Horace Smith

Horace Smith (born December 31, 1779, London, England—died July 12, 1849, Tunbridge Wells, Kent) was an English poet, novelist, and stockbroker who coauthored (with an older brother, James) Rejected Addresses; or, The New Theatrum Poetarum (1812), a collection of parodies of early 19th-century British writers that is considered a classic in the literature of parody.

Smith was the son of a London solicitor and the fifth of eight children. He became a successful stockbroker. While he made a living as a merchant and insurance broker, Smith wrote a number of novels, including The Runaway; or, The Seat of Benevolence (1800) and Horatio; or, Memoirs of the Davenport Family (1807). He also contributed regularly to several literary magazines of the day, and two of his plays—Highgate Tunnel; or, The Secret Arch (published and performed 1812) and First Impressions; or, Trade in the West (published and performed 1813)—were produced.

The occasion of Rejected Addresses was the rebuilding of Drury Lane Theatre in 1812, after a fire. The managers had offered a monetary prize for an address to be recited at the reopening in October. Unhappy with the responses—of the 112 offerings received, more than half mentioned phoenixes—the authorities instead commissioned a work from Lord Byron. Together Horace and James hit upon the idea of making the most popular poets of the time figure as competitors and of issuing an anonymous volume of unsuccessful addresses in parody of their various styles. They divided the task between them. Horace took Thomas Moore, Sir Walter Scott, and William Lisle Bowles, while James took William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and George Crabbe. Both had a hand in parodying Lord Byron. Seven editions of Rejected Addresses were printed within three months. But for Horace in London (1813), an imitation of Horatian odes, the two brothers wrote no more together.

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Horace, however, after making a fortune through his stockbroking, produced some 20 historical novels—including Brambletye House; or, Cavaliers and Roundheads (1826), The Tor Hill (1826), Reuben Apsley (1827), Zillah; A Tale of the Holy City (1828), The New Forest (1829), and Walter Colyton (1830)—as well as volumes of essays and comic stories. He met poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816, becoming the younger man’s financial adviser, patron, friend, and, after Shelley’s death, his champion. Smith’s three-volume Gaieties and Gravities (1825) contained many witty essays in both prose and verse.