The Vase of Sentiment!—to this impart
Thy kindred coldness, and congenial art....
With votive song, and tributary verse,
Fashion’s gay train her gentle rites rehearse.
What soft poetic incense breathes around!
What soothing hymns from Adulation sound!
The Wreath of Fashion went through a half-dozen editions. David Garrick wrote a puff for it in The Monthly Review in which he ventured to prophesy that “elegant poetry, refined satire, and exquisite irony” would be revived by the new author;[6] and Samuel Rogers, belated Augustan that he was, always remembered The Wreath as an early favorite.[7]
2
Who was the new poet? The turn of his couplets and the delicate barbs of his satire suggested a poetic school then growing outmoded. There were those who, when they learned his name, remembered his grandfather, Thomas Tickell, a poet of Queen Anne’s day and the particular friend of Mr. Addison. Thomas Tickell (1685-1740) served as Addison’s Under-Secretary of State and retained his post under Craggs and Carteret. In 1724, when Carteret became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, Tickell was sent to Dublin as Secretary to the Lords Justices. There were cordial relations between Dublin Castle and the Deanery of St. Patrick’s, and a circle of friends that included Swift, the Delanys, Lord Orrery, and Dr. Sheridan maintained in Dublin an outpost of Augustan literary society. In this propitious atmosphere John Tickell, eldest son of Thomas and father of Richard, our poet, was born in 1729 and grew up to take his place among the Dublin virtuosi. But he had a volatile character and fell into a train of misadventures and difficulties. In 1748 he made a runaway marriage with Esther (or Hester) Pierson, and children to the number of six followed in rapid succession.[8] At length he became disastrously involved in Anglo-Irish politics while serving on the court side as a magistrate after the Dublin riots in December 1759.[9] His conduct on this occasion, though its precise nature is not clear, excited such indignation that he was obliged to leave Dublin. In 1765, according to information in the Tickell family papers, his mother purchased for him a civil appointment at Windsor Castle; but some years later, like other indigent Englishmen at that period, he went to live on the Continent and disappeared from sight.
Richard, the second son of John Tickell, is usually said to have been born at Bath in 1751, but neither the place nor the date can be verified. He and his elder brother Thomas were briefly at Westminster School (from 19 June 1764); when their father went to Windsor Castle, they were transferred to Eton (29 May 1765); three years later Richard proceeded to the Middle Temple (8 November 1768).[10] Having in due time been called to the bar, he was, about the beginning of 1777, appointed by Lord Chancellor Bathurst a commissioner of bankrupts. However, as a contemporary biographer remarked, law was not to Tickell’s taste; “his disposition was too volatile and desultory for that study.”[11] In April or May 1778 he was removed from his post. Doubtless his courtship of the muses had been at the expense of the law, for his fellow-commissioners had complained of his absences. Tickell turned in his distress to his most influential friend, David Garrick, who at once interceded for him with the Lord Chancellor, by way of Lady Bathurst.[12] Garrick obtained from Bathurst a promise of reinstatement, but in June Bathurst was succeeded by Edward Thurlow, and Garrick had to begin all over again. His further attempts met with no success. “I am sorry we were both so unsuccessful in our Schems with the present Chancellor,” Garrick was informed by Lady Bathurst on the 25th of July; “I do assure you I did my part for Mʳ Tickle but I find he has enemies who flung cold water on my solicitations.”[13] The news plunged Tickell into despair.