Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Leigh Hunt Read online

  Leigh Hunt

  (1784-1859)

  Contents

  The Life and Poetry of Leigh Hunt

  BRIEF INTRODUCTION: LEIGH HUNT

  POETICAL WORKS: S. ADAMS LEE 1857 EDITION

  The Poems

  LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

  LIST OF POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

  The Poetic Dramas

  AMYNTAS

  A LEGEND OF FLORENCE

  LOVERS’ AMAZEMENTS

  ABRAHAM AND THE FIRE WORSHIPPER

  The Prose

  STORIES FROM THE ITALIAN POETS

  A JAR OF HONEY FROM MOUNT HYBLA

  THE TOWN

  COACHES AND COACHING

  MISCELLANEOUS PIECES

  The Biography

  LEIGH HUNT’S RELATIONS WITH BYRON, SHELLEY AND KEATS by Barnette Miller

  The Delphi Classics Catalogue

  © Delphi Classics 2016

  Version 1

  Leigh Hunt

  By Delphi Classics, 2016

  COPYRIGHT

  Leigh Hunt - Delphi Poets Series

  First published in the United Kingdom in 2016 by Delphi Classics.

  © Delphi Classics, 2016.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

  ISBN: 978 1 78656 205 0

  Delphi Classics

  is an imprint of

  Delphi Publishing Ltd

  Hastings, East Sussex

  United Kingdom

  Contact: [email protected]

  www.delphiclassics.com

  NOTE

  When reading poetry on an eReader, it is advisable to use a small font size and landscape mode, which will allow the lines of poetry to display correctly.

  The Life and Poetry of Leigh Hunt

  Southgate, London — Hunt’s birthplace

  Leigh Hunt was the youngest son of Isaac Hunt, born on 19 October 1784 at Eagle Hall, Southgate

  BRIEF INTRODUCTION: LEIGH HUNT

  by Alexander Ireland

  JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT (1784–1859), essayist, critic, and poet, was born at Southgate, Middlesex, on 19 Oct. 1784. His father, Isaac, was descended from one of the oldest settlers in Barbadoes, and studied at a college in Philadelphia, U.S.A. He married Mary Shewell, a lady of quaker extraction, a tender-hearted, refined, and sensitively conscientious woman, whose memory was, says Leigh Hunt, ‘a serene and inspiring influence to animate me in the love of truth.’ The father was sanguine, pleasure-loving, and unpractical. He encountered much persecution as a loyalist, and finally, with broken fortunes, came to England, where he became a popular metropolitan preacher. His manners were theatrical, and he was fond of society. He acquired a reputation for unsteadiness, which prevented him from getting preferment in the church. He found a friend in James Brydges, third duke of Chandos, and was engaged by him as a tutor to his nephew, James Henry Leigh (the father of Chandos Leigh, first Lord Leigh [q.v.]), after whom Leigh Hunt was called. He was subsequently placed on the Loyalist Pension Fund with 100l. a year, but he mortgaged the pension, and after undergoing a series of mortifications and distresses died in 1809.

