WHITE, RICHARD GRANT (1822-1885).—Shakespearian scholar,b.in New York State, was long Chief of the Revenue Marine Bureau, and was one of the most acute students and critics of Shakespeare, of whose works hepub.two ed., the first in 1865, and the second (the Riverside) in 1883. He also wroteWords and their Uses,Memoirs of Shakespeare,Studies in Shakespeare,The New Gospel of Peace(a satire),The Fate of Mansfield Humphreys(novel), etc.
WHITEHEAD, CHARLES (1804-1862).—Poet, novelist, and dramatist; is specially remembered for three works, all of which met with popular favour:The Solitary(1831), a poem,The Autobiography of Jack Ketch(1834), a novel, andThe Cavalier(1836), a play in blank verse. He recommended Dickens for the writing of the letterpress for R. Seymour's drawings, which ultimately developed intoThe Pickwick Papers.
WHITEHEAD, WILLIAM (1715-1785).—Poet,s.of a baker at Camb., anded.at Winchester School and Camb., became tutor in the family of the Earl of Jersey, and retained the favour of the family through life. In 1757 he succeeded Colley Cibber as Poet Laureate. He wrote plays of only moderate quality, includingThe Roman FatherandCreusa, tragedies, andThe School for Lovers, a comedy; also poems,The EnthusiastandVariety. His official productions as Laureate were severely attacked, which drew from him in replyA Charge to the Poets.
WHITMAN, WALTER or WALT (1819-1892).—Poet, wasb.at Huntingdon, Long Island, New York. His mother was of Dutch descent, and the farm on which he wasb.had been in the possession of his father's family since the early settlement. His first education was received at Brooklyn, to which hisf.had removed while W. was a young child. At 13 he was in a printing office, at 17 he was teaching and writing for the newspapers, and at 21 was editing one. The next dozen years were passed in desultory work as a printer withoccasional literary excursions, but apparently mainly in "loafing" and observing his fellow-creatures. It was not till 1855 that his first really characteristic work,Leaves of Grass, appeared. This first ed. contained only 12 poems. Notwithstanding its startling departures from conventionality both in form and substance it was well received by the leading literary reviews and, with certain reserves to be expected, it was welcomed by Emerson. It did not, however, achieve general acceptance, and was received with strong and not unnatural protest in many quarters. When a later ed. was called for Emerson unsuccessfully endeavoured to persuade the author to suppress the more objectionable parts. On the outbreak of the Civil War W. volunteered as a nurse for the wounded, and rendered much useful service. The results of his experiences and observations were given in verse inDrum TapsandThe Wound Dresser, and in prose inSpecimen Days. From these scenes he was removed by his appointment to a Government clerkship, from which, however, he was soon dismissed on the ground of having written books of an immoral tendency. This action of the authorities led to a somewhat warm controversy, and after a short interval W. received another Government appointment, which he held until 1873, when he had a paralytic seizure, which rendered his retirement necessary. Other works besides those mentioned areTwo RivuletsandDemocratic Vistas. In his later years he retired to Camden, New Jersey, where hed.W. is the most unconventional of writers. Revolt against all convention was in fact his self-proclaimed mission. In his versification he discards rhyme almost entirely, and metre as generally understood. And in his treatment of certain passions and appetites, and of unadulterated human nature, he is at war with what he considered the conventions of an effeminate society, in which, however, he adopts a mode of utterance which many people consider equally objectionable, overlooking, as he does, the existence through all the processes of nature of a principle of reserve and concealment. Amid much that is prosaic and rhetorical, however, it remains true that there is real poetic insight and an intense and singularly fresh sense of nature in the best of his writings.
Works, 12 vols., withLife.SeeStedman'sPoets of America. Monographs by Symonds, Clarke, and Salter.
WHITNEY, WILLIAM DWIGHT (1827-1894).—Philologist,b.at Northampton, Mass., was Prof. of Sanskrit, etc., at Yale, and chief ed. of theCentury Dictionary. Among his books areDarwinism and LanguageandThe Life and Growth of Language.
