Théophile-Jules-Henri "Theo" Marzials (20 December 1850 – 2 February 1920) was a British composer, singer and poet.Howse, Christopher. ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

''. 18 October 2006.
Did this man really write the worst poem ever?
. Retrieved 16 August 2007. Marzials was described in 1894 as a "poet and eccentric" by parodist

Max Beerbohm Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (24 August 1872 – 20 May 1956) was an English essayist, Parody, parodist and Caricature, caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the theatre crit ...

,The Works of Max Beerbohm
. Retrieved 16 August 2007. and, after writing and performing several popular songs, vanished into obscurity. His poetry is seen as an example of 19th-century

aestheticism Aestheticism (also known as the aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century that valued the appearance of literature, music, fonts and the arts over their functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be produced to b ...

.Stasny, John F.
Theo Marzials Biography
. Retrieved 16 August 2007.

Background

Marzials's father, Antoine-Theophile Marzials, was the pastor of the French Protestant Church of London and had been a clergyman before visiting London in 1839. While there he met Mary Ann Jackson (Marzials' mother) and the couple married. Theo was the youngest of their five children. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School His brother, Frank Marzials, was a prolific author of poetry, essays, and biographies and an accountant general in the army; he was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in 1904. In 1870 Marzials started work at the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

as a junior assistant in the librarian's office. There he would work with

Coventry Patmore Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore (23 July 1823 – 26 November 1896) was an English poet and critic, literary critic. He is best known for his book of poetry ''The Angel in the House'', a narrative poem about the Victorian era, Victorian ideal of ...

, John Payne,

Arthur O'Shaughnessy Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy (14 March 184430 January 1881) was a British poet and herpetologist. Of Irish descent, he was born in London. He is most remembered for his poem " Ode", from his 1874 collection ''Music and Moonlight'', which ...

, and

Edmund Gosse Sir Edmund William Gosse (; 21 September 184916 May 1928) was an English poet, author and critic. He was strictly brought up in a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren, but broke away sharply from that faith. His account of his childhood ...

, with whom he would form a particularly close friendship.

Poetry

In 1873 Marzials's only published collection of poetry was released, ''The Gallery of Pigeons and Other Poems'', which included the anthologised love poem "A Fragment" ("And then it seem'd I was a bird...")Cary Wilkins, ''A Little Treasury of Love Poems'' (NY: Avenel Books, 1980), pp. 86–87. It also includes ''A Tragedy'', an unusual poem that has often been called the worst ever written in the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

. The poem has been chosen as the worst ever by Ross and Kathryn Petras in the 1997 book '' Very Bad Poetry'' and by the Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain along with many other writers and critics.The Worst Poem Ever Written in the English Language
. Retrieved 16 August 2007. However,

Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review (1924), The Transatlant ...

called the collection "by far the most exquisite ... by any of the lesser

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, ...

poets". Other poems by Marzials featured in ''

The Yellow Book ''The Yellow Book'' was a British quarterly literary periodical that was published in London from 1894 to 1897. It was published at The Bodley Head Publishing House by Elkin Mathews and John Lane, and later by John Lane alone, and edited by th ...

'', an important literary periodical of the late 19th century.FirstScience.
Theophilus Marzials (1850–1920)
. Retrieved 16 August 2007.

Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Society of Jesus, Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame places him among the leading English poets. His Prosody (linguistics), prosody – notably his concept of sprung ...

described Marzials's "Rondel" as having "an art and finish rare in English verse". John M. Munro edited a selection of Marzials's poems and had them published in 1974. He referred to him as "interesting rather than significant, a literary curiosity, perhaps, rather than a neglected genius."

Music

Marzials later spent much of his time as a composer and in 1883 released ''Pan Pipes'', which coupled his music with the work of

Christina Rossetti Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English writer of romanticism, romantic, devotional and children's poems, including "Goblin Market" and "Remember". She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well k ...

and the illustrations of

Walter Crane Walter Crane (15 August 184514 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Ka ...

. The most successful of his songs was 1878's "Twickenham Ferry", which was well received in both England and America, and a musical version of

Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist and critic. He wrote many plays – all tragedies – and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the Eleve ...

's poem "Ask Nothing More of Me, Sweet", which became one of the most popular ballads of the 1880s. Marzials socialized with composer

Mary Augusta Wakefield Mary Augusta Wakefield (19 August 1853 – 16 September 1910) was a British composer, contralto, festival organiser, and writer. Biography Early life Wakefield was born in Kendal, where her paternal ancestors had been members of the Quakers, ...

, who also set Swinburne's work to music. Around the same time, Marzials collaborated with

Alberto Randegger Alberto Randegger (13 April 1832 – 18 December 1911) was an Italian-born composer, conductor and singing teacher, best known for promoting opera and new works of British music in England during the Victorian era and for his widely used textbook ...

as a

librettist A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major ...

on Arthur Thomas' '' Esmeralda'', an opera based on the character of the same name from

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

's 1831 novel ''

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame ''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (, originally titled ''Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482'') is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. The title refers to the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which features prominently throughout the novel. I ...

''.

Eccentric behaviour

Marzials's behaviour was often seen as eccentric and unusual, and he often gave impromptu performances of his works. He is quoted as saying "Am I not the darling of the British Museum reading room?" while inside that same silent room. Marzials worked at the British Museum until his retirement at the age of 32, after which he received a pension of £38 a year. This was supplemented by

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...

from his published work which were estimated at around £1000 annually. The relationship between Marzials and fellow author

is debated, with some claims that their relationship was more than platonic. Marzials retired to

Colyton, Devon Colyton is a town in Devon, England. It is located within the East Devon local authority area, the river River Coly runs through it. It is from Seaton, Devon, Seaton and from Axminster. Its population in 1991 was 2,783, reducing to 2,105 at t ...

in the early 1900s where he became addicted to

chlorodyne Chlorodyne was one of the best known patent medicines sold in the British Isles. It was invented in the 19th century by a Dr. John Collis Browne, a doctor in the British Indian Army; its original purpose was in the treatment of cholera. Brown ...

. He died there in February 1920.

References

* ''Theo Marzials: Poet in a Gallery of Pigeons'' by Richard Whittington-Egan (Cappella 2013)

External links