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


Biography

Born in
Clifton, Bristol Clifton is both a suburb of Bristol, England, and the name of one of the city's thirty-five council wards. The Clifton ward also includes the areas of Cliftonwood and Hotwells. The eastern part of the suburb lies within the ward of Clifton Do ...
, 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 Poe ...
, and Anna, sister of Maria Edgeworth. 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 after ...
. He published in 1821 ''The Improvisatore'', which he afterwards endeavoured to suppress. His next venture, a
blank-verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and Pa ...
drama called ''The Bride's Tragedy'' (1822), was published and well reviewed, and won for him the friendship of
Barry Cornwall Bryan Waller Procter (pseud. Barry Cornwall) (21 November 17875 October 1874) was an English poet who served as a Commissioner in Lunacy. Life and career Born at Leeds, Yorkshire, he was educated at Harrow School, where he had for contemporarie ...
. Beddoes' work shows a constant preoccupation with death. In 1824, he went to
Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
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 is ...
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 Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
in 1833, and had to leave
Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
, 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 , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
, 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 Arthur William Symons (28 February 186522 January 1945) was a British poet, critic and magazine editor. Life Born in Milford Haven, Wales, to Cornish parents, Symons was educated privately, spending much of his time in France and Italy. In 1884 ...
, "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 John William Cousin (1849–1910) was a British writer, editor and biographer. He was one of six children born to William and Anne Ross Cousin, his mother being a noted hymn-writer, in Scotland. A fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries and secretary ...
, 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 The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...
", 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