People

Donald S. Taylor

Author (with B. J. Hoover)

of

The Complete Works of Thomas Chatterton

This page started 20/6/26 not finished yet.

Still working on it daily 08/07/26

Not ready for use. Most Links will not work.

OSE (Oxford Scholarly Editions) have an OCR edition of Donald S. Taylor's two volumes online. A stunning and indispensable work. Donald started work on his opus in 1948. It was published in 1971. I, for one, will always be thankful.

You can get access to the two volumes if you are a member of a university that is signed up to OSE. I regret that I can't get access as I am not affiliated with any university (how mad is that).

However, I do own a hard copy of Taylor's two volumes and have now personally transcribed the support pages while amending the odd typo along the way. And yes, I do use these transcribed pages myself every day - I find them invaluable.

The transcribed pages, which includes the titles of all of Chatterton's works, are listed in the 'Quick Links' section below. Each individual work has a link to take you to a control page for the work; it also has the page number to locate it within Taylor's two volumes.

By this I mean that if you have the first line of a poem or are looking for a specific work by Chatterton, all you need do is press Ctrl+f on your keyboard for the search function to appear, this will speed up the process of locating the work or poem within the sections below, as well as in Taylor's two volumes. Plus, of course, the addition of a multiplicity of links will enhance your experience to a whole new level, and all for free (how good is that).

This is a good place for me to note that the working papers and books used by Donald S. Taylor when creating The Complete Works of Thomas Chatterton, were bought by a good friend of mine, Tom Routledge, who sadly died a few years ago. Tom’s wife, Sandra, has passed Tom’s collection to McGill University, Canada.

Quick Links to Sections on this Page ↓

To Search this rather long page press ctrl+f on your keyboard, but do note that it excludes the Glossary section.

The number of words coined by Chatterton and forming a Glossary to his Rowley writings is to big for a page on this website. So I have placed them in a Google Doc. To see and search the Glossary : View & Search Glossary

Entries from Panel 4 onward are defined by entries alternating with green lettering in an entry, followed by the next entry with black lettering and so on.

Abbreviations & Library Short Form References :

Abbreviations : View Panel 1

Manuscripts at British Library : View Panel 2

(Short Form References)

Manuscripts at Bristol Library : View Panel 3

(Short Form References)

Chatterton's Works :

Works, Authentic : (All Works, 1764, 68, 69, 70)

Works of Unknown Date : View Panel 8

Works, of Doubtful Authenticity : View Panel 9

Items Not Printed in Taylor : View Panel 10

Works, Lost : View Panel 11

Works, Wrongly Attributed : View Panel 12

First Lines of Verse : View Panel 13

Glossary to Rowleyan Writings : View Panel 14

Principal Editions and Collections : View Panel 15

Problems of Authenticity : View Panel 16

Sundry Sections :

Short Titles.

‘Rowley’s Bristol’ (with map).

‘Rowley’s Bristol Country’ (with map).

Plates, list of.

History of the Canon : View

Problems of Dating the Rowleyan Works : No view (yet)

Text : see Introduction : View

Donald’s Preface to his two volumes : View

Subject Index : No view (yet)

First Lines of Verse : View

Short Titles : No view (yet)

‘Rowley’s Bristol’ (with map) : View

‘Rowley’s Bristol Country’ (with map) : View

Plates, list of : View

Problems of Authenticity : View

Principal Editions and Collections : View

History of the Canon : View

Problems of Dating the Rowleyan Works : No view (yet)

Text : see Introduction : View

Donald’s Preface to the Edition : View

[ Biographies & Works : View (Chatterton Ms. Project) ]

Note:

All of the View links below will take you to The Thomas Chatterton Manuscript Project or to an important online edition of the work to allow further research.

Panel 1 : Abbreviations ↓ Back to Quick Links

(QE!) = The writer of this website

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle : The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. Joseph Stevenson.

In Church Historians of England, II, i. London, 1853.

Asser : Asser's Life of King Alfred, ed. William H. Stevenson. Oxford, 1904.

Bia, Bib, B2, B3 : Bristol Library Manuscripts, Short Form References.

Bailey : N. Bailey, An Universal Etymological English Dictionary, eighth edition. London, 1737.

Baker : Richard Baker, A Chronicle of the Kings of England. London, 1674.

Berry : William Berry, Encyclopedia Heraldica, 2 vols. London, n.d. Volume 1 : Volume 2

Bibliotheca : Thomas Tanner, Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica. Tuscon, 1963 [facs of London edition, 1748].

BM : British Museum. [for BM now read BL, British Library]

BMA, BMB, BMC : British Library Manuscripts, Short Form References.

Boswell : Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill, revised edition, L.F. Powell, 6 vols. Oxford, 1934-50.

BPL : Bristol Public Library.

Bristol : See Introduction, III. Principal Editions and Collections.

Britannia : Camden's Britannia, trans. and ed. Edmund Gibson. London, 1695.

[The London, 1722, edition is cited as Britannia (1722).]

Bristol Charters : Bristol Charters 1155-1373, ed. N. D. Harding, and Bristol Charters 1378-1499,

ed. H. A. Cronne, being Bristol Record Society's Publications, vols. i (1930) and xi (1946) [designated in Commentary as I or II].

Bryant : Jacob Bryant, Observations upon the Poems of Thomas Rowley. London, 1781.

C : Thomas Chatterton.

CBEL : Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, ed. F. W. Bateson and George Watson, 4 vols. and

supplement. Cambridge, 1940, 1957.

Century : Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, ed. William D. Whitney, 10 vols. New York, 1889.

Chambers : Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopedia, fifth edition, 2 vols. London, 1741-3.

'Chattertoniana' : Bertrand H. Bronson, 'Chattertoniana', Modern Language Quarterly, xi (December 1950), 417

Collins : Arthur Collins, The Baronnetage of England, 2 vols. London, 1720.

Commons : The House of Commons, ed. Lewis Namier and John Brooke, 3 vols. London, 1964.

Complete Peerage : G. E. Cokayne. The Complete Peerage, new edition, 14 vols. London, 1910-59.

Croft : See Introduction, III. Principal Editions and Collections.

Dix : See Introduction, III. Principal Editions and Collections.

DNB : Dictionary of National Biography, ed. Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. London, 1921-2.

Domesday : Domesday-book, 2 vols. London, 1783.

EBrit : Encyclopedia Britannica [edition cited in each case].

Evans : John Evans, Chronological Outline of the History of Bristol. Bristol, 1824.

FFBJ : Felix Farley's Bristol Journal.

Florence of Worcester : The Chronicles of Florence of Worcester, ed. Joseph Stevenson.

In Church Historians of England, II, i. London, 1853.

Fuller : Thomas Fuller, The Church-History of Britain. London, 1655.

GM : Gentleman's Magazine.

Grant's Churchill : The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill, ed. Douglas Grant. Oxford, 1956.

Guillim : John Guillim, A Display of Heraldrie. London, 1638.

[The London, 1724, edition is cited as Guillim (1724).]

Heylyn : Peter Heylyn, A Help to English History. London, 1709.

History of Poetry : Thomas Warton, The History of English Poetry, 3 vols. London, 1774-81.

Holinshed : Raphael Holinshed, The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 2 vols. London, 1587.

Ingram : J. H. Ingram, The True Chatterton. London, 1910.

Ingulf : The History of Ingulf, ed. Joseph Stevenson. In Church Historians of England, II, ii. London, 1854.

Kersey : John Kersey, Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum, third edition. London, 1721.

Latimer : John Latimer, Annals of Bristol in the Eighteenth Century. Bristol, 1893.

Lecky : W. E. H. Lecky, A History of England in the Eighteenth Century, new edition, 7 vols. London, 1892.

Leland : The Itinerary of John Leland, second edition, ed. Thomas Hearne, 9 vols. Oxford, 1744-5.

Life : E. H. W. Meyerstein, A Life of Thomas Chatterton. London and New York, 1930.

M : E. H. W. Meyerstein.

MJ : Middlesex Journal.

Monasticon : William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. John Caley, et al., 6 vols. London, 1849.

N & Q : Notes and Queries.

N & T : J. F. Nicholls and John Taylor, Bristol Past and Present. Bristol, 1881-2.

Notitia : Thomas Tanner, Notitia Monastica. London, 1744.

OCD : Oxford Classical Dictionary, ed. M. Cary, et al. Oxford, 1949.

OED : Oxford English Dictionary, corrected reissue, ed. J. A. H. Murray, 13 vols. Oxford, 1933.

Partridge : Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. New York, 1950.

Plomer : H. R. Plomer, et al., A Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers...from 1726 to 1775. London, 1932.

Prints and Drawings : Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum,

Division I. Satire, vol. 4 (1761-70), Frederic G. Stephens and Edward Hawkins. London, 1883.

Remains : William Camden, Remains concerning Britain. London, 1674.

Ricart : Robert Ricart, The Maire of Bristowe is Kalendar, ed. L. T. Smith,

Camden Society Publications, N.S., vol. 5. Westminster, 1872.

Richter : Helene Richter, Thomas Chatterton, in Wiener Beiträge zur Englischen Philologie, xii (1900).

Seyer : Samuel Seyer, Memoirs Historical and Topographical of Bristol and its Neighborhood, 2 v. Bristol, 1821-3.

Simeon of Durham : Historical Works of Simeon of Durham, trans. and ed. Stevenson.

In Church Historians of England, III, ii. London, 1855.

Somner : William Somner, Dictionarium Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum. Oxford, 1659.

Speed : John Speed, The Historie of Great Britaine, third edition. London, 1632.

Speght : The Works of... Chaucer, ed. Thomas Speght. London, 1687.

St. James : Unsigned letter to the printer of the St. James Chronicle, reprinted in 1778, p. xxiv.

Stow : John Stow, The Annales of England. London, 1605.

T&CM : Town and Country Magazine.

TLS : Times Literary Supplement.

Verstegan : Richard Verstegan, A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence. London, 1634.

Vindication : Thomas Tyrwhitt, A Vindication of the Appendix to the Poems, called Rowley's. London, 1782.

Walpole's Memoirs : Horace Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third, ed. G. F. R. Barker, 4 vols. London and New York, 1894.

Watson : J. Steven Watson, The Reign of George III, 1760-1815. Oxford, 1960.

Weever : John Weever, Ancient Funerall Monuments. London, 1631.

Wheatley : Henry B. Wheatley, London Past and Present, 3 vols. London, 1891.

Williams : Edith E. Williams, The Chantries of William Canynges in St. Mary Redcliffe Bristol.

Bristol and Oxford, 1950.

Yale Walpole : Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence,

ed. W. S. Lewis. New Haven and London, 1939- .

1777, 1778, 1782, 1784, 1803, 1842, 1871. See Introduction, III. Principal Editions and Collections.

Panel 2 : British Library Short Form References ↓ Back to Quick Links

[When Donald S. Taylor published his two volumes of Chatterton’s works in 1971 the majority of Chatterton’s Mss, mainly from the William Barrett collection (The Robert Glynn bequest), were at the British Museum, hence the short form reference Taylor used to refer to the three individual collections of Chatterton's manuscripts was ‘BMA, BMB, or BMC.’ However, two years later, in 1973, the separate entity of the British Library was established, so Taylor’s short form reference BMA, B, or C, should now, perhaps, be read as BLA, B, or C. ]

[ Taylor's reference BLA, BLB, BLC = Add. MSS. 5766A, B, or C

BLA (BMA) = British Library Ref.: Add. MSS. 5766A
BLB (BMB) = British Library Ref.: Add. MSS. 5766B
BLC (BMC) = British Library Ref.: Add. MSS. 5766C ]

[ Note from (QE!) : The three collections of MSS. are described (sample below) in 1871, volume 1, p.375 : View

'ABSTRACT OF THE MSS. IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

The Chatterton MSS. in the British Museum are the Additional MSS. 5766, A, B, and C. A complete description of them would take up a considerable space, but the following abstract will give a sufficient clue to their contents.

5766 A. A large thin portfolio, containing the original drawings and MSS., on parchment and paper, which Chatterton asserted to be the productions of Thomas Rowley, and which manifestly are not of the fifteenth century, but of modern fabrication. The contents of this volume are described in Southey's edition, vol. iii. pp. 497-515 ' ]

BLA = Add. MSS. 5766A

BLA consists of forty-one Rowley 'originals' on parchment (all but thirteen of them drawings), together with notes by Chatterton and Barrett and several Chatterton copies of the parchments. This material is mounted on large leaves; a title-page and table of contents were added some time after 1800. Most of the parchments are unreadable because of the various 'ageing' and subsequent deciphering treatments used on them, but this is not a serious editorial problem, since Chatterton 'transcripts' are still extant for nearly all of them. All are described in detail in 1803, iii, 497-520.

BLB = Add. MSS. 5766B

BLB is a miscellany of 123 leaves containing (1) Rowleyan and modern pieces, drawings, and notes in C's hand; (2) a C letter and a C poem, plus many notes, in Barrett's hand; (3) three poems not by C ('On Mercy', 'Love and Beauty', 'To a Young Lady'-see Works Wrongly Attributed) in an unknown hand. A table of contents was added after 1800. The items are grouped roughly thus: Rowleyan, modern, drawings, and miscellaneous notes. In this manuscript, items have been broken up, inserted out of their original sequence, or inserted verso first. The contents are listed in 1871, i, 376-8.

BLC = Add. MSS.5766C

[ [The following is from 1871, vol. 1, p.378, describing this thin volume] : A thin octavo volume, containing "The Rolle of St. Bartholomeweis Priorie," printed in Southey's edition, vol. iii. and in Barrett's Bristol, p. 428; also drawings of gates, chapels, tombs, &c.]

BLC contains 'Rolle of Seyncte Bartlemeweis' and accompanying drawings, all in C's hand.

Panel 3 : Bristol Library Short Form References ↓ Back to Quick Links

[Taylor uses the short form references B1a, B1b, B2, & B3 for the main three volumes of George Symes Catcott's Copy-Books, B6489, B6490, & B5374, as detailed below. All of the remaining copy-books are documented with their full reference numbers.

George Catcott carried on an 'extensive trade' in transcripts of Rowleyan and other C works at least until 1776, when he sold the Rowley manuscripts to Payne, the publisher of 1777 (Life, pp. 450-1 and n.). Sixteen of these transcripts are now in BPL. In some cases, in spite of Catcott's notorious inaccuracies in trans- cription, these manuscripts are the most authoritative texts. When I have been able to collate these transcripts with holographs or other texts of stronger authority, three of them invariably give the best readings. Assuming that these three transcripts were done with unusual care or that they derive from holographs rather than from other transcripts, I have used them as copy-texts when they are the only texts available and I have recorded my collation of them when their variants from a copy-text would seem to have some authority.

