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{{Short description|English medieval-style poet (1752–1770)}}
{{about||the English politician|Thomas Chatterton (MP)|the American cultural critic with a similar name|Thomas Chatterton Williams}}
{{redirect|Chatterton}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{Use British English|date 2012|date=October 2025}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name        = Thomas Chatterton
| image       = Henry Wallis - Chatterton - Google Art Project.jpg
|pseudonym = Thomas Rowley, Decimus
| caption     = ''[[The Death of Chatterton]]'', 1856, by [[Henry Wallis]] ([[Tate Britain]], London)
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1752|11|20|df=y}}<ref name=wikisource/>
| birth_place = [[Bristol]], England
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1770|08|24|1752|11|20|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Holborn]], London, England
| occupation  = Poet, [[forgery|forger]]
}}
'''Thomas Chatterton''' (20 November 1752 – 24 August 1770) was an English poet whose precocious talents ended in suicide at age 17. He was an influence on [[Romanticism|Romantic]] artists of the period such as [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Shelley]], [[John Keats|Keats]], [[William Wordsworth|Wordsworth]] and [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge]].

Although fatherless and raised in poverty, Chatterton was an exceptionally studious child, publishing mature work by the age of 11. He was able to [[literary forgery|pass off his work]] as that of an imaginary 15th-century poet called Thomas Rowley, chiefly because few people at the time were familiar with medieval poetry, though he was denounced by [[Horace Walpole]].

At 17, he sought outlets for his political writings in London, having impressed the Lord Mayor, [[William Beckford (politician)|William Beckford]], and the radical leader [[John Wilkes]], but his earnings were not enough to keep him, and he poisoned himself in despair. His unusual life and death attracted much interest among the romantic poets, and [[Alfred de Vigny]] wrote a play about him that is still performed today. The oil painting ''[[The Death of Chatterton]]'' by Pre-Raphaelite artist [[Henry Wallis]] has enjoyed lasting fame.

==Childhood==
[[File:Thomas Chatteron Birthplace Home and Plaque, Bristol.jpg|thumb|left|Thomas Chatterton's Birthplace Home and Commemorative Plaque, Bristol]]
[[File:Pile Street School Bristol 1897.jpg|thumb|Pile Street School, depicted 1897]]
[[File:Chatterton house Bristol.jpg|thumb|right|The wall at the right of the house in Phippen street where Chatterton was raised is that of the {{circa|1739}} school where Chatterton's father was master. The school was demolished in 1939 to widen Pile Street into Redcliff Way, but the façade was rebuilt on the line of the former back wall.]]
Chatterton was born in [[Bristol]] to Thomas and Sarah Chatterton, and had an older sister, Mary. In Bristol, the office of [[Sexton (office)|sexton]] of [[St Mary Redcliffe]] had long been held by the Chatterton family.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/bha006 Basil Cottle, ''Thomas Chatterton'' (Bristol Historical Association pamphlets, no. 6, 1963), pp. 1–2 ]</ref> The poet's father was a musician, a poet, a [[numismatics|numismatist]], and a dabbler in the [[occult]]. He had been a [[Succentor|sub-chanter]] at [[Bristol Cathedral]] and master of the Pyle Street free school, near Redcliffe church.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=10}}

After Chatterton's birth (15 weeks after his father's death on 7 August 1752),<ref name=wikisource>[[s:Chatterton, Thomas (DNB00)|Wikisource]]. Retrieved 14 March 2014</ref> his mother established a girls' school and took in sewing and ornamental needlework. Chatterton was admitted to [[Edward Colston]]'s Charity, a Bristol [[charity school]], in which the curriculum was limited to reading, writing, arithmetic and the [[catechism]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=10}}

