University of Virginia Library

Thomas Chatterton

Although the letter of the Reverend Mr. John Chapman to Dr. Andrew Ducarel, dated Dec. 15, 1771, and that of William Barrett to the same recipient, dated March 7, 1772, contributed to the GM in May and June 1786 (pp. 361-362, 460-461) by "Eugenio" (i.e. John Nichols) are both known and are mentioned in E. H. W. Meyerstein's biography of Chatterton,[9] no attention has been paid to the text of some of Chatterton's poetry contained therein. In the May number of the GM the Reverend Mr. Chapman wrote that he had asked George Catcott permission to copy the whole of the "tragedy of Ellie," but all he could get was the enclosed extract, which he described thus: "Bertha, his lady, is distressed by his absence, and calls for music to soothe her melancholy. The minstrels describe in their songs the four seasons. The first and third, Spring and Autumn, are all the specimens I could procure." He further added, "The tragedy is in the sole possession of Mr. Catcott; the other pieces are betwixt them: but I believe the originals are all with Mr. Barrett." In what follows I give the received reading in Professor Donald S. Taylor's edition of Chatterton's works (1971, 2 vols., I. 185-186) first and then the GM reading, but without regard to differences in punctuation. L. 278 atte/all; l. 279, sprenged/springedde; l. 281, yonge/springe; l. 282, ynto . . . straughte/yntee . . . strayghte; l. 283, Whenn . . . to . . . whestlyng . . . brought/Whanne . . . the . . . whestlynge . . . bryghte; l. 296, blake/blieke; l. 300, al/at; l. 301, lemes/lennes; l. 304, When/Whanne; l. 307, steynced/steyned. The Reverend Mr. Chapman may have made errors in his transcription and printers have often proved fallible, but despite palpable errors in lines 278, 282 (yntee), 283 (the), 300, and 301, there are enough substantive variants left to permit speculation as to the uniqueness of the text from which the reverend gentleman made his transcription. The GM readings in lines 282 (strayghte) and 307 (steyned) are the same as in the Cambridge manuscript, although in line 296 Cambridge has "Sun burnt" where both the received and GM texts have "sonne brente." The GM reading in line 281 ("springe" for "yonge") is not only unique but also makes sense. So, too, with line 296, as the GM's "blieke" for the received "blake" (i.e. naked) may be said to make better sense, although it is possibly less Chattertonian. Thomas Tyrwhitt, considering the authenticity of the Rowley poems, under his category of "words used by other writers, but in a different sense," quoted two instances of the use of "blake," both from Ælla, and wrote, "Blake, in old English, may signifie either black, or bleake. Chatterton, in both these passages [ll. 178, 407], renders it naked; and, in the latter, some such signification seems absolutely necessary to make any sense."[10] Finally, because it too has gone unnoted and may be of some

slight interest, there is a footnote on page 362 keyed to the line "Whanne at the hyls wy the woddie* sede ys whyte," which reads "Wood, a plant much cultivated in the neighbourhood of Bristol." OED gives "A tree Obs." as the first definition of "wood," with illustrative quotations from Beowulf and Tindal, the latter dated 1526.

William Barrett wrote to Dr. Ducarel on March 7, 1772 and concluded his letter by saying "I will subjoin an elegant little poem copied verbatim et literatim [my emphasis] from Rowley's original penes me" (GM, 1786. i. 460). The "elegant little poem" was "addressed to John Lydgate the poet; the subject in praise of Ella, a Saxon governor of the castle of Bristol 'in daies of yore'." The received text in Taylor's edition is at I. 61-62. There are thirty-six lines in the poem and there are variants in all but lines 2, 17, and 18. Of the thirty-three variants all but seven are of spelling and need not be listed, as the GM is not rare. The first reading, as before, is from Taylor's edition: l. 5, hayre/lockes; l. 10, There/Then; l. 11, by thy burled/bie thie burlie; l. 22, hearste/ken'st; l. 26, Ifrayning/Yprauncynge; l. 30, glare/glow; l. 32, Let Bristowe still/Stylle lette Bristowe. GM shares "lockes" of line 5 and "Then" of line 10 with MS. B6493; except for the first word in each, "bie thie burlie" of line 11 with "with thie burlye" with the Westminster Magazine (Jan. 1775) and the 1777a edition; "glow" of line 30 with B1a and the William Andrew Clarke MS (B6493 and Westminster Magazine have "glow'st"); and "Stylle lette Bristowe" of line 32 with the Clarke library MS. In two readings, "ken'st" of line 22, and "Yprauncynge" of line 26, GM agrees with all texts other than the BMB MS, copy-text for the poem.[11] These substantive variants, coupled with the extensive differences in spelling, give pause. William Barrett wrote that he copied the poem "verbatim et literatim" from the original in his possession ("penes me"). If this is indeed true, and there seems no reason to doubt Barrett, especially since the manuscript of the poem is known to have been in his possession,[12] the whole matter of copy-text becomes muddled. Professor Taylor very understandingly uses BMB, a miscellany which has this poem as well as a Chatterton letter and many notes in Barrett's hand, as his copy-text. Barrett, in 1772, had "Rowley's original," i.e. Chatterton's holograph; fourteen years later, the letter in which he included a copy of the poem, transcribed word for word and letter for letter, was reprinted in the GM. In the meantime, Tyrwhitt's edition of the Rowley poems had appeared, two editions in 1777 and a third in 1778 with its Appendix in which Tyrwhitt proved the poems were by Chatterton. The GM text shares a number of spelling variants with the text in Tyrwhitt's third edition, differs in a number of spellings, and shares no substantive variants with it. Except for the possible slight errors of spelling in his transcription, despite Barrett's claim of copying Rowley's original letter for letter, the GM text of the Song to Ella must be taken into consideration.

Murray Warren's Descriptive and Annotated Bibliography of Thomas Chatterton (1977), under the rubric of "Literary Criticism," lists one contribution

to the GM in 1782 and no other. In 1783, however, S. W., i.e. the Reverend Steven Weston, wrote to the GM (Feb., p. 123) asking that somebody explicate lines 31-38 of Battle of Hastings I for him. He particularly wanted to know what lines 33 to 36 meant, especially "to what historical occurrence the author has alluded in these words. Your lovyng wife, who erst dyd rid the londe / Of Lurdanes." The answer came promptly in the next month's issue (p. 231); T. H. W., i.e. Thomas Holt White, brother of Gilbert White of Selborne, offering the following:

Professor Taylor's note on the passage (ll. 33-38) reads: "Possible reading: Before yon sun has set, you'll have set your course for good or evil forever. The loving wife and the treasure of you who once rid the land of Lurdanes (see glossary) will fall into the Norman robbers' hands unless, etc. For another possible reading connecting this with the Hocktide games, see 1871 [Skeat's ed.], ii. 337" (II. 828). The definitions of "lode" and of "Lurdanes" were available in N. Bailey's Universal Etymological English Dictionary which had gone through many editions by 1783. But Holt White was the first to comment accurately upon both words as well as the more difficult "Donde his welke" and he was the first, long before Skeat, to connect the passage with the Hocktide Games. But Holt White, as I have shown elsewhere, was a man of considerable erudition.[13]