B1a, B1b. for B6489, is in two parts, in Catcott's hand. The first part contains eighty-eight pages of Rowleyan material, the second forty-one pages, numbered separately, of modern pieces. Both parts have heavy annotations by Catcott.

B2. for B6490, in Catcott's hand. Pages 33-168 contain Rowleyan and modern transcripts with Catcott's notes.

B3. for B5374, consists of seventy-two pages in Catcott's hand, with notes by him and by his nephew Richard Smith. It contains nine modern pieces and 'Ynn auntient Dayes'.

Of the other BPL (Bristol Public Library) Catcott transcripts, seven are used in special circumstances requiring individual discussion in the tabular notes: B5259, B5315, B5342, B5344, B5375, B6488, B11190, and six are not used at all: B5305, B5308, B5311, B6486, B6487, B18996, since recording their variants would swell the textual notes to no purpose.

Four BPL transcript collections in other hands:
B4533 (Samuel Seyer), B6493 (Thomas Fry), B11063 (Michael Lort), B11457 (Lort) —are also used in special circumstances discussed in the tabular notes to individual pieces.

C seems to have been totally uninterested in the fate of his manuscripts. Those involved in his various thrusts for patronage and renown were freely thrown into each effort: seldom were copies kept. Because Barrett and Catcott plodded along with Rowley long after C had gone on to other campaigns and died, we have a wealth of manuscripts for the years 1768 and 1769. Manuscripts of the non-Rowleyan campaigns, however, were sent to the editors, first from Bristol, then from London, and only a few of these, usually by purely accidental circumstances, have survived. It is all very understandable once we see that C's eyes were on his goals, not on his own development. However foolish, calculating, and unsympathetic we judge Barrett and Catcott to have been, then, if it had not been for their tenacity, denseness, or cunning about Rowley, C's major achievement would almost certainly have been lost. And it was interest in the consequent controversy and in C's role in the creation of Rowley that lead eventually to the great bulk of his non-Rowleyan writings being unearthed from scattered caches of manuscripts and from their disguises in the ephemeral London periodicals. Without Barrett and Catcott, in short, C's work would have belonged long ago to oblivion.

Chatterton's Works :
Authentic Works
Works of Doubtful Authenticity
Works Wrongly Attributed
Back to Quick Links

Note: The 'View' links below will take you to the Control Page for the specific work.

Panel 4 : Authentic Works 1764 ↓ Back to Quick Links

Apostate Will : 1 : View

Sly Dick : 2 : View

A Hymn for Christmas Day : 4 : View

Panel 5 : Authentic Works 1768 ↓ Back to Quick Links

'Where woodbines hang their dewy Heads' : 5 : View

Bristowe Tragedie or the Dethe of Syr Charles Bawdin : 6 : View

'Ynn auntient Dayes, when Kenewalchyn Kynge' : 21 : View

"Theere was a Broder of Orderys Whyte' : 22 : View

"There was a Broder of Orderys Blacke' : 23 : View

'In the merry merye Vale' : 23 : View

The Tournament : 23 : View

Battle of Hastynges I : 26 : View

Extracts from Craishes Herauldry : 44 : View

A Brief Account of William Cannings from the Life of Thomas Rowlie Preeste : 51 : View

Onn oure Ladies Chirch : 53 : View

Bridge Narrative :

The Mayor’s First Passing Over the Old Bridge : 56 : View

Songe of Saincte Werburgh : 57 : View

Songe of Sayncte Baldwyn : 59 : View

Rowley's Printing Press : 60 : View

To John Ladgate : 60 : View

Songe toe Ella : 61 : View

John Ladgates Answer : 62 : View

Yellowe Rolle :

Of the Auntiaunt Forme of Monies carefullie gottene for Maystre Wm. Canynge...Thos. Rowleie : 63 : View

Englandes Glorye Revyved in Maystre Canynge beinge Accomte of his Cabynet...Monumentes : 65 : View

Purple Rolle. Explayneals of the Annexed Yellowe Rolle : 67 : View

Battle of Hastings II : 68 : View

Byrtonne : 88 : View

The Merrie Tricks of Laymyngetowne. By John a Iscam : 89 : View

A Discorse on Brystowe by Thos. Rowleie wrotten and gotten at the Desire of W: Canynge Esqur. : 93 : View

'Stay curyous Traveller and pass not bye' : 99 : View

Mass Book Inscription : 104 : View

Towre Gate : 105 : View

Hardinge : 105 : View

An Entyrlude,

Plaied bie the Carmelyte Freeres at Mastre Canynges hys greete Howse, before Mastre Canynges and Byshoppe Carpenterre, on dedicatynge the Chyrche of Oure Ladie of Redclefte-hight, The Parlyamente of Sprytes.

Wroten bie T. Rowleie and J. Iscam : 106 : View

On the Dedication of St. Mary's Church : 107 : View

Rowley's Collection for Canynge : 117 : View

The Gate of Sayncte Marye.

Auntyant Monuments gottene sythe the makynge

the great Rolle.....Canynge...Thos. Rowleie.

Three Ancient Monuments.

Waterre Gate, Burtrik's Water Coorse, Kenewalchins Stone : 118 : View

Bristol Castle : 118 : View

Seyncte Maries Chyrche of the Porte : 120 : View

Epitaph on Robert Canynge : 121 : View

Four Letters on Warwyke : 121 : View

Nine Deeds and Proclamations : 124 : View

Abstracts from Letters : 134 : View

Three Rowley Letters : 135 : View

The Rolle of Seyncte Bartlemeweis Priorie : 143 : View

Fragment of a Sermon : 151 : View

Knightes Templaries Chyrche : 153 : View

Chronicle 1340-1374 : 154 : View

The Chyrche Oratorie of the Calendaryes : 155 : View

Three Tombs : 155 : View

Note to Map of Bristol : 155 : View

Extracts from Speght's Chaucer : 156 : View

To James Dodsley, 21 December 1768 : 157 : View

To Miss C, On Hearing Her Play on the Harpsichord : 157 : View

To Mr. Powell : 158 : View

Ode to Miss Hoyland : 158 : View

Acrostic on Miss Eleanor Hoyland : 159 : View

Acrostic on Miss Sally Clarke : 160 : View

To Miss Hoyland I : 160 : View

To Miss Hoyland II : 161 : View

To Miss Hoyland III : 162 : View

To Miss Hoyland with a Present : 163 : View

To Miss Hoyland IV : 164 : View

To Miss Clarke : 164 : View

Panel 6 : Authentic Works 1769 ↓ Back to Quick Links

From John Baker, 5 January 1769 : 165 : View

On the Death of Mr. Tandey, Who Died 1769 : 167 : View

On Mr. Broderip's Excellent Performance on the Organ : 168 : View

On Mr. Alcock of Bristol, an Excellent Miniature Painter : 169 : View

To Ralph Bigland, c. 31 January 1769 : 170 : View

Saxon Tinctures : 171 : View

To James Dodsley, 15 February 1769 : 171 : View

From John Baker, 18 February 1769

Ælla: a Tragycal Enterlude, or Discoorseynge Tragedie, wrotenn bie Thomas Rowleie;

Plaiedd before Mastre Canynge, atte hys howse nempte the Rodde Lodge....: 174 : View

Epistle to Mastre Canynge on Ælla : 175 : View

Letter to the Dygne Mastre Canynge : 176 : View

Lyfe of W: Canynge-by Rowlie : 228 : View

The Worlde : 233 : View

Elle's Coffin : 235 : View

Rowley's Heraldic Account of Bristol Artists and Writers : 236 : View

On Fitz Hardynge : 237 : View

On Richard I : 238 : View

On Happienesse : 240 : View

Onn Johne a Dalbenie : 241 : View

The Storie of Wyllyam Canynge : 241 : View

Churches of Bristol : 247 : View

Seyncte Marie of Radclifte : 247 : View

Seyncte Thomas Chyrche : 248 : View

Seyncte Peters Chyrche : 248 : View

Seyncte Phylyppes Chyrche : 248 : View

All hallows ande Seyncte Owdens : 248 : View

Seyncte Antonies Chyrche : 248 : View

Seyncte Johnes Chyrche : 249 : View

Seyncte Laurences Chyrche : 249 : View

Seyncte Stephinis Chyrche : 249 : View

Seyncte Leonardes Chyrche : 249 : View

Seyncte Mychaellis Chyrche : 250 : View

Seyncte Austynes Chappele : 250 : View

Seyncte Baudwyns Chappele : 250 : View

Seyncte Matthyasis Chapele : 250 : View

Seyncte Maries Magdalenes Chapele : 250 : View

Fragmentes of Anticquitie : 251 : View

The Court-Mantle : 252 : View

Ethelgar. A Saxon Poem : 253 : View

To John Baker, 6 March 1769 : 256 : View

To the Beauteous Miss Hoyland : 257 : View

To Horace Walpole, 25 March 1769 : 258 : View

The Ryse of Peyncteynge, yn Englande, wroten bie T. Rowleie. 1469 for

Mastre Canynge : 261 : View

On Richard I : 261 : View

From Horace Walpole, 28 March 1769 : 262 : View

To Horace Walpole, 30 March 1769 : 263 : View

Historie of Peyncters yn Englande bie T. Rowley : 263 : View

The Warre : 267 : View

Painter's Bill to Canynge : 267 : View

Heraudyn. A Fragmente : 268 : View

A Chronycalle of Brystowe wrote bie Raufe Chedder, Chappmanne. 1356 : 268: View

Elegy I : 270 : View

To Horace Walpole, 8 April 1769 : 271 : View

To Horace Walpole, 14 April 1769 : 272 : View

Kenrick. Translated from the Saxon : 274 : View

Saxon Atchievements : 275 : View

Cerdick. Translated from the Saxon : 276 : View

Englysh Metamorphosis. Bie T. Rowleie : 279 : View

The Tournament. An Interlude : 282 : View

The Gouler's Requiem (quasi Requiem) bie Canynge : 290 : View

Elinoure and Juga. Written three hundred Years ago by T. Rowley, a Secular Priest : 291 : View

The Acconte of W. Canynges Feast : 294 : View

Goddwyn. A Tragedie. bye Thomas Rowleie : 294 : View

Prologue made bie Maistre William Canynge : 295 : View

Chorus : 304 : View

Eclogue the First : 305 : View

Eclogue the Second : 308 : View

Eclogue the Third : 312 : View

Account of the Family of the De Berghams from the Norman Conquest to this Time Collected

from Original Records, Turnament Rolls, and the Herald's of March and Garter's Records by―

T: Chatterton : 316 : View

The Romaunte of the Cnyghte : 330 : View

The Romance of the Knight : 330 : View

To Mr. Stephens, 20 July 1769 : 338 : View

To Mr. Holland : 339 : View

To Horace Walpole, 24 July 1769 : 340 : View

'Walpole, I thought not I should ever see' : 341 : View

Clifton : 341 : View

Godred Crovan.

A Poem. Composed by Dopnal Syrric, Scheld of Godred Crovan, ... Isle of Man : 345 : View

Elegy on Mr. Wm. Smith : 352 : View

Elegy on the Demise of a Great Genius : 353 : View

Amphitryon. A Burletta : 354 : View

Hobbinol and Thyrsis : 362 : View

Journal 6th : 365 : View

From Horace Walpole, 4 August or c. 12 October 1769 : 376 : View

'Intrest thou universal God of Men' : 377 : View ?

Elegy, Written at Stanton Drew : 379 : View

Conversation : 380 : View

Elegy to the Memory of Mr. Thomas Phillips, of Fairford : 383 : View

Elegy 29 Octr. : 391 : View

'Hervenis harping on the hackneyd Text' : 392 : View

Epistle to Clayfield : 393 : View

The Constabiliad : 394 : View

Heroic Fragment : 400 : View

Elegy II : 400 : View

The Hirlas I. Composed by Blythyn, Prince of North Wales [Let the mead sparkle]: 401 : View

Happiness. A Poem : 403 : View

The Complaint. Addressed to Miss P–-L— of Bristol : 408 : View

Antiquity of Christmas Games : 409 : View

Epistle. To the Revd. Mr. Catcott : 412 : View

The Copernican System : 419 : View

The Defence : 421 : View

To Miss Lydia C—--n : 423 : View

A New Song : 425 : View

The Articles of the Belief of Me Thomas Chatterton : 426 : View

Panel 7 : Authentic Works 1770 ↓ Back to Quick Links

The Advice. Addressed to Miss M***** R*****, of Bristol : 427 : View

The Hirlas II. Translated from the ancient British of Owen Cyfeliog, Prince of Powys : 428 : View

Astrea Brokage Letter : 431 : View

Heccar and Gaira. An African Eclogue : 432 : View

The Consuliad. An Heroic Poem : 436 : View

Anecdote of Chaucer : 442 : View

The Unfortunate Fathers : 443 : View

Sentiment : 446 : View

The Methodist : 446 : View

'If wishing for the mystic Joys of Love' : 447 : View

February. An Elegy : 447 : View

Decimus. To the Duke of G—-n : 450 : View

The Whore of Babylon. Book the 1st : 452 : View

Resignation. A Poem : 452 : View

From Isaac Fell, 13 March 1770 : 468 : View

To William Barrett, February or March 1770 : 494 : View

March. An Elegy : 494 : View

From Esther Saunders, 3 April 1770 : 495 : View

Fables for the Court. The Shepherds : 496 : View

The Hag : 498 : View

Will : 501 : View

Decimus. To the Princess of Gotham To Miss Hoyland V : 505 : View

To Miss Hoyland V (5) : 507 : View

To Miss Hoyland VI (6) : 508 : View

Hor. Lib. I, Od. 19 : 509 : View

Hor Lib. I, Od. 5 : 510 : View

To Sarah Chatterton, 26 April 1770 : 510 : View

The Candidates : 511 : View

Kew Gardens : 512 : View

Narva and Mored. An African Eclogue : 543 : View

The Exhibition. A Personal Satire : 546 : View

A Song. Addressed to Miss C----am of Bristol : 559 : View

To Sarah Chatterton, Thomas Cary, and others, 6 May 1770 : 560 : View

To the Society at Spring Garden : 563 : View

Decimus. To the Earl of H—-h : 564 : View

Decimus. To the P—--D—- of W—- : 566 : View

To Sarah Chatterton, 14 May 1770 : 570 : View

Decimus. To the Prime Minister : 573 : View

Libertas. A Card. To Old Slyboots : 575 : View

Decimus. An Exhibition of Sign Paintings : 576 : View

Probus. To the Lord Mayor : 579 : View

Elegy III : 583 : View

Decimus. To the Freeholders of the City of Bristol : 585 : View

To Mary Chatterton, 30 May 1770 : 587 : View

The Death of Nicou, an African Eclogue : 590 : View

Letter VI from A Hunter of Oddities : 593 : View

Maria Friendless Letter : 594 : View

Exhibition of Sign Paintings, at the West End of the Town : 597 : View

To Mary Chatterton, 19, 29 June 1770 : 598 : View

Speech of Sir John de Beauchamp : 600 : View

The False Step, a Real History : 600 : View

To Miss B—-sh, of Bristol : 605 : View

The Revenge, A Burletta : 606 : View

The Six Additional Songs :

