Beers, H.: A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century (New York, Holt, 1898, 1910). Blackwood's Magazine: April, 1870 (107:453). Hazlitt, W.: "On Burns, and the Old English Ballads," Lectures on the English Poets (London, 1818); Collected Works, ed. Waller and Glover, London, Dent, 1902-06; New York, McClure), 3:123. Ingram, J. H.: "Chatterton and his Associates," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, July, 1883 (67:225). Ingram, J. H.: The True Chatterton (New York, Mitford, Mary R.: Recollections of a Literary Weiner Beiträge zur englische Philologie, 1900. Scott, W.: "The Works of Thomas Chatterton," The Edinburgh Review, April, 1804 (4:214). Watts-Dunton, T.: in Ward's The English Poets, Vol. 3 (London and New York, Macmillan, 1880, 1909). "The purest English, I think-or what ought to be purest is Chatterton's. The language had existed long enough to be entirely uncorrupted of Chaucer's Gallicisms, and still the old words are used. Chatterton's language is entirely northern. I prefer the native music of it to Milton's, cut by feet."-Keats, in Letter to George and Georgiana Keats, Sept. 22, 1819. See also Keats's To Chatterton (p. 752). The following poems of Chatterton belong to what are known as the Rowley Poems. Chatterton invented a vocabulary, based upon the usage of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and employed it in the composition of a number of poems, which he palmed off as the work of Thomas Rowley, a fictitious priest of fifteenth century Bristol. For an account of the controversy which was waged over these poems, see "History of the Rowley Controversy," in Poetical Works (British Poets ed., 1857). Chatterton's acknowledged poems are all written in the conventional eighteenth century manner. 125. 130. 132. 134. BRISTOWE TRAGEDIE This poem is probably based upon the execution of Sir Baldwin Fulford for treason at Bristol (Bristowe), in 1461. During the Wars of the Roses, Fulford opposed the claim of Edward IV to the English throne. THE ACCOUNTE OF W. CANYNGES FEAST This poem is ascribed to William Canynge, whom Chatterton makes a friend and patron of Rowley. William Canynge (e. 1400-74) was a rich and influential citizen of Bristol. He was mayor of the city, and rebuilt at his own expense the famous Bristol Church of St. Mary. He appears as a defender of Fulford in Bristowe Tragedie. 9. Some editors print a comma after keepe and a semi-colon after stylle, and interpret heie stylle as high style. Chatterton's Glossary defines heie only as they. ELLA "Ella, a Tragycal Enterlude, or Discoorseynge Tragedie, wrotenn bie Thomas Rowleie; plaledd before Mastre Canynge, atte hys Howse Nempte the Bodde Lodge; alsoe before the Duke of Norfolck, Johan Howard."— Chatterton's Title-Page. AN EXCELENTE BALADE OF CHARITIE "Thomas Rowley, the author, was born at Norton Malreward, in Somersetshire, educated at the Convent of St. Kenna, at Keynesham, and died at Westbury in Gloucestershire."Chatterton. EPITAPH ON ROBERT CANYNGE Chatterton submitted this poem on vellum as a fragment of the original manuscript.of Rowley. WILLIAM COBBETT (1763,1835), p. 1002 EDITIONS Works of Peter Porcupine, 12 vols. (London, at the Crown and Mitre, 1801). Selections from Political Works, 6 vols., ed., with a Biographical Preface, by J. M. and J. P. Cobbett (London, Cobbett, 1835). Advice to Young Men (London, 1829; Oxford University Press, 1906). English Grammar (London, 1817); ed., with a Memoir, by R. Waters (1883); ed. by H. L. Stephen (London, Oxford University Press, 1906). Political Register (1802-35). Rural Rides, 2 vols. (London, Cuilley, 1910); 2 vols., ed., with an Introduction, by E. Thomas (Everyman's Library ed. New York, Dutton, 1912); selected and ed. by J. H. Lobban (Cambridge University Press, 1908). BIOGRAPHY Benjamin, L. S. ("L. Melville"): Life and Letters of William Cobbett in England and America, 2 vols. (London and New York, Lane, 1913). Carlyle, E. I.: William Cobbett. Study of his Life as Shown in his Writings (London, Constable, 1904). Melville, L. See Benjamin, L. S. Selby, J.: Biographies of John Wilkes and Wil Smith, E.: William Cobbett, 2 vols. CRITICISM London, Benjamin, L. S. (“L. Melville"): The Fortnightly "Cobbett's Political Reg- 1886 (19:238). Hazlitt, W.: "Character of Cobbett," Table