Thomas Tickell

Thomas Tickell (1685-1740). Portrait by Sylvester Harding (1745-1809). Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Thomas Tickell (17 December 1685 - 23 April 1740) was an English poet and man of letters.

Life

Overview

Tickell, born at Bridekirk Vicarage, Cumberland, and educated at Oxford, became the friend of Joseph Addison, contributed to the Spectator and Guardian, and accompanied him when he went to Ireland as sec. to the Lord Lieutenant. His translation of the 1st book of the Iliad came out at the same time as Pope's, and led to a quarrel between the latter and Addison, Pope imagining that the publication was a plot to interfere with the success of his work. On Addison becoming secretary of State in 1717 he appointed Tickell under-secretary. Among the writings of Tickell are the well-known ballad, "Colin and Lucy," Kensington Garden, a poem, and an "Elegy on the death of Addison," of which Macaulay says that it "would do honour to the greatest name in our literature." In 1725 he became secretary to the Lords Justices of Ireland, and retained the post until his death.

Youth and education

Tickell was born at Bridekirk, Cumberland, grandson of the Rev. John Tickell of Penrith, and son of Richard Tickell, who became vicar of Egremont in 1673 and of Bridekirk in 1680, and who was again inducted to Egremont in 1685.

Thomas was educated at St. Bees School, 1695-1701,

He entered Queen's College, Oxford, in 1701, matriculating on 16 May; he earned a B.A. in 1705, and an M.A. on 22 February 1708–9, and was chosen a fellow of the college on 8 November 1710 (Foster, Alumni Oxon.) Hearne (Collections, ed. Doble, iii. 77) says that Tickell was a "pretender to poetry," and was put over the heads of better scholars. As he did not comply with the statute by taking orders, he obtained a dispensation from the crown (25 October 1717), and he held his fellowship until his marriage in 1726.

On 26 November 1706 Tickell published his earliest poem, Oxford, dated 1707, and inscribed it to Richard, 2nd lord Lonsdale. Conspicuous among those praised in this tribute to the university was Joseph Addison; and soon afterwards Tickell printed lines To Mr. Addison: On his Opera of Rosamond (from which Pope borrowed expressions for his Epistle to Mr. Addison), printed in Tickell's edition of Addison's Works, 1721 (Pope, Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope, iii. 206).

On 1 February 1709-10 Tickell delivered a laudatory speech at the funeral of Thomas Crosthwaite of Queen's College (Hearne, ii. 341), and in January 1710-11 he became university reader or professor of poetry, in the absence in Ireland of Joseph Trapp. Hearne (iii. 111) says that his debut lecture was very silly and indiscreet, and calls Tickell an empty vain pretender, without any learning. In August, says Hearne (iii. 218), it was reported that Tickell, "a vain conceited coxcomb," was author of a silly weekly paper called 'The Surprise'.

Career

In October 1712 Tickell published, in a folio pamphlet dated 1713, his poem To his Excellency the Lord Privy Seal, on the Prospect of Peace. Though the piece supported the tory policy of peace, Addison spoke in warm praise of this "noble performance" in the Spectator (No. 523); and Pope said that the poem, which went through six editions, contained some "most poetical images and fine pieces of painting" (Works, i. 330, vi. 167–8).

In the following month Tickell repaid Addison's compliment in lines "To the supposed author of the 'Spectator'," printed in No. 532 of that periodical, and in 1713 he contributed papers to the Guardian and verses to Steele's volume of Poetical Miscellanies (December 1713). Verses by him were also prefixed to Addison's Cato (1713).

Tickell's "Royal Progress," described as "the work of a master," was printed in the Spectator for 15 November 1714 (No. 620), and at about the same time Addison, who had been appointed secretary to Lord Sunderland, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, gave Tickell employment under him.

Pope's famous quarrel with Addison occurred in 1715. In October 1714 Pope asked Addison to read the 1st 2 books of his forthcoming translation of the Iliad; but shortly afterwards Addison said that Tickell had a translation of the 1st book ready for publication, and had asked him to read it; he therefore begged to be excused looking at Pope's. However, at Pope's wish, Addison read the 2nd book, and praised it highly (Spence, Anecdotes, 1858, pp. 35, 110–12, 264). In May 1715 Pope, probably at Addison's request, helped to obtain subscriptions to an edition of Lucan, with notes, which Tickell proposed to publish, an edition, it may be added, which was never executed (Pope, Works, viii. 10, 11; Johnson, Lives of the Poets, ed. Cunningham, ii. 185).

in the following month (June 1715) the 1st volume of Pope's translation of the Iliad appeared. In the same week Tickell's translation was published, with a dedication to Lord Halifax, and a repudiation of any idea of rivalry; it was issued, Tickell said, only to bespeak sympathy for a proposed translation of the Odyssey. Gay told Pope (8 July) that everyone was pleased with Pope's translation except a few at Button's coffee-house, and that Steele said that Addison described Tickell's translation as the best that ever was in any language. Pope wrote bitterly of Cato's little senate at Button's, and said there had been underhand dealing in the writing of Tickell's version: "Tickell himself, who is a very fair man, has since, in a manner, as good as owned it to me."

