Theodore Watts-Dunton

Walter Theodore Watts-Dunton (12 October 1832 - 6 June 1914) was an English poet and literary critic. 

Theodore Watts-Dunton (1832-1914), from Aylwin, 1902. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Life

Youth and education

Watts-Dunton was born Walter Theodore Watts on 12 October 1832, the eldest child of John King Watts, solicitor, of St. Ives, Huntingdonshire (well known for his scientific attainments). He added to his surname that of his mother, Susannah (Dunton), in 1896.

At school in Cambridge he devoted himself to literature, science, and life in the open air. His meeting with George Borrow in 1872 emphasized his early delight in gipsy lore, of which another friend, Francis Hindes Groome, was a master.

Career

Rossetti and Watts-Dunton at 16 Cheyne Walk by Henry Treffry Dunn, 1882. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Becoming a solicitor, Watts-Dunton practiced for a while in London, where his gifts as a friend, talker, and man of business, facilitated his intercourse with the ‘pre-Raphaelite group’ of poets. ‘Watts the worldling,’ as J.M. Whistler called him, was a familiar figure in London literary gatherings, such as those of John Westland Marston.

He gave up his profession on taking to literary criticism, writing for the Examiner under William Minto beginning in 1874, and 2 years later for the Athenæum, where for the rest of the century he enjoyed a great anonymous reputation.

Watts-Dunton had considerable influence as the friend of many of the leading men of letters of his time; he enjoyed the confidence of Tennyson, and contributed an appreciation of him to the authorized biography. He proved a steady friend to Dante Gabriel Rossetti in his declining years.

When, in 1879, A.C. Swinburne's reckless life was making his health hopeless, he took him to ‘The Pines’, his house in Putney. Henceforth, Swinburne, a child in many ways, was the center of his world. He managed Swinburne's affairs, and stamped the macabre element out of his life and writing. The 2 lived together till Swinburne's death in 1909, and the devoted and tactful control of Watts-Dunton prolonged Swinburne's life, though it involved a certain loss of his independence in material life and critical judgement.

Watts-Dunton later decided to also take in artist Henry Treffry Dunn who had been Rosetti's assistant. Like Swinbrune, Dunn was also prone to alcoholism. Dunn died in 1899 while still living with Watts-Dunton and Swinburne.

In the Athenæum Watts-Dunton printed from time to time scenes in verse, in which Rhona Boswell, a gipsy girl, was prominent, and the publication of these, with additions, as The Coming of Love, and other poems made a stir in 1897. On the whole the large and adventurous design of the verses did not ‘command an art equal to its purpose’.

He made a great success in 1898 with Aylwin, a novel kept back for many years, and originally called The Renascence of Wonder. This phrase was later announced as the very pith of his critical doctrines, a protest against materialism and pessimism.

Watts-Dunton was among the earliest to applaud the verse of George Meredith, and many young authors owed much to his judicious encouragement.

In his review of the 1889 anthology of Canadian poetry, Songs of the Great Dominion, in the September 28, 1889, Atheneum, Watts-Dunton singled out Pauline Johnson for special praise, calling her "the most interesting English poetess now living," and quoting her poem "In the Shadows" in full. Johnson (who had not yet published a book) considered this to be a big boost for her career, and felt herself "indebted" for the inclusion and the review. She later asked Watts-Dunton to select the poems for her debut poetry collection, The White Wampum.

Watts-Dunton married in 1905 Clara, youngest daughter of Gustave A. Reich, of East India Avenue, E.C., but this did not change the quiet, ordered life at The Pines, where he died 6 June 1914. He had no children.

He always protested against the jealousies and personalities of modern literary life. He lived for his friends, read endlessly, put off, polished, and altered his own compositions. The variety of his interests dissipated his energies. He had great kindliness, a good sense of fun, but little humor, and throughout his long life remained boyish in his eagerness for the latest discovery in letters or science.

Writing

Watts-Dunton, in The Life and Letters of Theodore Watts-Dunton, 1916. Courtesy Internet Archive.

Aylwin is Watts-Dunton's best imaginative work. His posthumous novel, Vesprie Towers (1916), and his collections of verses, other than The Coming of Love, are not likely to last.

Aylwin, dealing partly with the same characters as The Coming of Love, revealed a gift for romance and scenery, some admirable gipsies, especially the girl, Sinfi Lovell, and some clever sketches after famous prototypes, such as Rossetti. It also heralded that tide of mysticism which has since become a feature of the 20th century. Although striking in plot and detail, the book has flat passages which show that the author, a good judge of style, was not a great stylist.

The same criticism applies to Watts-Dunton's Athenæum articles, which he himself described as ‘too formless to have other than an ephemeral life’. Not lacking in good things and in generalizations of value, they are clogged with wise saws and ancient instances. They are clear-sighted, and were very widely admired; but their profundity has been exaggerated.

