Humour in the Letters of Thomas Campbell

Humour within the letters and personal writings of Romantic poets and authors has remained relatively neglected. Similarly seldom studied is the Scottish Romantic poet Thomas Campbell (1777–1844). Calling into question John Anster’s assessment of Campbell’s letters as a ‘weary heap of good-for-nothing evidence’, this article will attempt to give his unpublished epistles their rightful prominence in studies of Romanticism. Campbell’s correspondence reveals humorous descriptions of cooks kicking cats, which jostle with declarations of explicit disgust against ‘second-rate writers’, and detailed accounts of Campbell’s numerous illnesses. By shedding light on the use of humour in his letters, this article will challenge current preconceptions of Campbell, and show how he used humour to forge and maintain relationships in both his personal and his business correspondence.