A Bacchanalian sung by Mr. Reinhold : 631 : View

The Invitation to be sung by Mrs. Barthelemon and by Master Cheney : 632 : View

A Bacchanalian : 632 : View

The Virgin's Choice : 633 : View

The Happy Pair : 633 : View

Betsy of the Hill : 634 : View

A Burlesque Cantata. 1770 : 635 : View

Burletta. The Woman of Spirit. 1770 : 636 : View

To Thomas Cary, 1 July 1770 : 639 : View

Genuine Copy of a Letter from the Earl of C—-d to the Hon. Mr. C—- : 642 : View

An Excelente Balade of Charitie : 644 : View

To Sarah Chatterton, 8 July 1770 : 648 : View

To Mary Chatterton, 11 July 1770 : 649 : View

To Mary Chatterton, 20 July 1770 : 650 : View

The Art of Puffing by a Bookseller's Journeyman : 650 : View

Memoirs of a Sad Dog : 651 : View

An African Song : 662 : View

Menenius. To William Lord M-d : 663 : View

From George Catcott, 8 August 1770 : 666 : View

To George Catcott, 12 August 1770 : 668 : View

Decimus. To Dr. Newton Bishop of Bristol : 670 : View

The Happy Pair. A Tale : 672 : View

Gorthmund. Translated from the Saxon : 677 : View

Colin Instructed. 1770 : 681 : View

Panel 8 : Works of Unknown Date ↓ Back to Quick Links

To John Rudhall and Baster, n.d. : 682 : View

Impromptu on the Immortality of the Soul : 682 : View

To a Friend on His Intended Marriage : 683 : View

The Resignation : 684 : View

Letter from an Unknown Girl, with The Letter Paraphras'd……….. : 686 : View

To William Smith, n.d. : 687 : View

Panel 9 : Works of Doubtful Authenticity ↓ Back to Quick Links

On the Last Epiphany, or Christ Coming to Judgment : 688 : View

The Churchwarden and the Apparition, A Fable : 688 : View

'I've let my Yard, and sold my Clay' : 689 : View

Letter from Fullford, the Grave-digger : 690 : View

Custom. A Satire : 691 : View

A Card to John Wilkes, Esq; on hearing the rampant

Exaltation of a Club of Scotchmen...last June : 693 : View

The Particulars of a Happy Government : 693 : View

Extract of Letter fr. a young Gentleman at Plymouth

to young Lady his Sister at Bristol. 1769 : 694 : View

A Card : 698 : View

On the Death of my Friend Mr. Holland : 698 : View

Letter I from A Hunter of Oddities : 699 : View

Letter II from A Hunter of Oddities : 701 : View

Letter III from A Hunter of Oddities : 703 : View

The Bacchanalian : 704 : View

Letter IV from A Hunter of Oddities : 706 : View

Letter V from A Hunter of Oddities : 707 : View

Lines on Happiness : 708 : View

The Prophecy : 709 : View

Anecdote of Lord Ch—--d : 713 : View

An Elegy on the Much Lamented Death of William Beckford, Esq. : 713 : View

Anecdote on Judge Jeffries : 718 : View

The Polite Advertiser : 719 : View

Old Bailey Intelligence Extraordinary, for 1770 : 720 : View

Letter VII from A Hunter of Oddities : 722 : View

A Letter from Ninion L'Enclos in the Shades, to Hon. Mrs. F----y,

President of the modern Coterie : 724 : View

Verax. To the L. B. of B. : 727 : View

Ambulator's Exhibition : 727 : View

Atticus. To the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Bristol : 729 : View

Catalogue of Pictures Every Day Exhibited : 733 : View

'Naked and friendless to the world expos'd' : 734 : View

The Last Verses Written by Chatterton : 735 : View

T.C. To Lord N—--h : 735 : View

Letter VIII from A Hunter of Oddities : 737 : View

Tony Selwood Letter : 739 : View

On the Origin, Nature, and Design of Sculpture : 742 : View

Letter IX from A Hunter of Oddities : 744 : View

Letter X from A Hunter of Oddities : 746 : View

Adventures of a Star : 747 : View

Letter XI from A Hunter of Oddities : 756 : View

Letter XII from A Hunter of Oddities : 757 : View

One Hour after Marriage. A Tale : 759 : View

The Happy Pair : 763 : View

'When that day of Death shall come' : 764 : View

'What boots it for the Sacred Nine' : 764 : View

On a Very Calm Sea : 764 : View

Lines on Mrs. Haywood : 766 : View

Panel 10 : Items not Printed in Taylor's 1971 edition ↓ Back to Quick Links

The following personal, heraldic, and Rowleyan items, though not printed in 'The Complete Works of Thomas Chatterton', 1971, may be found in the manuscripts noted and, in some cases, in the publications noted. Most are drawings not part of a written work; other items are lists, other tabular pieces, miscellaneous notes, and illegible parchments.

Note by (QE!) : The following is a simple checklist, to which I am in the process of adding links to enhance the use of the list

Personal Items :

BPL, B22165. Chatterton's pocket notebook, found at his death : View Chatterton's original notebook.

Described & printed, D. S. Taylor, 'Chatterton's Suicide', Philological Quarterly, xxxi (Jan 1952), 65. : View

BPL, B5375. Bill to George Catcott. Printed in Life, p. 140. : View the original Ms and the Meyerstein Transcript.

Paget Papers (on which see 'Heroic Fragment'). Calendar dated 3 August 1768. Includes lunar phases, feast days, and an allegorical drawing of Time. : View Heroic Fragment Control Page

Heraldic Items :

BPL, B21045. Emblazoned arms of Catcott, Symes, Catcott and Symes quartered, Martha Catcott, and someone unidentified. See Lost Works, "To Martha Catcott'.

Bodleian, Eng. Poet. e. 6., p. 17. Emblazoned Chatterton arms (Or, a fess, vert).

Paget Papers. Emblazoned coat with 69 quarterings and, verso, a 'Numeration' table.

BMB, ff. 77, 89r. Unidentified emblazoned coats.

BMB, f. 87. Blazons of Sawney and Burton.

BMB, f. 88. Six unidentified emblazoned coats and notes on the cast for a dramatic production or for a satire. Published Life, p. 103 (cast notes only).

BMB, ff. 89v. to 90r. Seven emblazoned coats (for Elle, Coernicke, Egwine, Esmatric (?), Leofwine, Harold, and one unidentified person) and drawings.

BMB, ff. 93-101 (a nine-page booklet). Ten emblazoned coats of Chattertons with notes and drawings of four tombs, a street in a town, an heraldic window, and a church. Other Chatterton arms will be found in the letter to Mr. Stephens of 20 July 1769, in ‘Account of the De Berghams', in 'Craishes Herauldry'. See my general note on Chatterton in the latter.

BMB, f. 107. Blazons for Ælle and Bristol.

BMB, f. 108a. Emblazoned coats for Robert de Melhent, William his Son, John (Kg.), Geof. de Mandevile, Almeric D'Eureux (?), and Robert de Clare.

BMB, f. 108b. Blazon for Barrett and a note from Guillim on 'Clarions or Rests'.

BMB, f. 108v. Emblazoned coats for Richard de Clare and Gilbert de Clare.

BMB, f. 108v. Notes from Guillim on Robert, Earl of Gloucester.

BMB, f. 109. Heraldic drawings and blazons for Ralph de Monte Hermer, Gilbert de Clare, Hugh Lord Audley, Thos. of Woodstock, Thomas Le Despencer, Richard Plantagenet, and Humphrey Son of Henry IV.

BMB, f. 109v. Inscriptions from four Chatterton tombs: Thomas Chatterton (1500), Sire Gualeroine Chatterton (1190), Guillielmus Chatterton (1412), Gawine Chatterton (1080).

BMB, f. 110. Six coats and blazons titled 'Particular Bearings gotten by T. R.': Ailward, Guild of Ale Stakers, Algar, Aefredde, Bastarde, and one unidentified.

BMB, f. 111. Notes on the Mowbray family.

BMB, f. 111. Two coats and blazons: Giasonzo, Harward.

BMB, f. 112. Fifteen emblazoned coats, the following identified: Leofwine (1052), Harold (1052), Gilbert de Clare (1230), Almeric D'Eureux, one illegible, Coernike (923), Robert de Milhent (1111), Esmatric (?) (971), Johne (1187), Geof. de Mandeville (1204).

BMB, f. 113. Unidentified emblazoned coat.

BMB, f. 114. Notes and emblazoned coats for Brightricke King, Elle, Coernick, Esmatrick, Brightrick the Earl, Harratz, Fitz Lupellus, Will Earl Glo., Robert Fitzharding, Abbot Richard, Burton, Eva de Berkeley, Segovian, Rowley, Robert Canynge, Wm. Canynge, and many unidentified.

BMB, f. 115. Unidentified emblazoned coat.

BMB, f. 116v. Three unidentified emblazoned coats.

BM, Add. MS. 24891, f. 2r. Stone, coin, sword, and ten coats, with the following notes:

Mr. T.) Unintelligible-the first is a flat Stone. 2nd. a Coin.

T. C) No. 1-The words are Bithricus: Bristowe: The reverse a Shield probably the Arms of Bithric to whom William the Conqueror gave Bristol. No. 2. Edm: Gle: the reverse a Sword on one Syde Dan: on the other Denys. Probably this was coin'd at Gloucester by Edmund Ironsyde before or after the Peace with the Danes- No. 3. A Shield within a Border these Wordes Wulferus filius Eadmondus: Q: Deus- Salvator. Gle. in the middle - the Arms of Ironsyde by this it appears to have been the Shield of Wulfer the Son of Edmund Ironside who liv'd at Gloucester- [here follows 'Mass Book Inscription': see text; then other drawings and these notes] No: 1 A shield painted on a Window at Bangar No: 2 painted on a Window in the House of Sir Astyn Prideaux. No. 3. an ancient Swerd- Gurney Palee Or and Gules.

Rowleyan Items :

BMA, ff. 5, 8, 9, 15, 24, 25 (Nos. 5, 10, 11a, 19a, 35, 36). Illegible antiqued parchments.

BMA, f. 11 (No. 13). Drawing, 'Seyncte Catherynes Chapelle'.

BMA, ff. 11, 12 (Nos. 14 and 16). Drawings (parchment and copy) of unidentified church.

BMA, ff. 11, 12 (Nos. 15 and 17). Drawings (parchment and copy), 'Lessoure Sancte Johanis'.

BMA, f. 21 (Nos. 25 a and b). Drawings, unidentified gate.

BMA, f. 25 (No. 37). Narrative (?) entitled 'Algar ande Herewarde' (largely illegible parchment) with Barrett's partial transcription, the latter too spotty for the substance of the piece to be guessed at. The proper names Barrett reads seem to be Algar, Herewarde, Brighstowe, Geofferei, Brightrickestowe, Brigstow, Bultyngeatun, Ecbrightus, Brixton in Somersetshire.

BMA, f. 27 (No. 40). Drawing of tomb (parchment), 'Robertus Canynge M.C:C.C.XXIII'.

BMA, f. 28 (No. 41). Drawings (parchment) of bust of Wyllyame Canynge, Wm. Fadre, Roberte hys B., Isabelle hys Wyfe.

BMA, f. 28 (No. 42). Drawings of three knights with illegible inscriptions.

BMB, ff. 14v. to 16v. Lists of 'Majorii' and 'Portreves' of Bristol, 1066-1160, and 'Portreves, Bailifs and Preposytour of Redclifte', 1055-1160, with a few brief notes. For summary see last note to "Three Rowley Letters', to which these lists were appended by C.

BMB, ff. 104-5. Drawings of Elle's tomb. See 'Elle's Coffin'.

BMB, ff. 117-20. Four drawings based on Weever, pp. 846, 851, 844.

BMB, f. 121. Drawings of two unidentified churches.

BMB, ff. 122-3. Drawings of Bristol Castle.

BMA, f. 3; BMB, ff. 23-4. Drawings of coins. See note on manuscript of the 'Yellowe Rolle' ('Of the Auntiaunt Forme of Monies', 'Englandes Glorye Revyved').

Houghton, Harvard, f MS. Eng 1279, verso of 'To John Ladgate',

'Songe toe Ella', and 'John Ladgates Answer'. A Rowleyan parchment 'original' consisting of drawings of 13 monumental fragments and descriptive text signed T. Rowley but otherwise mostly illegible. See 'Rowley's Collection for Canynge' for items with similar format. The same thirteen fragments, without text, are drawn in the same order by C at the top of BMB, f. 106. They are intended as evidence for the antiquity of Bristol: those which are legible connect a recognizable Roman, British, or Saxon name (Vespa. Imp., Bassia. Imp., L. M. Lucull., Kenewalche, Cyntewynus [?], Erenedericus [?], Ceol.) with one of C's ancient names for Bristol (Brightstowe, Ca. Br, Caer Brito, Ca B, Cae Bri, Caer Bri, Brig., Bricg-see 'Discorse on Brystowe'). Seven of the same thirteen drawings, or approximations of them, appear also at the end of the first section of 'Discorse on Brystowe': see Plate IIa.

END.

Panel 11 : Lost Works ↓ Back to Quick Links

Paraphrases of Job ix and Isaiah, 1765 : View

Satiric Lines on a Schoolmaster, 1767 : View

Letter to a Schoolmaster, 1767 : View

Ode to Lais, 1768 : View

Antiquities - Book 1st & 2nd : View

Letter from Horace Walpole, 1-7 April, 1769 : View Walpole Main Page

A Manks Tragedy, T772 : View

Ode to Duke Harry, 1770

To Isaac Fell, 1770

To Michael Clayfield, 1770

Fragment of a Comedy or Farce

---------------------------------------

A Briton. To Lord North.

