{"product_id":"the-poetry-of-thomas-chatterton","title":"The Poetry of Thomas Chatterton","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDespite tragically committing suicide at only 17, Chattertons influence would stretch far beyond his years, being a huge spark to poets such as Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth and Coleridge.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRead by Elliot Fitzpatrick(Unabridged: 1hr 17mins)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFeaturing stories by Thomas Chatterton \u0026amp; many more\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThomas Chatterton was born in Bristol on 20th November 1752 some 15 weeks after the death of his father. For a time he was admitted to Edward Colston's Bristol charity school, on a limited curriculum of reading, writing, arithmetic and the catechism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlthough fascinated by the church of St Mary Redcliffe where his uncle was sexton, he was liable to fits of abstraction, sitting for hours in a trance or crying for no reason. When Chatterton was 8 he was so eager for books that he would read and write all day long and by 11 he had become a contributor to Felix Farley's Bristol Journal. He lived in thought with his 15th-century heroes and heroines.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first of his literary mysteries, the dialogue of \"Elinoure and Juga,\" was written before he was 12, and he showed it to the usher at the boarding school Colston's Hospital where he was a pupil, pretending it was the work of a 15th-century poet. Chatterton remained a boarder at Colston's Hospital for more than six years. His little pocket-money was spent borrowing books from a circulating library and always attempting to ingratiate himself with book collectors.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis holidays were mostly spent at his mother's house, and much of that in the attic study living for the most part in an ideal world of his own, centered on his mid-15th century imaginary world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChatterton soon conceived the romance of Thomas Rowley, an imaginary monk of the 15th century, and adopted for himself the pseudonym Thomas Rowley for poetry and history. He imagined he would become a famous poet who by his talents would be able to rescue his mother from poverty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChatterton needed a patron. Many were not interested. Horace Walpole was but discovering that the poems were most probably fake and Chatterton himself only 16 scornfully sent him away.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBadly hurt by Walpole's snub, Chatterton wrote very little for a summer. Then he turned his attention to periodical literature and politics, and the London periodicals. He was frequently published but received little reward for his startling efforts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChatterton wrote at Easter 1770, ‘‘Last Will and Testament,’’ a satirical mix in jest and seriousness. The will was possibly prepared so that John Lambert, the attorney to whom he was apprenticed, cancelled his indentures. His friends and acquaintances, having donated money, Chatterton proceeded to London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe continued to write and publish in various styles and was paid little for his efforts. He wrote hopefully to his mother and sister, and spent his first earnings in buying gifts for them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn June 1770, after nine weeks in London, he moved from a shared room in Shoreditch to an attic in Brook Street, Holborn. He now enjoyed uninterrupted solitude and now could write all night. The romance of his earlier years revived, and he transcribed from an imaginary parchment of the old priest Rowley his \"Excelente Balade of Charitie.\" This poem, disguised in archaic language, he sent to the editor of the Town and Country Magazine, where it was rejected.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA neighbouring apothecary, repeatedly invited him to come for dinner or supper; but he refused. His landlady also, suspecting his necessity, pressed him to share her dinner, but in vain. \"She knew,\" as she afterwards said, \"that he had not eaten anything for two or three days.\" But he assured her that he was not hungry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn August 1770, while walking in St Pancras Churchyard, Chatterton was much absorbed in thought, and did not notice a newly dug open grave in his path, and subsequently tumbled into it. His walking companion helped Chatterton out of the grave, and told him that he was happy in assisting at the resurrection of a genius. Chatterton replied, \"My dear friend, I have been at war with the grave for some time now.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn 24th August 1770, Thomas Chatterton retired for the last time to his attic in Brook Street, carrying with him the arsenic, which he drank after tearing into fragments whatever literary remains were at hand. He was dead at a tragically young 17 years and nine months.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e01 - The Poetry of Thomas Chatterton - An Introduction\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e02 - The Romance of the Knight by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e03 - Happiness by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e04 - Sentiment by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e05 - The Advice by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e06 - Picture of Autumn by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e07 - The Resignation by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e08 - The Copernican System by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e09 - Bristol by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e10 - On Mr Alcock of Bristol, An Excellent Miniature Painter by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e11 - Sly Dick by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e12 - To Horace Walpole by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e13 - Colin Instructed by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e14 - Song, Fanny of the Hill, 1770 by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e15 - An Excellent Ballad of Charity by Thomas Chaterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e16 - Apostate Will by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e17 - The Methodist by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e18 - The Churchwarden and the Apparition. A Fable by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e19 - A Hymn for Christmas Day by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e20 - On the Last Epiphany (Or Christ Coming to Judgement) by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e21 - February. An Elegy by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e22 - Elegy by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e23 - Elegy on the Death of Mr Phillips by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e24 - Heccar and Gaira - An African Eclogue by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e25 - The Death of Nicou. An African Eclogue by Thomas Chatterton\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Deadtree Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44457100968014,"sku":"AB-45363","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1194\/4786\/files\/9781803545363.jpg?v=1791186069","url":"https:\/\/www.deadtreepublishing.com\/products\/the-poetry-of-thomas-chatterton","provider":"Deadtree Publishing","version":"1.0","type":"link"}