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THOMSON, JAMES (r700-1748)

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 873 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THOMSON, See also:JAMES (r700-1748) , See also:English poet, author of The Seasons, was See also:born at Ednam, in See also:Roxburghshire, on the I Ith of See also:September 1700—the third son and See also:fourth See also:child of See also:Thomas Thomson, See also:minister of that See also:place. His See also:mother, Beatrix, was the daughter of Mr Trotter of Fogo, whose wife, See also:Margaret, was one of the Homes of Bassenden. About 1701 Thomas Thomson removed to Southdean near See also:Jedburgh. Here James was educated at first by See also:Robert Riccaltoun, to whose verses ou See also:Winter he owed the See also:suggestion of his own poem. In 1712 he attended a school at Jedburgh, held in the See also:aisle of the See also:parish See also:church. He learnt there some Latin, but with difficulty, and the earliest recorded utterance of the future poet was " Confound the See also:building of See also:Babel." He began very soon to write verses, and we are told that every See also:January he destroyed almost all the productions of the preceding See also:year. And this was just as well, for the little that has escaped the See also:fire contains no promise of his future See also:powers. In 1715 he went to the university of See also:Edinburgh. It is said that as soon as the servant who brought him thither had quitted him, he returned full See also:speed to his See also:father's See also:house, declaring that he could read just as well at See also:home; he went back, however, and had not been See also:long at See also:college before he lost his father, who died, according to one remarkable but highly improbable See also:story, in the See also:attempt to See also:lay a See also:ghost. The incident should have See also:left more impression than we tan trace upon the mind of the poet, at this date See also:nervous and afraid of the dark; but in his Winter he writes of all such stories with a quiet contempt for " superstitious horror." He made See also:friends at the university with See also:David See also:Mallock, who afterwards called himself See also:Mallet, and with See also:Patrick Murdoch, his. future biographer. In 1719 he became a divinity student, and one of his exercises so enchanted a certain Auditor See also:Benson, that he urged Thomson to go to See also:London and there make himself a reputation as a preacher. It was partly with this See also:object that Thomson left Edinburgh without a degree in See also:March 1725.

His mother saw him embark, and they never met again; she died on the loth of May of that year. There is sufficient See also:

evidence that on his arrival in London he was not in the extreme destitution which Dr See also:Johnson attributes to him; and in See also:July 1725 we find him engaged, as a make-shift, in teaching " See also:Lord Binning's son to read." This son was the See also:grandson of See also:Lady Grizel See also:Baillie, a somewhat distant connexion of Thomson's mother. She was the daughter of See also:Sir Patrick Home, whom, after the defeat of See also:Argyll, she fed in his concealment near his own See also:castle; she was also, like other Scottish ladies, a writer of See also:pretty See also:ballads. This heroine and poetess is supposed to have encouraged Thomson to come to See also:England, and it is certain that she procured him a temporary home. But he had other friends, especially See also:Duncan See also:Forbes of See also:Culloden, by whom he was recommended to the See also:duke of Argyll, the See also:earl of See also:Burlington, Sir Robert See also:Walpole, See also:Arbuthnot, See also:Pope and See also:Gay. Some introductions to the See also:literary See also:world he may have owed to Mallet, then See also:tutor in the See also:family of the duke of See also:Montrose. Thomson's Winter appeared in March 1726. It was warmly praised by See also:Aaron See also:Hill, a See also:man of various interests and projects, and in his See also:day a sort of literary See also:oracle. It was dedicated to Sir See also:Spencer See also:Compton, the See also:Speaker, who rewarded the poet, to his See also:great disgust, with a See also:bare twenty guineas. By the 1th of See also:June 1727 a second edition was called for. Meanwhile Thomson was residing at Mr See also:Watts's See also:academy in See also:Tower See also:Street as tutor to Lord See also:George See also:Graham, second son of the duke of Montrose, and previously a See also:pupil of Mallet. Summer appeared in 1727.

