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The Story of Rimini

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  • The Story of the Remini - 245-251, 256, 258-260, 263-264, 279, 287, 303, 306, 318, 327

Holden - 80-81, 88, 100-101, 122, 129, 178, 272, 333, Byron 99-102, 159

Background

The first mention of The Story of Rimini comes in Hunt's 1811 edition of The Feast of the Poets where he alludes to writing the poem.[1] In October 1811, Hunt started reading various works in order to develop a theme for his poem and he fixated on the Paolo and Francesca episode in Canto V of Dante's Inferno. The poem was originally intended to be a satire on England during 1811 but it was edited to focus on nature.[2] Hunt travelled to Hampstead in order to work on his poem.[3] However, his life was soon interrupted in 1812 when he was put on trial for libel. However, the trial was pushed back, and Hunt visited Taunton at the end of the summer. While there, he continued to work on his poem.[4]

By September 1812, Hunt was busy at work on the poem and he remained there until his trial in December.[5] He was sentenced to two years in prison,[6] and he continued to work on the poem during that time.[7] The poem was almost finished by the time Hunt was released from prison in 1815. In order to raise money to pay a 500 pound fine, he sold The Story of Remini, The Descent of Liberty, and The Feast of the Poets to the publisher Gale, Curtis and Fenner for 450 pounds. However, Hunt did not send them the works, and the firm backed down from the deal in December 1815. In October 1816, Hunt sent portions of the work to George Gordon Byron for approval, and the work was edited based on his responses.[8]


Poem

The poem begins with a description of an urban environment that focuses on the bustle of the crowd:[9]

Themes

Hunt chose the Paolo and Francesca episode from the Inferno to discuss problems relating to "setting authorized selfishness above the most natural impulses, and making guilt by mistaking innocence".[10] The tone of the work is one of compassion, and he promoted the idea of universal restoration, a view that came from the preaching of Elhanan Winchester that was connected to the Universalism movement. Hunt's use of such beliefs was a source of criticism lodged against him.[11] Hunt also believed that wisdom was connected to understanding the workings of the human heart, and his understanding of it in The Story of Rimini was later developed in Hunt's Christianism and The Religion of the Heart.[12] Part of the basis for the intimacy and the emotion within the story, especially when Francesca turns to her father before she is forced into marriage, is from Hunt's own emotional reaction after he was sentenced to jail for 2 years and separated from his brother.[13]

The landscape of Hampstead influenced the depictions of the land found within The Story of Remini. He described the land in an impressionistic manner like a painter with a mix of his political believes in regards to criticising land enclosure or other rural matters.[14] When Hunt was forced to go to Taunton, the valley became the basis for Hunt's description of Ravenna within the work. The description also marked a change in Hunt's style, as he became more spontaneous in his writing and more familiar in his tone. However, he also made sure to political and social matters.[15] When describing urban life, Hunt was quite different from William Wordsworth's repulsion regarding crowds; Hunt focused on the sights and sounds of the crowd in order to represent the human community that Wordsworth ignored.[16]

Within the poem, Hunt attempted to follow the pattern of Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads by relying on common speech. Hunt felt that too many works dealt with a written language and were disconnected from spoken language. This emphasis on what was deemed natural was in contrast to the 18th century emphasis on the neoclassical rules to poetry and language. Previously, those like Samuel Johnson viewed the common language like that of barbarians and that it was poetry's job to protect society against vulgarity. Although other Romantics turned to Scotland or rural England for their language, Hunt turned to Italian in order to basis his views of natural language.[17]

Critical response

Nicholas Roe claims that "Hunt reveals a keen observation of gestures, manners and motives: he could readily turn such details to satirical effect [...] but in his poem satirical disruption is smoothed into an attractively 'fluttering impatience' for what will follow [...] Hunt's master of townscape is highlighted by Wordsworth's repulsion from crowds".[18]

Notes

  1. ^ Roe 2005 p. 127
  2. ^ Roe 2005 pp. 156–157
  3. ^ Roe 2005 p. 166
  4. ^ Roe 2005 pp. 168–169
  5. ^ Roe 2005 p. 175
  6. ^ Roe 2005 p. 181
  7. ^ Roe 2005 p. 208
  8. ^ Roe 2005 pp. 241–244
  9. ^ Roe 2005 p. 208
  10. ^ Roe 2005 qtd p. 9
  11. ^ Roe 2005 p. 29
  12. ^ Roe 2005 p. 90
  13. ^ Roe 2005 p. 181
  14. ^ Roe 2005 p. 166
  15. ^ Roe 2005 pp. 169–170
  16. ^ Roe 2005 p. 209
  17. ^ Roe 2005 pp. 244–245
  18. ^ Roe 2005 p. 209

References

  • Blainey, Ann. Immortal Boy. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985.
  • Blunden, Edmund. Leigh Hunt and His Circle. London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1930.
  • Edgecombe, Rodney. Leigh Hunt and the Poetry of Fancy. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1994.
  • Holden, Anthony. The Wit in the Dungeon. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2005.
  • Roe, Nicholas. Fiery Heart. London: Pimlico, 2005.
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