BITTER BIOGRAPHIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 119, 23 May 1939, Page 8

BITTER BIOGRAPHIES.

SHELLEY AND POE.

The bitter denunciation of Ramsay Mac Donald published by L. McNeil Weir recently i~ of a typo'which is rare in these days, but it calls to mind the fact that English literature includes M>mo interesting samples <if biographies written in the 'spirit of detraction. Anions the nioft notable victims of such biographies are Percy Bysehe Shelley and Ed par Allan Poe.

The task of writing the official biography of Shelley was entrusted by the Shelley family to Thomas Jeffenson Hogjr, who had been a friend of the poet at Oxford, and had been closely associated with him in London. Shelley's widow had alwaye declared that he was the only man qualified for the work. But it was not until 33 years after Shelley's death that Ho<rg ; w i lo received a legacy of £2000 under the poet's will, was furnished with all the available documents, and becran the task. In 1858 the first two volumes of the biography appeared, bringing Shelley's life down to the eve of hie elopement with Mary Godwin, whom he subsequently married after the death of his firet wife.

The work was to he completed in four volumes, but the eecond two were never published owing to the indignation and amawinent created by the iir*t two. Lady Shalloy, in the preface of her own edition of the

'•Shelley -Memorials," wrote: "We saw the book (HogfrV. two volume*) for the first time when it was given to the world. Jt was impossible to imagine beforehand that from such materials a book could have been produced which hap; astonished and shocked those who have the jrreatest right to form an opinion on the character of Shelley, and it wa« with the most painful feelings of di-in.:.v that we pursued what we could only look upon as a fantastic caricature, ffoilip fords to the public with my apparent sanction—for it was dedicated to myself. Our ft'olinjrs of duty to the memory of Shelley left n< no nt.her alternative than to withdraw the materials which we had originally entrusted to his early friend, and which we could not but consider had been ctranjjely misused, nnd to take upon ourwives the ta«k of layin ;• them before the public, connected only by as a thread of narrative as wou'd niftice to make them intelligible tn the ren.'li , !-. ,.

Fantastic Caricature. Some idea of tin- reasons why Shelley'.? relatives objected to Hogg's biojrrajihy can bn obtained from tlw followin™ extracts: "Ho was a climber, a cropper, an elegant, beautiful, odoriferous, parasitical plant; he could not support himself; lie must be tied up fast to of a (inner texture, harder and more riffid timn his own pliant yielding structure; tf> *ome person of a less flexible formation; lie always required a prop. . . . Hp wae altogether incapable of rendering an account of any transact ion whatever, according to the strict and precise truth, and the bare realities of actual life. . . . His voioe Avas excruciating; it \v;is intolerably nhrill, harsh and discordant; it excoriated the ears.

"There wero jiiiiny strikin™ oontraste in the character and hehuviour of Shelley, and one of the niot<t remarkable was a mixture or itlteriirttinn of awkwnrdnesri and ability— of the clumsy iiiul the graceful. He would stumble in stopping across the floor of a drawing , room; he would tri]>-himecif up on a sniooth-sliavcii jiraiia plot, and he would .-tumble in the moist inconceivable manner in ascendinjr the commodious, facile and w«ll-carpete-d staircase at an elegant mansion, «o ae to hniioe his not«e, or his li|>, on the upper step?, or to tread upon his hands. . . . His food wae plain and simple as that of a hermit.

Poe Disparaged. Riifiis Wilmot GrjewoM, whom Edjrar Allan Poe a]ipointed as hifi literafV executor, betrayed his trust by contributing" to the collected edition of Pop's works, which he edited, a vindictive memoir, which held Poe up to contempt and derision, and disparaged his work ae a poet and a writer of short etories. It eta ted that "few would be grieved" by the announcement of Poe'e death, and continued: "The poet was known personally or by reputation in all this country; he "had readers in England and in several of the States of Continental Europe, but he had few or no friends, and the regrets for his death will be suggested principally by the consideration that in him literary art has lost one of its moest brilliant and erratic star*. . . .

I'amion in him comprehended many of the worst emotion-; which militate human happiness. You could not contradict him but you rained quick cholcr; you cmill not speak of wealth but hU click paled wi!!i nuawin.ir envy. The n^t'Uli^iiiii-.r ivituriil advantages of thi-J poor boy—his beauty, his rcadiuc-";. i h< 1 daring spirit that breathes around him like a fiery atmosphere — had mined hies constitutional si'lf-conlidciicc into an arrogance that turnc-d liia very claims, to admiration into prejudices against him. Irascible, envious— nad enough, but not the worst, for these salient angles were all varnished over with a <'old, repellent cynicism; his piissioiiri vented themselves in <*iieer«. There seemed to him no moral susceptibility, and what was nmro reinnrkablo in a proud nature, liitli , or nothin , ; of the true point of honour. lie h:id in a morbid exeesn that desire to rise, which is vulgarly called ambit ion. Ivit no wisji fn- (j... esteem or love of lii- c ;u- i.-s; only tlie lmr-l wish to succc'ii- - not .-iliin , . iu:l -erw —viic----»e 1, that ho 111s.— -• i hi , vc '■■' ri-:'i* "to a world whii'ii unl'c.l l:io ni»lf-i uiu'eit."