Значение слова CARLYLE в Литературной энциклопедии

CARLYLE

1) ALEXANDER (1722-1805).-Autobiographer, _s._ of the Minister of Cummertrees, Dumfriesshire, was _ed._ at Edin. and Leyden, and entering the Church became Minister of Inveresk, and was associated with Principal Robertson as an ecclesiastical leader. He was a man of great ability, shrewdness, and culture, and the friend of most of the eminent literary men in Scotland of his day. He left an autobiography in MS., which was ed. by Hill Burton, and _pub._ in 1860, and which is one of the most interesting contemporary accounts of his time. His stately appearance gained for him the name of "Jupiter" C. 2)CARLYLE, THOMAS (1795-1881).-Historian and essayist, was _b._ at Ecclefechan in Dumfriesshire. His _f._, James C., was a stonemason, a man of intellect and strong character, and his mother was, as he said, "of the fairest descent, that of the pious, the just, and the wise." His earliest education was received at the parish school of Ecclefechan (the Entepfuhl of _Sartor Resartus_). Thence he went to the Grammar School of Annan, and in 1809 to the Univ. of Edin., the 90 miles to which he travelled on foot. There he read voraciously, his chief study being mathematics. After completing his "Arts" course, he went on to divinity with the view of entering the Church, but about the middle of his course found that he could not proceed. He became a schoolmaster first at Annan and then at Kirkcaldy, where he formed a profound friendship with Edward Irving (_q.v._), and met Margaret Gordon, afterwards Lady Bannerman, believed by some to be the prototype of _Blumine_ in _Sartor_. Returning in 1819 to Edin. he for a time studied law and took pupils; but his health was bad, he suffered from insomnia and dyspepsia, and he tired of law. He was also sorely bestead by mental and spiritual conflicts, which came to a crisis in Leith Walk in June 1821 in a sudden uprising of defiance to the devil and all his works, upon which the clouds lifted. For the next two years, 1822-24, he acted as tutor to Charles Buller (whose promising political career was cut short by his premature death) and his brother. On the termination of this engagement he decided upon a literary career, which he began by contributing articles to the _Edinburgh Encyclopaedia_. In 1824 he translated Legendre's _Geometry_ (to which he prefixed an essay on Proportion), and Goethe's _Wilhelm Meister_; he also wrote for the _London Magazine_ a _Life of Schiller_. About this time he visited Paris and London, where he met Hazlitt, Campbell, Coleridge, and others. Thereafter he returned to Dumfriesshire. In the following year (1826) he _m._ Jane Baillie Welsh, and settled in Edin. Here his first work was _Specimens of German Romance_ (4 vols.) A much more important matter was his friendship with Jeffrey and his connection with the _Edinburgh Review_, in which appeared, among others, his essays on _Richter_, _Burns_, _Characteristics_, and _German Poetry_. In 1828 C. applied unsuccessfully for the Chair of Moral Philosophy in St. Andrews, and the same year he went to Craigenputtock, a small property in Dumfriesshire belonging to Mrs. C., where they remained for several years, and where many of his best essays and _Sartor Resartus_ were written, and where his correspondence with Goethe began. In 1831 he went to London to find a publisher for _Sartor_, but was unsuccessful, and it did not appear in book form until 1838, after having come out in _Fraser's Magazine_ in 1833-34. The year last mentioned found him finally in London, settled in Cheyne Row, Chelsea, his abode for the rest of his life. He immediately set to work on his _French Revolution_. While it was in progress he in 1835 lent the MS. to J.S. Mill, by whose servant nearly the whole of the first vol. was burned, in spite of which misfortune the work was ready for publication in 1837. Its originality, brilliance, and vividness took the world by storm, and his reputation as one of the foremost men of letters in the country was at once and finally established. In the same year he appeared as a public lecturer, and delivered four courses on _German Literature_, _Periods of European Culture_, _Revolutions of Modern Europe_, and _Heroes and Hero-Worship_, the last of which was _pub._ as a book in 1841. Although his writings did not yet produce a large income, his circumstances had become comfortable, owing to Mrs. C. having succeeded to her patrimony in 1840. Books now followed each other rapidly, _Chartism_ had appeared in 1839, _Past