C. Kegan Paul: William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries

In the four years, 1824-28, Godwin published his “History of the Commonwealth of England.” Once more his interest in his work had overpowered the paralysis of energy which so often attends the mere writing for bread, and the book produced is vigorous, able, and, on the whole, wonderfully correct. Subsequent historians have had access to documents which Godwin never saw, but in the last volume, wholly devoted to Cromwell’s life, he has given a portrait of that great man which deserves to stand by the side of that which Mr Carlyle has painted for the world. No one before him had so fathomed the character of that extraordinary man, who, as his historian says, having had to struggle against all parties, religious and political, which divided England, succeeded in subduing them all, while he raised the power of the nation to a degree unknown before his day.

It was the last of his greater works. The “Thoughts on Man,” published in 1830, were essays already lying by him, and written during many previous years, and which required but slight revision. They contain his mature convictions on religion and philosophy, but, like his posthumous volume edited for his representatives in 1870, the difficulties discussed are not our difficulties, still less are the solutions our solutions.

“Edinburgh, Nov. 22, 1824.

“Dear Sir,—I did not answer your letter of the 20th August, being prevented by something at the moment, and intending to do so whenever I should come to Edinburgh, for in the country I had little opportunity of procuring the information you wanted. I came here only on the 15th of this month, and since that time we have been visited by a succession of the most tremendous fires with which this city has ever been afflicted. A very large portion of the Old Town of Edinburgh, the dwelling of our ancestors, is at present a heap of ruins. Everybody was obliged to turn out; the young to work, the old to give countenance and advice, and to secure temporary refuge and support to upwards of 200 families turned naked in many instances into the street: and I had my share of labour and anxiety. We are now, I thank God, in quiet again. Our princely library (that of the Advocates’), worth commercially at least half a million, but in reality invaluable as containing such a mass of matter to be found nowhere else, escaped with the utmost difficulty, and in consequence only of the most strenuous exertions. This will, I am sure, be an apology for my not writing sooner what I now have to say.

“Your letters are a little vague in respect to the precise nature of the information you require. In Thurlow’s state papers you will find an accurate list of the Council of State by which Cromwell governed Scotland. But his well-disciplined army under Monk was the real force of his government, and they were exer-
SIR WALTER SCOTT 293
cised, as they would have termed it, by more than one insurrection, particularly that made first by Glencairn and afterwards by General Middleton, and by the constant though useless harassing manoeuvres of the cavaliers and discontented Scottish, forming a kind of guerillas termed mosstroopers, who seem to have existed in all the wilder districts, and to have carried on a war rather of a harassing than an effectual character. A person named Nichol kept a large and copious diary of the events of the period, which I caused to be transcribed some years since. The transcriber, I am sorry to say, was rather careless, in fact, a person to whom I had given the book more out of consideration to his wants than to his competence. If this transcript could be useful to you, I will with pleasure give you the use of it, begging only you will take care of it. It is voluminous and contains much trash (as diaries usually do,) but there are some curious articles of information which occur nowhere else. Some of the Diurnals of the Day also contain curious minutiæ, but these you have in the Museum more complete than we. I picked up some weeks ago a contemporary account of the battles of Kilsyth and Philiphaugh. I am particularly interested in the last, as the scene lies near my abode and my own ancestor was engaged in it—at that time a keen covenanter. I am thinking of publishing, or rather printing, a few copies of these tracts, and, if you wish it, I will send you one. Brodie’s Diary has also some interest, though stuffed with fanatical trumpery. The Lord, as he expresses himself, at length intimated to this staunch Presbyterian that he should, in conformity to the views of Providence for our Scottish Israel, embrace the cause of the Independent Cromwell, and he became one of our judges. His diary is very rare, but I have a copy, and could cause any extracts to be made which you want. I am not aware that our records could add much to the mass of information contained in Thurloe’s collection, where there are many letters on the state of the country. The haughty and stubborn character of the Scottish people looked back on the period of Cromwell’s domination with anger and humiliation, and they seem to have observed a sullen silence about its particular events. There is no period respecting which
294 WILLIAM GODWIN
we have less precise information. If, however, you will shape your enquiries more specifically respecting any points which interest you, I will be happy to make such researches as may enable me to answer them, or to say that I cannot do so. I made a scandalous blunder in my prosody sure enough, in doing honour to a deceased friend. I should have remembered I had been,
‘Long enamoured of a barbarous age,
A faithless truant to the classic page.’
Anything, however, is pardonable but want of candour, and my comfort is that of Miss Priscilla Tomboy, ‘I am too old to be whipped’—I am, dear sir, your most obedient servant,

“Walter Scott.”

