SHELLEY
Finnerty Case--Correspondence of Hunt and Shelley--Their Political and
Religious Sympathy--Hunt's Defense of Shelley--Hunt's Italian
Journey--Shelley's Death--Hunt's Criticism--Literary Influence--Shelley's
Estimate of Hunt.
The friendship of Shelley and Leigh Hunt is the simple story of an
intimacy founded on a common endowment of independence of thought and of
capacity for self-sacrifice. Although both were sensitive and shrinking by
nature, and preferred to dwell in an isolated world of books and dreams,
yet for the sake of abstract principles and for love of humanity, both
expended much time and endured much pain in the arena of public strife.
In _The Examiners_ of February 18 and 24, 1811, appeared articles by Hunt
on the Finnerty case. Peter Finnerty, Hunt's successor as editor of _The
Statesman_, had been prosecuted and imprisoned on the charge of libelling
Lord Castlereagh. Hunt's defense drew Shelley's attention to the case and
may have inspired him, it has been suggested, to write his _Political
Essay on the Existing State of Things_. The proceeds went to
Finnerty.[211] On March 2 Shelley subscribed to the Finnerty fund and, on
the same day, wrote Hunt, whom he had never met, a letter from Oxford,
congratulating him on his acquittal from a third charge of libel and
proposing that an association should be formed to establish "rational
liberty," to resist the enemies of justice, and to protect each
other.[212]
Shelley's political creed was, in the main, that of William Godwin, with
an admixture of Holbach, Volney and Rousseau at first hand.[213] In
English philosophic literature he knew Berkeley, Hume, Reid and Locke. His
watchword was the cry of the French Revolution, liberty, equality and
fraternity, to be gained, not by violence and bloodshed, but by a steady
and unyielding resistance of the masses against the corrupt institutions
of church and state. Like Godwin, he believed man capable of his own
redemption and, with tradition and tyranny overthrown and reason and
nature enthroned, he hoped for universal justice and ultimate
perfectibility of mankind. His poetry and his prose represent a
development from the impassioned and imaginative enthusiasm of an
uncompromising youth, who would single-handed revolutionize the world in
the twinkling of an eye, to the saner hope of a man who took somewhat into
account the necessarily gradual nature of ethical evolution. His chief
fallacy lay in the failure to recognize evil as an inherent force in human
nature and to acknowledge sect and state, to which he attributed the
origin of all error, as inventions of man's ingenuity. Neither did he
perceive the necessity of certain restrictions on the individual for the
preservation of law and order. He believed in no distinctions of rank
except those based on individual talent and virtue. He wrote in 1811: "I
am no aristocrat, nor '_crat_' at all, but vehemently long for the time
when men may dare to live in accordance with Nature and Reason--in
consequence with Virtue, to which I firmly believe that Religion and its
establishments, Polity and its establishments, are the formidable though
destructible barriers."[214] Shelley knew of Leigh Hunt first as a
political writer of considerable importance. In this respect he never
ceased to admire him or to be influenced by _The Examiner_ in the campaign
against government corruption. Yet his own equipment of mind and training,
visionary as his theories seem, gave him a power of speculation and grasp
of situation that ignored the limitations of time and space, while Hunt,
with his narrower view, never got beyond the petty and immediate details
of one nation or of one age.
The social improvements which Shelley advocated were Catholic
Emancipation, brought about later, as has been pointed out by Symonds, by
the very means which Shelley foresaw and prophesied; reform of
parliamentary representation[215] similar to that carried into effect in
1832, 1867 and 1882; freedom of the press[216] and repeal of the union of
Great Britain and Ireland; the abolition of capital punishment and of
war.[217] During the fourteen years of Hunt's editorship, among the
reforms for which he fought in _The Examiner_ were the first three of
these measures. He denounced capital punishment and war in the same paper
and later in his poem _Captain Sword and Captain Pen_.[218]
Shelley's moral code was based on an idealized sense of justice, and was a
kind of "natural piety."[219] With one marked exception, he seems to have
been true to the pursuit of it, both in his standards of conduct and in
his relations with others. His life was a model of generosity, purity of
thought, and unselfish devotion. Hunt reported Shelley as having said:
"What a divine religion might be found out, if charity were really the
principle of it, instead of faith."[220] He was atheist only in the sense
of discarding the dogmas of theology and of superstition, and in his
spirit of scientific inquiry. He did not deny the existence in nature of
an all-pervading spirit. Hunt thought the popular misconception of
Shelley's opinions was due to his misapplication of the names of the Deity
and to his identification of them with vulgar superstitions. Of Shelley's
attitude he wrote: "His want of faith in the letter, and his exceeding
faith in the spirit of Christianity, formed a comment, the one on the
other, very formidable to those who chose to forget what Scripture itself
observes on that point."[221] Whether or not Shelley believed in
immortality is still a vexed question and is likely to remain so, since he
had not reached convictions sufficiently stable to permit a formal
statement on his part. Many of the passages in _Adonais_ would lead one to
believe that he did; certainly he did, like Hunt, cling to the idea of the
persistence, in some form or other, of the good and the beautiful. The
close conformity of their views is seen in the latter's two sonnets in
_Foliage_[222] addressed to Shelley, where the poet condemns the degrading
notions so prevalent concerning the Deity and celebrates the Spirit of
Beauty and Goodness in all things. But, in religion as in politics,
Shelley was bolder and more speculative than Hunt.
