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BEDDOES, THOMAS LOVELL (1803-1849)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 615 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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BEDDOES, See also:
THOMAS
THOMAS (c. 1654-1720)
THOMAS (d. 110o)
THOMAS, ARTHUR GORING (1850-1892)
THOMAS, CHARLES LOUIS AMBROISE (1811-1896)
THOMAS, GEORGE (c. 1756-1802)
THOMAS, GEORGE HENRY (1816-187o)
THOMAS, ISAIAH (1749-1831)
THOMAS, PIERRE (1634-1698)
THOMAS, SIDNEY GILCHRIST (1850-1885)
THOMAS, ST
THOMAS, THEODORE (1835-1905)
THOMAS, WILLIAM (d. 1554)
THOMAS See also:
LOVELL, FRANCIS LOVELL, VISCOUNT (1454-1487)
LOVELL (1803-1849) , See also:

ENGLISH

English dramatist and poet, son of the physician, Thomas Beddoes, was See also:

BORN, IGNAZ, EDLER VON (1742–1791)

born at See also:

CLIFTON

Clifton on the loth of See also:

JULY

July 1803. His See also:

MOTHER

mother was a See also:

SISTER

sister of Maria See also:

Edgeworth, the novelist. He was sent to See also:

Bath See also:

GRAMMAR (from Lat. grammatica, sc. ars; Gr. ypaµ)

grammar school and then to the See also:

CHARTERHOUSE

Charterhouse. At school he wrote a See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good See also:

DEAL

deal of See also:

VERSE (from Lat. versus, literally a line or furrow drawn by turning the plough, from vertere, and afterwards signifying an arrangement of syllables into feet)

verse and a novel in See also:

IMITATION (Lat. imitatio, from intitari, to imitate)

imitation of See also:

Fielding. In 182o he was entered at See also:

Pembroke See also:

COLLEGE (Collegium)

College, See also:

Oxford, and in his first See also:

YEAR

year published The See also:

IMPROVISATORE

Improvisatore, afterwards carefully suppressed, and in 1822 The See also:

BRIDE (a common Teutonic word, e.g..Goth. bruths, O. Eng. bryd, O. H. Ger. prs2t, Mod. Ger. Bract, Dut. bruid, possibly derived from the root bru-, cook, brew; from the med. latinized form bruta, in the sense of daughter-in-law, is derived the Fr. bru)

Bride's Tragedy, which showed him as the See also:

DISCIPLE

disciple of the later Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists. The See also:

PLAY

play found a small circle of admirers, and procured for Beddoes the friendship of See also:

BRYAN, WILLIAM JENNINGS (186o– )

Bryan See also:

Waller See also:

PROCTER, BRYAN WALLER (1787–1874)

Procter (See also:

Barry See also:

CORNWALL

Cornwall). Beddoes retired to See also:

Southampton to read for his degree, and there Procter introduced him to a See also:

young lawyer, Thomas See also:

Forbes Kelsall, with whom he became very intimate, and who becamehis biographer and editor. At this See also:

time he composed the dramatic fragments of The Second See also:

BROTHER

Brother and Torrismond. Unfortunately he lacked the See also:

POWER [WILLIAM GRATTAN] TYRONE (1797-1841)

power of constructing a See also:

plot, and seemed to suffer from a constitutional inability to finish any-thing. Beddoes was one of the first outside the limited circle of See also:

Shelley's own See also:

friends to recognize Shelley's See also:

GENIUS (from Lat. genere, gignere)

genius, and he was certainly one of the earliest imitators of his lyrical method. In the summer of 1824 he was summoned to See also:

Florence by the illness of his mother, but she died before he arrived. He remained some time in See also:

Italy, and met Mrs Shelley and See also:

Walter See also:

Savage See also:

LANDOR, WALTER SAVAGE (1775-1864)

Landor before he returned to See also:

England.

