SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Bicssasenr„ The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton, with Notices of his Life. History of the Rowley Controversy, a Selection of his Letters, and Notes Critical and Explana-

tory. In two volumes Great, Cambridge. 7'asysts, A Steam Voyage to Constantinople, by the Rhine and the Danube, in 1840-41, and to Portugal, Spain, in 1839. By C. W. Vane. Marquis of Londonderry, G.C.B., 8tc. To which is annexed, the Author's Correspondence with Prince Metternich. Lords Ponsonby, Palmerston, 8cc. In two volumes CoIbune.

LIFE AND WORKS OF CHATTERTON.

THESE volumes contain a life of CHATTERTON, a sketch of the con- troversy to which the forgeries or imitations under the name of ROWLEY gave rise, the whole of the ROWLEY poems themselves, the avowed poems of CHATTERTON and some whose author- ship is doubtful, together with a small selection from his prose writings and his letters. A variety of notes are added by the editor, sometimes original, sometimes selected; and either illus- trative of the life and character of Cnerrairroar, or of the critical view which the note-writer takes of his poems. With the rather important exceptions of a specific chronological exhibition of CirsTrearoN's publications, especially of those which he tried, and at first successfully, to impose upon the world as the productions of a monk of the fifteenth century—a more specific narrative of the ROWLEY controversy, which is rather too general to convey the definite knowledge desired—and perhaps the full account of the inquest on the boyish suicide, which is dismissed in a sentence— this publication may be said to be a sufficient and practically a complete edition of the life and works of " the sleepless boy that perished in his pride."

That a compact publication of CHATTERTON'S remains, adapted to the mode of the day, was wanted, is true ; and the volumes before us supply the want : but we suspect they will rather be purchased than read. Precocious as was the genius, wonderful the enthusiastic industry, and boundless the confident ambition of the boy of Bristol, his productions are rather events in literary history than likely to form an attractive literature of themselves. The intuitive sagacity of criticism enabled JOHNSON to perceive this before he had read them and whilst all the world was agog after his beauties. " Pho, child!" said the Great Cham to Miss ANNA SEWARD, who was among the enthusiastic, thinking CHATTERTON the "greatest genius" the world ever produced, "don't talk to me of the powers of a vulgar, uneducated stripling. He may be another Stephen Duck. It may be extraordinary to do such things as he did with means so slender : but what did Stephen Duck do, what could Chatterton do, which, abstracted from the recollection of his situation, can be worth the attention of learning and taste ? Neither of them had opportunities of enlarging their stock of ideas. No man can coin guineas but in proportion as he has gold." There was something of constitutional arrogance and ill-temper in the mode of expression ; and JOHNSON afterwards, on a visit to Bristol, admitted the "wonderful" nature of CHATTERTON'S writings ; but the last two sentences contain a principle of universal truth, that the material is the sine qua non—" no man can coin guineas but in proportion as he has gold." For this reason, when the exciting circumstances connected with CasTrEaToiv's melancholy fate ceased to become a topic of conversation for the grown-up and of tradition for the youthful, his story dropped out of public view ; for his productions could not keep alive the interest of his misfortunes. It may be questioned whether two-thirds of the youthful or middle-aged "reading public" could give an intelli- gible answer to the question who and what was CHATTERTON? unless they said "I don't know "; although his story forms one of the most striking circumstances in the history of English letters,—curious for its psychology, interesting in itself, and ne- cessary to be known as a singular episode in our national literature. Tuorass CHATTERTON was born at Bristol, on the 20th Novem- ber 1752. His ancestors for one hundred and fifty years had filled the office of sexton at St. Mary Redcliffe, so closely connected with his fame ; his uncle being the last who held it. His father appears to have been a sort of " genius" in a small way; described as having been fond of study, a believer in magic, and deeply read in CORNELIUS Awing's; and, like most such geniuses, he had various pursuits, being a teacher of writing, a member of the Cathe- dral choir, and subsequently master of the Free School in Pyle Street. His death took place three months before the birth of his celebrated son ; who was thus entirely left to the care of his mother; her only means of support for herself, a little daughter, and the future poet, being derived from the establishment of a small day- school conjointly with the business of sempstress or dressmaker. Of the infancy and early childhood of ClIATTERTON there was nothing particular to tell : at least, the minute researches of those who inquired into the subject, when his mother and sister were both living, appear to have discovered nothing. At five years old, he was sent to the Free School of which his father had been master ; whence he was shortly returned to his mother, on the score of incapacity ; nor could her efforts either before or for some time after his school debut teach him his alphabet. The family began to apprehend he was an "absolute fool," till at last his attention was attracted by the illuminated letters of an old French musical manuscript. In his mother's words, he "fell in love with it," and began to learn his letters, and his reading was completed from an old black-letter Bible; to which circumstances BROWN the metaphysician attributes the peculiar bent of CHATTEaTon's mind towards antiquities.

As soon as the power of reading was acquired, his literary ardour developed itself.

