Life of Leigh Hunt

The editor of the Examiner; his attainments and character;

Jack the Giant-Killer; prospectus; liberal principles;

animosity to the Government; refuses to write for Quar-

terly; prosecutions; the editor at home; leaves War

Office; marries Marianne Kent; good prospects and in-

tentions; birth of Thornton; visits Cambridge; ill health;

letter from Shelley; services of the Examiner to freedom;

the Reflector; essays by Lamb; "Feast of the Poets" ;

ridicule of Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Scott; "A Day

by the Fireside"; Haydon and Leigh Hunt; Charles Ollier

CHAPTER V.

Attack on Prince Regent in Examiner; causes which led to

it; prosecution; imprisonment of John and Leigh Hunt;

Brougham; Bentham; refuses compromise with Govern-

ment; life in prison; decoration of his rooms; his garden;

birth of a daughter; friends old and new; Lamb; dinner-

parties; Moore; Byron and Leigh Hunt; leaders in

Examiner about himself; writes "Rimini"; effect of

imprisonment on his character; money-matters; refuses

subscription

PAGE

CHAPTER VI.

The Poet Patriot; "The Descent of Liberty"; The
Story of Rimini"; its reception by his friends; abuse of
poem and its author by the Quarterly, &c.; the poem

;

criticised; its versification and influence on English poetry;

alterations; Leigh Hunt's opinion of it in later life;

"Hero and Leander" and "Bacchus and Ariadne"

Foliage" ; "The Nymphs"; poems to his friends and

relations; sonnets; follows his literary bent; out of prison;

changes of residence; his portrait drawn by his friends;

his personal charm; his social circle; the Cowden Clarkes;

the Novellos; the Lambs; Leigh Hunt at breakfast; his

conversation; accounts of by Charles Cowden Clarke,

Hazlitt, Haydon, and Charles Lamb; summary

CHAPTER VII.

Lodgings in Edgware Road; visits of Byron and Wordsworth;

Vale of Health, Hampstead; Keats; Hunt's affection for

him;
article on "Young Poets" in Examiner ; sonnets by

Keats and Hunt on "The Grasshopper and Cricket ";

Horace Smith; Haydon; the Olliers; Haydon prejudices

Keats against Hunt; Keats nursed by the Hunts; Hunt's

papers on Keats in the Indicator; Keats's morbid fancies;

quarrels with Hunt; leaves England to die; the effect of

Hunt on Keats considered; "The Cockney School of

Poets"; letter of Hunt to Severn about Keats; Shelley;

Hunt's sympathy with Shelley on death of Harriet; Hunt

visits Shelley at Marlow; the Shelleys live with the Hunts

at Hampstead; value of Hunt's services to Shelley; Shel-

ley's dedication of "The Cenci " to Hunt; their pecuniary

relations; correspondence with the Shelleys after they

left England; sends Shelley his portrait; translation of

Amyntas"; tragedy of "The Cid"; "Prometheus

Unbound"; "The Cenci"; Hazlitt; Hogg; Peacock;

"The Literary Pocket-Book"; pecuniary difficulties; the

Indicator; charm of Hunt's essays; their style; descrip-

tion of his mother's grave in "Death of Little Children";

health breaks down; invited to Italy by Shelley and

Byron; sails from London; bad weather; delayed at

Plymouth by Mrs. Hunt's health; Dartmouth; presenta-

tion of silver cup by admirers at Plymouth; sails from

Arrival in Italy; Genoa; thunderstorm; Leghorn; scene at

Byron's villa; Shelley and Williams; Byron's rude recep-

tion of Mrs. Hunt; Pisa; death of Shelley; the cremation

of Shelley's body; elements of disagreement; Hunt and

Byron; their incompatibility; Hunt's doleful position

CHAPTER IX.

The situation-Byron most to blame; the Liberal started; its
contributors and contents; inferiority of Hunt's writings
in Italy; letters to Elizabeth Kent; Albaro; deterioration;
failure of the Liberal; Byron's departure for Greece;
Hunts go to Florence; remove to Maiano;
"Chris-

tianism"; C. A. Brown; W. S. Landor; home-sickness;

The "Wishing-Caps"; paraphrase from "Meleager";

Letters from Mrs. Shelley and Mrs. Novello; "Ultra-

Crepidarius; translation of "Bacco in Toscana "; the

Financial affairs; quarrels with John Hunt; arrangement

with Colburn; return journey; Highgate; the "Cockney

School"; reduced circle of friends; indolence; "Lord

Byron and his Contemporaries"; storm of indignation;

the petty spirit of the book; Hunt's excuses considered;

its publication a relief to his mind; Hunt abandons

politics; devotes himself to amiable literary labour; death

of his son Swinburne ; letter of reconciliation to Mr. and

Mrs. Hunter

176

CHAPTER XI.

Changes of residence; the Companion; "Specimens of British

Poetesses"; "Walks Home by Night";

"Sir Ralph

Esher"; the Chat of the Week; the Tatler; health breaks
down; troubles; his friends; John Forster; Procter; Bow-
ring; Laman Blanchard; “Poems " published by subscrip-

tion; Wordsworth; Macaulay; great pecuniary pressure at

Chelsea; grant of £200; the "triumvirate"; Leigh

Hunt's London Journal; burying the hatchet; Professor

Wilson retracts; objects of the Journal

CHAPTER XII.