Thomas Chatterton, the Marvelous Boy; the Story of a Strange Life 1752
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THOMAS CHATTERTON Z 5 p - ^ 5 ^ THOMAS CHATTERTON THE MARVELOUS BOY THE STORY OF A STRANGE LIFE 1752-1770 BY CHARLES EDWARD RUSSELL ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY 1908 Copyright, 1908, by MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY NEW YORK All rights reserved Published, March, igo8 The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. USA. THOMAS CHATTERTON With Shakespeare's manhood at a boy's wild heart, Through Hamlet's doubt to Shakespeare near allied And kin to Milton through his Satan's pride, At Death's sole door he stooped, and craved a dart; And to the dear new bower of England's art, Even to that shrine Time else had deified, The unuttered heart that soared against his side, Drove the fell point, and smote life's seals apart. Thy nested home-loves, noble Chatterton, The angel-trodden stair thy soul could trace Up Redcliffe's spire; and in the world's armed space Thy gallant sword-play: these to many an one Are sweet forever; as thy grave unknown And love-dream of thine unrecorded face. DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI, "Five English Poets. CONTENTS CHAPTER I MOB AN EARLY DAY SCHOLAR IN POLITICS i CHAPTER II DREAMS AND REALITIES 13 CHAPTER III THE RIFT IN THE CLOUDS 4-Q CHAPTER IV THE TRADE OF A SCRIVENER 61 CHAPTER V THE RISING FLAME "7 CHAPTER VI Now CRACKS A NOBLE HEART 19 CHAPTER VII THE WORLD'S VERDICT 225 vin CONTENTS APPENDIX I PAGE HISTORIE OF PEYNCTERS YN ENGLANDE 269 APPENDIX II WILLIAM CANYNGE 274 APPENDIX III CANYNGE AND ROWLEY 277 APPENDIX IV THE ROWLEY CONTROVERSY 282 INDEX 287 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Chatterton Frontispiece (From the painting of Henry Wallis, RW.S., National Gallery of British Art.) The Famous North Porch of St. Mary Redcliffe ... 6 Colston's School, as it was in Chatterton's Time ... 30 (From an old water-color in the Bristol Museum.) The Bristol Bridge, that was built in Chatterton's Time . 64 (From an old water-color in the Bristol Museum.) The Supposed Portrait of Chatterton 94 (From a Photograph in the possession of Mr. Edward Bell) Two Specimens of Chatterton's Work 106 1. Photographic copy of the parchment, purporting to be the original of a poem by Rowley. 2. The Arms of Canynge as designed by Chatterton. The House where Chatterton Died, No. 39 Brooke Street, London 222 (From an old print in the possession of the Bristol Museum.) St. Mary Redcliffe, from the North 258 CHRONOLOGY OF THOMAS CHATTERTON Born at Bristol November 20, 1752 Admitted to Colston's Charity School .... August, 1760 Wrote his first extant poem when ten years old December, 1 762 Published it ("On the Last Epiphany") . January 8, 1763 Published "The Church-Warden and the Apparition" January 7, 1764 Left Colston's, apprenticed to Lawyer Lam- bert July I, 1767 Published the account of the opening of the Old Bridge September, 1768 Completed "Aella, a Tragycal Enterlude" before December, 1768 Correspondence with Horace Walpole .... March to July, 1769 Completed his satirical poem "Kew Gar- dens" about March, 1769 Had his Indenture cancelled April 16, 1770 Started for London April 23, 1770 His friend, Lord Mayor Beckford, died . June 19, 1770 his 1 Completed "Balade of Charitie" J uty> 77 Killed himself in Brooke Street, London . August 24, 1770 AMONG HIS CONTEMPORARIES WERE: Dr. Samuel Johnson 1709-1784 James Boswell 1740-1795 Edward Young 1681-1765 xii CHRONOLOGY OF THOMAS CHATTERTON Thomas Gray 1716-1771 William Collins 1720-1756 Mark Akenside 1721-1770 Oliver Goldsmith 1728-1774 Bishop Percy 1728-1811 William Cowper 1731-1800 Charles Churchill 1731-1764 George Crabbe 1754-1832 William Shenstone 1714-1763 William Mason 1724-1797 "Ossian" Macpherson 1738-1796 Hannah More I 745~ l %33 Joseph Warton 1722-1800 David Garrick 1717-1779 Richard Brinsley Sheridan 1751-1816 Sir Joshua Reynolds 1723-1792 Thomas Gainsborough 1727-1788 The Elder Pitt 1708-1778 Horace Walpole 1717-1797 Lawrence Sterne 1713-1768 Tobias George Smollett 1721-1771 Samuel Richardson 1689-1761 William Blackstone .'