Poems

Thomas Chatterton

Description

In 1763, an 11-year-old boy named Thomas Chatterton began publishing mature works of poetry. Before long, he was fooling the literary world by passing his work off as that of a non-existent 15th-century poet named Thomas Rowley—which he did until unmasked by Horace Walpole. Brought up in poverty and without a father, he studied furiously and went on to try and earn a living from his writing. After impressing the likes of the Lord Mayor, William Beckford and the radical leader John Wilkes, he eagerly looked for an outlet in London for his political works, but was unable to make a decent living and, despairing, poisoned himself at the age of seventeen. Chatterton had a significant impact on Romantic artists including Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats; with numerous notable poems, plays, and paintings having been dedicated to him since his untimely death. This volume contains Chatterton's controversial collection of poetry by the invented Thomas Rowley, which was not discovered to be a fake until after he died. Contents include: “Preface”, “Introductory Account of the Several Pieces Contained in this Volume”, “Eclogue the First”, “Eclogue the Second”, “Eclogue the Third”, “Elinoure and Juga”, “To Johne Ladgate”, “Songe to Ælla, Lorde of the Castel of Brystowe Ynne Daies of Yore”, “Lydgate's Answer”, “The Tournament. An Interlude”, “Bristowe Tragedie Or, the Dethe of Syr Charles Bawdin”, etc. As part of our poetry imprint, "Ragged Hand", Read & Co. is republishing this classic collection of poetry now in a new edition complete with John Keats' “Sonnet to Chatterton” (1848).

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 26 mai 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528790413
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

POEMS
SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN AT BRISTOL,
in the Fifteenth Century, by Thomas Rowley and Others
By
THOMAS CHATTERTON

First published in 1777



Copyright © 2020 Ragged Hand
This edition is published by Ragged Hand, an imprint of Read & Co.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd. For more information visit www.readandcobooks.co.uk


Contents
PREFACE
INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNT OF THE SEVERAL PIECES CONTAINED IN THIS VOLUME
ECLOG UE THE FIRST
ECLOGU E THE SECOND
ECLOG UE THE THIRD
ELINO URE AND JUGA
TO J OHNE LADGATE
SONGE TO ÆLLA , LORDE OF THE CASTEL OF BRYSTOWE YNNE D AIES OF YORE
LYDG ATE'S ANSWER
THE TOURNAMENT . AN INTERLUDE
BRISTOWE TRAGEDIE OR THE DETHE OF SYR CH ARLES BAWDIN
ÆLLA
A TRAGYCAL ENTERLUDE, OR DISCOORSEY NGE TRAGEDIE
PERSONNES REPRESENTEDD
EPISTLE TO MASTRE CAN YNGE ON ÆLLA
LETTER TO THE DYGNE MA STRE CANYNGE
EN TRODUCTIONNE
ÆLLA
GODDWYN
A TRAGEDIEBY TH OMAS ROWLEIE
PERSONS REPRESENTED
PROLOGUE MADE BIE MAISTRE WIL LIAM CANYNGE
GODDWYN . A TRAGEDIE
ENGLYSH METAMORPHOSIS BI E T. ROWLEIE
AN EXCELENTE BALADE OF CHARITIE
BATTLE OF HA STINGS NO. 1
BATTLE OF HA STINGS NO. 2
ONN OURE LA DIES CHYRCHE
ON THE SAME
EPITAPH ON RO BERT CANYNGE
THE STORIE OF WIL LIAM CANYNGE
ON HAPPIENESSE BY WIL LIAM CANYNGE
ONN JOHNE A DALBENIE BY THE SAME
THE GOULER'S REQUIEM BY THE SAME
THE ACCOUNTE OF W. CA NYNGES FEAST




O Chatterton! how very sad thy fate! Dear child of sorrow — son of misery! How soon the film of death obscur'd that eye, Whence Genius mildly falsh'd, and high debate. How soon that voice, majestic and elate, Melted in dying numbers! Oh! how nigh Was night to thy fair morning. Thou didst die A half-blown flow'ret which cold blasts amate. But this is past: thou art among the stars Of highest heaven: to the rolling spheres Thou sweetly singest: nought thy hymning mars, Above the ingrate world and human fears. On earth the good man base detraction bars From thy fair name, and waters it with tears.
John Keats.
Sonnet to Chat terton , 1848


I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous Boy,
The sleepless Soul that perished in his pride;
Of Him who walked in glory and in joy
Following his plough, along the mountain-side:
By our own spirits are we deified:
We Poets in our youth begin in gladness;
But thereof come in the end despondency and madness.
William Wordsworth.
An e xcerpt from Resolution and Indepe ndence , 1807


