image of person or book cover 9181184578880975226.jpg
Source: State Library of Victoria
R. H. Horne (International) assertion R. H. Horne i(A6080 works by) (a.k.a. Richard Henry Horne; Richard Hengist Horne; Richard H. Horne; 'Orion' Horne)
Also writes as: Orion ; M. I. D. (midshipman) ; Sir Julius Cutwater ; Professor Grabstein ; Mr. Loader ; A Gold Digger's Diary ; A Recluse ; The Blue Mountain Exile ; An Absentee of Seventeen Years ; Mrs. Fairstar
Born: Established: 31 Dec 1802 Edmonton, London,
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England,
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United Kingdom (UK),
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Western Europe, Europe,
; Died: Ceased: 13 Mar 1884 Margate, Kent,
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England,
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United Kingdom (UK),
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Western Europe, Europe,

Gender: Male
Visitor assertion Arrived in Australia: 1852 Departed from Australia: 1869
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BiographyHistory

A writer and editor whose career saw him work in a variety of genres, including drama, fiction, poetry, literary criticism, book reviews, social commentary, and children's fiction, Richard Horne's personal life was equally varied in its pursuits. Upon graduating from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he applied for a position with the East India Company. When his application was rejected, Horne travelled to Mexico and served for several years as a midshipman in the Mexican navy. After leaving the navy, he sought work as merchant seaman, basing himself in America, but eventually returned to England to embark on a literary career. His first published poem appeared in the Athenaeum in 1828. Over the next two decades, Horne published several books and plays, and acted as editor for the Monthly Repository (1836-37). At one stage, he published in that magazine an account of his earlier adventures when travelling the world. Two of his earlier successes were the poetical tragedies Cosmo de Medici: An Historical Tragedy and Other Poems (1837) and The Death of Marlowe: A Tragedy in One Act (1837). Horne also published a work entitled An Exposition of the False Mediums and Barriers Excluding Men of Genius from the Public. In this work, he advocated the establishment of a literary and artistic society for the permanent support of men of superior ability in all departments of human genius and knowledge (ctd. Age 21 Jan. 1928, p26). Another notable publication was the two-volume work The History of Napoleon.

In 1843, Horne published what was to become his most critically and publicly acclaimed poems, the epic Orion. Indeed, it sold out its first three editions in a very brief time and was reprinted six times in its first year of publication. The poem's success was due not only to its capacity to capture the public's imagination but also because Horne placed several whimsical demands on the publishers, chiefly that the publication be sold at one farthing a copy, that not more than one copy should be sold to the one person, and that it should not be sold to a person who mispronounced the title. Following the publication of Orion, Horne published A New Spirit of the Age, the prose work for which he is best remembered. The work met with severe criticism when it was first published, however, due largely to the author's outspoken judgement of some of its subjects. In writing these essays on the men and women whom he considered best represented the literary spirit of the age, Horne was given a good deal of assistance by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, with whom he had long been friendly and in correspondence. At least four of Horne's plays are known to have been staged in London up until 1852, along with a re-written version of Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, which is believed to have been produced over the course of some fifty years in Australia, England, and America. He also published works for children, including Adventures of a London Doll (1850), published under the name 'Mrs Fairstar'.

In 1852, Horne travelled to Australia in search of a fortune on the Victorian goldfields. The quest was not successful, however, and instead he found himself taking on a number of short-lived government positions, including that of Commander of the Victorian Gold Escort (1852), Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands for the gold fields (1853-54), and, some time later, a position as a territorial magistrate. When his somewhat erratic behaviour saw him eventually dismissed from the civil service, he returned to his career as a writer (from the late 1850s), a move that naturally included journalism. In addition to his occasional contributions to the Melbourne papers, Horne wrote several new book-length works, including a guide to would-be immigrants titled Australian Facts and Prospects (1859). In July 1860, his tragedy TheDeath of Marlowe was successfully staged at Melbourne's Theatre Royal, one result being that he was offered the chance to have a new work staged in the city. He soon afterwards produced the five-act comedy in blank verse A Spec in China, but it failed dismally. Lasting only two nights, the play was severely criticised in the local press. Apparently undeterred by this setback, Horne continued writing, although by this time he was otherwise employed by the Victorian government as registrar, and later warden, at the Blue Mountain goldfield near Trentham. It was while stationed there that he completed (in 1864) the lyric drama Prometheus the Fire Bringer. Horne returned to Melbourne around 1866 and within a short period of time re-established himself in the city's theatrical and musical circles, becoming at one stage president of the Garrick Club. As president, he organised in May 1866 a charity entertainment at the club for the Brooke Memorial Fund (Argus 8 May 1866, p.5). One of the items presented was a threnody (dirge or song of lamentation) that he co-wrote with composer Dr Joseph Summers (q.v.).

