
307
passing notice
Lie circle in the
idon periodicals
been repeatedly
tion of the fact,
shed there, the
\\^\ not brought
dern press ; but
blications of the
leeded then, but
vn a?id Country
columns filled
ntributions, the
t have rescued
or had his own
Intelligence" an
lersonal interest.
:h to say about
; but the event
ronicle" of the
The name of
lat very number,
ical allusions to
oot-note explains
It had then no
On the 2 2d of
a Junius letter,
•' written with the usual s[)irit of the admired author."
The 24th, — the fatal tlay, — only yields for it the robbery
by a highwayman, at the foot of Highgate Hill, of the
postboy carrying the Chester mail.
The death of Chatterton, it is obvious, attracted no
attention beyond the immediate neighbourhood of Brooke
Street An inquest was, indeed, held on the body ; but
it appears to have passed off as a very ordinary affair.
All that could, by and l)y, be learned, was that a youth
had "swallowed arsenic in water, on the 24th of August,
and died in consequence thereof the next day." There
was no friend at hand to claim the body ; and it has been
assimed, though without any distinct evidence, that it
was buried as that of a deliberate suicide's, without any
religious rites. It was, at any rate, placed in a mere
shell, and deposited in the common pit prepared for
paupers, in the neighbouring burying-ground of Shoe
Lane workhouse, in the i)arish of St. Andrew's, Holborn,
in which Brooke Street is situated ; and of which, more-
over, by a strange coincivlence, Dr. Broughton, Vicar of
St. Mary Redclifife, was also rector.^ Delay appears
to have taken place in the interment, probably in the
hope that some of his relatives might appear. The
register of burials contains this entry under the date
August 28th, 1770, "William Chatterton, Brooke Street,"
to which has been subsequently added, " the Poet." 2
The addition is, no doubt, correct, notwithstanding the
error in the Christian name. It adds one more proof
that his remains were coldly consigned by strangers to a
pauper s grave.
When, some nine years after\vards, interest had revived
in the memory of Chatterton ; and controversy waxed
fierce over the disputed authenticity of Rowley and the
Bristol poems : the coroner was appealed to. But,
according to Sir Herbert Croft's account, he had no
minutes of the melancholy business; and was unable,
after so long an interval, to recall any of the circum-
^ Vide inscription on tablet in RcdclilTe Church, ante, p. 193.
2 Goodwin's Churches of I-ondon : .St. Andrew's, Holborn.
X 2
Chap. XV.
T/i.'/atn/
day.
The iui]ucst.
gnivc.
Register of
burial.
Later
interest
revived.
/f
('.
3o8
Chap. XV.
lyitui'sse.int
the inquest.
Dr. Ma it-
land's
inquiry.
Spurirtus
coroner s
report.
Amazing
credulity of
scepticism.
CHATTERTON.
Stances to his memory. The witnesses,- as appears by his
memorandum, were Frederick Angel, Mary Foster, and
William Hamsley : none of whom he had been able to
find out.^ This is absolutely all that is known of the
inquest. In 1853, however, the Rev. Dr. Maitland, after
long fretting over the "imposture" of Chatterton, resolved
on a new protest against the idea of his authorship of
Rowley's Poems, which "he had long believed 1o be a
popular delusion."- So he started with an inq liry in
" Notes and Queries," as to certain discrepancies in the
account of the means by which Chatterton's death was
effected. To his "great surprise and satisfaction this
brought forth a report of the coroner's inquest from Mr.
Gutch." The coroner had told Sir Herbert Croft, more
than seventy years before, that no minutes existed, be-
yond his mere memorandum of the witnesses' names.
Yet meagre as this was, it contradicis the report so
surprisingly brought to light, w'ithout even a pretence of
authentication. The date is said to be Friday., 27th
August, 1770, whereas the 27th fell that year on a Mon-
day. 'J'he witnesses, with one exception, differ from
those named by the coroner ; and the process of making
up the whole from old materials is obvious to any student
of Chatterton's memorials, Yet this new Rowleyan,
having exhausted his unbelief on Chatterton's " literary
imposture," accepted the hoax as eagerly as did Mr.
Burgum his famous Norman pedigree ; and his " Essay"
is garnished throughout with confirmations derived from
the silly imposture. It furnishes one more illustration of
I the amazing credulity of a scepticism still on the look-
' out for the " undisfigured old Rowley" of the days of
I Henry VI. and Edward IV.^
^ Croft, p. 221. Gent. Mag. N.S. x. p. 133. Notes and Queries,
second series, vol. iv. p. 24.
2 Chatterton : an Essay, p. 9.
^ The document was in the handwriting of !Mr. Dix ; and passed
from his possession to that of Mr. Gutch. who communicated it to
" Notes and Queries," vii. p. 138. As Mr. Dix had it in possession
when writing Chatterton's Life, yet did not even refer to it, the
interence is legitimate that he regarded it as spurious. For its
THE POET'S MONUMENT.
309
NTotes and Queries,
But another disclosure of the present century, to which
a keener interest attaches, has been the subject of much
faith and more scepticism. It is impossible to think,
without a shuddering sense of wrongful in(Hgnity, of the
remains of the poet huddled into a pauper's grave ; and
then, after brief lease of the woik house burial-ground,
carted off with its nameless dead, when it was converted
into a site for Farringdon Market. But when, in 1837,
Mr. Dix undertook to write a life of the poet, he ap-
pended to it notes collected long before by (Jeorge Cum-
berland, Esq., a man of reputed literary tastes. These
have already been repeatedly referred to ; and from them
it appears that Sir Robert Wilmot first communicated to
him the report " that Chattertun lay buried in Redcli ffe
Churchyard, and that he believed it was x fact from tlie
manner in which it had been communicated to him."
Pursuing his inquiries farther, Mr. Cumberland dis-
covered Sir R. Wilmot's informant, Mrs. SlockwcU, an
old pupil of Mrs. Chatterton, who had resided with her
till nearly twenty years of age. In her belief, as well as
in that of others with whom he conversed, the l)ody of
Chatterton was recovered, through the intervention of a
relative in London, forwarded by waggon to Bristol, and
there secretly interred, by his uncle, Richard Bhillips, in
Redcliffe Churchyard.
The statements are minute and circumstantial. Mrs.
Chatterton is affirmed to have often expressed her hapi)i-
ness at the thought that her son lay buried with his kin.