and Present_ came out in 1843, and _Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell_ in 1845, the last named being perhaps the most successful of his writings, inasmuch as it fully attained the object aimed at in clearing Cromwell from the ignorant or malevolent aspersions under which he had long lain, and giving him his just place among the greatest of the nation. In 1850 he _pub._ his fiercest blast, _Latter Day Pamphlets_, which was followed next year by his biography of his friend John Sterling (_q.v._). It was about this time, as is shown by the _Letters and Memoirs_ of Mrs. C., that a temporary estrangement arose between his wife and himself, based apparently on Mrs. C.'s part upon his friendship with Lady Ashburton, a cause of which C. seems to have been unconscious. In 1851 he began his largest, if not his greatest work, _Frederick the Great_, which occupied him from that year until 1865, and in connection with which he made two visits to Germany in 1852 and 1858. It is a work of astonishing research and abounds in brilliant passages, but lacks the concentrated intensity of _The French Revolution_. It is, however, the one of his works which enjoys the highest reputation in Germany. In 1865 he was elected Lord Rector of the Univ. of Edin., and delivered a remarkable address to the students by whom he was received with enthusiasm. Almost immediately afterwards a heavy blow fell upon him in the death of Mrs. C., and in the discovery, from her diary, of how greatly she had suffered, unknown to him, from the neglect and want of consideration which, owing to absorption in his work and other causes, he had perhaps unconsciously shown. Whatever his faults, of which the most was made in some quarters, there can be no doubt that C. and his wife were sincerely attached to each other, and that he deeply mourned her. In 1866 his _Reminiscences_ (_pub._ 1881) were written. The Franco-German War of 1870-71 profoundly interested him, and evoked a plea for Germany. From this time his health began to give way more and more. In 1872 his right hand became paralysed. In 1874 he received the distinction of the Prussian Order of Merit, as the biographer of its founder, and in the same year, Mr. Disraeli offered him the choice of the Grand Cross of the Bath or a baronetcy and a pension, all of which he declined. The completion of his 80th year in 1875 was made the occasion of many tributes of respect and veneration, including a gold medal from some of his Scottish admirers. He _d._ on February 5, 1881. Burial in Westminster Abbey was offered, but he had left instructions that he should lie with his kindred. He bequeathed the property of Craigenputtock to the Univ. of Edin. C. exercised a very powerful influence upon the thought of his age, not only by his own writings and personality, but through the many men of distinction both in literature and active life whom he imbued with his doctrines; and perhaps no better proof of this exists than the fact that much that was new and original when first propounded by him has passed into the texture of the national ideas. His style is perhaps the most remarkable and individual in our literature, intensely strong, vivid, and picturesque, but utterly unconventional, and often whimsical or explosive. He had in a high degree the poetic and imaginative faculty, and also irresistible humour, pungent sarcasm, insight, tenderness, and fierce indignation. All the works of C. shed light on his personality, but _Sartor Resartus_ especially may be regarded as autobiographical. Froude's _Thomas Carlyle ... First 40 Years of his Life_ (1882), _Thomas Carlyle ... His Life in London_, by the same (1884), _Letters and Memories of Jane Welsh Carlyle_ (1883), various _Lives_ and _Reminiscences_ by Prof. Masson and Nichol, etc. SUMMARY.-_B._ 1795, _ed._ Edin., studies for Church but gives it up, tries law, then tutor, takes to literature and writes for encyclopaedias and magazines, and translates, _m._ 1826 Jane Welsh, settles in Edin., writes essays in _Edinburgh Review_, goes to Craigenputtock 1828, writes _Sartor_ and corresponds with Goethe, _Sartor_ appears in _Fraser's Magazine_ 1833-4, settles in London 1834, _pub._ _French Revolution_ 1837, lectures, _pub._ _Heroes_, and _Chartism_ and _Sartor_ as a book 1839, _Past and Present_ 1843, _Oliver Cromwell_ 1845, _Latter Day Pamphlets_ 1850, writes _Frederick the Great_ 1851-65, Lord Rector of Edin. Univ. 1865, Mrs. C. _d._ 1865, writes _Reminiscences_ 1866 (_pub._ 1881), _d._ 1881.

Литературная энциклопедия. 2012