After Godwin’s complete failure, and the disastrous lawsuits, he resided for some years in the Strand, living almost apart from society, and working hard at his books. A quiet rubber of whist in the evening, and an occasional visit to the theatres—to most of which he held free admissions—were almost his only relaxations. But though he went from home little, and did not entertain at all, it is pleasant to find, from entries in the Diary, that friends were constant in their visits. His books, though he could lay up from their proceeds but little for the future, yet brought in a modest competence. His only son, William, had married, and was earning his own livelihood. Mrs Shelley was constant in her attentions to her father, who took great delight in the society of his grandson.

296

WILLIAM GODWIN

Godwin’s few domestic letters are the record of these uneventful years.

Fuseli, of whom Godwin had seen little or nothing for many years, died in April 1825, and Mr Knowles was writing his Biography. He applied to Godwin for aid, who could give him only slender information. It has been already seen how little Knowles attended to the request that Mary Wollstonecraft should be “very slightly mentioned, or not at all,” and how little to be trusted is the mention of her in the “Life of Fuseli.”

The correspondence with Mr Bulwer requires no elucidation, but a remarkable paper in Godwin’s writing seems to throw some light on one of the intellectual consequences of this intimacy.

Godwin had intended to write a romance on the story of “Eugene Aram,” and drew up the following notes on the subject. They are undated, but from the character of the writing, the correspondence of paper on which they are written with that Godwin was then using, and the packet in which it was folded, it is evident that they belong to the years 1828-30.

These notes are in form and arrangement precisely like the drafts which Godwin made and left behind him of other books, both those which were afterwards completed, and others only planned. And it is more than probable that, finding how unlikely it became that he should himself write the Romance he had projected, he gave his subject and material to his younger and more vigorous friend. It seems clear that Lord Lytton, in his earlier style, is the direct intellectual descendant of the writer of “Caleb Williams” and “St. Leon.”

“Feb. 17, 1831.

“My Dear Sir.—I have never experienced anything from you but the greatest kindness, on the few occasions in which I have been so fortunate as to be thrown into your society, or have taken the liberty to obtrude myself on your attention. This is the reason of the trouble I am now giving. . . . .

“In fourteen days from the date of this letter, I shall have completed the 75th year of my age. Before the expiration of those fourteen days a volume will have been published of my writing, entitled ‘Thoughts on Man, etc.,’ which, if I am not mistaken, will display the marks of as youthful and energetic a mind as were ever to be found in the books I have written, in what are called the full vigour of my life and constitution. I am, however, the prodigal who so often serves to point the moral of a tale. I have spent what I had, and have nothing left.

“Meantime I am conscious (if I do not greatly deceive myself) of powers undecayed, which I am most anxious to apply to the support of my life, and the procuring those slender comforts to which I have been accustomed. But the trade, or the disposition of the booksellers in London, is in such a state as to afford me nothing but discouragement. . . . .

‘LIVES OF THE NECROMANCERS.’

311

“It is commonly said at present that the cabinet libraries and miscellanies, which are now publishing by several of our booksellers, swallow up for the time the literature in which they might otherwise be disposed to engage. It has been my habit to work for myself, and stand by myself. But at the present moment I doubted of my right to be difficult, and therefore I have given way in this point. I made a proposal to Dr Lardner, but after two or three conferences he frankly informed me that he and his partner had engaged with a sufficient number of persons of great name, namely yourself, and Messrs Mackintosh, Moore, Southey, and Campbell, to fix on their publication a desirable character, and that they had resolved that the rest of their work should be executed by persons of inferior importance, to whom they should give lower prices than that to which I should be justly entitled. I applied to Mr Murray. I saw Mr Lockhart for that purpose, and disclosed to him the plan of a volume for the Family Library, of which he greatly approved, and told me he did not doubt it would be joyfully accepted. But after a lapse of two or three days he wrote me a note to say that Mr Murray had declined it. I wrote to Mr Cadell of Edinburgh, from whom I received a most courteous answer, but informing me that his whole means were engaged for five years to come, and that he had only been able to strain a point further for a novel by the author of ‘Marriage,’ and another novel by a popular author. Thus, my dear sir, with powers perhaps unimpaired, and a will to exert them, I find myself likely to be laid on the shelf, as a person whose name has been long enough before the public. . . . .

