Dictionary of National Biography
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DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY Brown Brown BROWN, CHARLES (d. 1753), commo- a portrait of Brown in the Painted Hall at dore, entered the navy about 1693. Through Greenwich. the of Sir afterwards patronage George Byng, iv. 1 [Charnock's Biog. Nav. ; Beatson's Nav. he of Lord was captain Mil. i. Torrington, appointed and Memoirs, 49 ; E. H. Locker's Naval the Stromboli in 1709. He commanded the 1831 H. A. Locker's Naval Memoirs, ; Gallery of in and the Advice in 1726 in the York 1717, Greenwich Hospital, 1842.] A. L. cruises up the Baltic. In 1727, during the siege of Gibraltar by the Spaniards, he com- BROWN, CHARLES ARMITAGE manded the Oxford, and in 1731 the Buck- (1787 P-1842 ?), writer on Shakespeare's son- ingham in the Mediterranean. In 1738 he nets and friend of Keats, went to St. Peters- was appointed to command the Hampton burg at the age of eighteen to conduct the busi- Court, and was senior officer at this station ness of a Russia merchant started there by until the arrival of Admiral Vernon in the his eldest brother John. Working on very following year. His opportunity arrived in little capital, and hampered by political dis- 1739, when, during the war with Spain, he turbances, the firm soon collapsed, and about served under Vernon in the attack on Porto- 1810, at the age of twenty-three, Brown re- bello, in the isthmus of Darien. He led the turned to this country utterly ruined. For squadron into Boca Chica, placing his vessel, some years afterwards he struggled hard for a the Hampton Court, alongside the strongest livelihood, but the death of another brother part of the fortifications. When the fortress who had settled in Sumatra put him at length surrendered, the Spanish governor presented in the possession of a small competence, and his sword in token of submission. Brown he devoted himself to literary pursuits. In very properly declined to receive it, saying 1814 he wrote a serio-comic opera on a Rus- l he was but second in command/ and took sian subject, entitled 'Narensky, or the Road the governor in his boat to Admiral Vernon. to Yaroslaf,' with music by Brahamand Reeve. But the Spaniard was obstinate, declaring It was acted at Drury Lane, under Arnold's that but for the insupportable fire of the com- management, for several nights from 11 Jan. modore he never would have yielded. There- 1814, with Braham in the chief part (GENBST, upon Vernon, very handsomely turning to viii.405). The libretto was published in 1814, Brown, presented to him the sword, which but its literary quality is poor. Brown made is still in the possession of his descendants. the acquaintance of Keats and his brothers be- In 1741 Brown was appointed to the office fore September 1817. At the time Brown was of commissioner of the navy at Chatham, a living at Wentworth Place, Hampstead, a situation which he held with unblemished double house part of which was in the occu- reputation until his death, 23 March 1753. pation of Charles Wentworth Dilke, and His daughter, Lucy, became the wife of Keats was living in Well Walk, near at hand. Admiral William Parry, commander-in-chief In July 1818 Brown and Keats made a tour of the Leeward Islands and her and in the north of Scotland. Brown ; daughter together namesake married Captain Locker, under sent a number of amusing letters to Dilke of whom Lord Nelson served in his early days, describing the trip, some which have been ' and who subsequently became lieutenant- printed in Dilke's Papers of a Critic/ and in governor of Greenwich Hospital. There is Buxton Forman's elaborate edition of Keats's VOL. VII. Brown Brown works. A diary kept by Brown at the same Character drawn chiefly from his Works/ time is unfortunately lost. On the return London, 1838. Brown dedicated the book to had first discussed from Scotland in August, Brown induced Landor, with whom he * ' Keats to keep house with him at Went- its subject at Florence in 1828. It is Brown's each his endeavour to show that sonnets worth Place, paying own expenses ; Shakespeare's and there Brown introduced the poet to conceal a fairly complete autobiography of Fanny Brawne and her mother, who had the poet, and although Boaden had suggested hired Brown's rooms during his absence in a similar theory in 1812, Brown was the first the north, and had thus made his acquaint- to treat it with adequate fulness or know- ance. At Wentworth Place Keats wrote his ledge. Brown often illustrates Shakespeare play of 'Otho,' the plot of which he owed to from Italian literature, with which he was Brown. In April 1819 Keats wrote some hu- widely acquainted. Lord Houghton says morous Spenserian stanzas on Brown, which that Keats learned from Brown all that he are printed in the various