THACKERAY
THIBAUDEAU
died a Pantheist. In the appendix to the
biography Jowett describes the poet as
"not an upholder of miracle-mongers " (ii,
465) ; and we may see some reflection of
Tennyson s indifference to Christian assur
ances when Lady Tennyson remarks to
Jowett : " About a future life we know
hardly anything " (ii, 467). Mr. C. F. G.
Masterman comes to much the same con
clusion, rather against his will, in his
Tennyson as a Religious Teacher (1900,
ch. xiii). Tennyson disliked aggressive
Eationalism, but he completely ignored the
doctrinal teaching of Christianity, and was
all his life a Pantheist. D. Oct. 6, 1892.
THACKERAY, William Makepeace,
novelist. B. July 18, 1811. Ed. Charter house and Cambridge (Trinity College). Thackeray took to law, and entered the Middle Temple (1831), but deserted it presently for letters. In 1833 he bought The National Standard and Journal of Literature. It ran for only a few months, and he went to Paris to study art. Not finding much promise in art, he returned to letters, and was Paris correspondent of the Constitutional. In 1836 he settled in London. The Yellowplush Papers appeared in Fraser s Magazine in 1838, and laid the foundation of his reputation. The Paris Sketchbook was published in 1840, and he began to contribute to Punch two years later. Barry Lyndon appeared in 1844, Vanity Fair (in monthly parts) in 1847-48, Pendennis in 1848-50, Henry Esmond in 1852, and The Netvcomes in 1853-55. Thackeray had now a commanding posi tion. He was the first editor of the Cornhill (1860-62), and made brilliant lecturing tours in the United States in 1852, 1853, and 1855. Thackeray s views are, like those of Tennyson, on the border line between Rationalism and a profession of Christianity, but it is equally clear that he did not accept Christianity in the doc trinal sense. In the Letters of Dr. J. Brown (1912, p. 405) there is a letter in which the novelist speaks of having heard a preacher "on the Evangelical dodge." " Ah, what 789
rubbish ! " he adds. Herman Merivale
tells us that " he seems to have formed
no very definite creed " (Life of W. M.
Thackeray, 1891, p. 31). Louis Melville,
in the next best study of Thackeray, quotes
him saying : " About my future state I
don t know. I leave it in the disposal of
the awful Father" (Life of W. M. Thackeray,
2 vols., 1899, ii, 105). The prayer referring
to " Our Lord Jesus Christ " which Melville
elsewhere quotes is plainly given on very
doubtful authority. Thackeray was, in
sum, decidedly Theistic and religious, but
Agnostic as to a future life (in spite of a
brief interest in Spiritualism) and indifferent
to Christian assurances. D. Dec. 22, 1863.
THEOPHILE DE YIAU, French poet. B. 1591. Ed. Saumur Protestant College. He became a playwright at Paris, and in 1617 his Pyrame et Thisbe brought him a high reputation. He expended his wit so caustically on religion that in 1619 he was banished for blasphemy. He was permitted to return to Paris in 1620, but again incurred banishment, and went to live in England. In 1621 he was once more allowed to settle in Paris. He abjured Protestantism, in which he had been reared, and embraced Catholicism. But his writings were not in the least changed, and in 1623 the Jesuits set afoot a more serious prosecution. He fled from Paris, and was in his absence condemned to death. At the frontier he was captured, but the sentence was commuted to exile for life, and he spent his remaining years at the court of the Due de Montmorency. D. Sep. 25, 1626.
THIBAUDEAU, Count Antoine Claire,
French historian and statesman. B. Mar. 23, 1765. Thibaudeau was a barristerat Poitiers when the Revolution broke out. In 1792 he was sent as deputy to the Convention and joined "the Mountain." After the death of Robespierre he moderated his political opinions, and became President of the Council of Five Hundred. Napoleon made him Prefect of Bordeaux and State 790