" At eight years of age," says a neighbour who was much in the house, "he was so eager for books, that he read from the moment he waked, which was early, until he went to bed, if they would let him." And the dreams of am- bition were already commenced. A manufacturer promised to make the children a present of some earthen-ware—a cup or plaything that might gratify a child : he asked the boy what device should be inscribed on his. Paint me,' replied the future creator of Rowley, ' paint me an angel, with wings and a trumpet, to trumpet my name over the world.' This anecdote rests upon credible authority, that of his sister." According to the same authority, the pride which distinguished him through life developed itself before his love of letters.

" My brother," writes the same relation, in her expressive letter to Sir Herbert Croft, " very early discovered a thirst for preeminence. I remember, before he was five years old, he would always preside over his playmates as their master, and they his hired servants. He was dull in learning, not knowing many letters at four years old, and always objected to read in a small book. He learnt the alphabet from an old folio music-book of my father's, my mother was then tearing up for waste paper : the capitals at the beginning of the verses I assisted in teaching him. I recollect nothing remarkable till he went into the school, which was in his eighth year, excepting his promising my mother and me a deal of finery when he grew up, as a reward of her care."

Coincident with his love of reading, the traits of the melancholy temperament which involved his life in gloom began to appear, together with a yearning after solitude to indulge undisturbed in reverie, that characterizes most imaginative minds. "He grew reserved and thoughtful. He was silent and gloomy for long In- tervals together, speaking to no one, and appearing angry when noticed or disturbed. He would break out into sudden fits of weeping, for which no reason could be assigned ; would shut himself up in some chamber, and suffer no one to approach him, nor allow himself to be enticed from his seclusion. Often he would go the length of absenting himself from home altogether, for the space, sometimes, of many hours ; and his sister remembered his being most severely chastised for a long absence; at which he did not, however, shed one tear, but merely said 'it was hard indeed to be whipped for reading.' "Not unfrequently a search was instituted. Ho mother's house was clime to the fine structure of St. Mary Redcliffe, and they well knew that the boy's favourite haunts were the aisles and towers of that noble pile. And there they would find the truant, seated generally by the tomb of Canynge, or lodged in one of the towers, reading sometimes, or—what if thus early imagining Rowley ? Stealing away in this manner, he would constantly awaken the solicitude of his friends, to whom his little eccentricities were already the source of much uneasiness."

In his eighth year, CHATTERTON was admitted into Colston's foundation, or charity-school; where the scholars are boarded and clothed as well as instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic. The rules of the school are of monastic or military strictness ; which CHATTERTON very probably disliked : he also complained "that he could not learn so much at school as he did at home, for he had not books enough" : and we can readily imagine the idea of a charity-school chafed his pride, and that he soon became "disgusted." Here, however, he remained for seven years, and acquired celebrity in the arithmetical class. Some time after his admission into the school, his mother allowed him a trifle for pocket-money ; and it was spent at the circulating-library ; the books of which he seems to have devoured, swallowing, like most reading-loving youngsters, every thing that came in his way—religion, history, biography, poetry, heraldry, and" betray- ing a passionate attachment for antiquities." He afterwards made a catalogue of the books he read about this period ; which amounted to seventy. At the school be is said to have held himself aloof from his schoolfellows—making few acquaintances, and only among those of thoughtful disposition. It is also reported that he was not communicative to the keeper of the circulating-library, though the man appears to have let him have the run of his shop without regard to payment—" merely bowing his head as he entered, and making a similar obeisance on taking leave" : but this story seems to have originated with IRELAND, and is probably one of his " inventions." The first known production of CuerrizaxoN is some lines on the Last Judgment, written soon after his confirmation; in which the ideas common to sermons and hymn-books are put together in puerile verse, though still remarkable as the production of a boy in his circumstances, whether written at twelve, as his sister asserted, or at ten years old, as Mr. TYSON and the editor of the publica- tion before us seem to prove. About the same period, he was visibly engaged in something, nobody knew what, but the infer- ence is fair enough that he was preparing for the ROWLEY fabrica- tions.

" ln the house in which Mrs. Chatterton resided—a poor back tenement, dismally situated in a kind of court, behind a row of somewhat better houses that fronted the street—there was a small garret which had been used as a lumber-room. Of this apartment Chatterton possessed himself: he kept the key, and suffered no one, if he could help it, to have access to it. In it were deposited all his papers and parchments, and a variety of other articles, for which his relations found no other terms than ' rubbish' and 'litter.'

" From twelve to seven, each Saturday, he was always at home, returning punctually a few minutes after the clock had struck, to get to his little room and shut himself up. In this room he always had by him a great piece of ochre in a brown pan, pounce-bags full of charcoal-dust, which he had from a Miss Sanger, a neighbour ; also a bottle of black-lead powder, which they once took to clean the stove with, and made him very angry. Every holyday almost he passed at home ; and often, having been denied the key when he wanted it, (because they thought he hurt his health and made himself dirty,) he would come to Mrs. Edkins, and kiss her cheek, and coax her to get it for him, using the most persuasive expressions to effect his end; so that this eagerness of his to be in this room so much alone, the apparatus, the parchments, (for he was not then indentured to Mr. Lambert,) both plain as well as written on, and the begrimed figure he always presented when he came down at tea-time, his face exhibiting many stains of black and yellow—all these circumstances began to alarm them ; and when she could get into his room, she would be very in- quisitive, and peep about at every thing. Once he put his foot on a parchment on the floor, to prevent her from taking it up ; saying, You are too cartons and clear-sighted—I wish you would bide out of the room it is my room.' '10 this she answered by telling him, it was only a general lumber-room, and that

