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Robert Pearse Gillies

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Robert Pearse Gillies (1788 - 28 November 1858) was a Scottish poet, editor, and translator.

Robert Pearse Gillies (1788 - 28 November 1858), Childe Alarique: A poet's review; with other poems (1814). Forgotten Books. Courtesy Goodreads.

Robert Pearse Gillies (1788 - 28 November 1858), Childe Alarique: A poet's review; with other poems (1814). Forgotten Books. Courtesy Goodreads.

Life[]

Youth and education[]

Gillies, a member of the Forfarshire family of Gillies, was born at or near Arbroath in 1788. His father, Dr. Thomas Gillies, was possessed of a landed estate which on his death in 1808 his son inherited.[1]

By age 20 Gillies had already collected a library of books, written poetry, and studied under Dugald Stewart and Playfair at the University of Edinburgh. [1]

Career[]

Gillies was admitted advocate in 1813. Losing most of his fortune in consequence of a rash speculation, he moved in 1815 to Edinburgh, where he devoted himself to literary pursuits.[1]

He was an early contributor to Blackwood's Magazine, and figures as ‘Kemperhausen’ in Christopher North's Noctes Ambrosianæ.’ He was a well-known figure among the literary men who frequented the Ballantynes, and was a special friend of Scott. Reminiscences of his friendship with Scott were published by Gillies in 1837.[1] He also befriended James Hogg, and corresponded with William Wordsworth.[2]

Like Scott, Gillies was attracted for some time by the literature of Germany, from which he made many translations, published for the most part in Blackwood's. He lived for a year in Germany, where he met Goethe and Tieck. Gillies also corresponded with Wordsworth, who encouraged him in his early financial difficulties in a sonnet (Miscellaneous Sonnets, pt. ii. no. 4), beginning,

From the dark chambers of dejection freed,
Spurning the unprofitable yoke of care,
Rise, Gillies, rise: the gates of youth shall bear
Thy genius forward like a wingèd steed.[1]

Gillies likewise attracted the attention of Byron, who in his Diary (23 Nov. 1813) remarks on his work: "The young man can know nothing of life; and if he cherishes the disposition which runs through his papers will become useless and perhaps not even a poet, which he seems determined to be. God help him! No one should be a rhymer who could be anything else."[1]

Most of Gillies's remaining means disappeared in the commercial panic of 1825, and he became involved in a series of lawsuits. Scott assisted him in various ways, and finally suggested to him the idea of a journal of foreign literature. Gillies succeeded in inducing the London firm of Treuttel & Würtz, Treuttel, junr., & Richter to take up the project, and the result was the foundation of the Foreign Quarterly Review in July 1827. Gillies as editor was to receive £600 a year, but was to pay the contributors out of this. To the premiere issue articles were contributed by Scott (who declined to receive remuneration for his work), Robert Southey, Rev. G.R. Gleig, William Maginn, and others.[1]

Gillies moved to London, where he led a somewhat chequered life. His affairs remained hopelessly involved, and when about 1833 he passed a whole year without being arrested for debt, the fact seemed to him remarkable. In 1840 he moved to Boulogne, where he remained till 1847, when incautiously returning to England, he was at once thrown into prison, and was not liberated till 1849.[3]

He was married and had a family. He turned to account his acquaintance with famous men in his Memoirs of a Literary Veteran (3 vols., 1851), where he gives personal reminiscences of many. Among the most notable besides Scott were James Hogg, Lord Jeffrey, Thomas de Quincey, John Kemble, Mrs. Siddons, and John Galt. Selections from this work with a biography were edited by Richard Henry Stoddard, as the 10th volume of the Bric à Brac Series, New York, 1876.[3]

Gillies died at Kensington, 28 Nov. 1858.[3]

Gillies's other works consisted, besides fugitive contributions, of the following: 1. ‘Wallace, a fragment,’ 1813. 2. ‘Childe Alarique, a poet's reverie, with other poems,’ 1814. 3. An edition of James the First's ‘Essays of a Prentise in the Divine Art of Poesie,’ 1814. 4. ‘Confessions of Sir H. Longueville,’ a novel, 1814. 5. ‘Rinaldo, the Visionary, a Desultory Poem,’ 1816. 6. ‘Illustrations of a Poetical Character, in six tales, with other poems’ (2nd edit. 1816). 7. ‘Oswald, a metrical tale,’ 1817. 8. ‘Guilt, or the Anniversary,’ a tragedy from the German of A. G. A. Muellner, 1819. 9. Extempore, to Walter Scott, Esq., on the publication of the new edition of the ‘Bridal of Triermain’ (1819, by ‘S. K. C.,’ probably by Gillies. When the ‘Bridal’ was first published, Scott encouraged the idea [Lockhart, p. 236] that Gillies was the author). 10. ‘German Stories, selected from the works of Hoffmann, De la Motte-Fouqué, Pichler, Kruse, and others,’ 3 vols. 1826. 11. ‘A Winter Night's Dream.’ 12. ‘The Seventh Day,’ 1826. 13. ‘Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean,’ 6 vols., two series, 1826 and 1829. 14. ‘Ranulph de Rohais: a Romance of the Twelfth Century,’ 3 vols. 1830, 8vo. 15. ‘Thurlston Tales,’ 3 vols. 1835. 16. ‘Palmario,’ 1839.

Publications[]

Poetry[]

  • Wallace: A fragment. Edinburgh: 1813.
  • Childe Alarique: A poet's reverie; with other poems. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood / London: J. Murray, 1813; Edinburgh: J. Ballantyne, for J. Anderson / Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, London, 1814; Philadelphia: M. Carey, 1815.
  • Rinaldo, the Visionary: A desultory poem. Edinburgh:
  • Illustrations of a Poetical Character: In six tales; with other poems. Edinburgh: J. Ballantyne, for A. Jameson, 1816.
  • Oswald: A metrical tale. Edinburgh: James Ballantyne, for John Ballantyne, 1817.
  • A Winter Night's Dream / The Seventh Day. Edinburgh: John Stark, 1826.

Novels[]

  • Confessions of Sir Henry Longueville. (2 volumes), Edinburgh: J. Ballantyne, for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, London, 1814. Volume I
  • Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean. 1826; Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1827. Volume III
  • Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean: Second series. London: H. Colburn, 1829. Volume I, Volume II
  • Ranulph de Robais: A romance. London: W. Kidd, 1830.
  • Palmario; or, The merchant of Genoa. London: T. & W. Boone, 1839.

Short fiction[]

  • Thurlston Tales. (3 volumes), London: J. Macrone, 1835.

Non-fiction[]

Translated[]

Edited[]

  • Foreign Quarterly Review. 1827-30.


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[4]

See also[]

References[]

  •  Watt, Francis (1890) "Gillies, Robert Pearse" in Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 21 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 369-370  . Wikisource, Web, June 27, 2016.

Notes[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Watt, 369.
  2. ↑ Robert Pearse Gillies (1789-1858), English Poetry, 1579-1830, Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Polytechnic & State University. Web, Feb. 21, 2022.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Watt, 370.
  4. ↑ Search results = au:Robert Pearse Gillies, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, June 27, 2016.

External links[]

Poems
Books
About

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: Gillies, Robert Pearse

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