Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/460

Rh 448 CHATTERTON As the boy began to realize the practical necessities of life, and indulge in dreams of fame and fortune consequent on the recognition of his merits, he resolved to attempt the introduction of Rowley to the world. Accordingly in December 1768, while still only entering on his seventeenth year, he wrote to Dodsley, the London publisher, stating his ability to procure for him &quot;copies of several ancient poems, and an interlude, perhaps the oldest dramatic piece extant, wrote by one Rowley, a priest in Bristol, who lived in the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV.&quot; To this letter he appended the initials of his favourite pseudonym, Dunelmus Bristoliensis, but directed the answer to be sent to the care of Thomas Chatterton, Redcliffe Hill, Bristol. To this, as well as to another letter enclosing an extract from the tragedy of &quot;^Ella,&quot; no answer appears to have been returned. The diplomacy of the romancer was only too characteristic of his inexperience ; though we have a hint in the second letter of another and perhaps more practical idea for the publication of his antique drama. &quot; If it should not suit you, I should be obliged to you if you would calculate the expense of printing it, as I will endeavour to publish it by subscription on my own account.&quot; In the Rowley romance, Chatterton pictures the old poet as the chaplain and confidential friend of Master Canynge, mayor of Bristol, builder of the church of St. Mary on Redcliffe Hill, and patron of all liberal arts, who rejoiced in gathering round him a group of poets, and making them the sharers of his bounty. Rowley sends to him his verses from time to time, ever sure cf some liberal acknowledgment in return ; and Master Canynge supplies him with funds that he may expend them in travelling and collect ing manuscripts for his library. Dean Milles, President of the Society of Antiquaries, and one of the most zealous maintainers of the genuineness of the imaginary Rowley, describes the old mayor and his literary associates as a parallel to Maecenas with his three friends, Virgil, Horace, and Varus. No wonder, therefore, that Chatterton, conceiving the idea of rinding sympathy and aid at the hand of some modern Canynge, bethought him of Horace Walpole, subsequently fourth earl of Orford. This patrician virtuoso loved to dally with the muses, and had made art and letters the business of his life. He professed extreme social liberalism, and not only indulged in a mediseval renaissance of his own, but was the reputed author of the Castle of Otranto, a spurious antique of times akin to those in which Chatterton had in like fashion delighted to revel. From the point of view of the inexperienced youth, the idea of finding in Walpole the patron of whom he dreamt was by no means an extravagant one. He accordingly addressed a letter to him, giving him an account of the Rowley poems and other MSS. as genuine antiques of the fifteenth century, and enclosing, as a specimen, a brief poem on Richard I. probably his Eulogue styled &quot; Nygelle,&quot; which extends to eight stanzas. To this Walpole replied with courteous acknowledgments. He characterized the verses as &quot; wonderful for their harmony and spirit,&quot; and added, &quot;Give me leave to ask you where Rowley s poems are to be had ? I should not be sorry to print them ; or at least a specimen of them, if they have never been printed.&quot; The courtesy of his correspondent tempted the poor boy to a mere unreserved communication. He replied, enclosing additional specimens of antique verse, and telling Walpole that he was the son of a poor widow, and clerk to an attorney, but had a taste for more refined studies, and hinted a wish that he might help him to some more congenial occupation. Walpole s manner underwent an abrupt change. The specimens of verse had been submitted to his friends Gray and Mason, the poets, and pronounced modern. They did not thereby forfeit the wonder ful harmony and spirit which Walpole had already professed to recognize in them. But he now coldly replied, advising the boy to stick to the attorney s office ; and &quot; when he should have made a fortune,&quot; he might betake himself to more favourite studies. Walpole has been loaded with more than his just share of re sponsibility for the fate of the unhappy poet. That he shut his eyes to the merits of the wonderful poems sent to him by a boy of sixteen, and dwelling alone on the mystification with which they were palmed on him as genuine antiques, returned them to their author and thought no more about them, is what hundreds would do in like circumstances. Yet the literary fraud was no more than he himself had practised in his Oastle of Otranto; and all the fume which he so greedily coveted was as nothing, compared with what he might have made hie own, had he befriended the boy, of whom he admitted when too late &quot; I do not believe there ever existed so masterly a genius.&quot; Chatterton now abandoned the antique muse, turned his attention to periodical literature and the politics of the day, and exchanged Felix Farley s Bristol Journal for the Town and County Magazine and other London periodicals. Assuming the vein of Junius then in the full blaze of his triumph he turned his pen against the duke of Grafton, the earl of Bute, and the princess of Wales. It was while thus busied with politics and modern satire, that another and very different production was penned, which, whether written in jest or earnest, brought his Bristol career abruptly to a close. He had just despatched one of his political diatribes to the Middlesex Journal, when he sat down on Easter Eve 17th April 1770, and penned his &quot;Last Will and Testament,&quot; a strange- satirical compound of jest and earnest, in which he intimated hia intention of putting an end to his life the following evening. Among his satirical bequests, such as his &quot;humility&quot; to the Rev. Mr Camplin, his &quot;religion&quot; to Dean Barton, and his &quot;modesty&quot; along with his &quot; prosody and grammar &quot; to Mr Burgum, he leaves &quot; to Bristol all his spirit and disinterestedness, parcels of goods unknown on its quay since the days of Canynge and Rowley.