Філологічні Науки Thomas Chatterton. Mediaeval
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UDC 821.111–31’06.09 THOMAS CHATTERTON. MEDIAEVAL MYSTIFICATION Timofieieva V.S. Dnipro O. Honchar National University This article discusses how Chatterton’s mediaeval mystification problematises the representational view of lite- rature regarding theories of forgery in XVIII century. It also highlights the novel’s narrative strategies and techniques which result in demystifying the text’s meaning-granting process; hence, problematisation of reality. Keywords: Chatterton, mystification, forgery, problematization, parody. he aim of this article is the study of most likely, inspired the young Chatterton to cre- TChatterton biography and his mediaeval ate a monk Thomas Rowley [2, p. 188]. Couched in mistifications. Chatterton's pastiche of Chaucer and other me- The "spectre" of this great plagiarist, whose dieval sources and indited on parchment the el- method we will study in more detail later on, ap- der Chatterton had pilfered from church, the po- pears to be of the greatest relevance in the recre- ems glorify Bristol's past, considerably elevate the ation of the present London society we are offered Chatterton lineage, and lionize Sir William Canyn- in the article. ge, the actual benefactor of that same church. The question of representation is inherently re- According to Kaplan, this canard served to en- lated to the status and nature of literature itself. dow its perpetrator with the patrimony he lacked. Far be it from me to give a definition of literature, It also fetched him just enough income from gul- unavoidably a problematic and questionable task. lible patrons to lead him to think he might make The debate has long been established and it is still a living by his pen. In London he stooped to jour- far from reaching a definite conclusion. nalism and pamphleteering, turning out satirical The focus of representation here is Thomas Chat- and pornographic screeds in the manner of his terton, "the greatest plagiarist or the greatest poet." hero, anti-royalist reformer John Wilkes. But not This representation does not limit itself to just one even this strategy paid. Despairing and broke, the system or field but expands and turns to be a rep- boy swallowed arsenic one night and was found resentation of him in history, biography and art. dead the next morning. (In an irony he might have Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770), the fourteenth enjoyed, the famous portrait of him newly dead century English poet, gained popularity by invent- hanging in the Tate Gallery – and reproduced on ing the poet-monk Thomas Rowley, who allegedly the cover of both these books – turns out to be lived in the fifteenth century, and wrote poems on a fraud. Without access to the sole surviving like- his behalf. The mystery, authored by Chatterton, ness of the youth, the painter engaged the future "fully corresponded to the romantic perception of novelist George Meredith as a model.) His works the Middle Ages, which began to emerge at the were saved and published, and a generation later time, as well as the phenomenon of pre-romantic the Romantic movement annexed him. mystification, the most striking example of which Chatterton's access to a chest in his parish ФІЛОЛОГІЧНІ НАУКИ was Macpherson’s “Ossian” [8, p. 15]. church which contained historical documents en- "Many of Chatterton's scholars believe that abled him to obtain scraps of ancient parchment. the greatest influence on the writer was Thomas It was on such scraps that he began producing Percy, known as the author of "Reliques of An- manuscript poems which he claimed were the cient English Poetry", an anthology of ballads and work of a fifteenth-century Bristol monk and poet, songs, first published in 1765. This is the book, Thomas Rowley. Initially, Chatterton's audience © Timofieieva V.S., 2018 354 «Молодий вчений» • № 4 (56) • квітень, 2018 р. was limited to local antiquaries who were thrilled his supporters, however, and it was not until the to learn of the existence of this early Bristol poet. end of the nineteenth century that the controversy Soon, however, Chatterton became more ambi- over Chatterton ended and there was general ac- tious. He sent samples of his work, including some ceptance that he was the true author of the Row- of the Rowley poems, to Town and Country Mag- ley poems and the fifteenth-century Bristol monk azine. In an effort to gain patronage from Horace was merely his invention. Walpole, whose gothic novel The Castle of Otranto Throughout the controversy, Chatterton's (1765) had claimed to be a translation of a lost harshest critics and strongest doubters nearly all manuscript, Chatterton sent Walpole samples of held the opinion that he was a poet of great talent. his Rowley poems. But after initially encouraging He became an icon to the Romantic poets. Keats the young prodigy, Walpole subsequently changed dedicated "Endymion" to Chatterton's memory and