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CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

OF THE

LIFE OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

THE following Table is intended to show (1) the chief events of the poet's life, (2) the dates of the publication of his principal works, and (3) his chronological relations to certain of his predecessors and contemporaries.

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About this year Richard Wordsworth migrates from Yorkshire to Westmoreland, is made Superintendent of the Lowther estates, marries,

and purchases the property of Sockbridge, in the parish of Barton, near Penrith.

Richard W. Receiver-General of the County of Westmoreland.

[George Crabbe born.]

[Wm. Lisle Bowles born. Joanna Baillie born.]

[Samuel Rogers born.]

[The Traveller (O. Goldsmith).]

[Bp. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.]

John Wordsworth, attorney, of Cockermouth, chief law-agent to Sir Jas.
Lowther, and Steward of the Manor and Forest of Ennerdale
(born 1741, second son of Richard W.), marries Anne, daughter of
Wm. Cookson, mercer, of Penrith, by Dorothy Crackanthorp, his
wife (of the Newbiggin Hall family). To him are born:

(1) Richard W. (May 19th; died May 19th, 1816).
[The Beggar's Petition (Rev. Thos. Moss).]

(2) WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, BORN APRIL 7th. [Mary Hutchinson
born Aug. 16th (died Jan. 17th, 1859). James Hogg born.
Chatterton died. The Deserted Village (Goldsmith).]

I (3) Dorothy W. (Dec. 25th; died Jan. 25th, 1855). [Gray died. Scott born.
The Minstrel (Beattie)].

2

4

(4) John W. (Dec. 4th; drowned Feb. 5th, 1805. [S. T. Coleridge born.]
(5) Christopher W. (June 9th; died Feb. 2nd, 1846). [Goldsmith died.
Southey born. The Country Justice (Langhorne, 1774-5).]

[Chas. Lamb born. W. Savage Landor born.]

A.D. ET.

1777

1778

1779

7 During 1776-7 W. W. and Mary H. attend Anne Birkett's infant school : Penrith. [H. Hallam born. Thos. Campbell born.]

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8 Mother dies. W. lodges at Anne Tyson's cottage and attends Hawkshea Grammar-school. [Wm. Hazlitt born.]

1781 II

1782 1783

33

14

1784
1785 15

1786 16

1787 17

1788

[Thos. Moore born.]

[Ebenezer Elliott born. The Library (Crabbe). Triumphs of Tempe (Hayley).]

[Poems (Wm. Cowper). Edwin and Elfrida (Helen M. Williams).] John W. (father) dies, leaving his five children in the guardianship their uncles, Richard Wordsworth and Christ. Crackanthorp. [T Village (Crabbe).]

[Dr. Johnson died. Leigh Hunt born. Elegiac Sonnets (Charlott Smith).]

"And has the sun his flaming chariot driven," &c. written (W.'s earlies extant verses). [De Quincey born. Thos. Love Peacock born The Newspaper (Crabbe). The Task (Cowper).]

"Dear Native Regions," &c.; "Calm is all Nature," &c. written. [Poem (Robt. Burns: Kilmarnock Ed.).]

Enters at S. John's College, Cambridge. Studies Italian under Agostin Isola. Evening Walk begun. [B. W. Proctor born.] 18 Long Vacation at Hawkshead. First visit to London (autumn). [Byro born. Lewesdon Hill (Wm. Crowe).]

1789 19

1790

20

1791

223

21

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Long Vac. with Dorothy W. and Mary H. at Penrith. Evening Wal
finished. [The Loves of the Plants (Darwin). Sonnets (W. I
Bowles). Songs of Innocence (Wm. Blake).]

Walking tour in Long Vac. with Robt. Jones through France and
Switzerland. [Julia: a Novel (with Sonnet to Hope: Helen M
Williams).]

B.A. Camb. (Jan.). Forncett Rectory, Norfolk; London; Plas-yn-llan
N. Wales (with Robt. Jones); Paris (Nov.); Orleans. Descriptiv
Sketches begun. Guilt and Sorrow begun.

Orleans; Blois (friendship with Michel Beaupuy: Nature now yield:
the first place to Man in W.'s affections and imagination); Pari:
(Oct.): W., on the point of offering himself as a leader of the
Girondins, is recalled to England; London; Descriptive Sketche
finished. [Shelley born. Keble born. Pleasures of Memory
(Rogers). The Economy of Vegetation (Darwin).]

