Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Dowden, Edward
DOWDEN, EDWARD (1843–1913), critic, the fourth son of John Wheeler Dowden, merchant and landowner, by his wife, Alicia Bennett, was born at Cork 3 May 1843. His elder brother, John Dowden [q.v.], became bishop of Edinburgh in 1886. He was educated at Queen’s College, Cork, and in Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1863. Only four years later he was appointed to the newly-founded chair of English literature in Trinity College—a post which he held till his death.
The foundations of Dowden’s literary reputation were laid by the publication in 1875 of Shakspere, His Mind and Art. It was followed by his Shakspere Primer (1877) and many editions of single plays. Of his other volumes of criticism the most important are Studies in Literature (1878), Transcripts and Studies (1888), New Studies in Literature (1895), Essays, Modern and Elizabethan (1910), with the short biographies of Southey, Browning, and Montaigne. His largest work is the Life of Shelley (1886); but his first study of Shakespeare has probably had more influence than any of his other books.
Dowden’s critical method is psychological; he attempts to find the dominant law of a writer’s mind and to exhibit his work as the expression of a single character and temperament. His criticism is not a record of personal impressions, nor does he dwell on the sensuous and aesthetic aspects of poetry. Ethical interests predominate with him; the first masters of his mind were the moralists and prophets, Wordsworth, Browning, George Eliot, Walt Whitman. It is significant that he found Balzac antipathetic and that it cost him an effort to enter into full sympathy with Shelley. Yet his mind was catholic in range and he interpreted successfully authors of the most dissimilar natures. His account of Sordello (reprinted in Transcripts and Studies) led to an acquaintanceship and correspondence with Browning, while with Whitman, whom he was among the first to appreciate, he formed a close and lasting friendship. Dowden had thought at one time of devoting himself to creative work, and in 1876 he published a volume of poems; but he was turned aside by the duty of bread-winning, perhaps too by a self-depreciation which showed itself in a faint, habitual irony. Tolerant and undogmatic, he seemed to verge on scepticism, but the ground of his nature was a deep seriousness, incapable of sophisticating moral issues and peremptory in matters of conduct. A cosmopolitan liberal, he disliked Irish nationalism and fought vigorously against Home Rule. He was eager to help and encourage young men, and his house became an intellectual centre. Dowden died in Dublin 4 April 1913. He was twice married. His first wife, Mary, daughter of David Clerke, whom he married in 1866, died in 1892. They had one son and two daughters. In 1895 he married Elizabeth Dickinson, daughter of John West, dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, a lady whose friendship had been a principal influence in his life. For her he wrote the little volume of poems, A Woman's Reliquary (1913). There were no children of the second marriage.
[Letters of E. Dowden and his correspondents, edited by E. D. and H. M. Dowden, 1914; Fragments of Old Letters (E. D. to E. D. W.), 1914; personal knowledge.]