his position and pronounced the Rowley poems Wordsworth dubbed him "the marvelous boy." Fas- forgeries, denouncing Chatterton in the process. cination with Chatterton continues today and he has Unlike Semyel Johnson, who for no second be- even been the subject of a novel, by Peter Ackroyd. lieved in the authenticity of Rowley's poetry, could Like James Macpherson's Ossian poems, Chatter- not help but wonder how "this puppy could write ton's Rowley poetry continues to be read and stud- like this [7, p. 30], Percy himself considered the ied as Chatterton's own imaginative creation. works of Chatterton as "originals, mutilated by an However, his posthumous glory, the attention of ignorant boy (originals, mutilated by an Ignorant romantics and the creation of the myth of a ro- Boy) [5, p. 202]. "But, at least as it was, the creation mantic poet Chatterton was made by "Rowleian" of forgery helped to manifest the genius of fabrica- texts. Written by Chatterton, he mislead many tion. In addition to pseudo-medieval poetry, Chat- prominent people of that time and gave impetus terton had time to write and a large number of to a long debate called "The Rowley Controversy." other works that were distinguished by their high Discussions around Chatterton and his work be- poetic qualities. At the age of 17, the poet com- gan almost immediately after his death and have mitted suicide for some unknown reason, taking not stopped until now. The "Rowley Dispute" led a mixture of arsenic and opium. The volume of the to the fact that for many years Chatterton's rep- creative heritage of Chatterton is so great that the utation fluctuated between a "fraudulent genius" full collection of works of the seventeen-year-old and a "honest ignoramus" [3, p. 229]. "The paradox poet occupies almost 700 pages (the Oxford edition is that only Chatterton-the author of fakes could of 1971), and this cannot but cause admiration. later become such a popular romantic hero. This Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote a monody on fake is a false text, but in this case, at least, its au- Chatterton; Robert Southey edited his poems thor must be genuine. However, for several years (1803); John Keats dedicated Endymion (1817) to after Chatterson's death, the personality was "in- him; in “Adonais” (1821) Percy Bysshe Shelley visible". Only 7 years later, in 1777, Tho mas Tyr- ranks Chatterton with Sir Philip Sidney as “inher- whitt felt obliged to provide readers with at least itors of unfulfilled renown”: information-a note on "the main circumstances Chatterton of his (Chatterton) short life." More complete bi- Rose pale, – his solemn agony had not ographical data about Chatterton appeared three Yet faded from him... years later in the form of a retreat in the epistolary Oblivion as they rose shrank like a thing re- novel by Gerbert Croft, "Love and Madness", al- proved. Alfred de Vigny, Robert Browning, Dante though this version of life cannot be called official. Gabriel Rossetti, and Francis Thompson wrote The full biography was published only in 1789, about him; George Meredith posed for Henry Wal- twenty years after the death of the poet, in the lis’s painting of his death. fourth volume the publication of "British biogra- Although one of the Rowley poems was pub- phies" (Biographia Britannica), performed by An- lished in Town and Country Magazine in May, drew Kippis. However, this biography was not in- 1769–making it the only Rowley poetry published cluded in the main text, but in the "Appendix to during Chatterton's lifetime–after his rebuke by the letter C", and in volume was not too much note. Walpole, Chatterton turned his pen to political sat- In parallel, the aforementioned "The Rowley Dis- ire and other writing he could sell to periodicals, pute", which was devoted to countless numbers of usually writing under pseudonyms. Chatterton various articles and treatises, gained momentum. achieved moderate success through his writing, Most of the researchers of Chatterton's crea- and developed a reputation of some note in lit- tivity at that time treated himself as a secondary erary circles. Despite his achievements, however, proof, no more. This explains almost complete lack Chatterton led the life of a pauper. He became of interest in Chatterton's biography at that time. severely depressed and experienced other health But the "Controversy" did its job and, in the end, and financial problems which he could not over- it was it who awakened from the romantics the come. In August 1770, Chatterton committed su- attention to the personality of Chatterton, the cir- icide by swallowing poison and was dead by the cumstances of his life and creativity. In addition age of seventeen [3, p. 300]. to the above-mentioned reasons, the emergence of ФІЛОЛОГІЧНІ НАУКИ The first published collection of the Rowley po- interest in the personality of Chatterton is large- ems appeared in 1777, seven years after Chatter- ly due to the central aesthetic issues of the late ton's death.