In 1781, he left home again, and spent a year in Detmold, staying with an Alsatian Protestant pastor called Roederer, and absorbing German literature under the influence of Lorenz Benzler [de].

He returned somewhat sceptical whether its members' rhetoric matched their intentions, but translated a number of its decrees for the Revolution Society.

[6] Before the end of 1790 two new clubs were formed in Norwich, of which Taylor became a member, the "Tusculan School" for political discussion, and the Speculative Society, founded by William Enfield for philosophical debate.

[9] In May 1794 government repression of radicals meant the Norwich Revolution Society closed down officially; and Taylor added "junior" to its written records, wherever his father's name appeared.

It was supposed to be the work of a "Society of Gentlemen", the group behind it being closely related to the Tusculan School, which dissolved or went underground in mid-1794: it was edited by Charles Marsh, and Taylor contributed, along with other like-minded young radicals, such as Thomas Starling Norgate and Amelia Alderson.

[1][13] In 1802, during the Peace of Amiens, Taylor embarked on another tour of Europe, visiting France, Italy and Germany, partly on business; Henry Southey joined him at Paris.

Taylor applied in 1812, at Southey's suggestion, for the post of keeper of manuscripts in the British Museum, on the resignation of Francis Douce; but the vacancy was already filled.

Georg Herzfeld wrongly assigned to him the political song, The Trumpet of Liberty, first published in the Norfolk Chronicle on 16 July 1791, having been sung on 14 July at a dinner commemorating the fall of the Bastille; Edward Taylor claimed it for his father, John Taylor, of the unrelated Norwich family.

William Taylor's name was made by his translation of Gottfried August Bürger's Lenore into English ballad metre.

This was written in 1790, and bore the title Lenora; sent it to his friend Benzler from Detmold (then in Wernigerode); a previous version had been made in 1782 by Henry James Pye, but was not published till 1795, and was unknown to Taylor.

The translation, circulated in manuscript, was made the foundation of a ballad (1791) by John Aikin, and was read by Anna Barbauld in 1794 at a literary gathering in the house of Dugald Stewart in Edinburgh.

Stewart's brother-in-law, George Cranstoun (Lord Corehouse) gave his recollection of it to Walter Scott, who produced his own version (1796) of the poem, entitled William and Helen.

[1] Taylor's career as a prolific literary critic began in April 1793 with an article in the Monthly Review on his friend Frank Sayers's Disquisitions.

He wrote also for the Cambridge Intelligencer, conducted by Benjamin Flower, from 20 July 1793 to 18 June 1803, and was concerned in two short-lived Norwich magazines, the Cabinet (October 1794–5), issued in conjunction with Sayers, and the Iris (5 February 1803 – 29 January 1804), to which Robert Southey was a contributor.

On the basis of his magazine articles he issued his 'English Synonyms Described,’ 1813, a work from which his old schoolfellow George Crabb borrowed much (1824) without specific acknowledgment; it was reissued in 1850 and subsequently; a German translation appeared in 1851.

[1] William Taylor was England's first advocate of and enthusiast for German Romantic literature, and leader in its assimilation until the return of Coleridge from Germany in 1799.

In 1828 the author Thomas Carlyle reminded Goethe that: Taylor is depicted as a mentor in George Borrow's semi-autobiographical novel Lavengro.