y-
spring of modern romantic poetry.... I believe the 3d vol.
of Ward's _Selections of English Poetry_, for which Watts is
selecting from Chatterton, will soon be out,--but these
excerpts are very brief, as are the notices. The rendering
from the Rowley antique will be much better than anything
formerly done. Skeat is a thorough philologist, but no hand
at all when substitution becomes unavoidable in the text....
Read the _Ballad of Charity, the Eclogues, the songs in
AElla_, as a first taste. Among the modern poems _Narva and
Mared_, and the other _African Eclogues_. These are alone in
that section _poetry absolute_, and though they are very
unequal, it has been most truly said by Malone that to throw
the _African Eclogues_ into the Rowley dialect would be at
once a satisfactory key to the question whether Chatterton
showed in his own person the same powers as in the person of
Rowley. Among the satirical and light modern pieces there
are many of a first-. rate order, though generally unequal.
Perfect specimens, however, are _The Revenge, a Burletta,
Skeat, vol i; Verses to a Lady, p. 84; Journal Sixth, p. 33;
The Prophecy, p. 193; and opening of Fragment, p. 132._ I
would advise you to consult the original text.

Mr. Watts, it seems, with all his admiration of Chatterton, finding that
he could not go to Rossetti's length in comparing him with Shakspeare,
did not in the result consider the sonnet on Chatterton referred to in
the foregoing letter, and given below, suitable to be embodied in his
essay:

With Shakspeare's manhood at a boy's wild heart,--
Through Hamlet's doubt to Shakspeare near allied,
And kin to Milton through his Satan's pride,--
At Death's sole door he stooped, and craved a dart;
And to the dear new bower of England's art,--
Even to that shrine Time else had deified,
The unuttered heart that soared against his side,--
Drove the fell point, and smote life's seals apart.

Thy nested home-loves, noble Chatterton,
The angel-trodden stair thy soul could trace
Up Redcliffe's spire; and in the world's armed space
Thy gallant sword-play:--these to many an one
Are sweet for ever; as thy grave unknown,
And love-dream of thine unrecorded face.

Some mention was made in this connection of Rossetti's young connecti