He was a social man, particularly fond of whist, and was on terms of intimacy and affection with many celebrated men and women. Their daughter was the gifted wife of the poet Shelley. Godwin married the authoress of the "Rights of Woman," Mary Wollstonecraft, in 1797, losing her the same year. Leon," which is philosophical in idea and purpose, and contains some passages of singular eloquence and beauty. Godwin wrote several other novels, but one alone is readable now, "St. "Caleb Williams" went through a number of editions, and was dramatized by Colman the younger under the title of "The Iron Chest." It has now been out of print for many years. In his first novel, "Caleb Williams," which was published the next year, he illustrated in scenes from real life many of the principles enunciated in his philosophical work. In 1793 Godwin became one of the most famous men in England by the publication of his "Political Justice," a work that his biographer would place side by side with the "Speech for Unlicensed Printing," the "Essay on Education," and "Emile," as one of "the unseen levers which have moved the changes of the times." Although the book came out at what we should call a "prohibitive price," it had an enormous circulation, and brought its author in something like 1,000 guineas. But his religious views soon took an unorthodox turn, and in 1782, falling out with his congregation at Stowmarket, he came up to London to earn his bread henceforward as a man of letters. In theology he began as a Calvinist, and for a while was tinctured with the austere doctrines of the Sandemanians.
WILLIAM GODWIN (1756-1836) was son and grandson of Dissenting ministers, and was destined for the same profession. No one would have suspected the author of those wild theories which startled the wise and shocked the prudent in the calm, gentlemanly person who rarely said anything above the most gentle commonplace, and took interest in little beyond the whist-table." There was nothing better calculated at once to feed and to make steady the enthusiasm of youthful patriots than the high speculations in which he taught them to engage, on the nature of social evils and the great destiny of his species. He foretold the future happiness of mankind, not with the inspiration of the poet, but with the grave and passionless voice of the oracle. He seemed to realise in himself what Wordsworth long afterwards described, 'the central calm at the heart of all agitation.' Through the medium of his mind the stormy convulsions of society were seen 'silent as in a picture.' Paradoxes the most daring wore the air of deliberate wisdom as he pronounced them.
"Indifferent altogether to the politics of the age, Lamb could not help being struck with productions of its newborn energies so remarkable as the works and the character of Godwin. In "The Letters of Charles Lamb," Sir T.N. Kegan Paul, his biographer, to represent the favourable judgment of our own time, whilst I will venture to quote one remarkable passage that voices the opinions of many among Godwin's most eminent contemporaries. Over against this persistent acrimony may be put the fine eulogy of Mr. "The first systematic anarchist," as he is called by Professor Saintsbury, aroused bitter contention with his writings during his own lifetime, and his opponents have remained so prejudiced that even the staid bibliographer Allibone, in his "Dictionary of English Literature," a place where one would think the most flagitious author safe from animosity, speaks of Godwin's private life in terms that are little less than scurrilous. The reputation of WILLIAM GODWIN as a social philosopher, and the merits of his famous novel, "Caleb Williams," have been for more than a century the subject of extreme divergencies of judgment among critics. DENISON, a cultivated lady with whom Caleb is for a while on friendly terms. MARNEY, a poor gentlewoman, Caleb's friend in distress. RAYMOND, an "Arcadian" captain of robbers. GINES, a robber and thief-taker, instrument of Falkland's vengeance upon Caleb. HAWKINS, farmer YOUNG HAWKINS, his son, Victims of Tyrrel's brutality, and wrongfully hanged as his murderers. GRIMES, a brutal rustic, suborned by Tyrrel to abduct Miss Melville.ĭR. MISS EMILY MELVILLE, his cousin and dependent, whom he cruelly maltreats and does to death. BARNABAS TYRREL, a brutal and tyrannical squire. COLLINS, Falkland's steward and Caleb's friend. FERDINANDO FALKLAND, a high-spirited and highly cultured gentleman, a country squire in "a remote county of England."ĬALEB WILLIAMS, a youth, his secretary, the discoverer of his secret, and the supposed narrator of the consequent events.