Pasted into flyleaf: typewritten index to manuscript.

Binding: modern. In gilt on spine: Tyrwhitt Papers II. Dep. c. 105.

Related material: Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, Papers (Osborn fc112), Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

In English.

Thomas Tyrwhitt (1730-1786) was a literary editor and critic. He graduated MA from Oxford in 1756 and was appointed deputy secretary at war. He held this position until 1762, when he was made clerk of the House of Commons, a position he resigned in 1768. He was appointed curator of the British Museum in 1784, and elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1771. He was well versed in the 14th and 15th century English, and he contributed extensively not only to Shakespeare but also to Chaucer studies, having published a respected edition of the Canterbury Tales with notes and glossary. His intimate familiarity with medieval English also led to his involvement in the Rowley controversy, which pertained to Thomas Chatterton's revelation of manuscripts of poems that he claimed he had transcribed from the works of Thomas Rowley, a priest of Bristol during the time of Henry VI and Edward IV. In 1777, after Chatterton's death, Tyrwhitt anonymously published Poems supposed to have been written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley and others in the fifteenth century. However, it was republished in 1778 with an appendix recognizing that the poems were most likely Chatterton's own work.

Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770) was a poet and forger of pseudo-medieval poetry. In 1769 he sent a piece called Rowley's History of England, supposedly by a medieval monk named Thomas Rowley, to Horace Walpole, who initially believed in its authenticity. He also wrote political letters, eclogues, lyrics, operas and satires, both in prose and verse. Using the pseudonym Decimus, in the vein of Junius, he wrote against such political figures as the Duke of Grafton, the Earl of Bute, and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. However, he was paid very little for his work, and on August 24, 1770, at age 17, he committed suicide with arsenic. It was after Chatterton's death that controversy over the Rowley manuscripts and poems began.

Manuscript, in multiple hands, of a collection of 47 items divided into three sections. The first section consists of 14 poems, extracts, and notes, primarily on antiquarian subjects. The verses in the first section include a Latin poem titled Odeum oxoniense; a poem addressed to Thebes; a verse dialogue between two shepherds titled The eagle & wren, or Thomas & Richard, a pastoral dialogue; a poem addressed to Thomas Tyrwhitt; and an extract of a letter from Alexander Pope to Samuel Richardson which includes a poem "found in a glass window in the village of Chalfort Bucks." The first section also contains an excerpt from Gerard Langbaine on Ben Jonson; a list of payments to poets copied from the accounts of Henry VII's privy purse; an excerpt from Tobias Smollett's history of England; notes on Latin and medieval French and their relationship to Chaucer; and notes concerning Chaucer's Dreme of Chaucer.

The second section contains 23 letters, notes, drawings, and transcripts relating to Thomas Chatterton and the Rowley controversy. These items include numerous documents in Chatterton's hand, including Happiness-a poem; A fragment of sermon on the holy spirit in medieval English; and 10 drawings, some printed, of medieval buildings and tombstones, including that of Robertes Canyng. The section also includes several items by George Catcott, such as a notebook with marbled covers signed George Catcott January 1, 1776, which consists of his notes to a book on Chatterton; and a copy of Chatterton's poem The tournament, an interlude, with a note by Tyrwhitt to the printer. The remainder of this section consists of letters from various scholars to Tyrwhitt discussing the Rowley controversy. These scholars include Thomas Warton, Jeremiah Milles, William Cole, and Dr. Percy.

The third section contains 10 letters, several of which are addressed to Tyrwhitt, many on literary matters, including the meaning of the word "churl"; accented syllables in Milton's and others' poetry; and commentaries on John Dryden, Alexander Pope, and Joseph Addison. Other items include a social letter from Richard Hurd, bishop of Worcester, to Dr. Hough; a letter from Nicholas Harding discussing the King's right to levy taxes, and containing extracts from Hale's Prerogativa Regis; and two drawings of plans for tracts of land surveyed in Jamaica, signed by Henry Wornull in 1671.

English poetry > 18th century.

Great Britain > Intellectual life > 18th century.