The Moderator No. 1.

Probus. To the Earl of Bute.

Decimus. To the King.

Probus. 2d to the Lord Mayor.

Decimus (or Probus). To C. Jenkinson.

The Moderator. To Lord North.

------------------------------------------

To Thomas Cary, 25th June, 1770, T776

To George Catcott, 10 July 1770, T776

An Oratorio, July 1770, T777

The Dowager. A Tragedy, July, T777

Sarah Chatterton Correspondence : View all correspondence

To Sarah Chatterton 20 August 1770 : View

William Barrett Correspondence : View all correspondence

To William Barrett August 1770

The Flight

Elegy or Soliloquy of a Man in His Cell

Martha Catcott Correspondence : View

To Martha Catcott - Rose of Virginity unknown date

Thomas Cary Correspondence : View

To [Thomas Cary?] Unknown date

Lost Works : T780

A History of Portbury : Unknown Date

Five Works : unknown dates

Auntyaunte Coynes with the Hystoryee of Furste Coyninge by the Sexonne
Historie of See and Church of Durham
Lyfe of Byghtrycus
[Annalles from King Byghtrycus to Byghtrickus the Erle.]
Finyshynge of Turgotte toe the Reygnen of Esward the [Fourth].

Justyce of the Peece : Unknown date

[Dramatic Poem on Sir Charles Bawden.] Unknown

[Verses to Miss Clark.] : Unknown

Letter on Canynge : Unknown

Chatterton Family Parchment : Unknown

Panel 12 : Works Wrongly Attributed ↓ Back to Quick Links

Translation of the 7th Ode of the Fourth Book of Horace : View

A Dialogue between War and Peace : : View

Letter from Peele to Marlowe : View

An Epistle from the Moon to the Earth : View

Anecdote Taken from the Original Low Dutch : View

A Morning Hymn : View

Epigram. On the Majority and Minority : View

The Origin of Surnames : View

An Exhibition of Polite Arts: By Mr Ram's Eye : View

Reason and Fashion : View

The Retreat : View

A Night Piece o Death (Not Chatterton) : View

The Cuckow Traveller: An Original Fable : View

Poor Richard's Maxims : View

The Auction. A Poem : View

Probus. On Sir George Colebrooke : View

Exhibition of Pictures, Models, Statues etc. : View

Eleonora and Juga. By S.W.A. aged 16 : View

A Letter from a Gentleman at London to his Friend.... : View

Baron Otranto and Mrs, Heidelburgh : View

Dick and Dolly: A Pastoral : View

Alonzo to Celia : View

The Lamentation of Liberty and Britannia, on the Death of the Right Honourable William Beckford, Esq. : View

Mock Will of William Beckford : View

To Mary Chatterton, 23rd July 1770. : View

Dix forgery. (Ms letter BPL) Unpublished - TP807

Humorous Effects by Cross-reading the Newspapers. : View

(An untitled Exhibition) : View

General Evening Post 28 August 1770. TP808

A Remarkable Account of a Converted Jew : View

The Last Will and Testament of Matthew Moonshine, Prisoner in the Fleet. : View

The Catskin Brothers : View

Civis. On the Antiquity of the Bow : View

Cutholf : View

Eldred : View

An Epigram : View

An Epitaph on an Old Maid : View

The Gallery and School of Nature: a Vision. : View

To be checked probably a Dix hoax TP797

George Catgut. The Ambitious Knight of the Spit... : View

Love and Beauty...(See: On Mercy; To a Young Lady) : View

(Not Chatterton) TP801

Metrical Epistle from Chatterton, the Poet, to a Lady : View

On Mercy (See love and Beauty above) TP802 : View

On Modern Fribblism : View

Probus. To the Right Hon. the Earl of Dartmouth : View

Sonnet, Supposed to be Written by Chatterton : View

Suicide Note : View

To a Young Lady : View

(See On Mercy, above) To be checked TP806

Will Hell-Hot : View

Wortigerne, A Playe (Not Chatterton) : View

Panel 13 : First Lines of Verse ↓ Back to Quick Links

Please Note :

An initial question mark ? indicates a work of doubtful authenticity.

The page number at the end of each line refers to Taylor’s edition, which is useful if you have access to a hard copy (published 1971).

The View link, attached to each work below will, when it is blue, take you to the Control Page for the poem in the Chatterton Manuscript Project.

To see the works that have already been included in the Chatterton Project : View

A

A Rygorous Doome is myne Upon my Faie 89 : View

Accept fair Nymph this token of my love 163 : View

Ah blame me not Catcott if from the right way 425 : View

Aid me, ye ever tuneful nine 168 : View

Almighty Framer of the Skies! 4 : View

Amidst the wild and dreary dells 158 : View

Anent a Brooklette as I laie reclynde 241 : View

As Elynour bie the green lesselle was syttynge 187 : View

As onn a Hylle one Eve sittynge 53 : View

As Spring, now approaches with all his gay train 559 : View

Ascend my Muse on Sorrows sable Plume 352 : View

Away to the Woodlands away 632 : View

Away with your maxims, and dull formal rules 637 : View

B

Bacchus ever-smiling Power 631 : View

Before I seek the dreary shore 605 : View

Before yonne roddie sonne has droove hys wayne 179 : View

Begin my Muse the imitative Lay 353, 447 : View

?Behold! just coming from above 688 : View

?Blest is that Government where greedy Knaves 693 : View

Burgum I thank thee thou hast let me see 501 : View

C

Clifton, sweet village! now demands the lay 341 : View

Count all the Flow'rs that deck the Meadows side 164 : View

D

Dear Arr-n, now prepare the smile 643 : View

E

Enchanting is the mighty power of Love 159 : View

F

Far distant from Britannia's lofty Isle 257 : View

Far from the reach of Critics and Reviews 380 : View

?Farewell, Bristolia's dingy piles of brick 735 : View

G

Go, gentle Muse! and to my fair-one say 508 : View

H

Had Israel's Monarch, when Misfortune's dart 157 : View

Hail Kew! thou darling of the tuneful Nine 512 : View

Hail Resignation hail ambiguous Dame 468 : View

Hark, 'tis his knell–-I tremble as I hear 495 : View

Harolde? 295 : View

Harte of Lyon! shake thie Sworde 238, 261 n. : View

Haste, haste, ye solemn messengers of night 270 : View

Haste, ye purple gleams of light 662 : View

Havynge with much attention Reade 62 : View

He fled 400 : View

Here doethe Robbyn Godefelowe lie 137 : View

Hervenis harping on the hackneyd Text 392 : View

?How Smooth the surface of the deep! 764 : View

I

I swear by Styx this usage is past bearing 354, 606 : View

If gentle Love's immortal fire 635 : View

If wishing for the mystic Joys of Love 447 : View

In days of old, when Wesley's pow'r : p.1 : View

In the merry merye Vale 23 : View

In Virgyne the sweltrie sun gan sheene 645 : View

Intrest thou universal God of Men 377 : View

?Is Holland dead! and shall the friendly Muse 698 : View

?I've let my Yard, and sold my Clay 689 : View

J

Johne makes a Jarre 'boute Lancaster and yorke 241 : View

Joyless I hail the solemn Gloom 379 : View

Joyless I seek the solitary shade 400 : View

K : [no works]

L

?Let Sappho's name be heard no more 766 : View

Love, lawless tyrant of my breast 408 : View

Lucy, since the knot was ty'd 633 : View

M

Mad'ning for popularity and place 511 : View

Maie Selynesse on Erthis Bowndes bee hædde 240 : View

Marriage Dear M----- is a serious thing 683 : View

Mie boolie Entes adeiwe: ne more the Syghte 290 : View

?Mistaken World! considerate how few! 691 : View

Morals as Critics must allow 496, 498 : View

Mounted aloft in Bristols narrow Streets 635 : View

Muse ascend on Sorrows sable Plume 391 : View

My loving Dear I send thee this 686 : View

N

?Naked and friendless to the world expos'd 734 : View

Newton accept the Tribute of a Line 452 : View

No more dear Smith the hackney'd Tale renew 421 : View

No more I hail the Mornings golden gleam 382, 387 : View

Not Goulde or Bighes wylle brynge thee Heaven were 110 n. : View

Nowe; maie all Helle open to golpe thee downe 265 : View

O

O Chrieste it is a Griefe to me to telle 27 : View

O God, whose Thunder rules the Sky 684 : View

O! synge untoe mie roundelaie 210 : View

O thou or what remaines of thee 61 : View

Oerwhelm'd with pleasure at the joyful news 256 : View

Of Exhibitions infamous I sing 546 : View

Of Warres glumm Pleasaunce doe I chaunte mie Laie 267 : View

Of warring Constables and Battles dire 394 : View

Of warring senators, and battles dire 436 : View

Oh Truth! immortal daughter of the skies 68 : View

On Tiber's banks, Tiber, whose waters glide 590 : View

Once more the Muse to beauteous Hoyland sings 160 : View

Onne Ruddeborne bank twa pynynge maydens sate 291 : View

P

Passion worse than age will plow 637 : View

Q : [no works]

R

Recite the loves of Narva and Mored 543 : View

Revolving in their destin'd sphere 427 : View

S

Say, oh my soul, if not allowed to be 682 : View

Says Tom to Jack tis very odd 446 : View

Seraphic Virgins of the tuneful Choir 160 : View

Sharp was the Frost, the wind was high : p. 2 : View

Since Happiness was not ordained for Man 403 : View

Since short the busy Scene of Life will prove 161 : View

Since we can die but once what matters it 446 : View

So had not Reynardo stept in to save 362 : View

Somme cherisaunei 'tys to gentle mynde 178 : View

Soone as bryght Sonne alonge the Skyne, han sente hys ruddie Lyghte 107 : View

Sprytes of the Bleste! the pious Nygelle sed 308 : View

Stay curyous Traveller and pass not bye 99 : View

Straunge dome ytte ys, that, yn these daies of oures 176 : View

?Such are the Honours thy lov'd Country pays 693 : View

Sweet are thy charming smiles, my lovely maid 507 : View

T

Tell me God of soft desires 162 : View

The boddynge flourettes bloshes atte the lyghte 185 : View

The feather'd songster Chaunticleer 6 : View

The Matten Belle han sounded longe 23 : View

?The Night was cold, the Wind was high 688 : View

The Olyphaunt of Beastes is 109 n. : View

The pleasing Sweets of Spring and Summer past 330 : View

The Sun revolving on his axis turns 419 : View

The Sunne ento Vyrgyne was gotten 330 : View

The Tournamente begynnes; the Hammeres sounde 282 : View

Theere was a Broder of Orderys Whyte 22 : View

There was a Broder of Orderys Blacke 23 : View

?This truth of old was sorrow's friend 709 : View

?Tho' happiness be each man's darling aim 708 : View

Thorowe the halle the Belle han sounde 294 : View

Thys Booken was yeven 104 : View

Thys Morneynge Starre of Radcleves rysynge Raie 121 : View

'Tis Myst'ry all, in every Sect 365 : View

To Clayfield, long renowned the Muses friend 393 : View

To sing of Clarke my Muse aspires 164 : View

To the Worlde newe ande yttes bestoykeynge Waies 233 : View

To you, by genius prompted to display 563 : View

To you goode Byshoppe, I address mie saie 107 : View

To use a worn out Simile 423 : View

Tourne thee to thie Shepsterr swayne 182 : View

"Tys songe bie mynstrelles, thatte yn auntyent tym 175 : View

U : [no works]

V

Versed by Experience in the subtle Art 650 : View

W

Walpole! I thought not I should ever see 341 : View

?Weep on ye Britons-give your gen'ral Tear 713 : View

Well then Good Johne sythe it must needes be so 60 : View

Whan azure Skie ys veylde yn Robes of Nyghte 264 : View

Whanne Englonde smeetheynge from her lethal Wounde 305 : View

Whan Freedom dreste, yn blodde steyned Veste 304 : View

Whan from the Erthe the Sonnes hulstred 106 : View

Whan Norurs and hys Menne of Myghte 59 : View

Whanne Scythyannes, salvage as the wolves theie chacde 279 : View

Whanne Sprynge came dauncynge onne a flowrette bedde 265 : View

What are all your favourite joys 639 : View

?What boots it for the Sacred Nine 764 : View

What gentle Youth, my lovely fair one say 510 : View

What is war and all its joys? 632 : View

What language, Powell, can thy merits tell? 158 : View

What numbers, Holland, can the Muses find 339 : View

What strange Infatuations rule Man- kind 412 : View

When Kyng Kyngill in his Hande 57 : View

?When that day of Death shall come 764 : View

Where the rough Caigra rolls the surgy Wave 432 : View

Where woodbines hang their dewy Heads 5 : View

Why blooms the radiance of the morning sky? 583 : View

Whylomme bie Pensmenne moke un- gentle name 295 : View

Wouldst thou kenn Nature in her better parte 312 : View

Wyth daitive Steppe Relygyon dyghte un Greie 237 : View

X : [no works]

Y

Ye nine, awake the chorded shell 169 : View

?Ye sordid wretches! chain'd to rules 704 : View

Ye Virgins of the tuneful Choir 167 : View

Yes! I am caught, my melting soul 509 : View

Ynn auntient Dayes, when Kene- walchyn Kynge 21 : View

Ynne whilomme daies, as Storie saies 268 : View

Young Colin was as stout a boy 681 : View

Young Strephon is as fair a swain 633 : View

Yynge Hereaudyn al bie the grene Wode sate 268 : View

z : [no works]

Panel 14 : Glossary to Rowleyan Writings ↓ Back to Quick Links

To Search this rather long page press ctrl+f on your keyboard, but do note that it excludes the Glossary section.

