Dobell, SYDNEY

Dobell, SYDNEY, poet, was born at Cranbrook in Kent, 5th April 1824. His father, a wine-merchant, removed to London about 1825, and in 1835 to Cheltenham; with Gloucestershire and with his father's business Sydney's whole after-life was connected. Under the influence of a sect, the 'Freethinking Christians,' founded by Samuel Thompson, his grandfather, he developed a hot-house precocity, and at fifteen became engaged to the girl whom he married at twenty. He never quite recovered from a severe illness (1847); and the chief events of his life were visits in quest of health for himself or his wife to Switzerland (1851), Scotland (1854-57), and Cannes, Spain, and Italy (1862-66). He died at Barton End House, among the Cotswold Hills, 22d August 1874. His principal works are The Roman, by 'Sydney Yendys' (1850); Balder (Part I. 1854); Sonnets on the War (1855), in conjunction with Alexander Smith; and England in Time of War (1856). The first and the last achieved a success to wonder at. For though some of his lyrics are pretty, though his fancy is ever sparkling and exuberant, his poems as a whole are nerveless, superfine, grandiose, transcendental. 'Spasmodic' does hit them off better than comparison either with Shelley or with Donne. Professor Nichol edited his collected poems in 1875, and his prose works in 1876 as Thoughts on Art, Philosophy, and Religion. See his Life and Letters (2 vols. 1878), and the memoir by W. Sharp prefixed to his selected poems (1887).