COMBE

combe, william (1741-1823), english writer, the creator of "dr syntax," was born at bristol in 1741. the circumstances of his birth and parentage are somewhat doubtful, and it is questioned whether his father was a rich bristol merchant, or a certain william alexander, a london alderman, who died in 1762. he was educated at eton, where he was contemporary with charles james fox, the 2nd baron lyttelton and william beckford. alexander bequeathed him some £2000--a little fortune that soon disappeared in a course of splendid extravagance, which gained him the nickname of count combe; and after a chequered career as private soldier, cook and waiter, he finally settled in london (about 1771), as a law student and bookseller's hack. in 1776 he made his first success in london with _the diaboliad_, a satire full of bitter personalities. four years afterwards (1780) his debts brought him into the king's bench; and much of his subsequent life was spent in prison. his spurious _letters of the late lord lyttelton_[1] (1780) imposed on many of his contemporaries, and a writer in the _quarterly review_, so late as 1851, regarded these letters as authentic, basing upon them a claim that lyttelton was "junius." an early acquaintance with lawrence sterne resulted in his _letters supposed to have been written by yorick and eliza_ (1779). periodical literature of all sorts--pamphlets, satires, burlesques, "two thousand columns for the papers," "two hundred biographies"--filled up the next years, and about 1789 combe was receiving £200 yearly from pitt, as a pamphleteer. six volumes of a _devil on two sticks in england_ won for him the title of "the english le sage"; in 1794-1796 he wrote the text for boydell's _history of the river thames_; in 1803 he began to write for _the times_. in 1809-1811 he wrote for ackermann's _political magazine_ the famous _tour of dr syntax in search of the picturesque_ (descriptive and moralizing verse of a somewhat doggerel type), which, owing greatly to thomas rowlandson's designs, had an immense success. it was published separately in 1812 and was followed by two similar _tours_, "in search of consolation," and "in search of a wife," the first mrs syntax having died at the end of the first _tour_. then came _six poems_ in illustration of drawings by princess elizabeth (1813), _the english dance of death_ (1815-1816), _the dance of life_ (1816-1817), _the adventures of johnny quae genus_ (1822)--all written for rowlandson's caricatures; together with _histories_ of oxford and cambridge, and of westminster abbey for ackermann; _picturesque tours_ along the rhine and other rivers, _histories of madeira_, _antiquities of york_, texts for _turner's southern coast views_, and contributions innumerable to the _literary repository_. in his later years, notwithstanding a by no means unsullied character, combe was courted for the sake of his charming conversation and inexhaustible stock of anecdote. he died in london on the 19th of june 1823. brief obituary memoirs of combe appeared in ackermann's _literary repository_ and in the _gentleman's magazine_ for august 1823; and in may 1859 a list of his works, drawn up by his own hand, was printed in the latter periodical. see also _diary of h. crabb robinson_, _notes and queries for 1869_. footnote: [1] thomas, 2nd baron lyttelton (1744-1779), commonly known as the "wicked lord lyttelton," was famous for his abilities and his libertinism, also for the mystery attached to his death, of which it was alleged he was warned in a dream three days before the event.