LEIGH HUNT

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 47, 23 August 1930, Page 21

LEIGH HUNT

A NEW BIOGRAPHY

(By "Ajax.") Leigh Hunt: A Biography. By Edmund Blunden. London: Cobden-Sanderson. [First Notice.] Two years ago almost to a day—in fact o'nst as near to a day as the necessity' of writing on a Saturday would permit—l had the pleasure of reviewing a. book of Mr. Blunden 'a entitled "Leigh Hunt's 'Examiner' Examined, 1808.25." That was on the 25th August, 1928, but I found the job so interesting that it filled all my space on the following Saturday also. Mr. Blunden.?s appointment, to the Chair of English Literature at the Imperial University at Tokio in 1924 had interrupted his studies for a biography of Leigh Hunt, but had at the same time enabled him.to concentrate upon a phase and a peripd of Hunt's activities which are of peculiar interest to anybody interested either in journalism or in adventure. #.' •' * . « One would never have guessed that an,-appointment in Tokio would have playedright into the hands of a specialist, in Leigh Hunt, but so it was. During 1926, says Mr. Blunden, my friend and colleague, Takeshi Saito—probably the best Japanese authority on any subject concerned (?connected) with the poets of romance whom England has produced— with great enterprise obtained a good set of Leigh Hunt's "Examiner," and with, his customary generosity gave me the tenancy of it Besides this. Professor Saito spent many hours of a busy life in assisting me to explore these capacious volumes. Thus it was that as an exile in Japan Mr Blunden found opportunities for a special study for one phase of his subject which would probably have been denied him at home. * * * * In this early volume which Mr. Blundendescribes; as "an outgrowth from the more comprehensive, account _of Leigh. Hniit'B life," the part that impressed me mos,t was the description, of t%&: "Examiner's" brave fight in its early years (1808-12) against a tyrannical • Government, culminating, m the'slashing libel on the Prince Regent whoa few years later became George IV. ' "With a sycophancy so gross that to-day it reads like sarcasm the "Morning Post" had hailed him in this strain: — .You"are the Glory of the People— . You are the Protector of the Arts — '.You are the Maecenas of. the AgeWherever you appear, you conquer all Hearts, wipe away tears, excite desire and love, and win beauty towards you. You breathe eloquence. You inspire the Graces. You are an Aflpnis in. loveliness! :',-•• * ' * * :In an article which appeared in the '•Examiner" on the 22nd March, 1812, arid to which Mr. Blunden gives the title of "The Prince on St. Patrick's Day" in one of his books, and "Princely Qualities" in. the other, Leigh Hunt turned every one of these fulsome phrases inside ■ out and concluded with an.'appallingly straight piece of talk on his own account: — What person, unacquainted with the true state of the case, would imagine, in reading these astounding eulogies, that this Glory of the People was the subject of millions of shrugs and reproaches! . . . That this Conqueror of Hearts was the disappomter of hopes! That this Exciter of Desire (bravo, Messieurs of the "Post! ) this Adonis in Loveliness, was a corpulent gentleman of fifty! In short, that this delightful, blissful, wise, pleasurable, honourable, . virtuous, true, and immortal Prince, was a violator of his word, a libertine over head and earß in debt and disgrace, a despiser of domestic ties, the companion of gamblers and demireps, a man who' has iust closed half a century without one single claim on the gratitude of his country or the respect of posterity! ■■'■■# •» » * Every' word of this was substantially "true, but the truth was no defence to a charge of seditious libel, and Leigh Hnnt. arid, his brother, John, were both sentenced to fines of £500 and to imprisonment for two years. The stirring story is unduly curtailed in the "Life," but full justice is done to the sequel which, occurred, more than thirty years later. ■ Though far from being the contemptible cadger whom Dickens libelled in "Bleak House" under the name of Harold Skimpole, Hunt was so hopeless a muddler financially that money passed through his fingers almost as soon as ho made it. Among other influential friends Carlyle had urged his claims to a pension. It is believed, he wrote, that in hardly any other way could £200 abolish as much suffering, create as much benefit, to one man, and through him to many and all. . ■ ■& «■ # * The success of. these efforts was announced to Leigh Hunt in a letter written from Downing street on the 22nd June, 1847, by Lord John Russell:— Sir,—l have much pleasure in informing you that the Queen has been pleased to direct that in consideration of your distinguished literary talents, a pension of £200 yearly should be settled upon you from the funds of the Civil List. Allow me to add that the severe treatment ■ you formerly received in times of unjust persecution of liberal writers, enhances the satisfaction with which I make this announcement. Whether Victoria and Albert could have approved of that second sentence if they had been consulted may be doubted. But it did Lord John Russell great credit, and a compliment which Hunt's courageous assertion of the freedom of the Press richly deserved was a groat joy to the recipient. I am proud, indeed. Hunt wrote, of being thus sympathised with by a Russell, and feel as if history itself were deigning to speak to me as a friend. » o * « There was further solace for Leigh H,nrit in that year 1847. Amateur performances of Ben Jonson's "Every Man in His Humour were arranged for his benefit in the provinces (Manchestor, 26th July; Liverpool, 28th July), and the cast included Charles Dickens (as Bobadil), Forster (as Kitely), Lowes, Cruickshank, Leech, and Douglas Jerrold: —surely Buch an array of non-theatrical talent as has not often appeared upon the stage. Lytton's prologue, which was recited by Forster at the Liverpool performance, reads very well:— The base may mock, the household asp may sting, The bard, like Lear, is "every inch a king." Want but anoints his head with holier balmsHe claims your tribute, pot implores your abas! Mild amidst foes, amidst a prison free, He comes—our grey-hair'd bard of "Rimini"! Comes with the pomp of memories in his train, Pathos and wit, sweet pleasure and sweet pain! • ■ * * * The sum of 400 guineas was tho outcome of this dramatic effort, and this golden year—tho 63rd of Hunt's life— had • still a third, honour in store for him. On 15th September, Mr. Blunden writes, the Museum Club, of which he was a greatly- prized member, gave a dinner in his ■•hwkmr. His public speeches were rare. Macready heard one and diaap-

proved of it. ■ But this at the Museum Club "made a profound impression on his audience"; and well it might, for it was a reminiscence of soiiie outstanding matters in his literary life. And if we could go this evening to hear Hunt speak of Shelley, and Keats, and Lamb, and Hazlitt, we would. And of Byron ? ]■■»■'« « » As Mr. Blunden tells us nothing of this speech except that it made a profound impressionj there is presumably nothing more to tell. All the good things that he has collected from other sources' regarding Hunt's relations to these distinguished men and others must stand over till next week.