TIMELINE OF MATTHEW ARNOLD

1822----> Matthew Arnold born December 24 at Laleham-on Thames, Surrey, England.

1828----> Moved to Rugby when his father, Dr. Thomas Arnold, became Headmaster.

1836-1840----> Student at Winchester School (summer, 1836, to autumn, 1837). Visited northern France, August, 1836, with his parents. Student at Rugby, September, 1837, to June, 1840. Won Rugby Poetry Prize for Alaric at Rome. Won scholar ship to Balliol College, Oxford.

1841----> Entered Balliol College, October 15. Dr. Arnold appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford.

1842----> Tied for second place for Hertford Latin Scholarship at Oxford in March. Dr. Arnold died suddenly, on June 12, at the age of forty-seven.

1843----> Won Newdigate Poetry Prize with Cromwell.

1844----> Took his bachelor's degree with second-class honors in Litterae Humaniores.

1845----> Taught Classics at Rugby as temporary assistant-master in February and March. Elected to Fellowship at Oriel College, Oxford, in March.

1846----> Traveled in France and Switzerland; visited Paris from December, 1846, to February, 1847.

1847----> Became private secretary to Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, third Marquis of Lansdowne.

1849----> The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems, "by A," published in February

1850----> "Memorial Verses" published in Fraser's Magazine in June.

1851----> Appointed in April to an Inspectorship of Schools. Married in June at Teddington to Frances Lucy, daughter of Sir William Wightman, a judge of the Court of the Queen's Bench.

1852----> Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems by "A."

1853----> Poems: A New Edition, published under his own name.

1855----> Poems, Second Series.

1856----> First American edition of Poems. A New and Complete Edition.

1857----> Elected in May to chair of Professor of Poetry at Oxford. His inaugural lecture "On the Modern Element in Literature," delivered in the Sheldonian Theatre in November. Merope published in December with title page dated 1858.

1858----> Began settled residence in London at 2 Chester Square.

1859----> Appointed foreign assistant commissioner of the Duke of Newcastle's Commission to study elementary education in England. Met Sainte-Beuve in Paris in August. England and the Italian Question published. Elected member of Alpine Club, London. Served in the autumn in the Queen's Westminster Rifle Volunteers.

1860----> Report to the Education Commission-Confidential Edition.

1861----> Delivered the Oxford Lectures, "On Translating Homer." The Popular Education of France; with notices of that of Holland and Switzerland, the public edition of his Education Commission report. Arthur Hugh Clough died in Florence, November 13. On Translating Homer: Three Lectures given at Oxford.

1862----> Re-elected for another five years to the Poetry Chair at Oxford. In March, "The Twice-Revised Code" in Fraser's Magazine. On Translating Homer: Last Words.

1864----> A French Eton; or, Middle Class Education and the State. "The Literary Influence of Academies" in the Cornhill Magazine and "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time" in the National Review established Arnold's characteristic role as what Henry James called a general critic.

1865----> Essays in Criticism, (designated after 1888 as Essays in Criticism, First Series). Appointed assistant commissioner on the Schools Inquiry Commission to report on secondary schools and universities in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.

1866----> In April, "Thyrsis" in Macmillan's Magazine. Applied unsuccessfully for a Charity Commissionership as an alternative to his Inspectorship.

1867----> New Poems and On the Study of Celtic Literature, which comprised the lectures delivered at Oxford in 1866. Sought unsuccessfully the librarianship of the House of Commons.

1868----> Moved to Byron House, Harrow, in April. Infant son Basil died in January; eldest son Thomas, an invalid, died aged sixteen in November. Schools and Universities on the Continent.

1869----> Culture and Anarchy. Poems, first collected edition. Sought commissionership under the Endowed Schools Act, but appointment was successfully opposed by Gladstone.

1870----> St. Paul and Protestantism. Promoted to senior inspector ship of schools. Awarded honorary degree of D.C.L. by the University of Oxford.

1871----> Friendship's Garland.

1872----> Son William Trevenen died, aged eighteen. Edited A Bible-Reading for Schools; The Great Prophecy of Israel's Restoration.

1873----> Literature and Dogma. Moved to Pains Hill Cottage, Cobham, Surrey.

1874----> Higher Schools and Universities in Germany.

1875----> God and the Bible: A Review of Objections to "Literature and Dogma"; edited Isaiah XL-LXVI, with the Shorter Prophecies Allied to It.

1876----> La Crise religieuse, a translation by Dr. Charles Sarazin of Literature and Dogma published in Paris.

1877----> Last Essays on Church and Religion and Poems, the second collected edition. Declined to stand for election as Lord Rector of St. Andrews University.

1878----> Selected Poems of Matthew Arnold. Edited The Six Chief Lives from Johnson's "Lives of the Poets."

1879----> Mixed Essays. Edited with a critical preface Poems of Wordsworth.

1880----> Wrote a general introduction and essays on Thomas Gray and John Keats for T.H. Ward's The English Poets.

1881----> Poems, a re-issue of the 1877 edition. Edited a selection of Letters, Speeches and Tracts on Irish Affairs by Edmund Burke. Edited with a prefatory critical essay Poetry of Byron.

1882----> Irish Essays and Others. Delivered the Rede Lecture at Cambridge University on "Literature and Science" in May. Delivered at University College, Liverpool, "A Liverpool Address."

1883----> Awarded by Gladstone a Civil List pension as a public recognition of service to the poetry and literature of England." October, 1883, to March, 1884, lectured in America. Edited Isaiah of Jerusalem in the Authorized English Version with an Introduction, Corrections, and Notes.

1884----> Promoted to a chief inspectorship of schools.

1885----> The American lectures published as Discourses in America. Published Poems, in three volumes.

1886----> Second trip to America. Contributed "Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve" to Encyclopaedia Britannica (Ninth Edition). Resigned inspectorship of schools in April.

1887----> Contributed "Schools" to The Reign of Queen Victoria, ed. T. H. Ward.

1888----> Died suddenly of a heart attack in Liverpool on April 15. Essays in Criticism, Second Series, published posthumously. Civilization in the United States: First and Last Impressions of America published in Boston.

1889----> Reports on Elementary Schools, 1852-1882, ed. by Sir Francis Sandford.