Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/140

 of sonnets on the Crimean war. This was followed in 1856 by a volume of dramatic and descriptive verses on the same theme, entitled ‘England in Time of War,’ which had a success only inferior to that of ‘The Roman.’ The best pieces in this collection, as ‘Keith of Ravelston,’ ‘Lady Constance,’ ‘A Shower in War Time,’ ‘Grass from the Battle-field,’ ‘Dead Maid's Pool,’ ‘An Evening Dream,’ ‘The Betsy Jane,’ &c., have, from their depth of sympathy and lyric flow, found a place in our best popular treasuries. Dobell's residence in Edinburgh was marked, as was all his life, by acts of kindness to struggling men of letters, notable alike for their delicacy and the comparatively slender resources of the benefactor. In the case of all deserving aspirants, among whom may be mentioned David Gray of Merklands, his advice and encouragement were as ready as his substantial aid. In 1857 he delivered a long lecture to the Philosophical Institution on ‘The Nature of Poetry,’ and the exhaustion resulting from the effort further impaired his already weak health. Advised to seek a milder climate, he spent the winters of the four following years at Niton in the Isle of Wight, the summers among the Cotswolds. Regular literary work being forbidden by his physicians, he turned his thoughts to another channel of usefulness, and, taking a more active part in the business of his firm, was one of the first to introduce and apply the system of co-operation. All who knew Gloucester associated his name with every movement in the direction of social progress and with every charitable enterprise in the town. After 1862 increasing delicacy of health rendered it necessary for Dobell to pass the winters abroad; in that of 1862–3 his headquarters were near Cannes, in 1863–4 in Spain, in 1864–6 in Italy. The summers of those years were still spent in Gloucestershire, and in 1865 he gave evidence of his political interests by the pamphlet on ‘Parliamentary Reform,’ advocating graduated suffrage and plurality of votes, that appears among his prose fragments.

In 1866 a serious fall among the ruins of Pozzuoli and, three years later, a dangerous accident with his horse, further reduced his strength, if not his energies, and the rest of his life was, though diversified by literary efforts—as the pamphlet on ‘Consequential Damages,’ ‘England's Day,’ and elaborate plans for the continuation of ‘Balder’—that of a more or less confirmed, though always cheerful, invalid. From 1866 to 1871 he resided mainly at Noke Place, on the slope of Chosen Hill, though he passed much of the colder season at Clifton, where he benefited by the advice of his friend, Dr. Symonds. In 1871 he removed to Barton-end House, fourteen miles on the other side of Gloucester, in a beautiful district above the Stroud Valley. There he continued to write occasional verses and memoranda, and was frequently visited by friends attracted by his gracious hospitality and brilliant conversational powers. In 1874 unfortunate circumstances, involving a mental strain to which he was then physically inadequate, hastened his death, which took place in the August of that year. He was buried in Painswick cemetery.

Dobell's character was above criticism. The nature of his work has been indicated; its quality will be variously estimated. Original and independent of formulæ to the verge of aggressiveness, he shared by nature, by no means through imitation, in some of the defects, occasional obscurity, involved conceits, and remoteness, of the seventeenth-century school which Dr. Johnson called metaphysical; but in loftiness of thought and richness of imagery his best pages have been surpassed by few, if any, of his contemporaries. His form is often faulty, but his life and writings together were in healthy protest against the subordination of form to matter that characterises much of the effeminate æstheticism of our age. Manliness in its highest attributes of courage and courtesy pervaded his career; his poetry is steeped in that keen atmosphere to which it is the aim of all enduring literature to raise our spirits. A radical reformer in some directions, he held the tyranny of mobs and autocrats in equal aversion. Though his politics had a visionary side, he was far from being a dreamer. Of practical welldoing he was never weary, and of jealousy he had not a tinge. His criticisms, if not always sound, were invariably valuable, for he awoke in his hearers a consciousness of capacities as well as a sense of duties.

A complete edition of his poems was published in 1875 (2 vols.), of his prose in 1876. His ‘Life and Letters’ appeared in 1878, 2 vols. A selected edition of his poems, edited by Mr. W. Sharp, appeared in February 1887 in one small volume.

[Dobell's Life and Letters; family records.] 

DOBREE, PETER PAUL (1782–1825), Greek scholar, son of William Dobree of Guernsey, was born in Guernsey in 1782, and, after being educated under Dr. Valpy at Reading School, matriculated as a pensioner of Trinity College, Cambridge, in December 1800. He graduated as fourth senior optime in 1804, was elected fellow of Trinity in 1806, proceeded M.A. in 1807, and took holy