The number of words coined by Chatterton and forming a Glossary to his Rowley writings is to big for a page on this website. So I have placed them in a Google Doc. To see and search the Glossary : View & Search Glossary

a - : Rowleyan random prefix (see A entries) ; resulting forms (from adding or dropping a-) not glossed when obvious.

aadod pomeisy : in Saxon was little green cakes offered to the Afgods or idols C [Somner aad: pile (see cut, 'Saxon Atchievements') plus C's Anglo-Saxon suffix -od] 259.23 276.9 276.19.

abentynge : sliding, plunging [Ba abent : steep place] 122.22.

abessie : humility C (i.e. in or by humility) [see abeste] 315.89.

abeste : humbled or brought down C [Ba abessed: humbled or cast down (cf. heraldic abaissé: depressed)] 109.69 109n.

oborde : bore on, carried on with [Somner aboren: carried] 648.89.

aborne : burnished C [Ba borne: burnish] 284-45.

abounde : good, service [Ba boon, beun: to do service; Skinner abone: to do good] 28.55•

aboune : make ready C [Ba boun : ready ; Skinner abone : to make ripe] 298.65.

abredynge : upbraiding C [Bal 192.452.

abrodden : abruptly C [Ba abreide : start up] 306.6.

ab(-)thane : earl C [Britannia 1167 thanes of the higher rank] 250.84 252.8 259.23.

abyghte : abide [Ba abit(te): abideth] 243.236.

acale : freeze C [Ba cold] 305.203.

accaie, accoie : assuage C [Ba accoy and GD 13] 193-474 230.74 230.77.

acheke : choke C [Ba acheked: choaked] 297-59.

acheuementes : heraldic achievements, escutcheons 259.22.

achevmentes : services C [Ba acheve: achieve, accomplish] 181.183.

achments : atchievements, acts C [Ba atchievements; Ba hatchments : acheve: act] 289.153.

acke : ache [Ba ache: ace Sax; Ba Bath: Acmanceaster, Sax, i.e. the sick folks' town] 144.19 146.34.

acroole : faintly C [Ba crool: growl, mutter, mumble] 292.6.

adave, adaves : enjoy(s) [Ba daw: enjoy; GD 38]79-392 108.40 135.25.

adawe(d) : awaken(ed) [Ba] 194.516 244.256.

adaygne : grant? [Ba deign: grant] 108.39.

addawd : daunted [Ba adawe: daunt] 71.110

adeene : (and see adigne, adygne) worthily [Ba digne: worthy] 197.606.

adeiwe : adieu [Spenser adiew] 290.1.

adente(d) : fastened, annexed C; or dented (197.608)? [Ba adent: fasten] 123.74 194-513 197.608 297-44.

aderne : cruel [Ba dern] 75.262.

adigne : (and see adeene, adygne) worthy, genteel, noble [Ba digne] 68.7 73.154 79-387 246.303.

adone : down [Chaucer adoun; GD 33] 267.103.

adradde : afraid [Bal 71.86 97.132.

adrames : churls C [Ba adraming: churlish] 176.27.

adrewe : drew 83-546.

adrie : dry [Somner adrigan] 238.63.

adronct : undee C (heraldic, wavy) [Somner plunged, drenched, immersed] 259.24.

adryfene : sheld an imbossed shield; being rudely carved with flowers, leaves, serpents, and whatever suited

the imagination of the carver C [Benson adrifene: engraved, carved] 259.18.

adventayle : armor C [Ba surcoat worn over the armour] 77-327 87.671 197-586 283.13 298.74.

adyghte : clothed [Ba] 240.150.

adygne : (and adeene, adigne) nervous, worthy of praise C [Speght digne: worthy, lyth; Ba nervous: sinewy,

strong, lusty] 178.94.

acced-fet : plate C (heraldic) [Benson æcced fæt: vinegar vessel, vessel] 259.22.

æthared : serpentliche twested C [Somner ætter: adder; Somner ætherd: perverse] 139.145 139.147.

afægrod : same as adryfene, but painted, rather than carved C [Benson painted; Somner depictus, embroidered, adorned] 259.19.

affere : frighten [Ba afere: afraid] 219.1186.

afforciaments, afforcyamentes : forts, fortresses, strongholds [Ba] 95.63 239.100.

affraie : affright C [Ba affray: terror] 215.1123 306.7306.18 309.29 310.53.

affraie : fight or encounter C [Ba affray: a fray, fight, or skirmish] 207.873 286.85 287.108.

afgod; afgodod : lesser idol of the Saxons, an- image dragon •C; charged with an afgod C [Somner idol; Ba afgodless'. ungodliness ex Sax] 259.17 276.10 276.19 276.20 276.28; 276.19.

aforen : before [Ba afornel 138.90.

agen : again [OED poet. 181 96.85.

agested : heaped up [Ba aggested] 242.187.

agguylte, agylted : offended C [Ba agiltel 192.452 196.554.

agrafen, agrefen : carved with crosses C (see cut, 'Saxon Atchievements')

[Somner carved, engraved] 259.25 276.12

agrame(s) (and see agreme) : grievance(s) C [Ba agramed: grieved] 300.101 300.105.

agreeme : torture C [Ba agramed : grieved; Ba grief: bodily pain] 193-474.

agrefen see agrafen.

agreme (and see agrame) : grievance, a sense of it C [see agrame] 296.17.

agrofed : grieved, frighted [Ba agrofel 241.154.

agroted : surfeited [Ba 192.466 194-500 213.1062.

agrutche :

grudged [Ba 114.189.

agylted see agguylte.

ahete : promise, vow [Ba hete: promised] 92.71.

ahrered : supported C (heraldic) [Somner reared or lifted up, elevated] 259.17.

aidens : aidance, aid, help 188.340.

aie : ever C passim.

ailes, ayle(s) : ail(s), disease(s) 144.28 149.n31

ake : oak C [Ba oak: ex aack Saxon] 308.8.

alans : dogs [Ba (heraldic)] 72.124.

alatche : accuse? [ex allege ? cf. agrutche, ylach’d] 183.235

alban(ne) : a large, loose, white robe C [Ba alb: a white surplice] 260.34 265.41 266.72.

aledge : idly C [Ba ease (v.)] 296.17.

alenge : alonge C [Ba lenger: longer] 309.19.

alest(e) : lest 181.168 229.54.

alestake : maypole [Ba 186.286.

al (l)gate : notwithstanding [Ba 89.28 97.131 123.74.

alise, alyse : allow C [Ba lysis: a loosening or releasing; Kersey alised : allowed] 177-77 297-48 304.192.

all(e)-a-boon(e) : a manner of asking a favor C, request [Ba a made request] 60.4 314-41.

allaie : cease, stop [Ba aleggement : ceasing, abatement; GD 27] 74.228.

allaie : alloy [Ba allay, alloy: to mix metals with a baser sort] 107.21.

allein, alleyn(e) : alone, only C [Ba alone : ex alle and æn Sax; GD allane: alone] passim.

alleyne : separately [see allein] 190.407.

allgate see algate.

allows : right, permission [cf. argues] 52.29.

almer : beggar C [Ba almeriola: a cupboard or safe to set up broken victuals,

to be distributed as alms] 645.20 647-77•

alofe, aloof(e) : aloft, above, on high [Ba aloft: ex alle and ofen, above, Sax, on high] 86.638 99.197 111.101 310.46.

als : also, else [Speght also, as well; Ba else: ex elles, Saxon, probably of allas, Latin]

68.23 118.30 118.35 143.n3 147-58 242.203.

alse : else [se als] 217.1143 218.1180.

alswai : also [Speght alswa] 150.87.

aluste : free, release [see alise] 29.88.

alyche : like C, alike [Ba lich] passim.

alyne : across his shoulder C [by the line ? or Benson alynnan : free] 286.79.

alyse see alise.

alyse : let loose [see alise ; Somner alysan : redeem, ransom] 190.395 195-525.

amaine, amayn(e), ameine : amain, forceful [ex might and main]

25-55 28.52 29-72 30.113 31.162 32.172 35.274 37-354 38.367.

amate :

destroy C [Ba daunt ; Ba mated : conquered, subdued] 181.176.

amate :

yield to, or quench [cf. amate and emmate] 217.1154.

amayl'd, amaylde :

enamelled C [Ba amayl: enamel] 268.3 310.49.

amayn(e) see amaine :

amede(d) :

reward(ed) [Ba meed: reward; GD 25] 181.172 228.1364.

ameelde :

ornamented, enamelled C [Ba amayl: enamel] 283-5.

ameine see amaine :

amengd, amenge :

among [Ba menged: mingled] 62.27 310.48.

amenged :

mingled [Ba menged] 242.184.

amenused :

diminished, lessened C [Ba menuse: diminish] 96.85 177.76 308.5•

amett :

painted irregularly with flowers, fruits, leaves, and insects C (heraldic) see cut, 'Saxon Atchievements' [Benson painted; Somner amet: adorned, decked, furnished] 276.7.

ametten :

met 280.46.

aminge :

among [see amengd] 646.27.

amne :

am [see explanatory note to line] 270.45.

ance :

once [Chaucer atanes: at once; GD 21] 22.22.

ancor's :

hermit's [Somner ancer : hermit] 306.24.

ane(e)r(e) :

near [OED anear SE 18; GD 25] 138.112 142.238 142.240 149.n26 247.2 249-32 249-38 250.82.

anemP :

name [Ba nempt: named] 234.18.

anen(s)t(e)

against C, beside, next, over against [Ba anent: over-against] passim.

anere see aneere :

anere :

another C [C's contraction, but compare br'er, which Tyrwhitt, Vindication (27), says is impossible] 114.211 176.48 179.133.

anete :

bring to nothing? [Somner ænote: nothing; and see nete and amate] 244.242

an(n)e(u) :

the beneath; less than [OED aneath: beneath SE 18] 153.20? 200.685 265-45 289.139 289.143 ; 153.20?234-33.

anie, ani(e)gh(e) :

near, nigh [OED anigh SE 18] 15.253 69.12 72.120 (but see next entry) 87.685 89.29 188.362 235.15 244.237 265.67.

anie :

annoy, or near, nigh [GD 131 72.120.

annethe see anethe :

anoune ever, anon, often C [GD 38] 265-55.

applynges :

grafted trees C [Ba apply: to put, set, or lay one thing to another] 307•33•

arace :

divest C [Ba pluck up; and see arrase] 303.168.

ar(cu)blaster :

arbalest, cross bow [Ba arblaster: cross bow; Phillips arcubalista] 70.52 77-303.

arcublastries :

arbalesters, crossbowmen [see arblaster] 73.163.

ardurous :

ardent [Ba ardour (next entry arduous)] 62.30.

are(e)de; aredynge :

conceive C, counsel, take counsel; perceiving [Ba areed : advice, counsel; Hughes areed : advise, guess; Chaucer areden : counsel, advise, explain, interpret, divine] 111.104 113.162 121.13 229.27 233.172; 311.79.

argentiere :

silversmith 138.110.

argues :

arguments [cf. allows] 153-9.

arist :

arose, arisen C [Speght arose] 305.222 314-51 645.10.

armlace :

armlet? [Ba armlet: a piece of armour for the arm; also a bracelet of pearl] 71.97.

armo(u)rie(s) :

arms (heraldic) [Ba] 135.14239.112260.25 260.26 264.16.

armour brace:

suit of armor [OED brace sb2 1, 1, b (Shakespere) a coat of arms] 192.456 242.198.

arrase :

erase, destroy [Ba arace: pluck up ; erased (heraldic): torn off] 269.20.

arreste :

blot, erase, blur [see arrase] 111.116.

aryghte :

right [Ba well, truly, as it ought to be] 122.32.

ascaunce, ascaunse :

askance, by chance [Ba askaunce: if by chance; Ba askaunt: sideways] 177.65 314-52.

asce :

ship C [Somner æsc: all sorts of vessels to sail or row in] 259.17.

asenglave :

(s. and pl.) some part of a lance, a whole lance? [Somner æscenne: ashen; Ba ash: ex asce Saxon; Ba glave: a long sword or bill; Ba glavea: a javelin or handdart] 24-33 26.102 30.117 39-423 41.483 73.166.

asies :

Asia's [Chaucer Asye] 3 11.67.

askaunte

askance, sidewise [Ba askaunt : sideways] 72.143 82.507.

askaunted :

glanced askance or carelessly [see ascaunce, askaunte] 177.67.

aslaunte :

aslant 88.716,

aslee :

slide, or slay, or see explanatory note for possible mistranscription198.621.

aspere :

view C [Ba espy: ex espier, F., to perceive or discover, to observe or watch; Spenser aspy: espy] 111.115.

assayle :

oppose, answer C [Ba assail: answer] attack; Speght assoile: 286.94.

assayled :

endeavoured C [OED assail, v., 6 SE 18; Ba assay: try; GD 31] 305.203.

assele(d) :

answer(ed) [Speght assoile] 91.51 312.14 332.326.

asshrewed :

accursed, unfortunate C [Ba shrewd: bewitched] 646.24.

assoie :

declare, assay? [Speght assoile: declare] 249-48.

asswaie :

force, impell [Speght swegh: impetus, force; OED assuade: urge, SE 1806] 192.470.

astarte:

startled, passed by, let go? [Ba astert: startle, escape, let go; Speght astert: scaped, passed, let pass; Spenser astart: start up, startle]

81.485.

astedde :

seated C [Ba bestead: beset 309.11.

astende :

astonish C [see aston] 297-59.

asterlagoure :

astrologer [Speght asterlagoure: astrolabe] 78.343.

asterte :

neglected, passed by, passed, went forth C [see astarte] 302.149 332.315.

aston, asto'n; astonieyng; astound(e), astound :

astonished, confounded C ; astonishing ; astonished, confounded [Ba astounded: astonished; Hughes astonish'd ; astound : aston'd, Chaucer astonien: astonish, confound] 197-597 308.5 311.70; 54-79; 70.75 82.495 87.689 99.207 113.157.

astowde :

bestow'd C 113.166.

astrodde :

stridden C; astride [ex strode] 285-59; 196.562.

asyde :

beside 245.268.

athellice :

walled and crenelled proper C (heraldic, i.e. a noble or notable place or town) [Somner æthellice : notably, excellently] 259.24.

ath(o)row(e), athrowgh :

through throughout [Ba thorough: ex thruh Saxon, thro'] 88.718 113.180 142.252 196.572 202.720.

athur :

through [Chaucer thurgh; see athrowl 81.466.

atone :

atonement [Spenser attone : agreement, reconciliation] 120.25.

at(t)(o)urn(e), atowre :

turne C [Ba attour: towards ; turn] 107.11 201.700 288.115 314-47.

atramentous :

inky [Bal 60.7.

atreeted :

extracted from corn C [Ba treate: taken out or withdrawn; Ba treet : wheat ; Somner atred : wrested] 267.116.

attend :

help, protect, or attend ? 40.467.

attenes :

at once C [Bal 92.75 179.136 184.258 191.435 301.121 645.13 646.42.

attoure :

attowre toward [Bal 95.69 95•75 191.440.

attourne see atourne.

attowre see attoure.

atturne see atourne.

auct(h)oure :

author [Chaucer auctour] 152.31 174.dram.pers. 228.5 231.127 294.dram.Pers. 295-7.

aumer :

amber [Speght] 150.95.

aumere(s) :

a loose robe or mantle C, borders C [Ba welt, skirt, or border] 194-515 313.25 645-7.

aunciaunte,

auncient,

auncyaunte,

auntient,

auntya(u)nt(e) :

ancient [analogy of Ba auncetry and many other aunc- and aunt- entries] passim.

aunter :

peradventure [Kersey aunters: peradventure, or if; Ba auntlers] 259.11.

auntrous :

adventurous [Bal 90.26.

aunture :

adventure [Ba auntrous: adventurous] 72.133.

auntya(u)ntrie :

antiquity, ancientry [see aunciaunte] 120.6 248.20 250.63.

auntyaunt(e) :

see aunciaunte.

aur(e) :

or (heraldic) [Ba auriate : golden; Ba aurum: gold] 177.62 239.119.

autremete :

a loose white robe worn by priests C [Ba autremite: another attire] 647-52.

avaunt :

be gone [Bal 55.103.

ave :

river [Britannia 515 : Avon in the British tongue is a general name for all rivers; GD 13] 86.636.

avele :

avail [Chaucer avale] 218.1173 234.22.

award :

ward, guard, ward against [OED SE 18] 140.189.

awaytynge :

attending [Chaucer] 74.215.

awhape; awhap'd, awhaped :

astonish; astonish'd C [Ba] 86.658; 86.642 106.3 194-517.

awhilst, awhylst :

whilst 180.165 241.182.

awrye :

twisted, spiral [Ba wry, awry: ex wrythan Saxon, to twist or twine] 141.232.

ayenwarde, aynewarde :

backward [Ba back again] 85.616 85.624 85.629 646.47.

ayle(s) see ailes.

ayle

ever? [Ba ayel; Speght] 91.50.