The fine of L1,000 and imprisonment of the Hunt brothers in 1813 drew from
Shelley a vehement protest. In a letter to Hogg[223] he lamented the
inadequacy of Lord Brougham's defense and fairly boiled with indignation
at "the horrible injustice and tyranny of the sentence" and pronounced
Hunt "a brave, a good, and an enlightened man." He started a subscription
with twenty pounds, and later he must have offered to pay the entire fine,
for Hunt recorded in his _Autobiography_ that Shelley had made him "a
princely offer,"[224] which he declined, as he did not need it. The offer
was actuated solely by a hatred of oppression, for the two men had little
or no personal knowledge of each other at the time.
It is impossible to decide the exact date of their first meeting. Hunt
says that it took place before the indictment for libel on the Prince
Regent.[225] This evidence would make it fall sometime between March,
1812, the date of Shelley's letter mentioned above, and February, 1813,
the beginning of the incarceration. But a letter from Shelley to Hunt
dated December 7, 1813, demanding if he had made the statement that Milton
had died an atheist, from its very formal tone, leads one to believe that
they had not met up to that time and that Hunt, writing from memory many
years afterwards, made a mistake. Thornton Hunt gives as the immediate
cause of the two men coming together, Shelley's application to Mr. Rowland
Hunter, the publisher and stepfather of Mrs. Hunt, for advice regarding
the publication of a poem. He referred Shelley to Leigh Hunt. The next
meeting was in Surrey Street Gaol. Thornton Hunt, in a delightful
reminiscence of Shelley,[226] says that he had no recollection of him
among his father's visitors in prison, but he remembered perfectly the
latter's description of his "angelic" appearance, his classic thoughts,
and his dreams for the emancipation of mankind. The real intimacy began
after Shelley's return from the continent in 1816 when Shelley, in search
of a house before he settled at Marlow, was the guest of Hunt at Hampstead
during a part of December.[227] A close companionship followed
uninterruptedly for two years until Shelley went to Italy, and there are
recorded in the letters and journals of each many pleasant evenings at
Hampstead and at Marlow, filled with poetry and music, with talks on art
and trials of wit, with dinners and theater parties. Mary Shelley and Mrs.
Hunt became as great friends as their husbands.
When Harriet committed suicide and Shelley went up to London to institute
proceedings for possession of their children, Hunt remained constantly
with him and gave him as much sympathy and support as it is possible for
one fellow-being to extend to another whom all the world has
deserted.[228] He attended the Chancery suit and stated Shelley's position
in _The Examiner_.[229] This sympathy and support, given Shelley in his
hour of greatest need and desolation, have never been sufficiently valued
in a comparative estimate of the relative indebtedness of the two men. If
Shelley gave freely of his money, Hunt, devoid of worldly goods, gave
unstintingly, to the detriment of his reputation, of those things which
money cannot purchase. That he incurred the displeasure of men in power,
and ran the risk of being misunderstood by the public in befriending
Shelley, did not deter him for an instant.
During 1817 Shelley made the acquaintance, through Hunt, of the Cockney
circle, including Keats, Reynolds, Hazlitt, Brougham, Novello and Horace
Smith. The last-named became one of Shelley's most trusted friends.[230]
These new friends enlarged his list of acquaintances considerably, for up
to this time he seems to have had no friends except Godwin, Hogg and
Peacock.