“The volume I proposed to Murray through Mr Lockhart, was to be entitled, ‘Lives of the Necromancers, or an Account of the most Eminent Persons who have claimed for themselves, or to whom has been imputed by others, the Exercise of Magical Powers.’ I can scarcely expect you to believe me, though it is true, that I had chosen this subject without any knowledge of your letters on ‘Demonology,’ which, however, appeared before my proposal was actually made. I conceived, however, that there would still be room for my volume, the object of which was to trace the
312 WILLIAM GODWIN
subject biographically, and to endeavour to ascertain by what steps Roger Bacon, Cornelius Agrippa, and a multitude of other eminent men came to be seduced into the profession of magic, or to have magical power imputed to them.

“And now, my dear sir, for the express purpose of this letter. The temper of the times, or the state of commerce, seems to render any direct application unavailing. My magic rod, if ever I had one, is grown powerless with the new-sprung speculators in literary produce; but yours is in all its energy. Would you undertake the generous task to endeavour to prevail with Mr Cadell, or with any other person, to afford me sufficient encouragement to sit down to the novel I have hinted at, to the volume I have described, or to any other work to which I might feel myself adequate. . . . You will not, I think, refuse your sympathy to a person no longer active in his limbs, but who believes himself to be in the full vigour of his understanding. . . . I have a wife: I need the little house I live in to hold my books, and my literary accommodations; I cannot live thus, considerably under £300 a year. My labour perhaps might be worthy of that reward, and with that I would be content.

“I am, etc.,

W. Godwin.”

Jeremy Bentham died in 1832, and Godwin applied to Mrs Gisborne, formerly Mrs Reveley, for her early recollections of the philosopher. It does not appear what use he intended to make of them; he could scarcely, at his advanced age, have contemplated writing a memoir. Mrs Gisborne’s narrative, though long, is too curious a bit of old biography and history to be omitted. An interesting account of the intended Panopticon, the scheme of which was in a degree carried out at Millbank, is to be found in Captain Griffith’s “Memorials of Millbank.”

“I do not remember precisely how long Mr Bentham remained at Constantinople. I think, certainly, not more than two months. He was a very constant visitor at my father’s house; but he resided, I think, with a Mr Humphries, an English resident merchant. There were no inns or lodging-houses in the city at that time. He was particularly fond of music, and used to take great delight in accompanying me on the violin. I well remember that he used to say that I was the only female he had ever met with who could keep time in playing, and that music without time was to him unbearable.

“We went through together some pieces of Schobert, Schuster, Sterkel, Eichner, and of other composers most in vogue at that time, all of which he played at sight and with care. He seemed to take great pleasure in my society, though I certainly never received from him any particular mark of attention, which might not have been equally shown to one of his sex. Indeed, not the slightest idea of any particular partiality, on his part, ever came across my mind. He was then about 37 years of age, but he did not look so old. I have also impressed in my memory that I obtained his commendation for my preference of works in prose to those of poetry, the reading of which he asserted to be a great misapplication of time.

“I imagine that at that period he was seldom excited to bring forward or discuss any of those subjects to which he so wholly and so successfully devoted himself.

JEREMY BENTHAM.

315

“Had any conversations of that nature taken place in my presence, all traces of the purport of them would most assuredly, even at this time, not have been obliterated from my memory.

“I cannot positively assert that he brought a letter of recommendation to my father; but I know that he performed the voyage (from Smyrna at least) in company with a Mr Henderson, who presented himself to us with a letter from a Mr Lee, an English resident merchant at Smyrna, and a particular friend of my father’s.

“Two young girls, under twenty years of age, accompanied this Mr Henderson, who was a very serious man, and very plausible in his manner. They were introduced as sisters, and his nieces. These ladies, however, were not mentioned in Mr Lee’s letter, a circumstance not noticed at the time.

“The elder had, to a certain degree, the manner of a lady; but those of the younger—and her appearance coincided—were by no means superior to what might be expected from a poor farmer’s daughter. Mr Bentham, as I have before said, was our constant visitor, and at our house he frequently met the Hendersons. I soon perceived a strong dislike, on the part of these females, towards Mr Bentham. They took every opportunity of making unpleasant observations both on his character and manners. They did their utmost to disparage him in every respect. I was certainly in no way prejudiced against him by these insidious attacks—on the contrary, they occasioned me considerable displeasure.

