Thomas Medwin
Encyclopedia
Thomas Medwin was an early 19th century English
poet
and translator, who is chiefly known for his biographies of his cousin Percy Bysshe Shelley
and his recollections of his close friend Lord Byron.
, West Sussex on 20 March 1788, the third son of five children of Thomas Charles Medwin, a solicitor
and steward and Mary Medwin (née Pilford). He was a second cousin on both his parents' sides to Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) who lived two miles away at Field Place, Warnham
and with whom Medwin formed a childhood friendship that continued into adulthood.
He was from a prosperous rather than a wealthy family that expected their sons to work for a living and to this end he attended Syon House Academy in Isleworth
between 1788 and 1804, the alma mater of Shelley from 1802–1808. Medwin related that at Syon House Shelley and he remained close friends forming a bond that was close enough for Shelley to apparently sleep walk his way to Medwin’s room. Following a further year in a public school, Medwin matriculated at University College, Oxford
in the winter of 1805 but left without taking his degree.
Medwin showed considerable aptitude in the study of foreign languages and was to become fluent in: Greek, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese and began writing poems including a contribution to The Wandering Jew , a poem attributed to Shelley. The young Shelley and Medwin met during their respective holidays and took part in typical pursuits of the times which in their case included fishing and hunting. This was the age of Romanticism
and the two young friends were also pursuing with some success female liaisons including that of their cousin Harriet Grove with whom Shelley was deeply committed by the spring of 1810. (not that this appears to have lastingly affected Shelley given his elopement with Harriet Westbrook in 1811)
Medwin’s father wished for Thomas to follow the Law and they appear to have quarrelled when the idea was rejected by his son , the consequence of which was that the younger Thomas was largely omitted from his Father’s will executed in 1829. There was a period of drift in Medwin’s life whereby he attempted to live beyond his means as a gentleman. This appears to have involved a great deal of carousing and gambling at his club in Brighton and generally spending money on collecting art. Shelley recalled Medwin as painting well and ‘remarkable, if I do not mistake, for a particular taste in, and knowledge of the belli arti – Italy is the place for you, the very place- the Paradise of Exiles… If you will be glad to see an old friend, who will be glad to see you…come to Italy’ Medwin’s financial situation could not continue as it was and by 1812 he had decided on a living as a commissioned soldier albeit one with social pretensions the 24th Light Dragoons.
in the 24th Light Dragoons in June 1812 joining his regiment at Cawnpore in Utar Pradesh in northern India shortly thereafter. Far removed from the scene of the Gurka or Nepal War of 1814–1816 in which Medwin’s regiment did not participate, Cawnpore was one of the largest military stations in India, with a highly organized social life and stores stocked with European goods. In the stultifying heat few duties were required of an officer and judging from Medwin’s description in his book “The Angler” he spent many hours enthusiastically hunting wildlife. He saw action rarely but was present at the siege of Hathras in 1817 and advances against the Pindaris on the banks of the river Sindh in December 1817.He witnessed at least one incident of sati, the ritual of widow burning on the Narmuda river in 1818 and enthusiastically toured the classical Hindu temples of: Gaur
, Palibothra
, Jagganath and Karle
as well as the Elephanta Caves
and the Ellora caves. Medwin may have had an affair with a Hindu woman which ended badly but from whom he was introduced to the doctrines of Rammohan Roy (Rammuhan Ray)
He also almost drowned in the River Ganges as a result of an accident and proved a competent, rather than a commendable soldier. He also suffered from dysentery, an illness that would reoccur at regular intervals during his life.
It was in Bombay in October 1818 whilst he was waiting to return to England for a period of leave that there was an unexpected benefit. He rediscovered the poetry of his cousin Shelley, finding a copy of The Revolt of Islam in a bookstall. Shelley was to provide the central experience and the focal point of his literary life. He recalled the incident under his persona Julian in his book The Angler in Walesin 1834. Julian is 'astonished at the greatness of (Shelley's) genius' and declared that 'the amiable philosophy and self-sacrifice inculcated by that divine poem, worked a strange reformation in my mind' Medwin's representation of himself as Julian is likely a reference to Shelley's Julian and Maddolo, a poem in which the persona of Julian has characteristics of Shelley.
His regiment was disbanded at the end of 1818 and Medwin went on to half pay, attached to a regiment of the Life Guards until 1831 when he sold out his commission. He was by this time known as Captain Medwin, although there is no evidence that he was ever promoted beyond the rank of lieutenant
In September 1820 he arrived in Geneva to stay with Jane
and Edward Ellerker Williams
, the latter to drown with Shelley. It was in Geneva that he finished his first published poem Oswald and Edwin, An Oriental Sketch , dedicated to Williams. The poem of forty pages with no less than twelve pages of notes was later revised in 1821 as the Lion Hunt for Sketches From Hindoostan
He joined his cousin Shelley in Pisa
in the autumn of 1820 moving in with him and his wife Mary Shelley
with whom he was to develop an uneasy relationship. Medwin was periodically ill during his months in Pisa but worked with Shelley on a number of poems and on the publication of his journal Sketches From Hindoostan. Shelley and Medwin started to study Arabic together.They read Schiller, Cervantes, Milton and Petrarch together and throughout the beginning of 1821 the two cousins continued to pursue a vigorous intellectual life. Shelley was working on Prometheus and would read the drafts to him each evening whilst Medwin continued with a second volume of Oswald and Edwin, An Oriental Sketch. In January they were joined by Jane and Edward Ellerker Williams. Medwin left Shelley in March 1821 to visit Florence, Rome and then Venice where he continued to write and socialise. In November 1821 he returned to Pisa.
