Thomas Lovell Beddoes (30 June 1803 – 26 January 1849) was an English poet,

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and physician.

Biography

Born in Clifton, Bristol, England, he was the son of Dr. Thomas Beddoes, a friend of

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...

, and Anna, sister of

Maria Edgeworth Maria Edgeworth (1 January 1768 – 22 May 1849) was a prolific Anglo-Irish novelist of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the n ...

. He was educated at Charterhouse and

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named afte ...

. He published in 1821 ''The Improvisatore'', which he afterwards endeavoured to suppress. His next venture, a blank-verse drama called ''The Bride's Tragedy'' (1822), was published and well reviewed, and won for him the friendship of Barry Cornwall. Beddoes' work shows a constant preoccupation with death. In 1824, he went to

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

to study medicine, motivated by his hope of discovering physical evidence of a human spirit which survives the death of the body. He was expelled, and then went to

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg ...

to complete his training. He then wandered about practising his profession, and expounding democratic theories which got him into trouble. He was deported from Bavaria in 1833, and had to leave

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zü ...

, where he had settled, in 1840. He continued to write, but published nothing. He led an itinerant life after leaving Switzerland, returning to England only in 1846, before going back to Germany. He became increasingly disturbed, and committed suicide by poison at

Basel Basel ( , ), also known as Basle ( ),french: Bâle ; it, Basilea ; rm, label= Sutsilvan, Basileia; other rm, Basilea . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine. Basel is Switzerland's third-most-populous city (after Zürich a ...

, in 1849, at the age of 45. For some time before his death he had been engaged on a drama, ''Death's Jest Book'', which was published in 1850 with a memoir by his friend, T. F. Kelsall. His ''Collected Poems'' were published in 1851.

Reception

Critics have faulted Beddoes as a dramatist. According to Arthur Symons, "of really dramatic power he had nothing. He could neither conceive a coherent plot, nor develop a credible situation." His plots are convoluted, and such was his obsession with the questions posed by death that his characters lack individuation; they all struggle with the same ideas that vexed Beddoes. But his poetry is "full of thought and richness of diction", in the words of John William Cousin, who praised Beddoes' short pieces such as "If thou wilt ease thine heart" (from ''Death's Jest-Book'', Act II) and "If there were dreams to sell" ("Dream-Pedlary") as "masterpieces of intense feeling exquisitely expressed". Lytton Strachey referred to Beddoes as "the last Elizabethan", and said that he was distinguished not for his "illuminating views on men and things, or for a philosophy", but for the quality of his expression. Philip B. Anderson said the lyrics of ''Death's Jest Book'', exemplified by "Sibylla's Dirge" and "The Swallow Leaves Her Nest", are "Beddoes' best work. These lyrics display a delicacy of form, a voluptuous horror, an imagistic compactness and suggestiveness, and, occasionally, a grotesque comic power that are absolutely unique."Dabundo 2011, p. 33.

References

Sources * * * * Dabundo, L. ''Encyclopedia of romanticism: Culture in Britain, 1780s-1830s''. (London: Routledge, 2011). . * Donner, H.W., ed. ''The Works of Thomas Lovell Beddoes'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1935). * Donner, H.W., ed. ''Plays and Poems of Thomas Lovell Beddoes'' (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1950). * Ute Berns and Michael Bradshaw (eds), ''The Ashgate Research Companion to Thomas Lovell Beddoes'' (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2007) (The Nineteenth Century Series).

External links

Phantom-Wooer: The Thomas Lovell Beddoes Website
– continues work of the Thomas Lovell Beddoes Society, 2006 to 2010
"Text"
at Phantom-Wooer – catalogues some online editions and provides many itself
Doomsday: Journal of the Thomas Lovell Beddoes Society

Thomas Lovell Beddoes
at ''The Literary Encyclopedia'' (litencyc.com) * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beddoes, Thomas Lovell Medical doctors from Bristol Suicides by poison 1803 births 1849 deaths Suicides in Switzerland 19th-century English medical doctors People educated at Charterhouse School English male dramatists and playwrights English male poets 19th-century English poets 19th-century English dramatists and playwrights 19th-century English male writers 1840s suicides Writers from Bristol