With Shakespeare's manhood at a boy's wild heart,— Through Hamlet's doubt to Shakspeare near allied, And kin to Milton through his Satan's pride,— At Death's sole door he stooped, and craved a dart; And to the dear new bower of England's art,— Even to that shrine Time else had deified, The unuttered heart that soared against his side,— Drove the fell point, and smote life's seals apart. Thy nested home-loves, noble Chatterton; The angel-trodden stair thy soul could trace Up Redcliffe's spire; and in the world's armed space Thy gallant sword-play:—these to many an one Are sweet for ever; as thy grave unknown And love-dream of thine unrecorded face.
Dante Gabri el Rossetti.
Poem of Thomas Chatterton, Five English Poets, Ballads and S onnets, 1881


PREFACE
The Poems, which make the principal part of this Collection, have for some time excited much curiosity, as the supposed productions of Thomas Rowley , a priest of Bristol, in the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV. They are here faithfully printed from the most authentic MSS that could be procured; of which a particular description is given in the Introductory account of the several pieces contained in this volume , subjoined to this Preface. Nothing more therefore seems necessary at present, than to inform the Reader shortly of the manner in which these Poems were first brought to light, and of the authority upon which they are ascribed to the persons whose name s they bear.
This cannot be done so satisfactorily as in the words of Mr. George Catcott of Bristol, to whose very laudable zeal the Publick is indebted for the most considerable part of the following collection. His account of the matter is this: "The first discovery of certain MSS having been deposited in Redclift church, above three centuries ago, was made in the year 1768, at the time of opening the new bridge at Bristol, and was owing to a publication in Farley's Weekly Journal , 1 October 1768, containing an Account of the ceremonies observed at the opening of the old bridge , taken, as it was said, from a very antient MS. This excited the curiosity of some persons to enquire after the original. The printer, Mr. Farley, could give no account of it, or of the person who brought the copy; but after much enquiry it was discovered, that the person who brought the copy was a youth, between 15 and 16 years of age, whose name was Thomas Chatterton, and whose family had been sextons of Redclift church for near 150 years. His father, who was now dead, had also been master of the free-school in Pile-street. The young man was at first very unwilling to discover from whence he had the original; but, after many promises made to him, he was at last prevailed on to acknowledge, that he had received this, together with many other MSS , from his father, who had found them in a large chest in an upper room over the chapel on the north side of Redcl ift church."
Soon after this Mr. Catcott commenced his acquaintance with young Chatterton [1] , and, partly as presents partly as purchases, procured from him copies of many of his MSS. in in prose and verse. Other copies were disposed of, in the same way, to Mr. William Barrett, an eminent surgeon at Bristol, who has long been engaged in writing the history of that city. Mr. Barrett also procured from him several fragments, some of a considerable length, written upon vellum, which he asserted to be part of his original MSS. In short, in the space of about eighteen months, from October 1768 to April 1770, besides the Poems now published, he produced as many compositions, in prose and verse, under the names of Rowley, Canynge, &c. as would nearly fill such ano ther volume.
In April 1770 Chatterton went to London, and died there in the August following; so that the whole history of this very extraordinary transaction cannot now probably be known with any certainty. Whatever may have been his part in it; whether he was the author, or only the copier (as he constantly asserted) of all these productions; he appears to have kept the secret entirely to himself, and not to have put it in the power of any other person, to bear certain testimony either to his fraud or to h is veracity.
The question therefore concerning the authenticity of these Poems must now be decided by an examination of the fragments upon vellum, which Mr. Barrett received from Chatterton as part of his original MSS., and by the internal evidence which the several pieces afford. If the Fragments shall be judged to be genuine, it will still remain to be determined, how far their genuineness should serve to authenticate the rest of the collection, of which no copies, older than those made by Chatterton, have ever been produced. On the other hand, if the writing of the Fragments shall be judged to be counterfeit and forged by Chatterton, it will not of necessity follow, that the matter of them was also forged by him, and still less, that all the other compositions, which he professed to have copied from antient MSS., were merely inventions of his own. In either case, the decision must finally depend upon the intern al evidence.
It may be expected perhaps, that the Editor should give an opinion upon this important question; but he rather chooses, for many reasons, to leave it to the determination of the unprejudiced and intelligent Reader. He had long been desirous that these Poems should be printed; and therefore readily undertook the charge of superintending the edition. This he has executed in the manner, which seemed to him best suited to such a publication; and here he means that his task should end. Whether the Poems be really antient, or modern; the compositions of Rowley, or the forgeries of Chatterton; they must always be considered as a most singular literar y curiosity.
Footnotes:
[1] The history of this youth is so intimately connected with that of the poems now published, that the Reader cannot be too early apprized of the principal circumstances of his short life. He was born on the 20th of November 1752, and educated at a charity-school on St. Augustin's Back, where nothing more was taught than reading, writing, and accounts. At the age of fourteen, he was articled clerk to an attorney, with whom he continued till he left Bristol in April 1770. Though his education was thus confined, he discovered an early turn towards poetry and English antiquities, particularly heraldry. How soon he began to be an author is not known. In the Town and Country Magazine for March 1769, are two letters, probably, from him, as they are dated at Bristol, and subscribed with his usual signature, D.B. The first contains short extracts from two MSS., " writ