chapter V

, p. 19.

[55] Nicoll and Wise, _Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century_, p. 330.

[56]

Who loves to peer up at the morning sun, With half-shut eyes and comfortable cheek, Let him, with this sweet tale, full often seek For meadows where the little rivers run; Who loves to linger with the brightest one Of Heaven (Hesperus) let him lowly speak These numbers to the night, and starlight meek, Or moon, if that her hunting be begun. He who knows these delights, and too is prone To moralize upon a smile or tear, Will find at once religion of his own, A bower for his spirit, and will steer To alleys where the fir-tree drops its cone, Where robins hop, and fallen leaves are seer.

(_Complete Works of John Keats_, ed by Forman, II, p. 183.)

[57] Lowell said of Hunt: "No man has ever understood the delicacies and luxuries of the language better than he."

[58] Byron, _Letters and Journals_, III, p. 226, October 22, 1815.

[59] _Ibid._, III, p. 418.

[60] _Ibid._, III, p. 242, October 30, 1815.

[61] _Ibid._, III, p. 267, February 29, 1816.

[62] _Ibid._, IV, p. 237, June 1, 1818.

[63] _Ibid._, IV, pp. 486-487.

[64] Medwin, _Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron_, p. 187.

[65] In the preface to the _Story of Rimini_ (London, 1819, p. 16), Hunt says that a poet should use an actual existing language, and quotes as authorities, Chaucer, Ariosto, Pulci, even Homer and Shakespeare. He thought simplicity of language of greater importance even than free versification in order to avoid the cant of art: "The proper language of poetry is in fact nothing different from that of real life, and depends for its dignity upon the strength and sentiment of what it speaks, omitting mere vulgarisms and fugitive phrases which are cant of ordinary discourse."

[66] Byron, _Letters and Journals_, III, p. 418.

[67] Mr. A. T. Kent in the _Fortnightly Review_ (vol. 36, p. 227), points out that Leigh Hunt in the preface to the _Story of Rimini_, avoided the mistake of Wordsworth in "looking to an unlettered peasantry for poetical language," and quotes him as saying that one should "add a musical modulation to what a fine understanding might naturally utter in the midst of its griefs and enjoyments." Kent says we have here "two vital points on which Wordsworth, in his capacity of critic, had failed to insist."

[68] _Autobiography_, II, p. 24.

[69] To be found chiefly in the _Feast of the Poets_.

[70] In 1855, in _Stories in Verse_, Hunt changed his acknowledged allegiance from Dryden to Chaucer.

[71] Canto, II, ll. 433-440.

[72] E. De Selincourt gives these three last as examples of Hunt's derivation of the abstract noun from the present participle (_Poems of John Keats_, p. 577).

[73] De Selincourt notes that these adverbs are usually formed from present participles. (_Poems of John Keats_, p. 577.)

[74] Byron, _Letters and Journals_, III, p. 418.

[75]

"For ever since Pope spoiled the ears of the town With his cuckoo-song verses, half up and half down, There has been such a doling and sameness,--by Jove, I'd as soon have gone down to see Kemble in love."

(_Feast of the Poets._)

Hunt calls Pope's translation of the moonlight picture from _Homer_ "a gorgeous misrepresentation" (_Ibid._, p. 35) and the whole translation "that elegant mistake of his in two volumes octavo." (_Foliage_, p. 32.)

[76] _Feast of the Poets_, p. 38. The same opinions are expressed in _The Examiner_ of June 1, 1817; in the preface to _Foliage_, 1818.

[77] _Ibid._, p. 56.

[78] P. 23.

[79] Saintsbury, _Essays in English Literature, 1780-1860_, p. 220.

[80] Hunt, _Story of Rimini_, London, 1818, p. 11, 200 lines beginning with top of page. In the 1742 lines of the poem, there are 47 run-on couplets and 260 run-on lines. There are 7 Alexandrines and 21 triplets. In the edition of 1832 the number of triplets has been increased to 26. There are 46 double rhymes. In a study of the caesura based on the first 200 lines there are 70 medial, 17 double caesuras. The remaining 113 lines have irregular or double caesura.

