John Hamilton Reynolds

This article is about the 19th-century poet and friend of Keats. For the 17th-century poet, see John Reynolds (17th century). For the 18th-century poet and minister, see John Reynolds (18th century).

John Hamilton Reynolds (September 9, 1794 - November 15, 1852) was an English poet, satirist, critic, playwrightm and journalist. He was a close friend and correspondent of poet John Keats, and later a collaborator with poet and humorist Thomas Hood.

John Hamilton Reynolds (1794-1852). Courtesy Teignmouth in Verse.

John Hamilton Reynolds
Born	September 9, 1794 Shrewsbury, England
Died	November 15, 1852 (aged 58) Newport, Isle of Wight, England
Occupation	Poet, journalist, lawyer
Language	English
Nationality	English
Citizenship	British subject
Alma mater	St Paul's School
Literary movement	Romanticism
Spouse(s)	Eliza Drewe

Life

Youth and education

Reynolds, was born in Shrewsbury, the son of Charlotte (Cox) and George Reynolds, a schoolteacher.

He entered St. Paul's School in London in March 1806.

After leaving St. Paul's, he was placed in the Amicable insurance office in Serjeants' Inn, but no doubt gave most of his time to literature and poetry. In 1814 2 volumes of verse by him appeared, Safie: An Eastern tale and The Eden of Imagination

Reynolds and Keats

Leigh Hunt, as an old Christ's Hospital boy, was probably already acquainted with Reynolds's father, and it must have been through Hunt that in 1816 Reynolds formed the friendship with John Keats which has contributed more to the preservation of his name than his own literary efforts. All Reynolds's serious poetry is henceforward in a higher key, and Keats's numerous letters to him, beginning in March 1817, and contributed by Reynolds himself to Lord Houghton's memoir of Keats, show that he was regarded as on a footing of full intellectual equality.

Reynolds addressed a fine sonnet to Keats, and Keats's own lines on Robin Hood were prompted by Reynolds's sonnets to this popular hero. The last and best of Keats's poetical epistles was addressed to Reynolds. There is indeed hardly another correspondent to whom Keats expresses himself so unreservedly, or who has called forth so many of his best and deepest thoughts.

Upon the completion of his Endymion, Keats projected a series of metrical versions of Boccaccio's tales in conjunction with Reynolds, his own contribution to which was his "Isabella, or the Pot of Basil," while Reynolds wrote "The Garden of Florence" and "The Ladye of Provence," which he published later. Hunt, in an article in the Examiner, bracketed Reynolds's name with Keats and Shelley.

Early career

In 1818 Reynolds was in great measure diverted from poetry by receiving an advantageous offer to enter the office of Mr. Fladgate, a solicitor, and expressed his feelings in a sonnet which Mr. Buxton Forman justly calls charming, and which, with 2 or 3 other slight compositions of the same nature, stands at the head of his poetry.

He produced, nevertheless, a highly successful farce, One, Two, Three, Four, Five, in 1819, and in the same year published an anonymous travesty of Wordsworth, under the title of Peter Bell, before the actual appearance of Wordsworth's poem of that name, and hence termed by Shelley "the ante-natal Peter." Some of Wordsworth's more obvious peculiarities are taken off with fair success, but the piece cannot be compared with the parody in the Rejected Addresses, or with the Ettrick Shepherd's "Flying Tailor." It is said, however, to have been the work of a single day, and Coleridge attributed it positively to Charles Lamb.

In 1820 Reynolds produced another humorous volume, The Fancy: A selection from the poetical remains of the late Peter Corcoran, including a burlesque tragedy and "The Fields of Tothill," a poem in the manner of Don Juan. He also wrote in Thomas Jonathan Wooler's Black Dwarf.

Early in 1820 Reynolds went to the continent, which probably occasioned the discontinuance of his correspondence with Keats. There was no estrangement, for in a letter dated from Rome in November 1820 Keats expresses his regret at not having been able to write to him.

Reynolds' versions from Boccaccio appeared in 1821, shortly after the death of Keats, under the title of The Garden of Florence, and other poems, and with the pseudonym of "John Hamilton." The preface contains a brief and affecting tribute to Keats.

Later career

Reynolds was by this time fully committed to the law, and, according to the elder Dilke, had a prospect of making a fortune through the generosity of James Rice, Keats's friend, who not only defrayed the expenses of his certificate, but took him into partnership, and subsequently gave up a lucrative practice in his favour. "Reynolds unhappily threw away this certain fortune," how is not explained.

Reynolds married Elizabeth Powell Drew on 31 August 31 1822 at Holy Trinity Church, Exeter. Though forsaking poetry, he had by no means relinquished literature, writing in the London Magazine under the pen name of "Edward Herbert" until the end of 1824, and afterwards contributing to the Edinburgh,’ Westminster, and Retrospective reviews.

His connection with the London Magazine made him acquainted with Thomas Hood, who in 1824 married his sister Jane. Hood and he were for a time intimate friends; they combined in writing Odes and Addresses to Celebrated Persons, 1825; and Lycus the Centaur was dedicated to Reynolds; but their friendship was succeeded by a bitter estrangement, the cause of which is not told.

Reynolds was a proprietor of the Athenæum, and a curious letter from him protesting against Dilke's reduction of its price is printed in Sir Charles Dilke's preface to his grandfather's Papers of a Critic. He disposed of his share in 1831, but contributed for several years afterwards.