“The object of his detractors was manifestly to make him appear absurd, ill-natured, mean.

“How far he succeeded in neutralizing the unfavourable impressions made against him by these slanderous tongues, I cannot tell—in that. respect my memory fails me; but I know, that to the last, he continued to stand high, both in the opinion of my father, and in that of all our common friends.

“It was not long before that period that the Turkish Sultan, Abdul Hamid, and his inefficient and short-sighted ministers, had been wheedled out of their possession of the Crimea by the ‘finesse’ and eloquence of the able Russian minister at the Porte, Momn. de Bulgakow.

316

WILLIAM GODWIN

“The Empress Catherine, most eager to promote the successful colonisation of her newly-acquired territory, had invited a horde of adventurers of all nations, but chiefly Italians, to transfer themselves thither.

“Among others, Henderson was also enlisted in the service. He had engaged, together with his nieces, to establish a dairy in the English style. It occurs to me now for the first time that he might have been brought forward on that occasion under the auspices of Mr Bentham’s brother, who was then, I believe, in the Russian military service. But this is only conjecture. When I last saw Mr Bentham, however, he told me that the undertaking had turned out badly, and that Henderson had behaved very ill.

“When the time arrived for the departure of these people for the Crimea, the vessel in which they were to embark happened to lie at a considerable distance from the spot where they were dwelling, the suburb of Pera.

“It was determined they should transfer themselves to it by a short land, rather than by the more circuitous trip by sea, along the Bosphorus.

“A carriage was hired (a most uncouth vehicle, but the only one which the city afforded). In this they proceeded to the place of embarkation, escorted by my father and myself, with a servant on horseback.

“The wife, the owner of a trading vessel, who had formerly been in my father’s service, had been living, for some years, under our roof—ostensibly—to supply towards me the care and attention of a mother.

“At the period of Mr Bentham’s presence in Constantinople, the husband of the person, having returned from one of his voyages, was also our inmate.

“On the day of our absence with the Hendersons, Mr Bentham paid his usual visit at our house, and was received by this captain and Mrs Newman. In the course of conversation, Mr Bentham (who considered that the Hendersons had now taken their final departure from Constantinople, and felt himself in consequence no longer bound to keep their secrets) divulged that the elder niece
JEREMY BENTHAM. 317
was no other than Henderson’s mistress, and that the younger was an ignorant country girl, merely hired as a servant.

“Their surprise was naturally very great, much greater I believe than mine would have been; for I had already detected a want of concordance in what they separately told me at different times, which I could not account for, but which I by no means liked.

“We did not return home till late in the evening. We were received at the door by the captain, who could not contain his laughter, and was in a hurry to attack my father about his extraordinary civility, and, as it now appeared, his ludicrous knight-errantry.

“My father felt ashamed at having been so easily taken in by these ignorant impostors; but he consoled himself with the idea that he had not been their only dupe, since Sir Robert Ainslie, our British Ambassador (following my father’s example, I fear), had formally invited them to a dinner-party. Their awkwardness and want of ease, which they could not modify to this sudden emergency, were sufficiently manifest; but it was attributed to English timidity and bashfulness.

“But the ‘nodo’ of this comic drama is still to be developed; poor Bentham had made his disclosures most prematurely—our friends were not gone, they had in fact returned with us (some impediment had occurred with regard to the sailing of the vessel which appeared likely to occasion a long delay), and we had to increase the captain’s mirth by declaring that they were even at that moment again safely housed in their former lodging. The situation of these people during the remainder of their stay at Constantinople after this little éclarcissement was, of course, a very mortifying one. My father had to endure his share also, in the laughter of Mr Humphries, and that of his other friends who would not lose so fair an opportunity of amusing themselves at his expense. We did not see Mr Bentham till the following day, when he seemed rather confounded by the unlucky dênouement of the affair.

“I have said that there were no lodging-houses at Constantinople but I remember that the Hendersons were put in possession of an
318 WILLIAM GODWIN
empty house, in which a few articles of furniture had been put, just sufficient to serve their immediate necessities.