Fresh inquiry added only such second-hand information
as rendered the probability of the reinterment conceiv-
able enough. The old sexton was just the man to do it
for his favourite nephew, and to conceal it when done.
His daughter, Mrs. Stephens, said he was very reserved
on all occasions ; and it was by no means likely ho
history, vide " Notes and Queries," second series, lii. 362. For ar^ju-
ments based on it vide ibid. p. 54 ; IVIaitland, pp. 6, 51, 64, 68, 82,
104, where the argument frequently depends on the genuineness of
this obvious fiction. It was burned some years since, willi more
vahiable MSS. in the possession of Mr. T. Kerslake, of Bristol.
ClIAl'. W,
{/isi/i'snrr.
7 he poet '.«
Inst rrstiii^
Prohidulitiis
ill ify
favour.
Tfir old
iC.ltOU,
I li
310
Chai'. XV.
Ju/l-htx'
7'i'rxio//.
rite I.orrdpn
uncle's help.
Sii/'ppscd
(liscrcpnu-
(irs in the
stoty.
Tfu' ru'atr's
attt:t«;oiiis7it.
CHATTER TON.
would have mentioned the interment, if he had done it
secretly ; " but she thinks he would not have refused the
hazardous office, being much attached to Chatterton, and
friendly with his mother." Since Mr. Cumberland's
notes were published, they have been ' corroborated by a
letter of Mr. Joseph Cottle, in which he thus gives Mrs.
Edkins' version of it : — " Mrs. Chatterton was passion-
ately fond of her darling and only son, Thomas ; and
when she heard that he had destroyed himself, she
immediately wrote to a relation of hers, — the poet's
uncle, then residing in London, — a carpenter, urging him
to send down his body in a coffin or box. The box was
accordingly sent down to Bristol ; and when I called on
niy friend Mrs. Chatterton to condole with her, she as a
great secret took me up stairs and showed me the box ;
and, removing the lid, I saw the poor boy, whilst his
mother sobbed in silence." Afterwards she was told
that he had been secretly buried, by night, in Redcliffe
Churchyard ; and Mrs. Chatterton said, " she had
managed it very well, so that none but the sexton and
his assistant knew anything about it." ^ Mr. Cottle adds
that the evidence appeared to him sufficient to satisfy all
reasonable minds.
This reputed rescue of the poet's remains, and their
reinterment in his own favourite haunt on Redclifte
Hill, has been challenged by more than one writer,
with proofs of discrepancies in the narrative, and im-
possibilities in the affirmed transaction.'-^ Some of the
arguments against it are sufficiently fallacious. Mr.
Richard Smith considers it quite apocryphal because
they " neglected to mark the spot, or write a notice in
the newspapers of the day ; " whereas the evidence of
secrecy is the strongest argument in its favour. Dr.
Broughton, the vicar, had personal as well as profes-
sional reasons for excluding Chatterton's remains from
Redcliffe Churchyard; and so strongly were the latter
^ Pryce's Memorials of Canynge, p. 294.
^ Vide Notes and Queries, second series, vol. iv. pp. 23, 54, 92,
foi both sides of the (juesliou.
THE POETS MONUMENT.
3»«
^ PP- 23, 54, 92,
inherited by his successors, that a subsequent vicar re-
fused even to admit a memorial of him within the pre-
cincts of the church, which is itself his truest monument.
But then, what shall we say to the argument of an over-
zealous believer, whose faith removes mountains by set-
ting forth how unlikely it is " that Barrett would have
allowed the youth to whom he was so attached, and who
had so materially added to his stock of antiquities of
Bristol, to have remained in that loathsome pit, if money
and influence could have rescued him from it ? " It
reads, as a fine bit of irony; but there is no doubt
"Bristoliensis" means it seriously; and, indeed, accom-
panies it with arguments better worthy of consideration.
In reality, the cost to the poor mother of the recovery
and reinterment of the body is the greatest impediment
to belief. Otherwise her desire to accomplish it cannot
be doubted ; and in most other respects facilities were
not wanting. A long family line of sextons may be sup-
posed to have attached peculiar importance to the inter-
ment of their dead. The London uncle, stimulated by
such hereditary feelings, and turning his own carpen-
tering craft to account, would not find his share, of the
task beyond his means. With a friendly carrier coope-
rating, the greatest obstacle would be surmounted ; and
at Bristol the old Redcliffe sexton wanted no more than
an assurance of secrecy, to undertake the most critical
part of the work. Let us then be content to leave for
the poet a possible grave. Assuredly his remains no
longer lie in the horrible pit of the Shoe Lane woikhouse.
It is pleasant to think of their finding a resting-place in
Redcliffe Churchyard, among his kin, and amid scenes
on which his imaginative genius and keen poetic sym-
pathies have conferred so wide an interest. If it be
another Chatterton romance, it is the most innocent of
all. Let us give it what credit we can.
" 'Tis little ; but it looks in truth
As if the quiet bones were blest
Among familiar names to rest,
And in the places of his youth."
Chai'. XV.
Trans-
mit ti-(l eccle-
siastical
prejudices.
Chief inr-
pedivietit
to belief.
A possible
grave for
the poet.
312
CHATTERTON.
\
Chah. XV.
Impressions
n/ tliii boy.
Abrupt
termination
of his career.
yuz'enile
follies of
poets.
Peysonal
appearance.
Chatterton is fitly spoken of as a boy. He was only
seventeen years and nine months old at his death j and
the recollections of Mrs. Newton, Mrs. Kdkins, and
others who had been familiaK with him under his mother's
roof, all refer to him as one in whom the tender suscep-
tibilities, as well as the impulsiveness of youth, were
manifest to the last. The best of his numerous produc-
tions, both in prose and verse, betray no immaturity ;
yet he was writing spirited verses at ten, and produced
some of the finest of his antiques before he was sixteen
years of age. Nor must his age be forgotten when refer-
ring to his errors and shortcomings. At the age when
this boy's career terminated, in unbelief and despair,
what intellectual development, or well-defined creed, is
ordinarily looked for? Enthusiastic biographers have
tried to make of Shakespeare himself an attorney's clerk
at that age, with troubles enough of his own, in the way
of deer-stealing and love-making; but his "Venus and
Adonis," the " first heir of his invention," belongs to
later years. Even Milton has not escaped the preju-
diced record of juvenile follies at the same stage j and
another Christian poet, Cowper, the contemporary of
Chatterton, — from whose life the saddest parallel might
be drawn, — was already eighteen, when he and the future
Lord Chancellor Thurlow met as fellow-clerks in the
same law office, and employed their time " from morning
till night, in giggling and making giggle." How insignifi-
cant would the record of follies, doubts, or unbeliefs, of
their s^/enteenth years appear to us now ! But the poet
whose career we have traced to its abrupt close, crowded
into these immature years all its triumphs and its failures ;
and though it did end in the saddest of all possible
closes of life's battle, we shall learn to deal more
tenderly with its follies, when a just estimate has been
formed of what he achieved.