B

baie; baied :

abode (n.); abided, abode (v.) [Ba Obay: abide] 269-30; 23-5.

baileve, bayleve :

bailiff [Chaucer baillyves; Spenser baylieffe] 105-3 105.6 105.11.

ballarde :

custody, control? [OED bail: custody?] 103-334.

bane(d); banes; bante :

ban, curse(d); curses; cursed [Ba bann] 198.630 199.645 199.649 212.1034; 199.660; 187-325 198.639.

bankers :

cushions [Ba bankers browded : cushions embroidered] 238.78 261.n10.

bante see bane.

barbd :

armed, pointed? [cf. barbde or SE barbed] 75.261.

barbde, barbed :

hung with banners an trophies C, armed [Ba barbs: a sort of armour for horses formerly in use; cf. armorie] 107.8 107.n19.10 180.145 187-337'

barbe :

beard [Ba ex barbe, French, a beard] 235.6 245.281.

barbed see barbde.

bardi, bardyes :

bards [Chambers and

Britannia use bardi to mean poetic order of Druids] 21.3 36.305.

baren :

barren or bare? 211.997•

barens :

barons 238.78.

barganette :

song or ballad C [Ba] 284.41 314-49.

barkis :

bark's [GD 17] 308.7.

baskette :

target, butt? [according to EBrit (1 Ith edn.), under basket, shields were once made of wickerwork; if C had this information, he might have used basket on the analogy of target, which first meant shield] 187-331.

bataunt :

a musical instrument, perhaps struck? [beat plus GD 13 ; or Kersey batauntly: boldly] 16.276 16.292.

batements :

marks of sin C, abatements [Ba abatment of honour (heraldic) : an accidental mark annexed to a coat of arms by reason of some dishonourable quality or stain in the bearer] 108.38.

bat(t)one :

beat [Ba battoon: club or stick] 42.518 42.520.

battailes, battayl(e)(s) :

boat(s), small boat(s) [Ba battle: kind of small boat; Ba battle: ex battaile, French] 172.9 202.738 205.824 260.56 260.59.

battel :

pasturing, food for cattle, provender? [Ba to feed as cattle do] 103-334.

battent; battently; battentlie :

loudly C; loud roaring C; boldly [Kersey batauntly: boldly; Skinner batauntly: audaciously, vehemently]

285-52; 298.62; 209-943.

battone see batone.

baubels :

C [Ba] 178.111.

bausyn, bawsin, bawsyn :

large, huge, bulky C [Ba bawsin: big, gross] 87.690 111.106 181.175 282.101.

bayleve see baileve.

bayne :

ruin C [see bane] 178.106.

bayre :

brows C [the stages of a stag's antlers are called brow, bay, tray, and points—see OED; C apparently

confused brow and bay, then formed plural with -re, cf. GD 13] 311.76.

Bayzantynes :

besant, a coin [Ba] C random prefix (see below), cf. 22; resulting forms (whether from adding or dropping be-) not glossed when obvious.

bearn(e) :

child [Bal 122.34 135.12.

beave :

beaver, helmet 77-336.

bee :

by [Chaucer be] 140.191,

beer(e) :

bore, bear (v.) [Chaucer pret. sing.] 84-572 281.66.

befoe :

before 140.182.

beheste(d); behesteynge :

command(ed) ; commanding C [Ba behests: com- mands (n)] 260.54 284-33 298.72; 284-46.

behete :

promise C [Ba] 123-76.

behight, behyghte :

name, call [Ba called] 78.355 234.17.

behylt :

observe, obey [ex behold; or Ba hildeth : yieldeth] 229-52.

behylte

promised C; i.e. hidden, kept in store? [Ba hylted: hid; or confusion with Ba behete: to promise] 213.1056.

behylte

forbade? [Speght hold: withheld] 221.1220.

behylte

command, oversight, supervision, or protection [ex behold; or Ba hylted: hid] 144.21.

behyltren :

hidden [Ba hylted: hid; Ba hulstered: hidden] 193-477.

belent :

ceased, strayed; or slowed [Ba blent: ceased, strayed, turned back; Ba lent: slow] 72.121.

beme :

trumpet [Bal 195-540 200.680 238.82 261.1110.

bemeerd :

bemired 25.63 38.368.

Bement(e) (s); bementynge :

lament(s) ; lamenting C [Ba bement: lamented, bemoaned] 267.102 307-45 313-40; 291.3 293-36.

benned :

cursed, tormented C [see bane] 225.1304 232.135.

benym(mes); benymmynge :

take(s) away C; bereaving C [Ba benim] 113.152 212.1022; 295-3•

Bercie :

birchy? [Ba birch: ex birce, Saxon ; Somner berc : birch] 242.186.

bere :

bear 212.1018.

berne :

child C [Ba bearnJ 201.697.

berten :

venomous (mod. neders) C [Sonmer ætter-berend: that beareth poison, poisonous, venomous; C's phrase berten neders (venomous adders C) would derive hence if C took tetter (venom) for adder and, therefore, berend (bearing) for venomous] 285-58.

bes :

be's, be his 246.295.

beseemd, beseeme; beseeming :

befit; be- fitting [see beseies and note SE seemly] 24.10 294.2; 25-77.

beseies :

becomes C [Ba beseem : perhaps of be and seon, Saxon, to see, because that which is comely is pleasant to look at; Speght besey: become] 288.124 297-54.

besette :

encompassed [Bal 207.861.

besped :

sped, directed 39-402 58.26.

bespreng(e) (d), besprent(e) ; bespreng(e)ynge

scatter(ed) C, littered, sprinkled; scattering [Ba besprenged, besprent: besprinkled, sprinkled] 61.12 78.363 78.367 82.496 83-553 85.613 87-700 107.n19.6 110.74 178.85 205.817 265-44 267.105 ; 182.196 216.1120.

besprente :

broken or pierced through with darts C, broken [see bespreng] 288.132 289.154.

bestadde, bestanne :

lost [Kersey bestadl 195-528 240.151.

bested :

contended, fought [Ba bestead : beset ; Ba bestad : beset, surrounded] 72.140.

bestoikerre, bestoykerre; bestoyk(e)ynge :

deceiver C; deceiving C [Ba bestoike: betray] 182.209 218.1181 ; 112.47 233.1.

bestreynts :

strains, streaks? [Ba strain: view or track of a deer; or from strain: streak or trace; or from bestrow, bestrew] 86.634.

bete :

bid, command [Ba bit: commanded] 299-97.

betrassed, betraste :

betrayed, deceived, imposed on C [Ba betrassid] 217.1148 296.19.

betreinted :

sprinkled, littered [Ba betreint: sprinkled] 87.697.

bevyle :

break (heraldic) signifying a spear broken in tilting C [Ba bevile (heraldic): broken, or opening like a carpenter's rule] 310.57,

bewopen :

made senseless [see awhape] 86.665.

bewrate :

shame, or scolding [Ba rate: reprove or chide ; Ba bewray : to foul or daub with ordure] 72.127.

bewrecke(ynge) :

revenge C; revenging [Ba bewrreke: to revenge] 77-318 281.58 300.113 ; 215.1094.

bewree(ne), bewryen, bewryn(n)e, bewryynge :

express, declare, make known (and participial forms) C [Ba bewray: reveal, discover a secret; Ba bewraien: declare, discover] 86.647 107.14 178.90 179.124 197.603 219.1192 221.1231 221.1240 227.1348 243.226 288.128 299.84.

beyinde :

beyond C 176.31.

bielecoyle, byelecoyle :

well-pleasing, welcome C [Ba belaccoile: a friendly salutation; Speght Bialacoile: fair welcoming ; Spenser belaccoyle : welcome, fair greeting] 107.16 294.2.

bighes :

jewels C [Ba] 73.182 107.21 110.n39 143.n3 193-489 246.299 252.15.

bille :

fellow, man [Century, OED billy: fellow] 235.8.

birlette :

hood or covering for the back

part of the head C [Ba coif or hoodl 313.24.

bise :

bice, blue or green 268.6.

bismarde, bismar(e)lie, bysmar(d)e, bysmarelie

curious, bewildered, curiously C [Kersey bismare: curiosity; Speght bismar: fantastical strangeness] 88.715 107.13 115.243 154-40 177-74 236.15 239.105 247-319 282.95.

blake, blakied :

naked, original C [Ba naked] 186.296 195-525 312.4.

blanche, blaunch, blaunched :

white, whitened C [Bal 134.2 193.487 300.108 330.311.

blase :

blaze, publish, spread abroad [Bal 108.47 260.18.

blase, blaze :

blazon (fig.), fame [Ba blasours: praisers; and see blase, v.] 77.317 247.9

blasynne :

publish, make known [Ba blason: set forth the qualities of a person] 269.40

bla(u)taunt(e), blatauntlie :

loud, loudly C [Ba blatant: barking, bawling] 83-554 107.18 183.226 242.189 260.58.

blatyon :

blation, praise C (esp. to a cleric) [Ba oblations of the altar: customary offerings presented by the parishioners to the priest; plus confusion with blazon: praise] 108.46.

blaunch, blaunched :

see blanche.

blaunchie :

white silver C [see blanche] 310.50.

blautaunte see blataunt.

blaze see blase.

blazours :

blazoners, praisers [Ba blasours] 80.441.

blent :

grasped, held C [Skinner blent: held back] 290.175.

blent :

ceased, dead, no more C [Ba blent: ceased] 313-39.

blents :

turns back, mingles with [Ba blent: turned back, mingled] 86.638.

blethe :

bleed C [GD 24] 209-934 217.1160 287-98 297-47.

blyn(ne), blynge :

cease, stand still C [Ba blin] 192.452 200.670 296.17 298.70 310.40.

boc-hord, bochord(e) :

library C, also record, records of a church [Ba bock hord: ex boc hord, Saxon, a place where books, writings, and deeds are kept] 120.12 128.136 138.120 147-52 149-72 149.81 150.83 153.2 155-4 248.13 249-49 250.64.

bockes :

bucks [GD 39] 309.25.

boddeynge :

budding [GD 39] 281.62.

bodyed :

peopled 241.154.

bodykin, bodykyn :

body, substance C [Kersey a little body] 189-383 243.229.

boleynge, bollen :

swelling, swelled C [Ba bollen: swoln or swelled] 86.636 111.93 279.17.

bollengers :

kind of boat C [Ba bullenger : small sea vessel or boat; GD 39] 309.33.