“I am now come to the renewal of my acquaintance with Mr Bentham in the year 1790. It happened through his application to Mr Reveley to assist him in the architectural development of his plans for a ‘Panopticon’ At first he paid us short visits, merely by furnishing Mr Reveley from time to time with the necessary instructions for making out his plans; but the ingenuity of the latter enabling him to raise objections, and to suggest various improvements in the details, Mr Bentham gradually found it necessary to devote more and more time to the affair, so that at length he frequently passed the entire morning at our house, and not to lose time he brought his papers with him, and occupied himself in writing. It was on this occasion that observing how much time he lost through the confusion resulting from a want of order in the management of his papers, I offered my services in classing and numbering them, which he willingly accepted, and I had thereby the pleasure of supplying him with any part of his writings at a moment’s notice. Judging from the manner in which he appreciated my assistance, I am inclined to think that this kind of facilitation had never before been afforded him. I then proposed to him that in order to give still more time for the despatch of his business, he should take his breakfast with us. He readily consented to my proposal, but upon the condition that I would allow him a separate teapot, that he might prepare his tea, he said, in his own way. He chose such a teapot as would contain all the water that was necessary, which was poured in upon the tea at once. He said that he could not endure the usual mode of proceeding which produced the first cup of tea strong and the others gradually decreasing in strength, till the last cup became little better than hot water. Tea-making, like many other things (particularly the dimensions of the cups), is perhaps greatly improved since that time. I was even then so well convinced of the advantage of his method that I have pursued it ever since, more or less modified, according to circumstances.

“During this intercourse, Mr Reveley once received a note from
THE PANOPTICON. 319
Mr Bentham, written in an angry tone; this was owing to the former having used some incautious and perhaps improper expression in writing to some one concerned in the affair of the Panopticon. It might have been the engraver, though I can scarcely admit the possibility of that surmise. Mr Reveley knew himself to be perfectly innocent of any intentional rudeness or impropriety, he therefore felt himself much hurt at the severity of Mr Bentham’s reproof. I can recollect but these very few words of Mr Bentham’s note—‘I suppose you have left your orders too with Mr . . .’ (naming a lawyer or barrister employed by Mr Bentham, who was residing in Red Lion Square). In fact, Mr Reveley, though a young man of superior talent, was at that time little accustomed to writing; he was also perhaps not sufficiently attentive to the established forms of society. It is therefore by no means improbable that he might have committed some mistake in the use of language. It occurs to me, also, that there might have been previously some slight degree of dormant displeasure in the mind of Mr Bentham against Mr Reveley, excited perhaps by an habitual, though very innocent levity on the part of the latter, who was too apt to make jokes in order to excite a laugh, even on subjects which demanded serious attention. When we were alone, Mr Bentham’s Panopticon did not altogether escape, and I can easily imagine that his penetrating glance may have caught a glimpse of this misplaced mirth. But of this, if it was so, he never took the slightest notice. I think that this little misunderstanding took place when the business between them was nearly brought to a conclusion, and it is most pleasing to observe that it did not prevent Mr Bentham from doing justice to Mr Reveley’s ability in his printed report or description of the Panopticon.

“I can also recollect that the sum which the latter received as a remuneration for his trouble was £10—Mr Reveley’s first professional emolument.

“After this event I never saw Mr Bentham again till my interview with him in April last. His views with regard to the Panopticon were baffled, and he had no longer occasion for architectural assistance.

320

WILLIAM GODWIN

“My situation was also changed. I was no longer in the enjoyment of that state of ease and quiet in which he found me five years before when he first visited my father’s house.

“Still under twenty years of age, I was already the mother of two children and was called upon to bear my part in a very severe struggle. Our income was but £140 per annum, and the increase brought in by Mr Reveley’s business was for several years very slender and uncertain. With these inadequate resources, from the necessity of maintaining if possible our useful connections, we had to make a genteel appearance; this we effected not without considerable difficulty, and by means of constant exertion. A person in such a situation must make great sacrifices and submit to much self-denial. My mind was concentrated in the continual efforts which my new situation required.

“I lost sight of the inestimable Bentham, at least I lost sight of him personally; but still the sentiment—that strong perception of the superior worth which I had imbibed in my first acquaintance with him—was continually strengthened by my own spontaneous reflections and by the accounts which were given to me from time to time of his steady and heroic devotion to the great cause of truth, humanity, and justice. It was delightful to me to hear his praises from the mouths of all those whom I most looked up to as philanthropists and philosophers.”

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Dionysius Lardner (1793-1859) Lecturer on science and contributor to the Edinburgh Review; he published the Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829-1846).

John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) Editor of the Quarterly Review (1825-1853); son-in-law of Walter Scott and author of the Life of Scott 5 vols (1838).