WHITTIER, JOHN GREENLEAF (1807-1892).—Poet, wasb.at Haverhill, Massachusetts, of a Quaker family. In early life he worked on a farm. His later years were occupied partly in journalism, partly in farming, and he seems also to have done a good deal of local political work. He began to write verse at a very early age, and continued to do so until almost his latest days. He was always a champion of the anti-slavery cause, and by his writings both as journalist and poet, did much to stimulate national feeling in the direction of freedom. Among his poetical works areVoices of Freedom(1836),Songs of Labour(1851),Home Ballads(1859),In War Time(1863),Snow Bound(1866),The Tent on the Beach(1867),Ballads of New England(1870),The Pennsylvania Pilgrim(1874). W. had true feeling and was animated by high ideals. Influenced in early life by the poems of Burns, he became a poet of nature, with which his early upbringing brought him into close and sympathetic contact; he was also a poet of faith and the ideal life and of liberty. He, however, lacked concentration and intensity, and his want of early education made him often loose in expression and faulty in form; and probably a comparatively small portion of what he wrote will live.
WHYTE-MELVILLE, GEORGE JOHN (1821-1878).—Novelist,s.of a country gentleman of Fife,ed.at Eton, entered the army, and saw service in the Crimea, retiring in 1859 as Major. Thereafter he devoted himself to field sports, in which he was an acknowledged authority, and to literature. He wrote a number of novels, mainly founded on sporting subjects, though a few were historical. They includeKate Coventry,The Queen's Maries,The Gladiators, andSatanella. He also wroteSongs and VersesandThe True Cross, a religious poem. Hed.from an accident in the hunting-field.
WICLIF, or WYCLIF, JOHN (1320?-1384).—Theologian and translator of the Bible,b.near Richmond, Yorkshire, studied at Balliol Coll., Oxf., of which he became in 1361 master, and taking orders, became Vicar of Fillingham, Lincolnshire, when he resigned his mastership, and in 1361 Prebendary of Westbury. By this time he had written a treatise on logic, and had won some position as a man of learning. In 1372 he took the degree of Doctor of Theology, and became Canon of Lincoln, and in 1374 was sent to Bruges as one of a commission to treat with Papal delegates as to certain ecclesiastical matters in dispute, and in the same year he became Rector of Lutterworth, where he remained until his death. His liberal and patriotic views on the questions in dispute between England and the Pope gained for him the favour of John of Gaunt and Lord Percy, who accompanied him when, in 1377, he was summoned before the ecclesiastical authorities at St. Paul's. The Court was broken up by an inroad of the London mob, and no sentence was passed upon him. Another trial at Lambeth in the next year was equally inconclusive. By this time W. had taken up a position definitely antagonistic to the Papal system. He organised his institution of poor preachers, and initiated his great enterprise of translating the Scriptures into English. His own share of the work was the Gospels, probably the whole of the New Testament and possibly part of the Old. The whole work was ed. by John Purvey, an Oxf. friend, who had joined him at Lutterworth, the work being completed by 1400. In 1380 W. openly rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation, and was forbidden to teach at Oxf., where he had obtained great influence. In 1382 a Court was convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury, which passed sentence of condemnation upon his views. It says much for the position which he had attained, and for the power of his supporters, that he was permitted to depart from Oxf. and retire to Lutterworth, where, worn out by his labours and anxieties, hed.of a paralytic seizure on the last day of 1384. His enemies, baffled in their designs against him while living, consoled themselves by disinterringhis bones in 1428 and throwing them into the river Swift, of whichThomas Fuller(q.v.) has said, "Thus this brook has conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the Narrow Seas, they into the main ocean, and thus the ashes of Wicliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over." The works of W. were chiefly controversial or theological and, as literature, have no great importance, but his translation of the Bible had indirectly a great influence not only by tending to fix the language, but in a far greater degree by furthering the moral and intellectual emancipation on which true literature is essentially founded.
WILBERFORCE, WILLIAM (1759-1833).—Philanthropist and religious writer,s.of a merchant, wasb.at Hull,ed.at Camb., entered Parliament as member for his native town, became the intimate friend of Pitt, and was the leader of the crusade against the slave-trade and slavery. His chief literary work was hisPractical View of Christianity, which had remarkable popularity and influence, but he wrote continually and with effect on the religious and philanthropic objects to which he had devoted his life.
WILCOX, CARLES (1794-1827).—Poet,b.at Newport, N.H., was a Congregationalist minister. He wrote a poem,The Age of Benevolence, which was left unfinished, and which bears manifest traces of the influence of Cowper.
WILDE, OSCAR O'FLAHERTY (1856-1900).—Poet and dramatist,s.of Sir William W., the eminent surgeon, wasb.at Dublin, anded.there at Trinity Coll. and at Oxf. He was one of the founders of the modern cult of the æsthetic. Among his writings arePoems(1881),The Picture of Dorian Gray, a novel, and several plays, includingLady Windermere's Fan,A Woman of no Importance, andThe Importance of being Earnest. He was convicted of a serious offence, and after his release from prison went abroad andd.at Paris.Coll.ed. of his works, 12 vols., 1909.
