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PROCTER, BRYAN WALLER (1787–1874)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 420 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PROCTER, See also:BRYAN See also:WALLER (1787–1874) , See also:English poet, was See also:born at See also:Leeds on the 21st of See also:November 1787. He was educated at See also:Harrow, where he had for contemporaries See also:Lord See also:Byron and See also:Sir See also:Robert See also:Peel. On leaving school he was placed in the See also:office of a See also:solicitor at See also:Calne, See also:Wiltshire, remaining there until about 1807, when he returned to See also:London to study See also:law. By the See also:death of his See also:father in 1816 he became possessed of a small See also:property, and soon after entered into See also:partnership with a solicitor; but in 182o the partnership was dissolved, and he began to write under the See also:pseudonym of " See also:Barry See also:Cornwall." After his See also:marriage in 1824 to See also:Miss Skepper, a daughter of Mrs See also:Basil Montague, he eturned to his professional See also:work as conveyancer, and was called to the See also:bar in 1831. In the following See also:year he was appointed, See also:metropolitan See also:commissioner of lunacy—an See also:appointment annually renewed until his See also:election to the permanent See also:commission constituted by the See also:act of 1842. He resigned office in 1861. He died on the 5th of See also:October 1874. Most of his See also:verse was composed between 1815, when he began to contribute to the See also:Literary See also:Gazette, and 1823, or at latest 1832. His See also:principal poetical See also:works were: Dramatic Scenes and other Poems (1819), A Sicilian See also:Story (182o), See also:Mirandola, a tragedy performed at Covent See also:Garden with See also:Macready, See also:Charles Kemple and Miss See also:Foote in the leading parts (1821), The See also:Flood of See also:Thessaly (1823). and English Songs (1832). He was also the author of See also:Effigies poetica (1824), See also:Life of See also:Edmund See also:Kean (1835), Essays and Tales in See also:Prose (1851), Charles-See also:Lamb; a Memoir (1866), and of See also:memoirs of See also:Ben See also:Jonson and See also:Shakespeare for See also:editions of their works. A See also:posthumous autobiographical fragment with notes of his literary See also:friends, of whom he had a wide range from See also:Bowles to See also:Browning, was published in 1877, with some additions by See also:Coventry See also:Patmore. Charles Lamb gave the highest possible praise to his friend's Dramatic Sketches when he said that had he found them as See also:anonymous See also:manuscript in the See also:Garrick collection he would have had no hesitation about including them in his Dramatic Specimens.

He was perhaps not an impartial critic. " Barry Cornwall's " See also:

genius cannot be said to have been entirely mimetic, but his works are full of subdued echoes. His songs have caught some notes from the Elizabethan and See also:Cavalier lyrics, and blended them with others from the leading poets of his own See also:time; and his dramatic fragments show a similar infusion of the See also:early Victorian spirit into pre-Restoration forms and cadences. The results are somewhat heterogeneous, and lack the impress of a pervading and dominant See also:personality to give them unity, but they abound in pleasant touches, with here and there the flash of a higher, though casual, See also:inspiration. His daughter, See also:ADELAIDE See also:ANNE PROCTER (1825-1864), also a poet, was born on the 3oth of October 1825. She began to See also:con-See also:tribute to See also:Household Words in 1853. She adopted the name of " See also:Mary See also:Berwick," so that the editor, Charles See also:Dickens, should not be prejudiced by his friendship for the Procters. Her principal work is Legends and Lyrics, of which a first See also:series, published in 1858, ran through nine editions in seven years, while a second series issued in 186o met with a similar success. Her unambitious verses dealing with See also:simple emotional themes in a simple manner have a See also:charm which is scarcely explicable on the ground of high literary merit, but which is due rather to the fact that they are the cultured expression of an See also:earnest and beneficent life. Among the best known of her poems are The See also:Angel's Story, The See also:Legend of See also:Bregenz and The Legend of See also:Provence. Many of her songs and See also:hymns are very popular. Latterly she became a convert to See also:Roman Catholicism, and her philanthropic zeal appears to have hastened her death, which took See also:place on the 2nd of See also:February 1864.

End of Article: PROCTER, BRYAN WALLER (1787–1874)

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