she wanted some parchment to make thread-papers of : but he was offended, and would not permit her to touch any of them, not even those that were not written on ; but at last, with a voice of entreaty, said, Pray don't touch any thing here,' and seemed very anxious to get her away : and this increased her fears lest he should be doing something improper, knowing his want of money and ambition to appear like others. At last they got a strange idea that these colours were to colour himself; and that, perhaps, he would join some gipsies one day; or other, as he seemed so discontented with his station in life, and un-

ballile utmost that can be done in the case of the ROWLEY manuscripts, would be to trace the order of their appearance ; for as CHATTERTON to the last stuck to their authenticity, no account of their composition could be expected from him. The first of the kind that saw the light was what is called the Burgum Pedigree; being a pretended genealogical account, extending to the Con- quest, of the family of one BURGEM, a Bristol pewterer, of ex- cessive vanity and inflated notions; and for the production of which he rewarded CHATTERTON with five shillings. Thus stimu- lated, he went to work again, and produced a supplement to the Pedigree ; in which, besides Bonoust's former descent from noble families, he found himself allied to a poet ; and, as a demonstra- tive proof, the poem itself, " The Romaunte of the Cnyghte," was produced, as written by JoHN 33E BERGHAM. "This poem Chatterton had transcribed in all its genuine orthography; and, the better to elucidate its beauties, as Mr. Burgum was unskilled in Gothic lore, he accompanied it with a modernized version, by himself. 'To give you,' says he to the pewterer, an idea of the poetry of the age, take the following piece, wrote by him (John de Bergham) about 1320? This was not all; he adds a list of some of the works of which this said ancestor was the author.

". This John was one of the greatest ornaments of the age in which he lived. He wrote several books and translated some part of the Iliad, under the title 'Romance of Troy ' ; Which possibly may be the book alluded to in the follow- ing French memoire. " 130 Lyvre ke park de quartee principal gestes, et de Charles ; le romaunce Titus et Vespasian, le romaunce de Agyres, le romaunce de Marchaunce, le romaunce de Edmund et Agoland, lc Ribaud par Monsieur Iscannus, is ro- maunce de Tibbot de Arable, le romaunce de Troys,' &c.

"Re brought likewise the De Bergham arms laboriously painted' on parchment.

"In this second portion of the Pedigree, the account' is carried down to the reign of Charles the Second; and there, as the pewterer was not unlikely to know something of his ancestors—it being only removed by a period of a hundred years—Chatterton very wisely stopped."

Not long after this affair, he quitted Colston's school; and on the same day, (1st July 1767,) was bound apprentice to Mr. JonN LAMBERT, an attorney ; the trustees of the charity paying the usual fee of ten pounds. His means of labouring in his own room were now only two hours a day, and Sundays ; but he seems to have had ample leisure in LAMBERT'S office, and to have discharged his duties creditably, though the situation was not of a comfortable kind.

"There was very little business transacted in Lambert's office ; and, with the exception of about two or three hours, Chatterton had the whole day to himself. He was kept sufficiently strict, however; being sent to the office every morning at eight o'clock, where he remained, omitting the sixty minutes allotted for dinner, till the clock stood at the same hour in the evening. He was then at liberty till, ten o'clock, at which time the family went to bed. When in the house, which was distinct from the office' he was confined to the kitchen; he slept with the foot-boy, and was subjected to other indignities of a like nature. Its pride, which always characterized him, took offence at this mortifying treatment, and he became gloomy and sullen, exhibiting frequent fits of ill- temper.

"Lambert, indeed, was a vulgar, insolent, imperious man ; who because the boy wrote poetry, was of a melancholy and contemplative disposition, and disposed to study and reading, thought him a fit object of insult and con- temptuous usage. Yet, notwithstanding, he bears the highest testimony to the worth of Chatterton, to his regularity in his profession, his punctual at- tendance on all the duties required of him, and admits that he once only had occasion to correct him. And then Chatterton must needs satirize the head- master of the school he had just left, a Mr. Warner, in an anonymous letter, written in very abusive terms, but which the handwriting, only partially dis- guised, and the texture of the paper, being the same as that used in the office, brought home to the real culprit. On this occasion he struck him a few blows. "Chatterton was a good apprentice. There are still extant in his hand- writing a folio book of law-forms and precedents, containing three hundred and thirty-four closely-written pages, also thirty-six pages in another book of the same kind. In the noting-book are thirty-six notarial acts, besides many notices and letters transcribed in the ordinary book. These were done inde- pendently of his regular duties. At night, punctually as the clock struck ten, he would be at Mr. Lambert's door. ' We saw him, his sister writes, 'most evenings before nine ; and he would in general stay to the limits of his time, which was ten. He was seldom two evenings together without seeing us.' The time also which was at his command, when be neglected to visit his friends, was generally spent in solitary rambles. Mr. Lambert says that he never knew him in bad company, or suspected him of any inclination thereto."