Chatterton, however, was always fascinated with his uncle the sexton and the church of St Mary Redcliffe. The knights, ecclesiastics and civic dignitaries on its [[altar tomb]]s became familiar to him. Then he found a fresh interest in oaken chests in the [[muniment]] room over the porch on the north side of the [[nave]], where parchment deeds, old as the [[Wars of the Roses]], lay forgotten. Chatterton learned his first letters from the illuminated capitals of an old musical folio, and he learned to read out of a black-letter Bible. His sister said he did not like reading out of small books. Wayward from his earliest years, and uninterested in the games of other children, he was thought to be educationally backward. His sister related that on being asked what device he would like painted on a bowl that was to be his, he replied, "Paint me an angel, with wings, and a trumpet, to trumpet my name over the world."<ref>Kaplan 22</ref>{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=10}}
[[File:Old House in Corn Street 1908.jpg|left|thumb|The office of Mr Lambert, attorney, in Corn Street, where Chatterton was employed]]
From his earliest years, he was liable to fits of abstraction, sitting for hours in what seemed like a trance, or crying for no reason. His lonely circumstances helped foster his natural reserve, and to create the love of mystery which exercised such an influence on the development of his poetry. When Chatterton was age 6, his mother began to recognise his capacity; at age 8, he was so eager for books that he would read and write all day long if undisturbed; by the age of 11, he had become a contributor to Felix Farley's ''Bristol Journal''.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=10}}

His [[confirmation]] inspired him to write some religious poems published in that paper. In 1763, a cross which had adorned the churchyard of St Mary Redcliffe for upwards of three centuries was destroyed by a churchwarden. The spirit of veneration was strong in Chatterton, and he sent to the local journal on 7 January 1764 a satire on the parish vandal. He also liked to lock himself in a little attic which he had appropriated as his study; and there, with books, cherished parchments, loot purloined from the muniment room of St Mary Redcliffe, and drawing materials, the child lived in thought with his 15th-century heroes and heroines.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=10}}

==First "medieval" works==
The first of his literary mysteries was the [[dialogue]] of "Elinoure and Juga," which he showed to Thomas Phillips, the [[Schoolmaster|usher]] at [[Colston's School|Colston's Hospital]] (where he was a pupil), pretending it was the work of a 15th-century poet. Chatterton remained a boarder at Colston's Hospital for more than six years, and it was only his uncle who encouraged the pupils to write. Three of Chatterton's companions are named as youths whom Phillips's taste for poetry stimulated to rivalry; but Chatterton told no one about his own more daring literary adventures. His little pocket-money was spent on borrowing books from a [[circulating library]]; and he ingratiated himself with book collectors, in order to obtain access to [[John Weever]], [[William Dugdale]] and [[Arthur Collins (antiquarian)|Arthur Collins]], as well as to [[Thomas Speght]]'s edition of [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]], [[Edmund Spenser|Spenser]] and other books.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=10}} At some point he came across [[Elizabeth Cooper (dramatist)|Elizabeth Cooper's]] anthology of verse, which is said to have been a major source for his inventions.<ref>Yvonne Noble, "Cooper, Elizabeth (b. in or before 1698, d. 1761?)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6217, accessed 11 Nov 2014]</ref>

Chatterton's "[[:wikt:Rowleian|Rowleian]]" jargon appears to have been chiefly the result of the study of [[John Kersey]]'s ''[[Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum]]'', and it seems his knowledge even of [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]] was very slight. His holidays were mostly spent at his mother's house, and much of them in the favourite retreat of his attic study there. He lived for the most part in an ideal world of his own, in the reign of [[Edward IV of England|Edward IV]], during the mid-15th century, when the great Bristol merchant [[William II Canynges]] (died 1474), five times mayor of Bristol, patron and rebuilder of St Mary Redcliffe "still ruled in Bristol's civic chair." Canynges was familiar to him from his recumbent effigy in Redcliffe church, and is represented by Chatterton as an enlightened patron of art and literature.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|pp=10–11}}

==Adopts persona of Thomas Rowley==
Chatterton soon conceived the romance of Thomas Rowley, an imaginary monk of the 15th century,{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=10}} and adopted for himself the pseudonym Thomas Rowley for poetry and history. [[Psychoanalyst]] Louise J. Kaplan suggested that Chatterton being fatherless played a great role in his imposturous creation of Rowley.<ref>Kaplan 21</ref> The development of his masculine identity was held back by the fact that he was raised by two women: his mother Sarah and his sister Mary. Therefore, "to reconstitute the lost father in fantasy,"<ref>Kaplan 100</ref> he unconsciously created "two interweaving family romances [fantasies], each with its own scenario."<ref>Kaplan 25</ref> The first of these was the romance of Rowley for whom he created a fatherlike, wealthy patron, William Canynge, while the second was as Kaplan named it his romance of "[[Jack and the Beanstalk]]." He imagined he would become a famous poet who by his talents would be able to rescue his mother from poverty.<ref>Kaplan 23</ref>

At the same time, there was a real poet named [[Thomas Rowley (poet)|Thomas Rowley]] in [[Vermont]], although it is unlikely that Chatterton was aware of the existence of the American poet.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