[81] Keats, _Lamia_, Bk. I, ll. 1-200. In the 708 lines of _Lamia_, there are 98 run-on couplets, 144 run-on lines, 39 Alexandrines and 11 triplets. The caesura is handled with greater freedom than in the _Story of Rimini_.

[82] C. H. Herford, _Age of Wordsworth_, p. 83.

[83] R. B. Johnson, _Leigh Hunt_, p. 94.

[84] _Leigh Hunt as a Poet, Fortnightly Review_, XXXVI: 226.

[85] Sidney Colvin, _Keats_, p. 30.

[86] Garnett, _Age of Dryden_, p. 32.

[87] From Homer, Theocritus, Bion, Moschus, Anacreon, and Catullus.

[88] p. 13.

[89] Hunt, _Correspondence_, I, p. 115.

[90] Byron, _Letters and Journals_, IV, p. 238.

[91] Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke, _Recollections of Writers_, p. 132.

[92] _Ibid._, p. 133.

[93] Hunt, _Lord Byron and Some of His Contemporaries; with Recollections of the Author's Life and of his Visit to Italy_, p. 247.

[94] _Ibid._, p. 251.

[95] _Ibid._, pp. 246-272.

[96] _Autobiography_, II, pp. 27, 59.

[97] Colvin, _Keats_, p. 222.

[98] This refers to Keats's first published poem, the sonnet _O Solitude, if I must with thee dwell_, published (without comment) in _The Examiner_ of May 5, 1816.

[99] Colvin, _Keats_, p. 34.

[100] _Lord Byron and Some of His Contemporaries_, p. 257.

[101] _Ibid._, pp. 257-258.

[102] Sharp, _Life and Letters of Joseph Severn_, p. 163.

[103] _Works_, I, p. 30.

[104] Mr. Forman, after a systematic search has been able to find no proof in either direction. (_Works_, III, p. 8.)

[105] _Works_, I, p. 5.

[106] _Foliage_, p. 125.

[107] Colvin, _Keats_, p. 66.

[108] A further account of the disastrous effects of his partisanship will be found in the discussion of the Cockney School, Ch. V.

[109] The _Century Magazine_, XXIII, p. 706.

[110] Palgrave, _Poetical Works of John Keats_, p. 269.

[111] _Autobiography_, II, p. 266.

[112] _Works_, IV, p. 16.

[113] Haydon and Hunt had originally been very intimate, as is shown by the letters written by the former from Paris during 1814, and by his attentions to Hunt in Surrey Gaol. A letter to Wilkie, dated October 27, 1816, gives an attractive portrait of Hunt, and from this evidence it is inferred that the change in Haydon's attitude came about in the early part of 1817, and that a small unpleasantness was allowed by him to outweigh a friendship of long standing. After two weeks spent with Hunt he had written of him as "one of the most delightful companions. Full of poetry and art, and amiable humour, we argue always with full hearts on everything but religion and Bonaparte.... Though Leigh Hunt is not deep in knowledge, moral metaphysical or classical, yet he is intense in feeling and has an intellect forever on the alert. He is like one of those instruments on three legs, which, throw it how you will, always pitches on two, and has a spike sticking for ever up and ever ready for you. He "sets" at a subject with a scent like a pointer. He is a remarkable man, and created a sensation by his independence, his disinterestedness in public matters; and by the truth, acuteness and taste of his dramatic criticisms, he raised the rank of newspapers, and gave by his example a literary feeling to the weekly ones more especially. As a poet, I think him full of the genuine feeling. His third canto in _Rimini_ is equal to anything in any language of that sweet sort. Perhaps in his wishing to avoid the monotony of the Pope school, he may have shot into the other extreme; and his invention of obscene [sic] words to express obscene feelings borders sometimes on affectation. But these are trifles compared with the beauty of the poem, the intense painting of the scenery, and the deep burning in of the passion which trembles in every line. Thus far as a critic, an editor and a poet. As a man I know none with such an affectionate heart, if never opposed in his opinions. He has defects of course: one of his great defects is getting inferior people about him to listen, too fond of shining at any expense in society, and love of approbation from the darling sex bordering on weakness; though to women he is delightfully pleasant, yet they seem more to handle him as a delicate plant. I don't know if they do not put a confidence in him which to me would be mortifying. He is a man of sensibility tinged with morbidity and of such sensitive organization of body that the plant is not more alive to touch than he.... He is a composition, as we all are, of defects and delightful qualities, indolently averse to worldly exertion, because it harasses the musings of his fancy, existing only by the common duties of life, yet ignorant of them, and often suffering from their neglect." (Haydon, _Life, Letters and Table Talk_, ed. R. H. Stoddard, pp. 155-156.)

