Dr. Erasmus Darwin

Erasmus Darwin, the fourth son of Robert Darwin, a lawyer, was educated at Chesterfield school (1741-50) and St. John's College Cambridge (B.A. 1754, M.B. 1755). He contributed an ode to the Cambridge anthology on the death of Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1751. After studying medicine at Edinburgh, in 1756 Darwin began his practice at Lichfield , where he was the center of a literary coterie; in 1781 he removed to Derby, where he founded a philosophical society in 1784. He was made Fellow of the Royal Society in 1761. Darwin's botanical poetry, once widely read, pursues questions later developed by the poet's famous grandson.

TEXT RECORDS:

1794[To Richard Polwhele; on the Spenserian stanza.]
1800 ca.Temple of Nature. Canto I. Production of Life.
1800 ca.Temple of Nature. Canto II. Reproduction of Life.
1800 ca.Temple of Nature. Canto III. Progress of the Mind.
1800 ca.Temple of Nature. Canto IV. Of Good and Evil.

PUBLICATIONS:

Linnaeus, The families of Plants [trans. Darwin]. 1787.
The loves of the plants. 1789, 1790.
The botanic garden. 1791.
The golden age: a poetical epistle to T. Beddoes. 1794.
Zoonomia: or the laws of organic life. 2 vols. 1794-96.
A plan for the conduct of female education in boarding schools. 1797.
Phytologia: or the philosophy of agriculture and gardening. 1800.
The temple of nature, or the origin of society: a poem. 1803.
Essential writings, ed. Desmond King-Hele. 1968.
The Letters of Erasmus Darwin, ed. Desmond King-Hele. 1981.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Chesterfield School
St. John's College Cambridge
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Medicine
Edinburgh University
Fellow of the Royal Society

physician
poet

Poetical Register

Dr. John Aikin
Brooke Boothby
Thomas Day
Maria Edgeworth
Richard Lovell Edgeworth
William Hayley
Francis Noel Clarke Mundy
Rev. Richard Polwhele
Anna Seward
Rev. Thomas Seward
William Seward
Rev. William Bagshaw Stevens

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB.

"Dr. Erasmus Darwin" European Magazine 27 (February 1795) 75-77 [portrait]; "Memoirs of Darwin" The Nightingale [Boston] (19 July 1796) 369-71; David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798); "Erasmus Darwin" Weekly Magazine [Philadelphia] 3 (30 March 1799) 406 [from Rivers]; Poetical Register for 1801 (1802), 1802 (1803), 1806-07 (1811), 1808-09 (1812), 1810-11 (1814); obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 72 (May 1802) 473-74; "Memoirs of Dr. Darwin" Monthly Magazine 13 (June 1802) 457-63; Richard Lovell Edgeworth, "On Dr. Darwin" Monthly Magazine 14 (September 1802) 115-16; Annual Register for 1802 (1802) 503; "Memoirs of Erasmus Darwin" Universal Magazine 112 (February 1803) 81-85 [portrait]; "Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Erasmus Darwin" Edinburgh Magazine or Literary Miscellany NS 21 (April 1803) 249-53; "Biographical Sketches: Erasmus Darwin" Flowers of Literature for 1803 (1804) 15-23 [portrait]; Anna Seward, Memoirs of the life of Dr. Darwin (1804); review of Seward's Memoirs, Edinburgh Review 4 (April 1804) 230-41; "Memoirs of Darwin" Literary Magazine and American Register 1 (February-March 1804) 384-88, 440-46; "Remarks on Darwin's Temple of Nature" Literary Magazine and American Register 1 (March 1804) 434-40; "Darwin's Temple of Nature" Universal Magazine NS 1 (March 1804) 273-78; Censura Literaria 6 (1808) 203-12; Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15) 9:75-77; "On the Darwinian School of Poetry" Edinburgh Magazine NS 2 (April 1818) 313-16; "Remarks on Darwin's Botanic Garden" Blackwood's Magazine 5 (May 1819) 153-55; Thomas Campbell, Specimens of the British Poets (1819); "Erasmus Darwin" Gentleman's Magazine 91 (April 1821) 327-28; "On the Life and Writings of Erasmus Darwin" London Magazine 6 (1822) 520-28; Henry Francis Cary, "Erasmus Darwin" in London Magazine 6 (December 1822) 520-28; "Life and Writings of Erasmus Darwin" Port Folio [Philadelphia] S4 15 (June 1823) 441-56 [from Cary]; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Biographical Magazine 1 (1829) [portrait]; The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34) 3:360-62; Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Thomas Hill, "Erasmus Darwin" Bibliotheca Sacra 35 (1878); Charles Darwin, "The Life of Erasmus Darwin" in Erasmus Darwin, by Ernst Krause, trans. by W. S. Dallas (1879); A. G. Sedgwick, "Erasmus Darwin" The Nation 30 (1880); H. Hitchman, in Eighteenth Century Studies (1881); Margaret Oliphant, Literary History of England (1882) 1:218-38; Charles Darwin, Life of Erasmus Darwin (1887); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Venn and Venn, Alum. Cant. (1922-27); Hesketh Pearson, Doctor Darwin (1930); James V. Logan, The Poetry and Aesthetics of Erasmus Darwin (1936); Renwick, OHEL (1963); Desmond King-Hele, Erasmus Darwin (1963); Valentine, British Establishment (1970); Donald M. Hassler, Erasmus Darwin (1973); Desmond King-Hele, Doctor of Revolution: The Life and Genius of Darwin (1977); Desmond King-Hele, Erasmus Darwin and the Romantic Poets (1986); Maureen McNeil, Under the Banner of Science: Erasmus Darwin and his Age (1987); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Dr. Erasmus Darwin:

1.	1783  Anna Seward, "Verses written in Dr. Darwin's Botanical Garden near Litchfield" Gentleman's Magazine 53 (May 1783) 428.
2.	1786  Anna Seward to George Hardinge, 10 December 1786; Anna Seward to George Hardinge, 23 October 1786; Letters, ed. Scott (1811) 1:215-16.
3.	1788  William Bagshaw Stevens, "To the Author of the Poem on the Loves of the Plants" 1788; Darwin, The Botanic Garden (1799) v-vi.
4.	1789  Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Montagu, 13 June 1789; Letters to Mrs. Montagu, ed. Montagu Pennington (1817) 3:310-11 &n.
5.	1791  M. C. S., "Sonnet, occasioned by the expected Edition of Dr. Darwin's beautiful Poem complete" Gentleman's Magazine 61 (Supplement 1791) 1222.
6.	1792  Richard Polwhele, "To Dr. Darwin" 1792; Darwin, The Botanic Garden (1799) vii.
7.	1792  William Hayley, "To Dr. Darwin" 1792; Darwin, The Botanic Garden (1799) x-xi.
8.	1792  Francis Noel Clarke Mundy, "Address to the River Derwent, on whose Banks the Author of the Botanic Garden resides" 1792; Darwin, The Botanic Garden (1799) xii-xiii.
9.	1792  Anna Seward to Mrs. Jackson, 3 August 1792; Letters, ed. Scott (1811) 3:152-57.
10.	1793  Isaac D'Israeli, in Curiosities of Literature (1793) 2:47.
11.	1793  William Cowper, "To Dr. Darwin" 1793; Darwin, The Botanic Garden (1799) viii-ix.
12.	1796  Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Joseph Cottle, January 1796; Cottle, Reminiscences (New York, 1847) 64.
13.	1796  Anonymous, "Ode to the Spirit of Animation" The Monthly Magazine 2 (September 1796) 647.
14.	1796 ca.  Dewhurst Bilsborrow, "To Erasmus Darwin, on his Work entitled Zoonomia" 1796 ca.; Poetical Register and Repository of Fugitive Poetry for 1805 (1807) 500.
15.	1798  R. L. E. [Richard Lovell Edgeworth?], "Verses sent to a Lady with Dr. Darwin's Botanic Garden" The Monthly Magazine 5 (June 1798) 442.
16.	1798  Edward Gardner, in "Miss Seward, Dr. Darwin, Gray, and Collins" Miscellanies, in Prose and Verse (1798) 1:162-64.
17.	1800  Thomas James Mathias, in Pursuits of Literature (1800) 54-55 & n.
18.	1800  Nathan Drake, in Literary Hours (1800) 2:194-95
19.	1801  Alexander Thomson, in The British Parnassus, at the Close of the Eighteenth Century (1801) 58-59.
20.	1802  Mr. Rainford, "Lines on the Death of the late truly benevolent and great Doctor Darwin" Gentleman's Magazine 72 (July 1802) 653.
21.	1802  Richard Lovell Edgeworth, "On Dr. Darwin" The Monthly Magazine 14 (September 1802) 115-16.
22.	1802  Anonymous, "On the Death of Dr. Darwin" Scots Magazine 64 (May 1802) 423.
23.	1803  Anonymous, "Elegy on the Death of Dr. Darwin" City Gazette and Daily Advertiser [Charleston] (8 October 1803).
24.	1805  Charles Brockden Brown?, "Dr. Darwin" Literary Magazine and American Register [Philadelphia] 4 (August 1805) 149.
25.	1805  Anna Seward to Richard Polwhele, 18 June 1805; Polwhele, Traditions and Recollections (1826) 2:565-66.
26.	1808  Samuel Egerton Brydges, in Censura Literaria 6 (1808) 210.
27.	1809  Lord Byron, in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809); Poetical Works, ed. E. H. Coleridge (1898-1904) 1:367-68 & n.
28.	1811  T., "On Darwin" Philadelphia Repertory 2 (19 October 1811) 174-75.
29.	1812  Charles Caleb Colton, in Hypocrisy, a Satire (1812) 14.
30.	1814  Leigh Hunt, in Feast of the Poets (1814) 27-28n.
31.	1814  George Dyer, in History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge (1814) 2:450.
32.	1818  William Hazlitt, in Lectures on the English Poets (1818; 1909) 193.
33.	1821  A Belle of the Old School, "The Genius of Darwin" Gentleman's Magazine 91 (April 1821) 327-28.
34.	1824  George Dyer, in Privileges of the University of Cambridge, Supplement (1824) 144.
35.	1824  Bryan Waller Procter, in Effigies Poeticae, or, the Portraits of the British Poets (1824) 106-07.
36.	1827  Robert Southey, in "Sayers's Works" Quarterly Review 35 (1827) 198-201.
37.	1833  James Montgomery, "Dr. Darwin's Theory of Poetic Style" Lectures on General Literature, Poetry, &c. (1833; 1836) 124-28.
38.	1851  David Macbeth Moir, in Sketches of the Poetical Literature of the Past Half-Century (1851; 1856) 16.
39.	1856  Samuel Rogers, in Table Talk (1856) 180.
40.	1858  Cyrus Redding, in Fifty Years' Recollections (1858) 1:67-68.
41.	1882  Margaret Oliphant, in The Literary History of England (1882) 1:234.
42.	1882  Epes Sargent, in Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry (1882) 205-06.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Dr. Erasmus Darwin:

