Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/276

Hunt 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.

In 1828, while living at Highgate, he issued, under the title of 'The Companion,' a weekly periodical in the style of the 'Indicator.' It extended to twenty-eight numbers, and consisted of criticisms on books, the theatres, and public events. 'They contained some of what afterwards turned out to be my most popular writings.' In the 'Keepsake,' one of the annuals of 1828, there are two articles from his pen; one on 'Pocket-books and Keepsakes,' and the other 'Dreams on the Borderlands of the Land of Poetry' (cf. for extracts from these articles art. in Temple Bar for 1873). In 1828 he went to live at Epsom, where he started a periodical called 'The Chat of the Week,' which ceased with the thirteenth number, owing to difficulties connected with the compulsory stamp on periodicals containing news. He thereupon undertook the laborious task of issuing a daily sheet of four pages folio, called 'The Tatler,' devoted to literature and the stage, entirely written by himself. It commenced on 4 Oct. 1830, and ended 13 Feb. 1832. 'I did it all myself,' he writes, 'except when too ill; and illness seldom hindered me either from supplying the review of a book, going every night to the play, or writing the notice of the play the same night at the printing-office.' The work, he adds, almost killed him, and left a feeling of fatigue for a year and a half. Still he was never in better spirits or wrote such good theatrical criticisms. He was living at this period in London, successively at Old Brompton, St. John's Wood, and the New (now Euston) Road. While at Epsom he had commenced writing 'Sir Ralph Esher; or Memoirs of a Gentleman of the Court of Charles the Second, including those of his Friend, Sir Philip Herne.' It was published in 1832, and in 1836 reached a third edition. In 1832, by the pecuniary assistance of his intimate friend John Forster, he printed for private circulation among friends a thin volume, entitled 'Christianism; being Exercises and Meditations. "Mercy and Truth have met together; Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other." Not for sale—only 75 copies printed.' It was written while in Italy. It was printed in an enlarged form in 1853, under the title of 'The Religion of the Heart.' He sent a copy of 'Christianism' to Thomas Carlyle, which led to an interview, and ultimately to a lifelong friendship. In 1832 there was published by subscription in a handsome volume the first collected edition of his poems, with a preface of fifty-eight pages. A list of the subscribers appeared in the 'Times,' comprising names of all shades of opinion, some of his sharpest personal antagonists being included. The prejudices against him had to a great extent died away. In the same year Shelley's 'Masque of Anarchy' appeared with a preface by Leigh Hunt of thirty pages.

Hunt settled in 1833 at 4 Cheyne Row, next door to Carlyle, where he remained till 1840. In 1833 he contributed six articles to 'Tait's Magazine,' being a new series of 'The Wishing Cap.' Between 1838 and 1841 he wrote five articles in the 'Monthly Chronicle,' a magazine which had among its contributors Sir E. L. Bulwer and Dr. Lardner. In the same year he wrote reviews of new books in the 'True Sun,' a daily newspaper. His health was at this time so feeble that he had for some time to be taken daily in a coach to the office. He then made the acquaintance of Laman Blanchard [q.v.], to whom he pays a tribute in his 'Autobiography.' In 1834 appeared two volumes with the title 'The Indicator and the Companion; a Miscellany for the Fields and the Fireside.' They