Noble Biography

— The Corvey Poets Project at the University of Nebraska —

British Poetry of the later Eighteenth and Earlier Nineteenth Centuries

Bibliographical and Contextual Apparatus

Noble, Thomas

Julia; or, Pre-Existent Spirtis. Derby: Pike, [1828].

Biographical Information

Thomas Noble as Professional Editor, Local Historian

From the beginning, I should qualify this biographical sketch on Thomas Noble (dates?), the man. This biography, by necessity, has become something of a creative writing project. Contemporary reviews ofJulia, or Pre-Existent Spirits . . . The Meditative Minstrel, . . . with other smaller poems are either nonexistent or so rare as to have gone unrecorded. Sources of information about Noble, his life, and his work are equally scarce. Therefore, I have undertaken in this biographical sketch to give an impression of this man by using that which I have, his 1828 publication just mentioned above, and a dozen descriptive citations of his other works and projects. I am not a historian myself but know something about the gravity of misrepresenting a life and so I shall proceed with what I hope is a healthy caution. In my estimation, biography is a serious business on at least one level (though not on every level), but in this case I hope that no one takes my approach to and perspective on Noble as anything as stubborn as fact. This biography is merely text-based speculation.

Although Julia, or Pre-Existent Spirits possesses textual clues that the Wordsworthian poet from Derby, England may have been a cultured businessman and an amateur natural scientist, he was, more than perhaps anything else, a talented and busy editor and local historian. It seems likely from a review of his publication history that Noble took a serious interest in local history. He even may have traveled extensively. It is my thesis here that a love of language and history inspired Noble's known output, including Julia, or Pre-Existent Spirits. Simply put, history, as much as language, is the premise for his works. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Noble's interest in language, opera, business, nature, and —for the purposes of my particular recovery project — the philosophy of pre-existence, is historically motivated; that is, for him history informs and gives luster to language and the rest of his diverse interests.

Noble's love of language history may explain his editorial and revision work on the New Universal English Dictionary in 1835 and his editing so much relative to the history of the county of Derby, not to mention that his poetic invention, at least in the case of Julia, or Pre-Existent Spirits, relies heavily on historical documents such as the personal epistle, and local and global events. His work with the Dictionary probably involved exploring such things as historic word origins, pronunciations, usages, and various ancient and modern definitions. Editing a dictionary presupposes a facility for words and history. His dictionary "improve[ments"] must have required research and a sincere interest in the pure historical value of language and dictionary production. By 1835, English had already been through many major alterations, and no doubt, because of industrialization, social revolution, and the emerging science of the time, language was still in a relatively fluid state. As a professional poet, one-time translator, and amateur historian, Thomas Noble was well-suited for this kind of labor.

Tracking words doesn't make someone a poet or historian, however. But in Noble's case his love of language history apparently did not stop with word-collecting and cataloging. His eclectic collection, Julia, or Pre-Existent Spirits, hints that history inspires Noble, and that it may even have inspired him as much as the art of poetry itself, although his writing in general makes clear that he sees the arts, including music (opera), as ideally fusing with all fields of knowledge, including capitalistic business, natural science, and pre-history.

As an inevitable function of his bent for literary history, Noble vigorously explores poetic style, but for him even style has a long, rich history that he consciously tries to preserve by working with it. His extensive experimentation with poetic forms (cantos, sonnets, Spenserian stanza, etc.) and techniques (heavy initial alliterations, manipulation of ceasura) throughout the collection stems, no doubt, from an interest in language history and poetic figures from the past. Noble's poetry depends on precedent. His ethos, themes, and tone are Wordsworthian. Noble is well-read and his collection intentionally tries to imitate the great poets of the past, some of whom he mentions in his preface by name. He further states in his preface that this reaching for the past in terms of style corresponds to the literary fashions of his day. Noble, if anything, was a poet for his day. As nearly as I can tell, he was not a radical when it came to aesthetics and poetics, so much as he was a broad-thinking conservative.

More to the point, however, it must be remembered that Noble prefaces his collection by touching on the history of a religious and philosophic doctrine that was, as he indicates, known to several ancient civilizations. He establishes this fact before citing the document (epistle) that gives purpose to his first narrative. I should say that despite Noble's choice to treat the historic theme of pre-existence, I detect in him almost no serious interest in Christian theology. And while he certainly gets didactic on occasion, even his didacticism is not threatening, which leads me to believe that maybe he was something of a "freethinker." In his collection, there are relatively few clear biblical allusions, and he shows almost no interest in the doctrinal value of the pre-existence of spirits. For him, the historical doctrine resonates not because of what it means to man's spiritual progression, but because of what it means for marital love; it matters as history because history can comfort us. That is why I claim that history inspires Noble as much as poetry.

As evidence for Noble's love of language and history, I mention the headings to the sections of his Julia, or Pre-Existent Spirits. Nearly every argumentative summary references some localized historical event or quotidian particular. In his collection, he captures the particular especially in nature. In fact, some of his best passages describe nature. They strike the reader as so exact in their physical details that only a natural scientist or a romantic poet taking Wordsworth's advice on not misrepresenting nature could have prepared them. All this suggests that for Noble, nature, like history, serves as a primary stimulus to engage the imagination; like history, it inspires both the artist and the art. In short, Noble loved language, history, and nature. But he saw nature, ironically, not solely as a romantic reaching for the stars, but more as a natural scientist exploring them through a telescope.

In conclusion, Thomas Noble's talent is obvious. He edited more than he composed. But what he wrote shows a skill and an ability that must have been acceptable to those who reviewed his original works. If he is to be criticized down for anything, perhaps it should be in the area of not saying anything particularly new or original. It appears that he never really intended to do so, though. What he wanted, I believe, was to say what had already been said, but in an equally or, if possible, more moving fashion. He sought to build upon the past, not to depart from it. He sought to achieve pathos by using the concrete particular. And in that way he is comprehensible to those who write and review poetry today. His work reveals him to be broad-minded and tender. He was interested in many things, but none perhaps as much as everything at once, taken altogether. As a record of the past, history allowed him to think broadly about his country's present and speak boldly about his country's future. He had a vision for the world, if not a philosophic or original mind. In any case, the spirit of excellence pervades his work, and his intentions and talents were noble like his name.