==Chatterton's search for a patron==
To bring his hopes to life, Chatterton started to look for a patron. At first, he was trying to do so in Bristol where he became acquainted with [[William Barrett (antiquarian)|William Barrett]], George Catcott and Henry Burgum. He assisted them by providing Rowley transcripts for their work. The antiquary William Barrett relied exclusively on these fake transcripts when writing his ''[[History and Antiquities of Bristol]]'' (1789) which became an enormous failure.<ref>Kaplan 247</ref> But since his Bristol patrons were not willing to pay him enough, he turned to the wealthier [[Horace Walpole]].<ref>Kaplan 90</ref> In 1769, Chatterton sent "The Ryse of Peyncteynge yn Englade" to Walpole, along with specimens of pseudo-medieval poetry he attributed to Rowley and others.<ref>Meyerstein 254–55</ref> Walpole professed himself "singularly obliged," calling the letter "valuable and full of information" and the poems "wonderful for their harmony and spirit," <ref>{{cite book |last=Dix |first=John |year=1837 |title=The life of Thomas Chatterton, including his unpublished poems and correspondence. |location=London |publisher=Hamilton, Adams & Co. |pages=76, 78}}</ref> and offering to print them "if they have never been printed."<ref>Walpole's letter to Chatterton dated 28 March 1769 quoted in Meyerstein, 256–57</ref> Later, however, after Chatterton confessed his age and situation, Walpole consulted his friends [[Thomas Gray]] and [[William Mason (poet)|William Mason]] about the veracity of the writings, and Gray "at once pronounced them forgeries."<ref>Dix 87</ref> Walpole's pride was injured at having been duped by Chatterton, and he scornfully cut off correspondence with the poet.<ref>Meyerstein 262</ref> Many later commentators have reproached Walpole for this, especially in light of Walpole's having passed off his own [[Gothic fiction|Gothic novel]] ''[[The Castle of Otranto]]'' as a translation from a medieval Italian manuscript. Walpole's comment that Chatterton's "ingenuity in counterfeiting styles, and, I believe, hands, might easily have led him to those more facile imitations of prose, promissory notes" led [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]] to remark: "Oh! ye who honor the name of ''man'', rejoice that Walpole is called ''a lord.''" <ref>Dix 90</ref> Some writers have speculated that, had Walpole reacted differently, "a slight effort, at this time, ... might have saved from destruction Thomas Chatterton."<ref>Dix 91</ref>

==Political writings==
Badly hurt by Walpole's snub, Chatterton wrote very little for a summer. {{when|date=September 2023}} Then, after the end of the summer, he turned his attention to periodical literature and politics, and exchanged Farley's ''Bristol Journal'' for the ''[[Town and Country Magazine]]'' and other London periodicals. Imitating the style of the pseudonymous letter writer [[Junius (writer)|Junius]], then in the full blaze of his triumph, he turned his pen against the [[Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton|Duke of Grafton]], the [[John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute|Earl of Bute]] and [[Augusta of Saxe-Gotha]] (the then [[Princess of Wales]]).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=12}}

==Leaving Bristol==
He had just dispatched one of his political diatribes to the ''Middlesex Journal'' when he sat down on Easter Eve, 17 April 1770, and penned his "Last Will and Testament," a satirical compound of jest and earnest, in which he intimated his intention of ending his life the following evening. Among his satirical bequests, such as his "humility" to the Rev. Mr Camplin, his "religion" to Dean Barton, and his "modesty" along with his "prosody and grammar" to Mr Burgum, he leaves "to Bristol all his spirit and disinterestedness, parcels of goods unknown on its quay since the days of Canynge and Rowley."<ref>Chatterton's Last Will and Testament quoted in Meyerstein 342</ref> In more genuine earnestness, he recalls the name of Michael Clayfield, a friend to whom he owed intelligent sympathy. The will was possibly prepared in order to frighten his master into letting him go. If so, it had the desired effect. John Lambert, the attorney to whom he was apprenticed, cancelled his indentures; his friends and acquaintances having donated money, Chatterton went to London.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=12}}