The appearance of Chatterton corresponded with the
maturity of his intellect He had a proud yet frank
bearing, and a manly presence beyond his years. He
was naturally self-reliant, spirited, and possessed of a
THE POET'S MONUMENT.
313
He was only
his death ; and
. Kdkins, and
ler his mother's
tender suscep-
af youth, were
nerous produc-
10 immaturity ;
and procUiced
he was sixteen
ten when refer-
t the age when
f and despair,
;fined creed, is
ygraphers have
attorney's clerk
)wn, in the way
s "Venus and
n," l)elongs to
ped tile preju-
me stage ; and
^temporary of
parallel might
and the future
-clerks in the
from morning
How insignifi-
or unbeliefs, of
Hut the poet
close, crowded
md its failures ;
Df all possible
to deal more
nate has been
nded with the
)ud yet frank
is years. He
ossesscd of a
keen sense of humour ; though liable to fits of abstrac-
tion, in which he seemed moody and unsocial, when in
reality he was unconscious of all that transpired around
him. But in spite of the free licence which he gave to
his satirical powers, he is described, by all who were
familiar with him, as of a serious yet engaging manner,
with sometnir.g about him which prepossessed even a
stranger in his favour. The Shoreditch plasterer, whose
bed he shared for a time, declared that " it was impos
sible to help liking him." Brief as was his residence in
his latest lodging, he had awakened a kindly interest on
his behalf both in the mind of Mrs. Angel, and in that
of the neighbouring apothecary. There was obviously a
fascination in his address, and in his fine expressive
countenance, which won the favour of nearly every one
with whom he was brought into contact ; and even dis-
armed their resentment when it had been roused by the
assaults of his satirical pen.
His expressive face, in which matured intellectual
vigour blended with the contour of childhood, was a
fitting subject for the highest art of portraiture. But no
distinct account has been preserved of his features as a
whole; and no authentic portrait of him is known. In
1784, a rustic monument was erected to his memory,
on the property of Philip Thichnesse, Esq., near Bath,
and decorated with his jDrofile sculptured in relief; which
seems to imply some existing likeness. ^ Mrs. Edkins
mentioned to Mr. George Cumberland a picture her son
had seen which was painted by Wheatly, possibly during
his brief residence in London. But if so, no trace of it
seems now to be known. Mr. Dix was deceived into
engraving for the frontispiece of his biography of the
poet, a portrait in the possession of a Bristol collector,
on the back of which the name of Chatterton had been
written in mere jest. This has since been recognised as
a likeness executed by Morris, a Bristol portrait painter,
of his own son.^ Sou they is indeed said to have traced
1 Gent. Ma^. vol. liv. part i. p. 231.
* Notes and Queries, second series, vol. iii. p. 53.
('IIAI'. XV
f''"K<^.iifcd
portraits.
A x/'uriniis
UkcHCas.
{
314
CITATTERTON.
\
Chap. XV.
Ciditis-
horouglCs
J-iristoi Iwy.
I t
Alcock the
miniature
painter.
Drscripiive
portraiture.
in it a resemblance to the poet's sister j but tliere is no
doubt, if any such exists, it is purely accidental.
Chatterton is affirmed to have sat to Gainsborough ;
and the portrait, with his long flowing hair, and child-like
face, is spoken of as a masterpiece.* The date of this
supposed portrait, if executed at all, must have been
between 1768, when the painter removed for a time to
Bath, and that of Chatterton's leaving Bristol. It is sup-
posed to represent him wearing the garb of Colston's
Hospital ; though the colour is green, instead of blue.
" The hair falls very much over the forehead, and reaches
at the side to the shoulders. The face is looking side-
ways, and three parts of it can be seen." The date is, of
course, subsequent to Chatterton's leaving the Bluecoat
School. But the "genius-loving painter," as his biogra-
pher has styled him, if tempted to paint the Bristol boy,
might prefer to represent him in his quaint charity-school
dress. No allusion, however, in Chatterton's letters or
poems refers to the painting of his portrait ; though, in
1769, he celebrated the powers of Mr. Alcock's pencil
as a miniature painter : —
*' He paints the passions of mankind,
And in tlae face displays the mind,
Charming tlie heart and eye."
It is to be feared that no authentic portrait of Chat-
terton exists ; and even the accounts furnished as to his
appearance, only partially aid us in realizing an idea of
the manly, handsome boy, with his flashing, hawk-like
eye, through which even the Bristol pewterer thought he
could see his soul. His forehead one fancies must have
been high ; though hidden, perhaps, as in the supposed
Gainsborough portrait, with long, flowing hair. His
mouth, like that of his father, was large. But the
brilliancy of his eyes seems to have diverted attention
from every other feature ; and they have been repeatedly
noted for the way in which they appeared to kindle in
sympathy with his earnest utterances. Mr. Edward
^ E. S. Felcher, Notes and Queries, second series, vol. iii. p. 492.
THE POETS MONUMENT.