Haydon said that the rupture came about because Hunt insisted upon speaking of our Lord and his Apostles in a condescending manner, and that he rebelled against Hunt's "audacious romancing over the Biblical conceptions of the Almighty." (Haydon, _Life, Letters and Table Talk_, p. 65.) This view, in the light of Haydon's general unreliability, may be mere romancing; for Keats, writing on January 13, 1818, gave the following explanation of the quarrel: "Mrs. H. (Hunt) was in the habit of borrowing silver from Haydon--the last time she did so, Haydon asked her to return it at a certain time--she did not--Haydon sent for it--Hunt went to expostulate on the indelicacy, etc.--they got to words and parted for ever." (Keats, _Works_, IV, p. 58).

[114] _Works_, IV, p. 20.

[115] Milnes, _Life, Letters and Literary Remains of John Keats_, II, p. 44.

[116] _Works_, IV, p. 114.

[117] _Ibid._, V, p. 142.

[118] _Life, Letters and Table Talk_, p. 208.

[119] _Works_, IV, p. 31.

[120] _Ibid._, IV, p. 60.

[121] _Ibid._, IV, pp. 37-38.

[122] _Ibid._, IV, p. 38, Keats gives his argument in favor of a long poem.

[123] _Ibid._, IV, p. 38.

[124] _Ibid._, IV, p. 49.

[125] _Ibid._, IV, p. 193.

[126] _Ibid._, IV, pp. 195-196.

[127] _Ibid._, IV, p. 12.

[128] _Ibid._, IV, p. 90.

[129] _Ibid._, I, p. 34.

[130] _Ibid._, V, p. 198.

[131] Haydon attempted also to make trouble between Wordsworth and Hunt, by telling the former that Hunt's admiration for him was only a "weather cock estimation" and by insinuations concerning his sincerity in friendships. (Haydon, _Life, Letters and Table Talk_, p. 197.)

[132] J. Ashcroft Noble, _The Sonnet in England, and Other Essays_, p. 108.

[133] _Autobiography_, II, p. 42.

[134] _Autobiography_, II, p. 44.

[135] _Works_, V, p. 203.

[136] Keats wrote Haydon, "There are three things to rejoice at in this age The Excursion, Your Pictures, and Hazlitt's depth of taste." (_Works_, IV, p. 56.)

[137] _Works_, II, p. 187.

[138] _Ibid._, V, p. 116.

[139] _Ibid._, V, p. 180.

[140] _Ibid._, V, p. 175.

[141] _Ibid._, V, p. 174.

[142] That he needed better attention than he could receive in lodgings is seen from an account of Keats's condition given in _Maria Gisborne's Journal_ (_Ibid._, V, p. 182), which says that when she drank tea there in July, Keats was under sentence of death from Dr. Lamb: "he never spoke and looks emaciated."

[143] _Works_, V, p. 183-184. The quotation follows Keats's punctuation.

[144] _Ibid._, V, p. 185.

[145] _Cornhill Magazine_, 1892.

[146] _Works_, V, p. 194.

[147] _Ibid._, V, p. 193.

[148] _Correspondence_, I, p. 107.

[149] P. 248.

[150] _The Examiner_, June 1st, July 6th, and 13th, 1817.

[151] Lines 181-206.

[152] _Works_, IV, p. 64.

[153] _Lord Byron and Some of his Contemporaries_, p. 257.

[154] May 10, 1820.

[155] Cf. with Poe's sonnet, _Science, true daughter of Old Time thou art_.

[156] Haydon, _Life, Letters and Table Talk_, p. 201.

[157] In connection with _Hyperion_, it is interesting to note that the manuscript in Keats's handwriting recently discovered, survived through the agency of Leigh Hunt. From him it passed into the ownership of his son Thornton, and later to the sister of Dr. George Bird. It has been purchased from her by the British Museum. (_Athenaeum_, March 11, 1905.)

