WORDSWORTH, William, English poet: b. Cockermouth, Cumberland, 7 April 1770; d. Rydal Mount, W'esunoreland, 23 April 1850. He was the second son of John Wordsworth, attorney-at-law, who was descended from a Yorkshire family dating back to the Norman Conquest. His mother, Anne Cookson, be longed to an ancient family of Crackanthorpes, who had lived in Westmoreland from the times of Edward III. He was educated at Hawks head Grammar School and at Saint John's Col lege, Cambridge, where he entered in 1787, tak ing his B.A. degree in January 1791. In the summer vacation of 1790 he went to the Con tinent with Robert Jones, a fellow-collegian, starting. as he says. °staff in hand, without knapsacks, each his needments tied up in a pocket-handkerchief, with about 20 pounds apiece in our pockets)) They spent most of the time in walking through Switzerland.
He left Cambridge with no definite plans for the future. He did not feel himself, as he said afterward, "good enough for the church,D and had no inclination to the law. He had studied military history with much interest, and at one time thought of going into the arms, but on reflection gave up the plan. He finally went to London. where he lived for a time on a small allowance with no special aim or employment. In November 1791, he went to France, IA the idea of spending the winter and learning French, but, becoming interested in the politics of the period. re mained in the counir) until October 1792, when his friends, fearing for his safety, shis funds, and he reluctantly returned touRegland He soon began to turn his attention to lit erary work. He had written verse in his school days, at first as a task imposed by lin master, the subject assigned being The Sim mer Vacation," to which of his own accord he added a poem on 'The Return to School' This was before he was 15, for in 1785 hc was called upon to write verses in commemo ration of the second centennial anniversary of the founding of the school. These. hc says. '~were much admired— far more than they deserved — for they were but a tame imitation of Pope's versification, and a little in his style* His first publication was in 1792 (not 1793. as generally stated), a thin quarto entitled 'Ada Evening Walk—an Epistle in Verse ad dressed to a Young Lady from the Lakes of the North ofE land. By W. Wordsworth. B.A., of Saint ohn's College, Cambridge.' n/ This was followed the same year, by 'Descrip tive Sketches in Verse taken from a Pedes trian Tour in the Italian, Grison, Swiss and Savoyard Alps.' The books attracted link attention, and sold very slowly; but they led to the friendship between Wordsworth and Coleridge, which proved to be a lifelong inti macy. Coleridge says in his 'Biograplua Literaria' : 'During the last year of my resi dence at Cambridge I became acquainted with Mr. Wordsworth's 'Descriptive Sketches.' and
seldom, if ever, was the emergence of an original poetic genius above the literary hori zon more evidently announced." Wordsworth himself did not estimate these early poems very highly. In a letter to a friend at the time he says: •It was with great reluctance that I sent those two little works into the world in so imperfect a state. But as I had done nothing by which to distinguish myself at the uniscr sny, I thought these little things might show that I could do something. They have been treated with unmerited contempt by some of the periodicals, and others have spoken of than in higher terms than they deserved.' In the latter part of 1794 Wordsworth re ceived a legacy of 000 from a young friend. Raisley Calvert, son of the steward of the dale of Norfolk, who owned large estates in Onn berland. had long been very intimate when Calvert was attacked by consumptxn. and Wordsworth was his devoted companios and nurse until his death. The poet now iek that he could make a home for himself and his only sister, with whom, the next autumn (17951 he settled down in a cottage at Raced:nen 0 I)orsetshire. In July 1797, they moved to Alfoxdcu, in Somersetshire, in order to be near Coleridge at Netherstowey. Here Words worth added to his income by taking a young son of Basil Montague as pupil; and here he wrote many of the poems included in the 'Lyrical Ballads,' published in the autumn i:' 1798 by Mr. Joseph Cottle of Bristol, who had Been rash enough to pay 30 guineas tabor $150) for the copyright. The volume cur tained Coleridge's 'Ancient Mariner,' winch he and Wordsworth had planned together, and to which the latter had contributed a few lines together with \Vordsysorth's 'Idiot Boy.' Ue arc Seven,' and 20 other poems. Among thew were the famous lines on 'Tintern Abbrs.' which were written just before the book ap peared. Five hundred copies were issued. but most of them were afterward sold to a Lon don bookseller at a sacrifice. When Cottle gave up business soon afterward, his copy rights were transferred to Mr. Longman of London, and in the estimation of their value the 'Lyrical Ballads' were put down as °worth Cottle, therefore, asked that the copyright might be given back to him, and, the request being granted, he made a present of It to the authors, who both lived to see it become a piece of really valuable literary property. It is notto imagine a book containing 'The Ancient Mariner' and the 'Tintern Abbey' reckoned absolutely worthless, from a commer cial point of view, only about a century ago.