It was dedicated in See also:

prose, a compliment afterwards versified, to Bubb Dodington. In the same year Thomson published his Poem to the Memory of Sir See also:Isaac See also:Newton, with a fulsome See also:dedication to Sir Robert Walpole, which was afterwards omitted, and the verses themselves remodelled when the poet began to inveigh against the See also:ministry as he did in Britannia, published in 1729. See also:Spring appeared in 1728, published by See also:Andrew See also:Millar, a man who, according to Johnson, dealt handsomely by authors and " raised the See also:price of literature." It was dedicated to the countess of See also:Hertford, afterwards duchess of See also:Somerset, a lady devoted to letters and the patroness of the unhappy See also:Savage. In 1729 Thomson produced Sophonisba, a tragedy now only remembered by the See also:line " O Sophonisba, Sophonisba, 0," and the See also:parody " O Jemmy Thomson, Jemmy Thomson, 0," which caused him to remodel the unhappy See also:verse in the See also:form, " O Sophonisba, I am wholly thine." A poem, See also:anonymous but 'unquestionably Thomson's, to the memory of See also:Congreve who had died in January 1729, appeared in that year. In 173o Autumn was first published in a collected editionof The Seasons. It wasdedicated to the Speaker, See also:Onslow. In this year, at the suggestion of Rundle, See also:bishop of Derry, one of his patrons, he accompanied the son of Sir See also:Charles See also:Talbot, See also:solicitor-See also:general, upon his travels. In the course of these he projected his See also:Liberty as " a poetical landscape of countries, mixed with moral observations on their See also:government and See also:people." In See also:December 1731 he returned with his pupil to London. He probably lived with his patrons the Talbots, leisurely meditating his new poem, the first See also:part of which did not appear until the See also:close of 1734 or the beginning of 1735. But meanwhile his pupil died, and in the opening lines of Liberty Thomson pays a See also:tribute to his memory. Two months after his son's See also:death Sir Charles Talbot became See also:chancellor and gave Thomson a See also:sinecure in the See also:court of See also:chancery. About this See also:time the poet worked for the See also:relief of See also:Dennis, now old and in extreme poverty, and induced even Pope to give a See also:half-contemptuous support to the See also:bitter critic of the See also:Rape of the See also:Lock.

Liberty was completed in five parts_ in 1736. The poem was a failure; its See also:

execution did not correspond with its See also:design; in a sense indeed it is a survey of countries and might have anticipated See also:Goldsmith's Traveller. It was not, however, the poem which readers were expecting from the author of The Seasons, who had taken them from the See also:town to the See also:country, and from social and See also:political See also:satire to the world of nature. It is in the See also:main a set of wearisome declamations put in the mouth of the goddess, and Johnson rightly enough remarks that " an enumeration of examples to prove a position which nobody denied as it was from the beginning superfluous, must quickly grow disgusting." The truth is that Thomson's poetical See also:gift was for many years perverted by the zeal of partisanship. He was established in May 1736 in a small house at See also:Richmond, but his See also:patron died in See also:February 1737 and he lost his sinecure; he then " whips and spurs " to finish his tragedy See also:Agamemnon, which appeared in See also:April 1738, not before he had been arrested for a See also:debt of £70, from which, according to a story which has been discredited on quite insufficient grounds, See also:Quin relieved him in the most generous and tactful manner. Quin, it is said, visited him in the sponging-house and " balanced accounts with him " by insisting on his accepting a See also:hundred pounds as a return for the See also:pleasure which the actor had received from the poet's See also:works. The incident took place probably a little before the See also:production of Agamemnon, in which Quin played the leading part. The See also:play is of course modelled upon See also:Aeschylus and owes whatever of dignity it possesses to that fact; the part of See also:Cassandra, for instance, retains something of its See also:original force, pathos and terror. But most of the other characters exist only for the purpose of political See also:innuendo. Agamemnon is too long absent at See also:Troy, as George is too long absent in See also:Germany; the arts of See also:Aegisthus are the arts of Walpole; the declamations of Arcus are the declamations of See also:Wyndham or Pulteney; Melisander, consoling himself with the See also:muses on his See also:island in See also:Cyclades, is See also:Bolingbroke in See also:exile. Thomson about this time was introduced to See also:Lyttelton, and by him to the See also:prince of See also:Wales, and to one or the other of these, when he was questioned as to the See also:state of his affairs, he made See also:answer that they were " in a more poetical posture than formerly." Agamemnon was put upon the See also:stage soon after the passing of Walpole's See also:bill for licensing plays, and its obvious See also:bias fixed the See also:attention of the censorship and caused Thomson's next venture, See also:Edward and Eleanora, which has the same covert aim, to be proscribed. The fact has very generally escaped See also:notice that, like its predecessor, it follows a See also:Greek original, the See also:Alcestis of See also:Euripides.

