Recollections of Writers
Leigh Hunt to Vincent Novello, 17 April 1817
Marlowe, April 17th, 1817.
My dear Novello,—One of Mr. Shelley’s great objects is to have a
pianoforte as quickly as possible, so that though he cannot
alter his ultimatum with regard to a grand one, he wishes me to say that, if
Mr. Kirkman has no objection, he will
give him the security requested, and of the same date of years, for a cabinet piano
from fifty to seventy guineas. Of course he would like to have it as good as
possible, and under your auspices. Will you put this to the builder of harmonies? I
have been delighted to see in the Chronicle an advertisement of Birchall’s, announcing editions of all
Mozart’s works; and shall take an
early opportunity of expressing it and extending the notice. I would have
Mozart as common in good libraries3 as Shakespeare and Spenser, and prints from Raphael. Most of us here envy you the power of
seeing “Don Giovanni;” yet we still muster up
virtue enough to wish you all well, and to send our best remembrances in return to
Ave and Salve, to whom I am as good a Boothite as I can be, considering that I am
also very truly yours,
Robert Birchall (1750 c.-1819)
London music-publisher and dealer in musical instruments.
James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859)
English poet, journalist, and man of letters; editor of
The
Examiner and
The Liberal; friend of Byron, Keats, and
Shelley.
Joseph Kirkman the younger (1790 c.-1877)
Member of the Kirkman family, makers of harpsichords and pianos; the firm was founded by
Jacob Kirkman (1710-92).
Vincent Novello (1781-1861)
English music publisher and friend of Charles Lamb, Leigh Hunt, and Percy Bysshe
Shelley.
Raphael (1483-1520)
Of Urbino; Italian painter patronized by Leo X.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
English poet, with Byron in Switzerland in 1816; author of
Queen
Mab (1813),
The Revolt of Islam (1817),
The Cenci and
Prometheus Unbound (1820), and
Adonais (1821).
Edmund Spenser (1552 c.-1599)
English poet, author of
The Shepheards Calender (1579) and
The Faerie Queene (1590, 1596).
Morning Chronicle. (1769-1862). James Perry was proprietor of this London daily newspaper from 1789-1821; among its many
notable poetical contributors were Coleridge, Southey, Lamb, Rogers, and Campbell.
