HOOD, Robin. See Robin Hood.
HOOD, Thomas (1789–1845), humorist and poet, born 23d May 1789, was the son of Mr Hood, bookseller, of the firm of Vernor & Hood, a man of intelligence, and the author of two novels. " Next to being a citizen of the world," writes Thomas Hood in his Literary Reminiscences, " it must be the best thing to be born a citizen of the world s greatest city." The best incident of his boyhood was his instruction by a schoolmaster who appreciated his talents, and, as he says, " made him feel it impossible not to take an interest in learning while he seemed so interested in teaching." Under the care of this "decayed dominie," whom he has so affectionately recorded, he earned a few guineas his first literary fee by revising for the press a new edition of Paul and Virginia. Admitted soon after into the counting-house of a friend of his family, he " turned his stool into a Pegasus on three legs, every foot, of course, being a dactyl or a spondee " but the uncongenial profession affected his health, which was never strong, and he was transferred to the care of a relation at Dundee. He has graphically described his unconditional rejection by this inhospitable personage, and the circumstances under which he found himself in a strange town without an acquain tance, with the most sympathetic nature, anxious for intel lectual and moral culture, but without guidance, instruction, or control. This self-dependence, however, suited the originality of his character : he became a large and indis criminate reader, and before long contributed humorous and poetical articles to the provincial newspapers and magazines. As a proof of the seriousness with which he regarded the literary vocation, it may be mentioned that he used to write out his poems in printed characters, believing that that pro cess best enabled him to understand his own peculiarities and faults, and probably unconscious that Coleridge had recommended some such method of criticism when he said he thought " print settles it."
His modest judgment of his own abilities, however, deterred him from literature as a profession, and on his return to London he applied himself assiduously to ths art of engraving, in which he acquired a skill that in after years became a most valuable assistant to his literary labours, and enabled him to illustrate his various humours and fancies by a profusion of quaint devices, which not only repeated to the eye the impressions of the text, but, by suggesting amusing analogies and contrasts, added con siderably to the sense and effect of the work.
In 1821 Mr John Scott, the editor of the London Magazine, was killed in a duel, and that periodical passed into the hands of some friends of Hood, who proposed to him to take a part in its publication. His installation into this congenial post at once introduced him to the best literary society of the time ; and in becoming the associate of such men as Charles Lamb, Cary, De Quincey, Allan Cunningham, Proctor, Talfourd, Hartley Coleridge, the peasant-poet Clare, and other contributors to that remark able miscellany, he gradually developed his own intellectual powers, and enjoyed that happy intercourse with superior minds for which his cordial and genial character was so well adapted, and which he has described in his best ii iinner in several chapters of I Food s Own. Odes ami Addresses his first work- were written about this time, in conjunction with his brother-in-law Mr J. H. Reynolds, th 3 friend of Keats ; and it is agreeable to find Sir Walter iScott acknowledging the gift of the work with no formal expressions of gratification, but "wishing the unknown author good health, good fortune, and whatever other good things can best support and encourage his lively vein of inoffensive and humorous satire." Whims and Oddities, National Tales, Tylney Hall, a novel, and The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies followed. In these works the humorous faculty not only predominated, but expressed itself with a freshness, originality, and power which the poetical element could not claim. There was much true poetry in the verse r and much sound sense and keen observation in the prose of these works ; but the poetical feeling and lyrical facility of the one, and the more solid qualities of the other, seemed best employed when they were subservient to his rapid wit, and to the ingenious coruscations of his fancy. This im pression was confirmed by the series of the Comic Anmial, a kind of publication at that time popular, which Hood undertook and continued, almost unassisted, for several years. Under that somewhat frivolous title he treated all the leading events of the day in a fine spirit of caricature, entirely free from grossness and vulgarity, without a trait of personal malice, and with an under-current of true sympathy and honest purpose that will preserve these papers, like the sketches of Hogarth, long after the events and manners they illustrate have passed from the minds of men. But just as the agreeable jester rose into the earnest satirist, one of the most striking peculiarities of his style became a more manifest defect. The attention of the reader was distracted, and his good taste annoyed, by the incessant play upon words, of which Hood had written in his own vindication—
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"However critics may take offence, A double meaning has double sense."
Now it is true that the critic must be unconscious of some
of the subtlest charms and nicest delicacies of language
who would exclude from humorous writing all those im
pressions and surprises which depend on the use of the
diverse sense of words. The history, indeed, of many a
word lies hid in its equivocal uses ; and it in no way dero
gates from the dignity of the highest poetry to gain strengtli
and variety from the ingenious application of the same
sounds to different senses, any more than from the contriv
ances of rhythm or the accompaniment of imitative sounds..
But when this habit becomes the characteristic of any wit r
it is impossible to prevent it from degenerating into occa
sional buffoonery, and from supplying a cheap and ready
resource, whenever the true vein of humour becomes thin
or rare. Artists have been known to have used the left
hand in the hope of checking the fatal facility which
practice had conferred on the right ; and if Hood had
been able to place under some restraint the curious and
complex machinery of words and syllables which his fancy
was incessantly producing, his style would have been a great
gainer, and much real earnestness of object, which now lies
confused by the brilliant kaleidoscope of language, would
have remained definite and clear. He was probably not
unconscious of this danger ; for, as he gained experience as
a writer, his diction became more simple, and his ludicrous
illustrations less frequent. In another annual called the
Gem appeared the poem on the story of "Eugene Aram,"
which first manifested the full extent of that poetical vigour
which seemed to advance just in proportion as his physical
health declined. He started a magazine in his own name,
for which he secured the assistance of many literary men of
reputation and authority, but which was mainly sustained
by his own intellectual activity. From a sick-bed, from
which he never rose, he conducted this work with surprising.
energy, and there composed those poems, too few in number,
but immortal in the English language, such as the " Song
of the Shirt," the " Bridge of Sighs," and the " Song of the
Labourer," which seized the deep human interests of the
time, and transported them from the ground of social philo
sophy into the loftier domain of the imagination. They