The hours of leisure which he passed in LAMBERT'S office, tied to one spot, and without means of external amusement, were likely to have stimulated to study and composition a much inferior mind to Cmiximirroxes, even had he not engaged in them before. Ac- cording to his sister's account, he slept little, and wrote and read by moonlight : "We heard him frequently say that he found he studied best towards the full of the moon, and would sit up all night and write by moonlight." He also put himself upon spare diet.

"Be would seldom eat animal food ; not, like Byron, for fear of getting fat, but, like Shelley, because he supposed it to impair the intellect. He never tasted strong or spirituous liquors ; living upon a tart only, or a crust of bread and a draught of pure spring-water. Sometimes his mother would tempt him, when he paid her a visit, with the offer of a hot meal: to which he would reply, that he had a work in hand, and must not make himself more stupid than God had made him."

The sources from which CHATTERTON acquired his old English are thus given by the biographer before us ; though they are jum- bled together without regard to chronological order, as some of them evidently belong to an earlier period of time.

"There was in Lambert's office-library, among a heap of law-books possess- ing little interest to Chatterton, an old copy of Camden's Britannia. From a bookseller of Bristol he obtained, as a loan, an edition of Speight's Chaucer, which everybody knows to be in black letter; and for his own use compiled from the scanty glossary which is appended to that work a counter-glossary, having for its arrangement, in something like alphabetical order, so as to be easy of reference, the words in modern English, with the word corresponding to each in the antiquated diction of Chaucer. The books, however, from which he derived most assistance were the English Dictionaries of Kersey and Bailey; from which it has been incontestably proved that nearly the whole of the obso- lete words employed in the Rowley poems were obtained. He had access also to the old library at Bristol, in which were to be consulted such works as Holinshed's Chronicles, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and Fuller's Church History." Having acquired by practice a store of words and the power of imitating old manuscripts, a skill in various handwriting improved by his labours in LAMBERT'S office, and ascertained the gullibility of man by his experiment on BURGUM, CHATTERTON began his practice upon the public. In September 1768, a new bridge was completed at Bristol; and immediately after its opening, there ap- peared in Felix Fancy's Bristol Journal, from a correspondent with the signature of "Dunhelmus Bristolensis," a "description of the Mayor's first passing over the old bridge, taken from an old manuscript." In substance, style, and spelling, the imitation ap- pears to us palpable now ; but the Bristolians of that day were taken in. The office was besieged to learn the particulars of the discovery, and who was the discoverer, as well as to inspect the manuscript. What is technically called the " copy" was there for them to see, written in a small, neat, not unlawyer-looking hand; but the original manuscript, or who had found it, was a mystery. Encouraged by this attempt, Crierrzazow prepared another paper for insertion, and seems to have carried it himself; but the hand or signature being recognized, he was detected as the former correspondent, and the curious antiquarians hastened to Mr. LAM-. BERT'S office. Treating ClierrzazoN as an apprentice-boy, and never suspecting fabrication, they demanded a sight of the original and an account of its discovery, with threats; and CHATTERTON, quite as proud as they were insolent, flatly refused to answer. They then assailed him with flattery and promises of patronage : upon which he gave way, and told them he took it from some old manuscripts containing poems, which a gentleman, who was in love, employed him to copy. But this tale not sufficing, he declared he found it among manuscripts belonging to his father, which he had taken from a large chest in the muniment-room in Radcliffe Church. With this the Bristol antiquarians were satisfied, and seem to have dropped the matter.

But a wider sphere was opening upon the boy of Bristol. Soon after this, Mr. Cxrcorr, the partner of Pedigree Biniount, and who is described as having been fond of literary pursuits, was informed by a friend, that several ancient poems, &c. had been discovered in an old chest in RedclifFe Church, by an extraordinary young man with whom he was acquainted. CATcozx desired an introduction ; and was, as he expected, introduced to CHATTERTON.

"With this gentleman our friend is disposed to be somewhat communicative. He gives him a copy of the Bristowe Tragedy, Rowley's Epitaph upon Ca- nynge's Ancestor, and other smaller pieces. In a few days afterwards, he gives him the Yellow Roll. About this period, Mr. Barrett, a surgeon of Bristol, and a man of great respectability, has undertaken to publish a history of Bris- tol, and is anxiously collecting materials for that work. Ilia friends, eager to procure him intelligence, fail not to apprise him of the treasure of ancient poems and other manuscripts relative to Bristol, which have been discovered in the oaken repository in Redcliffe Church. Mr. Catcott hastens, specimens in hand, to his study. The poems are examined, pronounced authentic, and Cbatterton is introduced to the believing historian ; whom he immediately sup- plies, not only with poems, but with materials of the utmost value for his own work. It is Mr. Barrett's purpo o collect information on the subject of the churches and public edifices of En I. Chatterton undertakes to examine the papers of Rowley for that purpose nd in a few days brings him a true Rini particular account of the ancient c chcs of Bristol, which formerly occupied

the sites of the existing structure The historian entertains no doubt of the authenticity of the documents ; rew a his young friend with a sum of money; and Chatterton, more elated than ver, goes off to coin his brain afresh, and

Invent, not only churches, but lea, and even palaces. We will give the reader a specimen ; it is from what he entitles Turgot's Account of Bristol, translated by T. Rowley out of Saxon into English,' and is to be found in p. 31 of Barrett's History of BristoL

