Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/71

 Godwin She lived near her eldest son, a farmer at Wood Dalling, Norfolk, and died 13 Aug. 1809. Godwin did his best to help his brothers in later life (, Godwin, ii. 58, 122). Godwin's politics brought him into contact with Sheridan and other whig politicians, but he was ‘not venal enough’ to accept offers of support as a party writer. He was known to the more extreme party, and became especially intimate with Thomas Holcroft [q. v.] He took a pupil or two at intervals, to one of whom, Thomas Cooper, a distant relation, and afterwards an unsuccessful actor, he showed much kindness through life. Godwin was among the ardent sympathisers with the French revolution, and frequented the house of Helen Maria Williams. He read Paine's ‘Rights of Man’ in manuscript, having made the author's acquaintance at the house of Brand Hollis [q. v.] In 1792 he became acquainted with Horne Tooke. He now settled at a small house in Chalton Street, Somers Town, where he lived with great economy and seclusion. He had no regular servant, an old woman coming in to clean his rooms and cook his mutton-chop. He went a good deal into society and formed friendships with distinguished men, such as Thomas Wedgwood, Porson, and Ritson. He also became intimate with Mrs. Inchbald and with Mrs. Reveley, afterwards Maria Gisborne [q. v.] Godwin's ‘Political Justice’ appeared in February 1793. He received seven hundred guineas for the copyright, and three hundred guineas more after a sale of three thousand copies. It was profitable to the publisher, and made Godwin known as the philosophical representative of English radicalism. It is a curious instance of extreme principles advocated dispassionately with the calmness of one-sided logic. It was modified in later editions, and in the preface to ‘St. Leon’ (1799) he announces that he can find a place in his system for the domestic virtues previously omitted. It escaped prosecution, it is said, because the government supposed that little harm could be done by a three-guinea publication. The impression made by it upon young men is curiously illustrated in Crabb Robinson's ‘Diary’ (i. 32–52), where there is a correspondence between Robinson and Robert Hall. ‘Political Justice’ was followed in May 1794 by the remarkable novel ‘Caleb Williams,’ suggested partly by some of his views as to the falseness of the common code of morality, but preserved by the striking situation and considerable merits of style. It was dramatised by Colman the younger [q. v.], who showed little regard for the author's feelings (, Table Talk, pp. 252, 253), as ‘The Iron Chest.’ In 1794 Godwin was profoundly interested by the trials of Joseph Gerrald [q. v.] in Scotland, and afterwards of Horne Tooke, Holcroft, and others in London. He wrote a pamphlet in answer to the charge of Chief-justice Eyre in the latter case, and he became acquainted with many of the leading whigs, whom he met at the house of Lord Lauderdale.

Godwin had talked about marriage in a philosophic calmness soon after coming to London; but a match proposed by his sister came to nothing. He had some tenderness for Amelia Alderson, afterwards Mrs. Opie, and for Mrs. Inchbald. In 1796 he formed an attachment to Mary Wollstonecraft [see ], who was now living as Mrs. Imlay in the literary circle frequented by Godwin. Although he objected to marriage on principle, he admitted that it had advantages when he expected to become a father, and he appears to have been as sincerely in love as his nature admitted. The marriage took place at Old St. Pancras Church 29 March 1797. It was kept private for a short time, and Godwin took a separate apartment in the Polygon, Somers Town, twenty doors from his own house, in conformity with his theory that too close an intimacy was provocative of mutual weariness. Mrs. Inchbald was deeply aggrieved by the marriage (, Mary Wollstonecraft, p. lx). Mrs. Reveley wept, but was reconciled. Mrs. Godwin gave birth to a daughter, Mary, afterwards Mrs. Shelley, 30 Aug. 1797, caught a fever, and died 10 Sept. following. Godwin was sincerely affected, though the story is told that when his wife exclaimed that she was ‘in heaven,’ he replied, ‘You mean, my dear, that your physical sensations are somewhat easier.’ A painful correspondence with Mrs. Inchbald, whom he accused of using her ill, immediately followed. They were never quite reconciled, though at intervals they had a correspondence, and it was mutually irritating. He saw a few friends and set about compiling a memoir of his wife, which appeared in the following year.

Godwin returned to his studies and to society in 1798. He was left in charge of his infant daughter and of Fanny Godwin (as she was called), Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter by Imlay. A Miss Jones who took care of the children had apparently some wish to be their stepmother. Godwin thought that a second wife might be desirable, but had no fancy for Miss Jones. He visited Bath in March 1798, and made acquaintance with Sophia and Harriet Lee [q. v.], writers of the ‘Canterbury Tales.’ He made an offer to Harriet soon afterwards and reasoned at great