Bryan Procter

Bryan Procter – Life, Poetry, and Legacy

Discover the life and work of Bryan Waller Procter (pen name Barry Cornwall), the 19th-century English poet and legal professional. Explore his poetic themes, key works, memorable lines, and his place in Victorian literary culture.

Introduction

Bryan Waller Procter (1787–1874), better known by his pseudonym Barry Cornwall, was an English poet, barrister, and literary figure of the Victorian era. Though not always counted among the greatest poets of his time, Procter left a substantial body of verse, critical writings, and personal connections with many luminaries of his generation. His dual career in law and letters, his occasional dramatic experiments, and his role in the literary circles of early to mid-19th century England make him a compelling subject for historical and poetic reflection.

Early Life and Family

Bryan Waller Procter was born on 21 November 1787 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. Harrow School, where he was classmates (or contemporaries) with notable figures such as Lord Byron and Robert Peel.

After finishing at Harrow, Procter was placed in the office of a solicitor in Calne, Wiltshire, around 1807, before moving to London to pursue law.

In 1824 he married Anne Skepper (née Skepper), and they would have a daughter, Adelaide Anne Procter, who herself became a well-known Victorian poet.

Procter died on 5 October 1874 in London.

Youth, Legal Training, and Literary Beginnings

While Procter carried on legal training and practice, his literary impulses were always present. After moving to London circa 1807, he continued his legal studies and began contributing poems to literary periodicals.

From about 1815, he began publishing contributions in the Literary Gazette. “Barry Cornwall” for his poetic and dramatic works.

Career and Major Works

Legal & Public Service

Though best known for his poetry, Procter maintained a serious professional life in law. He practiced as a solicitor and later was called to the bar in 1831.

From 1832 until 1861, he held the office of Commissioner in Lunacy (or metropolitan commissioner of lunacy) — a governmental role overseeing mental health and welfare, aligned with the Lunacy Act reforms of the period.

Thus, Procter’s life encompassed both public duty and literary craftsmanship.

Poetic and Dramatic Output

Procter’s main literary activity falls between roughly 1815 and 1832, though he continued to write and publish occasionally afterward.

Some of his principal works include:

• Dramatic Scenes and Other Poems (1819)

• A Sicilian Story (1820)

• Marcian Colonna (1820)

• Mirandola (1821), a tragedy performed at Covent Garden

• The Flood of Thessaly (1823)

• English Songs (1832)

Beyond purely poetic works, Procter produced prose and critical writings, including:

• Life of Edmund Kean (1835)

• Essays and Tales in Prose (1851)

• Charles Lamb: a Memoir (1866)

After his death, a fragment of autobiography, along with reminiscences of literary friends, was published in 1877 (with additions by Coventry Patmore)

Literary Circles & Influence

Procter moved in prominent literary and intellectual circles. His home with his wife was a gathering place for many of his contemporaries.

Charles Lamb specifically praised his Dramatic Sketches, saying that had they been anonymous manuscripts found in the Garrick Collection, Lamb would have had no hesitation in including them in his Dramatic Specimens.

Notably, Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray was dedicated to B. W. Procter, and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins was also dedicated to him.

While not as celebrated today, his reputation in his time was respectable — though critics often viewed him as not quite reaching the stature of the Romantic or Victorian giants.

Themes, Style, and Poetic Character

Stylistic Tendencies

• Procter’s verse often blends elements drawn from Elizabethan or Cavalier lyric traditions with those of his own era, yielding a hybrid sensibility.

• His dramatic fragments evoke a revival of earlier dramatic forms, sometimes infused with Victorian emotion.

• His poetic tone is often accessible, lyrical, and expressive, though critics sometimes faulted him for lack of unity or consistency in ambition.

Recurring Themes

• He is not primarily a poet of sweeping metaphysical systems, but his work often explores emotion, human relationship, nature, loss, and reflection.

• His dramatic works, such as Mirandola, explore character and psychological tension within historic or romantic settings.

• In his prose and memoir work, he shows interest in literary history, biographical appraisal, and the life of artists.

• The tension between his legal/public role and his poetic life suggests a consciousness of dual obligations: the civic and the contemplative.

Reputation and Critique

Procter has often been classed as a “second-tier” poet: well regarded in his time, but overshadowed by greater Romantic and Victorian poets.

In modern scholarship, Procter is sometimes studied for what he reveals about the transitional generations bridging Romanticism and Victorian poetics, and for his connections to more famous contemporaries.

Famous Lines & Quotations

Some of Procter’s poetry continues to circulate, though no single line has become a household literary quotation. The following are representative samples:

“The Sea! the sea! the open sea!
The blue, the fresh, the ever free!”
— from “The Sea”

“We are born; we laugh; we weep;
We love; we droop; we die!
Ah! wherefore do we laugh or weep?
Why do we live, or die?
Who knows that secret deep?”
— Anonymous attribution in collections of his short pieces

(From his published works in collections such as English Songs and his earlier dramatic lyrics.)

Because much of his poetry is out of copyright, entire poems (rather than epigrammatic lines) are often reprinted in online anthologies.

Legacy and Lessons

Bryan Procter represents a kind of literary figure whose importance is as much historical and connective as purely aesthetic:

1. Bridging Worlds: He inhabited both the legal/public sphere and the poetic/creative one — a reminder that literary life in the 19th century was not always separate from professional service.

2. Literary Network: Through his friendships and collaborations, Procter helped sustain a vibrant literary network in his time. His home was a salon for writers, actors, and thinkers.

3. Moderation and Craft: His poetic voice is less radical or revolutionary than that of his Romantic forerunners, but shows that there is room in literary history for voices of moderation, refinement, and cultivation.

4. Historical Witness: As someone active across decades of literary change, Procter’s life offers a lens into evolving tastes, the role of periodicals, dramatic theatre, and public literary culture in 19th-century England.

5. Endurance & Obscurity: His trajectory — once well respected, now more obscure — reminds us how literary reputations shift with time, and how much depends on critical canon formation and shifting tastes.

Conclusion

Bryan Waller Procter, or Barry Cornwall, may not now be counted among the most canonical poets of the 19th century, but his contributions to Victorian literary life, his connection to dramatic and romantic legacies, and his dual identity as poet and public servant make him a fascinating figure. His works contain lyrical grace, occasional dramatic ambition, and a voice reflective of his time. For those curious in the lesser-known currents of English poetry or the networks around Lamb, Hunt, or Browning, Procter is a meaningful point of entry.