In 1825 he took his degree at Oxford, and in that year he began what he calls (Letters, p. 68) " a very See also:

GOTHIC

Gothic styled tragedy " with " a See also:

JEWEL, JOHN (1522-1571)

jewel of a name." This See also:

WORK

work was completed in 1829 as the fantastic and incoherent See also:

DRAMA (literally "action," from Gr. Snail, act or do)

drama, See also:

DEATH

Death's Jest See also:

BOOK

Book or The See also:

FOOL (O. Fr. fol, modern fou, foolish, from a Late Latin use of follis, bellows, a ball filled with air, for a stupid person, a jester, a wind-bag)

Fool's Tragedy; but he continued to revise it until his death, and it was only published posthumously. On leaving Oxford he decided to study See also:

anatomy and See also:

PHYSIOLOGY (from Gr. 4 i s, nature, and koyos, discourse)

physiology, not, however, without some See also:

hope that his studies might, by increasing his knowledge of the human mechanism, further his efforts as a dramatist. In the autumn of 1825 he entered on his studies at See also:

GOTTINGEN

Gottingen, where he remained for four years. In 1829 he removed to See also:

WURZBURG

Wurzburg, and in 1832 obtained his doctorate in See also:

MEDICINE

medicine, but his intimate association with democratic and republican leaders in See also:

Germany and Switzer-See also:

LAND

land forced him to leave See also:

BAVARIA (Ger. Bayern)

Bavaria without receiving his diploma. He settled in See also:

Zurich, where he practised for some time as a physician, and was even elected to be See also:

PROFESSOR (the Latin noun formed from the verb profiteri, to declare publicly, to acknowledge, profess)

professor of See also:

COMPARATIVE

comparative anatomy at the university, but the authorities refused to ratify his See also:

APPOINTMENT, POWER OF

appointment because of his revolutionary views. He frequently contributed See also:

POLITICAL

political poems and articles to See also:

German and Swiss papers, but none of his German work has been identified. The years at Zurich seem to have been the happiest of his See also:

LIFE

life, but in 1839 the See also:

ANTI, or CAMPA

anti-liberal riots in the See also:

TOWN

town rendered it unsafe for him, and See also:

early in the next year he had to See also:

ESCAPE (in mid. Eng. eschape or escape, from the O. Fr. eschapper, modern echapper, and escaper, low Lat. escapium, from ex, out of, and cappa, cape, cloak; cf. for the sense development the Gr. iichueoOat, literally to put off one's clothes, hence to sli

escape secretly. From this time he had no settled See also:

home, though he stored his books at See also:

Baden in See also:

AARGAU (Fr. Argovie)

Aargau. His See also:

long See also:

RESIDENCE (Latin residere, to remain behind, to dwell, reside)

residence in Germany was only broken by visits to England in 1828 to take his See also:

MASTER (Lat. magister, related to tnagis, more, as the corresponding minister is to minus, less; the English form is due partly to the O. Eng. maegister, and partly to O. Fr. maistre, mod. maitre; cf. Du. meester, Ger. Meister, Ital. maestro)

master of arts degree, in 1835, in 1842 and for some months in 1846. He had adopted German thought and See also:

MANNERS, CHARLES (1857– )

manners to such an extent that he hardly See also:

FELT (cognate with Ger. Filz, Du. vilt, Swed. and Dan. fill; the root is unknown; the word has given Med. Lat. filtrum, " filter ")

felt at home in England; and his study of the German See also:

LANGUAGE (adapted from the Fr. langage, from langue, tongue, Lat. lingua)

language, which he had begun in 1825, had almost weaned him from his mother-See also:

TONGUE (O. Eng. lunge)

tongue; he was, as he says in a See also:

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

letter, " a non-conductor of friendship "; and it is not surprising that his old friends found him much changed and See also:

ECCENTRIC (from Gr. F,c, out of, and Kivrpov, centre)

eccentric. In 1847 he returned to See also:

FRANKFORT

Frankfort, where he lived with a See also:

baker called Degen, to whom he became much attached, and whom he persuaded to become an actor.

He took Degen with him to Zurich, where he chartered the See also:

THEATRE (BEarpov, " a place for seeing," from OeacOae)

theatre for one See also:

NIGHT

night to give his friend a See also:

CHANCE (through the O. Fr. cheance, from the Late Lat. cadentia, things happening, from cadere, to fall out, happen; cf. " case ")

chance of playing Hotspur. The two separated at See also:

Basel, and in a See also:

fit of dejection (May 1848) Beddoes tried to bleed himself to death. He was taken to the See also:

HOSPITAL (Lat. haspitalis, the adjective of hospes, host or guest)

hospital, and wrote to his friends in England that he had had a fall from horseback. His See also:

leg was amputated, and he was in a See also:

FAIR

fair way to recovery when, on the first See also:

day he was allowed to leave the hospital, he took curare, from the effects of which he died on the 26th of See also:

JANUARY

January 1849. His See also:

MSS. he See also:

LEFT

left in the See also:

charge of his friend Kelsall. In one of his letters to Kelsall Beddoes wrote:—" I am convinced the See also:

man who is to awaken the drama must be a bold, trampling fellow—no creeper into See also:

WORM

worm-holes—no reviser even -however good. These reanimations are See also:

VAMPIRE

vampire See also:

COLD (in O. Eng. cald and ceald, a word coming ultimately from a root cognate with the Lat. gelu, gelidus, and common in the Teutonic languages, which usually have two distinct forms for the substantive and the adjective, cf. Ger. Kolte, kalt, Dutch koude

cold. Such ghosts as Marloe, See also:

Webster, &c., are better dramatists, better poets, I dare say, than any contemporaries of ours—but they are ghosts—the worm is in their pages " (Letters, p. 5o). In spite of this See also:

wise See also:

JUDGMENT

judgment, Beddoes was himself a " creeper into worm-holes," a See also:

close imitator of See also:

Marston and of See also:

Cyril See also:

TOURNEUR, CYRIL (c. 1575-1626)

Tourneur, especially in their See also:

FAMILIAR (through the Fr. familier, from Lat. familiaris, of or belonging to the familia, family)

familiar handling of the phenomena of death, and in the remoteness from See also:

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

ordinary life of the passions portrayed. In his See also:

BLANK (from the Fr. blanc, white)

blank verse he caught to a certain degree the manner of his Jacobean See also:

MODELS

models, and his verse abounds in beautiful imagery, but his Death's Jest Book is only finished in the sense of having five acts completed; it remains a bizarre See also:

PRODUCTION (Lat. productionem, from producere, to pro-duce)

production which appeals to few minds, and to them rather for the occasional excellence of the See also:

POETRY

poetry than as an entire See also:

composition. His lyrics show the See also:

INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)

influence of Shelley as well as the study of 17th-See also:

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century models, but they are by no means See also:

mere imitations, and some of them, like the " See also:

DIRGE

Dirge for Wolfram " (" If See also:

thou wilt ease thy See also:

heart "), and " See also:

DREAM (from a root dreug, connected with Germ. trugen, to deceive)

Dream Pedlary " (" If there were dreams to sell "), are among the most exquisite of 19th-century lyrics.

Kelsall published Beddoes' See also:

GREAT

great work, Death's Jest Book: or, The Fool's Tragedy, in 185o. The drama is based on the See also:

story that a certain See also:

DUKE (corresponding to Fr. duc, Ital. duca, Ger. Herzog)

Duke Boleslaus of See also:

Munsterberg was stabbed by his See also:

court-fool, the " Isbrand " of the play (see C. F. Floegel, Geschichte der Hofnarren, See also:

LEIPZIG

Leipzig, 1789, pp. 297 et seq.). He followed this in 1851 with Poems of the See also:

LATE

late Thomas Lovell Beddoes, to which a memoir was prefixed. The two volumes were printed together (1851) with the See also:

TITLE (0. Fr. title, mod. titre, from Lat. titulus)

title of Poems, See also:

POSTHUMOUS

Posthumous and Collected. MI these volumes are very rare. Kelsall bequeathed the Beddoes MSS. to See also:

Robert See also:

Browning, with a See also:

note stating the real See also:

HISTORY

history of Beddoes' illness and death, which was kept back out of See also:

CONSIDERATION (from Lat. considerare, to look at closely, examine, generally taken to be from con-, and the base seen in sidus, sideris, a star, the word being supposed to be originally an astrological or astronomical term)

consideration for his relatives. Browning is reported to have said that if he were ever Professor of Poetry his first lecture would be on Beddoes, " a forgotten Oxford poet." Mr See also:

Edmund See also:

Gosse obtained permission to use the documents from Browning, and edited a See also:

fuller selection of the Poetical See also:

WORKS

Works (2 vols., 189o) for the " See also:

Temple Library," supplying a full See also:

account of his life. He also edited the Letters of Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1894), containing a selection from his See also:

correspondence, which is full of gaiety and contains much amusing See also:

LITERARY

literary See also:

criticism. See also the edition of Beddoes by See also:

Ramsay Colles in the " See also:

MUSES, THE (Gr. Mo6o-at, the thinkers)

Muses' Library " (1906).

End of Article: BEDDOES, THOMAS LOVELL (1803-1849)

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