Note 67 — V WILLIAM HAZLITT 1778-1830
Reading edition
The Fight appeared in the New Monthly Magazine in 1822. It was itself antedated by The Fancy of John Hamilton Reynolds, Keats’s friend and Hood’s brother-in-law, which was printed in 1820. The jolly iambics are as inspired as the essay. “P. C.” is, of course, Pugilistic Club.
“Oh, it is life! to see a proud And dauntless man step, full of hopes, Up to the P. C. stakes and ropes, Throw in his hat, and with a spring Get gallantly within the ring; Eye the wide crown, and walk awhile Taking all cheerings with a smile; To see him strip; his well-trained form, White, glowing, muscular, and warm, All beautiful in conscious power, Relaxed and quiet, till the hour; His glossy and transparent frame, In radiant plight to strive for fame! To look upon the clean shap’d limb In silk and flannel clothèd trim; While round the waist the kerchief tied Makes the flesh glow in richer pride. ’Tis more than life to watch him hold His hand forth, tremulous yet bold, Over his second’s, and to clasp His rival’s in a quiet grasp; To watch the noble attitude He takes, the crowd in breathless mood; And then to see, with adamant start, The muscles set, and the great heart Hurl a courageous splendid light Into the eye, and then—the Fight!”
But this is general: Hazlitt is specific. His particular Fight was the great one between Neate of Bristol and Tom Hickman the Gasman, Neate being the victor. On May 20, 1823, Neate met Spring of Hertfordshire (so translated out of his natural patronymic of Winter), in a contest for the championship, and Neate himself went under. This latter battle was mock-heroically celebrated by Maginn in Blackwood’s, and Hood’s casual meteorological simile heaped up honors on the winner:
“The Spring! I shrink and shudder at her name. For why? I find her breath a bitter blighter, And suffer from her blows as if they came From Spring the fighter!”
So that literature may be said to have set close to the ropes in those days, from first to last.