Years afterwards, in the dedication of the Drummer’to Congreve (1722), Steele, who was then annoyed with Tickell, spoke of him as "the reputed translator of the first book of “Homer;" but the Tickell papers prove that without doubt Tickell really wrote the version issued in his name (Miss Aikin, Life of Addison, ii. 127–33). Parnell and Arbuthnot criticised the scholarship of Tickell's version (Pope, Works, vii. 457, 474), and Jervas and Berkeley ridiculed Tickell's verse (ib. viii. 13, ix. 3, 540). Pope at one time contemplated an exposure of the inaccuracies of Tickell's version (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. i. 110, v. 640, vi. 605), and his manuscript notes on his rival's poem have been printed by Conington (Fraser's Mag. lxii. 260). In his Art of Sinking in Poetry Pope afterwards quoted from Tickell passages to illustrate mistakes in expression.

When Addison was appointed secretary of state (1717) he chose Tickell as undersecretary, and in the same year Tickell published, in folio, a political pamphlet in verse, An Epistle from a Lady in England to a Gentleman at Avignon, which passed through five editions. This was followed in 1718 by An Ode occasioned by the Earl of Stanhope's Voyage to France, 8vo (lines which were ridiculed in The Tickler Tickelled, 1718), and by An Ode inscribed to the Earl of Sunderland at Windsor, 1720, fol.

Addison, a few days before his death in June 1719, gave directions to Tickell to collect his works, and commended his friend to Craggs's patronage. Steele objected to Addison's essays in the Tatler, &c., being separately printed, but Addison's Works were published in due course, in four quarto volumes, on 3 Oct. 1721. Tickell's best poem, the well-known elegy "To the Earl of Warwick, on the Death of Mr. Addison," was given in the first volume.

In December Steele reprinted The Drummer, which was not included in Tickell's edition of Addison, and in a prefatory letter to Congreve replied to certain insinuations thrown out by Tickell in the life printed with Addison's Works (Aitken, Life of Steele, ii. 216, 270–2).

In 1722 Tickell printed an epistle To Sir Godfrey Kneller, at his Country Seat, fol., and 1 of his most ambitious works, Kensington Garden, 4to. In February 1723 Pope talked of writing to Lord Cowper, proposing to resign his newly formed design of a translation of the Odyssey to Tickell, in deference to his judgment; but nothing came of this idea (Works, x. 198).

Soon afterwards Tickell moved to Ireland, and resided at Glasnevin near Dublin. He was given the important post of secretary to the lords justices on 4 May 1724, when Lord Carteret, the new lord-lieutenant, testified to his "ability and integrity" (Johnson, Lives of the Poets, ed. Cunningham, iii. 430). In 1724 and the following years there was much friendly intercourse between Swift and Tickell (Swift, Works, xix. 277–303).

On 23 April 1726 Tickell married, at St. James's, Dublin, Clotilda, daughter and coheiress of Sir Maurice Eustace of Harristown, Kildare, nephew of Sir Maurice Eustace, lord chancellor of Ireland under Charles II. By her he had two sons — John (died 1793), father of Richard Tickell, and Thomas (died 1777) — and two daughters: Margaret, who married Bladen Swiney; and Philippa.

In 1733 Tickell printed, in folio, verses On Queen Caroline's rebuilding the Lodgings of the Black Prince and Henry V at Queen's College, Oxford. Swift spoke in 1736 of Tickell's "real concern" at hearing of Pope's illness (Pope, Works, vii. 336).

Tickell died on 23 April 1740 at Bath, and was buried at Glasnevin, where he had a house. A tablet was erected in his memory in Glasnevin church. By his will (dated 9 April 1735, and proved on 24 July 1740) Tickell left his wife (described by her great-grandson as ‘a very clever and most excellent woman’) his executrix and guardian of his children. His library was sold after the widow's death, in 1792, in her 92nd year.

Johnson writes of Tickell's personal character: ‘He is said to have been a man of gay conversation, at least a temperate lover of wine and company, and in his domestic relations without censure.’ Others, including Steele and Hearne, held a less favourable opinion (cf. Nichols, Lit. Illustr. i. 436).

Writing

As a poet Tickell is hardly remembered now by anything except his admirable lines on Addison's death. A favourite with a past generation, the ballad of "Colin and Lucy," was translated into Latin by Vincent Bourne (Poemata, 1743, p. 145). Goldsmith and Gray spoke of it as being among the best ballads in the language.

Gray's general estimate of Tickell, however, was by no means flattering; he wrote of him as "only a poor, short-winded imitator of Addison, who had himself not above three or four notes in poetry — sweet enough, indeed, but such as soon tire and satiate the ear with their frequent return." Tickell was certainly as good a versifier as Addison; but his chief claim to notice, as he himself felt, is that he was Addison's friend.