In the early spring of 1818, the Shelleys went to Italy, melancholy with
the thought of separation from the Hunts.[231] The letters from Shelley to
Hunt during the next four years form an important part of Shelley's
correspondence.
The part played by Shelley in the invitation extended to Hunt to join Lord
Byron and himself in Italy and to become one of the editors of a
periodical will be treated minutely in the next chapter. It is sufficient
here to say that he was actuated by a desire to better Hunt's finances and
to enjoy his society--a pleasure he had been pining for ever since they
had been separated, and, in case of a return to England, regarded as the
one joy "among all the other sources of regret and discomfort with which
England abounds for me.... Shaking hands with you is worth all the
trouble; the rest is clear loss."[232] Further, he knew that Hunt longed
for Italy, and he wished to help Byron in the cause of liberalism. To
bring both ends about, he shouldered a burden that he was ill able to
bear. An annuity of L200 for the support of his two children, an annuity
of L100 to Peacock, perpetual demand for large sums from Godwin,
occasional assistance rendered the Gisbornes, partial support of Jane
Claremont, loans to Byron, and the support of his family, were the drains
already upon him--met, in the main by money raised on _post obits_ at half
value.
The amount of Hunt's indebtedness to Shelley can be estimated only
approximately. The first reference to a financial transaction between them
after the "princely offer"[233] is to be found in Mary Shelley's letter of
December 6, 1816, in which she wondered that Hunt had not acknowledged the
"receipt of so large a sum." Professor Dowden thinks this may be an
allusion to Shelley's response to an appeal for the poor of Spitalfields
which had appeared in _The Examiner_ five days previously.[234] Shelley's
offers to Hunt to borrow L100 from Byron[235] and to stand security for a
loan from Charles Cowden Clarke,[236] and an attempt to borrow from Samuel
Rogers[237] are not developed by any further facts, but it is necessary to
take note of them in a general estimate. Before leaving England, Shelley
arranged with Ollier for a loan of L100 for Hunt, a debt which was later
liquidated by the sale of the _Literary Pocket Book_.[238] At some time
before leaving England, Shelley also gave Hunt in one year L1,400[239] for
the liquidation of his debts, which money was, Medwin says, borrowed from
Horace Smith.[240] Unfortunately for Shelley, the sum was insufficient to
extricate Hunt from his difficulties. Miss Mitford gives the amount as
L1,500, instead of L1,400, and adds that Shelley's furniture and bedding
were swept off to pay Hunt's creditors;[241] the inaccuracy of the first
statement and the lack of any evidence to support the second, lead one to
doubt the story. But it is true that Shelley's income at the time was only
L1,000. Even when so far away as Italy, Hunt's money troubles weighed
heavily upon Shelley in a continual regret that he could not set him
entirely free from his creditors;[242] he feared that the incredible
exertions Hunt was making on _The Indicator_ and on _The Examiner_, and
the privations that he endured, would undermine his health.[243] When Hunt
finally decided to go to Italy, Shelley assumed, as a matter of course,
the chief responsibility of providing the means.
As early as 1818, when Shelley and Byron met in Venice, the matter of the
journal was discussed between them and broached to Hunt. December 22,
1818, Shelley wrote him that Byron wished him to come to Italy and that,
if money considerations prevented, Byron would lend him L400 or L500. He
added that Hunt should not feel uncomfortable in accepting the offer, as
it was frankly made, and that his society would give Byron pleasure and
service.[244] Hunt does not seem to have seriously considered the
proposition, for there are few references to it in his correspondence of
this year. On the renewal of the plan in 1821, Shelley would never have
called on Byron for assistance for Hunt if he himself could have provided
otherwise, for his opinion of Byron had changed in the meantime.[245]
January 25, 1822, Shelley sent L150 for the expenses of the voyage,
"within 30 or 40 pounds of what I have contrived to scrape
together";[246] and again on February 23, L250,[247] borrowed with
security from Byron. Yet Shelley's own exchequer at the time was so low
that Mary Shelley wrote in the spring: "We are drearily behindhand with
money at present. Hunt and our furniture has swallowed up more than our
savings."[248] On April 10 Shelley stated that he was trying to finish
_Charles the First_ in order that he might earn L100 for Hunt.