315
Gardner, who only knew him during his last three
months in Bristol, specially recalled "the philosophic
gravity of his countenance, and the keen lightning of
his eye." Mr. Capel, on the contrary, resided .as an
apprentice, in the same house where Lambert's oftice
was, and saw Chatterton daily. His advances had been
repelled at times with the flashing glances of the poet ;
and the terms in which he speaks of his pride and visible
contempt for others show there was little friendship be-
tween them. But he also remarks : *' Upon his being irri-
tated or otherwise greatly affected, there was a light in
his eyes which seemed very remarkable." ^ He had fre-
quently heard this referred to by others ; and Mr. George
Catcott speaks of it as one who had often quailed before
such glances, or been spell -bound, like Coleridge's
wfedding guest by the "glittering eye" of the Ancient
Mariner. He said he could never look at it long enough
to see what sort of an eye it was ; but it seemed to be
a kmd of hawk's eye. You could see his soul through
it. Mr. Barrett, as Sir Herbert Croft states, took par-
ticular notice of his eyes, from the nature of his pro-
fession; and did venture to look long enough to see
what they were. " He never saw such. One was still
more remarkable than the other. You might see the fire
roll at the bottom of them, as you sometimes do in a
black eye, but never in grey ones, which his were ;" and
then he added, as already noted, how wonderfully his
eye would strike fire, kindle, and blaze up, when in
earnest discussion. The Rev. C. V. Le Grice has also noted
the peculiarity that one eye was brighter than the other ;
so much so, indeed, as to appear larger, when flashing —
or glittering as he describes it, — when under strong excite-
ment.^ It has been already noted that, in his " Battle of
Hastings," he ascribes to Adhelm's lovely bride his own
" featly sparkling, grey eye." The Rev. Mr. Le Grice when
describing those of his sister, Mrs. Newton, says, " her eyes
were fine grey eyes, which an admirer would call blue."^
1 Bryant's Obs. p. 525. 2 Gent. Mag. vol. x. N.S. p. 133.
^ Notes and Queries, second series, vol. iv. p. 93.
Chai'. XV.
Keen
his eye.
Catcott and
JIanett's
descriptions.
\
Peculiar
character oj
his eyes.
' i
3i6
CIIATTERTO.W.
\
ClIAH. XV.
lUogrnphi-
ial iisf !>/ /lis
vr/'/injr^-.
Self- _
i>rr:;niov.'er,
Intense
patriotic
sympathies.
Rich vein of
romance.
Both the antique and modem prose and verse of
Chatterton have been turned to account here for bio-
graphical purposes ; and enough has been quoted in
l)revious pages to enable the reader to form some just
estimate of his powers. Perhaps the clearest evidence
of his high poetic gift is to be found in the comparisons
instituted between him and other poets. By. reason of
his very excellence he has been tried by the highest
standards, without thought of his immaturity. Grave
critics are found testing the Rowley Poems by Chaucer, or
matching them with Cowley and Prior ; and even finding
in the acknowledged satires of a boy of sixteen " more
of the luxuriance, fluency, and negligence of Dryden, than
of the terseness and refinement of Pope." One of the
strongest evidences of his self-originating power is, in
reality, to be found in the contrast which his verse pre-
sents to that of his own day. In an age when the
seductive charm of Pope's polished numbers captivated
public taste, Chatterton struck a new chord ; and evolved
principles of harmony which suggest comparison witli
Elizabethan poets, rather than with those of Anne's
Augustan era. But he was no imitator. Amid all the
assumption of antique thought, the reader perceives everj'-
where that he had looked on Nature for himself; and
could discern in her, alike in her calm beauty, and in her
stormiest moods, secrets hidden from the common eye.
He had, moreover, patriotic sympathies as intense as
Burns himself. His Goddwyn, Harold, ^lla, and
Rycharde ; his Hastings, Bristowe, or Ruddeborne : are
all lit up with the same passionate fire, to which some of
his finest outbursts of feeling were due ; and which was
still more replete with promise for the future.
Few English readers know what a rich vein of romance
and true poetry lies concealed in the Rowley Poems. In
their affectation of a fifteenth-century English in language
and orthography, they are almost as completely beyond
the reach of the ordinary reader as if they were actually
secured under the six locks of Maistre Canynge's coffer ;
more so, perhaps, than the vigorous and graphic tales of
THE POETS MONUMENT.
3«7
y a
licence in the forms of language such as Spenser dared
not venture upon ; or even an actual coining of words
fully as much due to the exigencies of rhyami, as to the
assigned age of the verse. Then it was that the glossary
came into vogue ; and this makes it impossible wholly
to modernize Rowley, without the sacrifice of cadences,
alliterations, and other rhythmical niceties, on which, in
part, the musical charm of the verse depends.
It is easy to perceive how Chatterton not only thought
more naturally, when, under the influence of a high
poetic fervour, the modern world was shut out from his
view ; but that he moved with greater ease in the language
ascribed to the antique period. Hence, whenever the
strong impulses of poetic inspiration possessed him, he
reverted to that world of his fancy's creation, and thought
and wrote in a pure idealism worthy of the fit audience
of poets, artists, and patrons of letters, with which his
imagination had peopled the old Rudde House of Bris-
towe in the days of Edward IV.
The poems thus produced have been amply illustrated ' umqur
in previous chapters. They abound in passages as worthy '/'uCuLrf.
of a place among the select beauties of luiglish j cctry
as many of the most popular extracts from Coleridge,
Scott, or Byron ; aud constitute a unique chapter in the
literature of that eighteenth century. Pope belongs alto
Facilities
of thr
anthiHC
til use.
3i8
CITATTERTON.
Chap. XV.
Contem-
porary poets.
Vail'
^peculations.
1)1 1 ma-
turities
tKititral to
youth.
Early
tlossoiii.
gether to' the first half of the century, and died eight
years before the birth of Chatterton ; jut Gray, Akenside,
Churchill, Goldsmith, and Cowper, were all his contem-
poraries. Collins died when Chatterton was in his fifth
year; Burns was not born till his eighth. In that little group
of true poets, who, each with distinct individuality of his
own, succeeded to the place which the imitators of Pope
failed to occupy, Chatterton takes an honourable place ;
while contributing the charm of mystery to his share in
the literature of the period which intervenes between the
age of Queen Anne and the wonderful outburst of genius
pertaining to the era of the French Revolution.
It is vain to speculate on what so proud, impetuous,
ungovernable a spirit, involved in such moral perplexities,
might have accomplished in mature years. Yet this
cannot be overlooked, that though it is easy to detect
inequalities and imperfections enough in the best of his
antique poems ; lines of meagre thought ; stanzas eked
out with redundant epithets ; and, still more, characters
individualised with only a boy's knowledge of the springs
of human action : still the productions, as a whole, are
not irregular flashes of premature genius. They form
parts of one consistent whole, the unity of which is never
sacrificed. I'his is no characteristic of untimely pre-
cocity. It is only the immaturity natural to summer's
early fruit, needing but time for its ripening. Warton, —
no mean critic, — exclaims : " Chatterton was a prodigy of
genius, and would have proved the first of English poets,
liad he reached a mature age." Without going to this
extreme, it may be legitimately affirmed of him that, with
the evidences of a rare poetic power such as is without
a parallel at his age, his works prove a capacity for further
development to which it is impossible to fix a limit.
