The Press Saturday, February 5, 1927. William Godwin, 1756-1836.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18918, 5 February 1927, Page 14

The Press Saturday, February 5, 1927. William Godwin, 1756-1836.

William Godwin, philosopher, novelist, historian, essayist, dramatist, biographer, father-in-law of Percy Bysshe Shelley, is not one of the most lovable or attractive characters of our literary history. There is something about him which leaves an ugly taste in the mouth; a murky undercurrent of vulgarity, which the genial sunshine of human fellowship did not fully penetrate. His latest biographer, .Mr Ford K. Brown, has treated his complex personality with admirable impartiality* Godwin's versatility and productive power were amazing. And these were matched by some great moral qualities, such as equanimity and courage in the presence of misfortune. He could go on writing a philosophic novel while his whole financial position was tumbling in ruins about his head. The long agony of the publishing business (ISOS to 1524) brought out his worst side, when his moral sense seemed to have died out of him. and there was no other object in life or friendship except to raise money, by whatever process of evasion, trickery, or cajolement that object could be accomplished. And the worst feature of that wretched period was that ho always regarded himself as nn injured and outraged person if his long-suffering creditors called a holt, and refused to lend any more. While borrowing recklessly and ruthlessly, he always wore an air of self-complacent integrity and injured innocence, and, with the sophistry of an accomplished philosopher, proved that everybody was in the wrong except himself. All this gains a poignant interest for us from the fact that Shelley was drawn into the toils. As a youth of twenty, having read Godwin's "Political Justice," and being consumed with reforming ardour, Shelley wrote to the philosopher letters overflowing with admiration and reverence, as to the chief inspiring influence of his life. It is safe to say that, with the first of these effusions, Godwin scented in this fervid youth a new prey, and, as he became more intimately acquainted with Shelley's qualities, family position) and future prospects, his grip tightened, to the verge of strangulation, and for ten years he bled the poet white. There were times during this period when Shelley had not at his own command the means of subsistence; while all the time his post-obit bonds for thousands were flooding the market at half their face value. Meantime he had eloped with Godwin's daughter; and in 1822 the waters of the Bay of Spezia put an end to the sordid business.

Godwin was "born and reared in an atmosphere of dissent, and for some years was an ordained dissenting minister. But by the time ho was thirty, religion, even of the broadest kind, had tumbled off him like an ill-fitting garment. He embarked on a literary career and was caught in the swirl of the French Revolutionary waters, as they broke on the shores of England. Under this impulse and the influence of a host -of writers, such as Hume, Locke, Hartley, Coidillac, Rousseau, Helvetius, and others, he produced the work which is inseparably associated with his name, "An Enquiry Concerning the "Principles of Political Justice." It is more social and ethical than political in the ordinary sense. We can only say hers that it is a destructive analysis of human institutions and human ideals, especially of law, of religion, and of marriage (that " most odious of "all monopolies"). It is masterly in its lucidity and its close-knit sophistries; and it shook England badly. Godwin was caught up on the revolutionary wave which swept over England in 1703, and for a time was deified as the apostle or prophet of a new social evangel. His abounding energies and creative power took full advantage of the tide of popularity; and, to the amazement of all, bis next onslaught on society as constituted was in the form of a novel. The novel was "Caleb Williams." Its thrilling power was a triumph of psychological analysis applied to fiction. Later on Godwin wrote several other novels, which were subdued reverberations of the same method. Godwin was now at the height of his glory. He thought of marriage. He was an object of interest to a bevy of brilliant women, all Bohemian, all "advanced," and all authors of sorts. He had a " vivid but awkward " way with women. After various experimental nibblings, he formed a union with Mary Wollstonccraft, who already had a history behind her, of personal adventure and of authorship. His two years of association with this brilliant woman were the brightest, best, and happiest portion of Godwin's career. But ten days after giving birth to the "Mary," who was afterwards Mrs Shelley, she died. Meantime the wave of revolutionary enthusiasm subsided, and the fever of Godwinism died out. The reaction in public sentiment was complete, and <m Godwin himself the effects were disastrous. He found himself not only dethroned from his pedestal, but held up to public* scorn and obloquy as a corrupter of morals and a wrecker of law and government. The Press turned and rent him, and public speakers denounced him and his works in vehement and even scurrilous language. By reason of the collapse in the sale of his books he was reduced to privation, and often he and the two little children left him by his wife had to go without a meal. But Godwin's calm courage and equanimity never failed him ia presence of disaster. He embarked on several now literary enterprises; and the opening of the new century find 3 him pinning his faith to the one form of literature tor which he was wholly unfitted, the drama. He wrote three tragedies, ntft one of which had any success. His second novel, "St Leon," did better; and the proceeds of two or three editions helped to keep his head above water. He worked at a Lifo of Chaucer, which was to be a complete picture of the Chaucerian Age, its manners, institutions, social conditions, opinions', art, litwitoe, poMos, leadttg menj andj

iu faet, every conceivable aspect. He

look to Jitiii~elf :i tccond wife, a bustling, buxom widow with two child-

ren, practical, oapable, and vulgar. (One of these children afterwards caught, to her own detriment, the roving eye of Byron.) Godwin r.nd his wife realised that there was no longer a livelihood in writing hooks. They started a modest publishing house, a " Juvenile Library,"' for the production of books for the young, in which'there was at ;!mt time a boom. The auspices were i'uvwirable, and several tirst-rate men promised to write for him. 7»i>t .if Godwin's methods of financing the business of this library something has been said above. Vet, in our disgust at his sordid operation-, we must not forget our debt of gratitude to this "' Juven-

'• ile Library." We owe fo it some UihiL's that we -liould be .-orry to lose, anion;,* Ihcni Charles ami .Mary Lamb's " Tales from Shakespeare." When Godwin was sold up in IS2-1, he was given a small Government sinecure. In it he went on placidly writing books for twelve years more. Writing, with him, had become a hain't, that was almost an instinct; but the, (ire and force had burned themselves out.