Thomas Taylor's Biography
by
G. E. Bentley, Jr.
In the last thirty years there has been a surprising amount of
speculation about the influence of the enthusiastic Platonist Thomas Taylor
upon most of the major poets of the Romantic Movement.[1] There is great difficulty in
establishing
these claims, because, although Taylor was notorious as "the English
Pagan," his life and friendships are shrouded in considerable
obscurity, and there are important bibliographical problems connected with
a number of his works. Our knowledge of Taylor's life comes principally
from an anonymous article entitled "Mr. Taylor, the Platonist" which
appeared in a history of some
Public Characters of 1798.
Much
of the information in this article is of an extremely minute and personal
nature (though there is a large and troubling unconcern for dates), and the
assumption among scholars has been that it was written either by Taylor
himself or by a very close friend. On the other hand, the statement that "the
celebrated Mrs. Woolstoncraft and her friend Miss Blood, resided with our
philosopher for nearly three months" distressingly lacks the warranty of
correct spelling.
[2] It is a matter of
considerable interest, therefore, to verify the authorship of this essay. In
particular, it would be interesting to know the authority for the statements
that Taylor made many friends "through the
means of Mr. Geo. Cumberland," and that one of his first efforts "to
emerge from obscurity" was to give a series of lectures on Platonism "at
the request of Mr. Flaxman . . . who very benevolently permitted him to
read his Lectures in the largest room of his house." About this time, the
early 1780s, Flaxman and Cumberland were probably among Blake's
closest friends.
[3] The following
letter, addressed to Cumberland at "Bishops Gate, near Egham, Surry," is
therefore of some importance.
Adelphi, Society of Arts
Octr: 7th 1798
Dear Sir
A volume will be published next month entitled "Public Characters
of the Year 98". In this volume I am to make my appearance: and as the
Editor requested me for this purpose to give him some memoirs of my
stormy life, I have drawn up as accurate an Account of myself as memory
would permit; thinking it was better to be my own executioner, than to be
murdered by any editor, or hierling Author in Great Britain. In the course
of these memoirs, I have taken care to inform the world, that it was
principally owing to you, that I was enabled to emerge from the obscurity
& servility of a Bankers Clerk; & have mentioned you as well
known,
by the publication of several ingenious
works. This I thought no more than justice, & hope you will consider
what I have done in that light. Wishing you health, peace &
temperance,
I remain
Yours sincerely
Thomas Taylor
[4]
Scholars interested in the career of Thomas Taylor may therefore accept as
absolutely authoritative the essay in Public Characters of
1798.
Notes
[1]
See especially F.B. Evans, "Thomas Taylor,
Platonist of the Romantic Period," PMLA, LV (1940),
1060-1079; J.A. Notopoulos, "Shelley and Thomas Taylor,"
PMLA, LI (1936), 502-517 and The Platonism of
Shelley, 1949; F.E. Pierce, "Blake and Thomas Taylor,"
PMLA, XLIII (1928), 1121-1141; "Taylor, Aristotle and
Blake," PQ, IX (1930), 363-370; and "Wordsworth and
Thomas
Taylor," PQ, VII (1928), 60-64; F.F. Johnson, "Neo-Platonic
Hymns by Thomas Taylor," PQ, VIII (1929), 145-156; G.M.
Harper, "The Source of Blake's 'Ah! Sun-flower'," MLR,
XLVIII (1953), 139-142; "The Neo-Platonic Concept of Time in Blake's
Prophetic Books," PMLA, LXIX (1954), 142-155; "Thomas
Taylor and Blake's Drama of Persephone," PQ, XXXIV
(1955),
378-394; and "Symbolic Meaning in Blake's 'Nine Years',"
MLN, LXXII (1957), 18-19; B. Blackstone, The
Consecrated Urn (about Keats), 1959. There are also half a dozen
unpublished dissertations.
[2]
Public Characters of 1798,
London,
1798, p. 79.
[3]
Cf. "Blake's Engravings and his Friendship with
Flaxman," SB, XII (1959). According to the rate books in
Westminster Public Library, Buckingham Palace Road, London, Flaxman
lived in a small house at 24 Wardour Street in 1783-84 when the lectures
were given in his house. George Cumberland was the first man to praise
Blake in print, in a previously unnoticed review of the Royal Academy
exhibition in the Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser,
May 27th 1780. It seems likely that Blake's method of printing his
illuminated books was derived from Cumberland's article on a "New Mode
of Printing," A New Review, IV (October 1784), 318-319.
Paradoxically, on January 22nd 1809 Cumberland referred to this as
"Blakes Method" (B.M. MSS., 36,501 f.360).
[4]
Quoted from a microfilm of the manuscript in
the collections of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Though Taylor
does not appear in the list of friends to whom Cumberland sent copies of
his Thoughts on Outline (B.M. MSS., 36,518, f.60), he
evidently sent him a copy as a result of the above letter, for on October
16th 1798 Taylor thanked him for it (B.M. MSS., 36,498, f.246), though
he did not mention the plates by Blake. Taylor may have told the publisher
of the Public Characters, Richard Phillips, of what he had
done,
for Phillips wrote asking Cumberland to use his great knowledge of public
figures to correct the volume (B.M. MSS., 36,498, f.267). A little later
(February 6th 1799), Cumberland's cousin Richard wrote saying that he too
had written an autobiographical essay for the Public
Characters
(B.M. MSS., 36,498, f. 278).