In October 1866, Horne's masque The South Seas Sisters, a collaboration with composer Charles Horsley (q.v.), was produced as one of the highlights of the opening of the Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition. Successfully received by both audiences and critics, it was given a second performance a few nights later. The following year, Horne again collaborated with Joseph Summers, contributing the text to the composer's cantata Galatea Secunda. That same year also saw Horne change his middle name from Henry to Hengist, allegedly taking the surname of a miner he had met in the goldfields. A collaboration with composer Carl Schmitt in the late 1860s led to the completion of a three-act opera titled Cazille. (Schmitt tried in vain to get the work staged, but succeeded only in having several excerpts from it presented during a benefit concert at the Sydney Masonic Hall in 1872.) Horne's failure to get Cazille produced exacerbated his disillusionment with Australia, and in 1869 he returned to England. A few years later, he was granted a civil list pension of £50 a year, which was soon after raised to £100. He continued to write, producing a number of works over the next decade or so, but none of these matched his earlier success.

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Ann Blainey records that Horne took up his position as Registrar of Mines for the Blue Mountain goldfield in June 1863 and held that same appointment until he was dismissed by the Victorian government in December 1868 (Farthing Poet pp.228, 238), while the Oxford Companion to Australian Music (1997) indicates that that Horne was employed as district warden, an altogether different and more senior position. The discrepancy may be explained by a brief reference to Horne in the 23 October 1865 issue of the Age, which suggests that Horne was promoted to Warden in November of that year. The Age editor records, 'We understand that Mr R. H. Horne - whose latest publication, the Prometheus, has just been very flatteringly reviewed by the Athenaeum - is about to receive some acknowledgement from the government, in the form of an appointment as warden of the Blue Mountain district' (p.5).

  • In addition to the volumes of poetry he wrote while in Australia, Horne also wrote numerous other works prior to and following this period, including the modernisation of several canonical English texts (see Miller and Macartney for details) and several works of literary criticism, including an analysis of nineteenth-century English literature with Robert Bell and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, A New Spirit of the Age (1844). Horne's correspondence with Elizabeth Barrett Browning is collected in Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Addressed to Richard Hengist Horne: With Comments on Contemporaries (1877). Horne was also a regular contributor to Charles Dickens's Daily News and Household Words.

  • Other works by Horne include Gregory the Seventh: A Tragedy in Five Acts (1840); Ballad Romances (1846); Judas Iscariot: A Miracle Play in Two Acts with Other Poems (1848); Psyche Apocalypte: A Lyrical Drama (1876); Bible Tragedies (1881); The Two Georges: A Dialogue of the Dead (1881); Good Samaritan: A Morality Play, published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine (vol. 68 no. 487, April 1884); and the children's works King Penguin: A Legend of the South Seas (published posthomously in 1925) and Memoirs of a London Doll: Written by Herself (1846).

  • The 'Corroboree Chorus' from The South Sea Sisters was later incorporated into Helen Benlow's drama For Sixty Thousand Pounds, first staged at the Princess's Theatre, Sandhurst (Victoria), on 2 November 1974.

  • Horne features in several literary biographies, and is the subject of Barry Oakley's play The Ship's Whistle.

  • Entries connected with this record have been sourced from on-going historical research into Australian-written music theatre being conducted by Dr Clay Djubal.
  • See the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for Richard Henry Horne

Known archival holdings

Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (NSW)
Last amended 4 Jun 2021 14:43:56
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