" Sect. ii. of Turgotua—Strange as it maie seem that there were Wailes to Radclefte, yet fulle true ytte is, beynge the Wailes of Brightrycus Pallace, and in owre dales remainethe there a small piece neie Eaelwynnes Towre. I con- ceive not it coulde be square, tho Tradytyon so saieth : the Inhabiters wythyn the Walle had ryghte of Tolle on the Ryvers Severne and a part of Avon. Thus much of Radclefte Wailes. Sect. lit. of Turgotus.—Nowe to speake of Bryghtstowe, yttes Wailes and Castelle beyuge the fayrest buyldinge, of ytte 1 shalle speake fyrste. The pryncipall Streets meete in forme of a Cross, and is a goode patterne for the Cityes of Chrystyannes. Brightricus fyret ybuylden the Wallea in fasbyon allmoste Square wythe four Gates : Elle Gate, Bald- wynnes or Leonardes Gate, Froome or the Water Gate, and Nycholas or Wareburgba's.'—&e. &c. &c.

"And from time to time does be furnish Mr. Barrett with similar docu- ments; of such magnitude, moreover, that as he does not hesitate to publish them, they occupy no inconsiderable portion of his large quarto volume, a work otherwise of considerable value and research."

His connexion with Mr. BARRETT, and his contributions to that gentleman's history of the ROWLEY manuscripts, gave him a sort of county-town celebrity, sod procured him some money, which he spent in books. Stronger peculiarities than ever appeared in his behaviour; which in another might have arisen from a turned head, but in Cnerrzavos were perhaps symptoms of the family disease, insanity. "For days together, he would hardly utter a single word ; he would enter and quit his master's house without deigning to ad- dress a single individual" : his fits of absence were remarkable, and it was a general opinion that he was going mad. He did not, how- ever, neglect his studies ; reading a variety of books, including some works on medicine and surgery, and beginning the study of Latin. He also looked out for a wider sphere of action. In December 1768, he addressed an anonymous letter to DOUBLET, the Joux Munvv of his day, stating that the writer could procure a variety of productions, "wrote by one Rowley, a priest of Bristol, who lived in the reigns of Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth," and offering to send copies. This letter DODSLEY is supposed to have left unanswered ; and in February 1769, CnarrEarort wrote again, in more specific terms, stating that he had seen a tragedy called Ella, praising its beauties, furnishing a specimen, and re- quiring a guinea for a copy, "as the present possessor absolutely denies to give me one unless I give him a guinea for a considera- tion." This letter DODSLEY is also supposed not to have noticed; but as CHATTERTON boasted of having DoexcEr for a correspond- ent, it is possible that the bibliopole sent a civil refusal. In the following month he addressed IlosAce WecroLE.

Bristol. March f5:11, Corn Street.

" Sir—Being versed a little in antiquities, I have met with several curious manuscripts; among which the following may be of service to you in any future edition ofyour truly entertaining ' Anecdotes of Painting.' In correcting the mistakes (if any) in the notes, you will greatly oblige jour most humble servant, "THOMAS CHATTERTON."