Some letters by him are in the British Museum (Addit. MSS. 28275 f. 495, 4291, 15936 f. 174; Egerton MSS. 2172 f. 168, 2174 f. 310), and in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1786, ii. 1041.

Critical introduction

by Edmund Gosse

The powers of Tickell were awakened and solely sustained by an unbounded admiration for the person and genius of Addison. His Muse hovered around her object, celebrating its beauties from every side, and even Pope, when he was most angry, could not help smiling to see the pompous figure of Atticus accompanied by so tender and importunate a satellite. That the great man stooped to make a tool of his friend’s fidelity in an unworthy literary quarrel, and by the failure of his intrigue brought ridicule upon them both, is matter of history; but this did not deter Tickell from directing that his tombstone in the church of Glasneven should state that ‘his highest honour was that of having been the friend of Addison,’ or from celebrating the death of the latter in a poem wherein he surpassed not himself only but his master too. The famous elegy is justly ranked among the greatest masterpieces of its kind. In it a sublime and public sorrow for once moved a thoroughly mediocre poet into utterance that was sincere and original. So much dignity, so much pathos, so direct and passionate a distress, are not to be found in any other poem of the period.

But when Tickell was not eulogising the majesty and sweetness of Addison, he was but a languid, feeble versifier. Kensington Garden is one of those works that will not let themselves be read; the once-admired ballad of "Colin and Lucy" seems very trite and silly to a modern reader; while the poem "On Hunting", in which Tickell posed as the English Gratius Faliscus, progressed so slowly that it was at last anticipated by the "Chase" of Somerville, another of Addison’s ardent disciples. From this general condemnation it is only just to except the thoughtful and melodious lines "On the Death of the Earl of Cadogan".

Tickell’s earliest introduction to Addison was through a copy of verses which he addressed to him from Oxford in 1707, in which this couplet occurred:—

‘No charms are wanted to thy artful song,

Soft as Corelli, and as Virgil strong.

For this piece of flattery the young poet was rewarded by Addison’s personal friendship. It is worthy of remark that the influence of Addison on English verse was as entirely false and sterile as his influence on prose was fruitful and healthy.

Recognition

Tickell had poems included in Dodsley's Collection of Poems in Six Volumes; by several hands and Mendez's Collection of Poems in Four Volumes; by several hands]].

Tickell's poems are also included in the collections of English poets edited by Samuel Johnson and others.

There is a painting of Tickell at Queen's College, Oxford, presented by his grandson Major Thomas Tickell, which has been engraved by Clamp (1796) and others. A portrait by Vanderbank is in the possession of the family (Johnson, Lives, ed. Cunningham, iii. 430–1).

Tickell owned a house and small estate in Glasnevin on the banks of the River Tolka, which later became the site of the Irish National Botanic Gardens. A double line of yew trees (known as Addison’s Walk) from Tickell’s garden is incorporated into the Gardens.

Publications

Poetry

• Oxford: A poem. London: Egbert Sanger, 1707 [1706]
• A Poem ... on the prospect of the peace. London: Jacob Tonson, 1713.
• Kensington Garden. London: Jacob Tonson, 1721.
• The Horn-book: A poem. London: Charles Corbet, 1732.
• On Her Majesty's Re-building the Lodgings of the Black Prince, and Henry V, at Queens-College Oxford. London: J. Tonson, 1733.
• The Poems of Rowe and Tickell (with Nicholas Rowe) in Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (Volume XXVI). London: C. Bathurst, 1779.
• The Poetical Works; with the life of the author. Edinburgh: Apollo Press, by the Martins, 1781; London: C. Cooke (Cooke's edition), 1796.
• The Poems of Thomas Tickell (edited by Samuel Johnson). London: Goldney, 1790; Boston: Little, Brown, 1854.

Edited

• Joseph Addison, Works. (4 volumes), London: Jacob Tonson, 1721.
• Joseph Addison, Miscellaneous Works: In verse and prose. London: Jacob Tonson, 1726.
• Joseph Addison, Works. Birmingham, UK: J. Baskerville, for J. & R. Tonson, 1761.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets

References

• "T. Tickell", Johnson, Lives of the Poets
• Thomas Humphry Ward, English Poets.
•  Aitken, George Atherton (1898) "Tickell, Thomas" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 56 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 380-382  . Wikisource, Web, Dec. 21, 2016.

External links

Poems

• "To the Earl of Warwick, on the Death of Mr. Addison"
• "Kensington Garden" (excerpt) at Poetry Atlas
• Tickell, Thomas Tickell (1685-1740) (2 poems) at Representative Poetry Online
• Thomas Tickell at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (11 poems)
• Thomas Tickell at PoemHunter (7 poems)
• Thomas Tickell at Poetry Nook (11 poems)

Books

• Thomas Tickell at Amazon.com

About

• Thomas Tickell in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Thomas Tickell (1685-1740) at English Poetry, 1579-1830
• Tickell, Thomas 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: Tickell, Thomas