Louis XIV, king of France [the Sun King] (1638-1715) The son of Louis XIII (d. 1643); he was King of France 1643-1715.

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer Lytton, first Baron Lytton (1803-1873) English historical novelist and MP who began his career with Pelham: or the Adventures of a Gentleman (1828).

Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832) Scottish philosopher and man of letters who defended the French Revolution in Vindiciae Gallicae (1791); he was Recorder of Bombay (1803-1812) and MP for Knaresborough (1819-32).

John Martin (1789-1854) English landscape and historical painter who illustrated Paradise Lost in mezzotint (1825-27).

Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1602-1661) Italian cardinal, the protegé of Richelieu and chief minister of Louis XIV.

John Middleton, first earl of Middleton (1608 c.-1674) Scottish military officer who supported the covenanters before changing sides to fight with the Royalists against Oliver Cromwell.

John Milton (1608-1674) English poet and controversialist; author of Comus (1634), Lycidas (1638), Areopagitica (1644), Paradise Lost (1667), and other works.

George Monck, first duke of Albemarle (1608-1670) Soldier and politician who, as lieutenant-general under Cromwell, subdued Scotland in 1651 and afterwards played a prominent part in the Stuart restoration.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Irish poet and biographer, author of the Irish Melodies (1807-34), The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and Lalla Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.

John Murray II (1778-1843) The second John Murray began the Quarterly Review in 1809 and published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.

Sir Richard Phillips (1767-1840) London bookseller, vegetarian, and political reformer; he published The Monthly Magazine, originally edited by John Aikin (1747-1822). John Wolcot was a friend and neighbor.

William Pitt the elder, first earl of Chatham (1708-1778) English statesman whose prudent management was often politically unpopular.

William Francis Spencer Ponsonby, first baron de Mauley (1787-1855) The son of Frederick Ponsonby, third Earl of Bessborough; he was educated at Harrow and was a Whig MP for Poole (1826-31), Knaresborough (1832), and Dorset (1832-27). He was raised to the peerage in 1838.

Septimus Prowett (1747-1867) London and Worcester bookseller and picture dealer; he founded the London Literary and Publishing Society in 1826.

Willey Reveley (1760-1799) English architect, the son of William Reveley (d. 1806); educated at the Royal Academy Schools, he married Maria James (afterwards Gisbourne) while in Rome in 1788.

George Ogle Robinson (1837 fl.) London bookseller at one time in partnership with Thomas Hurst; they suffered bankruptcy in the crash of 1825-26.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) Swiss-born man of letters; author of, among others, Julie ou la Nouvelle Heloïse (1761), Émile (1762) and Les Confessions (1782).

Henry Sampson (1629 c.-1700) Educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, he was a non-conforming priest, antiquary, and physician.

Johann Schobert (1735 c.-1767) Born in Silesia, he pursued a career as a composer in Paris.

Joseph Schuster (1748-1812) German composer and conductor who traveled in Italy.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Scottish poet, novelist, antiquary, biographer, editor, and sheriff.

John Selden (1584-1654) English scholar, jurist, MP, and antiquary; he was a friend of Samuel Daniel, John Donne, and Michael Drayton.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley [née Godwin] (1797-1851) English novelist, daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecaft, and the second wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley. She is the author of Frankenstein (1818) and The Last Man (1835) and the editor of Shelley's works (1839-40).

Sir Percy Florence Shelley, third baronet (1819-1889) The only surviving child of Percy Bysshe and Mary Shelley, born in Florence. He succeeded to the title in 1844 and married Jane Gibson in 1848.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose works, among them the Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813), History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).

Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel (1750-1817) German composer, pianist and organist.

Sir John Stoddart (1773-1856) Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, he befriended Coleridge and Wordsworth and after abandoning his early republican principles became a writer for the Times, and afterwards editor of the Tory newspaper New Times in 1817 and a judge in Malta (1826-40). His sister married William Hazlitt in 1808.

Edward Thurlow, first Baron Thurlow (1731-1806) As lord chancellor (1778-1792) he defended the royal prerogative.

Titian (1487 c.-1576) Venetian painter celebrated for his portraits.

Edward John Trelawny (1792-1881) Writer, adventurer, and friend of Shelley and Byron; author of the fictionalized memoirs, Adventures of a Younger Son (1831) and Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron (1858).