WILKES, JOHN (1727-1797).—Politician,s.of a distiller in London, wased.at Leyden. Witty, resourceful, but unprincipled and profligate, he became from circumstances the representative and champion of important political principles, including that of free representation in Parliament. His writings have nothing of the brilliance and point of his social exhibitions, but his paper,The North Briton, and especially the famous "No. 45," in which he charged George III. with uttering a falsehood in his speech from the throne, caused so much excitement, and led to such important results that they give him a place in literature. He also wrote a highly offensiveEssay on Woman. W. was expelled from the House of Commons and outlawed, but such was the strength of the cause which he championed that, notwithstanding the worthlessness of his character, his right to sit in the House was ultimately admitted in 1774, and he continued to sit until 1790. He was also Lord Mayor of London.
WILKIE, WILLIAM (1721-1772).—Poet,b.. in Linlithgowshire,s.of a farmer, anded.at Edin., he entered the Church, and became minister of Ratho, Midlothian, in 1756, and Prof. of NaturalPhilosophy at St. Andrews in 1759. In 1757 hepub.theEpigoniad, dealing with the Epigoni, sons of the seven heroes who fought against Thebes. He also wroteMoral Fables in Verse.
WILKINS, JOHN (1614-1672).—Mathematician and divine,s.of a goldsmith in Oxf., butb.at Daventry anded.at Oxf., entered the Church, held many preferments, and became Bishop of Chester. Hem.a sister of Oliver Cromwell, and being of an easy temper and somewhat accommodating principles, he passed through troublous times and many changes with a minimum of hardship. He was one of the band of learned men whom Charles II. incorporated as the Royal Society. Among his writings areThe Discovery of a World in the Moon,Mathematical Magic, andAn Essay towards ... a Philosophical Language.
WILKINSON, SIR JOHN GARDNER (1797-1875).—Egyptologist,s.of a Westmoreland clergyman, studied at Oxf. In 1821 he went to Egypt, and remained there and in Nubia exploring, surveying, and studying the hieroglyphical inscriptions, on which he made himself one of the great authorities. Hepub.two important works, of great literary as well as scholarly merit,Materia Hieroglyphica(1828) andManners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians(6 vols., 1837-41). He wrote various books of travel, and was knighted in 1839.
WILLIAM of MALMESBURY (fl.12th cent.).—Historian, was an inmate of the great monastery at Malmesbury. His name is said to have been Somerset, and he was Norman by one parent and English by the other. The date of his birth is unknown, that of his death has sometimes been fixed as 1142 on the ground that his latest work stops abruptly in that year. His history, written in Latin, falls into two parts,Gesta Regum Anglorum(Acts of the Kings of the English), in five books, bringing the narrative down from the arrival of the Saxons to 1120, andHistoria Novella(Modern History), carrying it on to 1142. The work is characterised by a love of truth, much more critical faculty in sifting evidence than was then common, and considerable attention to literary form. It is dedicated to Robert, Earl of Gloucester, the champion of Queen Matilda. Other works by W. areDe Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, Lives of the English Bishops, and a history of the Monastery of Glastonbury.
WILLIAM of NEWBURGH, or NEWBURY (1136-1198?).—Historian, belonged to the monastery of Newburgh in Yorkshire. His own name is said to have been Little. His work,Historia Rerum Anglicarum(History of English affairs), is written in good Latin, and has some of the same qualities as that ofWilliam of Malmesbury(q.v.). He rejects the legend of the Trojan descent of the early Britons, and animadverts severely on what he calls "the impudent and impertinent lies" ofGeoffrey of Monmouth(q.v.). His record of contemporary events is careful.
WILLIAMS, SIR CHARLES HANBURY (1708-1759).—Diplomatist and satirist,s.of John Hanbury, a Welsh ironmaster, assumed the name of Williams on succeeding to an estate, enteredParliament as a supporter of Walpole, held many diplomatic posts, and was a brilliant wit with a great contemporary reputation for lively and biting satires and lampoons.
WILLIS, BROWNE (1682-1760).—Antiquary,ed.at Westminster and Oxf., entered the Inner Temple 1700, sat in the House of Commons 1705-8. He wroteHistory of the Counties, Cities, and Boroughs of England and Wales(1715),Notitia Parliamentaria, etc.