==London==
[[File:Thomas Chatterton.jpg|thumb|''Chatterton's Holiday Afternoon'' engraved by William Ridgway, after W.B. Morris, pub. 1875]]
Chatterton already was known to the readers of the ''Middlesex Journal'' as a rival of Junius under the [[Pen name|nom de plume]] of Decimus. He also had been a contributor to ''Hamilton's Town and Country Magazine'', and speedily found access to the ''Freeholder's Magazine'', another political miscellany supportive of [[John Wilkes]] and liberty. His contributions were accepted, but the editors paid little or nothing for them.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=12}}

He wrote hopefully to his mother and sister, and spent his first earnings in buying gifts for them. Wilkes had noted his trenchant style "and expressed a desire to know the author";<ref>Chatterton's letter to his mother dated 6 May 1770 quoted in Meyerstein 360</ref> and [[Lord Mayor of London|Lord Mayor]] [[William Beckford (politician)|William Beckford]] graciously acknowledged a political address of his, and greeted him "as politely as a citizen could."<ref>Chatterton's letter to his sister dated 30 May 1770 quoted in Meyerstein 372</ref>

Chatterton was [[:wikt:abstemious|abstemious]] and extraordinarily diligent. He could assume the style of Junius or [[Tobias Smollett]], reproduce the satiric bitterness of [[Charles Churchill (satirist)|Charles Churchill]], parody [[James Macpherson]]'s ''[[Ossian]]'', or write in the manner of [[Alexander Pope]] or with the polished grace of [[Thomas Gray]] and [[William Collins (poet)|William Collins]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=12}}

He wrote political letters, [[eclogue]]s, lyrics, operas and satires, both in prose and verse. In June 1770, after nine weeks in London, he moved from [[Shoreditch]], where he had lodged with a relative, to an attic in Brook Street, [[Holborn]] (now beneath [[Alfred Waterhouse]]'s [[Holborn Bars]] building). He was still short of money; and now, state prosecutions of the press rendered letters in the Junius vein no longer admissible. This threw him back on the lighter resources of his pen. In Shoreditch, he had shared a room; but now, for the first time, he enjoyed uninterrupted solitude. His bed-fellow at Mr Walmsley's, Shoreditch, noted that much of the night was spent by him in writing; and now he could write all throughout the night. The romance of his earlier years re-emerged, and he transcribed from an imaginary parchment of the old priest Rowley his "Excelente Balade of Charitie." This poem, disguised in archaic language, he sent to the editor of the ''Town and Country Magazine'', where it was rejected.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=12}}<ref>Kaplan 173</ref>

Mr Cross, a neighbouring [[apothecary]], repeatedly invited him to join him at dinner or supper; but he refused. His landlady, too, pressed him to share her dinner, but in vain. "She knew," as she afterwards said, "that he had not eaten anything for two or three days."<ref>quoted in Kroese 559</ref> However, Chatterton assured her that he was not hungry. The note of his actual receipts, found in his pocket-book after his death, shows that Hamilton, Fell and other editors who had been so liberal in flattery, had paid him at the rate of a shilling for an article, and less than eightpence each for his songs; much of the accepted material was held in reserve and still unpaid for. According to his foster-mother, Chatterton had wished to study medicine with Barrett, and in his desperation he wrote to Barrett for a letter to help him to an opening as a surgeon's assistant on board an African trading ship.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=12}}

== Death ==
According to a late 19th-century account, Chatterton once fell into a newly dug grave in St Pancras Churchyard while absorbed by reading epitaphs with a friend. When helped out by his companion, he reportedly said, "I have been at war with the grave some time," a remark seen as a grim foreshadowing of his death three days later. However, the accuracy of this story is uncertain.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Clinch | first1 = George | title = Marylebone and St. Pancras; their history, celebrities, buildings, and institutions | publisher = Truslove & Shirley | year = 1890 | location = London | pages = 136–137 | url = https://archive.org/stream/marylebonestpanc00clinuoft/marylebonestpanc00clinuoft_djvu.txt | access-date = 30 May 2013}}</ref> On 24 August 1770, he retired for the last time to his attic in Brook Street, and consumed [[arsenic]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/chatterton.htm |title=Thomas Chatterton |publisher=Poets' Graves |access-date=16 November 2009 }}</ref> after tearing into fragments whatever literary remains were at hand. He was 17 years and nine months old.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=12}} There has been some speculation that Chatterton may have accidentally overdosed on the arsenic as a treatment for a [[venereal disease]],<ref>{{cite news |last1= Demetriou |first1=Danielle |title=Reports of 18th century Romantic icon's suicide were 'greatly exaggerated' |access-date=25 April 2020 |newspaper =The Independent |date=26 August 2004|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/reports-of-18th-century-romantic-icons-suicide-were-greatly-exaggerated-53318.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/reports-of-18th-century-romantic-icons-suicide-were-greatly-exaggerated-53318.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Death of Chatterton {{!}} Thomas Chatterton Manuscript Project |url=https://www.thomaschatterton.com/death-chatterton-c9 |access-date=2025-07-17 |website=Thomas Chatterton |language=en}}</ref> as it was commonly used for such at that time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.news-medical.net/health/History-of-Sexually-Transmitted-Disease.aspx|title = History of Sexually Transmitted Disease|date = 8 February 2010}}</ref>