The pleasure derived from the intense poetic spirit
with which the verse of Keats is inspired is ever mingled
with the regretful thought that we possess only the crea-
tions of his immature genius. We compare such early
blossom with the well-ripened fruit, and reflect how little
would remain of all that Milton, Dryden, or even Pope,
THE POETS MONUMENT.
319
accomplished, had their years been limited to the term
accorded to Burns, Shelley, or Byron. Yet even Keats
attained his twenty-fifth year, Byron his thirty-seventh,
and Burns his thirty-eighth ; while Chatterton was but
seventeen when he perished despairingly, with no belief
in a future of life, or of fame.
As an Author, his fate has been altogether unique.
Seven years after his death, the Rowley Poems were col-
lected and published ; and a second and more complete
edition followed a few years later. The first was issued
under the care of Thomas Tyrwhitt, the amiable and ac-
complished editor of Chaucer, who denied the existence
of Rowley, and the antiquity of the poems. The second
appeared under the auspices of Jeremiah Milles, D.D.
Dean of Exeter, and President of the Society of Anti-
quaries of London, who laboriously asserted their an-
tiquity, and the genuineness of their reputed author.
Forthwith critics and antiquaries marshalled on either
side, and the Rowley controversy expanded into a library
of tracts, pamphlets, and volumes : with Bryant, Mathias,
Glynne, Symmons, Henley, &c., stoutly holding their
ground in defence of the antiquity of the poems ; while
the Wartons, Malone, Stephens, Jamieson, Gough, Mason,
and a long array of anti-Rowleyans, ridiculed, in fiercest
terms, the creduHty of their opponents. But amid all
this prolonged strife, the real author suffered more detrac-
tion from his allies, than from the credulous champions
of the monk he had created. His death, unheeded in
the world of letters, involved the home of his childhood
in trouble as well as sorrow. A venerable citizen of
Bristol recalls for me early reminiscences of conversations
with an aged female relative of his own, who resided
near Mrs. Chatterton, and appears to have been on
friendly terms with her. She had spoken to him jf
having seen the poet's mother, on receiving the intelli-
gence of his death, weep bitterly ; and frequently nfter-
wards bring out copy-books and other juvenile papers,
and bedew them with her tears. But when the Rowleyan
warfare was at its height, such memorials of her boy
Chai'. XV.
the poets.
Fitte as It It
author.
The /\'i':ii/ry
controversv.
Reiitinh-
cences
of Mrs.
Chattcttoii.
r
1:
320
CHATTERTON.
\
Chap. XV.
Mercenary
collectors
and curious
pilgrims.
r':cL:illU'd.
till' poet's
n:'Jthcr.
became objects of suspicion and fear. Mercenary col-
lectors gleaned from them treasures, to be turned ere
long to account for their own profit ; and curious pilgrims
invaded her privacy, and alarmed the widow and her
daughter by their assumptions and suspicions. After the
utter neglect of the treasures of the RedcHffe muniment-
room for upwards of forty years, its custodians suddenly
awoke to the belief that they had been despoiled of
something precious. The strife over the poet's literary
remains caused no small stir among those parochial
authorities within whose bounds his life had been passed
unheeded in their production. Legal demand was made
for restitution of the manuscripts, as documents removed
from the church by his father before he was born. Any
scraps of old papers or parchments that remained were
given up by the affrighted widow; and amongst others,
the book containing a few leaves inscribed with entries
relating to church matters, from which Mr, Pryce has
reproduced the last fly-leaf, with its evidence of Chat-
terton's juvenile attempts at the mastery of an antique
caligraphy suited to the times of his imaginary Rowley.^
" A gentleman who saw these two women last year,"
writes Sir Herbert Croft, in 1779, " declares that he will
not be sure they might not easily have been made to
believe that injured justice demanded their lives at
Tyburn, for being the mother and sister of him who
was suspected to have forged the poems of Rowley.
Such terror had the humanity of certain curious inquirers
impressed upon their minds." ^
Neither those who accredited Chatterton with the
recovery of valuable antiques, nor tlieir opponents who
affirmed the wonderful creations to be his own, appear
to have bethought themselves of the bereaved mother,
excepting for the gratification of their own curiosity.
Twenty years after the poet's death a correspondent of
the Gentleman s Magazine draws a mournful picture of
the little household : the widow, under the infirmities of
1 Memorials of the Canynge Family, p. 297.
^ Croft, p. 156.
THE POETS MONUMENT,
321
jrcenary col-
; turned ere
ious pilgrims
low and her
s. After the
fe muniraent-
ans suddenly-
despoiled of
Doet's literary
)se parochial
I been passed
md was made
lents removed
s born. Any
emained were
nongst others,
d with entries
vir. Pryce has
snce of Chat-
of an antique
nary Rowley.^
en last year,"
js that he will
leen made to
;heir lives at
of him who
is of Rowley.
Irious inquirers
[■ton with the
iponents who
3 own, appear
&aved mother,
Lwn curiosity,
[respondent of
Iful picture of
infirmities of
297.
age, reduced to indigence, and in great suffering from
cancer in her breast, yet bearing all with Christian for-
titude ; the sister, Mrs. Newton, — then also a widow,
— struggling unsuccessfully to carry on the school ;
and her little orphan daughter completing the sad family
group. ^
The writer da. XV.
Poet cat
Justice,
Xarroiv-
mitiilcii
intolerance.
rrnrd
lotidition
imposed.
lictter
last,-.
32^
CITATTERrON.
\
Chap. XV.
The pod's
mun epitaph.
Removal
of the
monument.
The poet's
true
memorial.
poet's own pen ; which only need the dates of his birth
and death to make the inscription complete : —
"TO THK MEMORY OF
THOMAS CHATTERTON.
Reader ! judge not. If thou art a Christian, believe that he
shall be judged by a Superior Power. To that
Power only is he now answerable."
After evading or overcoming many difficulties, the poet's
monument was at length erected, in 1840, on the north
side of Redcliffe Church, between the tower and the
muniment-room, so intimately associated with the ro-
mantic dream of his life. But ere long the restoration
ot the north porch, of which the muniment-room forms
a part, furnished an excuse for its removal; and only
after long delay, and renewed difficulties, has it been re-
built on another site. No inscription has yet been placed
on it ; and as a new vicar now exercises authority, it may
be presumed that better taste will be allowed to prevail
in refilling the panels of the restored monument.
