The revival of interest in mediaeval life and literature during the 18th century, led to a fanatical search for antiquarian literary treasures. Where there was such a strong demand, literary forgers and impostors such as James Macpherson, William Henry Ireland and Thomas Chatterton provided them to their willing and eager patrons. Chatterton was born to poverty in Bristol in 1752 and died in poverty in London in 1770. As a child he began writing assured verse before indulging in the production of the Rowley Poems, imitation mediaeval english poetry. He wrote on scraps of old parchment and posed it as the work of the 15th century secular priest Thomas Rowley and others in the circle of the Bristol merchant, William Canynges. The publication of Thomas Tyrwhitt's first collection of Rowley poems in 1777 gave immediate rise a heated literary controversy regarding their authenticity. This is a collection of the major contemporary contributions to the controversy - all of them extremely rare. The Rowley myth was eventually destroyed by the influential voice of Walpole and the careful linguistic and historical evidence assembled by Malone, Warton and Tyrwhitt.
This ironically gave rise to the 'marvellous boy' image of Chatterton, heralded by the later Romantic poets.
This ironically gave rise to the 'marvellous boy' image of Chatterton, heralded by the later Romantic poets.
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