It has also, what Agamemnon has not, some little place in the See also:

history of literature, for it suggested something to See also:Lessing for Nathan der Weise, and to See also:Scott for the See also:Talisman. The rejection of the play was defended by one of the ministry on the ground that Thomson had taken a Liberty which was not agreeable to Britannia in any See also:Season. These circumstances sufficiently See also:account for the poet's next experiment, a See also:preface to See also:Milton's Areopagitica. He joined Mallet in composing. the masque of See also:Alfred, represented at Clieveden on the See also:Thames before the prince of Wales, on the 1st of See also:August 174o. There can be little question that " See also:Rule Britannia," a See also:song in this See also:drama, was the production of Thomson. The See also:music of the song, as of the whole masque, was composed by See also:Arne. In 1744 Thomson was appointed surveyor-general of the Leeward Islands by Lyttelton with an income of Soo a year; but his patron See also:fell into disfavour with the prince of Wales, and in consequence Thomson lost, at the close of 1747, the See also:pension he received from that See also:quarter. For a while, however, he was in flourishing circumstances, and whilst completing at his leisure The Castle of Indolence produced See also:Tancred and Sigismunda at See also:Drury See also:Lane in 1745. The story is found in Gil Blas, and is ultimately to be traced to The Decameron. It owes much to Le See also:Sage in See also:language, See also:plot and sentiment, and the conflict of emotion, in depicting which Thomson had some little skill, is here effectively exhibited. He was assisted herein by his own experience. The " Amanda " of The Seasons is a See also:Miss See also:Elizabeth See also:Young, a lady of Scottish parentage, whose mother was ambitious for her and forbade her to marry the poet, anticipating that she would be reduced to singing his ballads in the streets.

The last years of his See also:

life were saddened by this disappointment. The Castle of Indolence, after a gestation of fifteen years, appeared in May 1748. It is in the Spenserian See also:stanza with the Spenserian archaism, and is the first and last long effort of Thomson in See also:rhyme. It is not impossible that his general choice of See also:blank verse was partly due to the fact that he had not the southron's See also:ear and took many years to acquire it. The great and varied See also:interest of the poem might well See also:rescue it from the neglect into which even The Seasons has fallen. It was worthy of an See also:age which was fertile in See also:character-sketches, and like Gay's lVelcome to Pope anticipates Goldsmith's See also:Retaliation in the lifelike presentation of a noteworthy circle. There is in it the same See also:strain of See also:gentle See also:burlesque which appears in Shen-See also:stone's Schoolmistress, whilst the See also:tone and diction of the poem harmonize with the hazy landscape, the pleasant See also:land of drowsy-See also:head, in which it is set. It is the last See also:work by Thomson which appeared in his lifetime. In walking from London to his house at Richmond he became heated and took a See also:boat at See also:Hammer-See also:smith; he thus caught a chill with fatal consequences and died on the 27th of August 1748. He was buried in Richmond See also:churchyard. His tragedy See also:Coriolanus was acted for the first time in January 1749. In itself a feeble performance, it is noteworthy for the See also:prologue which his friend Lyttelton wrote for it, two lines of which " He loved his friends—forgive the gushing See also:tear!