[158] This is, of course, a mistake.

[159] For other criticism of the 1820 poems by Hunt, see _Lord Byron and Some of his Contemporaries_, pp. 258-268.

[160] _I stood tiptoe_, l. 16.

[161] _Ibid._, l. 20.

[162] _Ibid._, l. 81.

[163] _To some Ladies_, l. 15.

[164] _Ibid._, l. 117.

[165] _I stood tiptoe_, l. 215.

[166] _Ibid._, l. 61.

[167] _Calidore_, l. 132. Also pointed out by Mr. Colvin, _Keats_, p. 53.

[168] _To my brother George_, l. 7.

[169] _I stood tiptoe_, l. 144.

[170] Hunt quotes this with approbation, as showing a "human touch." (_Specimen of an Induction to a Poem_, ll. 13-14.)

[171] _Specimen of an Induction to a Poem_, l. 48.

[172] _Calidore_, l. 66.

[173] _Ibid._, l. 80 ff.

[174] _To ..._, l. 23 ff.

[175] Mr. De Selincourt in _Notes and Queries_, Feb. 4, 1905, dates the _Imitation of Spenser_ "1813." He does not produce documentary evidence, however. The discovery of the hitherto unpublished poem, _Fill for me a brimming bowl_, in imitation of Milton's early poems, dated in the Woodhouse transcript Aug. 1814, is of considerable interest in determining the date of Keats's earliest composition of verse. A sonnet _On Peace_ found in the same MS. is a second discovery of an unpublished poem of the same period.

[176] _Works_, I, p. 26.

[177] _Ibid._, I. p. 16. Mr. W. T. Arnold, _Poetical Works of John Keats_, London, 1884, has remarked upon the similar use of _so_ by Hunt and Keats. He compares the "so elegantly" of this passage with the line from _Rimini_ "leaves so finely suit."

[178] _To Charles Cowden Clarke_, l. 88.

[179] _Calidore_, ll. 34-35.

[180] _Story of Rimini_, p. 35.

[181] Colvin, _Keats_, p. 31.

[182] References to Hunt in the sonnets and other poems of 1817 are the following:

1. "He of the rose, the violet, the spring The social smile, the chain for Freedom's sake:"

(_Addressed to the Same_ [Haydon].) This sonnet did not appear in 1817, although it belongs to this period.

2. "... thy tender care Thus startled unaware Be jealous that the foot of other wight Should madly follow that bright path of light Trac'd by thy lov'd Libertas; he will speak, And tell thee that my prayer is very meek

* * * * *

Him thou wilt hear."

(_Specimen of an Introduction_, l. 57 ff.) Mrs. Clarke is the authority that "Libertas" was Hunt.

3. "With him who elegantly chats, and talks-- The wrong'd Libertas."

(_Epistle to Charles Cowden Clarke_, l. 43-44.)

4. "I turn full-hearted to the friendly aids That smooth the path of honour; brotherhood, And friendliness the nurse of mutual good. _The hearty grasp that sends a pleasant sonnet Into the brain ere one can think upon it_; The silence when some rhymes are coming out; And when they're come, the very pleasant rout: The message certain to be done tomorrow. 'Tis perhaps as well that it should be to borrow Some precious book from out its snug retreat, To cluster round it when we next shall meet."

(_Sleep and Poetry._)

Lines 353-404 of the same, nearly one fifth of the entire poem, are a description of Hunt's library. Mr. De Selincourt calls it "a glowing tribute to the sympathetic friendship which Keats had enjoyed at the Hampstead Cottage and an attempt to express in the style of the _Story of Rimini_ something of the spirit which had informed the _Lines Written Above Tintern Abbey_." (_Poems of John Keats._ Introduction p. 34.)

(_a_) Of this room Hunt wrote: "Keats's _Sleep and Poetry_ is a description of a parlour that was mine, no bigger than an old mansion's closet." _Correspondence_ I, p. 289. See also _Lord Byron and Some of his Contemporaries_, p. 249.

(_b_) Further description of the same room is to be found in _Shelley's Letter to Maria Gisborne_, ll. 212-217.

