"When wildly squandering everything I got, On books and learning, and the Lord knows what, No, that would be imprudent in the man: This disappointment throws him into a humour bordering on the suicidal; and, left alone in his master's office on the Saturday forenoon following, he displays it by penning a kind of satirical will or suicide's farewell to the world. This extraordinary document, which is still extant, is headed thus: "All this wrote between 11 and 2 o'clock, Saturday, in the utmost distress of mind, April 14, 1770;" and, after some fifty lines of verse addressed to Burgum, the Rev. Mr. Catcott, and Barrett, it proceeds as follows: This is the last will and testament of me, Thomas Chatterton, of the city Bristol; being sound in body, or it is the fault of my last surgeon: the soundness of my mind the coroner and jury are to be judges of— desiring them to take notice that the most perfect masters of human nature in Bristol distinguish me by the title of 'the mad genius'; therefore, if I do a mad action, it is conformable to every action of my life, which all savoured of insanity. “Item.—If, after my death, which will happen tomorrow night before eight o'clock, being the Feast of the Resurrection, the coroner and jury bring it in lunacy, I will and direct that Paul Farr, Esq., and Mr. John Flower, at their joint expense, cause my body to be interred in the tomb of my fathers, and raise the monument over my body to the height of four feet five inches, placing the present flat stone on the top, and adding six tablets. ["Here follow directions for certain engravings to be placed on the six tablets: viz., on two of them, fronting each other, certain heraldic achievements; on another, an inscription, in old English characters, to his ancestor, Guatevine Chatterton, A.D. 1210; on another, an inscription, in the same character, to another ancestor, Alanus Chatterton, A.D. 1415; on another, an inscription, in Roman letters, to the memory of his father; and on the remaining one this epitaph to himself: "TO THE MEMORY OF "THOMAS CHATTERTON. "Reader, judge not. If thou art a Christian, believe that he shall be judged by a supreme power: to that power alone is he now answerable."] "And I will and direct that, if the coroner's inquest bring it in felo de se, the said monument shall be, notwithstanding, erected. And, if the said Paul Farr and John Flower have souls so Bristolish as to refuse this my request, they will transmit a copy of my will to the Society for supporting the Bill of Rights, whom 1 hereby empower to build the said monument according to the aforesaid directions. And, if they, the said Paul Farr and John Flower, should build the said monument, I will and direct that the second edition of my Kew Gardens shall be dedicated to them in the following dedication: To Paul Farr and John Flower, Esqrs., this book is most humbly dedicated by the Author's Ghost.' Item.—I give all my vigour and fire of youth to Mr. George Catcott, being sensible he is most in want of it. "Item.-From the same charitable motive, I give and bequeath unto the Rev. Mr. Camplin, sen., all my humility. To Mr. Burgum all my prosody and grammar, likewise one moiety of my modesty; the other moiety to any young lady who can prove, without blushing, that she wants that valuable commodity. To Bristol all my spirit and disinterestedness, parcels of goods unknown on her quays since the days of Canning and Rowley. ('Tis true, a charitable gentleman, one Mr. Colston, smuggled a considerable quantity of it; but, it being proved that he was a Papist, the worshipful society of aldermen endeavoured to throttle him with the oath of allegiance.) I leave also my religion to Dr. Cutts Barton, Dean of Bristol, hereby empowering the sub-sacrist to strike him on the head when he goes to sleep in church. My powers of utterance I give to the Rev. Mr. Broughton, hoping he will employ them to a better purpose than reading lectures on the immortality of the soul. I leave the Rev. Mr. Catcott some little of my free-thinking, that he may put on spectacles of reason, and see how vilely he is duped in believing the Scriptures literally. (I wish he and his brother George would know how far I am their real enemy: but I have an unlucky way of raillery; and, when the strong fit of satire is upon me, I spare neither friend nor foe. This is my excuse for what I have said of them elsewhere.) I leave Mr. Clayfield the sincerest thanks my gratitude can give; and I will and direct that, whatever any person may think the pleasure of reading my works worth, they immediately pay their own valuation to him, since it is then become a lawful debt to me, and to him as my executor in this case. "I leave my moderation to the politicians on both sides of the question. I leave my generosity to our present right worshipful mayor, Thomas Harris, Esq. I give my abstinence to the company at the Sheriff's annual feast in general, more particularly the aldermen. "Item.-I give and bequeath to Mr. Matthew Mease a mourning ring with this motto, 'Alas, poor Chatterton!' provided he pays for it himself. Item.-I leave the young ladies all the letters they have had from me, assuring them that they need be under no apprehensions from the appearance of my ghost, for I die for none of them. Item.—I leave all my debts, the whole not five pounds, to the payment of the charitable and generous Chamber of Bristol, on penalty, if refused, to hinder every member from a good dinner by appearing in the form of a bailiff. If, in defiance of this terrible spectre, they obstinately persist in refusing to discharge my debts, let my two creditors apply to the supporters of the Bill of Rights. Item.-I leave my mother and sister to the protection of my friends, if I have any. 66 Executed, in the presence of Omniscience, this 14th of April, 1770. "THOMAS CHATTERTON." Whether this dreadful document got immediately abroad among Chatterton's friends does not appear. Another document, however, written at the same time C. and in the same mad mood, was sufficiently alarming to produce a catastrophe. The Mr. Clayfield mentioned with such peculiar respect in the preceding paper, a distiller of means and respectability, and a friend of Mr. Lambert's, seems to have been a person of more than usual consideration in the eyes of Mr. Lambert's apprentice. To him, accordingly, rather than to any other person in Bristol, he chose to indite a letter conveying his rash intention of suicide. This letternot actually sent to Mr. Clayfield by Chatterton, but inadvertently left about, it would appear, with that gentleman's address upon it-was prematurely delivered to him. Startled by its contents, he lost no time in communicating them to Mr. Lambert. There was an immediate consultation among Chatterton's friends, and Mr. Barrett undertook to see the insane lad, and reason with him on the folly and criminality of his conduct. Accordingly, a long conversation took place between them, in which, to use his own words, he took Chatterton to task for the "bad company and principles he had adopted," and lectured him seriously "on the horrible crime of self-murder, however glossed over by present libertines." Chatterton was affected, and shed tears. The next day, however, he sent Mr. Barrett the following letter, the original of which may be seen in the British Museum : SIR,-Upon recollection I don't know how Mr. |