The Poetical Works of William Collins; With a MemoirCollins, William
General
The Poetical Works of William Collins; With a Memoir
Collins, William
Poetry
"In this pleasurable way of life he soon wasted his little
property, and a considerable legacy left him by a maternal uncle,
a colonel in the army, to whom the nephew made a visit in
Flanders during the war. While on his tour he wrote several
entertaining letters to his Oxford friends, some of which I saw.
In London I met him often, and remember he lodged in a little
house with a Miss Bundy, at the corner of King's-square-court,
Soho, now a warehouse, for a long time together. When poverty
overtook him, poor man, he had too much sensibility of temper to
bear with misfortunes, and so fell into a most deplorable state of
mind. How he got down to Oxford, I do not know; but I myself saw
him under Merton wall, in a very affecting situation, struggling,
and conveyed by force, in the arms of two or three men, towards
the parish of St. Clement, in which was a house that took in such
unhappy objects: and I always understood, that not long after he
died in confinement; but when, or where, or where he was buried, I
never knew.
"Thus was lost to the world this unfortunate person, in the prime
of life, without availing himself of fine abilities, which,
properly improved, must have raised him to the top of any
profession, and have rendered him a blessing to his friends, and
an ornament to his country.
"Without books, or steadiness and resolution to consult them if he
had been possessed of any, he was always planning schemes for
elaborate publications, which were carried no further than the
drawing up proposals for subscriptions, some of which were
published; and in particular, as far as I remember, one for 'a
History of the Darker Ages.'
"He was passionately fond of music; good-natured and affable; warm
in his friendships, and visionary in his pursuits; and, as long as
I knew him, very temperate in his eating and drinking. He was of
moderate stature, of a light and clear complexion, with gray eyes,
so very weak at times as hardly to bear a candle in the room; and
often raising within him apprehensions of blindness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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