  Leigh Hunt was a delicate child. He was watched over with great tenderness by his mother, and after a short visit to the coast of France his health improved. He was nervous, and his elder brothers took a pleasure in terrifying him by telling him ghost-stories, and by pretended apparitions. In 1792 he went to Christ’s Hospital School. His recollections of his schooldays and schoolmates occupy a large portion of his ‘Autobiography.’ He describes himself as an ‘ultra-sympathising and timid boy.’ The thrashing system then in vogue horrified him. His gentle disposition often made him the victim of rougher boys, but he at length gained strength and address enough to stand his own ground. He only fought once, beat his antagonist, and then made a friend of him. Among his school-fellows were Mitchell, the translator of Aristophanes, and Thomas Barnes (1785-1841) [q. v.], subsequently editor of the ‘Times.’ With Barnes he learned Italian, and the two lads used to wander over the Hornsey fields together, shouting verses from Metastasio. Coleridge and Lamb quitted the school just before he entered it. On account of some hesitation in his speech, which was afterwards overcome, he was not sent to the university. While at school he wrote verses in imitation of Collins and Gray, whom he passionately admired. He revelled in the six-penny edition of English poets then published by John Cooke (1731-1810) [q.v.], and among his favourite volumes were Tooke’s ‘Pantheon,’ Lemprière’s ‘Classical Dictionary,’ and Spence’s ‘Polymetis,’ with the plates. He wrote a poem called ‘Winter’ in imitation of Thomson, and another called ‘The Fairy King’ in the manner of Spenser. At thirteen, ‘if so old,’ he fell in love with a charming cousin of fifteen. After leaving school his time was chiefly spent in visiting his schoolfellows, haunting the bookstalls, reading whatever came in his way, and writing poetry. His father obtained subscribers from his old congregation for ‘Juvenilia; or, a Collection of Poems, written between the ages of twelve and sixteen, by J. H. L. Hunt, late of the Grammar School of Christ’s Hospital, and dedicated by permission to the Honble. J. H. Leigh, containing Miscellanies, Translations, Sonnets, Pastorals, Elegies, Odes, Hymns, and Anthems, 1801.’ The book reached a fourth edition in 1804. Hunt himself afterwards thought these poems ‘good for nothing.’ Subsequently he visited Oxford, and was patronised by Henry Kett [q.v.], who ‘hoped the young poet would receive inspiration from the muse of Warton.’ He was soon ‘introduced to literati, and shown about among parties in London.’ His father had given him a set of the British classics, which he read with avidity, and he began essay-writing, contributing several papers, written with the ‘dashing confidence’ of a youth, barely of age, to the ‘Traveller.’ They were signed ‘Mr. Town, Junior, Critic and Censor-general,’ a signature borrowed from the ‘Connoisseur.’ In 1805 his brother John started a short-lived paper called ‘The News.’ Its theatrical criticisms by Leigh Hunt, however, attracted attention by their independence and originality. A selection from them, published in 1807, was entitled ‘Critical Essays on the Performers of the London Theatres, including General Remarks on the Practice and Genius of the Stage.’ In 1807 appeared in five duodecimo volumes ‘Classic Tales, Serious and Lively; with Critical Essays on the Merits and Reputation of the Authors.’ The tales were selected from Johnson, Voltaire, Marmontel, Goldsmith, Mackenzie, Brooke, Hawkesworth, and Sterne.

  About this time Hunt was for a while a clerk under his brother Stephen, an attorney, and afterwards obtained a clerkship in the war office under the patronage of Addington, the premier, his father’s friend. This situation he abandoned in 1808 to co-operate with his brother John in a weekly newspaper, to be called ‘The Examiner.’ Although no politician, he undertook to be editor and leader-writer. The paper soon became popular. It was thoroughly independent, and owed allegiance to no party, but advocated liberal politics with courage and consistency. Its main object was to assert the cause of reform in parliament, liberality of opinion in general, and to infuse in its readers a taste for literature. As a journalist no man did more than Leigh Hunt, during his thirteen years’ connection with the ‘Examiner,’ to raise the tone of newspaper writing, and to introduce into its keenest controversies a spirit of fairness and tolerance.

  In 1809 Hunt married Miss Marianne Kent. In the same year appeared ‘An Attempt to show the Folly and Danger of Methodism …,’ a reprint, with additions, from the ‘Examiner.’ In 1810 h
is brother John started a quarterly magazine called ‘The Reflector,’ which Leigh Hunt edited. Only four numbers of it appeared. Barnes, Charles Lamb, and other friends contributed to it. Hunt wrote for it a poem called ‘The Feast of the Poets’ (afterwards published separately), a playful and satirical piece, which offended most of the poetical fraternity, especially Gilford, editor of the ‘Quarterly Review.’ The ‘Round Table,’ a series of essays on literature, men, and manners, by William Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt (2 vols. 1817), originally appeared in the ‘Examiner ‘ between 1815 and 1817.

