The Rowley Poems | Page 4

the help of an English-Rowley and Rowley-English Dictionary
(which he had laboriously compiled for himself out of the vocabulary
to Speght's Chaucer_, Bailey's _Universal Etymological Dictionary,
and Kersey's Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum) translate the work into
what he probably thought was a very fair imitation of fifteenth century
language. His spelling Professor Skeat characterizes as 'that debased
kind which prevails in Chevy Chase and the Battle of Otterbourn in
Percy's Reliques, only a little more disguised.' Percy's Reliques were
not published till 1765, but it is natural to suppose that Chatterton when
he was 'wildly squandering all he got On books and learning and the
Lord knows what,' and thereby involving himself in some little debt,
would have bought the volume very soon after its publication. Finally
as to the production of 'an original'. We have two accounts; one of
which represents the pseudo-Rowley rubbing a parchment upon a dirty
floor after smearing it with ochre and saying 'that was the way to
antiquate it'; the other, even more explicit, is the testimony of a local
chemist, one Rudhall, who was for some time a close friend of
Chatterton's. The incident in which Rudhall appears is worth relating at
length.
In the month of September 1768 an event of some importance occurred
at Bristol--a new bridge that had been built across the Avon to
supersede a structure dating from the reign of the second Henry being
formally thrown open for traffic. At the time when this was the general
talk of the city Chatterton had left with the editor of _Felix Farley's
Bristol Journal_ a description of the 'Fryars passing over the Old
Bridge taken from an ancient manuscript.' This account was in the best
Rowleian manner, with strange spelling and uncouth words, but for the
most part quite intelligible to the ordinary reader. The editor
accordingly published it (no payment being asked) and great curiosity
was aroused in consequence. Where had this most interesting document
come from? Were there others like it? The Bristol antiquaries, rather a
large body, were all agog with excitement. Ultimately they discovered
that the unknown contributor, of whom the editor could say nothing
more than that his 'copy' was subscribed _Dunclinus Bristoliensis_, was

Thomas Chatterton the attorney's apprentice. Now the amazing
credulity of these learned people is one of the least comprehensible
circumstances of our poet's strange life. For on being asked how he had
come by his MSS. he refused at first to give any answer. Then he said
he was employed to transcribe some old writings by 'a gentleman
whom he had supplied with poetry to send to a lady the gentleman was
in love with'--the excuse being suggested no doubt by the case of Miss
Hoyland and his friend Baker. Finally when, as we can only conclude,
this explanation was disproved or disbelieved, he announced that the
account was copied from a manuscript his father had taken from
Rowley's chest. And this explanation was considered perfectly
satisfactory.
Yet it seemed obvious that the antiquaries would demand to see the
manuscript, and Chatterton, contrary to his usual practice of secrecy,
called upon his friend Rudhall and, having made him promise to tell
nothing of what he should show him, took a piece of parchment 'about
the size of a half sheet of foolscap paper,' wrote on it in a character
which the other did not understand, for it was 'totally unlike English,'
and finally held what he had written over a candle to give it the
'appearance of antiquity,' which it did by changing the colour of the ink
and making the parchment appear 'black and a little contracted.'
Rudhall, who kept his secret till 1779 (when he bartered it for £10, to
be given to the poet's mother, at that time in great poverty), believed
that no one was shown or asked to see this document. Why, it is
impossible to say.
The present volume contains a reproduction[2] in black and white of
the original MS. of Chatterton's 'Accounte of W. Canynges Feast'. This
was written in red ink. The parchment is stained with brown, except
one corner, and the first line written in a legal texting hand. The ageing
of his manuscript of the Vita Burtoni, to take a further instance, was
effected by smearing the middle of it with glue or varnish. This
document was also written partly in an attorney's regular engrossing[3]
hand. During the next four years Chatterton 'transcribed' a great
quantity of ancient documents, including _Ælla, a Tragycal
Enterlude_--far the finest of the longer Rowleian poems--the _Songe to

Ælla_ and The Bristowe Tragedy (the authorship of which last he
appears in an unguarded moment to have acknowledged to his mother).
He told her also that he had himself written one of the two poems Onn
oure Ladies Chyrche--which one, Mrs.