Reanimated by this emancipation, and by the pro mises of some London booksellers, he laid aside his pro ject of suicide, and with the hopes and plans of a literary adventurer, came to the metropolis, aged 17 years and five months. His letters during the first few weeks after his arrival describe the most sanguine prospects, and a multiplicity of literary employments; a History of England, a liistory of London, Essays in the daily papers, and Songs for the public gardens, were his actual or pro jected tasks. An extraordinary elevation was given to his spirits, by the notice Which his political principles attracted from the Lord Mayor Beckford, to whom he was introduced. On this, as on every other circumstance which filled his heart with high anticipation, he wrote with much affection to his mother and sisters, promising they should be partakers in his future fortune, and even sending them presents at times, when there was every probability that he was himself nearly in want of the necessaries of life. During two months from the date of his arrival, it appears from the list of his communica tions to public papers, and from his songs, &c. that he was industrious in the midst of this intoxicating dream of success. But his hopes had been probably founded in the extravagant idea of making himself of political consequence by Iris writings ; and when that delusion vanished, Ire found that unremitting industry alone would ensure to him a competence among the dealers in literary ware. No delusion is more common to youthful genius than to over-rate its future powers of patient drudgery. Cliatterton set out, therefore, with the lice of the racer, but his unequal spirits seem to have sunk under the burthens of the course. The history of his few remain ing days is melancholy, but obscure. About the end of July, he removed from a house in Shoreditch, to the house of a Mrs Angel, a sack-maker in Brook-street, Holborn, where he became poor and unhappy, abandon ing his literary pursuits, and proposing to go out to Africa as a naval surgeon's mate. Ile had picked up some knowledge of surgery, and now requested that gentleman's recommendation, which Mr Barret thought proper to refuse. It is certain, that either from want of encouragement from the booksellers, or, which is much more probable, from the gloomy despondency of his mind, he no longer employed his pen, and that the short remainder of his days was spent in a conflict be tween pride and poverty. On the day preceding his death, he refused an offer from Mrs Angel to partake of her dinner, assuring her that he was not hungry. At that time she believed that he had cat nothing for two or three days. On the 25th of August, he was found dead, in consequence of having swallowed poison. He
was buried in a shell in the burying-ground belonging to Shoelane workhouse. Previous to his death he had torn all his manuscripts in small pieces.
On the short and tragical career of " this mighty strip ling," it is impossible to reflect without regret and as tonishment. The authenticity of Rowley's poems is now given up. Mr \Varton has proved, that, wonderful as it may seem for Chatterton to have written them, it is impossible that they could have been written by Rowley ; and these must have been composed by the boy of Bris tol before he had completed his I 6th year. Some deduc tion may perhaps be made from the admiration with which they are contemplated through the medium of an antiquated language ; but the intrinsic value of some of those pieces is sterling, independent of all considerations either of their author's age, or of the veil of language which softens their defects by obscurity. Among du se is the ballad of Sir Charles Bawdin. The hcroic con ception of character, the simple and well-chosen inci dents, the pathos and picturesqueness of this poem, is fraught with the boldest spirit of lyrical enthu siasm Ilis life (says Lord Orford) should be compared with the powers of his mind; the perfection of his poetry ; his knowledge of the world, which, though in sours respects erroneous, spoke quick intuition ; his humour, his vein of satire, and above all, the amazing number of books he must have looked into, though chained down to a laborious and almost incessant service, and confined to Bristol, except for the last five months of his life. The rapidity with which he seized all the topics of con versation then in vogue, whether of politics, literature, or fashion ; and wirer, added to all this mass of reflec tion, it is remembered that Iris youthful passions were indulged to excess, faith in such a prodigy may well be suspended, and we should look for some secret agent behind the curtain, if it were not as difficult to believe that any man possessing such a genuine vein of poetry, would have submitted to lie concealed while he actuated a puppet, or wouid have stooped to prostitute his muse to so many unworthy functions. But nothing in Chat terton can be separated from Chatterton. His noblest flights and his sweetest strains, his grossest ribaldry and Iris most common-place imitations of the productions of magazines, were all the effervescence of the same ungo vernabie impulse which, cameleon-like, imbibed the co lours of all it looked upon. It was Ossian, or a Saxon monk, or Gray, or Smollct, or Junius ; and if it failed most in what it most affected to be, a poet of the 15th century, it was because it could not imitate what had not existed. (4)