{{short description|English poet}} {{distinguish|Henry Neale (disambiguation){{!}}Henry Neale}} {{EngvarB|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}} '''Henry Neele''' (29 January 1798 – 7 February 1828) was an English poet and literary scholar. He was also a practising attorney in the West End of London.
==Early life== Neele was the son of Samuel John Neele (1758–1824), a cartographer, engraver, and copperplate and printer,<ref>World-Cat Identities. [http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n85-64404 Retrieved 13 August 2012.]</ref> who had his business in the Strand, London.<ref>Exeter Working Papers in Book History. [http://bookhistory.blogspot.hu/2007/01/london-1775-1800-n-o.html Retrieved 13 August 2012.]</ref> The family soon moved to Kentish Town, where he was brought up and educated. He had at least one brother, Josiah Neele (fl. 1826–45),<ref>Antique Maps Online. [http://www.antique-maps-online.co.uk/southern-italy-2160.html Retrieved 13 August 2012.]</ref> who was to follow in his father's trade. At school and in later life, Neele acquired a good knowledge of French and some German and Italian, but little Latin or Greek.
==Law== On leaving school, Neele was articled to an attorney, and after qualifying, practised in Great Blenheim Street (now Ramillies Street)<ref>British History Online. [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41476&strquery=Ramillies+Street#s29 Retrieved 13 August 2012.]</ref> in the West End of London.<ref>''The Gentleman's Magazine'' obituary, Vol. 98. [https://books.google.com/books?id=obqX5uzEUQMC&dq=Henry+Neele&pg=PA276 Retrieved 12 August 2012.]; {{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dOgRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA33 |journal=Godey's Magazine |volume=12 |author=Louis Antoine Godey, Sarah Josepha Buell Hale |title=Henry Neele|year=1836 }}; ODNB entry by Richard Garnett (rev. M. Clare Loughlin-Chow). [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/19853 Retrieved 12 August 2012. Pay-walled.]</ref> Barbara Hofland relates that he "enjoyed a respectable share of business in that profession, up to the time of his death; being remarkable for his great regularity in the dispatch of all concerns committed to his care, and for the soundness and comprehensiveness of his views in cases committed to his examination."<ref>"Biographical Sketch of Mr. Henry Neele", 1828. In: Hofland's ''Life and Literary Remains'' (1849) pp. 77–83. [http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/BiographyRecord.php?action=GET&bioid=35265 Retrieved 12 August 2012.]</ref>
==Popular contributor== Neele began publishing (anonymously) in the ''Monthly Magazine'' in 1814. His first volume, ''Odes and Other Poems'', was published in 1817 at his father's expense,<ref>London: Sherwood, Nealy and Jones, 1817. Bookseller's page: [http://www.tbclrarebooks.com/pages/books/26849/henry-neele/odes-and-other-poems Retrieved 12 August 2012.]</ref> but attracted the attention of Dr Nathan Drake. A second edition appeared in July 1820. This was followed in March 1823 by his ''Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous'', inscribed to the Scottish poet Joanna Baillie, which was reviewed extensively in ''The British Magazine'' of that year<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=0LUEAAAAQAAJ&dq=Henry+Neele&pg=PA81 Retrieved 12 August 2012.]</ref> and had considerable success. As a result, he became a popular contributor to magazines and annuals for the rest of his short life.
Neele delivered lectures on Shakespeare at the age of twenty and produced an edition of ''The Tempest'' in 1824, as the start of an edition of the complete works of Shakespeare, although this was aborted by its publisher after poor sales. Neele also gave lectures on the history of English poetry in 1826–27 at the Russell Institution and repeated these at the Western Literary and Scientific Institution in Whitcomb Street.<ref>English Poetry 1579–1830. {{cite web |url=http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/authorrecord.php?action=GET&recordid=33476 |title=Henry Neele (1798-1828) |access-date=2012-08-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930085122/http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/authorrecord.php?action=GET&recordid=33476 |archive-date=30 September 2013 |df=dmy-all }}[http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/BiographyRecord.php?action=GET&bioid=35267 Retrieved 12 August 2012.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814214042/http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/BiographyRecord.php?action=GET&bioid=35267 |date=14 August 2014 }}; British History Online. [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41177 Retrieved 13 August 2012.]</ref>
==Critical of Metaphysicals== Like many commentators in that period, Neele was critical of the Metaphysical Poets. Donne's "beauties of thought and diction", he wrote, "are so overloaded with far-fetched conceits and quaintnesses... that there is now very little probability of his ever regaining the popularity which he has lost."<ref>Bloom's criticism site. [https://www.scribd.com/doc/93708581/Bloom-s-Classic-Critical-Views-John-Donne-Harold-Bloom#page=338 Retrieved 12 August 2012.]{{Dead link|date=July 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The lectures were published posthumously.<ref>''Lectures on English poetry: from the reign of Edward the Third, to the time of Burns and Cowper... and other literary remains'' (London: Smith Elder & Co., 1829, 3rd e. 1839).</ref> The collection included the hymn "O Thou! Who sittest enthroned on high."<ref>Hymnary site [http://www.hymnary.org/person/Neele_H1 Retrieved 12 August 2012.]</ref>
Neele's three-volume ''Romance of History'' (1827) is a collection of tales illustrating English history. It was popular in its time, but marred, according to the philologist Richard Garnett by a "curious dialect that was then considered to represent mediaeval English."<ref>ODNB entry.</ref>
==Suicide== Neele was described as "short of stature and of appearance rather humble and unprepossessing, but his large expanse of forehead and the fire of his eye betokened mind and imagination."<ref>''The Gentleman's Magazine'' obituary.</ref> Following a period of overwork, he is said to have become confused and deranged about nine days before he committed suicide at home in Marylebone by slitting his own throat on 7 February 1828. He left a widow, Jemima Mary Anne.<ref>ODNB entry; Hofland.</ref>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External resources== *A poem by Neele on autumn and mortality: [http://www.cordula.ws/poems/moangales.html Retrieved 12 August 2012.] *To Despair – an ode on the character Despair in Spenser's The Faerie Queene: [http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/TextRecord.php?action=GET&textsid=35956 Retrieved 12 August 2012.] *1823 edition of ''Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous'' online in full: [https://books.google.com/books?id=rz7wSz_mkIAC&q=Henry+Neele Retrieved 12 August 2012.] *1827 edition of Vol. II of ''Poems by Henry Neele, Esq., Volume'' online in full: [https://books.google.com/books?id=PV1DAAAAYAAJ&q=Henry+Neele Retrieved 12 August 2012.] *1828 edition of ''The Romance of History. England'' online in full: [https://books.google.com/books?id=ynAURAPnBFAC&q=Henry+Neele Retrieved 12 August 2012.] *1829 American edition of ''The Literary Remains of the Late Henry Neele'' online in full: [https://books.google.com/books?id=yiULAAAAYAAJ&q=Henry+Neele Retrieved 12 August 2012.] *1830 edition of ''The Tales of the Late Henry Neele'' online in full: [https://books.google.com/books?id=Y7s-AAAAYAAJ&q=Henry+Neele Retrieved 12 August 2012.]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Neele, Henry}} Category:1798 births Category:1828 deaths
Category:19th-century British lawyers Category:Poets from London Category:Suicides by sharp instrument in England Category:Suicides in Westminster Category:English male poets Category:19th-century English poets Category:19th-century English male writers Category:1820s suicides