In round numbers it may be calculated that the sum total of Hunt's
indebtedness, exclusive of the yearly bequest of L120 paid by Shelley's
son, was about L2,500, a very large sum in the light of Shelley's limited
resources and other obligations. But it was as ungrudgingly given as it
was graciously received. Between the two men there was no distinction of
_meum_ and _tuum_. More remarkable still, Mary Shelley gave as willingly
as her husband. If one is inclined to marvel at such an unusual state of
affairs, it must be recalled that both men were under the spell of William
Godwin's theories of community of property. Shelley gave as his duty and
Hunt received as his due. That the effort involved much deprivation and
distress of mind on the part of the giver mars the justice of acceptance
by the recipient, retrieved only in part by the belief that Hunt probably
did not know the full extent of Shelley's sacrifice, and the knowledge
that the former would gladly have endured as much if the conditions had
been reversed. The element of self-sacrifice and delicacy on the part of
Shelley in concealing it, in after years only added to the beauty of the
gift in Hunt's eyes, and even at the time he cannot be accused of
indifference.[249] Jeaffreson makes the absurd suggestion that Shelley
gave the money as a bribe to the editor of a powerful and flourishing
literary journal.[250] He thinks dodging creditors was a strong bond of
mutual interest between the two men. There is evidence that Hunt was in
difficulty at the time and that Shelley left a surgeon's bill unpaid,[251]
but there is no proof extant of deliberate mutual protection. On the
contrary, it is most unlikely.
The Hunts sailed from England in November, 1821, and reached Leghorn
nearly nine months after first setting out on a voyage which, in its
delays and dangers, Byron compared to the "periplus of Hanno the
Carthaginian, and with much the same speed";[252] Peacock to that of
Ulysses.[253] Of Shelley's suggestion to make the trip by sea, Hunt wrote:
"if he had recommended a balloon, I should have been inclined to try
it."[254] Hogg, with his characteristic humour, remarked that a journey by
land would have taken equally long, since Hunt would have stopped to
gather all the daisies by the wayside from Paris to Pisa. Both men looked
forward to many years together[255] and Shelley, in his letter of welcome,
wrote that wind and waves parted them no more,[256] an assertion which now
sounds like a knell of doom. From Leghorn Shelley conveyed the party to
Pisa and installed them in the lower floor of Byron's dwelling, the
Lanfranchi Palace.[257] To Shelley fell the difficult task of keeping Lord
Byron in heart for the new undertaking and of reviving Hunt's drooping
spirits. Hunt's funds were all gone and in their place was a debt of sixty
crowns. The next few days were full of grave anxiety and foreboding for
the future, broken only by a delightful Sunday spent in seeing the
Cathedral and the Tower. Of this day Hunt wrote: "Good God! what a day was
that, compared with all that have followed it! I had my friend with me,
arm-in-arm, after a separation of years: he was looking better than I had
ever seen him--we talked of a thousand things--we anticipated a thousand
pleasures."[258] Then came the fatal Monday with its shipwreck of many
hopes--in its tragic sequel too well known to need repetition here. Hunt's
last services to his friend were his assistance rendered at the cremation
and his contribution of the now famous Latin epitaph "_cor cordium_."[259]
With Shelley perished Hunt's chief hope in life; in the opinion of his
son, he was never the same man again. In 1832, at his period of darkest
depression, he wrote: "If you ask me how it is that I bear all this, I
answer, that I love nature and books, and think well of the capabilities
of human kind. I have known Shelley, I have known my mother."[260] In 1844
he claimed as his proudest title, the "Friend of Shelley."[261]
The first printed notice of Shelley was in _The Examiner_ of December 1,
1816. Therefore to Hunt belongs in this case, as in that of Keats, the
credit of discovery. It is difficult to account for Hunt's tardiness of
recognition,[262] coming as it did six years after Shelley first wrote
him, five years after the Finnerty poem, three years after _Queen Mab_,
and two years after the visit in prison.[263] Also Shelley had sent
contributions to _The Examiner_, which Hunt had not accepted, but which he
vaguely recalled at the time of writing his first review on Shelley. It
was inspired by the announcement of _Alastor_, and consisted of about ten
lines, embodied in the article on Keats and Reynolds already referred to.
Hunt pronounced Shelley "a very striking and original thinker." Shelley's
reply to a letter from Hunt, telling him of the notice, pictures him
anxiously scouring the countryside about Bath for the sight of a copy and
buoyed up at last by the news of one five miles distant.
This notice was followed by the publication of the _Hymn to Intellectual
Beauty_ in _The Examiner_ of January 19, 1817; a notice of the Chancery
suit, January 26 and February 2; and an extract from _Laon and Cythna_,
November 30. A review of the _Revolt of Islam_ ran through three numbers,
January 25, February 8 and 22, 1818. Shelley's system of charity and his
crusade against tyranny, as set forth in the preface, Hunt loudly
applauded. Many extracts were italicized for the guidance of the public.