WILLIS, NATHANIEL PARKER (1806-1867).—Poet,b.at Portland, anded.at Yale, was mainly a journalist, and conducted various magazines, including theAmerican Monthly; but he also wrote short poems, many of which were popular, of which perhaps the best is "Unseen Spirits," stories, and works of a more or less fugitive character, with such titles asPencillings by the Way(1835),Inklings of Adventure,Letters from under a Bridge(1839),People I have Met,The Rag-Tag,The Slingsby Papers, etc., some of which were originally contributed to his magazines. He travelled a good deal in Europe, and was attached for a time to the American Embassy in Paris. He was a favourite in society, and enjoyed a wide popularity in uncritical circles, but is now distinctly a spent force.
WILLS, JAMES (1790-1868).—Poet and miscellaneous writer, youngers.of a Roscommon squire, wased.at Trinity Coll., Dublin, and studied law in the Middle Temple. Deprived, however, of the fortune destined for him and the means of pursuing a legal career by the extravagance of his elder brother, he entered the Church, and also wrote largely inBlackwood's Magazineand other periodicals. In 1831 hepub.The Disembodied and other Poems;The Philosophy of Unbelief(1835) attracted much attention. His largest work was Lives ofIllustrious and Distinguished Irishmen, and his latest publicationThe Idolatress(1868). In all his writings W. gave evidence of a powerful personality. His poems are spirited, and in some cases show considerable dramatic qualities.
WILLS, WILLIAM GORMAN (1828-1891).—Dramatist,s.of above,b.in Dublin. After writing a novel,Old Times, in an Irish magazine, he went to London, and for some time wrote for periodicals without any very marked success. He found his true vein in the drama, and produced over 30 plays, many of which, includingMedea in Corinth,Eugene Aram,Jane Shore,Buckingham, andOlivia, had great success. Besides these he wrote a poem,Melchior, in blank verse, and many songs. He was also an accomplished artist.
WILSON, ALEXANDER (1766-1813).—Poet and ornithologist,b.at Paisley, where he worked as a weaver, afterwards becoming a pedlar. Hepub.some poems, of which the best isWatty and Maggie, and in 1794 went to America, where he worked as a pedlar and teacher. His skill in depicting birds led to his becoming an enthusiastic ornithologist, and he induced the publisher ofRees's Cyclopædia, on which he had been employed, to undertake an American ornithology to be written and illustrated by him. Some vols. of the work were completed when, worn out by the labour and exposure entailed by his journeys in search of specimens, he succumbedto a fever. Two additional vols. appeared posthumously. The work, both from a literary and artistic point of view, is of high merit. He alsopub.in America another poem,The Foresters.
WILSON, SIR DANIEL (1816-1892).—Archæologist and miscellaneous writer,b.anded.in Edin., and after acting as sec. of the Society of Antiquaries there, went to Toronto as Prof. of History and English Literature. He was the author ofMemorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time,The Archeology and Pre-historic Annals of Scotland(1851),Civilisation in the Old and the New World, a study on "Chatterton," andCaliban, the Missing Link, etc.
WILSON, JOHN ("CHRISTOPHER NORTH") (1785-1854).—Poet, essayist, and miscellaneous writer,s.of a wealthy manufacturer in Paisley, where he wasb., wased.at Glas. and Oxf. At the latter he not only displayed great intellectual endowments, but distinguished himself as an athlete. Having succeeded to a fortune of £50,000 he purchased the small estate of Elleray in the Lake District, where he enjoyed the friendship of Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, and De Quincey. In 1812 hepub.The Isle of Palms, followed four years later byThe City of the Plague, which gained for him a recognised place in literature, though they did not show his most characteristic gifts, and are now almost unread. About this time he lost a large portion of his fortune, had to give up continuous residence at Elleray, came to Edinburgh, and was called to the Scottish Bar, but never practised. The starting ofBlackwood's Magazinebrought him his opportunity, and to the end of his life his connection with it gave him his main employment and chief fame. In 1820 he became Prof. of Moral Philosophy in the Univ. of Edin. where, though not much of a philosopher in the technical sense, he exercised a highly stimulating influence upon his students by his eloquence and the general vigour of his intellect. The peculiar powers of W., his wealth of ideas, felicity of expression, humour, and animal spirits, found their full development in the famousNoctes Ambrosianæ, a medley of criticism on literature, politics, philosophy, topics of the day and what not.Lights and Shadows of Scottish LifeandThe Trials of Margaret Lyndsayare contributions to fiction in which there is an occasional tendency to run pathos into rather mawkish sentimentality. In 1851 W. received a Government pension of £300. The following year a paralytic seizure led to his resignation of his professorial chair, and hed.in 1854. He was a man of magnificent physique, of shining rather than profound intellectual powers, and of generous character, though as a critic his strong feelings and prejudices occasionally made him unfair and even savage.
