Christopher Anstey facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Christopher Anstey
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Anstey with his daughter,
by William Hoare (c. 1777) |
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| Born | 31 October 1724 Brinkley, Cambridgeshire, England
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| Died | 3 August 1805 (aged 80) Bath, Somerset, England
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| Occupation | writer, poet |
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Notable work
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The New Bath Guide (1766) |
| Spouse(s) | Ann Calvert (m.1756) |
| Children | 2 |
Christopher Anstey (born October 31, 1724 – died August 3, 1805) was an English poet. He wrote poems in both English and Latin. After taking care of his family's land for a while, he moved to the city of Bath. He lived a long public life there until he passed away.
Anstey became famous for his poem, The New Bath Guide. This poem started a popular trend of gentle, funny writing that was very important in the late 1700s. Later, he wrote An Electoral Ball, another funny poem about society in Bath. He also translated some of his poems into Latin. He even helped translate a famous poem by Thomas Gray, called Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, into Latin.
Contents
Life of Christopher Anstey
Early Years and Education
Christopher Anstey was born on October 31, 1724, in Trumpington. He was the third child and only son of Reverend Christopher Anstey. His father was a church leader in Brinkley, Cambridgeshire. Christopher went to Eton College and then King's College at Cambridge University. He was very good at writing Latin poems there.
He became a special member of his college in 1745. However, he did not get his master's degree in 1749. This was because he disagreed with the university leaders. He also made them upset with a speech he gave. In 1746, he joined a law school called the Middle Temple, but he did not become a lawyer.
Family Life and Moving to Bath
In 1754, Anstey inherited his family's successful estates, including Anstey Hall. He then left the university. Two years later, in 1756, he married Ann Calvert. They had thirteen children, and eight of them lived longer than he did. For many years, Anstey lived as a country gentleman. He enjoyed writing but did not publish much.
After a difficult time in 1760, when his sister passed away, Anstey was advised to visit the popular spa city of Bath. People went there to "take the waters," which meant bathing in or drinking the mineral spring water for health. He liked Bath so much that he visited every year. In 1770, he decided to live there permanently. He lived at No. 4 Royal Crescent for the next 35 years.
Fame and Later Works
In 1766, Anstey became famous when he published The New Bath Guide. This book was reprinted about twenty times before the year 1800. Famous writers like Horace Walpole and Thomas Gray greatly praised its gentle, funny style.
Later, Anstey wrote another similar work called An Election Ball. It was published in 1776. The idea for this poem came from literary meetings he attended in Bath. He also supported various good causes in Bath. For example, he helped raise money for the poor. He also served on the board of governors for Bath Hospital from 1781 to 1795. He wrote poems to help them raise money.
Anstey also supported the work of Hannah More. She wrote simple stories for common people. One of Anstey's long poems, "The Farmer's Daughter," appeared in her series of books. His last Latin poem, written in 1803, was about Edward Jenner's work on vaccination. This showed his continued interest in helping people.
Final Years
Anstey's health began to fail in early 1805. He passed away on August 3, 1805. He was buried at St. Swithin's Church in Walcot, Bath. Later, a white marble memorial was placed in the famous Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey.
Anstey's Poetry
Latin Poems
Only about a quarter of Anstey's published poems were in Latin. However, he started and ended his writing career with Latin poetry. His first major work was a translation he did with his friend, William Hayward Roberts. They translated Thomas Gray's famous poem, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", into Latin. This translation was published anonymously in 1762. They even worked with Gray himself on it.
Gray thought it was hard to translate some English ideas into Latin. For example, things like the "curfew bell" or "Gothic Church" were very English. But Anstey's translation tried to stay true to Gray's original poem. It kept the English names instead of changing them to Roman ones. This translation was reprinted several times.
Later, Anstey did more translations himself. He translated one of the letters from his own The New Bath Guide into Latin. This Latin version was very funny and playful, just like the original. He also summarized themes from his later poem, The Election Ball, in a Latin letter.
Anstey also translated the fables of John Gay. He did this to help his sons prepare for Eton College. This translation was published anonymously. However, some reviewers thought its rhythm was too strict and not lively enough compared to Gay's original.
English Poems
Anstey was best known for his long poem, The New Bath Guide. This poem was always in print during his lifetime. He never quite had the same success with his other works. However, he continued to write funny descriptions of people in Bath in poems like An Election Ball.
A famous writer, Gray, said the Guide had "a new and original kind of humour." It was a gentle kind of satire, not harsh. Anstey himself said he was not good at harsh criticism. Instead, he wrote about the common silly behaviors of wealthy landowners. His poem gave a good sense of Bath at that time. It also offered lasting lessons about manners and morals. The picture at the front of the book shows his gentle goal. It shows fashionable people being led by a monkey and a clown, showing how easily they are fooled.
Anstey's son was amazed that the book became so popular. It was published far away in Cambridge by an unknown writer. The title also caused some confusion at first. An official city guide called The New Bath Guide was published the year before Anstey's poem. This made it hard for readers to tell the two books apart for a while.
The New Bath Guide tells the funny adventures of three innocent children from a northern family. They write letters to their friends and parents, describing their experiences in the spa city. The poem's style was new for its time. It used everyday language and a bouncy rhythm. This rhythm later became known as the "Anstey measure."
