THOMAS CHATTERTON

Taranaki Daily News, 6 October 1934, Page 13 (Supplement)

THOMAS CHATTERTON

LITERARY MASQUERADE

(By

L.W.R.)

The history of the rise and development of English literature is one of constant struggles against repressive influences. At the beginning of the 18th century English poetry was restricted by the code of classical ideals exemplified in Alexander Pope’s “Essay on Man.” Freedom of thought was severely frowned upon by the literary dictators of the day; the only poems dealing with Nature were stilted pastorals showing little if any insight into the romantic beauty of Nature. This classical influence was at its zenith for nearly 50 years, but with the death of Pope its effects, though they would never really be eradicated, began to diminish. There arose in English literature in the latter half of the 18th century the forerunners of those great romantic poets—Wordsworth and Shelley, Keats and Byron—whose influence dominated English thought and literature throughout the 19th century. The first characteristic of the new romantic movement to distinguish .itself was the revival of interest in the romantic literature of the mediaeval ages. And one of the greatest, if not the most unique, writers in’English literature, Thomas Chatterton, used this interest as a stepping stone to fame. The posthumous son of a poor schoolmaster, Thomas Chatterton was born at Bristol on November 20, 1752. He received only a rudimentary education, and it is a greater tribute to his genius that this poorly-educated youth should occupy such an important niche in English literary history. The office of sexton at the church of St. Mary Redcliffe had been held for-nearly two centuries by the Chatterton family, and under the guidance of his uncle the child found his favourite haunt in the beautiful old church, deriving a fresh interest, when he was able to read, in certain quaint old chests, where parchment deeds, old as the Wars of the Roses, lay unheeded and forgotten. His delight was to lock himself in a little attic, where, with books and cherished parchments saved from the loot of the muniment room of. St. Mary Redcliffe, and with drawing materials, he lived in thought with his 15th century heroes and heroines.

Chatterton knew that as ap obscure apprentice to an attorney his poems would receive scant consideration from the literary notabilities of the age. So, in order to excite interest, he not only wrote them in a quaint disguising jargon of his own but also claimed them as the work of Thomas Rowley, an unknown monk of the time of Henry VI. The first of his literary mystifications the duologue of “Elinoure and Juga,” was written before he was twelve years old, and he showed it to his friends, as the work of the 15th century poet. With passionate ardour he continued his studies of antiquities and of old English poetry. He then produced the larger proportion of his work under the title of the “Rowley Poems.” This literary masquerade which thus constitutes the life dream of the boy was wrought out by him in fragments of prose and verse into a coherent romance, until the credulous scholars and antiquaries of his day were persuaded into the belief that there had lain in the parish chest at Redcliffe Church for upwards of three centuries a collection of manuscripts of rare merit, the work of a mediaeval monk. In 1769, in an endeavour to gain notice for himself, Chatterton wrote to one of the leading men of the time, Horace Walpole, enclosing among other curious manuscripts “The Ryse of Peyncteynge in England.” To this Walpole replied with corteous acknowledgments. He characterised the verses as “wonderful for their harmony and spirit,” and added, “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.” Chatterton replied, enclosing additional specimens of antique verse, and telling Walpole of his lowly station in life. Walpole’s manner underwent an abrupt change. He now.coldly advised the boy to remain at the attorney's office and “when he should have made a fortune,” he might betake himself to more favourite studies. After the death of Chatterton, however, Walpole admitted, “I do not believe there ever existed so masterly a genius.”

The boy meanwhile suffered anguish which was not diminsihed by the burning of some of his poems by his master. In April the youthful writer -went to London,, and after writing for four months for the leading magazines with diminishing success, he began to lose heart. His pride in refusing help of every kind led to actual starvation, and during the night of August 24, 1770, having tom to shreds a large quantity of manuscript, he poisoned himself in his Holbom garret. His age was 17,% years. “This is the most extraordinary young man,” wrote one biographer, “that has ever encountered my knowledge.” ’ Although Chatterton’s poems are not perfect, in his romantic vigour he suggested much that Coleridge later perfected and brought to full fruition. His fame lies in the fact that he was a forerunner of those romantic poets—Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats—who appeared half a century later. Coleridge called him “Bristowas bard, the wondrous boy”; while the very name of Chatterton, as a boy-martyr in the sacred cause of Romance, excited intense enthusiasm ,in Keats and afterwards in Rossetti. "•

His poems are, necessarily, immature, but they exhibit -the rapid spontaneous growth of a soil rich in aesthetic impulse. Nor can it be denied that there is a genuine lyric fire, a poetic energy, and above all, an intensity about his work suggestive of Shelley. He pictures Lydgate, the monk of Bury St. Edmonds, chaHenging Rowley to a trial at verse-making, and under cover of this fiction he produced his “Song to Aella,” a piece of rare lyrical beauty, worthy of comparison with any antique or modern production of its class. It is to be deplored that this youthful genius should have been cut off in the flower of his youth, for his poems, immature though they be, augured well for English literature had he but lived longer. He possessed the same lyrical instinct that actuated Wordsworth and Coleridge of a later age. Unfortunately it required time to fully develop - and his early poems suffer from a number of faults which would undoubtedly have been eliminated later. .

As forgeries the Rowley poems have little to commend them, for they abound in anachronisms; as creative works of the youthful imagination the poems are in many respects unique. His death attracted little notice, at the time for he was regarded as a mere transcriber. He was interred in a cemetery attached to Shoe Lane Workhouse, and a monument bearing word's written by his own pen has since been erected to his memory—“To the memory of Thomas Chatterton. Reader! judge not. If thou art a Christian, believe that he shall be judged by a Superior Power. To that Power only is he now answerable,”