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Leigh Hunt letter to Samuel Webbe, March 15, 1812

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Title	Leigh Hunt letter to Samuel Webbe, March 15, 1812
Creator	Hunt, Leigh, 1784-1859
Date Original	1812-03-15
Description	Concerning his resolution to have no contacts with actors in order to write impartial criticism of the theater.
Personal Name Subject	Hunt, Leigh, 1784-1859 Webbe, Samuel, ca. 1770-1843
Chronological Subject	1810-1820
Type (DCMIType)	Text
Type (AAT)	Correspondence
Type (IMT)	jpeg
Digital Collection	Leigh Hunt Letters
Contributing Institution	University of Iowa. Libraries. Special Collections Dept.
Archival Collection	Brewer-Leigh Hunt Collection
Collection Guide	http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/resources/Brewer-LeighHunt.html
Location	MsL H94w
Rights Management	Educational use only, no other permissions given. This letter is owned by The University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections Department, and is provided here for educational purposes. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without written permission of the Special Collections Department.
Contact Information	Contact The University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections Department: lib-spec@uiowa.edu
Height (cm)	23
Width (cm)	19
Number of Pages	8
Number of Sheets of Paper	2
Digitization Specifications	Scanned with Ricoh Aficio 2335 scanner at 600 ppi, 24-bit color. Archival tiff image available.
Date Digital	2008-07-21
Transcript	[London] Sunday 15th. March 1812 . My dear friend , You would have heard from me sooner upon this critical business, but I had some thoughts of coming to you last night & talking it over leisurely and at full length, till I was informed that you were engaged abroad; & it is as well perhaps that what I have to say should be put down upon paper, in order that you may communicate it to Mr. Shepherd,[1] if you think fit. The reasons for pursuing this line of conduct which I gave you by letter, if you remember, when you invited me to meet Mr. Young,[2] appear either to have slipped your memory or not to have made such an impression upon it as I could have hoped; but perhaps I have one or two others, which nay assist them; & at any rate, I shall speak in such a manner, as may convince any body who is interested in the subject, that I have quite made up my mind upon it, & must have all my arguments beaten to nothing before I can think of surrendering. I cannot help however observing in the outset, that what I have refused to you, as well as denied to myself, in declining to meet a person, of whose taste and cordial manners I have heard so much from all quarters, I am not likely to grant to one, who whatever respect I may have for his talents, is comparatively an absolute stranger:-but then a lady is in the case; and it becomes me to explain all the reasons & feelings, which can induce me to be so ungallant as well as unaccomodating as to [page break] avoid the pleasure of her acquaintance. I shall therefore proceed /----/ without further preface to give a list of my arguments, as the best mode of being at once concise & explicit; and if they do not succeed in convincing you as they have long done myself, why we must finish by pronouncing each other to be incorrigible . 1. In the first place, when I commenced my critical career, which was at the commencement of a Sunday paper called the News in 1804, I found a host of wretched scribblers in possession of the stage, & a host of critics, equally wretched, maintaining them there by a regular train of panegyrics in the newspapers. To expose the former I discovered that nothing was necessary but a reference to common English & common taste; & to avoid the gross partiality of the latter, I made a resolution never to mingle, as they did, with any persons connected with the stage . 2. I soon found the benefit of this resolution, in forcing & maintaining the respect of those who would willingly have lessened the effect of my condemnations, by detesting partiality in my praises . 3. I have more than once given a hint of it to my readers, who therefore rely upon me for it's continuance, & would have a right to think less of me, or at least to place less dependence upon my world, if after all I departed from it. (See below) 5. If I knew a performer, & still spoke my mind of him as I pleased, there are nevertheless a number of persons who would affect not to believe it;-& granting that my motives still remained right, & that I ought to despise unfounded suspicions, yet it becomes me, for the sake of the drama & of good acting, not to risk any injury to the reputation of honest criticism . 4. I have more than given hints; I have endeavoured to overwhelm with ridicule the pretensions of those critics to impartiality, who are acquainted with dramatists & performers; & what should I say to myself, if I went & did likewise. [page break] 6. But I have not only the suspicions of others to guard against in this respect; I have also to guard against my own; for though I am conscious that my motives would be as just as ever they were, yet my feelings-my wish to think well,-might be less impartial, & therefore I should not choose to trust myself to the temptation. From what I have heard of Mr. Young, for instance, he seems to be a man in whose society I should particularly enjoy myself; & do you think my critical eyes would be as calm & cool-judging the next time I saw him upon the stage? Mr. Shepherd, in recommending an acquaintance with his friend Miss Smith,[3] talks of the "gratification" I should experience "from friendly intercourse with a person of a sound head & an excellent heart." It delights me to hear one friend speak so of another, and I have no doubt of the gratification that would result/ing/ from /that/ such an intercourse: but do you not see how the man is charmed when he speaks of his fair acquaintance? And do you think that gratifications so powerful have no effect in giving an anticritical bias to one's feelings? Not you,--nor any other sensible man who at all understands human nature.- There may, to be sure, be another sort of bias, though it would not take place in such instances,-that on the disagreeable side. I once fell into company with an actor who made an impression of distaste upon me,-partly perhaps, though certainly not altogether, because I discovered that the meeting was concerted. For some weeks afterwards, I found myself inclined to look on the dark side of his pretensions,-though a man of ability in his line,-and I believe that what I said of him in my next criticism put an end to all his speculations upon an intimacy. Thus the more I am pleased, or the less I am pleased, my impartiality is likely to suffer; and /---/ [page break] 7. Supposing for an instant that it would not, yet still I might put myself to additional pain in being obliged perhaps to speak harshly of what I thought deserved it, besides increasing that of the party criticised; for you may say what you will, my dear Webbe, of a proper feeling on these subjects, & a right understanding &c. &c., but it is not in human nature to feel a friend's severity like an indifferent person's, or to forego certain considerations of delicacy, which however disclaimed on an occasion like the present, could act imperceptibly upon the mind, & force the critic to feel scruples, & the criticised to feel hopes, which neither of them ought to indulge. 