==Posthumous recognition==
The death of Chatterton attracted little notice at the time as the few who cared for the Rowley poems regarded him as their mere transcriber. He was interred in a burying-ground attached to the [[Workhouse|Shoe Lane Workhouse]] in the parish of [[St Andrew, Holborn]], later the site of [[Farringdon Market]]. There is a discredited story that the body of the poet was recovered, and secretly buried by his uncle, Richard Phillips, in Redcliffe Churchyard. There a monument has been erected to his memory, with the appropriate inscription, borrowed from his "Will", and so supplied by the poet's own pen. "To the memory of Thomas Chatterton. Reader! judge not. If thou art a Christian, believe that he shall be judged by a Superior Power. To that Power only is he now answerable."{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=12}}

It was after Chatterton's death that the controversy over his work began. ''Poems supposed to have been written at Bristol by Thomas Rowley and others, in the Fifteenth Century'' (1777) was edited by [[Thomas Tyrwhitt]], a Chaucerian scholar who believed them genuine medieval works. However, the appendix to the following year's edition recognises that they were probably Chatterton's own work. [[Thomas Warton]], in his ''[[The History of English Poetry|History of English Poetry]]'' (1778) included Rowley among 15th-century poets, but apparently did not believe in the antiquity of the poems. In 1782 a new edition of Rowley's poems appeared, with a "Commentary, in which the antiquity of them is considered and defended," by [[Jeremiah Milles]], [[Dean of Exeter]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=12}}

The controversy which raged round the Rowley poems is discussed in [[Andrew Kippis]], ''[[Biographia Britannica]]'' (vol. iv., 1789), where there is a detailed account by [[George Gregory (British writer)|George Gregory]] of Chatterton's life (pp.&nbsp;573–619). This was reprinted in the edition (1803) of Chatterton's Works by [[Robert Southey]] and [[Joseph Cottle]], published for the benefit of the poet's sister. The neglected condition of the study of earlier English in the 18th century alone accounts for the temporary success of Chatterton's mystification. It has long been agreed that Chatterton was solely responsible for the Rowley poems; the language and style were analysed in confirmation of this view by [[W. W. Skeat]] in an introductory essay prefaced to vol. ii. of ''The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton'' (1871) in the "[[Aldine Edition of the British Poets]]." The Chatterton manuscripts originally in the possession of [[William Barrett (historian)|William Barrett]] of Bristol were left by his heir to the [[British Museum]] in 1800. Others are preserved in the Bristol library.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|pp=12–13}}

==Legacy==
Chatterton's genius and his death are commemorated by [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]] in ''[[Adonais]]'' (though its main emphasis is the commemoration of [[John Keats|Keats]]), by [[William Wordsworth]] in "[[Resolution and Independence]]", by [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]] in "[[Monody on the Death of Chatterton]]", by [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] in "Five English Poets", and in John Keats' sonnet "To Chatterton". Keats also inscribed ''[[Endymion (poem)|Endymion]]'' "to the memory of Thomas Chatterton". Two of [[Alfred de Vigny]]'s works, ''Stello'' and the drama ''Chatterton'', give fictionalized accounts of the poet; in the former, there is a scene in which William Beckford's harsh criticism of Chatterton's work drives the poet to suicide. The three-act play ''Chatterton'' was first performed at the [[Théâtre-Français]], Paris on 12 February 1835. In 1876, the composer  [[Ruggero Leoncavallo|Leoncavallo]] wrote an opera CHATTERTON based upon Vigny's play and novel.   [[Sir Herbert Croft, 5th Baronet|Herbert Croft]], in his ''[[Love and Madness]]'', interpolated a long and valuable account of Chatterton, giving many of the poet's letters, and much information obtained from his family and friends (pp.&nbsp;125–244, letter li.).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=13}}