Shelley introduced Medwin to Lord Byron on 20 November 1821 and it is clear that Byron was impressed with the personable Medwin and they were to form a lasting friendship. Medwin and Byron enjoyed the company of different woman as can be seen by their correspondence with each other and formed a male bond that was missing from Medwin’s relationship with Shelley. He joined Byron for episodes of pistol shooting and riding and dined within Byron’s inner circle with other friends that included Shelley, Edward E Williams, Leigh Hunt and the recently arrived Edward John Trelawney. The latter would feature as friend and rival throughout Medwin’s long life as both sought to be arbiters of Byron’s reputation. Medwin provided a translation of part of Petrarch
’s “Africa” for Byron whilst Byron finished Cantos 6–12 of Don Juan . When Medwin decided to continue his tour of Italy in April 1822 Lord Byron insisted on providing him with a splendid leaving party.
, where he was introduced to the sculptor Antonio Canova
, and then to Naples
, before sailing to Genoa
. It was whilst at Genoa that he heard a rumour that an English schooner had been lost with two Englishman drowned; but only on his arrival in Geneva
did he learn that it was Shelley and Edward Williams who had drowned on July 8, 1822. Medwin was devastated and immediately returned to Italy where he learned at Spezia that his friends' bodies had been thrown up out of the sea. He arrived in Pisa on August 18, a few hours after the bodies had been cremated. Throughout the rest of his life, he was bitter about being late, even claiming at one time that he had been present. He met with the widows and with his friends Byron, Trelawney and Leigh Hunt, who were present at Shelley's cremation; and he put the horror of these days into “Ahasuerus, The Wanderer”, his poetic tribute, dedicated to Byron and laid at the feet of the dead Shelley. A sad, melancholic Medwin left Pisa shortly after to visit Genoa, Geneva, Paris, and finally London.
, the American author who shared his enthusiasm for Lord Byron and for the Spanish poets particularly Calderon and a lasting correspondence was formed. It was shortly afterwards that Medwin learned of the death of Lord Byron on the 19 April 1824. The news of Byron’s death had been published in London on 15 May and by 10 July Medwin had compiled a volume, his “Conversations of Lord Byron”. The manuscript had received short thrift from Mary Shelley and many other critics. John Galt and William Harness published their negative appraisals in Blackwood's Magazine
for November, and John Cam Hobhouse wrote a withering assault on Medwin published in the Westminster Review
for January 1825 questioning the veracity of much of the contents.Lady Caroline Lamb
, one of Byron’s most important mistresses was deeply upset by Medwin’s comments and corresponded with him to put her view of their affair to him. John Murray (1778-1843)
the Scottish publisher and member of the publishing house that owned the copyright to Byron's works was also outraged at the Journal's revelations and threatened to sue (Murray had destroyed Byron's memoirs because he felt they were unfit for publication).
However there were supporters and it was well received by several eminent writers including Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges
who included in his edition of Edward Phillips’ Theatrum Petarum Anglicanorum a memoir of Shelley, written by Medwin. Leigh Hunt, as might be expected, took a more tolerant view of Medwin in Lord Byron and his Contemporaries (1828) and since the publication of Byron’s letters in Thomas Moore
's biography(1830/31) and Lady Blessington's Conversations(1832–33) Medwin's recollections of Byron have come to be seen, if not always accurate in details, as an essentially accurate portrayal.
Although the book was certainly a piece of populist opportunism on the part of Medwin and it affected his relationships with some of his friends it proved a tremendous financial success and went to at least twelve reprints in the United States and was published in Germany, France and Italy. It remains in print to this day. Captain Medwin was famous (or infamous),well off and able to marry in Lausanne, Anne Henrietta Hamilton, Countess of Starnford (Swedish title) on 2 November 1824.
in Switzerland before settling to live in Florence. The union produced two daughtersMedwin's daughter Henrietta Medwin married an Italian aristocrat Ferdinando Pieri Nerli. Their son born in 1860 was Giralamo Pieri Pecci Ballati Nerli (aka G. P. Nerli
), an artist who worked in the Antipodes and notably painted Robert Louis Stevenson and Medwin settled into a life of style and substance amongst an English émigré community. Unfortunately Medwin lived beyond his means and lost considerable amounts of money on the buying and selling of Italian artworks. Thus by 1829 the year his Father died he was in a dire financial position with creditors repossessing his goods. His marriage was under strain and Medwin appears to have avoided his responsibilities and abandoned his wife and two young daughters, allowing friends such as Trelawney and Charles Armitage Brown to sort out his and his wife’s affairs
Medwin moved to Genoa
where he at last worked assiduously on a play Prometheus portarore del fuoco (Prometheus the Fire-bearer). It has never been published in English but it was translated into Italian and published in Genoa in 1830 where it was reviewed enthusiastically. In typical fashion Medwin dedicated the play to the memory of Shelley. Genoa, however, turned out to only an interlude, as Medwin was expelled for writing a tragedy called The Conspiracy of the Fieschi, which alarmed the Genoese authorities, who believed it to be anti-government propaganda and by January 1831 Medwin, without his family, had returned to London, in order he hoped to earn a living as a writer.Medwin described this period of his life in 'My Moustache' published in Ainsworth Magazine, I pp. 52–54 (1842)
with the Shelley Papers, following at eighteen weekly intervals until April 1833. These were then collected in 1833 and published as The Shelley papers; Memoir of Percy Bysshe Shelley by which time Medwin was editor of the somewhat ephemeral New Anti-Jacobin: A Monthly Magazine of Politics, Commerce, Science, Art, Music and the Drama. It lasted for two editions and included contributions from the poetHorace Smith and John Poole as well as the editor.
He had also embarked on what may be regarded as his finest achievements, the translations of Aeschylus
’ plays into English. It was a prodigious piece of work with “Prometheus Unbound and Agamemon” appearing in companion volumes in May 1833, followed by “The Seven Tribes Against Thebes”, “The Persians”, “The Eumenides” and “The Choephori”.He did not translate “The Suppliants” apparently because he disapproved of ‘its corruptions’. The translations were enthusiastically reviewed by important literary magazine’s including The Gentleman's Magazine
and published in Fraser's Magazine
but there was some criticism that he had strayed from the original meaning, these critics misunderstanding that Medwin had done so when he felt the occasion demanded. Medwin’s skill is to bring alive the characters of Aeschylus by providing them with believable dialogue by the use of traditional metres and measure.