His best critical work is his essay on Poetry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th edition, 1885). His tributes to literary friends, reprinted as Old Familiar Faces (1916), are notable though discursive. His agreeable reminiscences of George Borrow may be read in his editions of Lavengro(1893) and The Romany Rye (1900). Here he dwells on Borrow's refusal to ‘figure in the literary arena’.

Of his sonnets, "The Octopus of the Golden Islands" is a typical example, too close-packed with thought to read naturally.

His verse in general lacks the flow and final mastery essential to great poetry. The phrasing and occasionally the rhymes have a factitious appearance. But he was a real romantic in spite of his scientific leanings, and his thoughts went beyond his achievement.

Recognition

Watts-Dunton's poem "Wassail Chorus at the Mermaid Tavern" was included in the Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900.

A Blue Plaque marks his home in Putney.

Publications

Poetry

• Jubilee Greeting at Spithead to the Men of Greater Britain. London & New York: John Lane, 1897.
• The Coming of Love, and other poems. London & New York: John Lane, 1897.
  • 3rd edition as, The Coming of Love: Rhona Boswell's story; and other poems. London & New York: John Lane, 1899.
• Christmas at the Mermaid (illustrated by Herbert Cole). London & New York: John Lane, 1902.
• The Work of Cecil Rhodes: A sonnet sequence. London: Henry Frowde, 1907.

Novels

• Aylwin (novel). London: Hurst & Blackett, 1898; New York: Dodd, Mead, 1898.
• Vesprie Towers: A novel. London: Smith, Elder, 1916.

Non-fiction

• "Poetry", Encyclopædia Britannica (9th edition, 1885), Vol. XIX.
• Henry Thoreau, and other children of the open air. Cedar Rapids, IA: Torch Press, 1910.
• Poetry and The Renascence of Wonder (with preface by Thomas Hake). London: Herbert Jenkins, 1916; New York: E.P. Dutton, 1916; Port Washington, NY: Kennikat, 1970.
• Old Familiar Faces (memoir). London: Herbert Jenkins, 1916; New York: E.P. Dutton, 1916; Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1970.

Edited

• George Borrow, Lavengro: The scholar, the gypsy, the priest. London: Ward, Lock, Bowden, 1893.
• George Borrow, The Romany Rye: A sequel to "Lavengro". London *& New York: Ward, Lock, 1900.

Letters

• Thomas Hake & Arthur Compton-Rickett, The Life and Letters of Theodore Watts-Dunton. London: T.C. & E.C. Jack / New York: Putnam, 1916; Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2005 ISBN 1-4179-6143-0.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets
• List of literary critics

References

• James Douglas, Theodore Watts-Dunton: Poet, Novelist, Critic, (1904, repr. 1973)
• Max Beerbohm, 'No. 2 The Pines', And Even Now, (1920)
• Mollie Panter-Downes, At the Pines: Swinburne and Watts-Dunton in Putney (Boston: Gambit, 1971) ISBN 0-87645-049-4
•  Rendall, Vernon Horace (1927). "Watts-Dunton, Walter Theodore". In Davis, H.W.C. & Wheeler, J.R.H.. Dictionary of National Biography, 3rd supplement​. London: Smith, Elder. pp. 558-559. . Wikisource, Nov. 20, 2024.
• Clara Watts-Dunton, The Home Life of Swinburne, (London: Philpot, 1922)

Fonds

• Archival material relating to Theodore Watts-Dunton listed at the UK National Register of Archives

External links

Poems

• "Wassail Chorus at the Mermaid Tavern".
• Theodore Watts-Dunton (1832-1914) at Sonnet Central (3 sonnets)
• Theodore Watts-Dunton at Poetry Nook (5 poems)
• Theodore Watts-Dunton at PoemHunter (6 poems)
• Watts-Dunton in A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895: "Ode to Mother Carey's Chicken," "The Sonnet's Voice," "Coleridge," "The Breath of Avon," "The First Kiss," "John the Pilgrim," "Natura Benigna," "Natura Maligna"

Books

• Works by Theodore Watts-Dunton at Internet Archive (scanned books original editions color illustrated)
• Works by Theodore Watts-Dunton at Project Gutenberg
• Theodore Watts-Dunton at Amazon.com

About

• Theodore Watts-Dunton in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Watts-Dunton, Walter Theodore in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• Theodore Watts-Dunton in the Columbia Encyclopedia
• Theodore Watts-Dunton: Poet, novelist, critic by James Douglas

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Dictionary of National Biography, 3rd supplement​ (edited by H.W.C. Davis & J.R.H. Weaver). London: Smith, Elder, 1927. Original article is at: Watts-Dunton, Walter Theodore