George Dyer

George Dyer (15 March 1755 - 2 March 1841) was an English poet and a prolific prose writer.

George Dyer (1733-1841), Poems, 1802. Courtesy Hathi Trust.

Life

Youth and education

Dyer was born in London on 15 March 1755. His father is said to have been a watchman at Wapping.

Dyer was sent to school by some charitable dissenting ladies, who obtained for him, at the age of 7, a nomination to Christ's Hospital. He stayed there till he was 19, and was for a long time at the head of the school. He received much kindness and access to books from Anthony Askew, then physician to Christ's Hospital.

In 1774 Dyer entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he read hard and was in favor with Richard Farmer, the master. He earned a B.A. degree in 1778.

Career

Dyer became usher at the grammar school of Dedham, Essex, in 1779. He afterwards returned to Cambridge, where he was tutor in the family of Robert Robinson (1735–1790), then minister of a dissenting congregation. Robinson's influence led Dyer to unitarianism. Priestley, Gilbert Wakefield, and Mrs. Barbauld took notice of him. He had to give up any hopes of preferment; lived in retirement at Swavesey, near Cambridge; and was for a time usher in a school at Northampton with the father of Charles Cowden Clarke.

In 1792 he went to London and took chambers in Clifford's Inn, where he ever afterwards lived. He was elected a member of the Chapter Coffee-house Club, contributed to the New Monthly and Gentleman's Magazine, and was employed in various kinds of literary work, such as making indexes and correcting the press. Dyer contributed to the Analytical and Critical Reviews, to Leigh Hunt's Reflector, and to the Monthly Magazine. An account of some of his articles is appended to the Privileges of Cambridge.

He had great knowledge of books; he visited libraries in all parts of the country to acquire materials for a bibliographical work, never published; and he had enough classical scholarship to contribute "all that was original" to Valpy's edition of the classics in 141 volumes (1809-1831). When he had finished his eyesight gave way, and he soon became totally blind.

Dyer was a man of singular simplicity and kindliness, with a total absence of humor, and a pleasant conviction that "a poem was a poem; his own as good as anybody's, and anybody's as good as his own." He was a source of infinite amusement to his friend Charles Lamb. Lamb describes him in Oxford in the Long Vacation, and makes fun of him in many of his letters, while saying that "for integrity and singleheartedness" he might be ranked "among the best patterns of his species." In 1823 Dyer nearly drowned by walking deliberately into the New River, close to Charles Lamb's house, from sheer absence of mind, or possibly incipient blindness. Lamb describes the incident in his essay called "Amicus Redivivus."

Hunt relates a story in which, after spending the evening at the Hunt's for dinner, Dyer left wearing only 1 shoe. Dyer's missing shoe went unnoticed by him until he arrived home, and he returned to the Hunt household after midnight, awakening everyone, to retrieve his shoe, which was finally located under a table. Another incident relating to Dyer concerns a preface which he wrote for his Poems published in 1802. On rereading an early proof of his book, Dyer claimed that there was a significant error in reasoning contained on page 1 of the preface. He rushed to the printer and had a number of prints redone at considerable expense.

Dyer swallowed the most preposterous of Lamb's stories, even to the report that he was to be made a peer; and showed his kindliness by saying that Williams, who murdered 2 families, "must have been rather an eccentric character." When Lord Stanhope appointed Dyer an executor of his will, the inference was that the testator must have been mad.

Dyer was utterly careless in dress. His "nankeen pantaloons were engrained with the accumulated dirt of ages," and his domestic arrangements were to match. This slovenly state of his abode excited the pity of a Mrs. Mather (whose 3rd husband, a solicitor in chambers opposite to Dyer's, was dead). She told him that he should have someone to take care of him, and, after much consultation, agreed to accept the duty herself. She married him accordingly, and is said to have greatly improved his appearance.

Dyer died in Clifford's Inn on 2 March 1841. Dyer left a manuscript autobiography, which was quoted in the obituary notice in the Gentleman's Magazine,’ but it is not now forthcoming.

Crabb Robinson saw his widow on her 99th birthday, 7 December 1860, when she was vigorous for her time of life. She died in May 1861.(Athenæum for 1861, p. 664).

