Título: Thomas Chatterton
Seção: Childhood
Background: Thomas Chatterton (20 November 1752 - 24 August 1770) was an English poet whose precocious talents ended in suicide at age 17. He became a heroic tragic figure in Romantic art. Although fatherless and raised in poverty, he was an exceptionally studious child, publishing mature work by the age of 11. He was able to pass off his work as that of an imaginary 15th-century poet called Thomas Rowley, chiefly because few people at the time were familiar with medieval poetry, though he was denounced by Horace Walpole.

Conteúdo: Chatterton was born in Bristol where the office of sexton of St Mary Redcliffe had long been held by the Chatterton family. The poet's father, also named Thomas Chatterton, was a musician, a poet, a numismatist, and a dabbler in the occult. He had been a sub-chanter at Bristol Cathedral and master of the Pyle Street free school, near Redcliffe church.  After Chatterton's birth (15 weeks after his father's death on 7 August 1752), his mother established a girls' school and took in sewing and ornamental needlework. Chatterton was admitted to Edward Colston's Charity, a Bristol charity school, in which the curriculum was limited to reading, writing, arithmetic and the catechism.  Chatterton, however, was always fascinated with his uncle the sexton and the church of St Mary Redcliffe. The knights, ecclesiastics and civic dignitaries on its altar tombs became familiar to him. Then he found a fresh interest in oaken chests in the muniment room over the porch on the north side of the nave, where parchment deeds, old as the Wars of the Roses, lay forgotten. Chatterton learned his first letters from the illuminated capitals of an old musical folio, and he learned to read out of a black-letter Bible. He did not like, his sister said, reading out of small books. Wayward from his earliest years, and uninterested in the games of other children, he was thought to be educationally backward. His sister related that on being asked what device he would like painted on a bowl that was to be his

user: What was his childhood like?

assistant: Chatterton was born in Bristol where the office of sexton of St Mary Redcliffe had long been held by the Chatterton family.

user: Was he a studious child?

assistant: Chatterton was admitted to Edward Colston's Charity, a Bristol charity school, in which the curriculum was limited to reading, writing, arithmetic and the catechism.

user: What was his favorite subject?

assistant: Chatterton, however, was always fascinated with his uncle the sexton and the church of St Mary Redcliffe.

user: Did he pursue these interests?

assistant: From his earliest years, he was liable to fits of abstraction, sitting for hours in what seemed like a trance, or crying for no reason.

user: Was anyone worried about him?

assistant: His lonely circumstances helped foster his natural reserve, and to create the love of mystery which exercised such an influence on the development of his poetry.

user: Did he publish any of his poetry?

assistant: by the age of 11, he had become a contributor to Felix Farley's Bristol Journal.

user: Was he a regular contributor?

assistant: CANNOTANSWER