One hundred years ago
The action for libel brought by Mr Richard Horne Shepherd against the publisher of the Athenaeum, for articles in which he had been, it was contended, variously referred to as an 'insect' as 'devoid of the faintest tincture of culture,' as belonging to a class in which an enormous patience accompanies a 'dearth of intelligence,' as metaphorically a `chiffonnier', a 'resurrection-man,' a `vampire,' and a 'hangman', ended on Monday in a verdict for the plaintiff, with damages of £150. The plaintiff had, it seems, occupied himself a good deal in editing old books, and especially had resuscitated some early poems of Mrs Barrett Browning, the copyright of which had — expired, without the sanction and against the wish of Mr Browning, who gave evidence in Court on behalf of the paper. Mr Shepherd, besides these crude poems of Mrs Browning's, had, it appeared, published a book called, `Tennysoniana,' in which he reproduced early verses of Mr Tennyson, which the poet had intended to suppress, and had sold an 'anticipatory notice' of a forthcoming poem of Mr Browning's to an evening journal without the author's consent.
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