The enclosed manuscript was a pretended History of Painting in Great Britain; the introduction of the art being traced to HENGIST, and his heraldic bearings, with those of his comates, described. CHATTERTON had also added some notes, and the poem of a certain abbot "John, who was inducted in 1186." The pic- torial and heraldic part of the story was not likely to have imposed upon WALPOLE : he (afterwards) said he thought it was a skit upon his own Anecdotes of Painting ; but, supposing CHATTERTON to be a gentleman, he returned a very polite reply,—intimating his willingness to receive more specimens, confessing his ignorance of the Saxon language, and expressing a disposition to publish Row- LEY'S poems, or, at all events, specimens of them. Determined to strike while the iron was hot, CHATTERTON lost no time in sending more manuscripts, prose as well as poetry ; and in an accompany- ing letter, (which is lost,) confessed his real condition, and inti- mated a wish for WALPOLE to patronize him. To this frankness CHATTERTON always attributed the change in WALPOLE : and, no doubt, it altered the style of his correspondence, for it would have been ridiculous to continue his former mode of writing. But WaLroLe was still civil, and something more than civil, though not in the way CHATTERTON desired. Having submitted the poems to GRAY and MASON, they at once pronounced them for- geries, from internal evidence : and the opinion of their inauthen- fiCity WALPOLE expressed to CHATTERTON; advising him at the same time to labour hard in his profession, out of gratitude to his mother, who had straitened herself to forward him in life ; and that when he had acquired a competence, he might unbend himself in literary pursuits. Here the connexion between CHAT- TEUTON and WaLroLE virtually ended : and beyond a subsequent neglectful delay to return his manuscripts, no blame is attached to WALPOLE, though after CHATTERTON'S suicide he was accused of being the cause of his death, and the impression the charge made is not yet wholly worn out. Baffled in his hopes of advancement through DODSLEY and WALPOLE, Bristol and the attorney's office became more distaste- ful than ever to Cuarrearost. The manner in which he exercised his satirical powers in alike lampooning friend and foe had created him many enemies; and he was one night assaulted with severity, and a threat that the assailant" would spoil his writing-arm,"—an achievement that the approach of the watch prevented. Though he had become sceptical in his religious opinions, be seems to have entertained the idea of turning Methodist parson ; and suicide was evidently more than once present to his thoughts. Having, how- ever, for some months past been a contributor to several London periodicals, he at last determined to try his fortune in the Metro- polis. His master, we may suppose, released him from his inden- tures : his friends subscribed a guinea apiece to bear his expenses; and CHATTERTON arrived in the Metropolis, as a literary adven- turer, on the 26th April 1770. Of his four months' London career not much can be accurately ascertained; for though his correspondence with his family remains, yet where literature or his own vanity was in question, very little re- liance can be placed upon the statements of CHATTERTON. Within ten days after his arrival in the Metropolis, he writes to his mother- " I am settled, and in such a settlement as I would desire. I get four guineas a month by one magazine: shall engage to write a history of England and other pieces, which will more than double that sum. Occasional essays for the daily papers would more than support me. What a glorious prospect ! Mr. Wilkes knew me by my writings since I first corresponded with the booksellers here. 1 shall visit him next week, and by his interest will insure Mrs. Ballance the Trinity House. He affirmed, that what Mr. Fell had of mine could not be the writings of a youth ; and expressed a desire to know the author. By the means of another bookseller, I shall be introduced to Townshend and Saw- bridge. I am quite familiar at the Chapter Coffeehouse, and know all the geniuses there. A character is now unnecessary ; an author carries his cha- racter in his pen. My sister will improve herself in drawing. My grandmother 18, 1 hope, well. Bristol's mercenary walls were never destined to hold me— there 1 was out of my element ; now I am in it—London. Good God ! bow superior is London to that despicable place Bristol. Here is none of your little meannesses, none of your mercenary securities, which disgrace that miser- able hamlet. Dress, which is in Bristol an eternal fund of scandal, is here only introduced as a subject of taste: if a man dresses well, he has taste; if careless, he has his own reasons for so doing, and is prudent. Need I remind you of the contrast ? The poverty of authors is a common observation, but not always a true one. No author can be poor who understands the arts of booksellers. Without this necessary knowledge, the greatest genius may starve ; and with it, the greatest dunce live in splendour. This knowledge I have pretty well dipped into. The Levant rnan-of.war, in which T. Wensley went out, is at Portsmouth ; but no news from him yet. I lodge in one of Mr. Walinsley's best rooms."

A few days later, he writes in equal spirits-

" Matters go on swimmingly. Mr. Fell having offended certain person+they have set his creditors upon him, and he is safe in the King's Bench. I have been bettered by this accident : his successors in the Freeholder's Magazine knowing nothing of the matter, will be glad to engage me on my own terms. Mr. Edmunds has been tried before the House of Lords, sentenced to pay a fine, and thrown into Newgate. His misfortunes will be to me of no little ser- vice. Last week, being in the pit of Drury Lane Theatre, I contracted an immediate acquaintance (which you know is no bard task to me) with a young gentleman in Cheapside, partner in a music-shop, the greatest in the City. Hearing I could write, he desired me to write a few songs for him. This I did the same night, and conveyed them to him the next morning: These he showed to a doctor in music; and I am invited to treat with this doctor, on the footing of a composer, for Ranelagh and the Gardens. Bravo! bey boys, up we go! Besides the advantage of visiting these expensive and polite places gratis, my vanity will be fed with the sight of my name in copperplate, and my sister will receive a bundle of printed songs, the words by her brother. These are not all my acquisitions : a gentleman, who knows me at the Chapter as an author, would have introduced me as a companion to the young Duke of Northumber- land, in his intended general tour. But, alas ! I spoke no tongue but my own."

On the 30th May, his letters flow in the same strain-

" My present profession obliges me to frequent places of the best resort. To begin with what every female conversation begins with—dress: I employ my money now in fitting myself fashionably and getting into good company ; this last article always brings me in interest. • But I have engaged to live with a gentleman, the brother of a lord, (a Scotch one indeed,) who is going to ad- vance pretty deeply into the bookselling branches. I shall have lodging and boarding, genteel and elegant, gratis: this article, in the quarter of the town be lives, with worse accommodations, would be fifty pounds per annum. I shall have likewise no inconsiderable premium, and assure yourself every month shall end to your advantage. I will send you two silks this summer; and expect, in answer to this, what colours you prefer. My mother shall not be forgotten. My employment will be writing a voluminous history of Lon- don; to appear in numbers, the beginning of the next winter. As this will not, like writing political essays, oblige me to go to the coffeehouse, I shall be able to serve you the more by it; but it will necessitate me to go to Oxford, Cambridge, Lincoln, Coventry, and every collegiate church near; not at all disagreeable jimmies, and not to me expensive. The manuscript glossary I mentioned in my last must not be omitted. If money flowed as fast upon me as honours, I would give you a portion of 5,000/. You have, doubtless, heard of the Lord Mayor's remonstrating and addressing the King : but it will be a piece of news to inform you that I have been with the Lord Mayor on the occasion. Having addressed an essay to his Lordship, it was very well received, perhaps better than it deserved; and I waited on his Lordship to have his approbation to ad- dress a second letter to him, on the subject of the remonstrance and its re- ception. His Lordship received me as politely as a citizen could ; and warmly invited me to call on him again. The rest is a secret. But the devil of the matter is, there is no money to be got on this aide of the question. Interest is on the other side. But he is a poor author who cannot write on both sides. I believe I may be introduced (and if I am not, I'll introduce myself) to a ruling power in the Court party. I might have a recommendation to Sir George Colebrook, an East India Director, as qualified for an office no ways despicable; but I shall not take a step to the sea whilst I can continue on land."