It was scarcely needed for the poet. His works are a
more durable memorial even than the venerable edifice
he had already appropriated as a monument, by titles
beyond the challenge of any ecclesiastical consistory.
But it was due to the city in which the boy had achieved
such triumphs of genius, amid poverty, and every im-
pediment that an unbelieving generation could interpose,
to make such reparation to itself, if not to him. And so
the monument, which in seeming jest he willed anJ di-
rected to be executed, has at length been reared within
the consecrated precincts of St. Mary Redcliffe ; and
Bristol now mingles somewhat of pride with the con-
flicting emotions with which it recalls the narne of
Chatterton.
i of his birth
INDEX.
Abstemiousness, ii, 215, 217, 299.
Abstraction, fits of, 217.
Addison, 214.
j'Ella, Songe to, 84, 148.
iElla, Tragedy of, 146, 163.
African Eclogues, 272, 276.
Alchemist, the, 58.
Alcock, Mr., 99, 313.
Allen, Mr., 135, 273.
Ames, Levij 79.
Anchor Society, the, 53.
Angel, Mrs., 281, 283, 312.
Angel, Frederick, 307.
Annual Register, 249, 252.
Antique Art, 31, 161.
Apostate, the, 303.
Arnold, Dr., 274.
Astrea Brockage, 205.
Atterbury, Mr., 274, 277.
Avon, the river, 115, 227.
Baker, 93, 141, 212, 221.
Baker, Miss, 214.
Balade of Charitie, 286, 289.
Ballance, Mrs., 248, 251, 254, 262, 285, 299.
Banwell Caves, 192.
Barrett, William, 50, 70, 77, 100, 119, 132,
173. 215. 226, 23s, 282, 292, 294, 303.
Barton, Dr. Cutts, 242.
Baster, Mr., 237.
Battle of Hastings, vide Hastings.
Bawden, Sir Charles, vide Bristowe
Tragedy.
Beckford, Lord Mayor, 207, 256, 264, 266,
269, 285.
Bedford, Duke of, 263.
Bertram, Charles Julius, 154.
Bigland, Ralph, 64.
Bingley, Mr., 266.
Bluecoat School, vide Colston's Ho.spital.
Blundeville, Ralph de, 117.
Brandon Hill, 80.
Hrickdale, Mathew, 156.
Bridge, passage of the old, 107, 115.
Bristol Bridge, Old, 83, 107, 1 15.
Bristol Bridge, New, 83, 91, 116.
Bristol, History of, 70, 72, 78.
Bristol Philosophical Institution, 243.
Bristoliensis, 310.
Bristowe Tragedy, 81, 84, 99, 103, 126, 139.
Britannicus, Mr., 268.
Brooke Street, 272, 281, 283, 291, 302.
Broughton, Rev. Thomas, zi, 54, 67, 193,
242.
Hrojighton, Miss, 214,
Browning, John, 130.
Bryant, Jacob, 23, 51, 158, 221.
Burgum, Henry, 52, 54, 67, 68, 83, 155,
209, 240.
Burke, Edmund, 232.
Burns, 127, 229, 231, 294.
Burton, Simon de, 142.
Bush, Miss, 212, 294.
Bute, Earl of, 237, 254, 258.
Byrpn, 210, 218.
(Tamplin, Rev. Mr., iii, 242.
Canynge, William, 14, 20, 85, 136, 143,
225, 228.
Canynge's coffer, 21, 129, 132.
Capel, Thomas, 51, 98, 99, 221, 314.
Carpenter, Bishop, 138, 143, 225.
Cary, Thomas, 40, 105, 107, 135, 201, 252,
262, 271.
Castle of Otranto, 170.
Catcott, George, 41, 57, 66, 72, 80, 81, 84,
87, 112, 216, 227, 228, 240, 292, 297, 303,
3M-
Catcott, Rev. A. S., 8i, 91, 191.
Catcott, Rev. Alexander, 191, 242, 277.
Cave, Mr., 250.
Celmonde, 146.
Chapel of Our Lady, T15.
Chapellow, Professor, 259.
Chapman, Rev. John, 86, 89, 156.
Chapter Coffee-house, 262.
Chard, Edmund, 7.
Charitie, Balade of, 283, 285, 286.
Chatterton, John, i.
Chatterton, Mary, vide Newton, Mrs.
Chatterton, Mrs., 6, 8, 9, 99, 113, 131, 132,
223, 246, :^8.
Chatterton, Thomas?, sub-chaunter, 3, 7, 22.
Chaucer, study of, 36, 69.
Christian Magazine, 270.
Churchill, 208, 252, 317.
Clarke, Miss, 212.
Clayfield, Michael, 109, 197, 215, 226, 236,
242, 244.
Clive, Mrs., 186, 187.
Cobbett, 229.
Cole, Rev. William, 182, 189.
Coleridge, 231, 253.
College of Heralds, 62.
Colston, Edward, 25, 52, 94, 230.
Colston's Hospital, 12, 48, 50, 93, 225-
Colston Society, the, 53.
Confirmation, 34,
Consuliad, the, 299.
Coroner's inquest, 306, 1.57.
! '
I
326
INDEX.
Corser, Mr., 198.
Cottle, Joseph, 55, 63, 236, 24a, 298, 309,
319- . \
Cotton, Miss, 214. I
Covvper, 231, 232, 311. • '
Creed, 227, 231, 232, 297.
Croft, Sir Herbert, 6, 71, 223, 250, 293,
306. 319.
Cromek, R. H., 8, 126.
Cross, Bristol High, 17, 212.
Cross, Mr., 291, 301.
Cross, RedcliflTe, 17, 225.
Cruger, Henry, 53.
Cumberland, George, 308, 309, 312.
Cunningham, Allan, 127.
Cutholf, 2;'
Dalbenie, John a, 139.
Day, Miss, vide Stockwell.
Death of Nicou, 272, 276.
De Bergham pedigree, 55.
Decimus, 186, 237, 238, 256, 268, 269.
Defence, the, 104, 227, 229.
Derrick, Samuel, 207, 239.
Dissenters, Bristol, 230.