1.	1795  Anonymous, "Dr. Erasmus Darwin" European Magazine 27 (February 1795) 75-77.
2.	1798  David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798) 1:145--46.
3.	1802  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 72 (May 1802) 473-74.
4.	1804  Francis William Blagdon, "Biographical Sketches: Dr. Erasmus Darwin" Flowers of Literature for 1803 (1804) 15-23.
5.	1808  Samuel Egerton Brydges, "Dr. Darwin" Censura Literaria 6 (1808) 203-12
6.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 11:286-90.
7.	1815  John Nichols, in Literary Anecdotes of the XVIII Century (1812-15) 9:75-76.
8.	1819  Thomas Campbell, in Specimens of British Poetry (1819; 1845) 684-85.
9.	1822  Henry Francis Cary, "Lives of the Poets: Erasmus Darwin" London Magazine 6 (December 1822) 520-28.
10.	1832  William Clarke and Robert Shelton Mackenzie, in The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain (1832-34) 3:360-62.
11.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 2:270-71.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1792  Rev. Richard Polwhele:   Erasmus Darwin to Richard Polwhele, 17 July 1792; Polwhele, Traditions and Recollections (1826) 1:299.
2.	1800  Francis Noel Clarke Mundy:   Erasmus Darwin, "Address to the Swilcar Oak" European Magazine 37 (March 1800) 226.
3.	1800 ca.  Anna Seward:   Erasmus Darwin, 1800 ca.; E. V. Lucas, A Swan and Her Friends (1907) 19.
4.	1801  Rev. William Mason:   Erasmus Darwin, "Inscription for the Monument of the Rev. W. Mason" Poetical Register for 1801 (1802) 139.