Talk Minto, W.: A Manual of English Prose Litera- Macmillan's Magazine, Dec., 1891 BIBLIOGRAPHY Benjamin, L. S. ("L. Melville"): A Bibliography of First Editions of William Cobbett: In Benjamin's Life and Letters of William Cobbett (1913). CRITICAL NOTES From Elegy on William Cobbett O bear him where the rain can fall, And in some little lone churchyard, Yes, let the wild-flower wed his grave, And none can scorn, and few will blame, To reverence, in the fallen tree, -Ebenezer Elliott (1835). "Peasant-bred, with a passion for farming, and a most genuine, if quite unpoetic, love of the open country and all that it could offer eye or ear, he depicted, with Dutch honesty, the rural England that he knew how to see, its fertility and beauty, the misery that had descended on many of its inhabitants, the decent prosperity remaining to others. And he was master of a style in which to It is not one of those express his knowledge. great styles which embalm their authors' memory; but it was serviceable. He is vigorous, plain, and absolutely unaffected. The aptest words come to him with most perfect ease. His eloquence springs from vivid insight into the heart of his theme, and from a native fervor and energy that do not need Apart from his pleart to blow them into flame. beian virulence, he shows a natural good taste in writing. The flaccid elegance and pompous rotund verbiage then in vogue are, by him, left on one side. If he cannot frame a period, every sentence has its work to do, and every sentence tells. What mars his farmer's Odyssey, Rural Rides, is, perhaps, the excess of this very disregard for fine writing. They are notes of what he saw, and notes must often be brief, formless, and disconnected. Imagination and the charm it gives are, indeed, absent throughout; but his sympathetic realism has an attraction of its own, the look and manners of the laborers; he calculates whether they have bacon to eat; he descants on the capabilities of the soil; and he is able to impress upon his readers the strength of his interest in these things and of his enjoyment of field and woods and streams and the palatable He seems to give salmon that inhabit the latter. an unconscious demonstration how excellent tongue English could be for a man, who saw and felt keenly, to express the facts as he saw them, and the emotions which possessed him."-C. W. Previté-Orton, in The Cambridge History of English Literature, 11, ch. 2. He scans a All the par 1007b. 20-30. "To refute lies is not, at present, The BIOGRAPHY Masson, D.: Chatterton (Edinburgh, Constable, CRITICISM Beers, H.: A History of English Romanticism in Blackwood's Magazine: April, 1870 (107:453). Ballads," Lectures on the English Poets (Lon- "Chatterton and his Associates," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, July, 1883 (67:225). Ingram, J. H.: The True Chatterton (New York, Mitford, Mary R.: Recollections of à Literary Weiner Beiträge zur englische Philologic, 1900. BIBLIOGRAPHY Hare, M. E.: In his edition of Chatterton's The Roberts, H. D.: In his edition of Chatterton's Com- CRITICAL NOTES "I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous Boy, The sleepless Soul that perished in his pride." -Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence, 43-44 (p. 284). poems are all written in the conventional eighteenth century manner. 125. 130, 132. 134. BRISTOWE TRAGEDIE This poem is probably based upon the execution of Sir Baldwin Fulford for treason at Bristol (Bristowe), in 1461. During the Wars of the Roses, Fulford opposed the claim of Edward IV to the English throne. THE ACCOUNTE OF W. CANYNGES FEAST This poem is ascribed to William Canynge, whom Chatterton makes a friend and patron of Rowley. William Canynge (c. 1400-74) was a rich and influential citizen of Bristol. He was mayor of the city, and rebuilt at his own expense the famous Bristol Church of St. Mary. He appears as a defender of Fulford in Bristowe Tragedie. 