Francis Hastings Doyle

Francis Hastings Doyle (1810-1888). Caricature by "Spy" (Leslie Ward. 1851-1922) in Vanity Fair, November 1877. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Sir Francis Hastings Charles Doyle, 2nd Baronet (22 August 1810 - 8 June 1888) was an English poet.

Life

Overview

Doyle belonged to a military family which produced several distinguished officers, including his father, who bore the same name. He was born near Tadcaster, Yorkshire, and educated at Eton and Oxford. Studying law, he was called to the Bar in 1837, and afterwards held various high fiscal appointments, becoming in 1869 Commissioner of Customs. In 1834 he published Miscellaneous Verses, followed by Two Destinies (1844), Œdipus, King of Thebes (1849), and Return of the Guards (1866). He was elected in 1867 Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Doyle's best work is his ballads, which include "The Red Thread of Honour," "The Private of the Buffs," and "The Loss of the Birkenhead." In his longer poems his genuine poetical feeling was not equalled by his power of expression, and much of his poetry is commonplace.

Family

Doyle was born at the house of his grandfather, Sir William Mordaunt Milner, at Nunappleton, near Tadcaster in Yorkshire, on 21 Aug. 1810, was the only son of Major-general Sir Francis Hastings Doyle, 1st baronet (1783–1839), by his wife Diana Elizabeth (died 14 January 1828), eldest daughter of Sir William Milner. General Sir John Doyle, baronet, was his great-uncle; while General Sir Charles Hastings Doyle was his 2nd cousin, and Lieutenant-general Sir Charles William Doyle and Colonel Sir John Milley Doyle were his father's 1st cousins. Sprung from a family many of whom had been famous as men of action, Doyle cherished a supreme admiration of heroism as well as a strong love of country.

Youth and education

He was initially sent to a well-known private school at Chelsea, kept by a Frenchman named Clement, where Walter Kerr Hamilton, (Sir) Henry John Codrington, and others afterwards well known were his contemporaries. At the beginning of 1823 he entered Eton as the pupil of Richard Okes, and under the head-mastership of John Keate. There, through the debating society held at Miss Hatton's, "a cook and confectioner," he formed friendships with Gladstone, Arthur Henry Hallam, James Bruce (afterwards eighth Earl of Elgin) [q. v.], Charles John Canning (afterwards Earl Canning) , George Augustus Selwyn (1809–1878), and (Sir) John Hanmer (afterwards Baron Hanmer). He heard Gladstone's maiden speech delivered to this society, and co-operated with him in editing the Eton Miscellany.

At Christmas 1827 Doyle left Eton to study with a private tutor, Henry De Foe Baker, rector of Greetham in Rutlandshire. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 6 June 1828, and went into residence in January 1830. Among his Oxford friends were (Sir) Thomas Dyke Acland, Sidney Herbert (afterwards Baron Herbert), Joseph Anstice, and (Sir) Robert Joseph Phillimore. He was also acquainted with Manning, while his friendship with Gladstone became very close. He acted as best man at Gladstone's marriage in 1839, but in after life the difference in their interests and the great change in Gladstone's political views tended to drive them apart.

Doyle took a first class in classics, earning a B.A. in 1832, a B.C.L. in 1843, and an M.A. in 1867. He was elected a fellow of All Souls' in 1835, retaining his fellowship until his marriage.

After completing his university studies he turned his attention to the law. On 11 Oct. 1832 he entered the Inner Temple as a student, and in 1834 and 1835 was taken on the northern circuit as marshal by Sir James Parke (afterwards Baron Wensleydale), an old family friend who was at that time baron of the court of exchequer.

Career

On 17 Nov. 1837 Doyle was called to the bar and joined the northern circuit, where he was shortly nominated a revising barrister. He succeeded to the baronetcy on his father's death on 6 November 1839.

