DOBELL, SYDNEY THOMPSON Eng lish poet and critic, was born at Cranbrook, Kent. His father was a wine merchant, his mother a daughter of Samuel Thompson (1766-1837), a London political reformer. The family moved to Cheltenham when Dobell was 12 years old. He was educated privately, and never attended either school or university. He refers to this in some lines on Cheltenham college in imitation of Chaucer, written in his 18th year. An acquaintance with Mr. (subsequently Sir James) Stansfeld and with the Birming ham preacher-politician, George Dawson (1821-76), which after wards led to the foundation of the Society of the Friends of Italy, fed the young enthusiast's ardour for the Liberalism of the day. Meanwhile, Dobell wrote a number of minor poems, in stinct with a passionate desire for political reform. The Roman appeared in 185o, under the nom de plume of "Sydney Yendys." His second long poem, Balder, appeared in 1854. The three following years were spent in Scotland. Perhaps his closest friend at this time was Alexander Smith, in company with whom he published, in 1855, a number of sonnets on the Crimean War, which were followed by a volume on England in Time of War. He died on Aug. 22, As a poet Dobell belongs to the "spasmodic school," as it was named by Prof. Aytoun, who parodied its style in Firmilian. The epithet, however, was first applied by Carlyle to Byron. The school includes George Gilfillan, Philip James Bailey, John Stanyan Bigg (1826-65), Dobell, Alexander Smith, and accord ing to some critics, Gerald Massey. It was characterized by an under-current of discontent with the mystery of existence, by vain effort, unrewarded struggle, sceptical unrest, and an uneasy straining after the unattainable. It thus faithfully reflected a certain phase of loth century thought.
The standard edition of his Poems (1875) includes a memoir by Prof. Nichol, who also edited a collection of his prose writings under the title Thoughts on Art, Philosophy and Religion (5876).