9. Some editors print a comma after keepe and a semi-colon after stylle, and interpret heie stylle as high style. Chatterton's Glossary defines heie only as they. ELLA "Ella, a Tragycal Enterlude, or Discoorseynge Tragedie, wrotenn bie Thomas Rowleie; plaledd before Mastre Canynge, atte hys Howse Nempte the Bodde Lodge; alsoe before the Duke of Norfolck, Johan Howard."Chatterton's Title-Page. AN EXCELENTE BALADE OF CHARITIE "Thomas Rowley, the author, was born at Norton Malreward, in Somersetshire, educated at the Convent of St. Kenna, at Keynesham, and died at Westbury in Gloucestershire."Chatterton. EPITAPH ON ROBERT CANYNGE "The purest English, I think—or what ought to WILLIAM COBBETT (1763,1835), p. 1002 be purest is Chatterton's. The language had existed long enough to be entirely uncorrupted of Chaucer's Gallicisms, and still the old words are used. Chatterton's language is entirely northern. I prefer the native music of it to Milton's, cut by feet."-Keats, in Letter to George and Georgiana Keats, Sept. 22, 1819. See also Keats's To Chatterton (p. 752). The following poems of Chatterton belong to what are known as the Rowley Poems. Chatterton invented a vocabulary, based upon the usage of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and employed it in the composition of a number of poems, which he palmed off as the work of Thomas Rowley, a fictitious priest of fifteenth century Bristol. For an account of the controversy which was waged over these poems, see "History of the Rowley Controversy," in Poetical Works (British Poets ed., 1857). Chatterton's acknowledged EDITIONS Works of Peter Porcupine, 12 vols. (London, at the Crown and Mitre, 1801). Selections from Political Works, 6 vols., ed., with a Biographical Preface, by J. M. and J. P. Cobbett (London, Cobbett, 1835). Advice to Young Men (London, 1829; Oxford Uni- English Grammar (London, 1817); ed., with a Political Register (1802-35). Benjamin, L. S. (“L. Melville”): The Fortnightly Gaskell, C. M.: The Nineteenth Century, Feb., Ilazlitt, W.: "Character of Cobbett," Table Talk Minto, W.: A Manual of English Prose Litera ton, Ginn, 1901). Macmillan's Magazine, Dec., 1891 (65:95). Stephen, Sir J. F.: "Cobbett, a model John Bull." Hore Sabbatica, Vol. 3 (London, Macmillan, 1891-92). BIBLIOGRAPHY Benjamin, L. S. ("L. Melville"): A Bibliography of First Editions of William Cobbett: In Benjamin's Life and Letters of William Cobbett (1913). CRITICAL NOTES From Elegy on William Cobbett And in some little lone churchyard, Lay gentle Nature's stern prose bard, And none can scorn, and few will blame, To reverence, in the fallen tree, -Ebenezer Elliott (1835). "Peasant-bred, with a passion for farming, and a most genuine, if quite unpoetic, love of the open country and all that it could offer eye or ear, he that he knew how to see, its fertility and beauty, depicted, with Dutch honesty, the rural England the misery that had descended on many of its inhabitants, the decent prosperity remaining to others. And he was master of a style in which to express his knowledge. It is not one of those great styles which embalm their authors' memory; but it was serviceable. He is vigorous, plain, and absolutely unaffected. The aptest words come to him with most perfect ease. His eloquence springs from vivid insight into the heart of his theme, and art to blow them into flame. from a native fervor and energy that do not need Apart from his plewriting. The flaccid elegance and pompous rotund beian virulence, he shows a natural good taste in verbiage then in vogue are, by him, left on one side. If he cannot frame a period, every sentence has its work to do, and every sentence tells. What mars his farmer's Odyssey, Rural Rides, is, perhaps, the excess of this very disregard for fine writing. They are notes of what he saw, and notes must often be brief, formless, and disconnected. Imagination and the charm it gives are, indeed, absent throughout; but his sympathetic realism has an attraction of its own, He scans the look and manners of the laborers; he calculates whether they have bacon to eat; he descants on the capabilities of the soil; and he is able to impress upon his readers the strength of his interest in these things and of his enjoyment of field and woods and streams and the palatable salmon that inhabit the latter. He seems to give an unconscious demonstration how excellent a tongue English could be for a man, who saw and 1007b. 20-30. "To refute lies is not, at present, The 516. 