PAGE 413. Was one of the passages, etc. See the last chapter of Coleridge's Biographia Literaria. A full solemne man.' 414. Odes on Hoffer, etc. Canterbury Tales, Prologue, 209. Hazlitt refers to some of Wordsworth's 'Poems dedi cated to National Independence and Liberty.' 'A dateless bargain,' etc. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, Act v. Sc. 3. 'The same,' etc. Hazlitt is no doubt quoting from Southey's Carmen Nuptiale, St. 52. Mrs. Tofts. See Hogarth's 'Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism, where the well-known imposture of Mary Tofts (1701?-1763) is ridiculed. 415. Charm these deaf adders,' etc. Cf. Psalms, lviii. 4, 5. Drops which sacred pity,' etc. As You Like It, Act 11. Sc. 7. 'Which knaves,' etc. Butler, Hudibras, 1. i. 35-6. 416. The Gods,' etc. Cf. As You Like It, Act 111. Sc. 3. 'A mingled [medley] air,' etc. Wordsworth, Peter Bell, 304-5. MR. COLERIDGE'S LECTURES This course of Lectures began on Jan. 27, and ended on March 13, 1818. Hazlitt was lecturing on Poetry at the same time. For Coleridge's prospectus see Lectures on Shakespeare (ed. Ashe), 170. PAGE 416. Those fair parts, etc. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, Act 11. Sc. 1. 417. 'Independently of his conduct,' etc. Cf. vol. III. (Political Essays), p. 285. The Tempest, Act 1. Sc. 2. Lunes and abstractions. Cf. The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act Iv. Sc. 2. 418. Conquering and to conquer. Revelation vi. 2. Bertram. Cf. vol. x. p. 158, and ante, pp. 412-3. "Tedious and brief: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 1. 'The man may indeed be a reviewer,' etc. This saying does not seem to have been reported elsewhere. Coleridge and Wordsworth were often accused of ridiculing Southey's poetical genius. 419. Fie, Sir!' etc. Milman, Fazio, Act 11. Sc. 1. To leave this keen encounter, etc. Richard III., Act 1. Sc. 2. 'Reason [reasons] as plenty,' etc. 1 Henry IV., Act 11. Sc. 4. "The inconstant moon." Romeo and Juliet, Act 11. Sc. 2. 420. His large discourse of reason,' etc. Hamlet, Act IV. Sc. 4. CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE 420. 'I do perceive a fury, etc. Cf. I do understand a fury in your words, Othello, Act IV. Sc. 2. 421. And as the soldiers' bare dead bodies lay,' etc. 1 Henry IV., Act 1. Sc. 3. 'The very age,' etc. The very age and body of the time.' Hamlet, Act 11. Sc. 2. 'An understanding,' etc. 'Give it an understanding, but no tongue.' Hamlet, Act 1. Sc. 2. PAGE 421. They are begot,' etc. Hazlitt was perhaps thinking of 'Begot upon itself, born on itself.' Othello, Act II. Sc. 4. 'He has tasted,' etc. Lamb's version (as given by Coleridge) of Thekla's song in Act 11. Sc. 6 of The Piccolomini. See Coleridge's Poetical Works (ed. J. D. Campbell), p. 648. Lamb himself printed the song differently. See The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, ed. E. V. Lucas, v. 27 and notes. 422. The man whose eye,' etc. Wordsworth, Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree, etc., 55-59. Hogarth's famous print. Kirby's Perspective.' 'As 'twere in spite of scorn.' Cf. Paradise Lost, 1. 619. 'The child and champion,' etc. See vol. 1. p. 99 and note. 424. The statue,' etc. Thomson, The Seasons, Summer, 1346. 'The starry Galileo.' Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto iv. 54. Now in glimmer,' etc. Coleridge, Christabel, 169. Moving wild laughter,' "The double night, etc. 425. Seen of all eyes. Cf. Hazlitt perhaps refers to Hogarth's frontispiece to etc. Love's Labour's Lost, Act v. Sc. 2. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto iv. 81. Revelation, i. 7. 426.The glass of fashion,' etc. The fool of the senses.' 'How happy,' etc. The 428. With some sweet,' etc. 