CHAT'TERTON, TitoNtAs (1752-1770). An English poet, born in Bristol. Novemher 20, 1752. His father, who had once been a sexton of saint Mary Itedeliffe, Bristol, and also master of a charity school, died about two months be fore the poet's birth. Chatterton was educated at the school of which his father had been master, and was thought a dull child; but. mak ing acquaintance with a black-letter Bible which his mother often used. the dormant spirit flashed op. From this book he learned to read. From early years he was fond of all kinds of antiqui ties; lie clung around old walls like the ivy, and haunted twilight ruins like the bat. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to .John Lambert, an attorney. His situation here was uncomfortable; he took his meals in the kitchen with the foot.bov, and, when refractory, was chas tised with a ruler. In October, 17fig, the new 1 ridge at Bristol was opened. and Chatterton sent to a newspaper an account, in antique phraseology and spelling. of the ceremonies at tending the opening of the old one in 124R, the whole purporting to he taken from an ancient.
manuscript. In the preceding year he presented himself to a certain Bristol pewterer, Burguin by name, and astonished the craftsman by the sight of a parchment in which his pedigree was traced back to the Norman Conquest. lle also exhibited to his friends copies mf old \VII he said. were composed by one Thomas Rowley. a mythical monk of the Fifteenth Cen tury. These manuseripts made smile stir in his native city, hut not. enough to satisfy .1ccordingly, Horace Walpole, at that time col lecting additional materials for his Anecdotes of Painting in England, received from Chatterton several pages of antique writing. accompanied by a short note (170). The pretended manuscript gave biographical sketches of celebrated painters who had flourished in England several centuries before, and of whose existence Walpole had never dreamed. Walpole, put off his guard, answered his unknown correspondent at one expressed his delight at receiving the manuscript ; and de sired, as a personal favor, that all the ether antique writings, poems included, mentioned in the note should be forwarded. Chatterton im mediately sent accounts of a great many more painters and poets, and also gave some slight sketch of his personal history. On receipt of this second eommunication. Walpole suspected a trick. The poems he showed to Mason and Cray. who at once pronounced them forgeries. lie then wrote Chatterton, administering a great deal of excellent advice. Chatterton replied, de siring that the manuscript should lie returned at once; but by the time the letter reached Lon don Walpole was about to start for Paris, and it was allowed to remain unanswered. It was
returned three months later. From his earliest youth Chatterton had a ghastly familiarity with the idea. of suicide. Among his papers preserved in the British Thisemn is a last will and testa ment, "executed in the presence of Omniscience, the 14th of _April, 1770." full of the wildest wit and profanity. This and similar documents falling into the hands of his friends, led to his dismissal from Lambert's office. Released from the slavery of law. Chatterton left for London, April 24, 1770, taking with him the Rowley manuscripts. Ile found shelter in the house of one Walinsley, a plasterer, in Shorediteh. No sooner bad he settled there than he began to work as with a hundred hands. During the last few months of his life lie poured forth squibs, satiric poems, political essays. hurlettas. letters in the style of Junius, and meditated writing a history of England, to appear in parts. For a time his prospects seemed very bright. He ob tained an introduction to Lord layor Beckford: he sent glowing letters home, accompanied by presents to his mother and sisters. Ultimately he left the plasterer's in and took lodgings in Brooke Street, adjoining, Holho•n. Unhappily for him. editors of opposition papers were willing enough to insert and praise his articles, hut were disinclined to render an equivalent in cash. The of life were now fast failing. On Ammst 25, 1770. his landlady. alarmed that her lodger did not make his ap pearance. had the door of his room broken open: saw the floor littered with small pieces of paper, and Chatterton "lying on the bed with his legs hanging over, quite dead." He had taken arsenie, in antieipation of a slower death from starvation.
Chat terton, dying before he was eighteen years was rertainly a marvelous boy. While a peculiar interest is attached to all that he wrote, he is hest remembered as the author of the so-called 'Rowley Poems.' Of them only one "•linonr and Auga"—appeared during his life. The rest were enlleeled and published by 'I'. Tyr •hitt, in 1777. Some of llt•m possess that rare beauty of imagination which we associate with Coleridge and Keats. Indeed. these latter poets (me.' 11 to Chattertou. So, too, did Rossetti and William Morris. We may cite especially: "The Ballade of C'harity:" the first and third "Eclogues:" the "Tragedy of .Ella:" the "Trag edy of Godwin;" "The 'iournanoit;" and the "Parliament of Sprites." Consult "Masson. chatterloa: .1 Biography (New York, 1S90) ; The l'orliral Works of Chattriton, edited by Skeat (London. I575) ; Watts•Dunton's essay in \Vard. Eng/b./. Poets, III. (London alld New York. HSI)); and Peers, English. Romanticism ( New York. 1898).