The beauties of the poem were pronounced to be its mysticism, its
wildness, its depth of sentiment, its grandeur of imagery, and its varied
and sweet versification. In the boldness of speculation and in the love of
virtue Hunt saw a resemblance to Lucretius, while in the gloom and
imagination of certain passages, particularly in the grandeur of the
supernatural architecture, he was reminded of Dante. The defects were
pronounced to be obscurity of narrative and sameness of image and
metaphor. The review closed with the prophecy "we have no doubt he is
destined to be one of the leading spirits of the age."
The _Quarterly Review_ of May, 1818, accused Shelley[264] of atheism and
of dissolute conduct in private life; the same journal of April, 1819,
reviewing the _Revolt of Islam_ on the basis of the suppressed version of
_Laon and Cythna_, though it did not fail to appreciate the genius and
beauty of the poem, charged Shelley with a predilection for incest and
with a frantic dislike for Christianity. It called the support of _The
Examiner_ "the sweet undersong of the weekly journal."[265] The two
attacks were met by a strong protest from Hunt,[266] particularly in
regard to the part dealing with Shelley's life. He denied the propriety of
such discussion in public criticism and declared that he had never known
Shelley to "deviate, notwithstanding his theories, even into a single
action which those who differ with him might think blameable." His life at
Marlow was described as spent in "beautiful charity and generosity" and
was likened to that of Plato. In 1821 an attack on Shelley by Hazlitt was
met by an angry warning from Hunt and a threat to become his public enemy,
if the offense were repeated.[267] Hunt's reason for taking this defensive
attitude was that he knew that Shelley suffered greatly from such
malignant exploitations and that he would not defend himself; therefore he
made his friend's cause his own and wrote: "I reckon upon your leaving
your personal battles to me,"[268] much in the same manner as Shelley had
assumed his money troubles.
Following the review of the _Revolt of Islam_, a notice of _Rosalind and
Helen_ and of _Lines Written among the Euganean Hills_[269] appeared in
_The Examiner_ of May 9, 1819. Attention was called to the poet's optimism
and to his great love of nature: "the beauty of the external world has an
answering heart, and the very whispers of the wind a meaning." _The
Cenci_, published in 1820, contained in its dedication a glowing tribute
to Hunt, an honour in Shelley's opinion only in a small degree worthy of
his friend.[270] Hunt was intoxicated with the honour and wrote: "I feel
as if you had bound, not only my head, but my very soul and body with
laurels."[271] On the subject of the tragedy he was equally enthusiastic:
"What a noble book, Shelley, have you given us! What a true, stately, and
yet affectionate mixture of poetry, philosophy, and human nature, horror,
and all redeeming sweetness of intention, for there is an undersong of
suggestion through it all, that sings, as it were, after the storm is
over, like a brook in April."[272] In a public expression of his opinion
in _The Examiner_ of March 19, 1820, Hunt pronounced _The Cenci_ the
greatest dramatic production of the day. Writing of the drama again in the
same journal of July 19 and 26, 1820, he called Shelley "a framer of
mighty lines" and continued: "Majesty and Love do sit on one throne in the
lofty buildings of his poetry; and they will be found there, at a late and
we trust a happier day, on a seat immortal as themselves."
One of Hunt's most perfect poems, _Jaffar_, is inscribed to the memory of
Shelley. The praise of _Jaffar_ and his friend's undying loyalty
immediately suggest to the reader that Hunt may have been celebrating his
own and Shelley's friendship. The last review to appear during Shelley's
lifetime by Hunt was that of _Prometheus Unbound_ in three numbers of _The
Examiner_ of 1822. A projected review of _Adonais_ alluded to in a letter
of Hunt's does not seem to have seen the light of publication, but a
reference in a letter at the time is worth noting: "It is the most Delphic
poety I have seen in a long while: full of those embodyings of the most
subtle and airy imaginations,--those arrestings and explanations of the
most shadowy yearnings of our being."[273] The well-known account of
Shelley's rescue of a woman on Hampstead Heath was told in _The Literary
Examiner_ of August 23, 1823.[274] The same magazine of September 20 of
the same year[275] contained the following _Sonnet to Percy Shelley_,
given here because of its general inaccessibility:
"Hast thou from earth, then, really passed away,
And mingled with the shadowy mass of things
Which were, but are not? Will thy harp's dear strings
No more yield music to the rapid play
Of thy swift thoughts, now turned thou art to clay?
