Jacob Bryant's
_Observations
upon the Poems of T.
Thomas Chatterton - Rowley Poems
' This edition follows the
first nearly page for page; but was reset.
1780. _Love and Madness_ by Sir Herbert Croft. This strange book
deserves a brief description as it is the source of almost all our
knowledge of Chatterton.
A certain Captain Hackman, violently in love with a Miss Reay,
mistress of the Earl of Sandwich, and stung to madness by his jealousy
and the hopelessness of his position, had in 1779 shot her in the
Covent Garden Opera House and afterwards unsuccessfully attempted
to shoot himself. Enormous public interest was excited, and
Croft--baronet, parson, and literary adventurer--got hold of copies
which Hackman had kept of some letters he had sent to the charming
Miss Reay. These he published as a sensational topical novel in
epistolary form, calling it _Love and Madness_. This is quite worth
reading for its own sake, but much more so for its 49th letter,
which purports to have been written by Hackman to satisfy Miss Reay's
curiosity about Chatterton. As a matter of fact Croft, who had been
very interested in the boy-poet and had collected from his relations
and those with whom he had lodged in London all they could
possibly tell him, wrote the letter himself and included it rather
inartistically among the genuine Hackman-Reay correspondence. Amongst
other valuable matter, this letter 49 contains a long account of her
brother by Mary Chatterton. --(See _Love letters of Mr. Hackman and
Miss Reay_, 1775-79, introduction by Gilbert Burgess: Heinemann,
1895. ) 1774-81. Warton's _History of English Poetry_, in Volume II of
which there is an account of Chatterton.
1781.
Jacob Bryant's _Observations upon the Poems of T. Rowley in
which the authenticity of those poems is ascertained_. Bryant was a
strong Pro-Rowleian and argues cleverly against the possibility of
Chatterton's having written the poems. He shows that Chatterton in his
notes often misses Rowley's meaning and insists that he neglected to
explain obvious difficulties because he could not understand them.
Bryant is the least absurd of the Pro-Rowleians.
1782. Dean Milles' edition of the Rowley poems--a splendid quarto with
a running commentary attempting to vindicate Rowley's authenticity.
Milles was President of the Society of Antiquaries and his commentary
is characterized by Professor Skeat as 'perhaps the most surprising
trash in the way of notes that was ever penned.
1782. Mathias' _Essay on the Evidence . . . relating to the poems called
Rowley's_--he is pro-Rowleian and criticizes Tyrwhitt's appendix.
1782. Thomas Warton's _Enquiry . .
first nearly page for page; but was reset.
1780. _Love and Madness_ by Sir Herbert Croft. This strange book
deserves a brief description as it is the source of almost all our
knowledge of Chatterton.
A certain Captain Hackman, violently in love with a Miss Reay,
mistress of the Earl of Sandwich, and stung to madness by his jealousy
and the hopelessness of his position, had in 1779 shot her in the
Covent Garden Opera House and afterwards unsuccessfully attempted
to shoot himself. Enormous public interest was excited, and
Croft--baronet, parson, and literary adventurer--got hold of copies
which Hackman had kept of some letters he had sent to the charming
Miss Reay. These he published as a sensational topical novel in
epistolary form, calling it _Love and Madness_. This is quite worth
reading for its own sake, but much more so for its 49th letter,
which purports to have been written by Hackman to satisfy Miss Reay's
curiosity about Chatterton. As a matter of fact Croft, who had been
very interested in the boy-poet and had collected from his relations
and those with whom he had lodged in London all they could
possibly tell him, wrote the letter himself and included it rather
inartistically among the genuine Hackman-Reay correspondence. Amongst
other valuable matter, this letter 49 contains a long account of her
brother by Mary Chatterton. --(See _Love letters of Mr. Hackman and
Miss Reay_, 1775-79, introduction by Gilbert Burgess: Heinemann,
1895. ) 1774-81. Warton's _History of English Poetry_, in Volume II of
which there is an account of Chatterton.
1781.
Jacob Bryant's _Observations upon the Poems of T. Rowley in
which the authenticity of those poems is ascertained_. Bryant was a
strong Pro-Rowleian and argues cleverly against the possibility of
Chatterton's having written the poems. He shows that Chatterton in his
notes often misses Rowley's meaning and insists that he neglected to
explain obvious difficulties because he could not understand them.
Bryant is the least absurd of the Pro-Rowleians.
1782. Dean Milles' edition of the Rowley poems--a splendid quarto with
a running commentary attempting to vindicate Rowley's authenticity.
Milles was President of the Society of Antiquaries and his commentary
is characterized by Professor Skeat as 'perhaps the most surprising
trash in the way of notes that was ever penned.
1782. Mathias' _Essay on the Evidence . . . relating to the poems called
Rowley's_--he is pro-Rowleian and criticizes Tyrwhitt's appendix.
1782. Thomas Warton's _Enquiry . .