Medwin's output in the middle years of the 1830s was prodigious. He contributed a series of short stories to Bentley’s Miscellany. He published a departure from his usual classical fare in the form of The Angler in Wales or Days and Nights of Sportsmen. It is in the tradition of Isaac Walton’s “The Compleat Angler” and takes the form chiefly of dialogue: it provides a defence for Angling and provides insight into Medwin’s love of the country side and of country pursuits. At various points in the book are cameo appearances from Shelley and Byron. He was earning a decent living but not enough to repay his creditors. The wanderlust returned and in 1837 Medwin announced he was moving to Heidelberg
in Germany.
and in other literary magazines. The prose that he was now producing was essentially that of a traveller with settings associated with his many former lives in: India, Rome, Switzerland, Paris, Venice, Florence and later in Jena, Mannheim and Strasbourg. He became de facto a German correspondent for a series of magazines including The Athenaeum
and The New Monthly Magazine
providing impressions of all things German. He became a member of the influential Heidelberg museum and participated fully in the literary life of the city. He went to the theatre regularly and then reviewed the plays for his English readers. He read the works of German poets including: Karl Gutzkow
, Ludwig Tieck
, Ludwig Achim von Arnim
, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff
, Rauch and Diefenbach. The poetry of Diefenbach was favoured with a translation for English readers. He thus became an influential figure in the cross fertilisation of cultural relations between England and Germany by giving English and British readers a greater knowledge and understanding of the literature in Germany.
He was to live in Heidelberg for most of the next twenty years although the travelling continued at regular intervals with several stays at fashionable Baden-Baden, the setting for much of his only novel, Lady Singleton, published in 1842.
In Heidelberg he formed one of the great attachments of his life with the poetess Caroline Champion de Crespigny, a former mistress of Lord Byron. Their relationship was essentially intellectual as neither were able to afford a divorce settlement from their estranged spouses. The English colony in Heidelberg was small and intimate. His acquaintances included Mary and William Howitt
who found Medwin to be a man of ‘culture and refinement, aristocratic in his tastes’.
In the early 1840s Fanny Brawn(e) Lindon
, once John Keats
lover, moved to Heidelberg and through her Medwin was in touch with the other great poet of the romantic age. Medwin and Lindon collaborated together to correct the impression provided by Mary Shelley in her Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments (1840) that Keats had gone insane in his final days. Lindon showed letters to Medwin that suggested otherwise and Medwin used this new knowledge in his major Life of Shelley, where he published extracts from these letters by Keats himself and his friend Joseph Severn
.
in 1913)Harry Buxton Forman was exposed as a forger of antique books in 1934 by John Carter
and Graham Pollard in An Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Nineteenth Century Pamphlets. Whatever its manifest faults it remains a major source for those interested in studying the poet’s early life and work. Medwin is the main provider of information on the childhood of Shelley, a major source of information of the events of 1821-1822 and a mine of personal recollections. It was also the major source of knowledge in Germany of Shelley’s life and work. Shelley had become in the years since his death something of a divisive figure so criticism was to be expected. Medwin's biography duly came in for a withering attack in The Athenaeum which opened thunderously its review ‘We are not in any way satisfied with this book.’ "The Spectator
" wrote 'Medwin's labours .. are chiefly remarkable for the art of stuffing .. nor does the author forget a scandal when he can pick any up'. Medwin was even more reviled by the remaining members of the Pisan circle. Mary Shelley's reaction was as expected given her antipathy towards him but Trelawney was equally cutting describing the work as 'superficial' as late as 1870
It was, however, received sympathetically by some journals. These included William Howitt and W. Harrison Ainsworth who began their review in Howitt’s Journal with ‘it could not possibly have fallen into more competent hands
He returned to Heidelberg from a visit to London and Horsham in time for the 1848 Revolution that swept through Germany. He and Caroline de Crespigny took flight to Weinsberg
in Wurttemberg which remained free of active revolution. He continued to work from here,some poetry and translations for his hostJustinus Kerner
. (In 1854 he was to publish a poem entitled “To Justinus Kerner”). He returned to Heidelberg the following year and in 1862 published a book of poetry entiled “The Nugae”. It was internationalist in content with poems in Greek, Latin, English, and German. There were translations from: Catullus
, Virgil
, Horace
, Scaliger
and by Caroline de Crespigny . It confirmed that Thomas Medwin was a thoroughly learned man, if occasionally imprecise and careless.
Thomas Medwin died on 2 August 1869, at the house of his brother Pilford Medwin (right)in the Carfax in Horsham in West Sussex. He was buried in the Denne Road Cemetery in Horsham in a tomb that now lies obscured and poorly kempt in the old part of the cemetery. The tomb faces east at his request towards India, Italy and Germany and is inscribed with the epithet ‘He was a friend and companion of Byron, Shelley and Trelawney’.
The few writers who have highlighted Medwin have concentrated on his popular writings on Shelley and Byron but his legacy also includes numerous translations from Greek, Latin, Italian, German, Portuguese and Spanish . His translations of Aeschylus are of lasting importance and his early travel writings are vivid and memorable.Medwin's poetry, however, remains neglected with little critical comment available in the years since their publication.
His importance in the mid 19th century cultural crosscurrents between England, United States of America and Germany has only recently been assessed. Medwin introduced many German writers to the English speaking world particularly poets such as Karl Gutzkow
, Ludwig Tieck
and Ludwig Achim von Arnim
and more work on this facet of his career is needed.
Thomas Medwin 'deserves to be reassessed in the light of the new evidence that is now available'
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and translator, who is chiefly known for his biographies of his cousin Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
and his recollections of his close friend Lord Byron.
