e talent requisite
for success, he could not satisfy himself, and gave up the idea, though
always retaining his love of art. He then definitely turned to
literature, and in 1805 _pub._ his first book, _Essay on the Principles
of Human Action_, which was followed by various other philosophical and
political essays. About 1812 he became parliamentary and dramatic
reporter to the _Morning Chronicle_; in 1814 a contributor to the
_Edinburgh Review_; and in 1817 he _pub._ a vol. of literary sketches,
_The Round Table_. In the last named year appeared his _Characters of
Shakespeare's Plays_, which was severely attacked in the _Quarterly
Review_ and _Blackwood's Magazine_, to which his democratic views made
him obnoxious. He defended himself in a cutting _Letter to William
Gifford_, the ed. of the former. The best of H.'s critical work--his
three courses of Lectures, _On the English Poets_, _On the English Comic
Writers_, and _On the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Queen
Elizabeth_--appeared successively in 1818, 1819, and 1820. His next works
were _Table Talk_, in which he attacked Shelley (1821-22), and _The
Spirit of the Age_ (1825), in which he criticised some of his
contemporaries. He then commenced what he intended to be his chief
literary undertaking, a life of _Napoleon Buonaparte_, in 4 vols.
(1828-30). Though written with great literary ability, its views and
sympathies were unpopular, and it failed in attaining success. His last
work was a _Life of Titian_, in which he collaborated with Northcote. H.
is one of the most subtle and acute of English critics, though, when
contemporaries came under review, he sometimes allowed himself to be
unduly swayed by personal or political feeling, from which he had himself
often suffered at the hands of others. His chief principle of criticism
as avowed by himself was that "a genuine criticism should reflect the
colour, the light and shade, the soul and body of a work." In his private
life he was not happy. His first marriage, entered into in 1807, ended in
a divorce in 1822, and was followed by an amour with his landlady's
_dau._, which he celebrated in _Liber Amoris_, a work which exposed him
to severe censure. A second marriage with a Mrs. Bridgewater ended by the
lady leaving him shortly after. The fact is that H. was possessed of a
peculiar temper, which led to his quarrelling with most of his friends.
He was, however, a man of honest and sincere convictions. There is a
_col