Alas! I feel I am no actor here " were recited by Quin with no simulated emotion. It may be questioned whether Thomson himself ever quite realized the distinctive significance of his own achievement in The Seasons, or the place which See also:

criticism assigns him as the See also:pioneer of a See also:special literary See also:movement and the precursor of See also:Cowper and See also:Wordsworth. His avowed preference was for great and worthy themes of which the world of nature was but one. Both the choice and the treatment of his next great subject, Liberty, indicate that he was imperfectly conscious of the gift that was in him, and might have neglected it but that his readers were wiser than himself. He has many audacities and many felicities of expression, and enriched the vocabulary even bf the poets who have disparaged him. Yet it is difficult to believe that he was not the better for that training in refinement of See also:style which he partly owed to Pope, who almost unquestionably contributed some passages to The Seasons. And, except in The Castle of Indolence, there is much that is conventional, much that is even vicious or vulgar in See also:taste when Thomson's muse deals with that human life which must be the background of descriptive as of all other See also:poetry; for example, his bumpkin who chases the See also:rainbow is as unreal a being as See also:Akenside's more sentimental rustic who has " the form of beauty smiling at his See also:heart." But if Thomson sometimes lacks the true See also:vision for things human, he retains it always for things See also:mute and material, and whilst the See also:critical estimate of his powers and See also:influence will vary from age to age, all who have read him will concur in the colloquial See also:judgment which only candourcould have extorted from the See also:prejudice of Dr Johnson—" Thomson had as much of the poet about him as most writers. Everything appeared to him through the See also:medium of his favourite pursuit. He could not have viewed those two candles burning but with a poetical See also:eye." For the day of Thomson's See also:birth see the Aldine edition of his poems. (1897). In the same See also:volume (pp.

189 seq.) is discussed the question of Pope's contributions to The Seasons, These Pope, if the See also:

handwriting be his, made in an interleaved edition of The Seasons dated 1738, and they were for the most part adopted by Thomson in the edition of 1744. The writer seldom makes more than verbal changes in passages of pure description, but sometimes strikingly enhances the scenes in which human character comes into play, adding, for example, the comparison, in Autumn, of the See also:fair Lavinia to a See also:myrtle in the See also:Apennines, of which the first suggestion can be found in The Rape of the Lock. But whereas many years ago the See also:opinion of experts at the See also:British Museum pronounced the handwriting of these notes to be Pope's beyond a doubt, their successors at the See also:present day are equally See also:positive that it is not. Some account should be taken of the cramping of the See also:hand, due to See also:writing on a curved See also:surface, and of the letters at See also:Blenheim (see See also:Pall Mall See also:Magazine for August 1894), which See also:bear a greater resemblance to the disputed handwriting than any specimens in the British Museum. The first collected See also:editions of The Seasons bear See also:dates 1730, 1738, 1744, 1746. Lyttelton tampered both with The Seasons and with Liberty in editions after his friend's death. Among the numerous lives of the poet may be mentioned those by his friend Patrick Murdoch, by Dr Johnson in Lives of the Poets, by Sir See also:Harris See also:Nicolas (Ald. ed., 1860), by M. See also:Morel, James Thomson, .sa See also:vie et ses oeuvres (See also:Paris, 1895), and James Thomson, in the English Men of Letters See also:Series, by G. C. See also:Macaulay (1908). See also Dr G. Schmeding's See also:Jacob Thomson, ein vergessener Dichter See also:des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts; the life prefixed to the Aldine edition of his works in 1897 ; and an excellent edition of The Seasons in the See also:Clarendon See also:Press Series by J.

Logie See also:

Robertson. (D. C.

End of Article: THOMSON, JAMES (r700-1748)

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