Death of Chatterton

Rose walked into the reading room, passed the couch without looking,
and browsed the shelves in front of her for a book to take her mind off
what had passed the last few days. She paused for a while deciding
which book to choose, then noticed the window of the room was open. Her
gaze moved to the couch below it, drawn like a moth to the flame, and
saw him lying there draped in the death shroud of the shadows. His pale
features were framed by a shaft of sunlight, as if his soul had just
left on it, while his body lay limp and lifeless waiting for deaths
aftermath to take effect. The costume he wore only added to the
absurdity of the situation. She sat down in one of the chairs in the
reading room and looked at him.

So he'd finally done it and in his usual selfish, overly dramatic
way.

He looked so peaceful for a change, as if the troubles of living life
had finally been lifted. Her eyes moved to the bottle held in his hand
and thought how fitting, poison for a poet. Just the way he had always
wanted to go. Shakespeare would have been proud of this star-crossed
lover. And then she remembered how it used to be.

The relationship had started well. She had met Chatterton, as he liked
to be addressed, at a dance held by her family at their Manor house in
Berkshire, and had spent the night dancing and talking. A whirlwind
romance of parties, dances, and picnics by the river followed, and she
felt she had found her true match.

He father thought otherwise, but allowed it for the time being "To get
this sort of thing out of her system before marriage to a fine man" he
had told his friends. She'd hoped he had been joking when she'd
overheard him one day, but she found out very soon he was not.

After all she wasn't her own woman, but a daughter of. The only way she
would ever get money of her own was to marry wealthy and hope he died
leaving her everything, or so Chatterton had persuaded her was the
case.

Suitors of a high calibre according to her father's idea of a good
match were introduced. Weeks followed of long outings with her Great
Aunt Bernadette acting as chaperone. Many were dull and lifeless, but
Edward De Vieira had proved to be the best of the lot.

He was a horse breeder from Connecticut in America, tall and handsome
with long dark hair and corn flower blue eyes that seemed to dance when
he laughed. Her father classed him as new money, but he deemed him fit
to ask for his daughter's hand. He'd offered her father the pick of his
stable for a new hunter, but she'd soon told Edward he did not have to
buy her father, or her, affections.

Chatterton had heard of the romance, but put it down to her father's
influence rather than Rose's own mind.

The one thing that annoyed her constantly about Chatterton was his
inability to give her credit for having any sense, or the intelligence
to use it. This was always the cause of many of the arguments they had
had, and she was often left mentally bruised after their verbal
battles. Thankfully her parents never found out about them.

These battles were then often followed by Chatterton's terribly
depressive moods and his countless threats of suicide, which often left
her feeling useless.

The final straw came when one night he turned up in the middle of
dinner and demanded she see him amid loud screams and banging. This
show of force upset many of the gentler guests making Edward want to go
out "And teach the mad man a lesson he wouldn't forget in a hurry" but
Rose managed to calm them all down, and left the dinner table every
inch the lady of composure. What faced her threatened to change all
that.

Chatterton was dressed in a Royalists outfit right down to the cape,
sword, topped off with a ridiculously large feather hat. She finally
decided he had gone a little to far into the role of poet and was
bordering on the said mad man

"Why is the wild man from the planes here and not me?" asked
Chatterton.

"My father has decided that it is time for me to put away childish
things and become a wife and mother. You and I are not to see each
other anymore Chatterton, and you should leave now. Go find someone who
is better suited to your lifestyle and beliefs. You know I never really
took your poetry seriously" This statement drew his usual threats and
vicious verbal outbursts, but she stood strong.

Edward could take the insults to his beloved no longer, left the table
and stood by her side "Why don't you bully a man rather than a woman
Chatterton, or are you to chicken to stand toe to toe with me?" on this
show of strength Chatterton humphed and disappeared in a flurry of cape
and feathers.

Chatterton's letters started in earnest 6 months before the wedding
plans, and made her heart ache to hear the plight of his soul. He sent
her sonnets of how his heart was but a shell without her love to fill
it, flowers to represent her name, and perfume so that she would smell
like her namesake. The letters changed to threats of throwing himself
in front of her wedding carriage to show her how much he loved her, and
all she could think of was the poor horses. These threats went on for
weeks and made her emotionally exhausted, but she did not reply to any
of his mailings.

This theme didn't last long however, and very soon his tone became
abusive. She was a chattel, a piece of property, and a fatted cow ready
to be slaughtered for a sacrifice at the will of the master of the
house. Then she was original sin and had fed him the apple in the
Garden of Eden, leaving him bereft in the knowledge of love when he had
been innocent of it. She was a viper that had stung him with her deadly
poison. It went on and on, until her father caught her crying in the
parlour and opened all her letters. A threatening letter of legal
action was sent to him and the letters stopped.

She cried many tears when she read the letters again and again until
her tears dried and her heart became as hard as granite. She saw him
for what he was a seeker of attentions she could no longer give him. A
man who would stop at nothing to gain that attention, even to the point
of taking his own life despite knowing that this was foolish and evil.
Being in the company of Byron and Shelly during a trip to Europe hadn't
helped to cool this side of his nature, but had merely helped to make
it more desperate.

The wedding day came and went, and so did the honeymoon in France. She
waited all the while to see if her monster would appear, lumbering
around the bend, or towards the dinner table as she ate with her true
love. But it did not appear.

And then she had entered this room and saw him was lying on the couch
that they had spent many happy days together on. Until he had become
mad with his own petard.

She wondered what to do now. How would this affect Edward? Would it
cause a scandal? Would she be known as a breaker of men's hearts? What
would her father think?

"SNORK!" the snore ripped into the quiet of the room like a buzz saw.
He was alive, snoring, but alive. She turned and hit him with her book,
but could not rouse him. The bottle dropped from his hand onto the
carpet with a TETUNK! She looked at the label of the bottle and read
it's contents aloud.

"Valerian sleeping drops for babies" the bottle wasn't strong enough to
kill a kitten let alone him. She could nearly scream. Instead she
called Edward "Edward come her please!" Edward popped his head around
the doorframe, saw Chatterton on the couch, saw her anger, and knew
he'd been up to his old tricks again.

"This time" said Edward "I'm going to whip him within an inch of his
life and send him back to his little poetry circle with something to
think about" he grabbed Chatterton by his shirt collar and trousers,
put him over his shoulder, and walked him out to the stables.
Chatterton emerged later at full speed screaming for mercy and out
distancing Edward two fold.

"I always knew he'd show a clean set of heels once he was shown who was
boss" said Edward with a horse whip in his right hand. The two of them
laughed as Chatterton ran down the road holding his trousers up and
limping at high speed from the whipping Edward had administered.

"Good riddance" they cried.

Rose kissed Edward on the cheek and thought of how her life could have
been if she had stayed with Chatterton and shuddered. She looked at
Edward and said "Thank God I found you" and Edward smiled.

"Tea is ready Madam" and off they went full in the knowledge that the
relationship with Chatterton was well and truly dead.