WILSON, JOHN (1804-1875).—Missionary and orientalist,b.at Lauder, Berwickshire, anded.at Edin. for the ministry of the Church of Scotland, went in 1828 to India as a missionary, where, besides his immediate duties, he became a leader in all social reform, such as the abolition of the slave-trade andsuttee, and also one of the greatest authorities on the subject of caste, and a trusted adviser of successive Governors-General in regard to all questions affecting the natives. He was in addition a profound Oriental scholar as to languages, history, and religion. He was D.D., F.R.S., and Vice-Chancellorof Bombay Univ. Among his works areThe Parsi Religion(1812),The Lands of the Bible(1847),India Three Thousand Years Ago, andMemoirs of the Cave Temples of India.
WILSON, THOMAS (1525?-1581).—Scholar and statesman,b.in Lincolnshire, was at Camb., and held various high positions under Queen Elizabeth. He was the author ofThe Rule of Reason containing the Arte of Logique(1551), andThe Arte of Rhetorique(1553), and made translations from Demosthenes. He endeavoured to maintain the purity of the language against the importation of foreign words.
WINGATE, DAVID, (1828-1892).—Poet, was employed in the coal-pits near Hamilton from the time he was 9. Hepub.Poems and Songs(1862), which was favourably received, and followed byAnnie Weir(1866). After this he studied at the Glasgow School of Mines, became a colliery manager, and devoted his increased leisure to study and further literary work.Lily Neilappeared in 1879, followed byPoems and Songs(1883), andSelected Poems(1890). W. was a man of independent character. He was twicem., his second wife being a descendant of Burns.
WINTHROP, THEODORE (1828-1861).—Novelist,b.at New Haven, Conn., descended through hisf.from Governor W., and through his mother from Jonathan Edwards,ed.at Yale, travelled in Great Britain and on the Continent, and far and wide in his own country. After contributing to periodicals short sketches and stories, which attracted little attention, he enlisted in the Federal Army, in 1861, and was killed in the Battle of Great Bethel. His novels, for which he had failed to find a publisher, appeared posthumously—John Brent, founded on his experiences in the far West,Edwin Brothertoft, a story of the Revolution War, andCecil Dreeme. Other works wereThe Canoe and Saddle, andLife in the Open Air. Though somewhat spasmodic and crude, his novels had freshness, originality, and power, and with longer life and greater concentration he might have risen high.
WITHER, GEORGE (1588-1667).—Poet,b.near Alton, Hampshire, was at Oxf. for a short time, and then studied law at Lincoln's Inn. In 1613 hepub.a bold and pungent satire,Abuses Stript and Whipt, with the result that he was imprisoned for some months in the Marshalsea. While there he wroteThe Shepheard's Hunting, a pastoral.Wither's Motto,Nec Habeo, nec Careo, nec Curo(I have not, want not, care not) was written in 1618, and in 1622 hecoll.his poems asJuvenilia. The same year hepub.a long poem,Faire Virtue, the Mistress of Philarete, in which appears the famous lyric, "Shall I wasting in despair." Though generally acting with the Puritans he took arms with Charles I. against the Scotch in 1639; but on the outbreak of the Civil War he was on the popular side, and raised a troop of horse. He was taken prisoner by the Royalists, and is said to have owed his life to the intercession of a fellow-poet, Sir John Denham. After the establishment of the Commonwealth he was considerably enriched out of sequestrated estates and other spoils of the defeated party; but on the Restorationwas obliged to surrender his gains, was impeached, and committed to the Tower. In his later years he wrote many religious poems and hymns,coll.asHallelujah. Before his death his poems were already forgotten, and he was referred to by Pope inThe Dunciadas "the wretched Withers". He was, however, disinterred by Southey, Lamb, and others, who drew attention to his poetical merits, and he has now an established place among English poets, to which his freshness, fancy, and delicacy of taste well entitle him.