Dix, John, 55, 296, 308, 312.
Doctor, the infallible, 105.
Dodd, Dr., 270.
Dodsley, J... 163. 170, 248, 253, 289.
Dolphin Society, 53, 11 1.
Douglas, Gawin, 130.
Dowager, the, 274.
Drawings, 32.
Drury Lane, 273.
pryden, 315, 317.
Ducarel, Dr., 72, 86, 89, 133, 156.
Dunelmus Bristolien.sis, 106, 118, 164.
Easter Sepulchre, 159.
Eclogues, 176, 272, 276.
Edkins, Mrs., 4, 8, 9, 12, 31, 33, 48, 71,
107, 113, 131, 213, 215, 222, 240, 245,
246, 290, 296, 309.
Edward IV., 85.
Edwards, Mr., 227, 248, 249, 250.
Egerton, Mr., 277.
Elinoure and Juga, 42, 178, 279.
Elynour and Lord Thomas, 165.
Enquiry after Happiness, 271.
Epiphany, On the Last, 34.
Epistle to Rev. Mr. Catcott, 194,. 19S, 198.
227.
Epitaph, Chatterton's, 322, 323.
Evan.s, John, 217.
Exhibition, the, 72, 195, 200.
Eyes, Chatterton's, 71, 153, 313, 314.
Fairford, 46. .
Fanner, Dr., 174.
Farringdon Market, 308.
Fell, Mr., 248, 249, 250, 252, 262, 299.
Fingal, viile Ossian's poems.
Flight of Youth, the, 252.
Flight, the, 277.
Foster, Mary, 307.
Fowler, Jack, 40, gp, 284,
Freeholders' Magazine, 249, 'i(yi, a()j,
Friends, Bristol, 93.
Frome; the river, 50,
Fry, Rev. Dr., 320.
Fulford, Sir Baldwin, 19, 43, 83.
Gainsborough, 313.
Gardiner, Rev. John, aS,
Gardner, Edward, 5, 99, 169, 314.
Gentleman's Maga/ino, 350, 306, ^uj.
George III., 254.
Gibb, Rev. John, 31, 33,
Glos.sary, 97, 279. ,
Glynn, Dr.. no, 174, 175,
Goddwyn, Tragedy of, 149, 303.
Goldsmith, Dr., 87, 177, 183, 314, 353, 265,
_ 270, 289, 293.
Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 37,
Gorges, Sir Thybbot, 139, 165,
Gospel Magazine, 371,
Gouler's Requiem, 56, 69,
Grafton, Duke of, 237,
Grateful Society, 53.
(Jray's Elegy, Imitation of, 45,
Great House on St. AugiiHtiiio'H ilnck, 27,
^so-
Green, Mr., 97.
(ireesley, Francis, 107.
Gregory, Dr., 80, 83, 340.
Gutch, J. M. , 307.
Haines, Mr., 133.
Hamilton, Mr., 248, 250, 377, 388, 398,
Hamsley, William, 307,
Han.slow, Mr., 274,
Happiness, 90, 227. ,
Happiness, Enquiry after, 371,
Harris, Mr. Thomas, 28, 343,
Harry Wildfire, 205,
Hastings, Battle o^ 73, 84, 100, 104, 141,
151, 3M-
Hayfield, Molly, 6.
Haynes, Mr. 38.
Heraldry, 55, 63.
Heralds, College of, 63,
Hill, Miss, 284.
Hogg, James, 229,
Holidays, 31.
Home, John, 257, '
Hoyland, Miss, 141, aia, 3i6,
Hunter of Oddities, 83, 270, 388,
Hutchinsonian philoHopliy, 191, 197,
Hygra, the, 152.
Hymn for Christmas Day, 333,
Immortality of the Soul, 333.
Ireland, 7, 125.
Iscam, John a, 138, 144, 147,
V
James, Miss, jiide EdkiiiH,
Johnson, Dr., 88, 182, 314, 333, 350, as7,
89.
//
INDEX.
m
(J, a63, 367.
43r 85.
169. 3«4'
5", 306. 3»0'
W. 3"3'
183, 314, 3S3, 365,
37.
J, 165.
{iiiitinc'M Hnck, 37,
), 877.
388, 398.
,er, 37
1. 343'
I,
,84.
loo. 104,
i4«
Is, 3l6,
I, 37U, 388,
]liy, i9«» »97'
|ay, 333,
333. y
147-
|in»),
314, 333, 350, as7,
_ ohn, Abbot of St. Austin's, 171, 175.
, onrnal, 331.
Junius, 208, 237, 254, 269, 305.
. ustice of Peace, tho, 303.
Kator, Henry, 142, 262.
Rears ley, Mr., 267.
Keats, 317.
Kenrick, 239.
Kerslake, Thomas, 54, 308.
Kcw Gardens, 67, 107, 135, 195, 127, 249.
Lady's Magazine, 270.
Lambert, John, 93, 95, 112, 211, 221, 222,
236, 240, 295.
Language, archaic, 76.
Last Wni, 241.
Latin, study of, 57, 155.
Le Grice, Rev. C. V., 314.
Liberty, Ode to, 150.
Llewellyn, 216.
Lockstone, 99.
London, 248.
Love, Miss, 214.
Love, Stephen, 7.
Lydgate, John, 147, 149.
Macipherson, James, 133, 258.
Mad Genius, the, 217.
Madness, supposed, 217, 218.
Maitland, Dr., 61, 120, 159, 162, 204, 20C,
246, 267, 274, .301, 307-
Mansfield, Lord, 268.
Martha. Aunt, 59.
Marylebone Gardens, 274.
Mason, the poet, 84, 179.
Masson, Professor, 202, 213, 215, 216, 247.
Measc^ Mat, 215, 216.
Memoirs of d Sad Dog, i88, 270, 288.
Merrie Tricks of Laymyngtonne, 57.
Middlesex Journal, 186, 227, 238, 269.
Midwife, Rowley's, 82,
Miller, Hugh, 229.
Milles, Dean, 105, 139, 158, i6i, 245, 318,
Milton, 311, 317.
Milverton, Ji/hn a, 225,
Minstrel's song, 166.
Moderator, the, 267.
Monument, Chatterton's, 321, 323.
Moonlight, fancy for, 217.
Moore's Utopia, 125.
More, Miss Hannah, 80, 173, 214, 232, 321.