'The cloister'd heart,' etc. 429. "The flower of Britain's 430. A contemporary critic. View, etc.) p. 324. THE OPERA Hamlet, Act II. Sc. 1. Cf. ante, p. 268 and note. ON THE QUESTION WHETHER POPE WAS a poet Hazlitt was for a time a fairly frequent contributor to The Edinburgh Magasine (New Series), otherwise known as The New Scots Magazine. Two of his contributions, 'Remarks on Mr. West's Picture of Death on the Pale Horse,' and 'On the Ignorance of the Learned,' have been published in vols. ix. and vi. respectively. The essays 'On Fashion,' 'On Nicknames' and 'Thoughts on Taste' in the present volume were first reprinted with omissions and variations in Sketches and Essays (1839); those On the Question whether Pope was a Poet,' (signed W. H.), and 'On Respectable People,' are now reprinted for the first time. PAGE 431. "The pale reflex.' Romeo and Juliet, Act 111. Sc. 5. 432. "In fortune's ray, etc. Troilus and Cressida, Act 1. Sc. 3. 'Gnarled oak.' Shakespeare uses this phrase (Measure for Measure, Act 11. Sc. 2), but Hazlitt probably meant a ‘knotted oak' which is the expression used in the passage he had just written down. 'Calm contemplation,' etc. Thomson, The Seasons, Autumn, 1277. PAGE ON RESPECTABLE PEOPLE Signed A. Z..' in the Magazine. 434. Buys golden opinions.' Macbeth, Act 1. Sc. 7. "The learned pate,' etc. Timon of Athens, Act iv. Sc. 3. 435. Otway, etc. Otway, according to the familiar but probably untrue account first given by T. Cibber in The Lives of the Poets, was choked by the first mouthful of a roll which he bought with money given to him by a gentleman in a coffee-house. "For a song.' The story of Lord Burghley's ungenerous treatment of Spenser was first recorded by Fuller. 'The time gives evidence of it.' Cf. This was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof.' Hamlet, Act 111. Sc. 1. 436. What can ennoble sots,' etc. • All honourable men? Julius Pope, An Essay on Man, iv. 215-6. 437. Lives and fortunes men.' For the old formula of lives and fortunes' see Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, 11. "His garment, etc. The Faerie Queene, III. xii. 8. The great vulgar and the small. Cowley, Horace's Odes, III. 1. 439. The sign of an inward,' etc. Misquoted from the Catechism. Thomson, The Seasons, Autumn, 206. 442. Cf. Hamlet, Act II. Sc. 1. 443. The priest,' etc. ' As infidels,' etc. 444. ON NICKNAMES Cf. Horace, Ars Poetica, 451-2. The Beggar's Opera, Act 1. Sc. I. Hazlitt alludes to a note in the 'Beauties of the AntiJacobin,' denouncing Coleridge, Lamb, and Southey. See vol. x. (Contributions to the Edinburgh Review), p. 139. 'Sound them,' etc. Julius Cæsar, Act 1. Sc. 2. An eminent character. Probably Stoddart, late editor of The Times. See post, 'Hath Britain all the sun,' etc. Cymbeline, Act II. Sc. 4. 445. Brevity is the soul of wit.' Hamlet, Act 11. Sc. 2. The unbought grace of life,' etc. Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, 11. 89). 446. Leave the will puzzled,' etc. Ibid, 11. 103. Bring but a Scotsman,' etc. Burns, The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer, etc. 447. As rage,' etc. Troilus and Cressida, Act 1. Sc. 3. A nickname is the heaviest stone, etc. Cf. 'It is the heaviest stone that As Canning pelted a noble lord, etc. Canning ridiculed Henry Addington (afterwards Lord Sidmouth) under the title of the 'Doctor.' His father was well known as a 'mad' doctor. 448. With so small a web,' etc. Othello, Act 11. Sc. 1. 'A starling,' etc. 1 Henry IV., Act 1. Sc. 3. 449. Stat nominis umbra. Lucan, Pharsalia, 1. 135. 450. THOUGHTS ON TASTE 'He had found a few pearls, 'Rich as the oozy bottom,' etc. 'Or like a gate of steel,' etc. 451. Damns [condemns] him,' etc. Lay their choppy fingers,' etc. 452. Have built high towers,' etc. 'Majestic though in ruin.' etc. Euvres, L. 58. July 19, 1776. Much Ado About Nothing, Act iv. Sc. 3. Innocence likest heaven.' 'O innocence deserving Paradise.' Ibid, v. 445-6. 6 The author of the Friend, etc. Coleridge may have said this to Hazlitt himself. He described Pope's writings as a conjunction disjunctive of epigrams' (Biographia Literaria, chap. 1.). For his views on French Tragedy, see ibid, Satyrane's Letters, Letter 11. The author of the Excursion,' etc. See The Excursion, 11. 484. Cf. vol. 1. (The Round Table), p. 116 and note. Note. Non satis est, etc. Horace, Ars Poetica, 99. 