Henry William Weber

Henry William Weber (1783–1818) was an English editor of plays and romances and literary assistant of Sir Walter Scott.

Life

He is said to have been the son of a Westphalian who married an Englishwoman, and to have been born at St. Petersburg in 1783. He "escaped to this country in 1804 from misfortunes in his own," and was sent down with his mother to Edinburgh "by some of the London booksellers in a half-starved state." Scott pitied their condition, employed him from August 1804 as his amanuensis, and secured for him profitable work in literature. Weber was "an excellent and affectionate creature," but was imbued with Jacobin principles, about which Scott used to taunt him. He was "afflicted with partial insanity," especially under the influence of strong drinks, to which he was occasionally addicted (Scott, Journal, 1890, i. 149). Scott's family, with whom he often dined, liked his appearance and manners, and were pleased by his stores of knowledge and the reminiscences of a chequered career. After Christmas 1813 a fit of madness seized Weber at dusk, at the close of a day's work in the same room with his employer. He produced a pair of pistols, and challenged Scott to mortal combat. A parley ensued, and Weber dined with the Scotts; next day he was put under restraint. His friends, with some assistance from Scott, supported him, "a hopeless lunatic," in an asylum at York. There he died in June 1818.

Works

Scott describes Weber as "a man of very superior attainments, an excellent linguist and geographer, and a remarkable antiquary."

He edited

References

  1. Cf. Ford, Works, ed. Gifford, 1827, vol. i. pp. li–clxxx; Letter to William Gifford, by Octavius Gilchrist, 1811; Letter to J. P. Kemble [anon., by G. D. Whittington], 1811; Letter to Richard Heber (anon., by Rev. John Mitford), 1812)
Attribution