Evening Walk publ. (Feb.); Descriptive Sketches publ. London; Isle o Wight, with Wm. Calvert (July); walking tour by SalisburyStonehenge-Bath-Bristol-Tintern Abbey-Goodrich Castle-t Plas-yn-llan. Wanderings through N. Wales (autumn). Shocked by England's declaration of war against France (Feb.). Indite a "Letter to the Bishop of Llandaff, &c. By a Republican." [Felici: Hemans born. Tam o Shanter, &c. (Burns).].

At Armathwaite near Keswick; Halifax; at Windybrow under Skidday with Wm. Calvert; Whitehaven; wanderings through Lancashir

1 It was during either this vacation or that of 1794, that W. spent four weeks with his cousi Mrs. Barker in Rampside, a village of Low Furness, Lancashire, right opposite Peel Castle, which lies between Walney Isle and the mainland. Cf. the Elegiao Stanzas suggested by a Picture 4 Peel Castle.

12

AD ET.

and the Lake Country. Proposes to start "The Philanthropist, a monthly Miscellany;" searches in vain for congenial employment; anxious and perplexed. Guilt and Sorrow finished. [Fall of Robespierre (S. T. C.). Songs of Experience (Blake). Robespierre executed (July 28th): see Prelude X., 11. 570-603.]

25 At Penrith with Raisley Calvert, who dies, leaving W. £900 (Spring). Halifax (?); London; settles with Dorothy W. at Racedown, Dorset (Oct.). Meets S. T. C. at the house of Mr. Pinney, Bristol (prob. late in Sept.). The Borderers begun. Margaret; or, The Ruined Cottage begun. [Keats born. Carlyle born.]

8

27

Racedown. The Borderers finished. [Burns died. Hartley Coleridge born. Poems, 1st issue (S. T. C.). Joan of Arc (Southey).] Racedown. Intimacy with S. T. C. leads to outburst of poetic activity. W. and sister visit S. T. C. at Nether Stowey cottage (July 2—16), whence they move to Alfoxden, some three miles distant. Charles Lamb visits S. T. C. (July 9-16). Lyrical Ballads planned with S.T.C. Margaret finished (aft. merged in Excursion, Bk. I.). W. in London (Dec.). [Poems (S.T.C.; Lamb and Lloyd). Poems (Southey).] Alfoxden (Jan.-June). 700 lines of "The Recluse" written; also many Lyrical Ballads, and Peter Bell. [Wm. Hazlitt visits Nether Stowey and Alfoxden (May ?).] Bristol (July); London (Aug. 27th). Lyrical Ballads publ. (Sept.). Viâ Yarmouth to Hamburg with Dorothy W. and S. T. C. (Sept. 16th); arrives at Goslar (Oct. 6th)1. [Epistle to a Friend (Rogers). Plays on the Passions, Vol. I. (Joanna Baillie: Vol. II., 1802; Vol. III., 1812). Gebir (W. S. Landor).] 1799 29 Goslar; Göttingen; whence (April 21st) via Hamburg to Yarmouth;

1798 28

1800 30

1301

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with Thos. and Mary Hutchinson at Sockburn-on-Tees (May 1st?). The Prelude begun in Germany, where W.'s. poetic activity persists in full force. Walking tour through Lake Country with S. T. C., John W., and Cottle, the Bristol publisher of the L. B. (Oct.). Settles, with Dorothy W., in Dove Cottage, Townend, Grasmere (prob. Friday, Dec. 20th). [T. Hood born. Pleasures of Hope (Campbell).]

Dove Cottage. John W. sojourns (Jan.-Sept. 29th). S. T. C. visits Grasmere (Apr., May), and, with wife and Hartley, sojourns at Dove Cottage (June 29th July 24th). Mary H. visits Dove Cottage twice in 1800. S. T. C. settles at Greta Hall, Keswick (Aug.). Frequent intercourse between W. and S. T. C. The Recluse, Bk. I., written (publ. 1888); also many Pastorals and other poems. Bks. I. and II. of The Prelude were probably finished before the close of 1800. The poem was then laid aside until the spring of 1804. W.'s poetic activity fully maintained in 1800. [Cowper died. Macaulay born.]