Bonne Hommes :

see etym. [Phillips Bonhommes: an order of monks founded by Francis de Paula, and otherwise called Friers, Minims, or Minorites] 115.218.

boolie :

much loved, beloved C [Bal 290.1307-46.

bordelle, bordels :

cottage(s) C [Phillips bordel: at first signify'd any small cottage] 86.633 185.265 312.2.

bordeleire, bordeliere, bordelyer :

cottager [see bordelle] 195-527 216.1125 245.263.

borden :

burden [GD 39] 308.54.

borne :

bounds, limits, edge, sideline [Ba borns: bounds, limits] 70.48 76.289.

borne :

burnish C [Ba] 207.858 283.13.

bosmarelie :

curiously [see bismarde] 269.13.

botte see endeynge botte :

149-76 149-79.

botte :

but [GD 39] passim; 269-32 but or both ?

bouches :

sores; see etym. [Ba boche: an imposthume, botch, or ulcer; Ba botch: ex French bosse, a pocky ulcer or sore, also a sore in the groin] 144.n9.

boun(e); bounde :

make ready, ready, prepared C; made ready [Ba boun: ready] 201.707 289.149 310.40; 284-32.

bound :

extend [Ba bounds: limits; Ba boun: swelled] 69.23.

bourne :

borne, or confined, limited [Ba borns: limits] 197.600.

bourne

horizon? [Ba borns: limits, bounds] 74.198.

boutynge matche :

contest in which turns, bouts are taken; or riming contest [Ba bouts: ex behten, Saxon, to beat, trials; or from bout: turn; or from bout: end, as in bouts rimés] 60.2.

bowke(s); bowkie :

body, bodies ; person, body C [Ba bowke: body] 207.888 283.19; 302.145.

brace see armour brace.

braced; brase :

fastened; fasten [Ba fastened] 266.72; 90.26.

brast(e)(th), brast(e)ynge :

burst(eth) C, bursting ; break, broke, breaking [Ba brast: burst. broke, break] 70.n1 74.194 76.300 79-410 144.n7 172.3

190.411 194-500 195-535 202.732 204-796 215.1115 301.135 646.42.

braunce(s); brauncynge :

branch(es) C; branching [Ba braunch] 300.101 315.86; 217.1139.

brayd :

displayed C [Ba bray: make a noise; Ba brayd: break out; Speght brede; abroad] 299.89.

brayde :

embroider [Ba braid : wove ; Ba brawdery: embroidery; Ba broderer: embroiderer] 216.1127.

brede :

broad C [Ba brede: breadth, make broad] 269.26 298.75 300.107 308.4.

breme; bremie :

strong; strength, force C; furious(ly) [Ba brimme: sharp, fierce, violent; Ba breme : furiously] 195-542 203-747 308.6; 291.17 296.24 299.81 ; 58.3185.604 87.695.

breme :

brim, edge; or strong, fierce; or chill, bitter (see explanatory note) [Ba breme: furiously, chill, bitter; see breme above; GD 13] 103-336.

bremie see breme.

brende; brend(e)yng(e); brent(e) :

burn, consume C; flaming C, burning, consuming; burnt C [Ba bren : burn; Ba brenningly: warmly; Ba brent: burnt] 215.1114 298.62 ; 198.618 203-753 217.1154 305.212; 55.102 55.103 103-310 123-48 154-5 155.2155-3 186.296 314-54.

brennynge :

leprosy C [see brende and compare 143.8] 144.26 and n.

brennynge :

cautery? [see brende] 123.67.

brennynges :

burnings [see brende] 143.8.

brent(e) see brende.

bretful :

filled with C [Ba top-full 645.19.

brindlynge :

brindled 264.26.

broch'd, broched :

pointed [Ba brooch : a spit; Ba brochette: skewer; Ba brocha: awl, needle] 77-335 84-593.

broder(s), broderen :

brother(s), brethren [GD 24] passim.

broderer; broderie :

embroiderer; embroidery C [Ba broderer : imbroider] 236.15 261.85 ; 252.11.

bronde :

sword, brand [GD 33] 77-302 ? (see next entry) 86.651 238.77 261.n10 296.19. See also burlie-brande.

bronde :

rage? [Ba brond: fury, rage] 77-302.

bronded :

furious? [see bronde] 83-558.

brondeous :

furious C [see bronde] 207.878 219.1190 220.1205 224.1293 225.1308 299.80 309.24.

brondeynge :

furious ? [see bronde] 205.821.

browded :

embroidered C [Bal 236.17 238.78 243.221 261.n10 302.142.

browke :

enjoy C [Ba browk: enjoy, use] 111.94

brudgis; brugge

bridges; bridge [Ba bridge: ex brigge, Saxon; see also brugbote] 123.74; 120.19 269.7.

brued :

wet, soaked [from imbrue; but OED gives brued: imbrued] 27.10;

brugbote :

contribution toward mending bridges; also, those exempted from this tribute [Ba brigbote, brugbote, bruchbote] 103•335•

brugge see brudgis.

Bruton(s) :

Briton(s) [ex Brutus—see 280.34] 83-535 86.631.

brutylle :

brittle, frail, or senseless [Chaucer brutel: brittle, fragile, frail, transitory; Ba brutal: senseless] 181.187.

brynnynge :

declaring C, showing, discovering [see bewree] 204-797 215.1110.

burl(e)d :

armed, pointed C [Ba armed] 61.11 69-37 71.86 90.22 95-49 197.604 205.825 227.1337 279.20 305.206 305.222.

burlie-brande, burlie bronde :

great fury; sword [Ba burly brand: a huge sword, also great fury] 86.664; 238.77 261.n10 296.19.

burne :

speak, or simply a fig. usage of burn? [see bewree; GD 13] 201.702.

buyldenne :

building [GD 19] 249-50.

byelecoyle see bielecoyle.

byker :

battle, fight (n. and v.) [Ba byker: a fray or scuffe] 86.644 188.364 194-520 200.684 269.28.

byk(e)rous :

warring C [see byker] 213.1060 280.37.

bysmar(d)e, bysmarelie see bismarde.

Panel 15 : Principal Editions and Collections ↓
[With Links added by (QE!) to Enhance your Experience] Back to Quick Links

When a year or name is used in isolation (to save space) it refers to a specific book, as listed below :

The date or name beginning each entry is the abbreviation used in the apparatus of this edition.

1777

Poems, Supposed to have been written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley, and Others, in the Fifteenth Century; the Greatest Part now First Published from the Most Authentic Copies, with an Engraved Specimen of One of the MSS. To which are Added, a Preface, an Introductory Account of the Several Pieces, and a Glossary. London: Printed for T. Payne and Son, at the Mews-Gate. MDCCLXXVII. [Edited by Thomas Tyrwhitt. The second edition, 1777, is reset from the first. The third edition, 1778, "To which is Added an Appendix, Contain- ing some Observations upon the Language of these Poems; Ancient Tending to Prove, that They were Written, Not by any Author, but Entirely by Thomas Chatterton', is reset from the second. 1777 is also reprinted in 1782 (see below); Cambridge, 1794, ed. Lancelot Sharpe; Oxford, 1911, ed. Maurice E. Hare (based on the third edition).]

1778

Miscellanies in Prose and Verse; by Thomas Chatterton, the Supposed Author of the Poems Published under the Names of Rowley, Canning, &c. London: Printed for Fielding and Walker, Pater-Noster Row. MDCCLXXVIII. [Edited by John Broughton.]

Croft :

Love and Madness. A Story Too True. In a Series of Letters between Parties, whose Names would perhaps be mentioned, Serjeants Inn, Fleet Street. were they less known, or less lamented. London: Printed for G. Kearsly, at No. 46, near Serjeants Inn, Fleet Street, M,DCC,LXXX. [Many subsequent editions. See next section of this Introduction.]

1782 :

Poems, Supposed to have been Written at Bristol, in the Fifteenth Century, By Thomas Rowley, Priest, &c. With a Commentary, in which the Antiquity of them is Considered, and Defended. By Jeremiah Milles, D. D. Dean of Exeter, London: Printed for T. Payne, and Son, at the Mews Gate. M.DCC.LXXXII. [Reprints Tyrwhitt editions but with additions.]

1784 :

A Supplement to the Miscellanies of Thomas Chatterton. London: Printed for T. Becket, in Pall-Mall. MDCCLXXXIV. [Editor unknown.]

Bristol :

The History and Antiquities of the City of Bristol; compiled from Original Records and authentic Manuscripts, In public Offices or private Hands . . . By William Barrett, Surgeon, F.S.A. Bristol: Printed by William Pine, in Wine-Street… [1789].

1795 :

The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton . . . Edinburgh: Printed by Mundell and Son, Royal Bank Close. Anno 1795. [pp. 295-405 of vol. xi of The Works of the British Poets. With Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, by Robert Anderson, M.D. London, 1795.]

1803 :

The works of Thomas Chatterton. London: Printed by Biggs and Cottle... for T. N. Longman and O. Rees . . . 1803. [3 vols., ed. Robert Southey and Joseph Cottle. Vols. i and ii, modern and Rowley poems, Vol. iii, prose; reprinted London, 1810, in vol. xv of The Works of the English Poets, with a biography by Alexander Chalmers.]

Dix :

The Life of Thomas Chatterton, including his Unpublished Poems and Correspondence, by John Dix. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co., Paternoster Row. MDCCCXXXVII.

1842 :

The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton with ... a Selection of his Letters ... Cambridge: Printed for W. P. Grant, MDCCCXLII. [2 vols., ed. C. B. Willcox. Reprinted in Boston, 1857, with several subsequent Boston editions, with the addition of 'Last Verses' (see works of doubtful authenticity).]

1871 :

The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton with an Essay on the Rowley Poems by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat ... London: Bell and Daldy . . . 1871. [2 vols.; several reprints in the Aldine Edition of the British Poets.] :

View volume 1 View volume 2

[ (QE!) : I sometimes use Taylor's short form references (shown above), along with the following additional short form references within the pages of this website ].

M :

Edward, Harry, William, Meyerstein, author of A Life of Thomas Chatterton (1930).

T. / Taylor. / Tay.

Donald S. Taylor, editor of The Complete Works of Thomas Chatterton (1971).

Tp.xxxx :

Taylor page. xxxx, where xxxx is the page number in Taylor's two volumes.

'In addition to those editions listed or noted within brackets above, there are several nineteenth- and early twentieth-century editions which have no textual importance: Philadelphia, 1822, vol. xxix of Walsh's British Poets, selected verse; Edinburgh, [1837], ed. James Glassford, selected adapted Rowleyan verse; London, [1865], ed. Frederick Martin, selected non-Rowleyan verse; London, 1885, ed. John Richmond, collected non-Rowleyan verse and selected Rowleyan adapted verse; London, 1898, ed. Robert Steele, collected Rowleyan verse from early editions, a bibliophile's edition decorated by Charles Ricketts; London, 1906 and 1909, 2 vols. of collected verse, ed. Sidney Lee, and also issued in 1905 with fewer Rowley poems in vol. ii; London, 1906, 2 vols., ed. Henry D. Roberts, collected verse including adapted Rowleyan poems.'

Panel 16 : Problems of Authenticity ↓ Back to Quick Links

'The major authenticity problems have, oddly enough, nothing to do with Thomas Rowley. Most imitations of Rowley-they were regular features of the Rowley controversy-have, consciously or unconsciously, all the marks of burlesque. Rowley's authentic voice develops from the antiqued spelling and light archaism of 'Bristowe Tragedie' to the thick Rowleyism of 'Goddwyn', the eclogues, and 'An Excelente Balade of Charitie', but never is it as thick or as consistent as in the various imitations. Malone's attribution, 'Rowley's Printing Press', is the only Rowleyan piece over which I had to hesitate in the matter of authenticity.

The non-Rowleyan pieces are quite another matter. Since there was no edition before C's death, since most of the non-Rowleyan pieces were written and published over pseudonyms, since no particular attention has ever been paid to C's non-Rowleyan styles, and since forgers and hoaxers seem to have been involved in canon questions almost from the start, these works present serious authenticity problems.

There are several sources of authentic, doubtful, and wrong attributions, and the motives of the attributors range from M's useful desire to suggest for future students all works that ought to be considered, through the careless and uncritical attributions of 1778 and 1803, to the hoaxing and downright forgery involved in some of John Dix's attributions. The relative reliability of the various editions, collections, and other sources of attribution are discussed more fully in the section of this introduction on the history of the canon.

When there is any question of authenticity, the evidence is discussed in the commentaries, and many cases are rather special. In general, however, I have followed certain broad principles. First, I accept works as genuine for which a holograph is extant. The one exception here would be the doubtful 'Extract of a Letter' from the Paget manuscripts. Holographs are extant for half of the pieces judged authentic. Second, eleven works are accepted because acknowledged by C in his Notebook (see Items Not Printed) or in his letters. Third, three of the early editions and collections-1777, 1784, and Croft-prove so reliable whenever they can be checked that I accept eleven works primarily on the basis of their attribution. Fourth, the attributions of certain of C's friends and acquaintances-George Catcott, Barrett, Edward Gardner, and Walpole-are accepted in cases where there seems to be no reason to doubt their reliability: this category involves twenty-eight pieces. In the last two categories, however, it has been thought necessary to consider also all other internal and external evidence (signatures, styles, allusions, circumstances, and testimony) before making a decision, and about one-fourth of the works judged authentic are accepted primarily on the basis of such evidence.'

Panel 17 : Sundry ↓ Back to Quick Links

LIST OF PLATES Back to top

Images will be included after a visit to the British Library (if I ever get around to it)

Canynge and Chatterton entries, 'Craishes Herauldry' : Frontispiece

1. a. Brightric's Church and Eslewin's Tower : facing 94

b. Brightric's Palace and Brightric's Stone : facing 94

II. a. Monuments found in the Bristol area : facing 104

b. 'Mass Book Inscription' : facing 104

III. "Towre Gate' : facing 105

IV. Seven Ancient Monuments; Map of Rudhall and Redcliff Wall : facing 116

V. Three Ancient Monuments : 117

VI. a. Brightric's Stone, Kenewalchin's Stone, Water Gate, Brightric's Well : between 118-119

b. The Castle Foundation : between 118-119

VII. Bristol Walls; Castle and Walls; Saxon Painting : between 118-119

VIII. Part of the Inner Castle : between 118-119

IX. The Strong Hold : between 118-119

X. Seals from Deeds : facing 130

XI. Tomb of Walter fitz Lupus : facing 136

XII. a. Frome Gate : facing 142

b. Lazar House Gate and Priory Church : facing 142

XIII. Statue of Sir John de Berkeley : facing 143

XIV. a. Section of the Inside of the Hall b. Window in the Hall : facing 146

XV. Bristol Walls, St. Leonard's Gate to Geoffrey's Gate : between 148-149

XVI. Bristol Walls, Geoffrey's Gate to St. Leonard's Gate : between 147-149

XVII. a. Geoffrey's Lodge : between 148-149

b. Geoffrey's Lodge to the City : between 148-149

XVIII. a. Two Drawings for a Church b. The Priory Tower : between 148-149

XIX. a. Score from the Chapel : facing 150

b. Chapel Window : facing 150

XX. Chapel Windows : facing 151

XXI. 'The Chyrche Oratorie of the Calendaryes' : facing 154

XXII. "Three Tombs' : facing 155

XXIII. Three Tombs and a Coin : facing 250

XXIV. 'Saxon Atchievements' : facing 274

Redcliff, Chatterton's Neighbourhood, in Rowley's Day : Vol. 2 : Frontispiece

GLOSSARY TO THE ROWLEYAN WRITINGS Back to top

I. INTRODUCTION TO THE GLOSSARY:

(Jump to the actual Glossary, at the end of this Introduction : View )

UNTIL the Rowleyan language was conclusively shown to be artifice, all the attention given to it was focused on the question of authenticity. Though Tyrwhitt's 'Appendix' to his third edition of Rowley (1778) and his Vindication of that appendix should have settled the matter, knowledge of the history of English was not sufficiently dispersed for Tyrwhitt's accomplishment to be generally recognized. Skeat's 'Essay on the Rowley Poems' (in 1871) put an end to any possibility of a rational protest that Rowley bore a relationship either to old poetry or to fifteenth-century English. Even so, fascination with the element of hoax has continued to give a faulty focus to the consideration of C's Rowleyan language. Since the glossary to this edition is complete (half again as long as any previous Rowley glossary) and since it represents the first systematic attempt to uncover the sources of C's language, it is hoped that a way has now been opened for studying the Rowleyan language as any other poetic diction would be studied, giving due attention to its sources, C's increasing fluency in its use, and the values for which the diction is a medium.

