Edmund William Gosse

“ Swinburne has said that there are lines in Wells “which might more naturally be mistaken, even by an expert, for the work of the young Shakespeare, than any to be gathered elsewhere in the fields of English poetry.” This may be the case, but even the youngest Shakespeare would have avoided the dulness of subject-matter and the slowness of evolution which impede the reader’s progress through this wholly undramatic play. Joseph and his Brethren, in fact, although it has been covered with eulogy by the most illustrious enthusiasts, is less a poem than an odd poetical curiosity. ”

“ His two books passed almost unnoticed, and although Hazlitt said that Joseph and his Brethren was "more than original, aboriginal, and a mere experiment in comparison with the vast things" Wells could do, he forbore to review it, and even dissuaded the young poet from writing any more. Wells was now practising as a solicitor in London, but he fancied that his health was failing and proceeded to South Wales, where he occupied himself with shooting, fishing and writing poetry until 1835, when he removed to Broxbourne, in Hertfordshire. In 1840 he left England, never to set foot in it again. ”

“ He settled at Quimper, in Brittany, where he lived for some years. A story called Claribel appeared in 1845, and one or two slight sketches later, but several important tragedies and a great deal of miscellaneous verse belonging to these years are lost. ”