Within about a month of his committing suicide, and after he had removed from the "best room" of Mr. WALMSLEY, a plas- terer in Shoreditch, to Mrs. ANGEL'S, a dressmaker in Brook Street, Holborn, he was equally boastful, or equally sanguine; though his letter contains a touch of something nearly akin to madness.

" 20th July 1770.

"I am now about an oratorio, which, when finished, will purchase you a gown. You may be certain of seeing me before the let January 1771. The clearance is immaterial. My mother may expect more patterns. • Almost all the next Town and Country Magazine is mine. I have an universal acquaint- ance; my company is courted everywhere, and, could I humble myself to go into a compter, could have had twenty places before now : but I must he among the great ; state matters suit me better than commercial. The ladies are not out of my acquaintance. I have a deal of business now, and must therefore bid you adieu. You will have a longer letter from me soon, and more to the purpose. Yours, T. C."

How much of this was sanguine misconception, and bow much invention to impress his Bristol friends with an idea of his impor- tance and as a justification of the step he had taken, is difficult to tell. Having published the letter he alludes to in BECREcomis favour, he very likely called on the Lord Mayor, who received him, no doubt, with that general civility which public characters prac- tise towards their partisans, and which he dwelt so much upon. His other publications were also numerous : he wrote in most of the magazines and newspapers of the day ; holding the pen of a ready writer, and exercising his wits upon any subject—poetry, satirical, sentimental, serious, and lyrical—tales and novels—politics, on both sides of the question ; besides which, he attempted the drama, and wrote a burlesque burletta called "The Revenge," which was set to music, and performed at Marylebone Gardens. His receipts from his labours are involved in much uncertainty. He is said to have gotten five guineas for "The Revenge " : if an entry in his pocket-book, made shortly before his death, may be trusted, it would appear that eleven pounds was due to him from different publishers, which he could not get : another entry presents a specific accoutt of some receipts—

.16 1. d.

" Received to May 23, of Mr. Hamilton, for Middlesex 1 11 6 Received of B 1 2 3 Received of Fell, for the Consuliad 0 10 6 Received of Mr. Hamilton, for Candidus and Foreign Journal 0 2 0 Received of Mr. Fell 0 10 6 Received for Middlesex Journal 0 8 6 Received of Mr. Hamilton, fur 16 songs 0106 4 15 9"

But be his receipts what they might, they were uncertain, and insufficient for his support. In July he bad moved from WALPAS.• LEY'S, apparently to conceal his distresses, as some connexion of his family lodged in the house. About the same time, too, he appears to have abandoned his dreams of literary glory, and to have thought of going as a surgeon's mate to the African coast: but Mr. BARRETT, to whom he applied for a recommendation as to his competence, very properly declined giving him one : and there is no question that before he resorted to suicide actual starvation was approaching. It may be inferred that his ne-

cessities were known in his neighbourhood, and some cha- ritable invitations preferred. WARTON has recorded that CHAT. TERTON partook of an " oyster-feast " with a Mr. CROSS, an apo- thecary of Brook Street : but this seems to have been the only i

submission of his hunger to his pride, and t was his last meal. Mrs. ANGEL, his landlady, stated, that for two or three days he had confined himself to his room ; and knowing he had eaten nothing for that period, she begged him to dine with her : but he was of- fended at her offer, or its mode, refused the invitation, and assured her he was not hungry. On the 24th August 1770, (it is inferred,) be committed suicide, by taking arsenic in water. The next day his door was broken open : life was extinct : no address or direc- tion of any kind was found, but the room was covered with scraps of paper, the remnants of manuscripts he had destroyed. A Coro- ner's inquest returned a verdict of insanity : we have heard a tra- ditional account that his body lay for some time to be owned, in the bone-house of Saint Andrews Holborn ; in the pauper's burial- ground of which parish, abutting upon Shoe Lane, he was buried. And so completely had he isolated himself in his misery, that it was some time before his acquaintances heard of the catastrophe ; and it was "with the greatest difficulty that his identity could be established or his history traced."