'Tis this that provokes Mrs.SHENKIN Ap-LEEK
To dine at the ord'nary twice in a week,
Tho' at home she might get a good dinner in comfort,
Nor pay such a cursed extravagant sum for't:
But then her acquaintance would never have known
Mrs.SHENKIN AP-LEEK had acquir'd a "bon ton";
Ne'er shewn how in taste the AP-LEEKS can excel
The Duchess of TRUFFLES, and Lady MORELL;
Had ne'er been ador'd by Sir PYE MACARONI,
And Count VERMICELLI, his intimate crony;
Both men of such taste, their opinions are taken
From an ortolan down to a rasher of bacon.
The clever rhymes and funny names given to the characters make the poem even more humorous. These names often hinted at the person's personality. For example, the main family's name, Blunderhead, suggests they are foolish. The son's name, Simkin, also means a simpleton.
Some people criticized the broad humor in the Guide. To address this, Anstey added an epilogue to the second edition. It was a lighthearted way to respond to the complaints.
When Anstey wrote An Election Ball ten years later, he continued to make fun of Bath society. He expanded on some of his earlier themes. For example, Simkin's shock at women's hairstyles in The New Bath Guide became even funnier in An Election Ball. In a painting of Anstey, his daughter is shown with a fancy doll. This doll's wild hairstyle is like the one Anstey described in his poem. It shows how his family life inspired his writing.
Anstey's Literary Impact
Influence in the 1700s
Anstey was a creative writer in many ways. He was one of the first to write about tourism in a poem. His use of letters allowed his characters to have different voices, much like in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. His relaxed, bouncy rhythm also brought together the poem's many different impressions.
Many other writers copied Anstey's style after The New Bath Guide was published. Some of these copies were directly related to his work. For example, Poetical Epistles to the author of the New Bath Guide (1767) praised him. Richard Brinsley Sheridan also wrote a youthful imitation of Anstey's style in 1771. It was a funny account of a ball in Bath.
Anstey's An Election Ball (1776) was also an imitation of his own style. It further developed Sheridan's ballroom satire. This poem was first created to entertain a group of writers in Bath. It also pleased the town with its local references. Later, John Williams wrote A Postscript to the New Bath Guide (1790), which also referred to Anstey's work.
Other health resorts besides Bath became popular. Writers started applying Anstey's style to these new places. One early example was Tunbridge Epistles (1767). While many of these works were not very original, George Dallas became famous with his unique adaptation. It was called The India Guide (1785) and was dedicated to Anstey.
As sea-bathing became popular, replacing Bath's hot springs, Anthony Pasquin found success. He updated Anstey's title with The new Brighton guide (1796). This book became a bestseller. Later editions focused more on making fun of the Prince Regent, who liked Brighton.
Other anonymous works featured different resorts. The Sea-Side (1797) was about Ramsgate. Richard Scrafton Sharpe wrote The Margate new guide (1799) about a nearby town. It also used Anstey's bouncy rhythm.
Several authors also adapted Anstey's style and even his characters to political topics. These included Ralph Broome's The Letters of Simkin the Second (1789) and The New Parliamentary Register (1791).
Influence in the 1800s
The trend of adapting Anstey's style continued into the 1800s. In politics, George Watson-Taylor wrote The Cross-Bath Guide (1815). However, a reviewer thought it was not as witty as Anstey's original. There were also poems about new resort towns. These included Barbara Hofland's A Season in Harrogate (1812) and William Henry Halpin's The Cheltenham Mailbag (1820).
Bath became fashionable again as a spa town. This was highlighted by Queen Charlotte's visit in 1817. John Cam Hobhouse celebrated Bath in his poem The Wonders of a Week in Bath (1811). This was followed by two related works: Rough Sketches of Bath (1817) and Epistles from Bath (1817). These were later identified as imitations of Anstey's work by Thomas Haynes Bayly.
Authors started creating longer series of imitative works. An anonymous collection of letters, A Summer in Bath (1822), also appeared. However, Thomas Moore's The Fudge Family in Paris (1818) was a new and more successful kind of satirical imitation. Moore updated Anstey's style and made it broader. His poem featured a family visiting Paris after the Bourbon restoration. The different characters and their views were shown through various poem rhythms. The younger family members used Anstey's bouncy rhythm, while the older ones used a different one. The poem also dealt with the politics after the Congress of Vienna.
Later imitations moved relatives of the Fudge family to other cities like Edinburgh, American capitals, and Ireland. Then, a French Fudge visited London and described life there.
By the end of the decade, a resident of Bath wrote Eight Letters from Bath by the Fidget Family (1830). This poem used Anstey's perfect rhythm. In 1835, Moore wrote his own sequel, The Fudges in England. It was also set in a "fashionable watering place." While the book sold well, critics were not very impressed. By this time, writers seemed to have decided that there were enough imitations, and no more followed.
Influence in the 1900s
A later tribute to Anstey came from John Betjeman in 1973. Betjeman was a trustee of the Bath Preservation Trust. He protested against developers harming Bath in his poem "The Newest Bath Guide." He quoted from and addressed Anstey in his poem. The last two lines show how much Betjeman learned from Anstey's style of funny rhyming:
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- Goodbye to old Bath! We who loved you are sorry
- They're carting you off by developer's lorry.
Images for kids
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Thomas Rowlandson’s caricature of Bath diversions, 1810