The most famous image of Chatterton in the 19th century{{citation needed|date=November 2021}} was ''[[The Death of Chatterton]]'' (1856) by [[Henry Wallis]], now in [[Tate Britain]], London. Two smaller versions, sketches or replicas, are held by the [[Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery]] and the [[Yale Center for British Art]]. The figure of the poet was modeled by the young [[George Meredith]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tate |title='Chatterton', Henry Wallis, 1856 |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wallis-chatterton-n01685 |access-date=19 November 2021 |website=Tate Britain |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Two of Chatterton's poems were set to music as [[glee (music)|glees]] by the English composer [[John Wall Callcott]]. These include separate settings of distinct verses within the ''Song to Aelle''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rubin |first=Emanuel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZjMYAQAAIAAJ&q=John+Wall+Callcott+chatterton |title=The English Glee in the Reign of George III: Participatory Art Music for an Urban Society |date=2003 |publisher=Harmonie Park Press |isbn=978-0-89990-116-9 |pages=228 |language=en}}</ref> His best known poem, ''O synge untoe mie roundelaie'' was set to a five-part madrigal by [[Samuel Wesley (composer, born 1766)|Samuel Wesley]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kassler |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dD8rDwAAQBAJ&dq=samuel+wesley+chatterton&pg=PA613 |title=Samuel Wesley (1766–1837): A Source Book |year=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-55012-3 |pages=613 |language=en}}</ref> Chatterton has attracted operatic treatment a number of times throughout history, notably [[Ruggero Leoncavallo]]'s largely unsuccessful two-act ''Chatterton'';<ref>Kaminski, Piotr, ''1001 opéras'', Fayard, 2003, {{ISBN|978-8-32240-971-8}}, pp. 779–780 {{in lang|fr}}</ref> the German composer [[Matthias Pintscher]]'s modernistic ''Thomas Chatterton'' (1998);<ref>{{Cite news |last=Clements |first=Andrew |date=29 August 2003 |title=Matthias Pintscher, the radical conservative |language=en |work=The Guardian |url=http://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/aug/29/classicalmusicandopera.proms2003 |access-date=19 November 2021}}</ref> and Australian composer [[Matthew Dewey]]'s lyrical yet dramatically intricate one-man mythography entitled ''The Death of Thomas Chatterton''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/workversion/dewey-matthew-death-of-chatterton/25374 |title=The death of Chatterton : a mythography in one act for one man |access-date=18 November 2021 |website=Australian Music Centre}}</ref>
In ''The Woman in White'' by Wilkie Collins, published in serial form in 1859–60, Count Fosco asks: "Who is the English poet who has won the most universal sympathy – who makes the easiest of all subjects for pathetic writing and pathetic painting? That nice young person who began life with a forgery, and ended it by a suicide - your dear, romantic, interesting Chatterton." Second Epoch, Chapter IV
There is a collection of "Chattertoniana" in the British Library, consisting of works by Chatterton, newspaper cuttings, articles dealing with the Rowley controversy and other subjects, with manuscript notes by Joseph Haslewood, and several autograph letters.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=13}} [[E. H. W. Meyerstein]], who worked for many years in the manuscript room of the British Museum wrote a definitive work—"A Life of Thomas Chatterton"—in 1930.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/3715537 |jstor=3715537 |title=[Untitled] |first=Ernest A. |last=Baker |journal=The Modern Language Review |volume=26 |issue=4 |page=474 |date=October 1931}}</ref> [[Peter Ackroyd]]'s 1987 novel ''Chatterton'' was a literary re-telling of the poet's story, giving emphasis to the philosophical and spiritual implications of forgery. In Ackroyd's version, Chatterton's death was accidental.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}