On 12 Decenber 1844 he married at St. George's, Hanover Square, Sidney (died 23 Nov. 1867), youngest daughter of Charles Watkin Williams Wynn [q. v.] By her he had 3 surviving children, 2 sons and a daughter. His eldest son, Francis Grenville Doyle, a captain in the 2nd dragoon guards, died from the effects of the Egyptian campaign on 2 December 1882. His 2nd son, Everard Hastings, succeeded as 3rd baronet.

His marriage rendered it necessary for him "to look out for some more remunerative occupation than the periodical donning of a wig and gown by a briefless barrister." In 1845 Sir Robert Peel offered him the assistant-solicitorship of the excise, with the promise that after a year he should be appointed receiver-general of customs. These offers he accepted, and abandoning his early ambition for legal or parliamentary distinction, he continued to hold the receiver-generalship until 1869.

Doyle's earliest verses appeared in the Eton Miscellany. In 1834 he published his first volume of poetry entitled ' Miscellaneous Verses ' (London, 8vo), which he reissued in 1840 with a number of additional poems. These early verses were somewhat immature, several of the best poems, including "The Eagle's Nest," "Mehrab Khan," "The Crusader's Return," and "The Catholic," appearing for the 1st time in the 2nd edition.

In 1844 he issued The Two Destinies (London, 8vo), a poem dealing with social questions; in 1849 Œdipus, King of Thebes (London, 16mo), a translation from the Œdipus Tyrannus of Sophocles, and in 1852 The Duke's Funeral, in memory of the Duke of Wellington.

For the next 14 years he published nothing; but in 1866, finding Matthew Arnold's tenure of the professorship of poetry at Oxford coming to an end, and desiring to be appointed his successor, he published The Return of the Guards, and other poems (London, 8vo), with a view, as he himself states in his preface, to bring himself before the younger members of the university.

Last years

In 1869 Doyle exchanged his post of receiver-general of customs for that of commissioner of customs, an appointment which he retained until 1883.

In 1886 he published his Reminiscences and Opinions.

He died in London on 8 June 1888 at 46 Davies Street, Berkeley Square.

Writing

Poetry

His poetic work is chiefly remarkable for his treatment of the ballad, a form of expression used by many English poets, and particularly by his favorite author, Sir Walter Scott. While these, however, had made the ballad archaic both in subject and expression, Doyle employed it for the treatment of contemporary events, and showed that modern deeds of national bravery were "as susceptible as any in the far past of free ballad treatment, with all the old freshness, directness, and simplicity." His method has been successfully followed by subsequent writers. Among his notable ballads may be mentioned "The Red Thread of Honour," which was translated into Pushtoo and became a favourite among the villagers on the north-western frontier of India, "The Private of the Buffs," "The Fusilier's Dog," "The Loss of the Birkenhead," and "Mehrab Khan."

While Doyle's poetic fame rests chiefly on his ballads, he showed in such poems as "The Platonist," "The Catholic," and "The Death of Hector," that his powers were not confined to a single mode.

At the same time it would convey a false impression not to observe that most of his work was commonplace and pedestrian, and that though he often showed genuine poetic feeling he seldom found for it adequate expression. His verse is generally mechanical, rarely instinct with life or transfused with emotion.

The Return of the Guards contains almost all his best poems, including a few which had appeared in his former collection. Doyle also published in 1878 Robin Hood's Bay: An ode addressed to the English people (London, 8vo).

Prose

His Oxford Lectures were published in 1869, a 2nd series appearing in 1877. Full of interest, like all his prose writings, they are discursive and without much unity of plan. They inevitably suffered by comparison with those of his predecessor, Matthew Arnold. In the 1st series the most remarkable feature is his appreciation of the Dorsetshire poet, William Barnes. His 2nd series was more elaborate, consisting of studies of Wordsworth, Scott], and Shakespeare. The lecture in the 1st series on Newman's Dream of Gerontius was translated into French in 1869, together with the poem itself, and published at Caen.