(_c_) Clarke refers to it in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, February, 1874, and in _Recollections of Writers_, p. 134. In the letter he says that a bed was made up in the library for Keats and that he was installed as a member of the household. Here he composed the framework of the poem. Lines 325-404 are "an inventory of the art garniture of the room."

(_d_) The most intresting record in regard to the room is that given by Mrs. J. T. Fields in a _Shelf of old Books_, who says that her husband saw the library treasures which had inspired Keats--Greek casts of Sappho, casts of Kosciusko and Alfred, with engravings, sketches and well-worn books. Among the books collected by Mr. Fields was a copy of Shelley, Coleridge and Keats bound together, with an autograph of all three men, formerly owned by Hunt. The fly leaf "at the back contained the sonnet written by Keats on the _Story of Rimini_."

[183] The two sonnets were published in _The Examiner_ of September 21, 1817; Keats's had been included previously in the _Poems of 1817_; Hunt's appeared later in _Foliage_, 1818.

[184] This did not appear in 1817, but belongs to this period. See _Works_, II, p. 257. For a comparison of these two sonnets with Shelley's on the same Subject, see Rossetti's _Life of Keats_, p. 110.

[185] _Works_, II, p. 166.

[186] Compare with _A Dream, after Reading Dante's Episode of Paolo and Francesca_, 1819. (_Works_, III, p. 16.)

[187] A pocket-book given Keats by Hunt and containing many of the first drafts of the sonnets belonged to Charles Wentworth Dilke. It is still in the possession of the Dilke family.

[188] For instances of Keats's interest in politics, see _To Kosciusko_, _To Hope_, ll. 33-36, and scattered references to Wallace, William Tell and similar characters. Most of these references have already been called attention to by others.

[189] _Works_, IV, pp. 60-61. The poem follows.

[190] Colvin, _Keats_, p. 107.

[191] _Endymion_, Bk. II, ll. 129-130.

[192] _Ibid._, Bk. IV, l. 863 ff.

[193] _Ibid._, Bk. II, l. 756 ff.

[194] _Ibid._, Bk. II, l. 938 ff.

[195] _Keats_, p. 169.

[196] Stanza 23, l. 7.

[197] _Hero and Leander_ and _Bacchus and Ariadne_, 1819, p. 45.

[198] Mr. W. T. Arnold makes the mistake of thinking that Keats imitated Hunt's _Gentle Armour_. Mr. Colvin corrects this statement. (Keats, _Poetical Works_, p. 59.)

[199] (_a_) W. T. Arnold, Keats, _Poetical Works_, p. 128. (_b_) J. Hoops, _Keats's Jungend und Jugendgedichte_, Englische Studien, XXI, 239. (_c_) W. A. Read, _Keats and Spenser_.

[200] _Works_, V, p. 121.

[201] This same expression occurs in _Hero and Leander_, 1819, in the phrase, "Half set in trees and leafy luxury." Keats's dedication sonnet in which it occurs was written in 1817. Therefore Mr. W. T. Arnold makes a mistake when he says (in his edition of Keats, p. 129) it was taken direct from Hunt's poem, although the two separate words are among his favorites and Keats probably took them from him and combined them.

[202] Mr. Arnold says "delicious" is used sixteen times by Keats. (Keats, _Poetical Works_, p. 129). He quotes a passage from one of Hunt's prefaces in which the latter comments on Chaucer's use of the word: "The word _deliciously_ is a venture of animal spirits which in a modern writer some critics would pronounce to be too affected or too familiar; but the enjoyment, and even incidental appropriateness and relish of it, will be obvious to finer senses." In _Rimini_ this line occurs: "Distils the next note more deliciously."

[203] Palgrave, _Poetical Works of John Keats_, p. 261, notices Leigh Hunt's misuse of this word in his review of _I stood tiptoe_, quoted on p. 107. See his use of the same on p. 76. In _Bacchus and Ariadne_ it occurs in this passage "all luxuries that come from odorous gardens."

[204] This is used in _Hyperion_, II, l. 45. The expression "plashy pools" occurs in the _Story of Rimini_.

[205] November 11, 1820.

[206] _Life of Percy Bysshe Shelly_, II, p. 36.

[207] _Imagination and Fancy_, p. 231.

[208] _Lord Byron and Some of His Contemporaries_, pp. 252-3.