{{multiple image
| align             = right
| total_width       = 400
| image1            = Thomas Chatterton plaque - St Mary Redcliffe - PXL 20251021 141232307.jpg
| image2            = Chatterton's Monument, St Mary Redcliffe - Bristol's Free Museums and Historic Houses - M818 (cropped).jpg
| footer            = A 1967 plaque (left) installed in the south transept of St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol. It replaced an 1840 monument (right) that was taken down due to deterioration caused by repeated vandalism.<ref>{{cite web |title=Documents collected and compiled by Mr. Roslyn of Red Lodge, with contributions by W. J. Pountney and J. Harry Savory: Chatterton Monument |url=https://archives.bristol.gov.uk/records/17563/1/447 |website=Bristol Archives Catalogue |publisher=[[Bristol City Council]] |location=Bristol |date=c. 1900 |access-date=24 October 2025 |id=17563/1/447}}</ref>
}}
In 1886, architect [[Herbert Horne]] and [[Oscar Wilde]] unsuccessfully attempted to have a plaque erected at [[Colston's School]], Bristol. Wilde, who lectured on Chatterton at this time, suggested the inscription: "To the Memory of Thomas Chatterton, One of England's Greatest Poets, and Sometime pupil at this school."<ref>Hart-Davis, Rupert ed. ''Selected Letters of Oscar Wilde'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979. pp. 66–67.</ref>

In 1928, a plaque in memory of Chatterton was mounted on 39, Brooke Street, Holborn, bearing the inscription below.<ref>Wright, GW. [http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/content/CLV/dec15/419.full.pdf+html?sid=70499cda-fc67-48b1-afa9-496dc8255c0b The London memorial to Thomas Chatterton, Notes and Queries], 15 December 1928, Oxford University Press.</ref> The plaque  has been since transferred to a modern office building on the same site.<ref>Google Streetview, 39 Brooke St, Camden Town, Greater London EC1N</ref>

<blockquote><poem>
In a House on this Site
Thomas
Chatterton,
died
24 August 1770.
</poem></blockquote>

Within [[Bromley Common]], there is a road called Chatterton Road; this is the main thoroughfare in Chatterton Village, based around the public house named The Chatterton Arms. Both road and pub are named after the poet.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.guide2bromley.com/news/232/Chatterton-Village-Bromley-Common |title=Chatterton Village, Bromley Common – 08 March 2011 – Guide2Bromley News |access-date=5 September 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111214003022/http://www.guide2bromley.com/news/232/Chatterton-Village-Bromley-Common |archive-date=14 December 2011}}</ref>

French singer [[Serge Gainsbourg]] entitled one of his songs ''Chatterton'' (1967), stating:<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/3546038/Serge+Gainsbourg/Chatterton |title=Chatterton |website=lyrics.com |access-date=18 November 2021}}</ref><blockquote><poem>
''Chatterton suicidé''
''Hannibal suicidé'' [...]
''Quant à moi''
''Ça ne va plus très bien''.
</poem></blockquote>The song was covered (in Portuguese) by [[Seu Jorge]] live and recorded in the album ''[[Ana & Jorge: Ao Vivo]]''.<ref>{{AllMusic |id=ana-jorge-ao-vivo-mw0000749906 |title=Ana & Jorge: Ao Vivo }}</ref> It was also recorded as an English language translation  by [[Mick Harvey]] on the album "[[Intoxicated Man]]".<ref>{{AllMusic |id=intoxicated-man-mw0000646329 |title=Intoxicated Man}}</ref>

French singer, songwriter and actor [[Alain Bashung]] entitled his 1994 studio album ''[[Chatterton (album)|Chatterton]]''.

French pop/rock band [[Feu! Chatterton]] took their name in homage to Chatterton. The band added the expression "Feu" ("fire", in French, formula once used for  Kings' or Queens' death) to which they added an exclamation mark as a sign of resurrection.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 December 2014 |title=Feu! Chatterton : "Nos chansons sont un exutoire pour notre mélancolie" |url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/musique/2014/12/01/03006-20141201ARTFIG00197-feu-chatterton-nos-chansons-sont-un-exutoire-pour-notre-melancolie.php |access-date=21 October 2022 |website=LEFIGARO |language=fr}}</ref>