. .1723-1780 William Herschel 1738-1822 PREFATORY NOTE HAVE tried in these pages to set forth the plain I records of this extraordinary story with hope to do something, however little, however poor and in- adequate, to clear from calumny and undeserved reproach the memory of one of the greatest minds and sweetest souls that ever dwelt upon this earth. That in the short span of his unhappy life this boy should have produced works of the first order of genius, works ever since the marvel of all persons that have considered them, works profoundly affect- ing the body and the development of English poetry, is the most amazing fact in literature. Next to it in wonder I place the fact that this great spirit, this artist and poet, this lover and benefactor of his kind, this assailant of absolutism, this boy hero of revolt, this leader at seventeen in the army of man, has been kept by false report and malignant slander from his true place in the affections of the race he labored for. And next to this I place the fact, herein, I think, for the first time made clear, that all of these false reports and all of these slanders had no other origin than the petty malice of a spiteful xiv PREFATORY NOTE and vindictive old man. For I deem it impossible to come from any impartial and first-hand investi- without the conviction that gation of these matters Thomas Chatterton would never have been called a Literary Forger, would never have been a moral warning to the young nor an outcast among the men of letters, if he had not offended Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford. With what monstrous injustice he has been branded with that word Forger, how unreasonably he has been assailed, how far his actual life, full of love, tenderness, and good deeds, was above the libels that have been cast upon it, I have labored here to make plain. For the first time the state- ments derogatory to Chatterton's character have been traced from hand to hand back to the one fountain head, identical in each instance; and for the first time an attempt has been made to compare the accepted narrative with the available records. It may ease others as I was eased to know that the wonderful boy, whose days were so unutterably sad and lonely and whose heart was so infallibly kind, was not a libertine, was not dissolute, was not venal, and was not a Literary Forger. And it may instruct others as I was profoundly instructed to know that in the remarkable vitality of these monstrous false- hoods he has paid the penalty for attacking privilege and championing the cause of mankind. For in more PREFATORY NOTE XV ways than one this boy has been a martyr of democ- racy, and no one may doubt that if he had fought for absolutism as fiercely as he attacked it, there would now be no need to defend his reputation. It is time to have done with the prejudice and bigotry that have obscured this glorious name. The world crushed out the life of Thomas Chatterton when he was still a boy. That ought to be enough. With cudgel and savage injustice and cruelty and privation it embittered almost every moment of his existence. That ought to be enough. For more than one hundred years it has dwelt with moral edification upon his poor little errors. That ought to be enough. Possibly now is more profit to be had from considering his magnificent art, the products of his unequaled genius and the natural goodness of his heart. To try in some way to further such consideration was the object of this book. Some obstacle to a wide reading of Chatterton has been found in the strange and antique garb of the Rowley poems. An attempt is made here to show how slight is this obstacle by printing examples of the poems in their original and others in a modernized form. There will also be found analyses of musical themes employed by Chatterton that may seem to exhibit more clearly the unusual nature of his endowment and the essential beauty of his work. The materials here used have been drawn chiefly xvi PREFATORY NOTE from the invaluable collection of books, documents, and letters referring to Chatterton, now preserved in the Bristol Museum and Library. The discovery that Barrett knew of and aided the attempted im- Mr. Edward Bell had posture upon Walpole briefly noted among the documents in the British Museum, and further investigation, following this vital fact, seemed to show the whole of Barrett's conduct in small to blame the a light that leaves room boy and much to doubt the man. Of the extant biographies I have found that of Professor Wil- son and the short life written by Mr. Bell (and used as a preface to Skeat's edition of Chatter- ton's poems), to be the most accurate as they are also the most interesting and sympathetic. The other lives, being made up chiefly from the errors of Dix and Chalmers, are not available for the purposes of the modern biographer. I have been at pains to verify, so far as possible, from the original sources, all the statements made here con- cerning Chatterton's career; and whether the result be ill or good, at least this is true, that nothing has been taken for granted nor accepted on light evi- dence. I should be much to blame if I omitted from this note an expression of my gratitude to the good city of Bristol that, with a universal and genuine kind- ness, so long and so often harbored me and fur- PREFATORY NOTE xvii thered in every way my design.