BEDDOES, THOMAS LOVELL (1803-49). An English dramatist. He was born at Clifton, July 20, 1803. His father was the distinguished physician, Thomas Beddoes (noticed above). His mother was a sister of Alaria Edgeworth, the novelist. In 1808 Dr. Beddoes died, leaving his son to the guardianship of Davies Giddy, afterwards Sir Davies Gilbert, president of the Royal Society. Young Beddoes was placed at the Bath Grammar School: from thence, in 1817, he removed to the tharterbouse, and in May, 1820, he entered a commoner at Pembroke College, Oxford. In 1821 he published the Improvisatore. On this volume he looked with no favor at a later period, and was accustomed to destroy I stray copies wherever he could find them. In 1822 he published The Bride's Tragedy, a work of great promise. In 1825 he went to Gottingen to study medicine, and from this time forth continued to live in Germany, with occasional visits to England. While engaged at Frank fort (1848), in dissecting, he received a slight wound, which was the means of infusing a noxious virus into his system. Under most dis
tressing circumstances, he committed suicide at Basel, January 26. 1849. During his wander ings in Germany, Beddoes was engaged at inter vals in the composition of a drama entitled Death's Jest-Book. This work, together with his other manuscripts, consisting chiefly of poetry, lie left to his friend, T. F. Kelsall. In 1850 this friend published Death's Jest-Book, and in 18'51 the collected poems of Beddoes, with an excellent memoir. Beddoes is ehielly known by this posthumous play, which is a tragedy conceived in the manner of Webster and Tour neur, the late Elizabethans, who dealt in the terror and pageantry of death. The blank verse is good, and scattered through the play are many songs recalling the ease and freshness of Shake speare. Consult : Poetical Works (London, 1390) and Letters (London, 1894), both edited by Gosse.