The revival of interest in mediaeval life and literature during the 18th century, led to a fanatical search for antiquarian literary treasures. Where there was such a strong demand, literary forgers and impostors such as James Macpherson, William Henry Ireland and Thomas Chatterton provided them to their willing and eager patrons. Chatterton was born to poverty in Bristol in 1752 and died in poverty in London in 1770. As a child he began writing assured verse before indulging in the production of the Rowley Poems,
imitation mediaeval english poetry. He wrote on scraps of old parchment and posed it as the work of the 15th century secular priest Thomas Rowley and others in the circle of the Bristol merchant, William Canynges. The publication of Thomas Tyrwhitt's first collection of Rowley poems in 1777 gave immediate rise a heated literary controversy regarding their authenticity. This is a collection of the major contemporary contributions to the controversy - all of them extremely rare. The Rowley myth was eventually destroyed by the influential voice of Walpole and the careful linguistic and historical evidence assembled by Malone, Warton and Tyrwhitt. This ironically gave rise to the 'marvellous boy' image of Chatterton, heralded by the later Romantic poets.
By:
G Gregory,
Thomas Chatterton,
T Chatterton
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 138mm,
Weight: 3.311kg
ISBN: 9780415092555
ISBN 10: 0415092558
Pages: 1952
Publication Date: 05 August 1993
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
,
A / AS level
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
First Collected Edition of the Rowley Poems [1777] Thomas Chatterton Edited by Thomas Tyrwhitt 336pp The Life of Thomas Chatterton with Criticisms on his Genius and Writings and a concise View of the Controversy concerning Rowley's Poems [1789] George Gregory 272pp The Life of Thomas Chatterton including his unpublished Poems and Correspondence [1837] John Dix 346pp Cursory Observations on the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley, a Priest of the Fifteenth Century [1782] Edmund Malone 66pp An Essay on the Evidence, External and Internal, relating to the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley [1783] Thomas James Mathias 130pp A Vindication of the Appendix to the Poems, called Rowley's, in reply to the Answers of the Dean of Exeter, Jacob Bryant [1782] Thomas Tyrwhitt 232pp An Enquiry into the Authenicity of the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley [1782] Thomas Warton 128pp A Letter to the Editor of the Miscellanies of Thomas Chatterton[1799] Horace Walpole 58pp
Reviews for Thomas Chatterton: Early Sources and Responses
'...These reprints will go a significant way towards enabling a reconceptualization of the later 18th century, and restoring this perversely neglected episode to literary history.' - Nick Groom, Times Higher Education Supplement