Critical introduction

by Thomas Humphry Ward

Sir Francis Doyle came of a family of soldiers; the Dictionary mentions five of his near relatives who were generals and colonels. It is not surprising, then, that his verses, when he came to write and publish, dealt largely with action, and that the poem by which he is best known celebrates the heroism of a British soldier. But he himself lived the quiet life of a civilian office-holder — he was Receiver-General of Customs for over twenty years of his middle life. But he was distinguished intellectually in his youth, at Eton and Oxford; his first class (1832) and his Fellowship of All Souls, and his close intimacy with Gladstone and a number of other young leaders, which began in the Eton Debating Society, marked him out as one of the chosen. He and Gladstone, however, parted company when the latter joined the Liberals, and Doyle’s Toryism only grew stronger with years. In 1883, when the Liberals were planning memorable measures, he wrote: “I try not to despair of the future of my country,” this lugubrious mood taking no account of the fact that the government of Egypt had just passed into British hands; and many of his verses, at all dates, contain little hits at Whigs, past and present.

But it must be granted that, beyond a general conservatism in their outlook, the Essays and Lectures, which he delivered as Professor of Poetry at Oxford before and after 1870, do not mix party with literature, and the same may be said of the Poems. These latter are honest and strenuous, though perhaps in many cases they do not rise above the commonplace; but his translations from Pindar and Sophocles, and from several French poets, are excellent; "The Private of the Buffs" is, in its way, a classic, and the early poem "The Doncaster St. Leger" is a spirited reflexion of feelings universal in West Yorkshire 79 years ago – a sort of Yorkshire counterpart of the racing verses of the Australian poet Lindsay Gordon.

Recognition

Doyle was elected Oxford Professor of Poetry in 1867, and was re-elected in 1872 for a further period of 5 years, holding a fellowship at All Souls' with his university appointment. On resigning the professorship he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. on 11 Dec. 1877.

Publications

Poetry

• Miscellaneous Verses. London: J. Taylor, 1834.
• The Two Destinies: A poem. London: Saunders & Otley, 1844.
• The Duke's Funeral: A poem, with two engravings. London: Clarke, Beeton, 1852.
• The Return of the Guards, and other poems. London: Macmillan, 1866.
• Robin Hood's Bay: An ode addressed to the English people. London: Spottiswoode, 1878
• Senilia. London: Spottiswoode, 1888.

Non-fiction

• Lectures Delivered Before the University of Oxford, 1868. London: Macmillan, 1869.
• Dr. Newman's "Dream of Gerontius". London: Macmillan, 1869.
• Lectures on Poetry, Delivered at Oxford: Second series. London: Smith, Elder, 1877.
• Reminiscences and Opinions of Sir Francis Hastings Doyle, 1813-1885. London: Longmans, Green, 1886; New York: D. Appleton, 1886.

Translated

• Sophocles, Oedipus, King of Thebes. London: John Henry Parker, 1849.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

Preceded by Matthew Arnold

Oxford Professor of Poetry 1867-1877

Succeeded by John Campbell Shairp

The Private of the Buffs - Sir Francis Hastings Doyle

• British war poets
• List of British poets

References

•  Carlyle, Edward Irving (1901). "Doyle, Francis Hastings Charles". In Sidney Lee. Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement​. 2. London: Smith, Elder. pp. 152-154.  Wikisource, Web, Jan. 7, 2018.

External links

Poems

• Doyle in A Victorian Anthology: "The Old Cavalier," "The Private of the Buffs"
• Doyle in The English Poets: An anthology: Extract from The Doncaster St. Leger, "The Private of the Buffs,"
• Francis Hastings Charles Doyle at PoemHunter (4 poems)
• Sir Francis Hastings Doyle aat Poetry Nook (38 poems)

Books

• Francis Hasting Doyle at Amazon.com

About

• Doyle, Sir Franis Hastings Charles in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Doyle, Francis Hastings Charles