1752-1770
[Sidenote: Wilson’s _Chatterton_. *]
“It is to be feared that no authentic portrait of Chatterton exists;
and even the accounts furnished as to his appearance, only partially
aid us in realising an idea of the manly, handsome boy, with his
flashing, hawklike eye, through which even the Bristol pewterer thought
he could see his soul. His forehead one fancies must have been high;
though hidden, perhaps, as in the supposed Gainsborough portrait, with
long flowing hair. His mouth, like that of his father, was large.
But the brilliancy of his eyes seems to have diverted attention from
every other feature; and they have been repeatedly noted for the
way in which they appeared to kindle in sympathy with his earnest
utterances. Mr. Edward Gardner, who only knew him during his last three
months in Bristol, specially recalled ‘the philosophic gravity of his
countenance, and the keen lightening of his eye.’ Mr. Capel, on the
contrary, resided as an apprentice in the same house where Lambert’s
office was, and saw Chatterton daily. His advances had been repelled
at times with the flashing glances of the poet; and the terms in which
he speaks of his pride and visible contempt for others show there was
little friendship between them. But he also remarks: ‘Upon his being
irritated or otherwise greatly affected, there was a light in his eyes
which seemed very remarkable.’ He had frequently heard this referred
to by others; and Mr. George Catcott speaks of it as one who had often
quailed before such glances, or been spell-bound, like Coleridge’s
wedding guest by the ‘glittering eye’ of the Ancient Mariner. He said
he could never look at it long enough to see what sort of an eye it
was; but it seemed to be a kind of hawk’s eye. You could see his soul
through it.”
[Sidenote: Gregory’s _Life of Chatterton_. *]
“The person of Chatterton, like his genius, was premature; he had a
manliness and dignity beyond his years, and there was a something about
him uncommonly prepossessing. His more remarkable feature was his eyes
which, though gray, were uncommonly piercing; when he was warmed in
argument or otherwise, they sparked with fire, and one eye, it is said,
was still more remarkable than the other.”