editions of the poet's knew of Ariosto, and that Brown scarcely let works. In 1820 Keats left for Rome, with a day pass in Italy without translating from l his health rapidly breaking. In 1822, shortly the Italian. His complete and admirable after Keats's death, Brown paid a long visit Version of the first five Cantos of Boiardo's to Italy. He met Byron at Florence, and "Orlando Innamorato"' (HOUGHTON) was tried to induce him to take a just view of unfortunately never published. Of Brown's Keats's poetry and character. In 1824 Kirk- contributions to periodical literature, his pa- introduced Brown to and the ' patrick Landor, pers in the Liberal,' signed Carlone and Car- ' introduction led to a long intimacy. For lucci, are very good reading. One called Les ' many years Brown was a frequent visitor at Charmettes and Rousseau has been wrongly ' Lander's villa at Fiesole. In April 1835 assigned to Charles Lamb, and another, On Brown returned to England and lived near Shakespeare's Fools,' equally wrongly to busied ' Plymouth. He himself in public lec- Charles Cowden Clarke. A story in the Ex- ' turing on Keats and Shakespeare, and in aminer for 1823 entitled ' La Bella Tabac- ' writing for newspapers and reviews. Landor caia is also by Brown. Various references visited him in 1837. In the of middle 1841 to Brown in the letters of his literary friends, he suddenly left England for New Zealand, among whom Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt are in the of hope partly improving his fortune to be included, prove that he was at all and partly of recovering his health, which times excellent company. Leigh Hunt is had been failing for some time. He obtained believed to refer to him in the ( Tatler ' for a of land ' government grant at Taranaky, New 14 Jan. 1831, as one of the most genuine but he was so dissatisfied with its Plymouth, wits now living.' Joseph Severn, Keats's and situation that he resolved to re- quality friend, maintained a fairly regular corre- turn to He wrote England. from New Zea- spondence with Brown for more than twenty land to under date 22 Joseph Severn, Jan. years (1820-42), and many of Brown's letters this but he 1842, announcing resolve, appa- to Severn and other literary friends will be died before the ' rently beginning journey. In printed in the Severn Memoirs,' edited by his last extant he this, letter, mentions that Mr. William Sharp. he was engaged on a ' Handbook of New from the late W. Dilke of Chi- Zealand.' [Information chester, from the late Lord from Mr. A number of Keats's Houghton, manuscripts came William and from Sharp, Mr. Colvin ; into Brown's on the Sidney possession poet's 'death, Buxton Forman's complete edition of Keats's and Brown determined to some of publish works ; Dilke's of a Critic (1883) Papers ; Lord them with a memoir by himself. He Life of Keats Forster's printed Houghton's (1848) ; Life a few of Keats's unpublished works in the of Landor; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. vii. 388, ' New Monthly Magazine,' but a short bio- 6th spr. viii. 392. Mr. W. Dilke was of opinion graphical sketch which he wrote of his friend that Brown was never known by the second name of was refused by the booksellers and by the Armitage until the publication of Lord ' Life of Keats. On the of Morning Chronicle.' On leaving England, Houghton's title-page Brown made overall his the opera Brown is called manuscripts relating Narensky (1814) Mr. Charles but on that of his work on to Keats to R. Monckton Milnes, afterwards Brown, sonnets he is called Charles Armi- Lord Houghton, whom he first met at Fiesole Shakespeare's tage Brown. His eldest brother's name was John in April 1833. In his well-known book on Armitage Brown. A son Charles or Car lino, Keats, Lord Houghton made a free use of who settled with him in New Zealand, survived Brown's papers. him.] S. L. L. Brown's best-known literary work is his 1 Shakespeare's Autobiographical Poems, be- BROWN, CHARLES PHILIP (1798- his Sonnets ing clearly developed, with his 1884), Telugu scholar, son of the Rev. David Brown Brown Brown of the of Cal- and [q. v.], provost college Hindustani. On his return to England entered the Madras Civil Service in he cutta, accepted the post of professor of Telugu was for in at 1817, employed many years revenue, University College. Among his titles to magisterial, and judicial duties in the districts fame must be reckoned the fine collection of of and in ad- Cuddapah Masulipatam, where, manuscripts, including over 2,000 Sanskrit dition to a of and knowledge Persian, Sanskrit, Telugu works, which he presented in and he that over 1845 to the Hindustani, acquired mastery Madras Literary Society, and the hitherto and literature which neglected language now form part of the government of which entitles him to a Telugu.