Early life
Thomas Medwin was born in the market town of HorshamHorsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...
, West Sussex on 20 March 1788, the third son of five children of Thomas Charles Medwin, a solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
and steward and Mary Medwin (née Pilford). He was a second cousin on both his parents' sides to Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) who lived two miles away at Field Place, Warnham
Warnham
Warnham is a village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. The village is some three kilometres north west of central Horsham to the west of the A24 road...
and with whom Medwin formed a childhood friendship that continued into adulthood.
He was from a prosperous rather than a wealthy family that expected their sons to work for a living and to this end he attended Syon House Academy in Isleworth
Isleworth
Isleworth is a small town of Saxon origin sited within the London Borough of Hounslow in west London, England. It lies immediately east of the town of Hounslow and west of the River Thames and its tributary the River Crane. Isleworth's original area of settlement, alongside the Thames, is known as...
between 1788 and 1804, the alma mater of Shelley from 1802–1808. Medwin related that at Syon House Shelley and he remained close friends forming a bond that was close enough for Shelley to apparently sleep walk his way to Medwin’s room. Following a further year in a public school, Medwin matriculated at University College, Oxford
University College, Oxford
.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...
in the winter of 1805 but left without taking his degree.
Medwin showed considerable aptitude in the study of foreign languages and was to become fluent in: Greek, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese and began writing poems including a contribution to The Wandering Jew , a poem attributed to Shelley. The young Shelley and Medwin met during their respective holidays and took part in typical pursuits of the times which in their case included fishing and hunting. This was the age of Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
and the two young friends were also pursuing with some success female liaisons including that of their cousin Harriet Grove with whom Shelley was deeply committed by the spring of 1810. (not that this appears to have lastingly affected Shelley given his elopement with Harriet Westbrook in 1811)
Medwin’s father wished for Thomas to follow the Law and they appear to have quarrelled when the idea was rejected by his son , the consequence of which was that the younger Thomas was largely omitted from his Father’s will executed in 1829. There was a period of drift in Medwin’s life whereby he attempted to live beyond his means as a gentleman. This appears to have involved a great deal of carousing and gambling at his club in Brighton and generally spending money on collecting art. Shelley recalled Medwin as painting well and ‘remarkable, if I do not mistake, for a particular taste in, and knowledge of the belli arti – Italy is the place for you, the very place- the Paradise of Exiles… If you will be glad to see an old friend, who will be glad to see you…come to Italy’ Medwin’s financial situation could not continue as it was and by 1812 he had decided on a living as a commissioned soldier albeit one with social pretensions the 24th Light Dragoons.
India
Although he had had no military training Medwin was gazetted as a Cornet (military rank)Cornet (military rank)
Cornet was originally the third and lowest grade of commissioned officer in a British cavalry troop, after captain and lieutenant. A cornet is a new and junior officer.- Traditional duties :The cornet carried the troop standard, also known as a "cornet"....
in the 24th Light Dragoons in June 1812 joining his regiment at Cawnpore in Utar Pradesh in northern India shortly thereafter. Far removed from the scene of the Gurka or Nepal War of 1814–1816 in which Medwin’s regiment did not participate, Cawnpore was one of the largest military stations in India, with a highly organized social life and stores stocked with European goods. In the stultifying heat few duties were required of an officer and judging from Medwin’s description in his book “The Angler” he spent many hours enthusiastically hunting wildlife. He saw action rarely but was present at the siege of Hathras in 1817 and advances against the Pindaris on the banks of the river Sindh in December 1817.He witnessed at least one incident of sati, the ritual of widow burning on the Narmuda river in 1818 and enthusiastically toured the classical Hindu temples of: Gaur
Gaur
The gaur , also called Indian bison, is a large bovine native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. The species is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986 as the population decline in parts of the species' range is likely to be well over 70% over the last three generations...
, Palibothra
Palibothra
Palibothra was the famed capital of the powerful kingdom of the Prasii about which many ancient writers have left their accounts. Megasthenes , in his book Indika wrote that the city of Palibothra was situated on the confluence of the rivers Ganges and Erannoboas , identified by Sir William Jones...
, Jagganath and Karle
Karle
Karle is a village and municipality in Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic located about 8 km west of Svitavy. It has a population of 395 . First written mention of the village dates back to 1336....
as well as the Elephanta Caves
Elephanta Caves
The Elephanta Caves are a network of sculpted caves located on Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri in Mumbai Harbour, to the east of the city of Mumbai in the Indian state of Maharashtra...
and the Ellora caves. Medwin may have had an affair with a Hindu woman which ended badly but from whom he was introduced to the doctrines of Rammohan Roy (Rammuhan Ray)
He also almost drowned in the River Ganges as a result of an accident and proved a competent, rather than a commendable soldier. He also suffered from dysentery, an illness that would reoccur at regular intervals during his life.
It was in Bombay in October 1818 whilst he was waiting to return to England for a period of leave that there was an unexpected benefit. He rediscovered the poetry of his cousin Shelley, finding a copy of The Revolt of Islam in a bookstall. Shelley was to provide the central experience and the focal point of his literary life. He recalled the incident under his persona Julian in his book The Angler in Walesin 1834. Julian is 'astonished at the greatness of (Shelley's) genius' and declared that 'the amiable philosophy and self-sacrifice inculcated by that divine poem, worked a strange reformation in my mind' Medwin's representation of himself as Julian is likely a reference to Shelley's Julian and Maddolo, a poem in which the persona of Julian has characteristics of Shelley.
