The Rowley Poems by Thomas Chatterton
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page 2 of 413 (00%)
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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. |
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