William Hayley
William Hayley (9 November 1745 – 12 November 1820) was an English writer, best known as the biographer of his friend William Cowper.
Biography
Born at Chichester, he was sent to Eton in 1757, and to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1762;[2] his connection with the Middle Temple, London, where he was admitted in 1766, was merely nominal. In 1767 he left Cambridge and went to live in London. His private means enabled Hayley to live on his patrimonial estate at Eartham, Sussex, and he retired there in 1774.[3] The location of this house in Eartham is now occupied by the Great Ballard School.
Hayley died at Felpham on 12 November 1820.[3] His library was sold at auction by Evans, in London, on 13 February (and twelve following days), in 2649 lots. A copy of the catalogue is at Cambridge University Library (Munby.c.123(4)).
Works
Hayley had already written occasional poems, when in 1771 his tragedy, The Afflicted Father, was rejected by David Garrick. In the same year his translation of Pierre Corneille's Rodogune as The Syrian Queen was also declined by George Colman. Hayley won the fame he enjoyed amongst his contemporaries by his poetical Essays and Epistles; a Poetical Epistle to an Eminent Painter (1778), addressed to his friend George Romney, an Essay on History (1780), in three epistles, addressed to Edward Gibbon; Essay on Epic Poetry (1782) addressed to William Mason; A Philosophical Essay on Old Maids (1785); and the Triumphs of Temper (1781). The last-mentioned work was so popular as to run to twelve or fourteen editions; together with the Triumphs of Music (Chichester, 1804) it was ridiculed by Byron in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.[3] His 1789 tragedy Marcella was performed at Drury Lane.
In 1805 he published Ballads founded on Anecdotes of Animals (Chichester), with illustrations by Blake, and in 1809 The Life of Romney. For the last twelve years of his life Hayley received an allowance for writing his Memoirs.[3]
Legacy
In 2007, the exhibition "Poets in the Landscape: the Romantic Spirit in British Art" curated by Simon Martin and held at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester explored Hayley's role as patron and friend of artists including William Blake, George Romney, John Flaxman and Joseph Wright of Derby.[4] It was appropriate that the gallery's new wing is situated on 8 North Pallant, which formed part of the house in which Hayley was born. A portrait of Hayley by George Romney is currently on long-term display in the gallery.
Family
In 1769 Hayley married
References
- ^ National Portrait Gallery, London
- ^ "Hayley, William (HLY762W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ a b c d e f public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hayley, William". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 113. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Attempts toward fame and fortune: Joseph Wright of Derby and late-renaissance Humanism. Free Library
Further reading
- Dr John Johnson, ed., The Memoirs of the Life and Writings of William Hayley Esq. the Friend and Biographer of Cowper, Written by Himself, With Extracts from His Private Correspondence and Unpublished Poetry (Henry Colburn and Company and Simpkin and Marshall, 2 volumes, 1823)