==Works==
# 'An Elegy on the much lamented Death of William Beckford, Esq.,' 4to, pp.&nbsp;14, 1770.
# 'The Execution of Sir Charles Bawdwin' (edited by Thomas Eagles, F.S.A.), 4to, pp.&nbsp;26, 1772.
# 'Poems supposed to have been written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley and others, in the Fifteenth Century' (edited by Thomas Tyrwhitt), 8vo, pp.&nbsp;307, 1777.
# 'Appendix' (to the 3rd edition of the poems, edited by the same), 8vo, pp.&nbsp;309–333, 1778.
# 'Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, by Thomas Chatterton, the supposed author of the Poems published under the names of Rowley, Canning, &c.' (edited by John Broughton), 8vo, pp.&nbsp;245, 1778.
# 'Poems supposed to have been written at Bristol in the Fifteenth Century by Thomas Rowley, Priest, &c., [edited] by Jeremiah Milles, D.D., Dean of Exeter,' 4to, pp.&nbsp;545, 1782.
# 'A Supplement to the Miscellanies of Thomas Chatterton,' 8vo, pp.&nbsp;88, 1784.
# 'Poems supposed to have been written at Bristol by Thomas Rowley and others in the Fifteenth Century' (edited by Lancelot Sharpe), 8vo, pp. xxix, 329, 1794.
# 'The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton,' Anderson s 'British Poets,' xi. 297–322, 1795.
# 'The Revenge: a Burletta; with additional Songs, by Thomas Chatterton,' 8vo, pp.&nbsp;47, 1795.
# 'The Works of Thomas Chatterton' (edited by Robert Southey and Joseph Cottle), 3 vols. 8yo, 1803.
# 'The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton' (edited by Charles B. Willcox), 2 vols. 12mo, 1842.
# 'The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton' (edited by the Rev Walter Skeat, M.A.), Aldine edition, 2 vols. 8vo, 1876.

==See also==
*[[List of 18th-century British working-class writers]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist|25em}}

==References==
{{Reflist|25em}}

===Sources===
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Chatterton, Thomas|volume=6|pages=10–13}}
*{{Cite DNB|first=William Charles Mark |last=Kent |wstitle=Chatterton, Thomas|volume=10 |pages=143–154}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
* Cook, Daniel. ''Thomas Chatterton and Neglected Genius, 1760–1830.'' Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
* [[Basil Cottle|Cottle, Basil]]. [https://archive.org/details/bha006  ''Thomas Chatterton''] (Bristol Historical Association pamphlets, no. 6, 1963), 15 pp.
* Croft, Sir Herbert. ''Love and Madness.'' London: G Kearsly, 1780. <https://books.google.com/books?id=hDImAAAAMAAJ>
* Groom, Nick ed. ''Thomas Chatterton and romantic culture.'' London: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.
*{{cite ODNB|first=Nick|last=Groom|title=Chatterton, Thomas (1752–1770)|id=5189}}
* Heys, Alistair ed. ''From Gothic to Romantic: Thomas Chatterton's Bristol''. Bristol: Redcliffe, 2005.
* Haywood, Ian. ''The making of history: a study of the literary forgeries of James Macpherson and Thomas Chatterton in relation to eighteenth-century ideas of history and fiction.'' Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, c1986.
* Kaplan, Louise J. ''The Family Romance of the Impostor-poet Thomas Chatterton''. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989. <https://books.google.com/books?id=EZGHZv8-0bYC>
* Kroese, Irvin B.. "Chatterton's Aella and Chatterton." ''SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900''. XII.3 (1972):557-66. {{JSTOR|449952}}
* Meyerstein, Edward Harry William. ''A Life of Thomas Chatterton.'' London: Ingpen and Grant, 1930.
* Németh, T. (2012). Thomas Chatterton's  An excelente balade of charitie interpreted as a dream (Unpublished bachelor's thesis). Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem Bölcsészet- és Társadalomtudományi Kar, Piliscsaba, Hungary.
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons category|Thomas Chatterton}}
* [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/authors/pers00288.shtml Thomas Chatterton] at the [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/ Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)]
* {{Gutenberg author |id=4793| name=Thomas Chatterton}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Thomas Chatterton}}
* {{Librivox author |id=8925}}
* {{Find a Grave|27965930}}
* [http://www.exclassics.com/rowley/rwlintro.htm The Rowley Poems at Exclassics.com]
* [[choralwiki:Thomas Chatterton|Musical settings of Chatterton's poems]]
* [http://digital.lib.washington.edu/findingaids/view?docId=ChattertonThomas0829.xml Thomas Chatterton papers]. Between 1758 and 1770. 2 items. At the [http://lib.washington.edu/specialcollections/ University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections.]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chatterton, Thomas}}
[[Category:1752 births]]
[[Category:1770 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century English poets]]
[[Category:Literary forgeries]]
[[Category:Forgers]]
[[Category:Writers from Bristol]]
[[Category:Suicides by poison]]
[[Category:British child writers]]
[[Category:History of mental health in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Suicides in Camden]]
[[Category:People educated at Colston's School]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:English Christians]]
[[Category:18th-century suicides]]
[[Category:English satirical poets]]