Hark! Is that rushing of thy spirit's wings,
When (like the skylark, who in mounting sings)
Soaring through high imagination's way,
Thou pour'dst thy melody upon the earth,
Silent for ever? Yes, wild ocean's wave
Hath o'er thee rolled. But whilst within the grave
Thou sleepst, let me in the love of thy pure worth
One thing foretell,--that thy great fame shall be
Progressive as Time's flood, eternal as the sea!"
In _Lord Byron and Some of His Contemporaries_ appeared the first
biographical memoir of Shelley, a sketch of some seventy pages.[276] It
shows great appreciation of the fine and gentle qualities of his rare
genius and defends some of the weak points of his career. The description
of his personal appearance, of the life at Marlowe, and the few anecdotes
are often quoted. But on the whole, it lacks the bold strokes of vivid
portraiture and it is very disappointing.[277] There was probably no one,
with the exception of his wife, who knew Shelley so well as Hunt and who
was, therefore, in a position to give as complete and intimate an idea of
him. It was Mrs. Shelley's wish that Hunt should be her husband's
biographer, for she thought that he, "perhaps above all others, understood
his nature and his genius."[278] Hunt, in _The Spectator_ of August 13,
1859, gave as his reason for not writing Shelley's life that he "could not
survive enough persons." But it is to be questioned if he were fitted for
the task. His son did not think that he was because of his attention to
details and his irresistible tendency to analysis: "a mind, in short, like
that of Hamlet, cultivated rather than corrected by the trials of life,
was scarcely suited to comprehend the strong instincts, indomitable will,
and complete unity of idea which distinguished Shelley."[279]
In the _Tatler_ of August 1, 1831, Hunt wrote that "Mr. Shelley was a
platonic philosopher, of the acutest and loftiest kind," and that he
belonged to the school of Plato and AEschylus, as Keats belonged to that of
Spenser and Milton. Following _The Tatler_ was the preface to _The Mask of
Anarchy_,[280] published in 1832, originally designed for _The Examiner_
in 1819, but laid aside by the editor because he thought the public not
discerning enough "to do justice to the sincerity and kindheartedness of
the spirit that walked in this flaming robe of verse." The preface
eulogizes the poet's spiritual nature and his "seraphic purpose of good."
In _The Seer_, 1841, Shelley's qualities of heart were pronounced more
enduring than his genius.[281]
_Imagination and Fancy_ contained an essay and selections from his poems.
Here Hunt makes the curious statement that little in the poems is purely
poetical, but rather moral, political, and speculative. It is noteworthy
that he predicts, probably for the first time, that, had Shelley lived, he
would have been the greatest dramatic writer since the days of Elizabeth,
if not, indeed, actually so, through what he did accomplish; a statement
often repeated. He says: "If Coleridge is the sweetest of our poets,
Shelley is at once the most ethereal and gorgeous, the one who has clothed
his thought in draperies of the most evanescent and most magnificent words
and imagery.... Shelley ... might well call himself Ariel."[282] In
connection with Shelley's ethereal qualities, Mrs. James T. Fields quotes
Hunt as having said on another occasion that Shelley always seemed to him
as if he were "just alit from the planet Mercury, bearing a winged wand
tipped with flame."[283] In _Imagination and Fancy_, Hunt continues: "Not
Milton himself is more learned in Grecisms, or nicer in entomological
propriety; and nobody, throughout, has a style so Orphic and primeval."
It is a touching circumstance that Hunt's last letter bore reference to
Shelley, and that his last effort as a public writer, made only a few days
before his death, was in vindication of Shelley's character.[284] The
publication of the _Shelley Memorials_, 1859, in which Hunt had a part,
provoked an unfavorable review in _The Spectator_. Hunt replied in the
next number[285] of the same paper. In particular he asserted Shelley's
truthfulness, which had been assailed in respect to his story of the
attempted assassination in Wales. He held that Shelley was not a man to be
judged by ordinary rules, but that he was the highest possible exponent of
humanity--an approach to divinity.
