T. L. Beddoes (1803-49)

Abstract

THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES, who died by his own hand a century ago on January 26, 1849, is an intriguing example of a medical man in Whom—to use Sir Arthur NacNalty‘s striking phrase—the twin heritages of Apollo (medicine and poetry) were always strilng for the mastery. Eldest son of the eccentric Bristol physician, Thomas Beddoes, and nephew of the novelist Maria Edgeworth, he was born at Clifton on July 20, 1803. Educated at Bath Grammar School, at Charterhouse, and at Pembroke College, Oxford, he published "The Improvisatore" while an undergraduate ; but it was "The Bride‘s Tragedy" that won the praise of the critics in 1822. Abandoning literature for medicine, he went to Göttingen three years later, and as a medical student sat at the feet of Blumenbach, Langenbeck, and Stromeyer. After graduating M.D. at Würzburg in 1832, he practised in Germany and in Zurich. For a time he was engrossed in experimental physiology, and he translated R. D. Grainger‘s "Observations on ... the Spinal Cord" into German ; his translation apparently was never published. Towards the end of his life his mind became clouded, and there is some evidence to suggest that he inflicted a wound on his left leg, which became gangrenous and had to be amputated. While in hospital at Basle, he took his own life with curare, though apoplexy was recorded as the official cause of death. His macabre play, "Death‘s Jest-Book", was published in the following year. Despite its extravagant and unbalanced moods, Beddoes' poetry shows true lyrical greatness.