107-111. In respect of accuracy and inaccuracy of detail, Ruskin states that these lines fulfill the conditions of poetry in contradistinction to history. "Instead of finding, as we expected, the poetry distinguished from the history by the omission of details, we find it consisting entirely in the addition of details; and instead of its being characterized by regard only of the invariable, we find its whole power to consist in the clear expression of what is singular and particular!" -Ruskin, Modern Painters, Part IV, ch. 1, sec. 9. 519. 521. 522. 523. PROMETHEUS Byron was always a lover and a worshipper of Prometheus and frequently alludes to him in his poems. "The conception of an immortal sufferer at once beneficent and defiant, appealed alike to his passions and his convictions and awoke a peculiar enthusiasm."-E. H. Coleridge, Note to Prometheus in his edition of Byron's Poetical Works. SONNET TO LAKE LEMAN Lake Leman is Lake Geneva, situated between Switzerland and France. CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE "The following poem was written, for the most part, amidst the scenes which it attempts to describe. It was begun in Albania; and the parts relative to Spain and Portugal were composed from the author's observations in those countries. Thus much it may be necessary to state for the correctness of the descriptions. The scenes attempted to be sketched are in Spain, Portugal, Epirus, Acarnania, and Greece. There, for the present, the poem stops; its reception will determine whether the author may venture to conduct his readers to the capital of the East, through Ionia and Phrygia: these two cantos are merely experimental. "A fictitious character is introduced for the sake of giving some connection to the piece, which, however, makes no pretension to regularity. It has been suggested to me by friends, on whose opinions I set a high value, that in this fictitious character, Childe Harold, I may Incur the suspicion of having intended some real personage: this I beg leave, once for all, to disclaim-Harold is the child of imagination, for the purpose I have stated. In some very trivial particulars, and those merely lo- "What helps it now, that Byron bore, -Arnold, in Stanzas from the Grande Childe is used by Byron as in the old ballads and romances, signifying a youth of noble birth, usually one awaiting knighthood. 528. 32, 9. "Have you never seen a stick broken in the middle, and yet cohering by the rind? The fibres, half of them actually broken and the rest sprained, and, though tough, unsustaining? Oh, many, many are the brokenhearted for those who know what the moral and practical heart of the man is."-Coleridge, Anima Poeta (ed. E. H. Coleridge, 1895), 303. 537. 90. See Shelley's Adonais, 54 (p. 737). Shelley's idealistic pantheism evidently influenced Byron here; the two were frequently together during the week when this Canto was written. 91."It is to be recollected that the most beautiful and impressive doctrines of the divine Founder of Christianity were delivered, not in the Temple, but on the Mount. ... Were the early and rapid progress of what is called Methodism to be attributed to any cause beyond the enthusiasm excited by its vehement faith and doctrines (the truth or error of which I presume neither to canvass nor to question), I should venture to ascribe it to the practice of preaching in the fields, and the unstudied and extemporaneous effusions of its teachers. The Mussulmans, whose erroneous devotion (at least in the lower orders) is most sincere, and therefore impressive, are accustomed to repeat their prescribed orisons and prayers, wherever they may be, at the stated hours of course, frequently in the open air, kneeling upon a light mat (which they carry for the purpose of a bed or cushion as required); the ceremony lasts some minutes, during which they are totally absorbed, and only living in their supplication: nothing can disturb them. On me the simple and entire sincerity of these men, and the spirit which appeared to be within and upon them, made a far greater impression than any general rite which was ever performed in places of worship."-Byron. 92. "The thunder-storm to which these lines refer occurred on the 13th of June, 1816, at midnight. I have seen, among the Acroceraunian mountains of Chimari, several more terrible, but none more beautiful.”— Byron. 94, 1-9. The similarity between these lines and Coleridge's probably is due to the fact that Byron had seen Christabel in manuscript. |