453. Not to admire,' etc. 'Not to admire is all the art I know,' quoted by Pope from Creech's translation of Horace. See Imitations of Horace, Book I. Epistle vi. 1. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 454. Hope told a flattering tale. An anonymous song sung to Paisiello's famous air, Nel cor più non mi sento,' from La Molinara. 455. Pierceable.' 'Not perceable with any power of any starr' (The Faerie Queene, I. 1. 7) is quoted elsewhere by Hazlitt. "The drops, etc. As You Like It, Act. 11. Sc. 7. 456. Swept and garnished.' S. Matthew xii. 44. Knowledge at each entrance,' etc. Paradise Lost, 111. 50. Note. Mr. Allston. See ante, note to p. 189. Note. "A temple,' etc. Cf. 2 Corinthians, V. I. 457. 'Nor seem'd' [appeared], etc. Paradise Lost, 1. 592-4. Better than nothing. At this point in the Magazine there is a footnote by the PAGE 457. Carnation,' etc. Henry V., Act 11. Sc. 3. 458. I know an admirer of Don Quixote, etc. Plain Speaker), p. 36. This was Lamb. See vol. vii. (The THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED This conclusion of "Thoughts on Taste' does not appear to have been published in the Edinburgh Magazine, or, so far as the editors have been able to discover, in any Magazine. In the Edinburgh Magazine the second essay is described as 'a conclusion of some thoughts on the same subject, in our Number for October 1818.' This third essay is reprinted from Sketches and Essays, where it was perhaps printed from a мs, or proof. PAGE 460. Mr. Pratt. Samuel Jackson Pratt (1749-1814), whose 'Sympathy, a Poem,' was published anonymously in 1788. "That come,' etc. A Winter's Tale, Act iv. Sc. 4. 461. And fit audience find,' etc. Paradise Lost, VII. 31. [HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF SHAKESPEARE] (1) Two letters from Hazlitt under the heading Historical Illustrations of Shakespeare' appeared in the number for January 1819 (vol. iv. p. 39) and ran as follows: Mr. Editor, I daresay you will agree with me in thinking, that whatever throws light on the dramatic productions of Shakespeare, deserves to be made public. I have already, in the volume called Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, shewn, by a reference to the passages in North's translation of Plutarch, his obligations to the historian in his Coriolanus, and the noble way in which he availed himself of the lights of antiquity in composing that piece. I shall, with your permission, pursue the subject in the present and some future articles. The parallel is even more striking between the celebrated trial-scene in Henry VIII., and the following narrative of that event, as it actually took place, which is to be found in Cavendish's Negociations of Cardinal Wolsey,' [a long quotation from that work follows, and Hazlitt concludes]: In another article I shall give some remarks on this subject, and the passages in Holingshed on which Macbeth is, in a great measure, founded. I am, Sir, your humble servant, W. Hazlitt. London, Nov. 13, 1818. Another letter on the same subject appeared in September 1819 (vol. v. p. 262): Mr. Editor, The following passage in North's translation of Plutarch will be found to have been closely copied in the scene between Brutus and his wife in Julius Cæsar' [a long quotation from Plutarch-see Temple Classics edition, vol. 1x. pp. 256-258-follows, and Hazlitt continues]: Again, the following curious account, extracted from Magellan's Voyage to the South Seas, may throw light on the origin of the Tempest, and the character of Caliban. The mention of the god Setebos seems decisive of the identity of the source from which he borrowed.' The letter concludes with an extract from Magellan's Voyage. ON THE PRESent state of parliamenTARY ELOQUENCE Many of Hazlitt's numerous contributions to The London Magazine have been included in former volumes of the present edition. Of those printed in this volume, the essay 'On the Spirit of Partisanship' was reprinted in Sketches and 1 See vol. 1. p. 218-221. L |