INTRODUCTION. I. THE LIFE OF COLLINS.1 WILLIAM COLLINS was born at Chichester, in the south of England, in the year 1721. He was baptized on Jan. 1, 1722,2 and the tradition is that his birth occurred on the preceding Christmas. The Collins family were established in Chichester as tradesmen of the higher class in the sixteenth century. It is said that Thomas Collins, mayor of the city in 1619, was a direct ancestor of the poet. The poet's 1 The quotations from Johnson are taken from his life of Collins in the Lives of the Poets. The quotations from Ragsdale, T. Warton, and White are taken from letters by them. White's letter, dated Jan. 20, 1781, appeared first in The Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1781; it was there anonymous, but in the Aldine Collins it is reprinted from the original and ascribed to White on evidence in the manuscript. The letters of Ragsdale and Warton were written to William Hymers, of Oxford, who was collecting material for a new edition of Collins; they were first printed, after Hymers's death, in The Reaper, which was originally published (says Dyce) in The York Chronicle from January, 1796, to June, 1797, and was reprinted in book form, though never published, in 1798. The letters were reprinted (that by Ragsdale shamefully mutilated) in The Gleaner, edited by Nathan Drake (London, 1811, vol. IV, pp. 475-484); Ragsdale's letter was correctly reprinted in The Monthly Magazine for July, 1806. Ragsdale's letter is dated July, 1783. Warton's letter must have been written about the same time. 2" William ye. Son of William Collins then Mayor of this City & Elizabeth his wife was baptiz'd: 1 Jany.” — Parish Register of the Subdeanery Church, otherwise St. Peter's the Great. The year is 1721 Old Style, i.e., 1722 New Style, as the entries after March 24 show. 3 A History of the Western Division of the County of Sussex, by James father, William Collins, a hatter, filled the office of mayor in 1714 and 1721.1 He seems to have been a man of some property; his house in East Street, which is still standing, is a large and substantial structure of brick and stone. Collins's parents had reached middle age at the time of his birth, his mother being about forty years old and his father forty-seven. Two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne, some sixteen and fifteen years older than the poet, were, so far as is known, the only other children. It is probable that in his boyhood Collins attended the prebendal school at Chichester; at least, such has long been the tradition in the school.2 On Jan. 19, 1733, he was admitted to Winchester College on the foundation, receiving his board, lodging, and tuition free. At this famous school, in the venerable cathedral city of Winchester, Collins remained seven years. He was fortunate in having for schoolfellows several youths of more than ordinary abilities in literature. Foremost among them was his lifelong friend Joseph Warton, a respectable poet and critic, and for many years head-master of Winchester College. Other friends were William Whitehead, afterwards poet laureate, and James Hampton, the translator of Polybius. At Winchester Collins made his first verses of which we have record. It is said that when twelve years old he wrote Dallaway, London, 1815, vol. I, p. 186. Dallaway also mentions a Thomas Collins, sheriff of Sussex from 1663 to 1683; Henry Collins, who held the same office from 1702 to 1714; Roger Collins, incumbent of the Church of St. Olave, Chichester, for forty-five years, who died in 1707. 1 From a list of the mayors on the walls of the council chamber at Chichester. The name of Thomas Collins occurs in 1631 and 1646 as well as in 1619. 2 The Aldine Collins, London, 1894, p. x. 3" Gulielm. Collins de Chichester. Com. Sussex. Bapt. 1 Jan. 1721. Adm. 19 Jan. 1733."— Register of Winchester College. a poem on a Battle of the School Books, one line of which was remembered long afterwards: And every Gradus flapped his leathern wing.1 In 1739 two short poems by him appeared in The Gentleman's Magazine. A more unmistakable proof of his poetical powers was the Persian Eclogues, which Joseph Warton says were written at Winchester, when Collins was about seventeen years of age. Of the poet's scholarship at this period there is no very certain evidence, but it seems probable that he was a brilliant student. Gilbert White (White of Selborne) recalled that he was "distinguished for his early proficiency, and his turn for elegant composition"; but White had not known Collins at Winchester, and was writing many years after his death. Johnson says that "his English exercises were better than his Latin"; but also that, in 1740, when Collins was ready for the university, "he stood first in the list of the scholars to be received in succession at New College," and the statement is confirmed by White, who adds that Joseph Warton stood second in the list. On March 21, 1740, Collins was entered as a commoner on the books of Queen's College, Oxford, and the register of the university contains the record of his matriculation on the following day. It is not known just when he went to 1 The European Magazine and London Review, December, 1795, p. 377. The reminiscence is anonymous. 2 In The Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1734, in the register of books published that month, is mentioned a poem on the royal nuptials, by a William Collins. The poem has never been found; it is doubtful if the subject of this sketch, then a schoolboy of thirteen, could have been the author. 31738... William Collins Comr- Mar. 21. Entrance Book of Queen's College. "1738 Mar. 22 Coll. Reg. Gul: Collins 18 Gul: Fil: de Chichester in Com: Sussexiæ. Gen: Fil."— Register of Matriculations of the University of Oxford. |