WODROW, ROBERT (1679-1734).—Church historian,s.of James W., Prof. of Divinity in Glasgow. Having completed his literary and theological education there, he entered the ministry of the Church of Scotland, and was ordained to the parish of Eastwood, Renfrewshire. Here he carried on the great work of his life, hisHistory of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland 1660 to 1688. W. wrote when the memory of the persecutions was still fresh, and his work is naturally not free from partisan feeling and credulity. It is, however, thoroughly honest in intention, and is a work of genuine research, and of high value for the period with which it deals. It waspub.in two folio vols. in 1721 and 1722. W. made large collections for other works which, however, were notpub.in his lifetime.The Lives of the Scottish Reformers and Most Eminent MinistersandAnalecta, or a History of Remarkable Providences, were printed for the Maitland Club, and 3 vols. of his correspondence in 1841 for the Wodrow Society. TheAnalectais a most curious miscellany showing a strong appetite for the marvellous combined with a hesitating doubt in regard to some of the more exacting narratives.
WOLCOT, JOHN (1738-1819).—Satirist,b.near Kingsbridge, Devonshire, wased.by an uncle, and studied medicine. In 1767 he went as physician to Sir William Trelawny, Governor of Jamaica, and whom he induced to present him to a Church in the island then vacant, and was ordained in 1769. Sir William dying in 1772, W. came home and, abandoning the Church, resumed his medical character, and settled in practice at Truro, where he discovered the talents of Opie the painter, and assisted him. In 1780 he went to London, and commenced writing satires. The first objects of his attentions were the members of the Royal Academy, and these attempts being well received, he soon began to fly at higher game, the King and Queen being the most frequent marks for his satirical shafts. In 1786 appearedThe Lousiad, a Heroi-Comic Poem, taking its name from a legend that on the King's dinner plate there had appeared a certain insect not usually found in such exalted quarters. Other objects of his attack were Boswell, the biographer of Johnson, and Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller. W., who wrote under thenom-de-guerreof "Peter Pindar," had a remarkable vein of humour and wit, which, while intensely comic to persons not involved, stung its subjects to the quick. He had likewise strong intelligence, and a power of coining effective phrases. In other kinds of composition, as in some ballads which he wrote, an unexpected touch of gentleness and even tenderness appears. Among these areThe Beggar ManandLord Gregory. Much that he wrote has now lost all interest owing to the circumstances referred to being forgotten,but enough still retains its peculiar relish to account for his contemporary reputation.
WOLFE, CHARLES (1791-1823).—Poet,s.of a landed gentleman in Kildare, wasb.in Dublin, where he completed hised.at Trinity Coll., having previously been at Winchester. He took orders, and was Rector of Donoughmere, but his health failed, and hed.of consumption at 32. He is remembered for one short, but universally known and admired poem,The Burial of Sir John Moore, which first appeared anonymously in theNewry Telegraphin 1817.
WOOD, or À WOOD, ANTHONY (1632-1695).—Antiquary, wasb.at Oxf., where he wased.and spent most of his life. His antiquarian enthusiasm was awakened by the collections of Leland, and he early began to visit and study the antiquities of his native county. This with history, heraldry, genealogies, and music occupied his whole time. By 1669 he had written hisHistory and Antiquities of the University of Oxford, which was translated into Latin not to his satisfaction by the Univ. authorities, and he wrote a fresh English copy which was printed in 1786. His great work wasAthenæ Oxonienses; an exact History of all the Writers and Bishops who have had their Education in the University of Oxford, to which are added the Fasti or Annals of the said University(1691-92). For an alleged libel on the Earl of Clarendon in that work the author was expelled in 1694. He also wroteThe Ancient and Present State of the City of Oxford, andModius Salium, a Collection of Pieces of Humour, generally of an ill-natured cast.
WOOD, MRS. ELLEN (PRICE) (1814-1887).—Novelist, writing as "Mrs. Henry Wood," wasb.at Worcester. She wrote over 30 novels, many of which, especiallyEast Lynne, had remarkable popularity. Though the stories are generally interesting, they have no distinction of style. Among the best known areDanesbury House,Oswald Cray,Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles,The Channings,Lord Oakburn's Daughters, andThe Shadow of Ashlydyat. Mrs. W. was for some years proprietor and ed. of theArgosy.
WOOD, JOHN GEORGE (1827-1889).—Writer on natural history,s.of a surgeon,b.in London, anded.at home and at Oxf., where he worked for some time in the anatomical museum. He took orders, and among other benefices which he held was for a time chaplain to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He was a very prolific writer on natural history, though rather as a populariser than as a scientific investigator, and was in this way very successful. Among his numerous works may be mentionedIllustrated Natural History(1853),Animal Traits and Characteristics(1860),Common Objects of the Sea Shore(1857),Out of Doors(1874),Field Naturalist's Handbook(with T. Wood) (1879-80), books on gymnastics, sport, etc., and an ed. of White'sSelborne.