8. Granting therefore that I could be of the least service in giving the assistance of my private advice to a performer, the advantage to him or her would be nothing in the balance compared with the injury, done to my impartiality or to my reputation for critical honesty: though with regard to such assistance 9. It is quite out of all reason to suppose that it would be of any effectual benefit; for not to mention, that I could not & ought not to give any other advice than what is afforded by my writings, a performer of genius would not want it in order to obtain my good word, & upon a performer of no genius it would be thrown away . 10. By keeping to this resolution, I firmly believe, that I, have done much more good to the stage than I should without it, & therefore the experience of it's success,-confirmed /indeed/ as it has been too by the acknowledgment, verbal or otherwise, of the dramatists & actors themselves,-has made me hold it the faster, as the very handle & strength of my critical sceptre. [page break] (Another sheet!-You see what you have brought upon yourself.)[4] 11. To conclude,-and to come at once to the bottom of all this,-what, after all, is the real secret,-the true, silent, unwhispered object,-of applications like the present? If you think fairly for a moment, you need not be told it. You may talk, if you please, of friendly advise; Mr. Shepherd may think that he is discharging a duty to his friend; and Miss Smith, if her inclinations have any thing to do with the business, nay, from a native delicacy, have brought herself to misrepresent the cause to her own mind;-but still it comes but to one, plain piece of matter-of-fact at last:-it is an attempt to interest me in her favour by other means than those of her public merits; and I here repeat once for all my firm & unalterable opinion, that a critic who attends to any thing but those, & who thereby risks his impartiality & his equal justice, does not discharge his duty to the public, & ought to lose ground in the good opinion of those very friends whose mistaken goodnature may have endeavoured to make him think otherwise . Here then I stop, not only because I think I have said enough on the score of reason, but because I really feel a certain degree of humiliation on these occasions; and they are by no means new to me. It annoys me, in the first place, to be obliged to assume such an air of / / independence, repulsion, &c. &c. as is forced upon me by the necessity of arguing the point; & secondly, I cannot free myself from a certain regret, that my friends should think me capable of giving it up for a little talking after having acted upon it, & obtained respect & attention by it, for the space of eight years. Yes, I may safely conclude, that it is this very resolu [page break] tion which in great measure renders me an object of consequence to those very persons who think it their interest to have me break it; & do they think then that I will do so? No, my dear Webbe; I an too great a glutton in general respect;--I have too great a respect for my own consistency:-I have too experienced an attachment to the interest of public taste;-I have too sound a desire for the unmingled esteem of friends like yourself. In fine, I have found the same advantages from pursuing the same plan in politics. & /I/ know what reliance my readers place in me upon that account;-and if I have given up all thoughts of criticising the Fine Arts, as far as regards my own pen and controul, what is the reason? It is simply because I cannot convince the public, /that/ or succeed perhaps in persuading myself, that I have the same, unbiased indifference in criticising pictures as I have in writing of playhouses and parliaments. When I speak well of West, they say he is my kinsman, & kinsmen are naturally partial: when I talk of Haydon as a rising genius, they say that he is one of my companions, & that companions who admire each others' pursuits are prepared to admire each others' performances. The consequence is that though I have written in public of both these gentlemen with what I conceive to be strict impartiality, I could never persuade other artists to think me unbiased, nor am I prepared to say that I could answer to human nature for really being so,-to it's utmost & only proper extent. I therefore do not chuse to endanger the reputation of criticism /by/ on that subject, & whenever I speak of it since, as my love of poetry naturally leads ne to do with some enthusiasm, I use the language of a [page break] professed & partial friend to the Fine Arts, & not of a critic or, in other words (to use the etymological meaning of the word critic) of a judge upon the bench. In future then, my friend, when you think of me in my critical character, pray consent to regard me in that light, and as you would forbear to ask Lord Eldon's[5] or Ellenborough's[6] acquaintance for a person whose cause was to be tried by him, so do me the favour of thinking that a critic is quite as important a personage (if he does his duty) in the republic of letters, as a judge is in the / / political community, and that I have quite as lofty a notion of my dignity on the bench, albeit I sit in a theatre instead of a hall, & wear my own hair instead of a wig . I [am una]ble to accept your invitation to night,[7] in consequence of an engagement I have had in the Temple ever since Sunday last; but if you go to the concert next Monday, I shall be truly happy to accompany you, provided you /have/ are not preoccupied. On that day also I hope to /bring/ shew you a certain little manuscript, which I take more pleasure in writing than if it were fifty criticisms full of point and acumen. I only hope that you may take half as much pleasure in setting it,-& the ladies, more pleasure than all, in hearing it sung. Pray make my best remembrances to Mrs. Webbe, and believe me in spite of my critical cold-blood. Very warmly & heartily your's , Leigh Hunt . You see I finish this letter on Monday Morning, having been interrupted yesterday. [page break] Mr. Saml Webbe , Jun. 13. Howard Street , Surrey Street , Strand .
Transcript Notes	1. Unidentified . 2. Charles Hayne Young . 3. An actress . 4. Note comes at the top of a page . 5. John Scott, first Earl of Eldon (1751-1838), Lord Chancellor of England from 1801-1827, except 1806-07. In 1817 he heard the case between Shelley and the Westbrooks for the custody of Shelley's children, and his decision deprived Shelley of their custody (Life of Shelley, II, 76-95) . 6. Edward Law, first Baron Ellenborough (1750-1818), Lord Chief Justice of England. In December 1812 he presided over the trial of LH and John Hunt for libeling the Prince Regent and sentenced then to two years imprisonment .
Transcript By	Cheney, David R. (David Raymond), 1922-2006
Transcript Location	Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections: http://www.utoledo.edu/library/canaday/index.html

