James Thomson (poet)

James Thomson ( born September 11, 1700 in Ednam, Roxburghshire, † August 27, 1748 ) was a Scottish writer.

Life

During his time as a student of theology at the University of Edinburgh he published his first poems, which are mainly the Jed Valley, where he grew up, had on the subject. When his sermons were then criticized for being too flowery, he gave up his studies and went to London in 1725.

There he met other writers, including his compatriot David Mallet, and was quickly successful. He won the favor of Frederick, Prince of Wales, whom he also supported politically, tutor for the son of Sir Charles Talbot, who later became Solicitor General ( Solicitor - General ) and then Secretary of the Court of Chancery was was.

1730 his poems were published under the title The Seasons, and his next major work was Liberty ( 1734), which he dedicated to the Prince of Wales. He wrote several plays, including The Tragedy of Sophonisba (1734 ) and worked with Mallet together at the masque Alfred, that the song Rule, Britannia! was contained and in Cliveden, the country residence of the Prince of Wales, premiered. After Talbot's death Thomson lost the favor of the prince and his career ended with The Castle of Indolence, his most famous piece, which was published shortly before his death.

Fourteen years after the English original (1744) Barthold Heinrich Brockes published his German version of the Seasons. In 1801, Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Seasons appeared with a part- text editing by Gottfried van Swieten.

In addition, this work was the occasion for two important legal decisions ( Millar v. Taylor, Donaldson v. Beckett ) in the history of copyright.