WOOLMAN, JOHN (1720-1772).—Quaker diarist,b.at Burlington, New Jersey, began life as a farm labourer, and then became a clerk in a store. He underwent deep religious impressions, and the latter part of his life was devoted to itinerant preaching anddoing whatever good came to his hand. To support himself he worked as a tailor. He was one of the first to witness against the evils of slavery, on which he wrote a tract,Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes(1753). HisJournal"reveals his life and character with rare fidelity" and, though little known compared with some similar works, gained the admiration of, among other writers, Charles Lamb, who says, "Get the writings of John Woolman by heart." In 1772 he went to England, where hed.of smallpox in the same year.
WOOLNER, THOMAS (1826-1892).—Sculptor and poet,b.at Hadleigh, attained a high reputation as a sculptor. He belonged to the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and contributed poems to their magazine, theGerm. He wrote several vols. of poetry, includingMy Beautiful Lady(1863),Pygmalion,Silenus,Tiresias, andNelly Dale. He had a true poetic gift, though better known by his portrait busts.
WORDSWORTH, CHRISTOPHER (1774-1846).—Biographer, etc., was a younger brother of the poet,ed.at Camb., took orders, and became Chaplain to the House of Commons, and Master of Trinity Coll., Camb. 1820-41. He was also Vice-Chancellor of the Univ. 1820-21 and 1826-27. Hepub.Ecclesiastical Biography(1810), andWho wrote Eikon Basiliké?in which he argued for the authorship of Charles I.
WORDSWORTH, CHRISTOPHER (1807-1885).—S.of above,ed.at Camb., took orders and became a Canon of Westminster 1844, and Bishop of Lincoln 1868. He travelled in Greece, and discovered the site of Dodona. His writings include in theology a commentary on the Bible (1856-70),Church History to A.D. 451(1881-83), and in other fields,Athens and Attica(1836), andTheocritus(1844).
WORDSWORTH, DOROTHY (1771-1855).—Diarist, etc., was the only sister of the poet, and his lifelong and sympathetic companion, and endowed in no small degree with the same love of and insight into nature as is evidenced by herJournals. Many of her brother's poems were suggested by scenes and incidents recorded by her, of which that on Daffodils beginning "I wandered lonely as a cloud" is a notable example.
WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM (1770-1850).—Poet,s.of John W., attorney and agent to the 1st Lord Lonsdale, wasb.at Cockermouth. His boyhood was full of adventure among the hills, and he says of himself that he showed "a stiff, moody, and violent temper." He lost his mother when he was 8, and hisf.in 1783 when he was 13. The latter, prematurely cut off, left little for the support of his family of four sons and adau., Dorothy (afterwards the worthy companion of her illustrious brother), except a claim for £5000 against Lord Lonsdale, which his lordship contested, and which was not settled until his death. With the help, however, of uncles, the family were welled.and started in life. William received his earlier education at Penrith and Hawkshead in Lancashire; and in 1787 went to St. John's Coll., Camb., where he graduated B.A. in 1791. In the preceding year, 1790, he had taken a walking tour on theContinent, visiting France in the first flush of the Revolution with which, at that stage, he was, like many of the best younger minds of the time, in enthusiastic sympathy. So much was this the case that he nearly involved himself with the Girondists to an extent which might have cost him his life. His funds, however, gave out, and he returned to England shortly before his friends fell under the guillotine. His uncles were desirous that he should enter the Church, but to this he was unconquerably averse; and indeed his marked indisposition to adopt any regular employment led to their taking not unnatural offence. In 1793 his first publication—Descriptive Sketches of a Pedestrian Tour in the Alps, andThe Evening Walk—appeared, but attracted little attention. The beginning of his friendship with Coleridge in 1795 tended to confirm him in his resolution to devote himself to poetry; and a legacy of £900 from a friend put it in his power to do so by making him for a time independent of other employment. He settled with his sister at Racedown, Dorsetshire, and shortly afterwards removed to Alfoxden, in the Quantock Hills, to be near Coleridge, who was then living at Nether Stowey in the same neighbourhood. One result of the intimacy thus established was the planning of a joint work,Lyrical Ballads, to which Coleridge contributedThe Ancient Mariner, and W., among other pieces,Tintern Abbey. The first ed. of the work appeared in 1798. With the profits of this he went, accompanied by his sister and Coleridge, to Germany, where he lived chiefly at Goslar, and