Title	Page1
Relation - Is Part Of	Leigh Hunt letter to Samuel Webbe, Mar. 15, 1812
Digital Collection	Leigh Hunt Letters
File Name	h94w_Page1.jpg
Transcript	[London] Sunday 15th. March 1812. My dear friend, You would have heard from me sooner upon this critical business, but I had some thoughts of coming to you last night & talking it over leisurely and at full length, till I was informed that you were engaged abroad; & it is as well perhaps that what I have to say should be put down upon paper, in order that you may communicate it to Mr. Shepherd,[1] if you think fit. The reasons for pursuing this line of conduct which I gave you by letter, if you remember, when you invited me to meet Mr. Young,[2] appear either to have slipped your memory or not to have made such an impression upon it as I could have hoped; but perhaps I have one or two others, which nay assist them; & at any rate, I shall speak in such a manner, as may convince any body who is interested in the subject, that I have quite made up my mind upon it, & must have all my arguments beaten to nothing before I can think of surrendering. I cannot help however observing in the outset, that what I have refused to you, as well as denied to myself, in declining to meet a person, of whose taste and cordial manners I have heard so much from all quarters, I am not likely to grant to one, who whatever respect I may have for his talents, is comparatively an absolute stranger:—but then a lady is in the case; and it becomes me to explain all the reasons & feelings, which can induce me to be so ungallant as well as unaccomodating as to

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Leigh Hunt letter to Samuel Webbe, March 15, 1812

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Leigh Hunt letter to Samuel Webbe, March 15, 1812

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