The Rowleyan language is our chief entry into the imaginary medieval world that C created. His primary motive was not, I think, deception— either with the world or with its language. C was a kind of historian, a historian whose faculty for imaginative reconstruction was stronger than either his store of facts about the past or his commitment to that slender store. In comparing the historian and the novelist, R. C. Collingwood has said:

Each aims at making his picture a coherent whole.... The novel and the history must both of them make sense; nothing is admissible in either except what is necessary, and the judge of this necessity is in both cases the imagination. Both the novel and the history are self-explanatory, self- justifying, the product of an autonomous or self-authorizing activity; and in both cases this activity is the a priori imagination.

As works of imagination, the historian's work and the novelist's do not differ. Where they do differ is that the historian's picture is meant to be true. The novelist has a single task only: to construct a coherent picture, one that makes sense. The historian has a double task: he has both to do this, and to construct a picture of things as they really were and of events as they really happened. This further necessity imposes upon him obedience to three rules of method, from which the novelist or artist in general is free.

First, his picture must be localized in space and time....

Secondly, all history must be consistent with itself. . . .

Thirdly, and most important, the historian's picture stands in a peculiar relation to something called evidence. 1

Such criteria suggest that C must be studied both as artist and as historian, for his imaginative reconstruction of Rowley and his world clearly had, for C, historical reality. His knowledge of fifteenth-century Bristol and of fifteenth-century English was scrappy by our standards, but very rich by the standards of educated Bristolians of his day. It can have taken little more than a dangerous prevalence of imagination to convince him that both the language and the Rowleyan world were historically true. I take it that his letter to Walpole of 14 April 1769 was not consciously insincere: what he had imagined was true to the evidence as he knew it. It seems impossible, then, to separate the poet, the hoaxer, the historian, and the imitator in Thomas Chatterton-to say, for example, that he began by imitating old poems, realized that he could successfully manufacture 'old' poems, and came finally to write authentic poetry in this prevaricating mode. The strands are not so easily separable, even when we remember that he clearly rejected certain early Rowleyan efforts ('Bristowe Tragedie', 'Ynn auntient Dayes', 'Battle of Hastynges I') after gaining proficiency in the Rowleyan mode.

If he is more historian than forger, C is also more artist than forger. We have come to realize in our century that every writer creates per- sonæ, and that each persona has its diction, rhetoric, style. Is it not as delicate a task to draw precise lines of demarcation between C's Rowley and Sterne's Tristram as between Sterne's Tristram and the narrator of The History of Tom Jones? Would we willingly limit ourselves to studying Tristram or the 'Fielding' of Tom Jones as exercises in deception? With C, as with Fielding and Sterne, we must finally address ourselves rather to the function of the persona and to the special diction which brings the persona to life. The Rowleyan language must, I believe, be used to study Rowley as persona, to study C as historian and artist rather than as hoaxer.

The general characteristics of the Rowleyan language may be quickly stated. The vocabulary, contrary to what has been hitherto assumed, is never free fantasy: it is true to what C knew of pre-eighteenth-century English, being entirely based on what were, to C, authentic sources.

1 The Idea of History (New York, 1956), pp. 245-6.

Second, his proficiency with this language grew steadily and rapidly, as can be seen by tracing the old-words proportion given in the tabular commentary for each Rowleyan piece or by comparing the relative thickness of Rowleyan forms of recognizable words in these pieces. Third, C took the essence of fifteenth-century spelling, syntax, and word-forms to be lawlessness: all of his sources taken together the dictionaries, glossaries, Camden, Leland, Percy, and the others as equally 'old' English would certainly convey such an impression to an imaginative person who was not an expert in language. Fourth, words from standard eighteenth-century English are Rowleyized by subjecting them to this lawlessness. Fifth, the glossary citations abundantly demonstrate that many individual Rowleyan words come into and go out of favour in brief spans within the Rowleyan year: this phenomenon may provide clues to the values, interests, and concerns of particular phases.

More specifically, the special Rowleyan vocabulary consists of slightly more than 1,800 words, none of which would seem to be pure fabrication. The basic source would seem to have been Nathaniel Bailey's Universal Etymological English Dictionary, a modest desk dictionary roughly analogous to our collegiate dictionaries. This and Kersey's dictionary (see list of abbreviations at the end of this essay for bibliographic data on sources here cited) were suggested as chief sources as early as 1782 by Samuel Babcock, and in 1838 C. V. Le Grice gave strong arguments for thinking Bailey the major source.2 Since Bailey's dictionary draws from Kersey's, many Rowleyan words may be found in both, but of the two only Bailey gives etymologies, and the glossary shows that C made full use of these. Almost sixty per cent of the 1,800 words can be derived from Bailey. Of the remainder about twenty-five per cent seem to be variants of standard English, some slightly altered, some metamorphosed. (I include in this group only words that I was unable to find in C's other presumed sources, but he may well, of course, have formed some of the words which can be found in Bailey and other sources in this way.) About eight per cent would seem to come either from Chaucer or from Speght's glossary thereto. Two per cent are words that were standard English (according to OED) in the eighteenth century but are now archaic. Two per cent are from Somner's or Benson's Anglo-Saxon dictionaries (the former being used more fre- quently), and over half of these occur in the letter A, as Skeat observed. About one per cent would seem to come from Spenser or from Hughes's glossary to that poet. Another one per cent are to be found in Kersey (and not in Bailey). Eleven words or fewer can be found in Phillips's dictionary (eleven), various dialect dictionaries (eleven from Somerset,

1 Monthly Review, lxvi. 217 ff., 434 ff.

2 'Chatterton and Bailey's Dictionary', GM, clxiv. 128 ff.

Gloucester, or Scotland), Skinner's dictionary (ten), Camden's Britannia (four), Shakespeare (three), and the Ruddiman glossary to Gavin Douglas's Æneid (two).

It is probable, of course, that other sources were drawn upon and that Speght, Hughes, Kersey, and Phillips contributed some of the words that my glossary gives to Bailey, since Bailey drew on all of them. Further, the clearly heavy use of Bailey (and C's heavy use of a few sources for heraldry and other special subjects) leads me to suspect that some scholar may eventually find that one or two sources will account for most of the words not in Bailey and not produced by Rowleyan metamorphosis of standard English words. The important point, how- ever, is that the words were available in dictionaries, glossaries, and texts. I was unable to find probable (or, at least, possible) sources for only fifteen of the 1,800 words, and this strongly suggests that sources will eventually be found for these words too: C did not, apparently, make up any of his Rowleyan words.

C's chief spelling rules seem to have been that any possible spelling that did not conform to standard English was likely to have been an old spelling and that fifteenth-century English was not consistent in its spellings of individual words. Instances can be found to show that almost all vowels and diphthongs are interchangeable, though certain substitutions are much more common than others. Consonants are freely doubled or singled without regard to vowel length and most con- ceivable spellings of any given consonant sound are somewhere employed. Final e is freely added, as are initial a, be, de, e, em, en, i, un, y. Phonetically equivalent or just vaguely similar spellings of syllables are freely interchanged. It would take pages merely to list all the spellings of vowel, diphthong, and consonant sounds that occur.

Although Rowleyan syntax and word-forms tend to follow standard English more closely than does the Rowleyan spelling, C clearly feels free to depart from these norms too. The variant syntactical patterns can often be traced to particular passages in earlier writers (as the commentary frequently suggests). Parts of speech and verb forms are quite freely interchanged and both standard and archaic prefixes and suffixes are added, dropped, or respelled as rhyme, meter, or sound patterns demand. As previously suggested, C's historic and literary sources taken together as 'ancient' writings seem to have suggested to him that spelling particularly but also syntax and word forms were regular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but that before that lawlessness prevailed. Though certain patterns recur, apparently irregularity, elaborateness, and crabbedness were for C major characteristics of older English.

C may have had some relatively systematic guide to and justification for this Rowleyan lawlessness, some such guide as the list of 'General Rules for Understanding the Language of Bishop Dowglas's Translation of Virgil's Æneis', which appears just before the glossary in Ruddiman's edition of 1710. These rules constitute a guide to Douglas's late Middle Scots for eighteenth-century English readers. Of the forty-four rules listed, all but nine (6, 7, 11, 12, 15, 34, 35, 40, 42) can also be illustrated from Rowley, many of them abundantly. In their authorization for specific deviations from eighteenth-century standard English and in the general feeling of licence conveyed (especially by 1-10, 13, 15, and 44), these rules might well suggest most of the Rowleyan spelling, syntactic and formal variations-hence my frequent references to them (as GD numbers) in the glossary etymologies.

The forty-four rules, rephrased for brevity and clarity, are these. 1. Spelling not uniform. 2. Superfluous for, do, gan, can, gif, he, him, and the. 3. Words frequently omitted as understood. 4. Syntactical inversions. 5. Freedom with proper names. 6. Names of fathers and grandfathers used for characters. 7. Double negatives as intensives. 8. Singulars and plurals of nouns interchangeable. 9. Verb forms interchangeable. 10. Verb endings interchangeable. 11. Scots preterits; -d dropped from participles. 12. Identical rhymes. 13. Final syllables changed for rhyme. 14. Verb forms taken from the Latin present. 15. to- as superfluous verb prefix. 16. Words joined and separated contrary to standard practice. 17. is for s in noun and verb endings. 18. -it for -ed; -ith for -eth. 19. -and, -in, -an for -ing. 20. Added and dropped letters. 21. a for o, ai, and e in -er. 22. be- or by- prefix; dropped b before final t. 23. sch for sh; ch for gh; c dropped before k; k for c. 24. d before g dropped; d in ad- dropped; d and th interchanged; de- added or dropped. 25. e-consonant-e for ee-consonant and ea-consonant; e for eo, ue, ey, y, ie, ee; e added before u and w, ei for ea. 26. f and v interchanged; ff for v. 27. g dropped before th; g changed to y or ; g in -ing dropped. 28. h in sh dropped; initial h often added or dropped. 29. j and i, i and y interchanged; initial i and y freely added; i for e, u; il for le after con- sonant. 30. k or kk for ct. 31. I added or dropped. 32. ng for gn. 33. o for oo, a; ou for o; o dropped before u; i added between o and s. 34. p added between m and n. 35. quh for wh. 36. s and c interchanged. 37. t dropped before ch; k for tch or ch; final t added; d and t inter- changed; d for th; ci for ti. 38. v and u, v and w, u and w interchanged. 39. u for oo; u and o interchanged; ou for o. 40. wi for ous. 41. Initial y and i interchanged; i and y added after single consonant; final y dropped. 42. * for y. 43. Personal pronouns applied to objects. 44. Final accent in line moveable; syllable count fairly exact when lines properly read. Most of Ruddiman's rules are illustrated by examples, many of which also occur in Rowley: the interested student should consult the complete text.

II. FORMAT

The glossary includes all words in the special Rowleyan vocabulary and all words from C's eighteenth-century vocabulary so disguised by Rowleyan spelling as to make recognition difficult. The entries are arranged as follows:

1. Entry word with inflected forms and alternate spellings, all italicized. Here semi-colons are used to separate sub-groups distinguished in the same way later in the entry-in definition, etmyology, and/or citation.

2. Definitions, labelled C if derived from C's glosses.

3. 'Etymologies', C's probable source or sources for the word, enclosed in square brackets. Quotations from these sources are substantively but not accidentally exact and elisions are not indicated.

4. Citations, by page and line number.

Though the citations do not constitute a complete concordance of Rowleyan words, most instances and all unique instances are cited. Certain words, however, are used so frequently as to prohibit citing each occurrence: they are listed below. These words may be considered the core Rowleyan vocabulary:

aie, allein (alleyn, alleyne), alyche, anent (anente, anenst, anenste), aunciaunte (many spellings), botte, broder (broderen), carvel (and deriva- tives), Dacya (and derivatives), dhere (dheere), dolven (several spellings), dome (domme, doome), echon (echone), ecke (eeke, eke), everich (everiche, everych, everyche), eyen (eyene, eyne), freer (freere, frere), gif (gyf, gyff, gyffe), hallie, han (hann, hanne), hem, loverd (loverde), lyche (lycke), maint (maynt, maynte, meint, meinte, meyncte, meynt, meynte), mickle (myckelle, myckle), mo (moe), moste, mote, mynster (mynsterre), ne, neete (nete), oder (odher), peyncte (many derivatives and variant spellings), rennome (renome), seyncte, sheene (and derivatives), slea (slee), swote (swotie, swottie, swotye), swythe, swythin (swythyn, swy- thyne, swythynne), syche (sycke, syke), sythence, twa (twai, twaie), twain of, yat (yat, yatte), ybuilden (many spellings), yer, yev (yeve, yeven).

The following abbreviations are used in the glossary entries: abbreviations not in this list will be found in the list for the whole edition, pp. xxi ff.

Ba:

N. Bailey. An Universal Etymological English Dictionary : View Online at Chat Project

Eighth edition. London, 1737.

Note: I have replaced Ba in the glossary with the full title Bailey.

Benson:

Thomas Benson. Vocabularium Anglo-saxonicum. Oxford, 1701 : View online at Chat Project

Coles:

Elisha Coles. An English Dictionary. London, 1732 : View Online

GD:

Virgil's AEneis, transl. Gawin Douglas, ed. Thomas Ruddiman. Edinburgh, 1710: View Online

See above for list of 'General Rules'.

Hughes :

The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser, ed. John Hughes. London, 1715, 1750.

Glossary in first volume. : View Online

Jamieson :

John Jamieson.

An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language. Paisley, 1879-82. : View Online

Percy :

Thomas Percy.

Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, second edition. London, 1767 : View Online Chat Project

Phillips :

Edward Phillips. New World of Words; or Universal Dictionary, ed. John Kersey, sixth edition. London, 1706 : View Online

SE :

Standard English : View Definition Online

Skinner :

Stephen Skinner. Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae. London, 1671 : View Online

Wright :

Joseph Wright. English Dialect Dictionary. London, 1898-1905 :

View Volume 1 View Volume 4 View Volume 6

Notes by QE!

For the sake of my sanity, specifically when applying OCR, I have dispensed with italics, as I believe that the work Donald has done makes it all clear enough. I have, however, changed the glossed words to bold and placed them above the explanations and into single columns; and yet it is still taking an age to complete this ‘simple’ task. Ah, I have just added links to online copies of the books cited by Donald S. Taylor.

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