&quot; In more genuine earnestness he recalls the name of Mr Clayfield, a friend to whom he owed intelligent sympathy, and leaves to him &quot; the sincerest thanks my gratitude can give,&quot; adding, with grave humour, the bequest of a full valuation to be paid to Mr Clayfield, as his executor, of &quot; whatever any person may think the pleasure of reading my works worth.&quot; According to his foster-mother 1 account, the will was purposely prepared in order to frighten his master into letting him go. If so, it had the desired effect. Lam bert cancelled his indentures ; his friends and acquaintance made him up a purse ; and so, with light heart, and a bundle of manu scripts of rare worth by which he still fondly hoped that his fortune was to be achieved, he set forth, at the age of seventeen, to play his brief part as a man of letters in the great metropolis. Chatterton was already known to the readers of the Middlesex Journal as a rival of Junius, under the nom de plume of Decimus. He had also been a contributor to Hamilton s Town and Country Magazine, and speedily found access to the Freeholder s Magazine, another political miscellany strong for Wilkes and liberty. His contributions were freely accepted ; and the sanguine youth flattered himself that his position was already established, and his fortune sure. He wrote accordingly in the most hopeful terms to his mother and sister, and spent the first money received by him in purchasing acceptable gifts for both. His pride and ambition were amply gratified by the promises and interested flattery of editors and political adventurers ; Wilkes himself had noted his trenchant style, &quot;and expressed a desire to know the author;&quot; and Lord Mayor Beckford graciously acknowledged a political address of his, and greeted him &quot;as politely as a citizen could.&quot; But of actual money he received but little. He was not only frugal, but abstemious, while he flattered himself with dreams of coming triumphs and ample recompense. His diligence was great, and his versatility wonderful. He could assume the style of Junius or Smollett, reproduce the satiric bitterness of Churchill, parody Macpherson s Ossian, or in graver mood ape the rythmical niceties of Pope, or the polished grace of Gray and Collins. He wrote political letters, eclogues, lyrics, operas, and satires, both in prose and verse. He played in all ways the versatile mocking-bird, while still planning the resumption of his antique romance, with the hope of winning thereby not only fortune but enduring fame. In the month of June 1770 after Chatterton had been some nine weeks in London he removed from Shoreditch, where he had hitherto lodged with a relative, to an attic in Brook Street, Holborn. His busy pen had clashed off songs, pasquinades, a burletta, an oratorio, satirical sketches, and political articles enough to fill more than one month s magazine. But for most of those the payment was delayed ; and now state prosecutions of the press rendered letters in the Junius vein no longer admissible, and threw him back on the lighter resources of his pen. In Shoreditch, as in his lodging at the Bristol attorney s, he had only shared a room ; but now, for the first time, in his new lodging, he enjoyed the delights of uninter rupted solitude. His bed-fellow at Mr Walmsley s, Shoreditch, noted that much of the night was spent by him in writing ; and now that all restraint was removed the dawn frequently found him still at work. Fancy once more had free play ; the romance of his earlier years revived, and he transcribed from an imaginary parch ment of the old priest Rowley his &quot; Excelente Balade of Charitie.&quot; This fine poem, perversely disguised in archaic language, he sent to the editor of the Town and County Magazine, and had it rejected. The high hopes of the sanguine boy had begun to fade. He had not yet completed his second month in London, and already failure and starvation stared him in the face. Mr Cross, a neighbouring apothecary whose acquaintance he had made, and who had been fascinated by his fine conversational powers, discerned ere long the evidence of the privations to which he was reduced, and repeatedly invited him to join him at dinner or supper ; but he repelled the proffered hospitality. His landlady also, suspecting his iiecersity, pressed him to share her dinner, but in vain. &quot; She knew,&quot; as she afterwards said, &quot;that he had not eaten anything for two or three days.&quot; But he was offended at her urgency, and assured her that he was not hungry. Only a month before, he had written to his sister in the highest spirits, with talk of china, silver fans, and fine silks in store for them, and had actually sent them valued presents bought with his first earnings. But the needy political adventurers in whose service he had enlisted changed their tone when he began to press for payment for his contributions ; and the note of his actual receipts, found in his pocket-book after his death, shows that Hamilton, Fell, and other editors who had been so liberal in flattery, had paid the inexperienced youth at the rate of a shilling for an article, and somewhat less than eightpcnce each for his songs ; while