subject, as she acknowledges, painful to the writer, as well as undertaken at a period of ill-health. With respect to dates, therefore, it is exceedingly probable that mistakes should occur, and especially where they do not tend to affect the credibility of the circumstances to which they relate. "That Mrs. Newton was incorrect in asserting that it was not till after he was twelve years old that Chatterton produced his first poetical attempts, is apparent from the statement of Sir Herbert Croft, that the satirical verses entitled "Sly Dick," as well as the Hymn for Christmas-Day, were written by Chatterton at about the age of eleven; information which he must have derived either from Mrs. Newton, or from her mother, Mrs. Chatterton. The inaccuracy of Mrs. Newton's memory with respect to the date of her brother's first poetical efforts, is further proved, beyond all controversy, by the fact that the verses entitled "Apostate Will" bear the date, in Chatterton's own handwriting, of April 14, 1764, when he was not quite eleven years and five months old. "This point being established, it remains to determine to what limit Mrs. Newton's inaccuracy upon the subject may reasonably be supposed to extend. "There can be no doubt of the correctness of Mrs. Newton's statement, that her brother began to write poetry soon after he was confirmed. Her error, as to his age when he produced his first poetical efforts, arose from the period she assigned to his confirmation; and the question about to be raised is, whether that event did not take place when he was ten years old, instead of twelve, as stated by Mrs. Newton. "In support of the assumption of the inaccuracy of her memory, in reference to the date of her brother's confirmation, it should be recollected that her letter was written on the 22d of September, 1778, fourteen years after the period assigned by her as that when the event took place; and when the circumstances under which she wrote are also considered, it appears but reasonable to conclude that, whether fourteen or sixteen years had elapsed since the period to which she refers, was a point on which her memory was not unlikely to prove fallacious. "Neither is there any improbability to contend with, in assigning Chatterton's confirmation to so early a period of his life. More than five years had then elapsed since "the wond'rous boy" fell in love, to use his mother's expression, with the rudiments of literature; and such was the ardour he evinced in the pursuit of knowledge, that at the very time to which it is contended the circumstance of his confirmation should be assigned, he was in the habit, as his sister informs us, of expending what was given him for pocketmoney in hiring books from a circulating library. "In addition to these suggestions in favour of the supposition that Chatterton was confirmed at the age of ten instead of twelve years, the verses themselves, now produced as those which he wrote upon the occasion, combined with the circumstances connected with their publication, may be confidently adduced as tending in a very high degree to establish the position. Besides the identity of the subject, they consist of sixteen lines, approximating to Mrs. Newton's statement in that respect, as nearly as can be expected from the indeterminate manner in which she expresses herself; they contain abundant internal proof of the juvenility of the writer; they were inserted in the Bristol newspaper to which Chatterton, as well as his literary associates, were subsequently in the habit of communicating their productions; and they appeared in the seventh week after he had attained the tenth year of his age."1 Mr. Tyson then produces the lines, to which we shall presently refer. With respect to Chatterton's first poetical productions Mr. Tyson is undoubtedly right. It was written in 1762, instead of 1764. His sister is positive to the subject, which she states to be "verses on the last day 1 From a communication respecting Chatterton's first poetical production, published as an Appendix to Dix's Life, and which I am permitted, by the kindness of Mr. Tyson, to make use of in this biography. -about eighteen lines-written in the week he was door-keeper." 1 To Mr. Tyson's industrious research we owe the preservation of these lines, which it was thought were entirely lost. "It is with a feeling of gratification," observes that gentleman," that they are rescued from the obscurity in which they were enveloped, and placed before the public eye, as exhibiting the flutterings of the unfledged eaglet." They were published in Felix Farley's Bristol Journal, for January 8, 1763, and are entitled ON THE LAST EPIPHANY, OR CHRIST COMING TO JUDGMENT. Behold! just coming from above, Must rise, and take his everlasting doom. 1 It was, and still is, I believe, customary for the boys edu cated at Colston's school to take the post of door-keeper in rotation, the office continuing for the space of a week at a time in the occupation of one boy. Of course the lad in office had much leisure time during this period.-Dix's Life. Nothing uncommon in these—even for ten years; but then, in composition, as in every thing else, when once fairly in progress, Chatterton made rapid strides towards perfection. "He had been gloomy from the time he began to learn, but he became more cheerful when he began to write poetry." Why, the weight-the incubus-was removed. He had burst his bonds-could flutter now, and prepare himself for higher flights. It was pleasant even to feel his liberty, and to know that what was within him he could speak out. The bandage was removed from the eyes of the mewed bird. He could behold the heaven, where his thoughts rested-whence his prophesyings had descended, and the living fire that had tipped his tongue. While he was yet musing, the flame had kindled. His beliefs, his aspirations, and his ardent yearnings-burning, struggling to be uttered-they might be uttered now. "Some satirical pieces we saw soon after." That is, after his twelfth, or, as it has been proved, his tenth year. Of his powers of satire, we shall, bye-and-by, have much to say. It has been generally thought that his verses entitled "Apostate Will" were his first essay in that line. The opinion was erroneous; and the proof in this case we likewise owe to Mr. Tyson. This "Apostate Will" was an unprincipled man, who for mercenary motives shifted his religion from one sect to another without compunction. Sir Herbert Croft transcribed it after his death from an old pocket-book in the possession of his relatives. This pocket-book had been given to him by his sister, as a New-year's present, after his confirmation, and he had subsequently returned it to her filled with attempts at poetry. "It appears," says the transcriber," to be his first, perhaps his only copy of it, and is evidently his handwriting. By the date, he was eleven years and almost five months old. It is not the most extraordinary performance in the world; but, from the circumstance of Chatterton's parentage and education, it is unlikely, if not impossible, that he should have met with any assistance or correction: whereas, when we read the Ode which Pope wrote at twelve, and another of Cowley at thirteen, we are apt to suspect a parent, friend, or tutor, of an amiable dishonesty, of which we feel, perhaps that we should be guilty. Suspicions of this nature touch not Chatterton. He knew no tutor, friend, or parent, at least no parent who could correct or assist him.” 1 This is a lame and impotent conclusion. Pope's father was any thing but friendly disposed towards his son's poetical powers. He would not, even if he could, have assisted him. And Chatterton had a tutorwhich tutor was his intimate friend, and who himself made a pretence of writing poetry-Thomas Phillips. The verses, however, for which this question is begged, would confer as little credit on Phillips as they do on Chatterton. We must again have recourse to Mr. Tyson. "In Felix Farley's Bristol Journal of Saturday, December 17, 1763, and some following numbers, a succession of satirical attacks, in verse and prose, are inserted, on a churchwarden, who is accused of having ordered the levelling of the churchyard entrusted to his care, and of hauling away the clay to be used for the purposes of his trade as a brickmaker. 1 "Love and Madness," by Sir Herbert Croft. |