Writing

In The Politics of Nature: Wordsworth and some contemporaries (2016), Nicholas Roe shows Dyer to have been an important model for Wordsworth and Coleridge in the way he brought politics to bear on the poetry of nature and imagination. For Roe, Dyer's influence represents the answer to current historians who believe that the Romantics turned their backs on history in their search for a transcendent nature.

Dyer's works are: 1. ‘Inquiry into the Nature of Subscription to the 39 Articles’ [1789]; second edition, with many additions, 1792. 2. ‘Poems, consisting of Odes and Elegies,’ 1792. 3. ‘The Complaints of the Poor People of England,’ 1793 (remarks on many questions of social and political reform). 4. ‘Account of New South Wales and State of the Convicts, compiled [from various private journals] … with … Character of Thomas Fysche Palmer. …’ 1794. 5. ‘Dissertation on Theory and Practice of Benevolence’ (sequel of above), 1795. 6. ‘Memoirs of Life and Writings of Robert Robinson,’ 1796. 7. ‘The Poet's Fate, a Poetical Dialogue,’ 1797. 8. ‘Address to the People of Great Britain on the Doctrine of Libel. …’ 1799. 9. ‘Poems,’ 1801. 10. ‘Poems and Critical Essays,’ 1802. 11. ‘Poetics, or a Series of Poems and Disquisitions on Poetry,’ 1812. 12. ‘Four Letters on the English Constitution,’ 1812. 13. ‘History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge, including Notices relating to the Founders and Eminent Men’ (with engravings by Greig), 2 vols. 1814. 14. ‘Address to the Subscribers to the Privileges,’ 1823. 15. ‘Privileges of the University of Cambridge’ (a calendar of documents, with an English and Latin dissertation), 1824. 16. ‘Academic Unity’ (substance of Latin dissertation in the above), with preface on dissenting colleges and the London University, 1827.

Recognition

A portrait was in the possession of Theodore Watts-Dunton; another is in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge.

Publications

Poetry

• Poems: Consisting of odes and elegies. London: J. Johnson, 1792.
• The Poet's Fate: A poetical dialogue. London: G.G. & J. Robinson / J. Johnson / J. Debrett, 1797.
• Poems. London: privately published, 1801.
• Poems. (2 volumes), London:Longman & Rees, 1802. Volume I, Volume II

Non-fiction

• An Inquiry into the Nature of Subscription to the 39 Articles. [London?]: privately published, 1790; London: J. Johnson, 1792.1789.
• The Complaints of the Poor People of England. London: J. Ridgeway / H.D. Symonds, 1793.
• Slavery and Famine, Punishments for Sedition; or, An account of the miseries and starvation at Botany Bay. London: J. Ridgway, 1794.
• A Dissertation on the Theory and Practice of Benevolence. London: Kearsley, 1795.
• Memoirs of the Life and writings of Robert Robinson, Late Minister of the Dissenting Congregation, in Saint Andrew's Parish, Cambridge.London: G.G. & J. Robinson, 1796.
• An Address to the People of Great Britain: On the doctrine of libels and the office of jurors. London: privately published, 1799.
• Four Letters on the English Constitution. London: J. Johnson, 1812; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, 1817.
• History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge. (2 volumes), London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, 1814. Volume I, Volume II
• The Privileges of the University of Cambridge. (2 volumes), London: Longman, 1824. Volume I, Volume II
• Academic Unity: Being the substance of a general dissertation contained in 'The Privileges of the University of Cambridge'. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, 1827.

Collected editions

• Poetics; or, A series of poems and disquisitions on poetry. (2 volumes), London: J. Johnson, 1812.

Anthologized

• Odes, by George Dyer, M. Robinson, A.L. Barbauld, J. Ogilvie, &c. &c. & c.. Ludlow, Shropshire, UK: G. Nicholson, 1800.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets

References

•  Stephen, Leslie (1888) "Dyer, George" in Stephen, Leslie Dictionary of National Biography 16 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 284-285  . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 29, 2020.

External links

Poems

• George Dyer (1755-1841) info & 14 poems at English Poetry, 1579-1830
• George Dyer at PoemHunter (17 poems)
• George Dyer at Poetry Nook (71 poems)

About

• Dyer, George at eNotes

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: Dyer, George