Leigh Hunt's Relations with Byron, Shelley and Keats Part 18

[215] G. B. Smith, _Sh.e.l.ley, A Critical Biography_, p. 88.

[216] See the _Letter to Lord Ellenborough_.

[217] Smith, _Sh.e.l.ley, A Critical Biography_, p. 110.

[218] For Sh.e.l.ley'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, Sh.e.l.ley 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, Sh.e.l.ley wrote Mary G.o.dwin: 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 Sh.e.l.ley_, 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] Sh.e.l.ley 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 Sh.e.l.ley_, III, p. 225 ff.

[231] _Works of Sh.e.l.ley_, VIII, p. 3; March 22, 1818.

[232] _Works of Sh.e.l.ley_, VIII, p. 141; November 13, 1819.

[233] Professor Ma.s.son says that one of Sh.e.l.ley's first acts was to offer Hunt 100. It is probable he refers to the occasion already discussed.

(_Wordsworth, Sh.e.l.ley, Keats and Other Essays_, p. 112.)

[234] Dowden, _Life of Sh.e.l.ley_, 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 Sh.e.l.ley_, II, p. 137.

[241] Mitford, _Life_, I, p. 280. Jeaffreson, _The Real Sh.e.l.ley_, II, p.

357.

[242] Nicoll and Wise, _Literary Anecdotes_, p. 348; April 5, 1820. He a.s.sumed the debt for Hunt's piano as naturally as he did for his own.

Prof. Dowden says that John Hunt expected Sh.e.l.ley to become responsible for all of his brother's debts. (_Life of Sh.e.l.ley_, 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 Chapter IV, p. 89.

[246] Dowden, _Life of Sh.e.l.ley_, II, p. 456; also _Works of Sh.e.l.ley_, VIII, p. 252.

[247] (_a_) Nicoll and Wise, _Literary Anecdotes_, pp. 352, 356. (_b_) Byron, _Letters and Journals_, VI, p. 11.

[248] Dowden, _Life of Sh.e.l.ley_, II, p. 489.

[249] Hunt, _Autobiography_, II, pp. 36-37. In August, 1819, Hunt importunes Sh.e.l.ley to give no thought to his affairs (_Correspondence_, I, p. 136). Hunt wrote Mary Sh.e.l.ley on September 7, 1821: "Pray thank Sh.e.l.ley or rather do not, for that kind part of his offer relating to the expenses. I find I have omitted it; but the instinct that led me to do so is more honorable to him than thanks." (_Correspondence_, I, p. 171.)

[250] Jeaffreson, _The Real Sh.e.l.ley_, II, p. 355.

[251] W. M. Rossetti, _Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Sh.e.l.ley_, I, p. 75.

[252] _Letters and Journals_, VI, p. 96.

[253] Kent, _Leigh Hunt as Poet and Essayist_, p. 28.

[254] _Autobiography_, II, p. 60.

[255] _Atlantic Monthly_, February, 1863.

[256] _Works of Sh.e.l.ley_, VIII, p. 283. June 19, 1822.

[257] Built by Michaelangelo and situated on the Arno.

[258] _The Liberal_, I, p. 103.

[259] Brandes attributes the inscription to Mary Sh.e.l.ley. (_Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature_, IV, p. 208.)

[260] _Correspondence_, I, p. 269.

[261] After Sh.e.l.ley's death, Mary Sh.e.l.ley decided to remain in Italy in order to a.s.sist with _The Liberal_. She considered Hunt "expatriated at the request and desire of others," and, in helping him, she thought to fulfil any obligation that Sh.e.l.ley might have a.s.sumed in the scheme. For her services she received thirty-three pounds. She lived for some time in the same house with the Hunts after they separated from Lord Byron, but the arrangement was an unhappy one. Disagreements, beginning with a misunderstanding concerning the possession of Sh.e.l.ley's heart, dragged through the winter. Fortunately everything was adjusted before they separated. July, 1823, she wrote of Hunt: "he is all kindness, consideration and friendship--all feeling of alienation towards me has disappeared to its last dregs." (Marshall, _The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft G.o.dwin_, London, 1889, II, p. 81.) And again: "But thank heaven we are now the best friends in the world.... It is a delightful thing, my dear Jane, to be able to express one's affection upon an old and tried friend like Hunt, and one so pa.s.sionately attached to my Sh.e.l.ley as he was, and is.... He was displeased with me for many just reasons, but he found me willing to expiate, as far as I could, the evil I had done; his heart again warmed, and if when I return you find me more amiable, and more willing to suffer with patience than I was, it is to him that I owe this benefit." (_Ibid._, II, p. 85.)