His regiment was disbanded at the end of 1818 and Medwin went on to half pay, attached to a regiment of the Life Guards until 1831 when he sold out his commission. He was by this time known as Captain Medwin, although there is no evidence that he was ever promoted beyond the rank of lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
Reunion with Shelley
Jane Williams
Jane Williams may refer to:*Jane Williams *Jane Williams Subject of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley*Jane Williams , Welsh writer*Jane Williams, Baroness Williams of Elvel...
and Edward Ellerker Williams
Edward Ellerker Williams
Edward Ellerker Williams was a retired army officer who became friends with Percy Bysshe Shelley in the final months of his life and died with him. - Early life :...
, the latter to drown with Shelley. It was in Geneva that he finished his first published poem Oswald and Edwin, An Oriental Sketch , dedicated to Williams. The poem of forty pages with no less than twelve pages of notes was later revised in 1821 as the Lion Hunt for Sketches From Hindoostan
He joined his cousin Shelley in Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
in the autumn of 1820 moving in with him and his wife Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
with whom he was to develop an uneasy relationship. Medwin was periodically ill during his months in Pisa but worked with Shelley on a number of poems and on the publication of his journal Sketches From Hindoostan. Shelley and Medwin started to study Arabic together.They read Schiller, Cervantes, Milton and Petrarch together and throughout the beginning of 1821 the two cousins continued to pursue a vigorous intellectual life. Shelley was working on Prometheus and would read the drafts to him each evening whilst Medwin continued with a second volume of Oswald and Edwin, An Oriental Sketch. In January they were joined by Jane and Edward Ellerker Williams. Medwin left Shelley in March 1821 to visit Florence, Rome and then Venice where he continued to write and socialise. In November 1821 he returned to Pisa.
Meeting with Lord Byron
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
’s “Africa” for Byron whilst Byron finished Cantos 6–12 of Don Juan . When Medwin decided to continue his tour of Italy in April 1822 Lord Byron insisted on providing him with a splendid leaving party.
The death of Shelley
The impecunious Medwin travelled first to RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, where he was introduced to the sculptor Antonio Canova
Antonio Canova
Antonio Canova was an Italian sculptor from the Republic of Venice who became famous for his marble sculptures that delicately rendered nude flesh...
, and then to Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, before sailing to Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
. It was whilst at Genoa that he heard a rumour that an English schooner had been lost with two Englishman drowned; but only on his arrival in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
did he learn that it was Shelley and Edward Williams who had drowned on July 8, 1822. Medwin was devastated and immediately returned to Italy where he learned at Spezia that his friends' bodies had been thrown up out of the sea. He arrived in Pisa on August 18, a few hours after the bodies had been cremated. Throughout the rest of his life, he was bitter about being late, even claiming at one time that he had been present. He met with the widows and with his friends Byron, Trelawney and Leigh Hunt, who were present at Shelley's cremation; and he put the horror of these days into “Ahasuerus, The Wanderer”, his poetic tribute, dedicated to Byron and laid at the feet of the dead Shelley. A sad, melancholic Medwin left Pisa shortly after to visit Genoa, Geneva, Paris, and finally London.
Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron
The ever restless Medwin moved to Paris in 1824 where he met Washington IrvingWashington Irving
Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...
, the American author who shared his enthusiasm for Lord Byron and for the Spanish poets particularly Calderon and a lasting correspondence was formed. It was shortly afterwards that Medwin learned of the death of Lord Byron on the 19 April 1824. The news of Byron’s death had been published in London on 15 May and by 10 July Medwin had compiled a volume, his “Conversations of Lord Byron”. The manuscript had received short thrift from Mary Shelley and many other critics. John Galt and William Harness published their negative appraisals in Blackwood's Magazine
Blackwood's Magazine
Blackwood's Magazine was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. The first number appeared in April 1817 under the editorship of Thomas Pringle and James Cleghorn...
for November, and John Cam Hobhouse wrote a withering assault on Medwin published in the Westminster Review
Westminster Review
The Westminster Review was a quarterly British publication. Established in 1823 as the official organ of the Philosophical Radicals, it was published from 1824 to 1914. James Mill was one of the driving forces behind the liberal journal until 1828....
for January 1825 questioning the veracity of much of the contents.Lady Caroline Lamb
Lady Caroline Lamb
The Lady Caroline Lamb was a British aristocrat and novelist, best known for her affair with Lord Byron in 1812. Her husband was the 2nd Viscount Melbourne, the Prime Minister...
, one of Byron’s most important mistresses was deeply upset by Medwin’s comments and corresponded with him to put her view of their affair to him. John Murray (1778-1843)
John Murray (1778-1843)
John Murray was a Scottish publisher and member of the famous John Murray publishing house.The publishing house was founded by Murray's father, who died when Murray was only fifteen years old. During his youth, a partner, Samuel Highley, ran the business, but in 1803 the partnership was dissolved...
the Scottish publisher and member of the publishing house that owned the copyright to Byron's works was also outraged at the Journal's revelations and threatened to sue (Murray had destroyed Byron's memoirs because he felt they were unfit for publication).
However there were supporters and it was well received by several eminent writers including Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges
Samuel Egerton Brydges
Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges, 1st Baronet was an English bibliographer and genealogist. He was also Member of Parliament for Maidstone from 1812 to 1818....
who included in his edition of Edward Phillips’ Theatrum Petarum Anglicanorum a memoir of Shelley, written by Medwin. Leigh Hunt, as might be expected, took a more tolerant view of Medwin in Lord Byron and his Contemporaries (1828) and since the publication of Byron’s letters in Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore was an Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, now best remembered for the lyrics of The Minstrel Boy and The Last Rose of Summer. He was responsible, with John Murray, for burning Lord Byron's memoirs after his death...
's biography(1830/31) and Lady Blessington's Conversations(1832–33) Medwin's recollections of Byron have come to be seen, if not always accurate in details, as an essentially accurate portrayal.
Although the book was certainly a piece of populist opportunism on the part of Medwin and it affected his relationships with some of his friends it proved a tremendous financial success and went to at least twelve reprints in the United States and was published in Germany, France and Italy. It remains in print to this day. Captain Medwin was famous (or infamous),well off and able to marry in Lausanne, Anne Henrietta Hamilton, Countess of Starnford (Swedish title) on 2 November 1824.
