BEDDOES, THOMAS LOVELL (1803-1849)

—Dramatic poet and physiologist, s. of Dr. Thos. B., an eminent physician, and nephew of Maria Edge worth. Ed. at the Charter house and Oxford, he pub. in 1821 The Improvisatore , which he afterwards endeavoured to suppre . His next venture was The Bride's Tragedy (1822), which had considerable succe , and won for him the friendship of "Barry Cornwall." Thereafter he went to Göttingen and studied medicine. He then wandered about practising his profe ion, and expounding democratic theories which got him into trouble. He d. at Bale in mysterious circumstances. For some time before his death he had been engaged upon a drama, Death's Jest Book , which was published in 1850 with a memoir by his friend, T.F. Kelsall. B. had not the true dramatic instinct, but his poetry is full of thought and richne of diction. Some of his short pieces, e.g. : "If there were dreams to sell," and "If thou wilt ease thine heart," are masterpieces of intense feeling exquisitely expre ed.