Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 7.djvu/156

 110 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS mayor of Bristol, and his ideas of the chiefest duties of a monarch are among the most touching and noble among their likes in all literature. As a contributor to the Town and Country Magazine he obtained many a shilling, but far less often than what would have satisfied his eager wants, fore- most among which was to see his mother and sister established in fine vestments and living in luxury. In time he grew to feel contempt for the Bristol people, high and low, and then he turned his eyes upon London. Application to Dods- ley, the leading publisher, was discouraged for want of acquaintance with his con- dition and responsibility. He then essayed Horace Walpole, sending an ode on King Richard I. for his work " Anecdotes of Painting," and undertaking to fur- nish the names of several great painters, natives of Bristol. This application was signed "John Abbot of St. Austin's Minster, Bristol." In the letter he drew at- tention to the " Bristowe Tragedie " and other Rowlie poems Walpole, who was as cold as urbane, expressed some curiosity to see these productions, which, when sent, he referred to Gray and Mason. These pronounced them forgeries Where- upon Walpole, in the meantime informed of the real author and his condition, paid no further attention to the papers for a while, even to the request to return them. Enraged but undaunted by this failure he continued his work, both in old and contemporary English speech, producing " Aella," " Goddwyn," " Battle of Hastings," " Consuliad," " Revenge," etc. At length he grew restless to a degree beyond endurance. With the few acquaintances of his own age he talked of suicide. Feeling himself a stranger in that society, often spending whole nights in wakeful dreams instead of restful sleep, incensed with limitless ambition, he did in- deed meditate upon making an end of himself. Among the papers on his desk one day was found his will, a singular document, containing among other things most incoherent bequests to several acquaintances, as of his " vigor and fire of youth " to George Catcall, the schoolmaster; "his humility" to the Rev. Mr. Camplin; his " prosody and grammar " and a " moiety " of his " modesty " to Mr. Burgum ; concluding with directions to Paull Farr and John Flower, " at their own ex- pense " to erect a monument upon his grave with this inscription : " To the mem- ory of Thomas Chatterton. Reader, judge not. If thou art a Christian, believe that he shall be judged by a Supreme Power ; to that power alone is he now answerable." This document led to his dismissal by the attorney, who, in April 1 770, re- turned to him his indentures. He at once set out for London with his manu- scripts and a small sum of money raised by a few persons in Bristol. Through the help of a female relative he got board at the house of one Walmsley, a plas- terer, in Shoreditch. In the history of literature nothing can be found so much to be compassionated as the life led by him during those summer months in the great city. Plodding the streets from day to day with his manuscripts, living mainly upon bread and water, not retiring to bed at night until near the morn- ing, and then seldom closing his eyes, yet in this time guilty of no sort of known immorality, sending home frequent letters abounding in expressions of most fer- vid hopes and in promises of silks and other fine things to the objects of his