  The ‘Examiner’ was looked upon with suspicion by those in power. More than once the brothers were prosecuted by the government for political offences, but in each case were acquitted. An article on the savagery of military floggings led to a prosecution early in 1811, when Brougham successfully defended the Hunts. Immediately after the acquittal Shelley first introduced himself to Hunt, by sending him from Oxford a sympahetic note of congratulation. At a political dinner in 1812 the assembled company significantly omitted the usual toast of the prince regent. A writer in the ‘Morning Post,’ noticing this, printed a poem of adulation, describing the prince as the ‘Protector of the Arts,’ the ‘Mæcenas of the Age,’ the ‘Glory of the People,’ an ‘Adonis of Loveliness, attended by Pleasure, Honour, Virtue, and Truth.’ The ‘Examiner’ retorted by a plain description of the prince. ‘This Adonis in loveliness,’ the article concluded, ‘was a corpulent man of fifty’ — in short, this delightful, blissful, wise, honourable, virtuous, true, and immortal prince was a violator of his word, a libertine over head and ears in disgrace, a despiser of domestic ties the companion of gamblers and demireps, a man who has just closed half a century without one single claim on the gratitude of his country or the respect of posterity.’ A prosecution of Hunt and his brother followed. They were tried in December 1812; Brougham again appeared in their defence, but both were convicted, and each was sentenced by the judge, Lord Ellenborough, in the following February to two years’ imprisonment in separate gaols and a fine of 500l. They were subsequently informed that if a pledge were given by them to abstain in future from attacks on the regent it would insure them a remission of both the imprisonment and the fine. This was indignantly rejected, and the two brothers went to prison, John to Clerkenwell and Leigh to Surrey gaol. Leigh was then in delicate health. With his invincible cheerfulness he had the walls of his room papered with a trellis of roses, the ceiling painted with sky and clouds, the windows furnished with Venetian blinds, and an unfailing supply of flowers. He had the companionship of his books, busts, and a pianoforte. He was not debarred from the society of his wife and friends. Charles Lamb declared there was no other such room, except in a fairy tale. Moore, a frequent visitor to the gaol, brought Byron with him in May 1813, and Hunt’s intimacy with Byron was thus begun (Moore, Life, ii. 204). Shelley had made him ‘a princely offer,’ which was declined immediately after the sentence was pronounced (Autobiog. i. 221). When Jeremy Bentham came to see him he found him playing at battledore. During his imprisonment he wrote ‘The Descent of Liberty: a Masque, dealing with the downfall of Napoleon, published in 1815, and dedicated to his friend Barnes. All through his imprisonment he continued to edit the ‘Examiner.’ He left prison in February 1815, and, after a year’s lodging in the Edgware Road, went to live at Hampstead, where Shelley, who had just sent him a sum of money, was his guest in December 1816. About the same time Charles Cowden Clarke introduced Keats to him, and Hunt was the means of bringing Keats and Shelley together for the first time (ib. i. 224 228). An article by Hunt on ‘Young Poets, published in the ‘Examiner,’ 1 Dec. 1816, first made the genius of Shelley and Keats known to the public. To both Hunt was a true friend, and both recorded their gratitude. Hunt addressed three sonnets to Keats, and afterwards devoted many pages of his ‘Indicator’ to a lengthened and glowing criticism of one of the young poet’s volumes. Keats stayed with him at Hampstead shortly before leaving for Italy. Shelley made him many handsome gifts; often invited him and his wife to stay with him at Marlow in 1817; and dedicated his ‘Cenci’ to him in 1819. Keats thought that Hunt afterwards neglected him, though Hunt disclaimed the imputation in an article in the ‘Examiner.’

  In 1816 appeared ‘The Story of Rimini,’ a poem. It was dedicated to Lord Byron. The greater part of it was written during his imprisonment. The subject of it was Dante’s love-story of Paolo and Francesca. It is conceived in the spirit of Chaucer and has in it lines worthy of Dryden. In conformity with the strictures of some of his critics he rewrote the poem some years later, but it is questionable whether he improved it. When he wrote it, he had not been in Italy, and afterwards he corrected some mistakes in the scenery, and restored its true historical conclusion. At this time Hunt became the object of the most bitter attacks on the part of many tory writers. His close friendship with Shelley, whom he actively assisted in the difficulties consequent on his desertion of his first wife, and whom he vigorously defended from the onslaughts of the ‘Quarterly’ in the ‘Examiner’ (September–October 1819), caused him to be identified with some opinions which he himself did not entertain. He was bitterly attacked in ‘Blackwood’s Magazine’ and the ‘Quarterly Review.’ In the words of Carlyle, he suffered ‘obloquy and calumny through the tory press — perhaps a greater quantity of baseness, persevering, implacable calumny, than any other living writer has undergone, which long course of hostility … may be regarded as the beginning of his other worst distresses, and a main cause of them down to this day.’ The ‘Quarterly Review’ nearly fifty years later gave utterance, through the pen of Bulwer, to a generous recognition of the genius of both Hunt and Hazlitt, whom it had similarly attacked, and fifteen years afterwards Wilson in ‘Blackwood’ made a graceful reference to him in one of the ‘Noctes,’ the concluding words of which were ‘the animosities are mortal, the humanities live for ever.’ Wilson even invited him to write for the magazine, but Hunt declined the offer.