High Life and Downfall
Medwin was thirty six when he married and continued a long honeymoon at VeveyVevey
Vevey is a town in Switzerland in the canton Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne.It was the seat of the district of the same name until 2006, and is now part of the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut District...
in Switzerland before settling to live in Florence. The union produced two daughtersMedwin's daughter Henrietta Medwin married an Italian aristocrat Ferdinando Pieri Nerli. Their son born in 1860 was Giralamo Pieri Pecci Ballati Nerli (aka G. P. Nerli
G. P. Nerli
Girolamo Pieri Pecci Ballati Nerli, known more commonly as Girolamo Nerli was an Italian painter who worked and travelled in Australia and New Zealand in the late 19th century influencing Charles Conder and Frances Hodgkins and helping to move Australian and New Zealand art in new directions...
), an artist who worked in the Antipodes and notably painted Robert Louis Stevenson and Medwin settled into a life of style and substance amongst an English émigré community. Unfortunately Medwin lived beyond his means and lost considerable amounts of money on the buying and selling of Italian artworks. Thus by 1829 the year his Father died he was in a dire financial position with creditors repossessing his goods. His marriage was under strain and Medwin appears to have avoided his responsibilities and abandoned his wife and two young daughters, allowing friends such as Trelawney and Charles Armitage Brown to sort out his and his wife’s affairs
Medwin moved to Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
where he at last worked assiduously on a play Prometheus portarore del fuoco (Prometheus the Fire-bearer). It has never been published in English but it was translated into Italian and published in Genoa in 1830 where it was reviewed enthusiastically. In typical fashion Medwin dedicated the play to the memory of Shelley. Genoa, however, turned out to only an interlude, as Medwin was expelled for writing a tragedy called The Conspiracy of the Fieschi, which alarmed the Genoese authorities, who believed it to be anti-government propaganda and by January 1831 Medwin, without his family, had returned to London, in order he hoped to earn a living as a writer.Medwin described this period of his life in 'My Moustache' published in Ainsworth Magazine, I pp. 52–54 (1842)
Translations of Aeschylus
In 1832 his Memoir of Shelley was published in six weekly instalments in The AthenaeumAthenaeum (magazine)
The Athenaeum was a literary magazine published in London from 1828 to 1921. It had a reputation for publishing the very best writers of the age....
with the Shelley Papers, following at eighteen weekly intervals until April 1833. These were then collected in 1833 and published as The Shelley papers; Memoir of Percy Bysshe Shelley by which time Medwin was editor of the somewhat ephemeral New Anti-Jacobin: A Monthly Magazine of Politics, Commerce, Science, Art, Music and the Drama. It lasted for two editions and included contributions from the poetHorace Smith and John Poole as well as the editor.
He had also embarked on what may be regarded as his finest achievements, the translations of Aeschylus
Aeschylus
Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, and is often described as the father of tragedy. His name derives from the Greek word aiskhos , meaning "shame"...
’ plays into English. It was a prodigious piece of work with “Prometheus Unbound and Agamemon” appearing in companion volumes in May 1833, followed by “The Seven Tribes Against Thebes”, “The Persians”, “The Eumenides” and “The Choephori”.He did not translate “The Suppliants” apparently because he disapproved of ‘its corruptions’. The translations were enthusiastically reviewed by important literary magazine’s including The Gentleman's Magazine
The Gentleman's Magazine
The Gentleman's Magazine was founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term "magazine" for a periodical...
and published in Fraser's Magazine
Fraser's Magazine
Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country was a general and literary journal published in London from 1830 to 1882, which initially took a strong Tory line in politics. It was founded by Hugh Fraser and William Maginn in 1830 and loosely directed by Maginn under the name Oliver Yorke until about 1840...
but there was some criticism that he had strayed from the original meaning, these critics misunderstanding that Medwin had done so when he felt the occasion demanded. Medwin’s skill is to bring alive the characters of Aeschylus by providing them with believable dialogue by the use of traditional metres and measure.
Medwin's output in the middle years of the 1830s was prodigious. He contributed a series of short stories to Bentley’s Miscellany. He published a departure from his usual classical fare in the form of The Angler in Wales or Days and Nights of Sportsmen. It is in the tradition of Isaac Walton’s “The Compleat Angler” and takes the form chiefly of dialogue: it provides a defence for Angling and provides insight into Medwin’s love of the country side and of country pursuits. At various points in the book are cameo appearances from Shelley and Byron. He was earning a decent living but not enough to repay his creditors. The wanderlust returned and in 1837 Medwin announced he was moving to Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
in Germany.
Heidelberg
In the years 1837 to 1847 Medwin published twenty six tales and sketches for publication in The AthenaeumAthenaeum (magazine)
The Athenaeum was a literary magazine published in London from 1828 to 1921. It had a reputation for publishing the very best writers of the age....
and in other literary magazines. The prose that he was now producing was essentially that of a traveller with settings associated with his many former lives in: India, Rome, Switzerland, Paris, Venice, Florence and later in Jena, Mannheim and Strasbourg. He became de facto a German correspondent for a series of magazines including The Athenaeum
Athenaeum (magazine)
The Athenaeum was a literary magazine published in London from 1828 to 1921. It had a reputation for publishing the very best writers of the age....
and The New Monthly Magazine
The New Monthly Magazine
The New Monthly Magazine was a British monthly magazine published by Henry Colburn between 1814 and 1884.-History:Colburn and Frederic Shoberl established The New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register as a "virulently Tory" competitor to Sir Richard Phillips' Monthly Magazine in 1814...
providing impressions of all things German. He became a member of the influential Heidelberg museum and participated fully in the literary life of the city. He went to the theatre regularly and then reviewed the plays for his English readers. He read the works of German poets including: Karl Gutzkow
Karl Gutzkow
Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow was a German writer notable in the Young Germany movement of the mid-19th century.-Life:...