Morgan, Mr., 131.
Morris, Mr., 312.
Muniment-room, St. Mary Redcliffe, 3, ?o.
Music, taste for, 55, 274.
Newton, Bishop, 201 232.
Newton, Mary Ann, 319.
Newton, Mrs., 4, 8, 34, 99, no, 126, 212,
222, 281, 298, 314, 319, 321.
North Briton, 254, 266.
North, Lord, 237, 267, 269.
Nygelle, 176.
Ode to Liberty, 150.
Old Rowley, 305. , .
Oral charters, 56.
Orford, Karl of, v/tir Walpole.
Ossian, imitations of, 103, 134.
Ossian's poems, 134, 258.
Otranto, Baron, 188, 270.
Palmer, Thomas, 65, 98.
Parliament of Sprytes, 112, 144, 217. '
Patriot, a, 257.
Patrons, Bri«»'>l 66.
Pelham, John, 140.
Percy, Bishop, 84, 158, i6(>.
Perrin, Mr, 2.
Phillips, Jane, 11, i6, 33.
Phillips, Mrs., 2.
Phillips, Richard, 2, 11, 13, 24, 308.
Phillips, S. C, 37-
Phillips, Thomas, 38, 42, 108, 197, 234.
Pine-apple Club, 4, 216.
Polite Advertiser, the, 187, 270, 288.
Political Register, 266, 277.
Pope, Alexander, iii, 131, 315, 316, 317.
Porter, Miss, 214.
Portrait, 312.
Pride, 95, 251.
Probus, 266.
Prophecy of Famine, the, 255.
Pryce, George, 137, 233, 319, 321.
Public Advertiser, 237.
Puffing, art of, 265.
Pulvis, 77, 90, 228.
Pyle Street School, 3, 7.
Pyttes, Nicholas, 159,
RadclyfTe de Chatterton, 58.
Ranelagh Gardens, 273, 274.
Redcliffe Church, 13, 135, 143, 193, izi.
RedclifTe Churchyard, 17, 225, 308, 309,
Redcliffe Cross, St. Mary, 17, 325.
RedcliflTe Hill, 7, 17, 20, 141.
Redcliffe Meadows, io6.
Religious impressions, 34, 48, 223.
Resignation, 223, 224, 259.
Revenge, the, 274, 281.
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 138, 289.
Richard Coeur de Lion, 175, 176.
Richard of Cirencester, 154.
Ritsoii, Joseph, 158.
Romaunte of the Cnyghte, 61.
Rose of Virginity, the, 60.
Rowley, old, 305.
Rowley, Thomas, 20, 42, 79, g8, 136, 139,
15s, 157, 225, 279. 282.
Rowley Romance, the, 129.
Rudde House, the, 138, 149, 285, 316.
Rudhall, John, 106, 118, 161.
Rumsey, Miss, 211, 212.
Ryse of Peyncteynge, 171, 175.
Sawbridge, Alderman, 262.
Scepticism, 226, 231, 233, 297.
Severn, the river, 152.
3a8
INDEX.
233.
!! !
ShierclifTe, Mr, 130.
Shoreditch, 348, 273, 379.
Signature^^ 353, 371.
Singer, Miss, 314.
Slave trade, African, 393.
Sleep, neglect of, 317, 318.
Smitn, Peter, 333.
Smith, Richard, 53, 59, 83, 106, 335, 336,
SmiX", Sir J., 5.
Smith, William, 33, 104, 106, 315,
Smollett, 254, 357, 293-
Songs, 373.
Southey, 311, 313, 319.
Stephens, Mr., 64, 99, 185, 283.
Stephens, Mrs., 7.
Stockwell, Mrs., 6, 308.
Strawberry Hill, 170, 187.
St. Andrew's, Holborn, 307.
St. Austin's Back, 13, 37, 70.
St. Baldwin, Song of, 117.
St. Mary RedcliRe, vide Redcliflfe.
St. Nicholas Church, 83.
St. Nicholas's steeple, ascent of, 83, 90.
St. Nicholas Gate, 83.
St. Pancras Churchyard, 297.
St. Warburgh, Song of, 117.
Suicide, 334.
Tandey, John, 336.
Tea, fondness for, 314, 215.
Temora, vide Ossian's poems.
Temperance, 313, 315, 216.
Temple Church, 193, 194.
Temple Street School, 27.
Thatcher, Miss, 214.
Thichnesse, Philip, 313.
Thistlethwaite, James, 38, 47, 98, 100-134,
»33. 213. 33s, 245, 246.
Thomas, Joseph, 17, 19,
Thomas, W. Moy, 283.
Thome, 280.
Thurlow, Lord Chancellor, 311.
Tipton, Thomas, 98.
Tom's Coffee-house, 263.
Tonsure, the, 51.
Tournament, the, 56, 69, 141.
Tovey, S. G^ 53, 111.
Town and Country Magazine, 178, 187,
193, 205, 238, 345, 349, 356, a8i, 388,
2931 305-
Townsend, Alderman, 263.
Treasury House, 31.
Truth, Apostrophe to, 74.
Truth, vision of, 145.
Turcot, 147, 151.
Turk's Head Club, 353. ,
Tyrwhitt, Thomas, 131, 318. "•- •
Upcott, Mr., 377.
Vere, Sir Allan de.
Virginity, the Rose
o?5o.
Wales, Princess of, 238.
Walmsley, Mr., 248, 285, 302.
Walmsley, Mrs., 250, 183, 299.
Walmsley, Miss, 251.
Walpole, Horace, 80, 84, 134, 162, 169,
242, 266, 277, 285, 289.
Warburton, Bishop, 332.
Warner, Mr., 37.
Warton, 291, 301, 317.
Watkins, Miss, 214.
Webb, Sukey, 11, 214.
Wensley, Mr, 264,
Wesley, 230.
Wheatly, 312.
Whitfield, 230, 231.
Whore of Babylon, 195, 200, 2x0, 227.
Wildfire, Harry, 268.
Wilkes, John, 207, 337, 354, 256, 362.
Will, 63, 338.
Wilmot, Sir Robert, 308.
Wolfe, Mrs., 301.
Woman of Spirit, the, 187, 374.
Woodfall, Mr.^ 237.
Worcester, William of, 14, 17.
Yeatman, Mr., 228.
Yellow Roll, 81.
Young's " Night Thoughts," 332.
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