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ELLIOTT, EBENEZER (1781–1849)

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 292 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ELLIOTT, EBENEZER (1781–1849) , See also:English poet, the " See also:corn-See also:law rhymer," was See also:born at Masborough, near See also:Rotherham, See also:York-See also:shire, on the 17th of See also:March 1781. His See also:father, who was an extreme Calvinist and a strong See also:radical, was engaged in the See also:iron See also:trade. See also:Young Ebenezer, although one of a large See also:family, had a solitary and rather morbid childhood. He was sent to various See also:schools, but was generally regarded as a See also:dunce, and when he was sixteen years of See also:age he entered his father's foundry, working for seven years with no See also:wages beyond a little See also:pocket See also:money. In a fragment of autobiography printed in the See also:Athenaeum (12th of See also:January 185o) he says that he was entirely self-taught, and attributes his poetic development to See also:long See also:country walks undertaken in See also:search of See also:wild See also:flowers, and to a collection of books, including the See also:works of Young, See also:Barrow, See also:Shenstone and See also:Milton, bequeathed to his father by a poor clergyman. At seventeen he wrote his Vernal Walk in See also:imitation of See also:Thomson. His earlier volumes of poems, dealing with romantic themes, received little but unfriendly comment. The faults of See also:Night, the earliest of these, are pointed out in a long and friendly See also:letter (3oth of January 1819) from See also:Robert See also:Southey to the author. Elliott's wife brought him some money, which was invested in his father's See also:share of the iron foundry. But the affairs of the See also:firm were then in a desperate See also:condition, and money difficulties hastened his father's See also:death. Elliott lost all his money, and when he was See also:forty years old began business again in See also:Sheffield on a small borrowed See also:capital. He attributed his father's pecuniary losses and his own to the operation of the corn See also:laws.

He took an active See also:

part in the Chartist agitation, but withdrew his support when the agitation for the See also:repeal of the corn laws was removed from the Chartist See also:programme. The fervour of his See also:political convictions effected a See also:change in the See also:style and See also:tenor of his See also:verse. The Corn-Law Rhymes (3rd ed., 1831), inspired by a fierce hatred of in-See also:justice, are vigorous, See also:simple and full of vivid description. In 1833—1835 he published The Splendid See also:Village; Corn-Law Rhymes, and other Poems (3 vols.), which included " The Village See also:Patriarch " (1829), " The Ranter," an unsuccessful See also:drama, " Keronah," and other pieces. He contributed verses from See also:time to time to See also:Tait's See also:Magazine and to the Sheffield and Rotherham See also:Independent. In the meantime he had been successful in business, but he remained the sturdy See also:champion of the poor. In 1837 he again lost a See also:great See also:deal of money. This misfortune was also ascribed to the corn laws. He retired in 1841 with a small See also:fortune and settled at Great See also:Houghton, near See also:Barnsley, where he died on the 1st of See also:December 1849. In 1850 appeared two volumes of More See also:Prose and Verse by the Corn-Law Rhymer. Elliott lives by his determined opposition to the " See also:bread-tax," as he called it, and his poems on the subject are saved from the See also:common See also:fate of political See also:poetry by their transparent sincerity and passionate earnestness. An See also:article by See also:Thomas See also:Carlyle in the See also:Edinburgh See also:Review (See also:July 1832) is the best See also:criticism on Elliott.

Carlyle was attracted by Elliott's homely sincerity and genuine See also:

power, though he had small See also:opinion of his political See also:philosophy, and lamented his lack of See also:humour and of the sense of proportion. He thought his poetry too imitative, detecting not only the truthful severity of See also:Crabbe, but a " slight bravura dash of the See also:fair tuneful See also:Hemans." His descriptions of his native See also:county reveal See also:close observation and a vivid See also:perception of natural beauty. See an obituary See also:notice in the See also:Gentleman's Magazine (Feb. 1850). Two See also:biographies were published in 185o, one by his son-in-law, See also:John See also:Watkins, and another by " January Searle " (G. S. See also:Phillips). A new edition of his works by his son, See also:Edwin Elliott, appeared in 1876.

End of Article: ELLIOTT, EBENEZER (1781–1849)

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