His last independent work was a not very brilliant farce, entitled Confounded Foreigners (1838), printed in Webster's Acting National Drama,’ vol. iii.

Last years

Somewhere near this time Reynolds withdrew from London to the Isle of Wight, where he became clerk to the county court, and where he spent the remainder of his days.

Reynolds had always been distinguished by sarcastic wit, and is represented as becoming cynical and discontented in his latter years. "The law,’ says a writer in the Athenæum, "spoiled his literature, and his love of literature and society interfered with the drudging duties of the lawyer." "Reynolds,’ says "T.M.T." in Notes and Queries (2nd ser. vol. ii. 4 Oct. 1856), 'was a man of genius who wanted the devoted purpose and the sustaining power which are requisite to its development. He wrote fitfully. He was one of the most brilliant men I have ever known, though in late years failing health and failing fortune somewhat soured his temper and sharpened his tongue." This is no doubt a just judgment."

He died at Node Hill, Newport, on the Isle of Wight.

Writing

Reynolds' earliest published poems betoken the influence of 2 dissimilar schools of poetical composition. Safie: An Eastern tale, is inscribed to Byron, and is entirely in the manner of Byron's metrical romances. "I think," wrote Byron — "though more wild and oriental than he would be if he had seen the scenes where he has placed his tale — that he has much talent, and certainly fire enough." The Eden of Imagination, on the other hand, shows traces of the influence of Leigh Hunt and Wordsworth, both of whom are lauded in highly superfluous notes.

"The Naiad," published with other pieces in 1816, is still in the manner of Byron and Walter Scott, but "Fairies," a minor poems printed along with it, is in the style of Hunt, and much better than the more ambitious effort.

Reynolds' versions from Boccaccio appeared in 1821, under the title of The Garden of Florence, and other poems. After the sonnets, the best poem is "The Romance of Youth," the opening canto of an unfinished poem in the Spenserian stanza, intended to depict the disillusionment of genius by contact with the world, and an intimation that such had been the destiny of the author.

Reynolds's powers as a narrator, though not contemptible, were unequal to the tragic themes he selected from Boccaccio; but it is difficult to think that the author of the fanciful and graceful "Romance of Youth," which reveals evident traces of the influence of Shelley, of the finely felt lines on Devon, and of so many excellent songs and sonnets, might not, with something more of Keats's loftiness of aim and unsparing effort, have obtained a high place among English poets.

Recognition

A fine photogravure of a portrait of Reynolds by Severn is prefixed to the supplementary volume of Forman's edition of Keats's Works.

Publications

Poetry

• Leaves of Laurel ... Odes, for the vacant laureateship. 1813.
• Safie: An Eastern tale. London: James Cawthorn / John Martin, 1814.
• The Eden of Imagination: A poem. London: James Cawthorn / John Martin, 1814.
• An Ode. London: John Martin, 1815.
• The Naiad: A tale; with other poems. London: Taylor & Hessey, 1816.
• Peter Bell: A lyrical ballad. London: Taylor & Hessey, 1819.
• Benjamin the Waggoner: A ryght merrie and conceitede tale in verse: A fragment. London: Baldwin, Cradock, & Joy, 1819.
• The Battered Tar; or, The waggoner's companion. [1820?]
• The Fancy: A selection from the poetical remains of the late Peter Corcoran. London: Taylor & Hessey, 1820.
• {with memoir by John Masefield; illustrated by Jack B. Yeats). London: Elkin Mathews, 1905.
• The Garden of Florence, and other poems. London: J. Warren, 1821.
• The Press; or, Literary chit chat: A satire. London: Lupton Relfe, 1822.
• Odes and Addresses to Great People (with Thomas Hood). London: Baldwin, Craddock & Joy, 1825.
• Poetical Works (edited by George Linneaeus Marsh). Chicago: University of Chicago, Library Dept. of Photographic Reproduction, [195-?]

Plays

• One, Two, Three, Four, Five: A musical entertainment in one act. London: W. Hughes, for J. Lowndes, 1819.
• Confounded foreigners: a farce, in one act. London: Chapman & Hall, 1838.

Collected editions

• Poetry and Prose (edited by George Linnaeus Marsh). London: Humphrey Milford, 1928.
• Selected Prose (edited by Leonidas M Jones). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966.
• Peter Bell / Benjamin the waggoner / The fancy. New York: Garland, 1977.
• The Eden of imagination / Safie / The Naiad. New York: Garland, 1978.
• The Garden of Florence / The press / Odes and addresses to great people. New York: Garland, 1978.

Letters

• Letters (edited by Leonidas M. Jones). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1973.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets

References

•  Garnett, Andrew (1896) "Reynolds, John Hamilton" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 48 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 50-52  . Wikisource, Web, Oct. 8, 2016.

Fonds

• Archival material relating to John Hamilton Reynolds listed at the UK National Register of Archives

External links

Poems

• John Hamilton Reynolds at Sonnet Central (4 sonnets)
• John Hamilton Reynolds (1794-1852) info & 8 poems at English Poetry, 1579-1830
• John Hamilton Reynolds at PoemHunter (8 poems)

Books

• John Hamilton Reynolds at Amazon.com

About

• John Hamilton Reynolds at the Internet Accuracy Project
• John Hamilton Reynolds 1794-1852 in Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism
• The Poetry of John Hamilton Reynolds by Robert Gittings
• "Keats's 'Robin Hood,' John Reynolds, and the 'Old Poets"," Proceedings of the British Academy

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Reynolds, John Hamilton