ABSTRACT
Leigh Hunt’s two-penny weekly The Indicator, which was published between 13 October 1819 and 21 March 1821, though short-lived, is estimable. This poem is a portion of Hunt’s translation of Tasso’s pastoral drama Aminta, which was printed by T. and J. Allman later in 1820 as Amyntas, A Tale of the Woods; from the Italian of Torquato Tasso. In a tribute which links the sufferings and persecutions of Tasso (which Hunt had addressed in ‘Poetics and Politics’) with those of Keats, Amyntas is dedicated ‘To John Keats, Esq. This translation of the early work of a celebrated poet, whose fate it was to be equally pestered by the critical, and admired by the poetical, is inscribed, by his affectionate friend, Leigh Hunt’. With the exception of ‘Robin Hood, a Child’ which appeared in late 1819 in the Literary Pocket-Book for 1820, the ‘Songs of Robin Hood’ were first printed in The Indicator in November 1820.