Unpro

Dove Cottage. Lyrical Ballads, 2nd ed., two vols. pub. (Jan.).
ductive interval, Jan.-Dec. 1801. [Thalaba (Southey). John Wood-
vil (Lamb). Poems ("Thos. Little ").]

During this six months' sojourn abroad, W.'s republican ardour evanesced, and with it his resentment towards England as the foe of France. "We are right glad to find ourselves in England," be writes on his return to Cottle, "for we have learned to know its value." Cf. the lines beginLing: "I travelled among unknown men."

A.D. ET. 1802 32

1803 33

1804 34

1805 35

Dove Cottage. Second period of productive energy (Dec. 1801-Dec. 1803
declining somewhat in 1803). Thirty-nine of the poems publ. i
1807 now written; also much of Bks. I. and II. of The Excursion
The Sonnet now (May 21st onwards) regularly and frequentl
cultivated. Four weeks' visit to Calais (Aug.). W. marries Mar
H. at Brompton near Scarborough (Oct. 4th); returns to Grasmer
(Oct. 6th). Lyrical Ballads, 3rd. ed. [Darwin died.]
Dove Cottage. Birth of W.'s firstborn, John (June 18th). W. and Doroth
start with S. T. C. on a tour in Scotland (Aug. 16th.). They mee
Walter Scott, and return to Grasmere (Oct. 14th). Sir Geo. Beau
mont buys and presents to W. the little estate of Applethwaite
three miles from Greta Hall. Yarrow Unvisited written (Nov.
[Temple of Nature (Darwin).]

Dove Cottage. The Prelude continued, Bks. III.-VII. (Feb.-Apr.) Bks. VIII. XI. (Oct.-Dec.). Dora W. born (Aug. 16th). S. T. C starts for Malta, Apr. 2nd. [Triumphs of Music (Hayley).] Dove Cottage. The Prelude finished, Bks. XII.-XIV. (Apr., May). Feb 1804-May 1805 may be regarded as W.'s third period of productiv activity. John W. (brother) drowned in the wreck of the Abergavenny (Feb. 5th). W. ascends Helvellyn along with Walter Scott and Humphrey Davy (Oct.). The Waggoner written. Lyrical Ballads 4th. ed. [Madoc (Southey). Lay of the Last Minstrel (Scott).] 1806 36 Dove Cottage. Thomas W. born (June 16th). S. T. C. returns to England (Aug.). W. moves into the farm-house at Coleorton (lent by Si G. Beaumont) in October. S. T. C. at Coleorton (Dec. 1806-Feb 1807). Fourth period of poetic productiveness (Nov. 1806-Feb 1808). [Simonidea (Landor). Odes and Epistles (T. Moore).] Coleorton farm-house. Poems in Two Volumes publ. (prob. early in May) W. visits London (April), returning to Coleorton with W. Scott Home to Grasmere (Aug.). De Quincey calls at Dove Cottage (Oct.) Poems in Two Volumes savagely attacked in Edinburgh Review W. visits John H. (wife's brother) at Stockton-on-Tees, where par of The White Doe of Rylstone is written (Dec.). [Parish Register (Crabbe). Hours of Idleness (Byron).]

1807 37

1808

38 Dove Cottage. The White Doe (first draft) finished (Feb.). Visit to London (March). Moves from Dove Cottage into Allan Bank (June). Catherine W. born (Sept. 6th). S. T. C. and De Quincey domesticated at Allan Bank (Sept.). [Marmion (Scott). Lore Houghton born.]

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Allan Bank. The Excursion continued and completed during this and the four following years. Tract on the Convention of Cintra (written Nov., Dec., 1808) publ. (end of May). The Friend publ. by S. T. C (No. 1 on June 1st) at Penrith. De Quincey settles at Dove Cottage (Nov.). Reply to the Letter of Mathetes (in The Friend publ. (Dec.). [English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (Byron). Gertrude of Wyoming (Campbell). A. Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett, W. E. Gladstone, Chas. Darwin born.]

Allan Bank. Essay on Epitaphs (in The Friend) publ. (Feb). Description of the Scenery of the English Lakes, publ. as Introd. to Wilkinsoni Select Views (Apr.). William W. born (May 12th). S. T. C. quit

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