I. CHATTERTON'S LIFE AND DEATH AND THE GENESIS OF THE ROWLEY POEMS
II. THE VALUE OF THE ROWLEY POEMS
III. BIBLIOGRAPHY
IV. NOTE ON THE TEXT
V. NOTES
VI. APPENDIX ON THE ROWLEY CONTROVERSY
REPRINT OF THE EDITION OF 1778. (The Table of Contents follows the 1778 title-page.)
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.
I. CHATTERTON'S LIFE AND DEATH AND THE GENESIS OF THE ROWLEY POEMS
Thomas Chatterton was born in Bristol on the 20th of November 1752. His father—also Thomas—dead three months before his son's birth, had been a subchaunter in Bristol Cathedral and had held the mastership in a local free school. We are told that he was fond of reading and music; that he made a collection of Roman coins, and believed in magic (or so he said), studying the black art in the pages of Cornelius Agrippa. With all the self-acquired culture and learning that raised him above his class (his father and grandfathers before him for more than a hundred years had been sextons to the church of St. Mary Redcliffe) he is described as a dissipated, 'rather brutal fellow'. Lastly, he appears to have been 'very proud', self-confident, and self-reliant.