, Ludwig Tieck
Ludwig Tieck
Johann Ludwig Tieck was a German poet, translator, editor, novelist, writer of Novellen, and critic, who was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-Early life:...
, Ludwig Achim von Arnim
Ludwig Achim von Arnim
Ludwig Achim von Arnim was a German poet and novelist born in Berlin.-Life:Arnim was descended from a Prussian noble family. His father was Joachim Erdmann von Arnim , associated with the Prussian court and, among other roles, active as the Director of the Berlin theater...
, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff
Anna Elisabeth von Droste-Hülshoff, known as Annette von Droste-Hülshoff , was a 19th century German author, and one of the most important German poets.-Biography:...
, Rauch and Diefenbach. The poetry of Diefenbach was favoured with a translation for English readers. He thus became an influential figure in the cross fertilisation of cultural relations between England and Germany by giving English and British readers a greater knowledge and understanding of the literature in Germany.
He was to live in Heidelberg for most of the next twenty years although the travelling continued at regular intervals with several stays at fashionable Baden-Baden, the setting for much of his only novel, Lady Singleton, published in 1842.
In Heidelberg he formed one of the great attachments of his life with the poetess Caroline Champion de Crespigny, a former mistress of Lord Byron. Their relationship was essentially intellectual as neither were able to afford a divorce settlement from their estranged spouses. The English colony in Heidelberg was small and intimate. His acquaintances included Mary and William Howitt
William Howitt
William Howitt , was an English author.He was born at Heanor, Derbyshire. His parents were Quakers, and he was educated at the Friends public school at Ackworth, Yorkshire. His younger brothers were Richard and Godrey whom he helped tutor. In 1814 he published a poem on the Influence of Nature and...
who found Medwin to be a man of ‘culture and refinement, aristocratic in his tastes’.
In the early 1840s Fanny Brawn(e) Lindon
Fanny Brawne
Frances Brawne Lindon is most known for her betrothal to 19th-Century English Romantic poet John Keats, a fact largely unknown until 1878, when Keats' letters to her were published...
, once John Keats
John Keats
John Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...
lover, moved to Heidelberg and through her Medwin was in touch with the other great poet of the romantic age. Medwin and Lindon collaborated together to correct the impression provided by Mary Shelley in her Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments (1840) that Keats had gone insane in his final days. Lindon showed letters to Medwin that suggested otherwise and Medwin used this new knowledge in his major Life of Shelley, where he published extracts from these letters by Keats himself and his friend Joseph Severn
Joseph Severn
Joseph Severn was an English portrait and subject painter and a personal friend of the famous English poet John Keats...
.
The Life of Shelley 1847
He began writing his biography of Percy Shelley in 1845 corresponding with relatives and friends in England including Percy Florence Shelley, the poet’s son and in 1846 he requested information from Mary Shelley. She was not co-operative wishing to hinder the publication of a Shelley biography by Thomas Medwin and claiming that Medwin had attempted to bribe her for the sum of £250. The work took two years to conclude appearing in September 1847. It was not a coolly dispassionate account of Shelley’s life. It is passionate, opinionated with attacks on Medwin’s personal enemies. There are numerous errors in date, fact and quotation , some of the later outright bowdlerizing. (Most of these errors were removed by Harry Buxton FormanHarry Buxton Forman
Henry "Harry" Buxton Forman CB was a Victorian-era bibliographer and antiquarian bookseller whose literary reputation is based on his bibliographies of Percy Shelley and John Keats...
in 1913)Harry Buxton Forman was exposed as a forger of antique books in 1934 by John Carter
John Carter (Author)
John Waynflete Carter was an English author, diplomat, bibliographer, book-collector, antiquarian bookseller and Vice-President of the Bibliographical Society of London. After attending Eton College, he studied classics at King's College, Cambridge, where he gained a double first...
and Graham Pollard in An Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Nineteenth Century Pamphlets. Whatever its manifest faults it remains a major source for those interested in studying the poet’s early life and work. Medwin is the main provider of information on the childhood of Shelley, a major source of information of the events of 1821-1822 and a mine of personal recollections. It was also the major source of knowledge in Germany of Shelley’s life and work. Shelley had become in the years since his death something of a divisive figure so criticism was to be expected. Medwin's biography duly came in for a withering attack in The Athenaeum which opened thunderously its review ‘We are not in any way satisfied with this book.’ "The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
" wrote 'Medwin's labours .. are chiefly remarkable for the art of stuffing .. nor does the author forget a scandal when he can pick any up'. Medwin was even more reviled by the remaining members of the Pisan circle. Mary Shelley's reaction was as expected given her antipathy towards him but Trelawney was equally cutting describing the work as 'superficial' as late as 1870
It was, however, received sympathetically by some journals. These included William Howitt and W. Harrison Ainsworth who began their review in Howitt’s Journal with ‘it could not possibly have fallen into more competent hands
Weinsberg
Weinsberg is a town in the north of the German state Baden-Württemberg. It was founded ca. 1200 and is situated in the Heilbronn district. The town has about 11,800 inhabitants. It is noted for its wine...
in Wurttemberg which remained free of active revolution. He continued to work from here,some poetry and translations for his hostJustinus Kerner
Justinus Kerner
Justinus Andreas Christian Kerner was a German poet and medical writer.-Life:He was born at Ludwigsburg in Württemberg...
. (In 1854 he was to publish a poem entitled “To Justinus Kerner”). He returned to Heidelberg the following year and in 1862 published a book of poetry entiled “The Nugae”. It was internationalist in content with poems in Greek, Latin, English, and German. There were translations from: Catullus
Catullus
Gaius Valerius Catullus was a Latin poet of the Republican period. His surviving works are still read widely, and continue to influence poetry and other forms of art.-Biography:...
, Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
, Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
, Scaliger
Scaliger
The noble family of the Scaliger were Lords of Verona. When Ezzelino III was elected podestà of the commune in 1226, he was able to convert the office into a permanent lordship...
and by Caroline de Crespigny . It confirmed that Thomas Medwin was a thoroughly learned man, if occasionally imprecise and careless.
Final years in England
He returned to England to live at the age of seventy two in 1862 and began with revisionist zeal rewriting his “Life of Shelley” although the revision exists only in hand written form. In 1869 he was visited by his old friend and sometime rival Trelawny who found him constant and ‘always faithful and honest in his love of Shelley’Thomas Medwin died on 2 August 1869, at the house of his brother Pilford Medwin (right)in the Carfax in Horsham in West Sussex. He was buried in the Denne Road Cemetery in Horsham in a tomb that now lies obscured and poorly kempt in the old part of the cemetery. The tomb faces east at his request towards India, Italy and Germany and is inscribed with the epithet ‘He was a friend and companion of Byron, Shelley and Trelawney’.
Legacy
An assessment of Thomas Medwin's legacy tends to raise more questions than answers. Was Medwin a chancer who lived beyond his means and ruined his father and wife? He tended to fall out with former associates including Shelley's widow and Trelawney whilst his writings on Byron and Shelley are often imprecise. Shelley's fame grew throughout the nineteenth century and his legacy became an obsession for Medwin as it did for others in the Pisan circle. Medwin was opportunistic and disregarding of the feelings of many former friends but he remains the main source for information on Shelley's childhood. His 'Conversations of Lord Byron' is now generally regarded as vivid and essentially a true picture of the man'.The few writers who have highlighted Medwin have concentrated on his popular writings on Shelley and Byron but his legacy also includes numerous translations from Greek, Latin, Italian, German, Portuguese and Spanish . His translations of Aeschylus are of lasting importance and his early travel writings are vivid and memorable.Medwin's poetry, however, remains neglected with little critical comment available in the years since their publication.
His importance in the mid 19th century cultural crosscurrents between England, United States of America and Germany has only recently been assessed. Medwin introduced many German writers to the English speaking world particularly poets such as Karl Gutzkow
Karl Gutzkow
Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow was a German writer notable in the Young Germany movement of the mid-19th century.-Life:...
, Ludwig Tieck
Ludwig Tieck
Johann Ludwig Tieck was a German poet, translator, editor, novelist, writer of Novellen, and critic, who was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-Early life:...
and Ludwig Achim von Arnim
Ludwig Achim von Arnim
Ludwig Achim von Arnim was a German poet and novelist born in Berlin.-Life:Arnim was descended from a Prussian noble family. His father was Joachim Erdmann von Arnim , associated with the Prussian court and, among other roles, active as the Director of the Berlin theater...
and more work on this facet of his career is needed.
Thomas Medwin 'deserves to be reassessed in the light of the new evidence that is now available'
Selected bibliography
- ‘’Oswald and Edwin, an Oriental Sketch’’ (Geneva 1821)
- "Sketches in Hindoostan with Other Poems" (London 1821)
- ‘’Ahasuerus, The Wanderer; Dramatic Legend in Six Parts’’ (London 1823)
- “The Death of Mago” translated from Petrarch’s Africa; in Ugo Foscolo, Essays on Petrarch (London 1823) pp. 215, 217
- “Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron” Noted during a residence with his Lordship at Pisa, in the Years 1821 and 1822” (London, 1823)
- “Prometheus Bound “ (translated from Aeschylus), Siena 1927; London 1832; Fraser’s Magazine XVI (August 1837), 209–233
- “Agamemnon” (translated from Aeschylus), London 1832; Fraser’s Magazine XVIII (November 1838), pp. 505–539
- “The Choephori” (translated from Aeschylus), Fraser’s Magazine VI, (London 1832), pp. 511–535
- “The Shelley Papers; Memoirs of Percy Bysshe Shelley” (London, 1833)
- “The Persians” (translated from Aeschylus), Fraser’s Magazine VII (January 1833) pp. 17–43
- “The Seven Against Thebes” (translated from Aeschylus), Fraser’s Magazine VII (April 1833) pp. 437–458
- “The Eumenides” (translated from Aeschylus), Fraser’s Magazine IX (May 1834) pp. 553–573.
- “The Angler in Wales, or Days and Nights of Sportsmen (London 1834)
- " The apportionment of the world, from Schiller, Transl. by Thomas Medwin. Bentley's Miscellany IV p. 549 (December 1837).
- “The Three Sisters” A Romance of Real Life, Bentley’s Miscellany III (January 1838)
- “The Two Sisters” Bentley’s Miscellany III (March 1838)
- “Canova: Leaves from the Autiobiography of an Amateur” Frasers Magazine XX (September 1839)
- " My Moustache", Ainsworth's Magazine, I, pp. 52–54 (1842)
- "Lady Singleton, or, The world as it is". Cunningham & Mortimer, (London, 1843)
- “The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley” (London 1847)
- “Oscar and Gianetta: From the German of a Sonnetten Kranz, by Louis von Ploennies” The New Monthly Magazine XCI (March 1851) pp. 360–361
- “To Justinus Kerner: With a Painted Wreath of Bay-Leaves” The New Monthly Magazine XCI (November 1854) p. 196
- “Nugae” (Heidelberg, 1856), Edited by Medwin and includes his own poems.
- “Odds and Ends” (Heidelberg, 1862)
- “The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley” (London, 1913). A new edition, edited by H.Buxton Forman.
Biographies
- Captain Medwin: Friend of Byron and Shelley by Ernest J Lovell Jr. University of Texas 1962
- Horsham's Forgotten Son: Thomas Medwin, Friend of Shelley and Byron by Susan Cabell Djabri, Jeremy Knight, Horsham District Council, Horsham Museum 1995