Hunt's literary relation with Shelley falls into two divisions;
publications written for Hunt's periodicals, and received by Hunt in
order to give Shelley an outlet of expression denied him in the more
conservative papers; and second, positive literary imitation. Besides the
poems quoted in Hunt's criticisms of Shelley, the first includes a review
of Godwin's _Mandeville_,[286] a letter of protest regarding the second
edition of _Queen Mab_,[287] _Marianne's Dream_,[288] _Song on a Faded
Violet_,[289] _The Sunset_,[290] _The Question_,[291] _Good Night_,[292]
_Sonnet, Ye Hasten to the Grave_,[293] _To ---- (Lines to a
Reviewer)_,[294] _November, 1815_,[295] _Love's Philosophy_,[296] and the
contributions designed by Shelley for _The Liberal_ and published after
his death.[297] Productions which were written for Hunt's papers, but were
not accepted, were _Peter Bell the Third_, _The Mask of Anarchy_, _Julian
and Maddalo_, a letter on the persecution of Richard Carlile,[298] letters
on Italy, and a review of Peacock's _Rhododaphne_. Hunt's failure to
accept what was sent him greatly discouraged Shelley at times: "Mine is a
life of failures; Peacock says my poetry is composed of day dreams and
nightmares, and Leigh Hunt does not think it good enough for _The
Examiner_."
_On a Fete at Carlton House_, an attack on the Prince Regent, though
perhaps directly inspired by the account in the dailies of the ball at
Carlton House on June 20, 1811, was doubtless influenced by the continued
attacks of _The Examiner_. As there are extant only two or three lines of
the poem,[299] it is impossible to judge of the extent of the influence,
but in Shelley's letters to Hogg and to Edward Graham describing the poem,
there is resemblance in tone and epithet to _The Examiner_. A letter from
Shelley to Lord Ellenborough on the occasion of Eaton's sentence for
publishing the third part of Paine's _Age of Reason_ followed a long
series of articles by Hunt on the prerogative of liberty of speech.[300]
A meeting of Reformers at Manchester on the sixteenth of August, 1819, for
the purpose of discussing quietly the annual meeting of Parliament,
universal suffrage, and voting by ballot, was dispersed by military force.
Articles setting forth the long sufferings of the Reformers, charging the
authorities with wanton bloodshed, and ridiculing the absurd trial of the
offenders, appeared in _The Examiner_ of August 22, 29, September 5, 19
and 26. _The Mask of Anarchy_, written on the occasion of the massacre at
Manchester, was sent to Leigh Hunt for publication sometime before the
first of November, 1819. The sentiment of both men is the same regarding
the affair.
Accounts of the death of the Princess Charlotte and of the executions for
high treason at Derby of Brandreth, Ludlam and Turner, after a horrible
imprisonment, two articles in _The Examiner_ of November 9, 1819, inspired
Shelley's _Address to the People on the Death of the Princess Charlotte_,
sometimes known as _We Pity the Plumage, but Forget the Dying Bird_, dated
November 12 of the same year. Hunt followed with a second article, _Death
of the Princess Charlotte and Indecent Advantage Taken of It_, November
16, 1819. Both writers called attention to the disposition of the public
to forget the sufferings of the poor, while it mourned hysterically with
royalty; they declared that the administration of justice and the events
leading to such crimes were of much greater importance. Three articles in
_The Examiner_ of October 17, 24 and 31, 1819, on the trial of Richard
Carlile for libel, were followed by an open letter on the same case from
Shelley to Hunt dated November 3, 1819. By scattered references it can be
seen that Shelley fully agreed with Hunt in his opinion of the Prince
Regent and of the Ministers, in his attitude toward the corruption of the
court and of the army; and in his proposed regulation of taxes and of the
public debt.
_Oedipus Tyrannus or Swellfoot the Tyrant_, begun August, 1820,
succeeded a series of articles, beginning in _The Examiner_ of June 11,
1820, and continuing throughout nineteen numbers,[301] on the subject of
George IV's attempt to divorce his wife.[302] Abhorrence of the king's
perfidy and of his ministers' support, sympathy for Queen Caroline, and
minor details parallel closely Hunt's version in _The Examiner_. This
passage occurs in the article of June 9: "An animal sets himself down,
month after month, at Milan, to watch at her doors and windows, to
intercept discarded servants and others who know what a deposition might
be worth, and thus to gather poison for one of those venomous Green Bags,
which have so long infected and nauseated the people, and are now to
infect the Queen." This seems to be the germ of the passage in Shelley's
poem beginning:
"Behold this bag! it is
The poison Bag of that Green Spider huge,
On which our spies sulked in ovation through
The streets of Thebes, when they were paved with dead."
