IV. NOTE ON THE TEXT

V. NOTES

VI. APPENDIX ON THE ROWLEY CONTROVERSY

REPRINT OF THE EDITION OF 1778. (The Table of Contents follows the
1778 title-page.)




EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.

I. CHATTERTON'S LIFE AND DEATH AND THE GENESIS OF THE ROWLEY POEMS


Thomas Chatterton was born in Bristol on the 20th of November 1752.
His father--also Thomas--dead three months before his son's birth, had
been a subchaunter in Bristol Cathedral and had held the mastership
in a local free school. We are told that he was fond of reading and
music; that he made a collection of Roman coins, and believed in magic
(or so he said), studying the black art in the pages of Cornelius
Agrippa. With all the self-acquired culture and learning that raised
him above his class (his father and grandfathers before him for
more than a hundred years had been sextons to the church of St. Mary
Redcliffe) he is described as a dissipated, 'rather brutal fellow'.
Lastly, he appears to have been 'very proud', self-confident, and
self-reliant.