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COLLINS, WILLIAM (1721-1759)

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 693 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COLLINS, See also:WILLIAM (1721-1759) , See also:English poet, was See also:born on the 25th of See also:December 1721. He divides with See also:Gray the See also:glory of being the greatest English lyrist of the 18th See also:century. After some childish studies in See also:Chichester, of which his See also:father, a See also:rich hatter, was the See also:mayor, he was sent, in See also:January 1733, to See also:Winchester See also:College, where See also:Whitehead and See also:Joseph See also:Warton were his school-See also:fellows. When he had been nine months at the school, See also:Pope paid Winchester a visit and proposed a subject for a See also:prize poem; it is legitimate to suppose that the lofty forehead, the brisk dark eyes and gracious See also:oval of the childish See also:face, as we know it in the only portrait existing of Collins, did not See also:escape the See also:great See also:man's See also:notice, then not a little occupied with the See also:composition of the See also:Essay on Man. In 1734 the See also:young poet published his first verses, in a sixpenny pamphlet on The Royal Nuptials, of which, however, no copy has come down to us; another poem, probably satiric, called The See also:Battle of the Schoolbooks, was written about this See also:time, and has also been lost. Fired by his poetic fellows to further feats in See also:verse, Collins produced, in his seventeenth See also:year, those See also:Persian Eclogues which were the only writings of his that were valued by the See also:world during his own lifetime. They were not printed for some years, and meanwhile Collins sent, in January and See also:October 1739, some verses to the See also:Gentleman's See also:Magazine, which attracted the notice and admiration of See also:Johnson, then still young and uninfluential. In See also:March 1740 he was admitted a commoner of See also:Queen's College, See also:Oxford, but did not go up to Oxford until See also:July '1741, when he obtained a demyship at Magdalen College. At Oxford he continued his affectionate intimacy with the Wartons, and gained the friendship of See also:Gilbert See also:White. See also:Early in 1742 the Persian Eclogues appeared in See also:London. They were four in number, and formed a modest pamphlet of not more than 300 lines in all. In a later edition, of 1759, the See also:title was changed to See also:Oriental Eclogues.

Those pieces may be compared with See also:

Victor See also:Hugo's See also:Les Orientales, to which, of course, they are greatly inferior. Considered with regard to the time at which they were produced, they are more than meritorious, even brilliant, and one at least-the second—can be read with enjoyment at the See also:present See also:day. The See also:rest, perhaps, will be found somewhat artificial and effete. In See also:November 1743 Collins was made See also:bachelor of arts, and a few days after taking his degree published his second See also:work, Verses humbly addressed to See also:Sir See also:Thomas See also:Hammer. This poem, written in heroic couplets, shows a great advance in individuality, and resembles, in its See also:habit of personifying qualities of the mind, the riper lyrics of its author. For the rest, it is an enthusiastic See also:review of See also:poetry, culminating in a laudation of See also:Shakespeare. It is supposed that he See also:left Oxford abruptly in the summer of 1744 to attend his See also:mother's See also:death-See also:bed, and did not return. He is said to have now visited an See also:uncle in See also:Flanders. His indolence, which had been no less marked at the university than his See also:genius, combined with a fatal irresolution to make it extremely difficult to choose for him a path in See also:life. The See also:army and the See also:church were successively suggested and rejected; and he finally arrived in London, See also:bent on enjoying a small See also:property as an in-dependent man about See also:town. He made the acquaintance of Johnson and others, and was urged by those See also:friends to undertake various important writings—a See also:History of the Revival of Learning, several tragedies, and a version of See also:Aristotle's Poetics, among others—all of which he began but lacked force of will to continue. He soon squandered his means, plunged, with most disastrous effects, into profligate excesses, and sowed the See also:seed of his untimely misfortune.

It was at this time, however, that he composed his matchless Odes—twelve in number—which appeared on the 12th of December 1746, dated 1747. The See also:

original project was to have combined them with the odes of Joseph Warton, but the latter proved at that time to be the more marketable See also:article. Collins's little See also:volume See also:fell dead from the See also:press, but it won him the admiration and friendship of the poet See also:Thomson, with whom, until the death of the latter in 1748, he lived on terms of affectionate intimacy. In 1749 Collins was raised beyond the fear of poverty by the death of his uncle, See also:Colonel See also:Martyn, who left him about L2000, and he left London to See also:settle in his native See also:city. He had hardly begun to See also:taste the sweets of a life devoted to literature and quiet, before the weakness of his will began to develop in the direction of See also:insanity, and he hurried abroad to See also:attempt to dispel the gathering gloom by travel. In the See also:interval he had published two See also:short pieces of consummate See also:grace and beauty—the See also:Elegy on Thomson, in 1749, and the See also:Dirge in Cymbeline, later in the same year. In the beginning of 1750 he composed the See also:Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the See also:Highlands, which was dedicated to the author of See also:Douglas, and not printed till See also:long after the death of Collins, and an Ode on the See also:Music of the Grecian See also:Theatre, which no longer exists, and in which English literature probably has sustained a severe loss. With this poem his See also:literary career closes, although he lingered in great misery for nearly nine years. From Gilbert White, who jotted down some pages of invaluable recollections of Collins in 1781, and from other friends, we learn that his madness was occasionally violent, and that he was confined for a time in an See also:asylum at Oxford. But for the most See also:part he resided at Chichester, suffering fromextreme debility of See also:body when the mind was clear, and incapable of any See also:regular occupation. Music affected him in a singular manner, and it is recorded that he was wont to slip out into the See also:cathedral cloisters during the services, and moan and howl in horrible accordance with the See also:choir. In this miserable See also:condition he passed out of sight of all his friends, and in 1756 it was supposed, even by Johnson, that he was dead; in point of fact, however, his sufferings did not cease until the 12th of See also:June 1759.

No See also:

journal or magazine recorded the death of the forgotten poet, though See also:Goldsmith, only two months before, had begun the laudation which was soon to become universal. No English poet so great as Collins has left behind him so small a bulk of writings. Not more than 1500 lines of his have been handed down to us, but among these not one is slovenly, and few are poor. His odes are the most sculpturesque and faultless in the See also:language. They lack See also:fire, but in See also:charm and precision of diction, exquisite propriety of See also:form, and lofty poetic See also:suggestion they stand unrivalled. The ode named The Passions is the most popular; that To Evening is the classical example of perfect unrhymed verse. In this, and the Ode to Simplicity, one seems to be handling an See also:antique See also:vase of matchless delicacy and elegance. In his descriptions of nature it is unquestionable that he owed something to the See also:influence of Thomson. Distinction may be said to be the crowning grace of the See also:style of Collins; its leading peculiarity is the incessant personification of some quality of the See also:character. In the Ode on Popular Superstitions he produced a still nobler work; this poem, the most considerable in See also:size which has been preserved, contains passages which are beyond question unrivalled for rich See also:melancholy fulness in the literature between See also:Milton and See also:Keats. The life of Collins was written by Dr Johnson; he found an enthusiastic editor in Dr See also:Langhorne in 1765, and in 2858 a kindly biographer in Mr Moy Thomas. (E.

End of Article: COLLINS, WILLIAM (1721-1759)

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