  In 1818 appeared ‘Foliage; or Poems, Original and Translated.’ This was followed in 1819 by ‘The Literary Pocket-book,’ a kind of pocket and memorandum book for men of intellectual and literary tastes. Three more numbers of it appeared, viz. in 1820, 1821, and 1822. The articles in the ‘Pocket-book’ for 1819 descriptive of the successive beauties of the year were printed with considerable additions in a separate volume in 1821, under the title of ‘The Months.’ In 1819 Hunt also published ‘Hero and Leander’ and ‘Bacchus and Ariadne.’ A new journalistic venture, ‘The Indicator,’ in which some of his finest essays appeared, commenced in October 1819. During the seventy-six weeks of its existence his papers on literature, life, manners, morals, and nature were all characterised by subtle and delicate criticisms, kindly cheerfulness, and sympathy with nature and art. ‘Amyntas, a Tale of the Woods; from the Italian of Torquato Tasso,’ appeared in 1820.

  In 1821 a proposal was made to Hunt by Shelley and Byron, who were then in Italy, to join them in the establishment of a quarterly liberal magazine, the profits to be divided between Hunt and Byron. The ‘Examiner’ was declining in circulation, and Hunt was in delicate health. He had been compelled to discontinue the ‘Indicator,’ ‘having,’ as he said, ‘almost died over the last number.’ He set sail with his wife and seven children on 15 Nov. 1821. After a tremendous storm the vessel was driven into Dartmouth, where they relanded and passed on to Plymouth. Here they remained for several months. Shelley sent Hunt 150l. in January 1822, and urged him to secure some means of support other than the projected quarterly before finally leaving England. In May, however, the Hunts sailed for Leghorn, where they arrived at length at the close of June. They were joined by Shelley, and removed to Pisa, Hunt and his family occupying rooms on the ground floor of Byron’s house there. Shelley was drowned on 8 July 1822, and Hunt was present at the burning of his body, and wrote the epitaph for his tomb in the protestant cemetery at Rome. Byron’s interest in the projected magazine had already begun to cool. Hunt’s reliance on its speedy appearance was f
rustrated by Byron’s procrastination, and he was thus compelled to unwilling inactivity, and to the humiliation of having to ask for pecuniary assistance. The two men were thoroughly uncongenial, and their relations mutually vexatious [see under Byron, George Gordon]. The ‘Liberal’ lived through four numbers (1822–3). Hunt had left Pisa with Byron in September 1822 for Genoa. In 1823 he removed to Florence, and remained there till his return to England two years later. After Byron’s departure for Greece in 1823, Hunt and his family were left in a foreign country without the means of support, and much suffering ensued. He produced during that period ‘Ultra-Crepidarius; a Satire on William Gifford,’ and ‘Bacchus in Tuscany, a Dithyrambic Poem from the Italian of Francesco Redi, with Notes, original and select.’ He also issued the ‘Literary Examiner,’ an unstamped weekly paper, extending to twenty-seven numbers; and wrote ‘The Wishing Cap,’ a series of papers which appeared in the ‘Examiner;’ and a number of papers in the ‘New Monthly Magazine,’ called ‘The Family Journal,’ signed ‘Harry Honeycomb.’ To the ‘New Monthly’ he also contributed many essays at later dates. Hunt left Italy in September 1825, one of his reasons for returning to England being a litigation with his brother John. He settled on Highgate Hill, and energetically continued his journalistic work, but in 1828 he committed the great blunder of his life by writing and publishing ‘Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries, with Recollections of the Author’s Life, and of his visit to Italy, with Portraits.’ Although everything stated in the book was undoubtedly true, it ought never to have been written, far less printed. He himself afterwards regretted the imprudent act. ‘I had been goaded,’ he wrote, ‘to the task by misrepresentation …,’ and added that he might have said more ‘but for common humanity.’ At a later period he admitted that he had been ‘agitated by anger and grief,’ though he had said nothing in which he did not believe. The book has its historical value, however improper it may have been that one who was under obligations to Byron and had been Byron’s guest should publish it.