[209] Palgrave, _Poetical Works of John Keats_, p. 274.

[210] _Poetical Works_, 1832, p. 36.

[211] The poem is reported to have brought L100, more than any poem sold during his lifetime. It is now lost.

[212] Mac-Carthay, who has fully treated this incident, thinks that the account Hunt gave of the matter many years later is so incoherent as to indicate that he did not receive the letter until after he met Shelley, or perhaps not at all. He also points out that two passages in the letter to Hunt of March 2, 1811, important in their bearing upon Shelley's political theories at this time, are identical with passages in a letter of February 22 of the same year, addressed to the editor of _The Statesman_, presumably Finnerty. (_Shelley's Early Life_, pp. 1-106.)

[213] Hancock, _The French Revolution and English Poets_, pp. 50-77.

[214] Letter to Miss Hitchener, June 25, 1811.

[215] G. B. Smith, _Shelley, A Critical Biography_, p. 88.

[216] See the _Letter to Lord Ellenborough_.

[217] Smith, _Shelley, A Critical Biography_, p. 110.

[218] For Shelley's opinion on the coincidence of their political views, see the last paragraph of the dedication of _The Cenci_.

[219] Hunt, _Autobiography_, II, p. 103.

[220] _Lord Byron and Some of His Contemporaries_, p. 176.

[221] _Autobiography_, II, p. 36.

[222] Pp. 122, 123.

[223] December 27, 1812.

[224] II, p. 13.

[225] _Autobiography_, II, p. 27.

[226] _Atlantic Monthly_, February, 1863.

[227] December 8, 1816, Shelley wrote to Hunt: "I have not in all my intercourse with mankind experienced sympathy and kindness with which I have been so affected, or which my whole being has so sprung forward to meet and to return.... With you, and perhaps some others (though in a less degree, I fear) my gentleness and sincerity find favour, because they are themselves gentle and sincere: they believe in self-devotion and generosity because they are themselves generous and self-devoted." (Nicoll and Wise, _Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century_, p. 328.)

[228] December 15, 1816, Shelley wrote Mary Godwin: Hunt's "delicate and tender attentions to me, his kind speeches of you, have sustained me against the weight of the horror of this event." (Dowden, _Life of Shelley_, II, p. 68.)

[229] (_a_) _The Examiner_, January 26, 1817. (_b_) _Ibid._, February 12, 1817. (_c_) _Ibid._, August 31, 1817. (_d_) Hunt, _Correspondence_, I, p. 114; August 27, 1817.

[230] Shelley said of Horace Smith: "but is it not odd that the only truly generous person I ever knew, who had money to be generous with, should be a stockbroker." (Hunt, _Autobiography_, I, p. 211.) See also _Letter to Maria Gisborne_, ll. 247-253; Forman, _Works of Shelley_, III, p. 225 ff.

[231] _Works of Shelley_, VIII, p. 3; March 22, 1818.

[232] _Works of Shelley_, VIII, p. 141; November 13, 1819.

[233] Professor Masson says that one of Shelley's first acts was to offer Hunt L100. It is probable he refers to the occasion already discussed. (_Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats and Other Essays_, p. 112.)

[234] Dowden, _Life of Shelley_, II, p. 61.

[235] Nicoll and Wise, _Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century_, p. 331; December 8, 1816.

[236] _Ibid._, p. 336; August 16, 1817.

[237] Rogers, _Table Talk_, p. 236.

[238] Hunt, _Correspondence_, I, p. 146; September 12, 1819.

[239] Hunt, _Autobiography_, II, p. 36; _Correspondence_, I, p. 126.

[240] Medwin, _Life of Shelley_, II, p. 137.

[241] Mitford, _Life_, I, p. 280. Jeaffreson, _The Real Shelley_, II, p. 357.

[242] Nicoll and Wise, _Literary Anecdotes_, p. 348; April 5, 1820. He assumed the debt for Hunt's piano as naturally as he did for his own. Prof. Dowden says that John Hunt expected Shelley to become responsible for all of his brother's debts. (_Life of Shelley_, II, p. 458.)

[243] Hunt, _Correspondence_, I, p. 158; November 11, 1820.

[244] Nicoll and Wise, _Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century_, p. 342.

[245] See