Voltaire (1694-1778) French historian and man of letters; author of, among many other works, The Age of Louis XIV (1751) and Candide (1759).

The Gentleman's Magazine. (1731-1905). A monthly literary miscellany founded by Edward Cave; edited by John Nichols 1778-1826, and John Bowyer Nichols 1826-1833.

New Monthly Magazine. (1814-1884). Founded in reaction to the radically-inclined Monthly Magazine, the New Monthly was managed under the proprietorship of Henry Colburn from 1814 to 1845. It was edited by Thomas Campbell and Cyrus Redding from 1821-1830.

Public Advertiser. (1752-1794). A London daily paper managed by Henry Sampson Woodfall; in 1794 it merged with The Oracle.

Susan Edmonstone Ferrier (1782-1854) Marriage: a Novel. 3 vols (Edinburgh: W. Blackwood, 1818). A novel.

Henry Fuseli (1741-1825) Remarks on the Writings and Conduct of J. J. Rousseau. (London: T. Cadell, 1767).

William Godwin (1756-1836) Cloudesley: a Tale. 3 vols (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1830).

William Godwin (1756-1836) Deloraine. 3 vols (London: Richard Bentley, 1833). A novel.

William Godwin (1756-1836) History of Rome: From the Building of the City to the Ruin of the Republic. Illustrated with Maps and other Plates. For the use of Schools and Young Persons. (London: M. J. Godwin, 1809). Published under the pseudonym “Edward Baldwin.”

William Godwin (1756-1836) History of the Commonwealth of England. From its Commencement, to the Restoration of Charles the Second. 4 vols (London: H. Colburn, 1824-28).

William Godwin (1756-1836) Letter of Advice to a Young American, on the Course of Studies it might be most advantageous for him to pursue. (London: M. J. Godwin and Co., 1818).

William Godwin (1756-1836) Lives of the Necromancers: or, an Account of the most eminent Persons in successive Ages, who have claimed for themselves, or to whom has been imputed by others, the exercise of Magical Power. (London: F. J. Mason, 1834).

William Godwin (1756-1836) Mandeville. A Tale of the Seventeenth Century in England. 3 vols (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1817).

William Godwin (1756-1836) The Pantheon; or, Ancient History of the Gods of Greece and Rome. Intended to facilitate the understanding of the Classical Authors, and of the Poets in general. (London: T. Hodgkins, 1806). Published under the pseudonym “Edward Baldwin.”

William Godwin (1756-1836) St. Leon: a Tale of the Sixteenth Century. 4 vols (London: G. G. and J. Robinson, 1799).

William Godwin (1756-1836) Things as they are; or, the Adventures of Caleb Williams. 3 vols (London: B. Crosby, 1794). Godwin's first and most successful venture into gothic fiction.

William Godwin (1756-1836) Thoughts on Man: his Nature, Productions, and Discoveries: interspersed with some Particulars respecting the Author. (London: E. Wilson, 1831). A collection of essays.

Arthur George Frederick Griffiths (1838-1908) Memorials of Millbank, and Chapters in Prison History. (London: Henry King, 1875).

John Knowles (1781-1841) The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli: the former written, and the latter edited by John Knowles. (London: Henry Colburn, 1831).

Letitia Elizabeth Landon [L. E. L.] (1802-1838) “Paul Clifford” in Literary Gazette. Vol. 14 No. 693 (1 May 1830): 281-84. An anonymous review of Bulwer's novel; the attribution is from William Jerdan's Autobiography.

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer Lytton, first Baron Lytton (1803-1873) “The Lounger. No. I” in New Monthly Magazine. Vol. 28 (April 1830): 361-367. A review of Cloudesley by William Godwin.

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer Lytton, first Baron Lytton (1803-1873) Pelham: or the Adventures of a Gentleman. 3 vols (London: H. Colburn, 1828). A novel.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, addressed to John Gibson Lockhart. (London: John Murray, 1830). Published as the sixteenth volume in Murray's Family Library.

INFORMATION FROM TEI HEADER

Source Description:

Author: C. Kegan Paul

Title: William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries (London: Henry S. King & Co., 1876).

Electronic Edition:

Series: Lord Byron and his Times: http://lordbyron.org

Encoding Description: Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed. Obvious and unambiguous compositors’ errors have been silently corrected.

Markup and editing by: David Hill Radcliffe

Completed February 2012

Publication Statement:

Publisher: Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Tech

Availability: Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License