Then follows the plot to throw the contents upon the Queen.
The handling of the heroic couplet, employed in the _Letter to Maria
Gisborne_ and in _Epipsychidon_, as well as in _Julian and Maddalo_,[303]
has been already discussed in its relationship to Hunt's use of the same.
Shelley, in a letter to Hunt, explains his position in regard to the
language of _Julian and Maddalo_:
"You will find the little piece, I think, in some degree consistent
with your own ideas of the manner in which poetry ought to be
written. I have employed a certain familiar style of language to
express the actual way in which people talk to each other, whom
education and a certain refinement of sentiment have placed above the
use of vulgar idioms. I use the word _vulgar_ in its most extensive
sense. The vulgarity of rank and fashion is as gross, in its way, as
that of poverty, and its cant terms equally expressive of base
conceptions, and therefore, equally unfit for poetry. Not that the
familiar style is to be admitted in the treatment of a subject wholly
ideal, or in that part of any subject which relates to common life,
where the passion, exceeding a certain limit, touches the boundary of
that which is ideal. Strong passion expresses itself in metaphor,
borrowed alike from subjects remote or near, and casts over all the
shadow of its own greatness."[304]
_Rosalind and Helen_, the _Letter to Maria Gisborne_, _Swellfoot the
Tyrant_, and _Peter Bell the Third_[305] show a similar influence. _The
Letter to Maria Gisborne_ bears a resemblance to Hunt's epistolary style,
and was written, Mr. Forman thinks, for circulation in the Hunt circle
only.[306] It was through Hunt, so Shelley states in the dedication, that
he knew the _Peter Bells_ of Wordsworth and of John Hamilton Reynolds.
Shelley's qualified adoption in these poems of Hunt's theory of poetic
language is seen in the choice of a vocabulary in dialogue nearer everyday
usage than the more remote one of his other poems. Yet the result does not
bear any great resemblance to Hunt. Shelley's unvarying refinement and
sensibility kept him from committing the same errors of taste, but his
work suffered rather than gained by an innovation which was probably a
concession to his friendship for Hunt and not a strong conviction. With
the exception of the descriptive passages, the keynote of these poems is
on a lower poetic pitch.
On subjects of Italian art and literature the friends held much the same
opinion. At times Shelley seems to have been led by Hunt's judgment, as in
his conclusions regarding Raphael and Michaelangelo.[307] One passage on
the Italian poets indicates a possible borrowing of thought and figure on
Shelley's part when he wrote of Boccaccio that he was superior to Ariosto
and to Tasso, "the children of a later and colder day.... How much do I
admire Boccaccio! What descriptions of nature are those in his little
introduction to every new day! It is the morning of life stripped of that
mist of familiarity which makes it obscure to us."[308] Hunt wrote:
"Petrarch, Boccaccio and Dante are the morning, noon and night of the
great Italian day."[309]
Poems which refer directly to Hunt are the fourteen lines in the _Letter
to Maria Gisborne_;[310] possibly the fragment, beginning, "For me, my
friend, if not that tears did tremble."[311] A cancelled passage of the
_Adonais_ describes Hunt thus:
And then came one of sweet and carnal looks,
Those soft smiles to his dark and night-like eyes
Were as the clear and ever-living brooks
Are to the obscure fountains whence they rise,
Showing how pure they are; a Paradise
Of happy truth upon his forehead low
Lay, making wisdom lovely, in the guise
Of earth-awakening morn upon the brow
Of star-deserted heaven, while ocean gleams below,
* * * * *
His song, though very sweet, was low and faint,
A single strain--[312]
The thirty-fifth strophe of the present version refers to Hunt.
Shelley's last letter had reference to Hunt.[313] His last literary effort
was a poem comparing Hunt to a firefly and welcoming him to Italy, just as
Hunt's last letter and last public utterance bore reference to
Shelley--strange coincidence, but striking testimony to their mutual
devotion. An instance of Shelley's overestimation of Hunt's ability is
seen in a passage where he says that Hunt excels in tragedy in the power
of delineating passion and, what is more necessary, of connecting and
developing it, "the last an incredible effort for himself but easy for
Hunt."[314] He greatly valued and trusted Hunt's affection, at times
calling him his best[315] and his only friend.[316] If the tender
solicitude and veneration of a beautiful spirit for a man of vastly
inferior abilities seems strange, it is but a witness to the humility of
true genius.