For what he be that elfin fairies strike,
Their souls will wander to King Offa's dyke."


The charming wildness of Chatterton's imagination--which attracted the
notice of that strange, visionary genius William Blake[24]--is perhaps
seen at its best in one of the minstrel songs in "Aella." This is
obviously an echo of Ophelia's song in "Hamlet," but Chatterton gives it
a weird turn of his own:

"Hark! the raven flaps his wing
In the briared dell below;
Hark! the death owl loud doth sing
To the nightmares, as they go.
My love is dead.
Gone to his death-bed
All under the willow tree.

"See the white moon shines on high,[25]
Whiter is my true-love's shroud,
Whiter than the morning sky,
Whiter than the evening cloud.
My love is dead," etc.

It remains to consider briefly the influence of Chatterton's life and
writings upon his contemporaries and successors in the field of romantic
poetry. The dramatic features of his personal career drew, naturally,
quite as much if not more attention than his literary legacy to
posterity. It was about nine years after his death that a clerical
gentleman, Sir Herbert Croft, went to Bristol to gather materials for a