we find such various and indubitable proofs of genius at so early an age, struggling against so many difficulties? Let us contemplate him as a young man, without classical education, and who knew nothing of literary society but during the few months of his residence in London; and if to this we add, what has been most decidedly proved, that he was not only the author of the poems attributed to Rowley, but consumed his early days in the laborious task of disguising them in the garb of antiquity, perpetually harassed by suspicion, and fearfull of discovery: if likewise we reflect that the whole of his career closed before he had completed his eighteenth year, we must surely allow that he was one of the most extraordinary young men of modern times, and deserves to be placed high among those instances of premature talents recorded by Kleferus in his Bibliotheca Eruditorum Præcocium, and by Baillet in his Enfans Celebres.

Still our admiration should be chastened by confining it to the single point of Chatterton's extreme youth. If we go farther, and consider Rowley's poems as the most perfect productions of any age; if, with Dean Milles, we prefer him to Homer, Virgil, Spenser and Shakespeare, we go beyond all bounds of sober criticism, or rather we defy its laws. Wonderful as those poems are, when considered as the productions of a boy, many heavy deductions must be made from them, if we consider them as the productions of a man, of one who had bestowed labour as well as contributed genius, and who had learned to polish and correct; who would not have admitted such a number of palpable imitations and plagiarisms, and would have altered or expunged a multitude of tame, prosaic, and bald lines and metres.

The general character of his works has been so fairly and elegantly appreciated by lord Orford, that I shall make no apology for introducing his remarks, espe cially as they occur only in the last edition of his works. "His life," says this critic, "should be compared with the powers of his mind, the perfection of his poetry, his knowledge of the world, which, though in some 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, at most, for the last five months of his life; the rapidity with which he seized all the topics of conversation then in vogue, whether of politics, literature or fashion; and when added to all this mass of reflection, it is remembered that his 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 possessed such a vein of genuine poetry would have submitted to lie concealed while he actuated a puppet; or would have stooped to prostitute his muse to so many unworthy functions. But nothing in Chatterton can be separated from Chatterton. His noblest flights, his sweetest strains, his grossest ribaldry, and his most common-place imitations of the productions of magazines, were all the effervescenses of the same ungovernable impulse, which, cameleon-like, imbibed the colours of all it looked on. It was Ossian, or a Saxon monk, or Gray, or Smollet, or Junius-and if it failed most in what it most affected to be, a poet of the fifteenth century, it was because it could not imitate what had not existed."

The facts already related are principally taken from the account drawn up originally for the Biographia Britannica, and at the distance of eighteen years, prefixed to a late edition of his works, without any addition or alteration. Something yet remains to be said of his virtues, which, if the poetical eulogiums that have appeared deserve any credit, were many. Except his temperance, however, already noticed, we find only that he preserved an affectionate attachment for his mother and sister, and even concerning this it would appear that more has been said than is consistent. It has been asserted that he sent presents to them from London, when in want himself; but it is evident from his letters that these were unnecessary articles for persons in their situation, and were not sent when he was in want. Six weeks after, when he felt himself in that state, he committed an act, which affection for his relations, since he despised all higher considerations, ought to have retarded. His last letter to his sister and mother, dated July 20, is full of high-spirited hopes, and contains a promise to visit them before the first of January, but not a word that can imply discontent, far less an intention to put an end to his life. What must have been their feelings, when the melancholy event reached them! But how little these poor women were capable of appreciating his character, appears from the very singular evidence of his sister, who affirmed that he was " a lover of truth from the earliest dawn of reason." The affectionate prejudices of a fond relation may be pardoned; but it was surely inconsistent to introduce this in a life, every part of which proves his utter contempt for truth at an age when we are taught to expect a disposition open, ingenuous, and candid.

With regard to the controversy occasioned by the publications attributed to Rowley, it is unnecessary to enter upon it in this sketch, which was intended merely to preserve the few particulars of his history that can be depended on. Whether the object of this controversy was not disproportioned to the warmth it excited, and the length of time it consumed, the reader may judge from a perusal of the whole of Chatterton's productions. The principal advocates for the existence of Rowley, and the authenticity of his poems, were Mr. Bryant, Dean Milles, Dr. Glynn, Mr. Henley1o, Dr. Langhorn (in the Monthly Review), and Mr. James Harris. Their opponents were Mr. Tyrwhitt, Horace Walpole, the two Wartons, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Steevens, Dr. Percy 10 (bishop of Dromore), Mr. Gibbon, Mr. Jones, Dr. Farmer, Mr. Colman, Mr. Sheridan", Dr. Lort, Mr. Astle, Mr. (sir Herbert) Croft, Mr. Hayley", Lord Camden, Mr. Gough, Mr. Mason, the writer of the Critical Review, Mr. Badcock (in the Monthly Review), the Reviewers in the Gentleman's Magazine, and various correspondents in the same miscellany. To these may be added Mr. Malone, who has lived to detect another forgery by a very young impostor, in the history of which the reader will probably recollect many corresponding circumstances, but will be inclined to prefer the shame of Chatterton, fatal as it was, to the unblushing impudence and unnatural fraud of one who brought disgrace and ruin on a parent.

In the year 1803, an edition of Chatterton's works, far more complete than

9 See a note in the Biog. Britannica, vol. iv. p. 588, signed O, written by Dr. Lort, but omitted in the life lately published.-C.

10 These gentlemen only are the survivors (1807) of this celebrated dispute.-C.

any that had yet appeared, was published under the care of Messrs. Southey and Cottle, for the benefit of Mrs. Newton, Chatterton's sister, (since dead) and of her daughter. This edition has been followed in the present collection, but the coldness with which it was received by the public is perhaps a proof that it will not be possible to perpetuate the fame of an author, who has concealed his best productions under the garb of a barbarous language, which few will be at the trouble of learning. The controversy is no longer interesting, and perhaps the warmth with which so many great names engaged in it may hereafter *be reckoned as surprising as the object itself.

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POEMS

THOMAS CHATTERTON.

WHANNE Englonde, smeethynge from her le- Ihantend to the peyne, will lette ne salte teare