Thus, aged seventeen years nine months and four days, perished THOMAS CHATTERTON; a genius without example for the preco- ciousness of its display, the number of its productions, and the dis- advantageous circumstances and isolation under which they were produced,—though there is 110 ground for ranking him, as his ad- mirers have done, next to SHAKSPERE ; nor will any of his juvenile effusions bear a compassion as regards quality with those of POPE, or probably of COWLEY. In Criarrewros, nearly every thing which is not imitative is puerile or mean ; and, with abundance of self-will, he seems not to have had that independence of mind which constitutes originality, unless in the conception and execu- tion of fabrications. In the Rowley, the narrative poems are de- rived from the ballads, or rather the imitations of ballads, which about that period were coming into fashion : the drama of the same collection is not so much imitative as puerile. Abstracting some descriptions of natural objects, with incidents containing in them- selves the elements of pathos, and a few occasional thoughts, there is nothing of great intrinsic merit in the ROWLEY Poems ; whilst their language, mixing together the uncouth and obsolete words of widely-different ages, is even more repulsive than an authentic author's, though its mysterious haze may add something to the effect upon the reader's mind. The principal exception to this criticism seems to be the ballad of" The Bristow Tragedie" ; the incidents of which are contrived with skill, whilst the story is told with simplicity. But the wonder of the RowLer fabrications is the circumstances under which they were produced : and very wonderful no doubt it is to see a boy, without languages, educa- tion, or opportunities of hearing discourse, confined in time and almost destitute of means, produce a series of poems equal in bulk to that of most of our standard authors ; which imposed not merely upon the public, but upon persons of antiquarian learning, and though no longer attractive, possessed merit enough to delight the generation among which they first appeared. The ROWLEY fabrication, however, was only a part of the works of CHATTERTON. He poured forth in the periodicals of the day considerable quantities of prose : he also wrote politics, like the ape rather than the imitator of Jetties; and satires, in which he closely copied CHURCHILL. His miscellaneous poems are perhaps remark- able for his years, and the period, when versifying, be it remembered, was not a common accomplishment ; but they have very little in- trinsic merit. "The Revenge," a burlesque mythological burletta, turning upon an intrigue of Jupiter's with May, which is foiled by Juno's substituting herself for the inferior goddess, though slight, and merely repeating a mode of exciting laughter then in vogue, is not devoid of humour, and has a sprightliness and vigour of diction, style, and general conduct, so different from his other productions, that were not the evidence of authorship tolerably conclusive, we should doubt the fact of its being CHArreirroses. It shows the quickness with which he seized upon any thing, and the readiness with which he adapted it to his own purpose ; a quality visible in all his better works.

The person and manners of CirArreirrox were as precocious as his genius ; being stately, and manly beyond his years. Mrs. EDKINS described him as having had "a proud air" : his eyes were gray, but piercingly brilliant ; one eye was more remarkable than the other: CATCOTT described it "as a kind of hawk's eye, and thought one could see his soul through it." His manner is said to have been exceedingly prepossessing—when he pleased. His readiness in making acquaintances has been indicated in the extracts from his letters ; and throughout his correspondence he assumes his supe- riority in conversational powers as admitted or unquestionable. '1 he moral character of CitArreirrow has been as much assailed as his literary character has been overrated. The charge of pro- fligate debauchery is opposed to all evidence, and seems to rest on no other foundation than coarse passages in his writings, and a notion of his age that all " geniuses" must be irregular. As re- gards the ROWLEY forgeries, for which even his admirers deem some apology necessary, we incline to think their conception, at worst, a trick of a very venial kind. The invention of a mask or a fictitious character, like Scores " Great Unknown" or his introductory personages, is no doubt very different from fabri- cated historical facts, that if received would cause a different view to be taken of our literature and language. The diffi- culty, however, not to say the impossibility, of =poi- • upon th world an imitation for an original, is such, that we believe its eventual success is impossible; and the attempt is merely to be regarded as an intellectual effort for the display of ability. The fabrication of the Burgum Pedigree, though it led its credulous believer to take a journey to London in order to submit it to the Herald's College, was also ahoax, or piece of mystification, of a not very enormous dye. The first poems imposed upon Beam= have the excuse of necessity : CATCOTT, not CHATTERTON, Submitted them to the historian of Bristol ; and the writer must either have confessed the authorship, or allowed the affair to take its course. But the subsequent fabrication of facts connected with antiquities is without excuse, and involved a fraud against an individual, which must always be accompanied by treachery, and was tainted in CHAT- TERTON'S case by a touch of ingratitude. But of literary morality or of grateful feelings CHATTERTON must be pronounced pretty nearly devoid, after every allowance is made for the character of the times, and even his very early youth. We find him without apparent sense of wrong, taking the opposite side of political questions, and praising and abusing the same person at the same time ; accident, not con- science, alone restrained him from any literary imposition ; neither kindness nor benefits were any protection against his abuse ; nor does he seem to have paid much attention to veracity in his lam- peons, or to have felt kindness as imposing upon him any obligation. Had his life been prolorged, time and experience might have cor- rected these defects in his character, as they might have enabled him to produce more valuable and enduring works. It is, however, somewhat difficult to see the how of these results. Had he de- pended for subsistence upon his pen, paid as authors were in those days, he would have wanted leisure to amass materials, and time to shape them : had he met with friends, it seems unlikely, from what is known of his pride and temper, that he would have sub- mitted to advice, or long retained the assistance of a patron. In short, a review of his life and character induces us to suspect, that had some lucky accident or better success prevented his suicide, the constitutional madness of his family, which subsequently ren- dered it necessary to submit his sister to restraint, and also ap- peared in her son, would have rapidly developed itself in Tnoserass Cnarrewrox. To this dreadful disease is to be attributed much that seems vicious and much that seems irreconcileable in his character; as it probably gave rise to his precocity of intellect, set him upon the ROWLEY imposture, and enabled him to sustain the unceasing exertions and sleepless nights by which that fabrication was carried on.