Thomas Chatterton: The Artist, The Forger, and The Icon

Introduction: Who is Thomas Chatterton?

The name Thomas Chatterton likely means very little to modern readers, but for centuries it could evoke many different images. To some he was an original and essential artist, mining works of medieval antiquity to find new rhythms and meanings in the history of English, all while producing stunning and moving works both in his own name and under his historic persona. The work that he did to recreate the language and atmosphere of medieval poetry can be seen as a remarkable artistic feat in and of itself—even more impressive for an artist who died at the age of 17. The historical persona, though, the “Secular Prieste, Thomas Rowlie” that Chatterton often published and attempted to be published under, belies his other reputation, that of a literary cheat and forger. 

Many of Chatterton’s most well known works today were created in the guise of a 15th century priest living in Chatterton’s native Bristol, writing and translating poetry under the patronage of the mayor of Bristol, William Cannynge. Chatterton wrote these poems himself, using medieval manuscripts rescued from his father’s collection along with several dictionaries and Middle English glossaries, then attempting to pass them off as genuine works of medieval poetry to various members of Bristol and London’s literary scene (Groom, 5-6). In constructing this deceit, Chatterton was kind enough to offer introductions and glossaries to some of the lesser known words, most of which he had invented using some Middle or Old English root word from one of his sources. The controversy that erupted following the publication of his “Rowleyian” works in 1777 touched many of the most important literary figures in England at the time, and continued for almost a century after his death (Groom, 4). 

The controversy and public discourse that surrounded the publication of the Rowleyian works was an important moment in the history of literary scholarship due to how many learnéd men of letters had been fooled by this teenager writing in fake Middle English dialect, but it is unlikely that it would have lasted as long as it did if it weren’t for Chatterton and Rowley being taken up by the next generation of poets that came after him. This is Thomas Chatterton as the Romantic icon, a figure that moved and inspired nearly every major Romantic poet of the latter half of the 18th century and 19th century. It is likely because of these poets that Chatterton is remembered today as anything other than a minor fraud hanging onto the literary scene of mid-eighteenth century London (Koretsky, 119).

This digital exhibition will tell three stories of Thomas Chatterton’s short and unfortunate life and literary career. The first story will be the artist, the young Bristolian poet who grew up surrounded by medieval buildings and works, and who channeled those influences into powerful medieval-style poems. This section will set aside questions of authenticity or controversy to look at Chatterton’s Rowleyan works as poems on their own terms, investigating the ways that Chatterton used medieval materials to construct his imaginative literary world. The second section will take up the question of the controversy head on, looking at the discourse that it caused among London’s literary elite. The third section will look at Chatterton through the eyes of the Romantic poets who followed him. William Wordsworth provided Chatterton’s most famous epitaph, that of the “marvellous boy, / who perished in his pride” (“Independence and Resolution,” 43-44), and many other poets took up Chatterton’s life and untimely death as subjects. Notable is one of Wordsworth’s friends and collaborators, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose evolving poem “Monody on the Death of Chatterton” makes up the majority of this section.

Each of these sections will have two exhibits that will offer some insight into Chatterton’s works and the literary world that he inhabited. This exhibition will also highlight materials that are available through the Mills Library William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections. 

The first will center on the first edition of the “Rowleyan” works, published by Thomas Tyrwhitt in 1777. Readers will be able to see the works that directly caused so much controversy, and that inspired the next generation of Romantic readers. Of particular interest will be the footnotes to the Rowleyan words, which Chatterton added himself and should be considered part of his artistic intent. The second will focus on another edition of Chatterton’s works, this time his non-medieval poems published by John Broughton in 1778. In the introduction to this section, Broughton specifically calls out (though not by name) novelist and literary and artistic patron Horace Walpole for his rejection of Chatterton shortly before his tragic suicide in 1770. The reader can then look at Walpole’s public response to Broughton’s introduction, where he excoriates him for placing the blame for Chatterton’s death on his rejection. Finally, the reader can look at Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s memorial poem “Monody on the Death of Chatterton,” a poem that Coleridge first published in the first year of his literary career, then continually revised and rewrote throughout the course of his life, the final version coming the year before his death (Fairer, 228). Through this, the reader can see the ongoing effect that Chatterton had on writers in the Romantic era, even so long after his death, and the evolution of his image as a romantic figure.

Who is Thomas Chatterton? What is his historical legacy and what does it deserve to be? The reader can look at Chatterton through these three major modes and decide which one they find the most compelling. For readers interested in Chatterton and his legacy, they should visit The Thomas Chatterton Manuscript project online, to which this exhibition is heavily indebted for its research and dedication to Chatterton's memory.

The website can be found here: https://www.thomaschatterton.com/

Works Cited

Fairer, David. “Chatterton’s Poetic Afterlife, 1770-1794: A Context for Coleridge’s Monody.” Thomas Chatterton and Romantic Culture, edited by Nick Groom, Macmillan Press, 1999, pp. 228-252.

Groom, Nick. “Introduction.” Thomas Chatterton and Romantic Culture, edited by Nick Groom, Macmillan Press, 1999, pp. 3-14. 

Koretsky, Deanna P. “Marvelous Boys.” Death Rights: Romantic Suicide, Race, and the Bounds of Liberalism, State University of New York Press, 2021, pp. 117–28.