where he began thePrelude, a poem descriptive of the development of his own mind. After over a year's absence W. returned and settled with Dorothy at Grasmere. In 1800 the second ed. ofLyrical Ballads, containing W.'s contributions alone, with several additions, appeared. In the same year Lord Lonsdaled., and his successor settled the claims already referred to with interest, and the share of the brother and sister enabled them to live in the frugal and simple manner which suited them. Two years later W.'s circumstances enabled him to marry his cousin, Mary Hutchinson, to whom he had been long attached. In 1804 he made a tour in Scotland, and began his friendship with Scott. The year 1807 saw the publication ofPoems in Two Volumes, which contains much of his best work, including the "Ode to Duty," "Intimations of Immortality," "Yarrow Unvisited," and the "Solitary Reaper." In 1813 he migrated to Rydal Mount, his home for the rest of his life; and in the same year he received, through the influence of Lord Lonsdale, the appointment of Distributor of Stamps for Westmoreland, with a salary of £400. The next year he made another Scottish tour, when he wroteYarrow Visited, and he alsopub.The Excursion, "being a portion ofThe Recluse, a Poem." W. had now come to his own, and was regarded by the great majority of the lovers of poetry as, notwithstanding certain limitations and flaws, a truly great and original poet. The rest of his life has few events beyond the publication of his remaining works (which, however, did not materially advance his fame), and tokens of the growing honour in which he was held.The White Doe of Rylstoneappeared in 1815, in which year also he made a collection of his poems;Peter BellandThe Waggonerin 1819;The River DuddonandMemorials of a Tour on the Continentin 1820;Ecclesiastical Sonnets1822; andYarrow Revisitedin 1835. In 1831he paid his last visit to Scott; in 1838 he received the degree of D.C.L. from Durham, and in 1839 the same from Oxf. Three years later he resigned his office of Distributor of Stamps in favour of hiss., and received a civil list pension of £300. The following year, 1843, he succeeded Southey as Poet Laureate. His long, tranquil, and fruitful life ended in 1850. He lies buried in the churchyard of Grasmere. After his death thePrelude, finished in 1805, waspub.It had been kept back because the great projected poem of which it was to have been the preface, and of whichThe Excursionis a part, was never completed.
The work of W. is singularly unequal. When at his best, as in the "Intimations of Immortality," "Laodamia," some passages inThe Excursion, and some of his short pieces, and especially his sonnets, he rises to heights of noble inspiration and splendour of language rarely equalled by any of our poets. But it required his poetic fire to be at fusing point to enable him to burst through his natural tendency to prolixity and even dulness. His extraordinary lack of humour and the, perhaps consequent, imperfect power of self-criticism by which it was accompanied, together with the theory of poetic theme and diction with which he hampered himself, led him into a frequent choice of trivial subjects and childish language which excited not unjust ridicule, and long delayed the general recognition of his genius. He has a marvellous felicity of phrase, an unrivalled power of describing natural appearances and effects, and the most ennobling views of life and duty. But his great distinguishing characteristic is his sense of the mystic relations between man and nature. His influence on contemporary and succeeding thought and literature has been profound and lasting. It should be added that W., like Milton, with whom he had many points in common, was the master of a noble and expressive prose style.
SUMMARY.—B.1770,ed.at Camb., sympathiser with French Revolution in earlier stages, first publicationTour in the AlpsandEvening Walk1793, became acquainted with Coleridge 1795,pub.with himLyrical Ballads1798, visits Germany and beginsPrelude, returns to England and settles at Grasmere,pub.second ed. ofLyrical Ballads, entirely his own, 1800,m.Mary Hutchinson 1802, visits Scotland 1804 and becomes acquainted with Scott,pub.Poems in Two Volumes1807, goes to Rydal Mount 1813, appointed Distributor of Stamps, revisits Scotland, writesYarrow Visitedandpub.The Excursion1814,White Doeandcoll.works 1815,Waggoner,Ecclesiastical Sonnets, etc., 1819-35, pensioned 1842, Poet Laureate 1843,d.1850.
There are numerous good ed. of the poems, including his own by Moxon (1836, 1845, and 1850), and those by Knight (1882-86), Morley (1888), Dowden (1893), Smith (1908). Another by Knight in 16 vols. includes the prose writings and theJournalby Dorothy (1896-97).Livesby Christopher Wordsworth (1857), Myers (1880), and others. See also criticism by W. Raleign (1903).